Reviews – Page 2 – Kane Gilmour

Supernatural Spooky with Stephen M. Irwin

On August 11, 2012

Been a while since I update the site. Figured I’d start off with a review of a spectacular book, THE DEAD PATH, by my Australian friend, Stephen M. Irwin. Read on.

Stephen M. Irwin’s supernatural thriller debut, THE DEAD PATH, is without a doubt one of the finest things to come out of Australia in the last twenty years. With a slow, considered burn of a beginning, the story twists a few times before it really gets rolling, and you think you are in for a predictable The Sixth Sense kind of “I See Ghosts” tale. But Irwin has loftier things in store for you. The story moves effortlessly into different territories than where you thought you were heading, and it sucks you in so deeply, that when it returns to issues brought up in the early part of the tale, you had completely forgotten about them, and the resulting impact is just what a terrific spookathon requires. The tale twists and turns, moving in directions you don’t see coming until they are upon you. And by that point, the new direction is so wonderfully obvious, you question why you didn’t see it coming in the first place. Because you are in the hands of a master, that’s why.

Review: SICK by Brett Battles

By Kane

On June 5, 2011

In Reviews

SICK begins rapidly with an interesting premise—an army community is dying of a fast acting disease. The disease is not natural. The dead and dying are the victims of intentional infection. The people seeking to cure him have separated the main character, Captain Daniel Ash, from his children. Wait, are these people trying to cure Ash and his family? Or are they the ones who have experimented upon Ash’s family? We quickly learn that Ash and his family have varying levels of immunity to the disease. Shortly after that, someone breaks Ash out of his quarantine imprisonment and the race to save his children begins.

SICK gives us all the things we want in a conspiracy thriller: action, uncertainty, trust issues, twists, and revenge. One of the most frustrating aspects of the tale is that we see things through Ash’s eyes to the point where we learn as little about the shadowy organizations between which Ash is caught as he does. But while some might view that as a problem with the tale, I think it will end up being SICK’s strong suit in the long run. Battles isn’t fooling around with this story. It goes for the jugular and he’s planning on it being the first shot in a series. The sequel, EXIT NINE, should be available later this year. Battles knows how to set up a series. He’s given us an adrenaline-inducing first chapter in a larger tale. The immediate story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Although it leaves many, many questions unanswered, each one can be seen as carefully created in view of the author’s intention to deliver a series (The Project Eden Series).

Free Steven Pressfield Book!

By Kane

On April 20, 2011

In Inspiration, Reviews, Writing

One of the blog posts I have in mind to write here (and haven’t even started yet), is a listing of essential books for the writer–whether that writer is published or pre-published.

One of the books on that list (and perhaps the most important one) is The War of Art: Break Through the Block and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. I haven’t read any of Steven’s fiction yet, but that little slim volume of non-fiction is worth its weight in gold to a writer.

Today I discovered that Steven has a new book available on the Kindle for free. That’s right. Free. The new book is called Do The Work, and it’s more of a step-by-step workbook to getting through a project. GE is sponsoring the book for a limited time, so go snatch it up now, while it’s free. It could end up being the most important book you read as a writer, whether you are a seasoned pro or a newbie. It will most certainly be a useful tool if you are thinking of jumping into the fray of the newly self-published in the world of e-books.

Little Girl Gone Review

By Kane

On April 8, 2011

In Reviews

Brett Battles has a new book out called LITTLE GIRL GONE. Directly self-published to e-book format. If you haven’t been following his Jonathan Quinn series about a “cleaner” in the espionage business, then you are missing a great thing. With that series, Battles turns a tired genre on its head and gives us an interesting and compelling character with a career that we have little seen in fiction—the guy who comes in after the fact.

Now, Battles has a new series character and is throwing his name into the ring of those who have chosen to embark on self-published e-books as a way of getting more books out in a year (and of making a larger royalty to boot).