Survivor by Brett Battles is the third book in a Sci Fi Time Travel series I highly recommend. I'd call these Thriller/Suspense type Sci Fi, with a light bit of romance.
One of the few gems I've found in the slush pile of self-pubs. If you enjoy Sci Fi and Time Travel, you should consider this series.
Most of us these days are aware of the flood of self-pubbed books and how difficult it can be to find a gem in the sea of mediocrity. We often see reviews of the sub-par and/or reports of unethical marketing schemes or unprofessional behavior on the part of some authors.
But some of us who have stuck a toe or two into those waters have come across a few gems. I thought it'd be good to share a few self-pubbed & small press books I really enjoyed and that I feel stand well among their trade-pubbed counterparts.
So here are a few I've discovered that I am proud to recommend.
Listened to audio and the performance was good but several things about this book irked the shit out of me! For one, Denny himself. He does some of the stupidest things throughout this book- like losing his chaser (his time travel device) over and over and over again. How hard is it to keep up with a little box? I just don't get it. By the end of the book, I wanted to glue it to his forehead. 
Reading has been my past time in a long time. Growing up in the province my access to reading materials when I was a kid is very limited but I was contented with reading the short stories in my English and Filipino textbooks. In high school, I now have access to fiction books from the school library. Most of the books in the library are the classics and literary novels. These were required reading and we have to make book reports so reading them became a chore and not enjoyable. Until I found out about the Choose Your Own Adventure Books. I pretty much enjoyed those books. In college I may have forgotten reading for pleasure. Even if I had time to read, the college library does not carry fiction novels. The only time I enjoyed reading is from reading the comics collection of a friend. I remember reading issues of X-Men, X-Factor, Superman, and D.P. 7.
My interest in reading returned when I chanced upon a battered book when I already started working. It does not have a cover and the story is set on a world where technology is based on organic materials and not on metals. The story intrigued me and I kept on reading the book during my down time. Too bad I can’t remember the title of the story or who wrote it. This book showed me that my genre of choice is science fiction (or speculative fiction in general).
Since I am already working (meaning I have the means) and staying in the city (meaning I have the access), I can now buy my own reading materials. The bookstore is like a candy store! Too many books to choose from. The bookstore also introduced me to Star Trek original novels and media tie-in books in general. This is also the time that I started buying comic books, mostly from the X-Men line. And then I discovered used books stores. The books are dirt cheap. Then I started hording. I also branched to magazines by this point.
It came to a point that I acquire 5 but only finishing 2 then acquiring a new batch again. I realized that this a problem when I moved apartments more than 3 times now. I now have a book buying ban: buy one paperback book at most in a month. I am now shifting to electronic books and digital comics. Also a recent development, listening to audio books. I am pretty much becoming format agnostic as long as I like the story. In the next few months, I will try to unload my paperback books. (Cue Elsa, “let it go, let it go...”)
I have a bad habit of starting a book but not finishing it or reading multiple books at a time. Also when I read a book, I pretty much jump to another book immediately. I do not give myself enough time to reflect on the book I read. When someone asks me how I see the book, all I can say is “I liked it” or “not liked it” with no further elaboration. I would like to change that. Well, I tried it before but the only word that can describes my attempt to write reviews is “terse”. Most actually fits as a tweet.
How should I do it? I asked myself. I need a structure. So I made one that I hope I can follow (I might also use these guide questions as section headings).
1. Why did you pick this up?
2. What is it?
3. What is it all about? (for non-fiction)/What happened? (for fiction)
4. Did you liked it?
5. Would you recommend it?
There you go, a book review for at least 5 sentences!
I will also do a status update on the first 10% placing my initial impression of the book. And on the 20% mark or after 50 pages (whichever comes first), I will evaluate if I need to proceed reading. If I will DNF the book (short for did-not-finish), I will post a status update as to why and if I there is chance that I might revisit the book in the near future.
I now have a plan for this book blog. I hope I can stick with it. Crossing fingers.
Who can resist a bargain? A book bargain? Day 119 of #365project #photoaday #bookstagram... https://t.co/Lu3cB5lA2J pic.twitter.com/AcL8AQL8T6
— Eric Andrada (@icheb) April 29, 2017
Wow, I write more than 700 words this time! Nice!
The Copper Bracelet -- a collaboration serial thriller
-- conception by Jeffery Deaver
Book 2 of The Watchlist aka the Harold Middleton series
Other authors involved:
Gayle Lynds, David Hewson, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P.J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land, James Phelan
This book is a collaborative effort among various crime thriller novelists, with Jeffery Deaver fronting the project (he created the main protagonist, Harold Middleton, and he also writes the first and last chapters). I don't know all of these other crime thriller authors, though I think some of them were part of the first book's writing... and some are new names.
I was just as intrigued with it as I had been with The Chopin Manuscript (my review), though I had been worried that the book would be a big mess with so many minds and so many ideas trying to take precedent. And despite The Chopin Manuscript getting slightly out of control towards the middle and the ending, it was still a very enjoyable piece... if you can ignore a lot of the mess.
Whether this book was really a big haphazard, narrative mess, or if it was just me, being distracted at all the wrong times while listening to the audiobook, I can't be sure. But I sure as hell had a hard time following what was going on with so much going on within moments of events.
It's a pretty good concept that has potential to last a few more books, honestly. Harold Middleton is pretty much the leader of a group of Volunteers who are tasked with helping keep the world a safe place by going after potential terrorist threats and the like. And, of course, in The Copper Bracelet, there's a lot of action, and traveling, and secrets, and secret reveals, and death, and destruction, and betrayals, and torture, and... there's just a LOT going on in this book.
Like I said already, I had no idea where the book was going with all the things happening for a good long time.
Still, I had fun with this one. Even if it was a lot of confusing fun.
And once again, Alfred Molina did excellent with his narration; though I can't help but feel that it was better in the first book.
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