Review Archive

Draftshares: Mystery, Thriller, and Horror

Today’s a two-fer, friend! We’re continuing our Draftshares coverage with Mystery, Thriller, and Horror drafts that are worth a gander. Take a look! A Cup for the Dead: (Mystery) The Great War is over and young widow Hattie Moncrieffe hopes Paris will help her forget. But when an Egyptian curse strikes, can Hattie outwit a cunning murderer while persuading the police she’s not guilty? The Darkest Places: (Horror) The discovery of an ancient artifact buried deep beneath the sands of Cairo brings three individuals together in a race against time to stop an eldritch evil from awakening. Detective Diaries: (Mystery) Amani Marshall is searching for her father’s killer in a crime-filled city known as Rochester as a rookie detective; however, she ends up training under a veteran detective called Carbine that is following a murder mystery around Twilight District. Off the Grid: (Thriller) A case of mistaken identity forces an office drone to go

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Draftshares: Young Adult Fiction

Draftshares continues with YA novels as today’s focus. Take a look at these drafts and, as always, help out by offering feedback! Project Human: I, Robot meets Divergent meets Real Steel as a rogue android prototype joins forces with a human girl in a brewing political war. First in a YA speculative fiction/dystopian duology set in the year 2120. Sparked: What happens when mean girls get superpowers and have to save the world? The Artist and the Automaton: The fate of an automaton-inhabited utopia for artists ties to an unsuspecting, frustrated young woman and her mouthy assistant. At the same time, their tale is told to a young girl whose future ties to the story itself. Star Light, Star Bright: A falling mech. A comet. A thief wielding lightning. A team of teens with attitude. A dragon’s fury. A destiny that was never yours to have… Moving’s fun, right? The Sally Forth Intrigue: Janie’s a ghost, stuck quoting GHOSTBUSTERS, and

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Draftshares: Humor, Nonfiction, Other

For the next batch of noteworthy drafts, we turn to the humor and nonfiction genres. Take a look, and offer feedback if you can! So You Might Be a Vampire: (Humor) Nobody told Bob when he became a vampire he’d have to keep his shitty job. He’s average looking, not rich, not pale and blood is a drug, not a food. There are over 101 ways to suck at being a vampire, and Bob is living proof. Presenting Complaints: (Humor) A disastrously run NHS hospital is threatened with takeover by an amoral private health concern.  Dr Tom Rysarian – shallow, selfish, and monumentally lazy – becomes embroiled in a last-ditch effort to save his place of work from privatization. Try not to fall off the Long Gray Line: An autobiography by David Howard on “[his]” progression from Plebe to graduate at West Point.” Holding Their Ground: (Romance) When no one is watching, history repeats

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Draftshares: Science Fiction

Greetings, friend of the Warbler! There’s a fun thing going on in the Inkshares community this week, wherein projects in the “draft” phase are being highlighted. I’m joining in this endeavor, and throughout the week you’ll see a few posts showcasing some of the exciting drafts on the platform. Today’s focus is Science Fiction. Part of the philosophy of Draftshares is to offer feedback on these drafts, so check out these drafts and let the authors know what you think One: I’d be remiss not to mention my own draft in the science fiction genre. A little boy in Gaza and a little girl in Sderot share a single consciousness. Military experiments, corporate greed, and religious extremism will permeate this novel. The Seventh Aspect: A compassionate alien scientist must prove humans are worthy of learning the truth about God – or be forced to exterminate us. The Cora Chronicles: Genesis:

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Featured Author: Elayna Mae Darcy

Happy Monday to you, friend of the Warbler! We start of the week by featured Elayna Mae Darcy, whose book, They are the Last, is currently funding on Inkshares. I want to find a single piece of the summary to point out as awesome, but I can’t beat Elayna at her own game. Take a look at her fantastic synopsis and tell me, with a straight face, that you don’t want to read this book. You can find Elayna on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and read more about her book at theyarethelast.com. About They are the Last: Piper Anderson thinks she’s alone in the world: she is forgotten and left to lose herself at Edgemont, a juvenile detention center seeking to jolt the humanity from its children, leaving them as emotionless – but obedient – shades of their former selves. All hope seems lost. Until Kath, her godmother who mysteriously disappeared years before,

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Featured Author: Amanda Orneck

Amanda Orneck, author of Deus Hex Machina, is stopping by The Warbler today to talk about her book and its recent induction into the Sword and Laser collection. You can follow Amanda on Twitter and Facebook, and read more about Deus Hex Machina at deushexmachina.com. About Deus Hex Machina: Deus Hex Machina is the story of Isidore RAM, a hacker working as a Sister of the Circuit for the Church of Technology. She is what is known as a hexer. One night during her rounds in the virtual world known as the Grid, the code mysteriously changes around her, sparking a mystery that  leads her from the digital landscape into a dystopic cyberpunk Orange County. Isidore is forced headlong into a world of intrigue that results from the death of her mentor and the search for something called “Artifacts”. Along the way she befriends a mech gang leader more interested in selling the artifacts Isidore is looking

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Featured Author: Matthew Gladwin

Two featured authors in one day?! What is this madness? Well, this one is a competitor in the Inkshares / Geek & Sundry contest, which ends in three days. So, here’s Matthew Gladwin’s Amalgamated Memoirs of a Future Imperfect, which I hope piques your interest as much as it does mine. About Amalgamated Memoirs of a Future Imperfect: When our first encounter with extraterrestrial life finally occurs, and nothing goes according to plan, how can we possibly know what the repercussions will be? Reporter Lillian Chuang has a front row seat, but even she has no idea what to expect next. But as the reader will soon discover she is not alone, as NCO Paul Steiner, branch manager Rojer Hendrix, hunter band-leader Yuri, retired general Administrator Yan and Empress Joyce Regina Delecoix continue to deal with the effects of first contact thousands of years after they come to pass. Laced with critiques

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Featured Author: Jonathan Dital

Today’s featured author, Jonathan Dital, is another author originally from Israel on Inkshares, something that makes me exceedingly happy to see. His book, And the Wolf Shall Dwell, sounds like an excellent and action-packed spy novel. Go ahead and check it out on Inkshares! About And the Wolf Shall Dwell: John is a regular Joe, a foreigner working in the city of London, like many others. On a cold London morning, in a train station, a man bumps into him and later finds his death. This incident thrusts him into a world of espionage, politics and Jihadi terrorism, and sets him in an adventure which he did not choose. A spy thriller as such, the novel is more than just action, but also a dive into the world of International Politics. Aiding a retired MI6 agent, Adam Grey, John finds himself unraveling a political scheme that ranges out of the scope of his

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Featured Author: Evan Graham

Hello, friend of the written word. Today, The Warbler features Evan Graham, whose book, Tantalus Depths, is an entrant in the Inkshares / Geek & Sundry contest, which is set to wrap up at the end of this week. This book sounds like a video game I want to play. Go ahead and check it out, as well as some of the other entrants Evan listed below. About Tantalus Depths:  Mary Ketch and the crew of The Diamelen signed on to a simple survey mission to the distant planet Tantalus 13. The trip was little more than a formality; a government-mandated check-in to ensure that the artificially intelligent, self-constructing SCARAB base was functioning correctly as it lay the foundation to a new mining colony. What they found was much less mundane. Mysteries abound on Tantalus. The mining base SCARAB is building looks like a luxury hotel. A solid sheet of pure platinum

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Featured Author: Richard Slay

Today’s author, Richard Slay, has one of the most exciting book summaries I’ve read in a long while. If The Upture delivers on these promises, this will undoubtedly be one of my top books of the year—whenever it’s released. About The Upture: With its cities flooding and its military in retreat, the ordinary people of near-future America look content to stay at home, working menial jobs made tolerable by masking them in virtual-reality fantasies. One of those is Walt Hrka, Army drone operator turned plumber. But his former commander, the terminally ill Colonel Lasker, has hatched a plan to put America back on top, by staging the Second Coming of Christ on the Internet where everyone believes anything. When millions of trustworthy Christians are electrocuted at their VR terminals and then resurrected online, Hrka joins a bizarre alliance with everyone from Chinese tech merchants to the Swiss Guard, in a desperate struggle

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