Book Reviews

Title: Grandpa, What If?
Author: Sandra Miller Linhart
Genre: Children, Under 12
Reviewer: jim greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 098451273X

Homecomings are wonderful reunions, but they can be stressful at times. Will Momma remember me? Will I remember her? Momma is coming home, but she's been gone a long time. Will she recognize Bean? Will Bean be able to pick Momma out in a sea of soldiers? Being deployed is a fact of life for soldiers of all military branches. Humanitarian efforts, Operations Other than War (OOW), peaceful or wartime missions - a soldier's duty is to be there. And, when it's time to come home, sometimes the unknown can be scary

Title: Gift of Change
Author: D. T. Sanders
Genre: Fiction, Sci Fi
Reviewer: Richard Barone

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0595193269

A talent for overcoming impossible odds, that's what got Jason McCullan, a brilliant Imperial engineering officer made a hero of the Empire. Now that the Empire has turned against him, he'll need every ounce of that talent if he and his starship crew are to survive.

Of course everyone needs a little help. For Jason, his pilot Falon, and their artificially intelligent ships computer, Fred, help comes in the form of a dead telepathic alien and a superior, ancient technology with a mind of its own. But free help can be as dangerous as free advice, as Jason and his friends soon find themselves struggling against the very technology that could save them. Jason and his friends must master this technology before either it or the Empire can control them. They will have to turn impossible odds into survival solutions.

Title: From China with Love
Author: Karl Boyd
Gener: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewer: Mike Mullins

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1604520353

If China is to survive, it must have more land for its millions of citizens. The Chairmen of the Chinese Republic tasks his ministers to formulate a ten-year plan to conquer all of Mexico, the U. S. A., and Canada, thereby turning the territory into "New China" while avoiding a horrific third world war.

Within twelve months, the strategy is finalized and the multi-pronged invasion of North America begins quietly. The devilishly clever operation is totally unobserved by the American public, their military and/or politicians, and their neighbors to the north and south.

The diversified main characters are two new mothers from Los Angeles, and their babies attempting to reach safety inland; a college student from Utah whose family has been wiped out; a police lieutenant from Sulfur Springs, Colorado, the only survivor on his shift and tasked with trying to save as many citizens as possible while awaiting the conquering forces; plus a young FBI agent whose father was killed in the attack.

As the few lucky survivors struggle with their new situations in life and deal with the invaders, along the way there is mystery, suspense, danger and romance, together with a terrible realization that perhaps the United States is soon to be a thing of the past.

As with all of Karl Boyd's novels, the ending is unexpected and decidedly disarming. You'll be tempted to turn to that last page, but please don't until you arrive there naturally. Why spoil a wonderful novel

Title: Freedom's Fight
Author: Gary Phillips
Genre: Fiction, Historical
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1600430317

World War II was an event that changed the landscape of the world and the heart of America. As the war rages across Europe and Africa, a battle is also being fought on American soil. Eager to join the fight, black soldiers are denied the right to defend their country. One man is charged with a duty that could change the course of the war in Africa. On a spy mission he must find a traitor. But as he gets closer, he finds he must choose between obligation to his country and duty to his race. A woman reporter finds a deep buried secret that could shock the nation. As she digs deeper into the national conspiracy, she finds her life in jeopardy. She must choose between telling the truth and saving her life. A patriotic lounge singer gives up his career to serve his country. To do so, he must hide his identity. In the heat of battle, he must make a choice between the man he thought he was and the man he truly is. A group of courageous people defy the odds and fight the war of their conscience to keep themselves and their country safe.

Title: Fe Fi FOE Comes
Author: William C. Samples
Genre: Fiction, Sci Fi
Reviewer: Frank Evans

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 098006810X

This is a Saga in real time that links actions and consequences of yesteryear to the current maladies of civilization, then beyond to a possible future as an alternative to the ongoing drive to the continuation of catastrophes, and to the future extinction of all life. It begins in our world of the here and now. A storyteller, a praetorian, and two seemingly innocent bystanders are caught up in a race for their freedom from the authorities of a world now devoid of human rights or personal liberty. The crime? A manuscript the authorities find provocative. Now the ideas in the manuscript have been acted on and the Future is the Present; all that has happened is the Past. The links forged between progress and regulation, the rulers and those they rule, freedom and slavery are all broken, except in those places held by the rogues. Alaska is the focal point around which the Earth turns, and it has given birth to the champions of liberty. Life is war they say. All living things struggle against natural and organic forces that would end their living existence; in that sense all living things are in continual battle with the elements and living predators to stay alive. There is a new predator for the wicked in the world. Fe Fi FOE Comes! Yet it is in the Past that the foundation for the Empire must be built, and we discover it is forged in Hell. It is to Hell that all the Alaskans go, and this becomes a place where the tiny spark of freedom is fanned into flames. But fate is not kind, and those of the Alaskan Empire suffer treachery, and war beyond which they may not sustain.

A call has also come from the stars, and a single ship that took the wealth of a world and the geometry of an idea to create is dispatched to see if those across the vastness of space are friend or foe. The answer, which lies in the Future can only be answered if the Past has prepared for it. The blueprint is drawn in the Past and now an answer in the Future is possible ... it will take a new beginning.