Posted on September 15, 2023September 15, 2023 by admin

New Reviews, Humorous Memes curated by me

New Reviews, Humorous Memes curated by me, Andy Zach. I just read these books in the past month. Plus, I add some funny memes I’ve found.

I posted my most review the other day on Goodreads:

New Review – Mageling

September 14, 2023

Wow! This was my first exposure to J.L. Mullins and I can’t wait to read more!

He devises a world that is inherently magical and humanity must fortify itself within cities to defend against natural magic. Into this world comes a newly graduated mage, Tala. She was sold to a mage school by her impoverished parents to pay debts, so she graduates with a boatload of debt.

Tala foregoes the normal apprenticeship to a senior mage as a mageling and hires herself out as a full mage to a guild of caravan mages. She’s super cost and money conscious. She has a great deal of power and knowledge, but she is ignorant of much of the customs and economy of mages and caravans. But she learns.

That’s her best strength–learning quickly and diligently. Her greatest weakness is taking great risks. Her magic is focused on protecting her life–she has little offensive magic. But she’s very creative in using it.

If you like strong characters and magic, this one’s for you!

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

89 followers

New Reviews and Memes – One of my favorite cartoons!

XKCD is one of my favorite cartoons. The following example is why.

New Reviews – The Arcanist

My Review

September 8, 2023

Seth Ring continues his RPG fantasy about Thorn, a Titan and his main squeeze Vellin, who’s a plant mage, among other things.

Both characters are ridiculously overpowered, but that makes it fun, as other characters continuously underestimate them. Also, I like seeing how Seth Ring dreams up new adversaries for them to fight.

They also get sidekicks, such as Alph, a the Mad Master Alchemist. He also gets a romantic interest in this book, but she loves him for his mind. You see, he kept casting intelligence potions upon himself. As he got smarter, he brewed a better potion. Rinse and repeat.

So much for the characters. The plot? They’re climbing this tower. They have more powerful characters arrayed against them. They have to beat them, and improve their abilities at the same time.

Rinse and repeat. Enjoyable, if you like this sort of thing.

Andy Zach

New Reviews and Funny Memes

52 Sci-Fi Books for you!

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First, I’ll cover my zombie turkey apocalypse parody, The Life After Life Chronicles.

Zombie Turkeys

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Zombie Detective

Then we have:

My Undead Mother-in-law

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Up next is Paranormal Privateers Click to listen

After that, you’ve got Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse

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More May Books — Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.

Following my Life After Life Chronicles, we go to my disabled teen superhero series, we have two audiobooks.

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More May Books — Villain’s Vacation Audio book. Click to listen.

The next book in the series is Villain’s Vacation, the second of my three Secret Supers books.

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Posted on September 3, 2023December 11, 2025 by admin

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – I’m sharing this THIRD excerpt of my book Zombie Detective with you, my readers. Enjoy!

Sam Melvin, Zombie Detective

Do you want excerpt 1? Click here to Meet Zombie Detective Sam Melvin .

Do you want excerpt 2? Click to read Secret Blog Post – Excerpt of Zombie Detective

Do you want to listen to the audiobook? Click here for Zombie Detective Audiobook Preview.

P.S. I give away free books for any comments on the excerpt. Just click here.

Chapter 3 – Turkeys

Secret Blog Post — Sam Melvin, dealing with Zombie Turkeys

“Me too. Now that’s over, let’s talk business. About Maryland.”

“What’s going on, Lisa?”

“After the zombie turkey apocalypse, they kept a flock of wild zombie turkeys for hunters. Maryland’s gotten great tourist trade from that. The recent bad weather on the East Coast has kept the hunters down, and the turkeys are out of control. They’re hunting people in the suburbs of Hagerstown.”

“What can I do about that? That’s a problem for the National Guard. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“Yes, I know. The governor, Mary Landis, called me begging for your help. They can’t find the turkeys. I promised her that you’ve got a nose for zombie turkeys and you’ll find their hideouts in no time flat. They’re paying you two thousand per day for this, so don’t screw up. I’ve booked an evening flight to Hagerstown from the Peoria airport at six p.m. That gives you an hour to get there. Starting now.”
Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 2

The captain put up a map on the wall-sized video screen. It was dotted with little black symbols and bigger red ones. Looking closely, Sam saw they were miniature turkeys.

“The small black symbols are where we’ve found turkeys. The large red ones are where we fought them. The battles are all on the west side of Hagerstown. And so are all the turkeys we’ve found in the woods.”

Sam walked to the screen and peered closely at the symbols. “Hmmm. Look at the turkey attacks, Captain. Do you see the pattern?”

“It’s kind of a semicircular tangent to Hagerstown. What does that mean?”

“See this attack near Cearfoss Pike? Then this one on Fairview Road? Look how they follow the Conococheague Creek. All these attacks in Fairview Acres—it’s surrounded by a big loop of the creek.”

“So they’re following the creek.”

“Yes. Even zombie turkeys need water. And I’m sure there are lots of trees and brush around it.”

“So much so we haven’t bothered investigating the banks.”

“That’s where we’ll go then.”
From Zombie Detective, by Andy Zach

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 3

After killing hundreds of hibernating turkeys later, they got a comm: “All units proceed to MD-40. Major turkey attack underway in Cearfoss, Maryland.”

“Crap. That’s past their previous attack in Fairview Acres. They’re getting closer to Hagerstown,” Jeff said.

Sam gunned the engine, and they mushed uphill to the access road where the MRAP awaited them. Jimmy trotted behind them. Another MRAP picked up Amy.

Sam drove a quarter-mile into the woods, when the first zombie turkey flew into his face, spurs first. They scratched the tough Plexiglas on his helmet.

“Gobble! Gobble!”

Sam speared the bird on his twelve-inch knife and continued to plow toward the MRAP. Hundreds of turkeys descended from the trees. Sam ran over some, pounding them into the snow. Jeff shot them with his M4 carbine. Sam again gunned the engine as he hit level ground. The flock followed them, pecking at their backs, as they hunkered down on the eight-wheeled vehicle.

Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 – Part 4

First Draft Complete
Zombie Detective Excerpt 3 — Zombie Turkeys fly to escape to Zombie Turkey hunters

Sam had often thought zombie turkey victims looked like they had been assaulted by hundreds of pickaxes. Now he felt their beaks cut through his parka, slowly bleeding him to death. The cold air congealed his blood quickly. Next to him, Jeff had fixed a bayonet on his M4 carbine and sliced wildly, beating off the turkeys.

He saw the MRAP ahead and sped toward it. The flamethrower shot liquid flame over his head. He felt the heat on his exposed bloody skin.

Weak and faint from blood loss, Sam parked next to the MRAP as the flames shot out overhead. Jeff jumped out and opened the rear of the vehicle. Sam fell off into the soft snow between the vehicles. His last sight before losing consciousness was a huge tom turkey stalking toward him.

“Gobble! Gobble!”

If you like these kinds of excerpts, subscribe here, if you haven’t already. As a bonus for signing up for my newsletter, you’ll be able to get codes for free audiobooks. Get yours today!

Andy Zach

Posted on August 18, 2023August 19, 2023 by admin

Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews

Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews. These are books I’ve read and reviewed this month, or someone else has.

I finished my most recent review the other day on Goodreads:

Your August SciFi > In Enemy Hands

My Review

This is the sixth book in the series. See the next review for the first book in the series.

August 14, 2023

Author David Weber is certainly not nice to his heroine Honor Harrington. She’s had her boyfriend murdered, lost an eye, and had a building she funded collapse and kill 50+ people, mostly children. This is after sexual abuse and attempted rape while she was in the space academy.

But it gets worse in this book. She gets ambushed and while leading her pursuers astray to protect a convoy, she gets captured. Then she gets handed to group of sadistic captors. And her best friends are also captured. And a man she trusted betrays her.

Doesn’t look good. But how it turns out makes this book one of the best in the series.

Andy Zach, Author 10 books, 87 followers

Your August SciFi > On Basilisk Station

My Review

This is the first book in David Weber’s series. I recommend reading them in order. I’ve got them all reviewed.

It’s been six years since I last read this book. This is the third time I’ve read it and I enjoyed it just as much as ever.

Honor Harrington just got her first command of the light cruiser Fearless. She’s 5 years younger than her executive officer Allistair McKeon and he hates her for it. But he’s just the start of her problems.

The admiral in charge of new weapons has halved her missiles in exchange for a grav lance. It’s a deadly weapon, but it only works at close range. Too bad the lightly armored cruiser is unlikely to survive any close-range encounters. Basically, the light cruiser is crippled, with only half of its offensive power.

Honor manages to use the grav lance once to destroy a superdreadnought in fleet practice maneuvers, but everyone then is out to destroy her. So the ship gets destroyed endlessly in fleet practice, depressing the crew.

Then the ship is assigned to the backwater of Basilisk Station. There the commanding officer, Pavel Young, was beaten up by Honor while they were in the Space Academy together because he tried to rape her. He had to apologize for sexual innuendo, but no one knew the full reason for his beating. He hates her guts.

Then he leaves her in charge of the entire station while he takes his ship to be repaired. It’s too much for one light cruiser to fulfill all the responsibilities, so she’s sure to fail and get a black mark on her record.

Only no one tells Honor that. This is where the story gets good.

Don’t miss this book or the series.
Andy Zach
Author 10 books, 87 followers, July 20, 2023

Your August Scifi and Fantasy And My Review

July 30, 2023

I think this is the third time I’ve read this book over the 20 years since it was written and each time I understand more and like it more.

Patricia McKillip writes fantasies and she writes them as mysteries. She doesn’t ever explain the magic that gets used. You have to figure out what’s going on. She doesn’t have conventional villains or protagonists. Very often they seem to switch roles unexpectedly.

In this book, she begin with a classic trope: a princess from a magical kingdom (Sidonie) has to marry a prince (Ronan) from another magical kingdom to cement an alliance. She doesn’t want to be forced into the marriage, but she dutifully goes along with it to save her kingdom from war.

The kingdoms powerful wizard is recuperating from a terrible battle and he sends his apprentice (Gyre) with her to protect her. He’s a very talented wizard in his own right.

They get to the Forest of Serre without incident and then everything goes haywire as the magic of Serre affects them.

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

87 followers