Michael Wallace (2)Critiques

Loved, Loved, Loved this book!

I don't read a lot of historical fiction set in the 1600s, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this one. Prudence was a strong female character without seeming too modern for her Puritan times. There was a lot of action and a little mystery. I would have liked to get to know some of the peripheral characters a bit more, but overall it was a satisfying read.

Victoria and Maeve meet for the first time on the treacherous journey to New York City, but that meeting is not the first time they have seen each other. Victoria is hoping Maeve will not recall the circumstances under which she could have seen her before. The pair become best friends and adversity makes that bond grow stronger. Both have lost parents and when Maeve's brother does not meet them in New York as promised she fears the possibility that he is lost to her as well.
Homeless, starving, and penniless after being robbed of the money Victoria brought with her on the ship they end up living in a slum and working for slave wages. As they begin at last to build the life they dreamed of, a brutal attack has Victoria planning her revenge, and I was cheering her on all the way. I was thoroughly engrossed in this story and didn't want it to end.

I received an advance copy for review

Josephine Breaux is a tough, fierce, compassionate and very brave woman. And despite the danger with her mission is she set to travel to New Orleans and go undercover at a newspaper. She's just such a character I loved to read about, a strong woman fighting for what she thinks is right.

The Crescent Spy was an easy book getting into and not an easy book to stop reading. There are a lot of action and many for me worrying moments in this book when I was concerned for her and Franklin her contact in New Orleans. Because going to New Orleans for Josephine means not only trying to win the city for Lincon it means going back and confront her past. And that hard since she has tried to move on from a traumatic event. In New Orleans, she has to confront the ghost of her past, a mother that meant the world to her and a man that could be her father that has let her down several times. Also, there is someone out there that could upset her plans that could reveal her. It's very exciting to read and you never know if she will be able to carry out her plans or even survive in the end.

I think the mix of present time for Josephine and the flashbacks to her past with her mother worked very well and I especially enjoyed and appreciated the fact that her relationship with Franklin didn't turn romantic. Well, it changed towards the end, but that I could take because it shows a possibility for the future (and for a sequel).

I found this book to be really good and well-written and I wouldn't mind reading more books about Josephine Breaux.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a blog tour at TLC Book Tours.

This book focuses mostly on the battle in the Persia system and was an excellent end to the trilogy. It was nice to see McGowan finally get some much needed character growth, though it did feel a bit sudden.

I also would like to see some of the other characters get more attention, like Wang. All in all though this was a great read.

Alliance Armada continues the war against the Adjudicators, unlike the previous trilogies however, the Alliance quickly gain an advantage over their foes. This book was as fun to read as the rest of the series, and continues to expand the universe its set in a postive way.

The whole Blackbeard Universe is quite entertaining. It may not set the world on fire, but the concepts in the book are fascinating and silly. Traditional naval combat in the vacuum of space is not the most realistic but its a wonderful idea.

I also find the idea of humanity having to abandon Earth and various nations attempting to thrive on their own in the cold of space fantastic.

The series is cheesy and lighthearted most of the time, but it's just deep enough to bring me back for more.

I was caught up in this book immediately, and found its fast pace pulled me along inexorably until I'd stayed up far too late at night reading. :) I found it a good example of taking something known (the British navy) and twisting it with something new (transplanting it to deep space and another system of worlds) to make a satisfying milieu. Despite the quick pace and action, I thought there were enough insights into the characters to make them real people and not just caricatures, and the plot was intriguing. A little disappointed in the abrupt ending, but a cliffhanger ending in the first book of a series is the rule rather than the exception.

A Nazi book. The hero is the nephew of a high-ranking Nazi. His acting troupe is set to get someone smuggled out of Germany.

Yarr! Pirates, neo-British monarchy and a new triangle trade!

Well, I'll admit I picked this up as a bargain - the $2.99 ebook grants a $1.99 *audiobook*...

Wallace puts together a good scenario - an honorable captain, falsely courtmartialed, is rescued in a mutiny by his loyal crew and leads the Royal Navy in a merry chase. Troubling his loyal friend who is tasked to capture him, there's plenty of action, intrigue and adventure in an interesting quasi-Honor-Harrington story. Book two is queued up next - we'll see how things develop....

More perils for Captain Drake!

Nicely done continuation of the series. Plenty of intrigue, battles, betrayal and even romance. I appreciate the reasonably priced ($1.99) Audible narrations and have already picked up the third book and audio.

Wallace does a good job pillaging the past with his "triangle trade"-like situation with the ancient Hroom and their sugar addictions and the neo-Brit humans with their sugar plantations. Add in pirates, skullduggery in the admiralty and a mysterious alien enemy - there is a nice mix of complex storytelling.

Adventure, treachery, disaster and hope.

Enjoyable continuation of Captain Drake's travails. Can he rescue his parents? Save Albion? The twists and turns are satisfying, and unpredictable. I continue to appreciate how Wallace cherry picks aspects of high seas adventures (pirates!) and history (the triangle trade, colonies and a kingdom) but weave a new story that doesn't repeat history.

A thrilling conclusion, with just the right number of loose ends!

Wallace brings the series to a great conclusion, with satisfactory outcomes for one and all... and the promise of another trilogy with Captain Drake. I hope the next series will be paired up with Audible - the combination was excellent!

Queen of the Void by M. Wallace is a space opera with a good strong female lead. This is the first book I have read/listen to by this author.

I’ve read other books from this time frame, even a few set in this general location, but this one seemed to stand out as a very well rounded look at the material. It’s this historical material that made me take notice of the book to begin with. I had high expectations and they were all met.

Wallace has a real skill with giving us a balanced, three dimensional look at both sides to this conflict. He makes his characters extremely human, showing us the faces of each side in a dark/light way. We get to see the murderous in Frankie, the poetic in Sammy, the resilient in Louise, and the fanatical in Yoshi. I appreciated the fact that one side wasn’t “good” and the other “bad”. There was cruelty/betrayal and compassion on both sides of the divide.

I felt a real connection with our lead heroine, Louise. She’s a gutsy gal with a ton of common sense and a dedication to her patients that any nurse can appreciate. She never lets her situation, no matter how bleak or scary it might get, deter her from her goals or her boys. I also appreciated the fact that the author didn’t make her the focus of a love interest either. While I could see some hints here and there, the main focus was always on Louise’s struggle for survival and her growth through her ordeal.

I also appreciate the time frame explored here. I’ve read a couple works of WWII in this area, one even with captive nurses in the Philippines, the other in Japanese occupied Singapore. I really liked this one, though, as it explored a bit the guerilla activites of the Filipinos during this timeframe and the way in which some American servicemen who were left behind helped them. The reader gets a real sense of the danger of the times as told through Louise’s eyes.

I enjoyed Louise’s journey through the rough landscape of Japanese controlled Philippines. Her, and her men’s, struggle to survive kept me spellbound. The author did an incredible job in the characterizing and story departments. He also took the time to get the historical setting and details as well. An author whom takes the time to get all these areas right is an author to check out. Highly recommended for lovers of WWII fiction or gritty survival stories with great characters.

Note: Book received for free from publisher in exchange for an honest review via GoodReads Giveaway.

This is the second book in Michael Wallace's series (The Righteous), Mighty and Strong. Again, as in the first book, this was an excellent insight into the Mormon way of life as well as being a good thriller/suspense and murder mystery. This is a tale of a Utah city where prophets rule, fourteen year old girls are wed, and nobody waits for the second coming as they believe it has arrived.

What a wonderful journey? A widow and a British spy travel across the new land that is new to British rule. The Nipmuk tribe have already destroyed the life the Prudence Cotton has known. Her husband has been killed and her daughter has been captured but there is more at stake than she understands.

James Bailey has been sent by the crown to Boston to investigate the murder of Prudence’s husband. He is also sent on a clandestine mission to instigate a reason for King Philip to install royal governors. Along the way, his partner is murdered and now he needs help from someone who is as close to the situation as can possibly be.

Prudence easily fits the bill. The two travel across New England finding clues to continue the investigation that they both are completely invested in. As a Puritan, Prudence see the world in a different light than James does:

“Yet the call themselves Christians,” James said.
“There are no Christians in war.” Prudence blurted the words before she could reconsider. Horrified, she put her hand over her mouth. “Pray, pardon me. I shouldn’t have said that.”

I did enjoy the fast pace of the murder mystery. Follow Prudence on her emotional roller coaster of trying to find her daughter and coming to the realization that there was more at play in her husband’s murder kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the read.

The cultural differences that arise throughout the book put a new spin on the colonies for me that I had never thought of before. Quakers, Puritans, English, and the Nipmuk, all bring their own viewpoint to the table while trying to survive in a land that is unknown and familiar at the same time. I’ve only ever read about Indian raids in books that would best be described as Western as seen through the eyes of the American CowBoy. It is very interesting to see a different view through the eyes of the British while seeing the world through Prudence’s eyes who had never been to Britain and sees the British very differently.

If you read my blog often, you know how much I like Civil War era fiction and especially how I like reading about the women of the Civil War. This one has a little bit of everything — Civil War, a strong woman, adventure, a history lesson, and even a bit of romance!

I’ve read a lot of historical fiction about the Civil War, but almost all has been set in the east; Virginia, Maryland, etc. I think this is the first time I’ve ever read about the fall of New Orleans. I found the details of the river battles fascinating and I enjoyed reading about the military strategies. I found the concept of the fire boats launched ablaze to set the enemy vessels on fire particularly interesting.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and the characters. Josephine was a strong lead character for the most part, but she did have weaknesses and at times that endangered the people around her. She had a background that gave dimension to her character. If there is one thing I didn’t like, and you’ve heard this from me before, is that I would like to know ‘what happens next’. I would have liked an epilogue set at some time in the future, after the war, to know what became of Josephine and the people in her life. There are hints of potential, but I am left to my imagination to end this story.

If, like me, you are interested in learning more about the fall of New Orleans after you finish this book, you may be interested in the following links.

The Capture of New Orleans

American Civil War: The Capture of New Orleans

This book review is included in a tour by TLC Book Tours. I was provided a copy for review purposes.½

The Sentinel is the first in a trilogy set in a future where humanity has splintered into largely ethnic factions, so that the English have settled several planets, centuries ago, and the Chinese, and so on. Most have lost touch with their roots. There are aliens in this universe and they have found allies with one such species. However, another – the Apex – is a buzzard-like bird species whose only goal is the eradication of all other sentient species. And when they attack ships, settlements, worlds, etc., they feast on their prey, horrifying those being attacked as they’re eaten alive.

Now, I’ve got to be truthful. The Apex are truly silly, as written. Many aliens are in sci fi. Sometimes you really have to stretch your imagination to buy into the worlds the author is painting for you. But this beats it all. These chickens have great technology, awesome starships, great armor and weapons, better comm technology than any species in the universe, and in order for them to power their ships, they have computers, thousands, perhaps millions, of years in the future. With keyboards, not voice recognition technology. Keyboards. Thousands of years in the future. Right. And they use their beaks and claws to tap the keys on the keyboards. OK, how fucking stupid is that? We’re under attack, Queen Apex Chicken! Let me peck some defensive commands into the computer to launch our missile counterattacks. Oops, took too damn long to peck those commands. We’re blown up. Sorry. See how stupid that is? Couldn’t the author have done something, anything better, more creative than that to make it moderately more believable, if spacefaring, warring buzzards are believable at all?

Anyway, the Singaporeans have their own world and fought off the Apex many years ago and established silent Sentinel forts throughout the various wormhole galaxies to guard against Apex attacks over a decade ago. Sentinel-3, led by Commander Li, has been lying silently in wait for 11 years. And it has become factionalized over time, with nearly half wanting to remain silent and complete their mission, even if that means staying until old age and death, while the others want to reach out and contact someone, anyone, thus giving away their position and risking Apex attack. Li is going crazy trying to hold the place together.

Along comes HMS Blackbeard, a beat up Albion Royal Navy warship. The Chinese don’t even know of this world and they are prepared to destroy it, but there are Apex hiding there who attack the ship and the fortress opens fire and between the fort and the ship, they destroy seven of the eight Apex ships, knowing one got away to warn other aliens, who will likely come attack.

The captain and crew of the ship are hoping for help repairing and restocking their ship, but they are caught in a tether and reeled into the fortress, where Li’s crazy sister has taken over with the hardliner’s, who decide to board the ship in an effort to kill most of them and take some of the crew to press them into service. They are repelled. Meanwhile, Li sides with the other group, retakes command of part of the fortress, and watches while members of the ship invade his fortress and take over his command and much of the fortress, leaving him to surrender.

There’s more action and, yes, the Apex return in force. What will happen? That’s why there’s a sequel, and yes, a trilogy. These damned new military sci fi writers keep shortening their full length books into trilogies, forcing us to buy several mini-length books at a time, just to read the whole story, because truthfully, the stories are honestly often so good, that I’ve just got to buy and continue. I’ve got to know what happens next! And that’s what I’ve done with this book. I’m halfway through with the next book.

I loved the plot. The writing is decent. The editing could have been better, but among the new breed of self-published or micro published sci fi books out there, it’s one of the better-edited books. It didn’t seem to have nearly as many typos or grammatical mistakes as many of these books do. That usually annoys the hell out of me. As mentioned, the climax is left to the next book, but then all of the current military sci fi authors are doing that lately, so you just have to accept that. And these Kindle books are so cheap, it’s really no big deal. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read, so four stars, but certainly recommended.

Orphaned, Victoria travels from Ireland to New York City to escape the potato famine. She quickly meets Maeve, a young girl also on her way to NYC. They are tricked out of their meager savings very quickly, and forced to take work as underpaid seamstresses. Determined to thrive, the pair quickly come up with a plan.

I thought this was an interesting and well written book. I wish the author had stuck to Victoria’s point of view, but that’s really my only complaint. Overall, well worth picking up.

Trying once again to read this series. I think it's rather good for a cheap series on Amazon and Audible! Lots of similarities to Big Love, which was a show I greatly enjoyed. I'm just not sure I can do it. The ending got rather boring.

This was a book dealing with s specific cultish sect of the Mormons in modern day-it was fiction, but contained a lot of truth such as temple practices, life styles and beliefs.

Michael Wallace is a novel genius! This is about two Irish girls after the great potato famine in Ireland who board a ship to America to try to make a better life for themselves near the five points of New York. When Maeve O’Reilly's brother fails to find her after the ship's arrival, she teams up with Victoria MacPherson. It occurs to Victoria that they had only been living less than two miles apart most of their lives but never knew it.

Although Mr. Wallace kind of keeps it from us, there was or is something going on between the two families. It is very subtle, but it is there nonetheless.
The two girls stick together, even though Victoria is swindled out of her silver. She and Maeve decide to take the little money they do have left to become seamstress's by purchasing needles, thread, and other provisions.

The book keeps goes back and forth from their current time in 1851 and growing up. The book is full of excitement, intrigue, and suspense all along the way. You won't believe the ending, but you will have to read it to find out.

Thank you to Michael Wallace, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for giving me a free e-ARC of this book to read and give my honest review.

Victoria Crossing by Michael Wallace has a classic plot of a young woman seeking to make her way independently and despite hardships. She finds friends and enemies along the way. She achieves success. She suffers setbacks. She starts again. The concept holds a promise that is not completely reached; the ending points to a potential sequel. The book is a quick entertaining read but leaves a lot of depth unexplored.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2016/05/victoria-crossing.html

Reviewed based on a publisher’s galley received through NetGalley

The Red Rooster (Le Cock Rouge) by Michael Wallace. This is a story that begins at the Red Rooster, a restaurant/bar in occupied France in 1940. It has a myriad of characters: prostitutes, destitutes, Nazi's, Zazous, Maqui, Gestapo, and German businessmen. It is the story of Gabriella, a 20 year old whose father is taken by the Gestapo and she does what a girl has to do to survive in WWII occupied France. Once of the best French occupation stories that I've read and WWII is both my passion and the topic of my master's thesis, so I've read a lot of them!