Dune, by Frank Herbert, is an exceptionally enticing story, which offers an exceptional science fiction adventure. Read it to believe it.   

A short story anthology celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope, featuring 40 stories about the events of the film told from different perspectives. Overall I really liked it, even though I’m a raging pedant and there were some inconsistencies between stories. It’s all true from a certain point of view, after all.

1. RAYMUS by Gary Whitta: An okay story about the Tantive IV’s flight to Tatooine.
2. THE BUCKET by Christie Golden: A kind of boring, pointless story about one of the Stormtroopers who apprehends Leia having a tiny pang of conscience.
3. THE SITH OF DATAWORK by Ken Liu: An amusing story about an Imperial paper pusher using bureaucratic kung fu to help the guy who didn’t fire on the escape pod avoid summary execution for incompetence.
4. STORIES IN THE SAND by Griffin McElroy: A freaking delightful story about Jot, one of the Jawas on the sandcrawler that picks up C-3PO and R2-D2. In my head-canon, he makes it to a spaceport before the Stormtroopers torch the sandcrawler, joins the crew of a freighter or something, and has a sweet life of adventures like he dreamed of.
5. REIRIN by Sabaa Tahir: An okay story about an apparently Force-sensitive teenage sand people girl (I think?) tasked by some shady character with stealing a kyber crystal from Jot’s sandcrawler. In my head-canon, she keeps the crystal and she and Jot make it off Tatooine on the same ship and have adventures together.
6. THE RED ONE by Rae Carson: A freaking delightful story about the real hero of the Rebel Alliance, R5-D4, the little red droid with the “bad motivator.” Spoiler: He survives the Stormtroopers and rolls off into the desert to have adventures. YAY.
7. RITES by John Jackson Miller: A kind of boring story about the sand people who ambush Luke on his way to Obi-Wan’s hut. I did like the nod to the sand people village Anakin Skywalker slaughtered. Nice touch.
8. MASTER AND APPRENTICE by Claudia Gray: A meh story about Force Ghost Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan having a chat, and the first Star Wars offering by Gray that I didn’t like. Sadness.
9. BERU WHITSUN LARS by Meg Cabot: Ghost Beru muses on her place in Luke’s life after her violent and fiery death. Sadly, it’s pretty meh. Beru deserves better.
10. THE LUCKLESS RODIAN by Renée Ahdieh: An okay story about the Han-Greedo cantina confrontation from Greedo’s perspective.
11. NOT FOR NOTHING by Mur Lafferty: A hilarious story about the cantina band presented as a chapter from the memoir of a band member.
12. WE DON’T SERVE YOUR KIND HERE by Chuck Wendig: The events in the cantina from the bartender’s perspective. It was dull and I still freaking hate Wendig’s writing style.
13. THE KLOO HORN CANTINA CAPER by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction: Mildly amusing tale of cantina patron shenanigans that went on WAY TOO LONG and written in a style that was only cute for the first few pages.
14. ADDED MUSCLE by Paul Dini: That horrible added Jabba-in-the-docking-bay scene from Boba Fett’s point of view. Meh.
15. YOU OWE ME A RIDE by Zoraida Córdova: An okay story about two bounty hunter (?) sisters who think about stealing Han’s ship but miss their chance. The writing was good, but I don’t remember these characters in the background and it just felt a little random. I’ll have to look for them on my next rewatch.
16. THE SECRETS OF LONG SNOOT by Delilah S. Dawson: The events in the cantina from the perspective of Long Snoot, who is apparently a super spy who resents being duped by the empire. I like Dawson’s writing, but the story is just okay.
17. BORN IN THE STORM by Daniel José Older: The best account of all the Mos Eisley antics from the perspective of a Stormtrooper who has HAD IT with pretty much everything and just wants to ride off into the double sunset on a noble dewback. I freaking loved it.
18. LAINA by Wil Wheaton: I saw Wil Wheaton and expected humor, so it’s on me and my unfounded expectations for not liking this account of a Rebel dad on Yavin 4 sending his baby girl to safety on . . . Alderaan. Shut up, Westley.
19. FULLY OPERATIONAL by Beth Revis: That command staff meeting on the Death Star from General Tagge’s point of view. Calling it meh because it’s completely unmemorable. Revis has yet to wow me.
20. AN INCIDENT REPORT by Mallory Ortberg: It’s Admiral Motti’s written complaint re: the staff meeting Force-choking incident. The best part was Motti insisting that thinking the Force is woo woo rubbish doesn’t make him a bigot. Otherwise it was pretty dull.
21. CHANGE OF HEART by Elizabeth Wein: Another “Stormtrooper has a change of heart after encountering Leia” story from a Death Star trooper this time. What makes it even worse than the first one is the second-person-past-tense writing. What a choice. Ugh.
22. ECLIPSE by Madeleine Roux: A heartbreaking account of the destruction of Alderaan from Queen Breha’s point of view. I freaking loved it, ugh, it destroyed me.
23. VERGE OF GREATNESS by Pablo Hidalgo: Tarkin’s view of the events on Scariff and the destruction of Alderaan, with a quick paragraph from Krennic’s POV on Scariff. It wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t memorable.
24. FAR TOO REMOTE by Jeffery Brown: A funny cartoon panel depicting the Imperials looking for the Rebel base on Dantooine.
25. THE TRIGGER by Kieron Gillen: Doctor Aphra gets caught trying to strip the abandoned Dantooine base for salvage, then has to avoid execution by a baby-faced Stormtrooper. My first experience with the character, and I liked it.
26. OF MSE-6 AND MEN by Glen Weldon: The true story behind what that mouse droid was doing in the corridors of the Death Star. Apparently it was ferrying messages between a lowly yet gorgeous Stormtrooper and an unnamed official with Alpha One security clearance. I really enjoyed it, but I have mixed feelings about implying Tarkin was gay. Ye olde “gay-code the villain” trope is not my favorite.
27. BUMP by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker: That Stormtrooper who got Force persuaded by Obi-Wan in Mos Eisley (these are not the droids you’re looking for) gets back on the Death Star and realizes he has made a Terrible Mistake. I liked it.
28. END OF WATCH by Adam Christopher: An okay story about a tired administrator who is only too happy to hand over the headaches in Docking Bay 327 and Detention Block AA-23 at the end of her shift.
29. THE BAPTIST by Nnedi Okorafor: A surprising story about the Thing in the trash compactor that nearly drowned Luke. She was Force sensitive! And she had a Purpose! And I freaking love her!
30. TIME OF DEATH by Cavan Scott: Obi-Wan sees visions of the past during? after? his confrontation with Vader. I liked this one despite my confusion.
31. THERE IS ANOTHER by Gary D. Schmidt: Yoda bides his time on Dagobah and dreams of training Leia as a Jedi, not that angry, impulsive Luke. It’s too late to train him. Too much like his father, he is.
32. PALPATINE by Ian Doescher: Doescher doing what Doescher does, i.e. a speech by the Emperor, Shakespeare style. It was okay, but Doescher is better and funnier and clever . . . er when he’s working from someone else’s script.
33. SPARKS by Paul S. Kemp: The Battle of Yavin 4 from the perspective of Dex, one of the Rebel pilots who blows up. (Spoilers.) It was okay, but not terribly memorable.
34. DUTY ROSTER by Jason Fry: The Battle of Yavin 4 from the perspective of a pilot who didn’t get to fly due to a shortage of functioning fighters. Slightly more memorable than Sparks.
35. DESERT SON by Pierce Brown: The Battle of Yavin 4 from the perspective of Biggs. I already have trouble separating this one in my mind from Sparks. Biggs knew Luke from before and lasted longer than Dex. That’s about it.
36. GROUNDED by Greg Rucka: The Battle of Yavin 4 from the perspective of the Rebels’ chief mechanic. Slightly heartbreaking look at the ones left behind, WAY more effective than Duty Roster.
37. CONTINGENCY PLAN by Alexander Freed: Not my favorite thing by Freed. It’s basically Mon Mothma agonizing over everything while trying to make sure the Rebellion still has a future if she dies.
38. THE ANGLE by Charles Soule: Lando Calrissian finds out Han Solo took his beloved Falcon into battle against the Death Star. I freaking loved it. Soule really caught the essence of Lando.
39. BY WHATEVER SUN by E.K. Johnston and Ashley Eckstein: A character from Johnston’s Ahsoka novel reflects on her time in the Rebellion during the medal ceremony. I really liked it, and it was nice to see a familiar character from novel canon.
40. WHILLS by Tom Angleberger: A freaking hilarious account of the Whills bickering over the text crawl for Episode IV. I loved it, especially the Star Wars Holiday Special reference.

I was soooo excited when I won a fabulous signed hardcover for Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton and a paperback copy with a pile of goodies for Colel by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff.

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Kira Jane Buxton has definitely delivered on this original, unique glimpse into her zombie world where animals are the saviors and humans are the ones in need of saving. They can’t do it as individuals, it takes a murder to save a village. Hollow Kingdom is filled with every emotion I can think of, terror and fear, sadness and happiness, lost and found, tears and smiles, despair and hope.

4 Stars

This novella presents a future dystopian world where the US has devolved into a wild west style set of territories or regions. There’s mention of a war going on but not much detail is mentioned beyond all the diesel being funneled to tanks and military purposes. I found this novella initially engaging, and I liked Esther learning more about her wider world and that there were people like her out there who weren’t doomed to a bad end. The librarians go around distributing “approved materials” and smuggling essential supplies and Esther wants to join them after running away from home and a creepy marriage prospect. I’m not sure the whole Amity storyline made all that much sense though and not all that much happened in the novella, overall. I also had a bit of an issue with Esther’s immediate attraction to Cye when she was obviously still traumatized by Beatriz’s death.

Title: Mama and the Alien Warrior
Series: Treasured by the Alien #1
Author: Honey Phillips & Bex McLynn
Genre: Science Fiction Romance - Aliens
Release Date: May 12th 2019
Format: eBook
Pages: 188
Source: Kindle Unlimited

 

 

Mama and the Alien Warrior is book one in the Treasured by the Alien series by Honey Phillips & Bex McLynn.

 

Hrebec is adorable. I loved him the moment we meet him. He’s sweet and I just loved his interaction with the human child, her mother, and the Cire baby. He’s just heart-melting. 

 

Abby sees herself as a mother figure to these women who where dropped off at her door. She’s protective of everyone in her care. 

 

As the story goes and is explained in the blurb Abby has opened a maternity home for women with no place to go. All of those in her care are kidnapped from earth. Then get rescued by the Cires. 

 

We are introduced to many secondary characters both human and aliens. At times it was hard to keep track of everyone, since so many are introduced and some secondary characters where hooking up besides our leads. 

 

A few things frustrated me and took away from the story. 

 

1. Abby kept saying throughout the book were going back to Earth. We’re leaving. We’re going back. She never asked the young ladies in her care if they wanted to stay with their rescuers or go back to earth. What do these women have to go back too? They had nothing back on Earth so, why go back? It was frustrating how much she kept repeating this. 

 

2. Another thing that frustrated me was with Abby in that she never wanted to explore the possibility of a future with Hrebec, until all the other women said they want to stay. She just pushed off the bond. Even with all the signs. 

 

3. I was very frustrated with Abby in that she thinks she knows what’s best for Molly. What Abby did in keeping Molly away from her mate ended up making Molly suffer. With the suffer all the signs where their that she wasn’t doing well. What Abby did put Molly, her unborn child, and her mates life in danger leading to a medical emergence. And in the end, only two lines are said about this and all is forgiven. 

 

4. Last, It was frustrating that Abby tried to force the women in her care to do as she said and made decisions for them. These are grown women. Even if they are young and one is a teenager she should have talked to them and asked their opinion instead of being a mother in that my word is law. 

 

Now, their were a few things I did enjoy about this story. 

 

1. We are treated to some sweet and tender interactions. My favorite parts where all the interactions with the 2-year-old, Lucie. She was so adorable and open minded with her situation. 

 

2. I enjoyed the aliens and how unique they are. 

 

3. The family bonding parts where just so adorable.

 

4. Last, I liked how curious the aliens are in seeing a child, infants, and women. Many have never seen children and women; because their race has no women and is dyeing. 

 

Mama and the Alien Warrior was a nice and enjoyable read.

 

Rated: 3 Stars

 

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Angela 

I was born and raised in Northern Indiana. I’m an outdoor sun loving reader living near San Fransisco. I’m a mother, wife, dog owner, animal, and book lover. I’m the owner, reviewer, and mind behind Angel’s Guilty Pleasures. My favorite animals are horses & dogs. As for reading I love all things paranormal & urban fantasy. My favorite shifters are dragons!