Saturday Shorts – When the Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead by Tim W Jackson ( @TimWJax )

Posted on January 23, 2016 by fundinmental

The cover for When The Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead by Tim W Jackson.

Sometimes simple says so much. What do you think?

Cover: Augie Beetschen

MY REVIEW

Everything about When the Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead by Tim W Jackson said read me. I love the oceans and seas and the critters that live there.

As I swam with the shark, marveling at the deep blue color of the sea, I too felt the desire to live, to experience more. Life hands us disappointments, but these will pass, leaving more of life’s wonders for us to experience.

My only complaint, I wanted more.

What’s next, Tim?

3 Stars

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Giveaway & Review – At the Sharp End of Lightning by N R Bates (@NRBatesAuthor)

Posted on January 7, 2016 by fundinmental

Add me to Goodreads

Cover: Willyam Bradberry

MY REVIEW

At the Sharp End of Lightning by N R Bates is a fantasy with a touch of realism. What happens when one world leaks into another? The world building was fascinating and will lead us to the answer.

Yalara is a Sea Sprite from Oceanlight and has a mission. She must find the disappeared. Yalara and Einion of Earth will join forces to accomplish the mission.

I have a love of the world of oceans and other bodies of water, so when an author puts the real with fantasy, sending us a subtle message about our part of the polluting and ecological damage we are adding to our environment, it adds that special element that keeps me reading, wanting to know how our worlds collide and the end result.

As I read along, their world became my world.

At the Sharp End of Lightning is Book I of the series and lays a great foundation for more, with lovable characters and a villain that is able to make me wonder if he is all bad. What comes next? I am eager to find out.

I loved the special touches, like Sea Sprites having slime fights. Adds that little something extra that makes me love the characters more.

Politics abound in the fantasy world too.

The story does not end here and I am eager to continue the journey and look forward to reading the next book.

I received a copy of At the End of Lightning by N R Bates in return for an honest review.

4 Stars

SYNOPSIS

AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil.

Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds.

Buy the book: Amazon Barnes & Noble

ABOUT N R BATES

NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors.

He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK.

His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences. He has also recently published a small book of short-stories set in Paris, entitled “The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)”.

Connect with the author: Website Twitter Facebook

GIVEAWAY

Win 1 of 5 print copies of At the Sharp End of Lightning

– one winner will also receive a $30 Amazon gift card (open to USA & Canada)

ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HERE

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Friday 56 #65 & BB #41 – Tom Clancy

Posted on December 18, 2015 by fundinmental

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~

This is the last series of books on the first shelf of my first bookcase.

I have been a fan of Tom Clancy’s for many years. His novels have kept me enthralled through many adventures and many countries. I have read them once, twice, three times. His movies are amazing and I have watched them over and over again.

Tom Clancy was, not only, a prolific writer, but he co-founded Red Storm Entertainment, a video game developer that created games mostly based on the plots of his books, such as “Rainbow Six.”

I began my reading affair with Tom Clancy in The Hunt For Red October. It is still my favorite novel. I either borrowed the book or checked it out from the library, so it is not in my collection.

MY FRIDAY 56

“The Americans are good technicians, Comrade Captain,” Putin said, “but they are not giants.Their technology is not so awesome. Nasha Lutcha, he concluded. Ours is better.

Ramus nodded thoughtfully, thinking to himself that zampoliti really ought to know something about the ships they supervised, as mandated by Party doctrine.

(page 6 in paperback)

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

Captain First Rank Marcos Ramus of the Soviet Navy was dressed for the Arctic conditions normal to the Northern Fleet submarine base at Polyarnyy. Five layers of wool and oilskin enclosed him. A dirty harbor tug pushed his submarine’s bow around to the north, facing down the channel. The dock that had held his Red October for two interminable months was now a water-filled concrete box, one of the many specially built to shelter strategic missile submarines from the harsh elements. On its edge a collection of sailors and dockyard workers watched his ship sail in stolid Russian fashion, without a wave or a cheer.

GOODREADS BLURB

Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy’s phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as “breathlessly exciting.” The Hunt for Red October remains a masterpiece of military fiction by one of the world’s most popular authors, a man whose shockingly realistic scenarios continue to hold us in thrall.Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on..

To meet his most famous characters – Jack Ryan, John Clark, Ding Chavez and Jack Ryan, Jr – visit Tom Clancy’s Website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am a “cover girl”.
What does the cover say to you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

How about a Zombie Christmas freebie. Today only.

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Friday 56 #56 & BB #32 – Beast by Peter Benchley

Posted on September 25, 2015 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~~~~

I have tried to come up with a way to make things simpler for myself when it comes to choosing my next novel to share. This is what I have come up with.

I am starting with the first author on *this* bookshelf and…

now I am moving on to Beast by Peter Benchley

2015-07-23 03.12.21

I have read a lot of his work and love this horror author.

Beast by Peter Benchley

Add me to Goodreads now.

MY FRIDAY 56

Everybody had been allowed to blow off steam and offer cockamamy suggestions for dealing with a monster that few people had every heard of and nobody had every seen.

(page 156 of hardcover, 1st edition, published in 1991)

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

It hovered in the ink-dark water, waiting.

It was not a fish, had no air bladder to give it buoyancy, but because of the special chemistry of its flesh, it did not sink into the abyss.

SYNOPSIS

“Makes the shark from “Jaws” look like a pet goldfish . . .” USA Weekend
Straight from the cutting edge of science and the logs of ancient mariners comes an immense horror — a creature that rises up from the well of an ocean gone mad with an insatiable hunger and an endless lust to kill. One man leads a harrowing struggle to defeat the beast amid a threatened Bermuda paradise. His name is Whip Darling, a down-and-out sea dog who doesn’t know where he’ll get his next meal — or whether it will get him first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Mer Alert! Awesome Giveaway for Of Ocean and Ash by A R Draeger

Posted on September 15, 2015 by fundinmental

Of Ocean and Ash

by A.R. Draeger

Series: Falling In Deep, #3

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Cover Designer: Quirky-Bird

Release Date: June 9, 2015

Continue reading →

Friday 56 #51 & BB #27 – Books & Fun

Posted on August 21, 2015 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~~~~

I have tried to come up with a way to make things simpler for myself when it comes to choosing my next novel to share. This is what I have come up with.

I am starting with the first author on *this* bookshelf and…

now I am moving on to Goliath by Steve Alten

I have read numerous books by Steve Alten and revel in his creature features.

The Trench by Steve Alten

Add me to Goodreads now.

MY FRIDAY 56

A rustling of chairs as the crowd reenergizes.

Give ’em hell, Goode. Remember, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

(page 56 of a hardcover)

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

“Come to course zero-nine-zero, ahead one-third. Make ship’s depth fifty meter.”

“Aye, sir, coming to course zero-nine-zero, making ship’s depth fifty meters.”

“Engage computer.”

“Ayes, sir, computer engaged.”

01010010010101001010010010100100101001010010010010

“Mr. Chau. Prepare to bring Sorceress online. Flood nutrient womb. Prepare bacteria for injection.”

SYNOPSIS

Commander Rochelle “Rocky” Jackson is aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when the “unsinkable” naval vessel and its entire fleet are attacked from the depths and sunk. As Rocky struggles to stay alive, a monstrous mechanical steel stingray surfaces, plowing through the seas it now commands.

A U.S. Navy-designed futuristic nuclear stealth submarine the length of a football field in the shape of a giant stingray. Simon Covah, a brilliant scientist whose entire family were the victims of terrorism has hijacked the sub. Believing violence is a disease, Covah aims to use the Goliath and its cache of nuclear weapons to dictate policy to the world regarding the removal of oppressive regimes and nuclear weapons.

Could the threat of violence forge a lasting peace?

But there is another player in this life-and-death chess match. Unbeknownst to Covah and the Goliath crews, Sorceress, the Goliath’s biochemical computer brain has become self-aware.

And that computer brain is developing its own agenda.

I love covers!

What does this one say to you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Friday 56 #50 & BB #26 – Books & Fun

Posted on August 14, 2015 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~~~~

I have tried to come up with a way to make things simpler for myself when it comes to choosing my next novel to share. This is what I have come up with.

I am starting with the first author on *this* bookshelf and…

now I am moving on to The Trench by Steve Alten

I have read numerous books by Steve Alten and revel in his creature features.

The Trench by Steve Alten

Add me to Goodreads now.

MY FRIDAY 56

The damage began ten feet down…Jonas knew it would only be a matter of time until the joints were torn free. Once the first few went, the rest would follow quickly.

The ampullae of Lorenzini. The predator was zooming in on the faint electrical field given off by his pounding heart.

(page 56 of a hardcover)

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

Retired Navy deep-sea pilot Barry Leace wiped the sweat from his palms as he checked the depth indicator of the Proteus. Thirty-found thousand seven hundred and eighteen feet. Nearly seven miles of water above their heads, sixteen thousand pounds per square inch of water pressure surrounding them.

SYNOPSIS

Its appetite is ravenous. Its teeth scalpel-sharp. Its power unstoppable as it smashes the steel doors holding it in a Monterey Aquarium. For the first time, the captive twenty-ton Megalodon shark has tasted human blood, and it wants more. On the other side of the world, in the silent depths of the ocean, lies the Marianas Trench, where the Megalodon has spawned since the dawn of time. Paleo-biologist Jonas Taylor once dared to enter this perilous cavern. He alone faced a MEG and cut its heart out. He still wears the painful scars of that encounter. Now, as the body count rises and the horror of a monster’s attack grips the California coast, Jonas must begin the hunt again. But to do that means returning to the dark terror of the trench…where the MEG is waiting. Using himself as bait, Jonas will enter the ultimate battle–a fight to he death between man and beast in the darkest recesses of the ocean, and a fight for sanity from the depths of this own tormented soul.

I love covers!

What does this one say to you?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

Friday 56 #48 & BB #24 – #SteveAlten and Megladon

Posted on July 31, 2015 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~~~~

I have tried to come up with a way to make things simpler for myself when it comes to choosing my next novel to share. This is what I have come up with.

I am starting with the first novel on *this* bookshelf and…

now I am on to the second novel, Meg by Steve Alten

2015-07-23 03.12.21

I have been a huge fan of Steve Alten’s for some time now. I find his creatures amazing and love having them come alive on the pages as I read each new story. I am always eager to see what he will come up with next and I think he is taking this series of novels in a direction most of us fans never saw coming.

BUT, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Meg by Steve Alten

Are you afraid to enter the ocean?

Add me to Goodreads now.

MY FRIDAY 56

Jim shot a quick glance over his right shoulder and saw jaws wider than a school bus snap shut, catching nothing but water. As the Meg’s torso plunged headfirst and down into the wave, the surfer cut again hard to his right, accelerating n the dark, shooting past the last place he’d seen the luminescent white monster.

(56% of a hardcover)

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

The Professor:

“Imagine a great white shark, fifty to sixty feet in length, weighing close to forty thousand pounds. Can you visualize that?” Professor Jonas Taylor looked at his audience of just over six hundred and paused for effect. “I find it hard to imagine myself sometimes, but this monster did exist. Its head alone was probably as large as a Dodge Ram pickup. Its jaws could have engulfed and swallowed four grown men whole. And I haven’t even mentioned the teeth: razor-sharp, seven to nine inches long, with th e serrated edges of a stainless-steel steak knife.”

SYNOPSIS

Revised and Expanded. On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean’s deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he’s sure he saw but still can’t prove exists – Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds. Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing, and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has before, Taylor will face terror like he’s never imagined. MEG is about to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.

I love covers!

Meg has a couple of covers for different editions.

Which one do you like the best and why?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

If you have a problem commenting, look for the twitter, facebook…buttons.

Thanks for visiting fundinmental!