Review – Clay by Tony Bertauski #tonybertauski #clay

Posted on May 28, 2026 by fundinmental

Tony Bertauski is an author I have been reading and following for some time now. I am always excited to get my hands on one of his books.

Amazon / KindleUnlimited / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I have read numerous novels by Tony Bertauski, and loved them. His writing is offbeat and otherworldly. However, for some reason, I am having difficulty getting into this one.

Clay, a psychological thriller contains horror of the science fiction and human kind.

Teenagers are the same, no matter what generation, selfish, lackadaisical.

The science development between body and min has surpassed any of my expectations. Are they human or robots? Could that be a question in our future? BE careful what you create, it may make you extinct.

A world of…imagine…you can control everything about yourself, your looks, your feelings, your environment, total control of your body and mind. Are we too imperfect, too self centered and self destructive?

A frightening look at an alternate world where science rules. Stories like this capture me… conspiracy, human meddling with nature has severe repercussions. I try to wrap my head around his fake world,, chilling creepy. Makes me think kof us..in real life. Raises all kinds of moral and ethical questions.

I did not read the first book and I was quite confused through the beginning. My enjoyment of the story was affected so I highly recommend reading book one first.

I let my mind go and went where the words too me. it did not end like I thought it would. Did have me questioning what was real. Great ending. I don’t know how Tony dreams up his wild storylines, so unique, imaginative and original.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 3 Star

GOODREADS BLURB

Jamie wants to be a halfskin.

Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites, the synthetic stems cells that promise hope and healing, she could take control of her life. But Jamie’s body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay—her God-given organic cells. Anymore biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown.

But there is a way.

Black market biomites, called nixes, can’t be detected by the government. She’d have to sacrifice her clay, but nixes can make her halfskin without anyone knowing. But first, she has to find them.

Nix Richards can help. He’s the first halfskin to escape the government and Jamie has something he wants. He’ll need her to help him find a fabricator to build a human body. He’ll betray anyone to get it, even those closest to him.

This psychological thriller will keep them second-guessing every move while they elude Marcus Anderson and the governing agency that seeks to rid the world of biomites. But in the end, they’ll all discover just how deep the betrayal goes.

ABOUT TONY BERTAUSKI

Get my books FREE. Tell me where to send them at http://bertauski.com

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I’ve written textbooks on landscape design, but that was straightforward, informational writing; the kind of stuff that helps most people get to sleep. I’ve also been writing a gardening column with a humorous slant. That takes a little more finesse, but still informational for the most part.

I’m a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That’s the sort of stuff I wanted to write, not the assigned reading we used to get in high school. I wanted to create stories that kept you up late.

Fiction, GOOD fiction, is hard to write. Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it’s only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

MY TONY BERTAUSKI REVIEWS

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Review – Willow Rose by M Kevin Hayden #mkevinhayden #willowrose

Posted on February 26, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

“Yes, Mrs Dodd? Are you feeling better?”

“Why, yes, I am, thanks to you! I can’t believe how constipated I was.” She waves her hand. “It just hung there…I thought I would just die! I figured, if only I could reach right up there, I could get things moving.”

OMG. Right out of the gate, M Kevin Hayden had me laughing out loud. I didn’t see anything about humor, when I checked out Willow Rose. I did become curious about the Comet Goodwin, the bull elk that he sees standing in the middle of the road, not looking quite right, and the young girl that comes knocking on his door and a nurse that could lead to a love interest.

We have a mashup of horror, science fiction and the paranormal. We have an ER doctor needing to get away from his hectic life to a remote cabin in Minnesota. The atmosphere is eerie, mysterious, bloody and gory. Do you believe in monsters? Of aliens or alternate dimensions?

Willow Rose had its moments, and it did keep me flipping pages, wanting to know what was going on and how M Kevin Hayden would wrap things up.

GOODREADS BLURB

For lovers of Stephen Graham Jones, Jeff VanderMeer, and Nick Cutter, Willow Rose is a compulsively readable, literary ode to the terror of the unknown that comes for all of us in the depths of night.

A knock on the cabin door on indigenous land in the wintry woods of Minnesota.

Tap tap tap.

Driving down the boreal roads of rural Minnesota to his one-room cabin after a long ER shift, Dr. Alder’s eyes snap open, his old Civic screaming to a stop in front of a massive bull elk, its head tilting back unnaturally, its maw open. Comet Goodwin, the closest comet to Earth in history, lights up the sky in an otherworldly greenish tint with its long, jagged tail of fire.

Tap tap tap.

Alder’s world ignites in a blinding white flash. The car windows shatter inward. The elk is gone.

If he can get the car started again and get back to his cabin, maybe he can make sense of all this…but first he must survive the frozen silence of the night and the evil that stalks within it.

We must stay together always.

Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Supernatural
206 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2025 by Muse of the Moon Books

ABOUT M KEVIN HAYDEN

M. Kevin Hayden is a novelist from the South Side of Chicago, where he grew up among storefront churches, corner stores, and the quiet echo of stories waiting to be told. His work blends emotional realism with speculative mystery, grounded in memory, place, and the uncanny moments that flicker through ordinary lives.

His debut, An Old Soul, is a slow-burn tale of love, memory, and unraveling reality set in 1996 Chicago. His second story, Willow Rose, leaves the city for the snowbound wilderness of northern Minnesota, where a weary doctor and a mysterious child confront a cosmic, ancient terror.

He writes for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world, hoping his stories offer a sense of connection and wonder. He now lives somewhere quiet, surrounded by trees and the occasional flash of something just beyond the veil.

Website

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Cyberpunk – Review – The Zone: Fallen Son by Stu Jones @StuJonesFiction #thezone

Posted on February 18, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Gotta love Chance. In for a penny, in for a pound.

The Zone: Fallen Son by Stu Jones, is the second book in this cyberpunk series. It is filled with fast paced action and the stakes are high. The battles are brutal, savage, and many lives will be lost.

Everything revolves around Chance, a father, a son, a hero. His son is ill and he will do anything to get the treatment his child needs, but when he is taken, he will also do anything to get him back.

It all begins in Neo Terminus, where Chance had taken down the Zone, a walled off area in the middle of the city where Enforcers, nano boosted gladiators, would fight to the death. He finds out his son has been taken to a distant city, New West City, and he will have to partner up with an unlikely ally. He will face betrayal and hordes of mutant humans.

Action and adventure, life and death, thought provoking moments, The Zone engulfed me in rapid fire reading, flipping pages, caught up, unable to look away. BUT..the story is not done. Chance may have completed one mission, but his son is still missing, being used as a bargaining chip by High Director Marko Senterian. I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

AMAZON SYNOPSIS

In the shadow of Neo Terminus, a father’s desperation becomes his only weapon.

Chance Griffin—super cop, fallen gladiator, hunted fugitive—will stop at nothing to rescue his kidnapped infant son. Even if that means tracking down and confronting the Glom’s shadowy masters.

But he can’t do it alone.

To save his child, Chance must forge an uneasy alliance with a ruthless adversary—a villain whose hands drip with the blood of Chance’s friends. Together, they’ll journey beyond the neon streets of Neo Terminus to the lawless frontier of New West City, where even legends are broken.

With each fractured step Chance is drawn deeper into a web of manipulation and betrayal, stretching the fragile thread connecting him to the life he left behind—to a wife whose face may soon fade from memory.

As Neo Terminus burns behind him and New West City looms ahead, Chance knows he can’t let the wasteland claim what’s left of his soul. He is more than the Glom’s former star Enforcer, their fallen son.

He is a father, a husband. A hero.

AWARDS for The Zone
Gold Medal(1st Place) Winner – The Bookfest Awards – Cyberpunk Category
Honorable Mention – Reader’s Favorite Awards – Science Fiction Category
Finalist – Best Thriller Book Awards – Science Fiction
Finalist – IAN Book of the Year Awards – Science Fiction
Semi-Finalist – Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards – Science Fiction
Approved Seal – Indie Reader

Genre: Action And Advenure, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
402 pages, Kindle
Published: 2.17.26 by Dropship Publishing
Series: The Zone #2

ABOUT STU JONES

Stu Jones. SWAT Sniper. Adventurer. Award-Winning Author of Epic Genre-Bending Fiction.

A veteran law enforcement officer, Stu has served as a beat cop, narcotics, criminal investigations, as an instructor of firearms and police defensive tactics and as a team leader of a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. He is trained and qualified as a law enforcement SWAT sniper, as well as in hostage rescue and high-risk entry tactics. Recently, Stu served for three years with a U.S. Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force – hunting the worst of the worst.

He is the author of multiple sci-fi/action/thriller novels, including the multi-award-winning It Takes Death To Reach A Star duology, written with co-author Gareth Worthington (Children of the Fifth Sun).

Known for his character-driven stories and blistering action sequences, Stu strives to create thought-provoking reading experiences that challenge the status quo. When he’s not chasing bad guys or writing epic stories, he can be found planning his next adventure to some remote or exotic place.

Stu is represented by Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo-Helin-Fountain literary

Catch Up With Stu Jones:
Goodreads
BookBub – @stujonesfiction
Instagram – @stujonesfiction
Facebook – @stujonesfiction

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Review – The Mistress by Tim Vee @_Tim_Vee_ #themistress

Posted on February 14, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

The Mistress by Tim Vee may be a quick read, but it was chock full of gruesomeness. The setting is a former penal colony on Planet B in the Proxima Centauri system, where Gravitite, a valuable ore is being mined. The descendants of the now dead and gone inmates are treated as slaves, harvesting the ore. We have the haves and the have nots.

The commanders mistress is caught in the middle of secrets, conspiracy, and danger. Sometimes you have to make a stand. Will she do what is demanded from her? Will it cost her her life?

I never saw the ending coming and I love it.

My thanks go out to Tim Vee for the opportunity to read another one of his fantastic stories.

GOODREADS BLURB

The mistress of an important military police (Milpol) commander is pulled into a world of espionage, corporate tyranny, and danger.

The story is set at a former penal colony on Planet B in the Proxima Centauri system, where the descendants of inmates live as slave quarry workers to the powerful Kantary Corporation, under Milpol control, extracting the valuable ore Gravitite that powers interstellar travel.

Powerful forces are working simultaneously to hide and expose the existence of the slave planet, with the commander’s mistress caught in the middle.

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction
92 pages, ebook
Expected publication February 14, 2026 by Tim Vee

ABOUT TIM VEE

My books are always free over at Smash Words. Download and have a read – and don’t forget to leave a review! https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi…

Tim works in digital marketing in Toronto and is well-traveled, having visited over 80 countries. When he is not working or writing he likes to spend time with his family and German Shepherd – and to go cycling.

Tim has written ten books; The Secret Policemen and The Secret Service – both dystopian dark comedies; as well as seven science fiction novels – Extinction, Annabelle, Fission, The Children of the Third Reich, The Child of Mars, and The Children of Andaalwaald.

Tim has also written Magpie – a dark and intense journey into the world of international espionage and terrorism.

Tim mostly enjoys writing transgressive fiction – mainly about aliens and psychopaths.

Comments and feedback are always welcome.

Website

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Review – The Last Nuclear War by Hazem Abdelmowla #hazemabdelmowla #thelastnuclearwar

Posted on February 13, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / KindleUnlimited / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

When I grabbed Hazem Abdelmowla’s Future Novels series, I had a different thought in mind. The books are heavy on the science of things, and I kinda got lost in The Last Nuclear War and not in a good way. I had met and became interested in Mousa, the main character in The Viruses Enigma. He struggles with social justice, corruption, influence and money.

The year is 2110 and viral pandemics had ravaged the world. Energy sources that you and I know, no longer exist. So…here we are…

Because he is so smart, there are those that want to use him. As I follow his life, I am more curious about him than the war that seems to be looming on the horizon. I am curious how his story will end and I kept flipping the pages for that reason.

For those who like to carry the weight on their shoulders while reading sciency novels, this may be right up your alley. For me, it was too heavy, but I am glad I read to the end.

The Last Nuclear War will definitely pose questions that are difficult to answer. My thanks go out to Hazem Abdelmowla for the opportunity to read and share his books.

GOODREADS BLURB

You wonder why war? But what if you are the war! What will you choose? What will you do for the sake of this world?
In the future, after decades of surviving devastating viral pandemics, the world has become very different from what we know. Energy sources no longer exist like before. The world has become like a compass where its parts are looking for nuclear influence. A smart child named Mousa was born. He had difficulty understanding the world around him. Why is he treated differently in school? Why doesn’t he feel social justice? What happened to corrupt the world like this? What is happening between the parties of the world? What is the role of influence and money? The questions were getting more complex at every point in his life. But he didn’t know that the path of answers was destined to ask him for choices that could determine the fate of the last future nuclear war.

Genre: Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Fiction, Science Fiction
238 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 30, 2024
Series: Future Novels #2

ABOUT HAZEM ABDELMOWLA

A dental surgeon, an entrepreneur and a writer who simply dreams of a better world.

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Review – Stolen In Death by J D Robb #jdrobb #stolenindeath #netgalley #stmartinspress

Posted on February 3, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I have been reading J D Robb’s and Nora Robert’s work for many years now, and she has never let me down. That makes it easy to snatch a copy of one of her books whenever I see it. I want to thank NetGalley for my copy.

“You’re here. No dead bodies.” “Night’s young,” Eve said.

I love the Eve Dallas and Roarke stories. Eve is a homicide police lieutenant and Roarke is a retired billionaire thief. When murder and a hidden safe holding many valuable objects is discovered, Eve is on the case. Roarke’s expertise will come in handy. Roarke’s past can sometimes make Eve’s life more complicated, but she couldn’t be sorry about it. I’m glad, because they make an intriguing couple.

I was waiting for something to happen, and now, we’re off and running.

The year is 2061, and while most things are the same, there are some things that bode well for the future. Such as, the AutoChef. Hungry? How about a burger from the AutoChef? Thirsty? How about a tube of Pepsi? I love it, seeing I am not a very good cook and a little on the lazy side when it comes to preparing food. And prison? How about an off planet cage for criminals?

J D Robb doesn’t waste any time setting the hook for her futuristic suspense, In Death, thriller series. The pacing makes the story flow smoothly, and the mystery growing. Stolen In Death may be J D Robb’s 62nd book in the series, but it still has a lot of bite.

GOODREADS BLURB

A violent death and a vault of stolen treasures has Eve Dallas struggling to solve crimes old and new in the latest thriller in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

A blow to the head with a block of amethyst has left multibillionaire Nathan Barrister dead―while nearby, a vault, its door ajar, sits filled with priceless paintings, jewelry, and other treasures. Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s husband, Roarke―who misspent his youth in Ireland as a scrappy thief―recognizes at least two stolen pieces among the hoard. The crime scene suggests a burglar caught in the act. But only one item seems to be missing.

Then it’s revealed that the vault had actually belonged to the victim’s late father―and no one in the household knew it was there until a recent remodeling project exposed it. To protect the family name and business, they explain to Eve, they’d been looking for a way to return the ill-gotten gains anonymously and avoid the police. But now the police are all over their elegant house, and have a bigger, bloodier mystery to solve.

By all accounts, Nathan Barrister was a good man, a generous employer, a devoted husband and father. As for his father―he clearly had secrets. Now it’s up to Eve and her team to find out if those secrets got Nathan killed―and if it was a crime of passion or revenge.

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
368 pages, Hardcover
Publication February 3, 2026 by St. Martin’s Press
Series: In Death #62

ABOUT J D ROBB

J.D. Robb is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series and the pseudonym for #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts. The futuristic suspense series stars Eve Dallas, a New York City police lieutenant with a dark past. Initially conceived as a trilogy, readers clamored for more of Eve and the mysterious Roarke. Stolen in Death (St. Martin’s Press, February 2026) will be the 62nd entry in the series.

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$15 GC – Undisciplined Catalyst by Gail Koger @goddessfish #gailkoger #undisciplinedcatalyst

Posted on January 22, 2026 by fundinmental

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Gail Koger will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

I was sixteen when I found out not only am I an alien hybrid, but monsters called the Tai-Kok were getting ready to invade our world. Guess who gets to stop them? Me! How?

My uncle, the mad scientist, created a machine called the portal that instantaneously sends a test subject from one location to another by converting them into energy. His idea is to port me onto a Tai-Kok ship. All I have to do is leave a bomb, hit the retrieval button on my spiffy traveler’s belt and poof! I’m back on Earth before the Tai-Kok ship goes kaboom. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong. Uncle Ben doesn’t have a clue where I’ll actually appear on the ship. It could be the engine room, the crew quarters, or even the bridge. It’s like playing Russian roulette. The Tai-Kok don’t like surprises or uninvited guests.

To make things even more fun, I have an alien battle commander stuck in my head and I’m related to a powerful Coletti warlord. Yippee. The chances of me living to see eighteen aren’t good.

Read an Excerpt

“Give ‘em hell.” A wild look in his eyes, Uncle Ben tapped on the console.

The circles of light surrounded me, but this time it felt like a zillion fire ants were crawling over my body. Holy hell! Something had gone wrong! I appeared in midair and dropped like a rock. Smack! I slammed into someone, and my Glock went flying.

My eyes bugged. I was on the bridge of a futuristic warship, and the viewscreen showed one hell of a space battle going on. To make things even more fun, I was lying across the lap of a huge, muscle-bound male wearing black battle armor. Since he was sitting in the captain’s chair, I was assuming he was the boss.

A very angry-looking boss. I blinked. Holy cow was he good-looking, if you were into the whole merciless predator thing. Huh? The red chains woven into his black warrior’s braids matched the communication device on his left wrist. Who knew aliens accessorized and why did I care? I took a deep breath trying to control the panic streaking through me.

A low growl rumbled in his chest.

One look into his disturbingly hostile amber eyes and I knew I was in big trouble. I reached for my retrieval button.

His arms clamped around me painfully, and he spat a bunch of gobbledygook.

“Sorry, I don’t speak that language,” I replied mentally. Somehow, I knew he was psychic.

A harsh voice sounded in my head, “How did you get through our shields.”

“Dunno. My uncle is the scientific genius, not me. I’m just the delivery girl.”

“What do you deliver?”

Did I look stupid? The minute I told him bombs; he’d kill me. I pasted a friendly smile on my face. “Stuff. I’m Lexi and you are?”

“Battle Commander Kaelen. I serve Zarek the Coletti Overlord.”

About the Author: I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Glendale Police Department and to keep from going totally bonkers – I mean people have no idea what a real emergency is. Take this for example: I answered, “9-1-1 emergency, what’s your emergency?” And this hysterical woman yelled, “My bird is in a tree.” Sometimes I really couldn’t help myself, so I said, “Birds have a tendency to do that, ma’am.” The woman screeched, “No! You don’t understand. My pet parakeet is in the tree. I’ve just got to get him down.” Like I said, not a clue. “I’m sorry ma’am but we don’t get birds out of trees.” The woman then cried, “But… What about my husband? He’s up there, too.” See what I had to deal with? To keep from hitting myself repeatedly in the head with my phone I took up writing.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1598719.Gail_Koger
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Askole
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Colettiwarlordbooks/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Gail-Koger/e/B001K838BY
Website: https://www.gailkoger.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Undisciplined-Catalyst-Coletti-Warlord-Book-ebook/dp/B0G3D5M4L5

Follow the tour and comment. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. Follow the tour HERE.

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Giveaway & Review – The Death And Life Of Arturo Degado by Ken La Salle @KenLaSalle #sciencefiction

Posted on January 21, 2026 by fundinmental

I have been reading Ken La Salle’s books for some time now. He possesses a vivid imagination and his stories make for some fabulous reading. Here’s his take on his latest novel, The Death & Life Of Arturo Delgado.

Hi Ken. It’s good to have you here today.

There comes this moment in the career of many authors. That last pitch.

I was working with an agent I respected but my book just wasn’t selling. I needed something new and hot and I came up with… werewolves? Werewolves taking over San Francisco? I don’t even like werewolves; they’re terrible on toast.

The pitch was a disaster, of course, and the agent and I parted ways amicably.

As my fiftieth birthday approached, however, I looked back on that pitch. Hidden away, beneath the werewolves and the fur and the werewolf chow were some very odd ideas. As an author, I live for odd ideas, ideas that stand out so far they pierce the veil of my worst ideas.

One such idea was my usual out of time and out of place character but with such a rough edge that it took years for me to put it into words. This is what authors do, though. They find an idea and they work it from odd, from rough, to undeniable.

That idea was: James Bond meets The Lord of The Rings.

Not literally, though. Strip away the Intellectual Property, the IP. I was more interested in deconstructing and merging the genres. So, on my fiftieth birthday, I made myself a promise, to write a nine-part space opera called The BreakThrough.

In the universe of The BreakThrough, the biggest question revolves around energy, as it always does. Those with the most power hold the most energy and understand how to travel faster than the speed of light. The lesser civilizations can only hope to travel that fast, the cost being so great you might as well acquire magic. As you might expect, our planet intersects there.

An unwell-kempt detective, Max Dedge stumbles upon a vast mystery of assassins plunging from San Francisco rooftops, a beautiful wizard who can control fire with a thought, and something called The Time of The Uniborg where all magics come together. There’s also this crystal that can either take him to new worlds or destroy this one; he’s not sure.

Single mother and restauranteur, Sue Jorgensen (the Queen of Space), tracks down the only man who can step between worlds, Max Dedge. She knows where the Earth fits in this galactic quest for magic and will use this knowledge and anything she must to save her son who is lost in a galaxy of enslaved Dreamers.

Neither of them will be safe without Arturo Delgado, however. They need the thief with the heart of a safe cracker, the only one who can be totally honest with them, the only one who can tell them exactly what they need to know. Sadly, he dies in his first book.

The BreakThrough is a gurgling, spicy stew of alien invaders, epic fantasy, social satire, romance, fun, and stand up and cheer kind of excitement that has only begun. No werewolves required.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Ken.

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Arturo Delgado is a jack of all (illegal) trades and a master of none. He thought of Max Dedge as a one trick pony. Since meeting Max, he has learned there is more than what meets the eye in this world. There’s aliens, magic, crystals that allow you to travel through the universe and worlds that could never be dreamed of.

In The Death And Life Of Arturo Delgado, the band gets back together again. Arturo, Max and Sue Jorgensen. Sue is looking for her son, who is still lost in the universe. Even worse, aliens are coming to take over the world. We are just pesky little critters that are in their way.

Ken La Salle has a wildly creative imagination that makes for entertaining reading. His stories are unpredictable, making each event a surprise. Half the time I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or shout at the characters. Sure makes for some fantastic reading and I always look forward to the next story.

GOODREADS BLURB

A suitcase full of alien diamonds…

It’s everything Arturo Delgado has always wanted.

And it didn’t come cheap.

Art had once been the proprietor of one of Mexico’s hottest up and coming bars until Max Dedge had flown in with some beautiful wizard and burned the place to the ground. Art’s only option had been to follow Max from nation to nation, from world to world, until the debt was paid.

And did Max pay it? No. He was off on some adventure to another world, a world with magic and aliens and a cave full of diamonds, which Max Dedge refused to share. The only alternative left to Art was to steal the diamonds for himself and run before Max Dedge could find him.

Now, he’s looking for a way to sell a suitcase full of alien diamonds and doing his best not to be traced. In Washington State, he stops at a little restaurant owned by Sue Jorgensen (future Queen of Space) and devises a plan that will leave him rich for life and show the great Max Dedge who came out on top.

That’s all that matters. Not the eggplant aliens coming to destroy the world. Not the pasty slaves who sound like they came out of a 1970s sitcom. Not the Queen of Space.

All that matters now is a suitcase full of alien diamonds… and making Max Dedge pay.

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2025
Series: The Breakthrough #3

ABOUT KEN LA SALLE

Born on an 18th century mining ship, Ken La Salle is not his name. He just likes it. He writes about whatever he damn well pleases, hoping to build more of a cult following than a readership just for a cut on the robes. Looking for the mainstream but sticking to the shore, you can find out more about Ken La Salle at the imaginatively named www.kenlasalle.com.

MY KEN LA SALLE REVIEWS

False Starts
Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World
Heaven Enough
Heaven Denied
Heaven For Now
Wormfood Island
Work of Art
Work of Art II
Climbing Maya
Max Dedge in the Time of the Uniborg (The Breakthrough)
Sue Jorgensen (The Breakthrough)
Little Mike

GIVEAWAY

Ken La Salle is offering a digital copy of The Death And Life Of Arturo Delgado to two lucky winners.

What is your favorite thing about science fiction novels? Do you like the quirky characters? The novel planets and spaceships? The situations an author puts their characters in?

Leave a comment and email address so we can contact you. Sorry US only.

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Review – Detour by Jeff Rake & Rob Hart #jeffrake #robhart #detour

Posted on January 13, 2026 by fundinmental

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart is the first book in the science fiction Detour series.

Ryan, a Washington DC policeman, was in the right place at the right time to save John Ward, a billionaire, from assassination. Because of that, John has offered him a chance in a lifetime, to go into space. Myself, I would have said thanks, but no thanks. I can’t imagine being trapped in a tin can, floating through space, hoping nothing goes wrong.

Ryan Crane, Padma Singh, Alonso Cardona, Della Jameson, and Mike Seaver will share their points of view, as they struggle from the aftermath of their trip. Lies and betrayal flow smoothly throughout the story. None of them know what is really going on, so that puts them in danger. Secrets are to be kept…and John Ward will do anything to keep them.

I do have a problem with all the series I get caught up in. Now, I’m hooked and I really want to now what comes next. The suspense and danger increased as the story unfolded, making me curious about where the authors will take the next book in the series. Is it a cliffhanger? Not in an urgent sense of the word, but I will still need to read the next book to find out how the character’s stories end. And, I do want to know. My mind is already running through scenarios. So, Jake and Rob, I hope you are writing fast.

GOODREADS BLURB

A space shuttle flight crew discovers that the Earth they’ve returned to is not the home they left behind in this emotional, mind-bending thriller from the creator of the hit Netflix series Manifest and the bestselling author of The Warehouse.

“If The Martian and The Twilight Zone had a baby, it would be Detour—a thriller that messes with your head as you scramble to piece together what’s really going on.”—Steve Netter, Best Thriller Books

Ryan Crane wasn’t looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt.

As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to ******’s moon Titan.

A devoted family man, Ryan is reluctant to leave on this two-year expedition, yet with the encouragement of his loving wife—and an exorbitant paycheck guaranteeing lifetime care for their disabled son—he crews up and ventures into a new frontier.

But as the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes.

When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, such as lavish upgrades to their homes, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.

Separated and suspicious, the crew must uncover the truth and decide how far they’re willing to go to return to their normal lives. Just when their space adventure seemingly ends, it shockingly begins.

Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication January 13, 2026 by Random House Worlds

ABOUT JEFF RAKE

Jeff Rake recently served as creator, executive producer, writer, and showrunner for NBC/Netflix’s Manifest. He previously developed and Executive Produced The Mysteries of Laura, which aired for multiple seasons on NBC and in more than 100 countries. His past credits include consulting producer on The CW’s Beauty and the Beast, TNT’s Franklin & Bash and Hawthorne, and Fox’s Bones. Jeff also executive produced ABC’s Cashmere Mafia and Boston Legal. On the feature side, he has written screenplays for MGM and Disney. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and many children.

ABOUT ROB HART

Rob Hart is the author of the USA TODAY bestseller ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS. He also wrote THE PARADOX HOTEL, which was nominated for. Lambda Literary Award, as well as THE WAREHOUSE, which has been sold in more than 20 countries. He also wrote the Ash McKenna crime series, the short story collection TAKE-OUT, the novella SCOTT FREE with James Patterson, and, with Alex Segura, the comic book BLOOD OATH and the novel DARK SPACE.

His short stories have been published widely, including “Due on Batuu,” set in the Star Wars universe, which appeared in FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and “Take-Out,” which appeared in BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2018.

He’s worked as a political reporter, the communications director for a politician, and a commissioner for the city of New York. He is the former publisher at MysteriousPress.com and class director at LitReactor. He lives in Jersey City. Website: http://robwhart.com/

You can see my Giveaways HERE.
You can see my Reviews HERE.
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Review – The Quantum Revelations by Stuart Heinrich @goddessfish #stuartheinrich #thequantumrevelations

Posted on January 5, 2026 by fundinmental

THE QUANTUM REVELATIONS by Stuart Heinrich

GENRE: SciFi Mystery Thriller

MY REVIEW

I am usually pretty good at picking novels that fit my preferences. I read the first sentence of the blurb for The Quantum Physics Revelations and requested a copy. I was disappointed. It’s not what I was thinking…at all. There is a lot of science, and I mean a lot, and some religion. It was light on the apocalyptic climate crisis, but it did give me some food for thought. I was expecting more mystery and thriller.

I am trusting Stuart Heinrich when It comes to all the research he did for the novel. I don’t know how to rate the book, but I hate to penalize the writing just because I chose a book that was over my head, so I stayed in the middle. I did finish the book and at times I was into the story, curious about the ending.

So, if you are heavy into physics, looking for a novel to put a different kind of spin on science, this could be for you.

BLURB

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic climate crisis and quickly spiraling out of control into a dystopian nightmare. As everything collapses around them, two scientists struggle for relevance in their quest to build the world’s first practical quantum computer. They discover so much more. A mystery of physics that goes deeper than they could have ever imagined..

EXCERPT

The importance of this seemingly mundane research could not be overstated. If things were really as bad as he feared, world leaders needed to know the truth, and fast. The very future existence of mankind might depend on it.

No, it was worse than that. He laughed to himself at the sad truth, that even this seemingly over-exaggerated description failed to capture the full gravity of the importance of their mission. It was not just the future of mankind that depended on it, but the future of all life on Earth. The very habitability of the planet was at stake. Every tree, every blade of grass, every insect. The future of every living thing, from the largest blue whale down to the smallest microbe hung in the balance.

Humanity had achieved much to be proud of. But like Icarus, mankind had been too greedy, and had flown too close to the sun: pushing forward mercilessly in pursuit of uninterrupted exponential growth and consumption. Mankind had become a scourge upon the Earth.

If humanity destroyed itself, he would have no sympathy. It was the rest of the natural world that he felt sorry for. The caribou of Alaska, the tropical birds of the rainforest, the elephants of Africa, the dolphins of the sea, the giant redwoods of California, and every other unsuspecting life form on this planet. They were the true innocent victims. They had done nothing to deserve what was coming.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

Stuart Heinrich is a computer scientist with a PhD from NCSU and a passion for studying the fundamental nature of reality and physics. He is known for his unique theories on the Relativity of Existence (ROE), the Maximally Biophilic Principle (MBP) and Quantum Fluid Dynamics (QFD).

Please see my website below for editorial reviews.