Posted on

Get Your Best Book Reviews for June by Andy

Best Book Reviews

Your Best Book Reviews are right here, my friend. These are the best books I’ve read this month.

Keep reading to the end or scroll down now and find out how to get free books of mine, like these:

Life After Life Chronicles Best Book Reviews
Enjoy all four novels in audiobook, paperback, or Kindle format!

Or these:

Best Science Stories or Science Fiction More Good Things Best Book Reviews
Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.
Get free book samples at these blogs!

Oh, heck. Just click here to get your free audiobooks from me. Now you don’t have to scroll down.

Best Book Review – your first one’s here

Best Book Reviews
Cover of The Stars Must Wait Click to read full review

Keith Laumer, in one of his last books, describes a dystopian United States from the perspective of Terrance Jackson, an astronaut awoken from suspended animation after eighty years.

It’s a delicious premise. Just as the spaceship was to launch a colonization trip to Callisto, the launch was aborted with one second to go. There are about a dozen crew members aboard: a full crew and a full backup crew.

All the crew is suspended, but they awake at different times by the computer program. Meanwhile, more

by Andy Zach on Goodreads

Surprise! You’ll like this next book review

July Joy My Undead Mother-in-law
Review of My Undead Mother-in-law. Click to read review and listen to excerpt

Outlandish Fun

Andy Zach continues his unrelenting attack on the horror/zombie genre with outlandish humor. What will society do with the new human zombies after the havoc caused by The Turkey Zombies?!? That was a rhetorical question…so just laugh! 😉

by JH & DDDH on Audible

Your Third of Best Book Reviews is Below Here

Axevictime on Amazon UK

4.0 out of 5 stars 

Originality Overload!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 June 2021

Wow! I think my originality meter overflowed! This short story collection includes fantasy and science fiction. Its settings go from post-apocalyptic Mars to medieval worlds where magic reigns. There’s humor and horror, sex and violence, victories and defeats, villains and heroes. Oh, and time-travel too.

Further, many of the stories are set in the same universe and cross-reference each other. At times, they feel like chapters from the same book.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys originality and creative use of medieval dialect as well as invented alien languages.

by Andy Zach

I’m embarrassed to say this, but I’m biased here; two of my short stories are this book. So you can disregard this review, even though it’s only about the other short stories.

The Last Best Book Reviews

Doctor Doolittle’s Zoo

Hugh Lofting continues his imaginative exploration of the things the good Doctor Doolittle can do through talking to animals. This time it’s a post office run by them. In the fictional West African country of Fantippo.

As usual, the Doctor spends whatever money he gets on animals and people in need. As usual, his animal friends work together to get him more money. Hugh Lofting surprises us with an imaginative riff within his story: how about a series of short stories by animals for an animal magazine?

by Andy Zach

But Wait! There’s More Best Book Reviews!

Turkeys!

This was a fun listen! Sam Melvin is a reporter for a small newspaper in a small town. When people start being attacked by turkeys, Sam is on the job! As the first one to report the outbreak of a disease turning the turkeys into zombies, Sam is busy trying to find the flock and let the world know what is happening.

The story follows numerous attacks by the hoard of turkeys and the various ways that people try to fight them off. There is a little romance along the way for a few couples, even in the face of possible death. Add in the backstory of online news and entrepreneurship, a football game turned zombie fight and a great white shark and you have some great scenes!

from Amazon by Nessie315
Do you have a book you want me to review? Send it to me here.

Posted on

Get Your Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Out of the Dark Fantasy Book

Get Your Favorite Science and Fantasy Books from my reviews. I’ve been busy reading and I try to review every book I read. Here are the very best books I’ve read this month.

If you want free audiobooks, you can get them here, through my newsletter by clicking here. If you want a free ebook (and laughter!), just contact me here and I’ll send you one, Zombie Turkeys, my first novel.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books – You Begin Here

Out of the Dark - SciFi/Fantasy Book
David Weber’s book

David Weber once again creates a page-turning series. This one focuses on an invasion of the Earth by an alien species sent from a galactic empire.

The Earth is devastated. Half the population is killed from kinetic bombardments. Will the Earth surrender?

With vastly superior technology, the alien species is confident of conquest. Too bad humanity doesn’t know how to surrender.

The plot proceeds somewhat predictably but ends with a surprise twist. Some reviewers hated the twist. I liked it. Maybe I’m twisted?

If you like David Weber’s Honor Harrington series or John Ringo’s Posleen series, you’ll probably like this one

Andy Zach’s review on Goodreads and Amazon

Here Comes Your Fantasy Book Review

Song for the Basilisk - Fantasy Book
Song for the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip

This was my second reading of ‘Song for the Basilisk’, the last one was over 20 years ago.

It’s even better the second time. I read it more slowly and understood the political machinations and the mysteries the author presented the reader. Patricia McKillip definitely has the ‘mystery’ + ‘fantasy’ combination to herself.

The premise is simple. There are four factions contending for rulership of the kingdom. The Basilisk slaughters one that has ruled for hundreds of years. One child escapes to a school for the bards.

The bards are musicians, storytellers, and magicians. But they only come to power by going to the hinterlands, where the magic is.

Meanwhile, the Basilisk rules in peace for 37 years. He has several daughters, one of which grows up learning all his magic.

Ms. McKillip brings all the elements together in a dramatic and surprising novel. It’s one of her best and that says a lot.

Review by Andy Zach on Goodreads and Amazon

Your Last Chance to Get My Free AudioBooks

New review for Zombie Turkeys on Audible! Overall 5 out of 5 stars Performance 5 out of 5 stars Story 4 out of…

Posted by Zombie Turkeys on Saturday, March 20, 2021

New review for Zombie Turkeys on Audible!

Overall 5 out of 5 stars

Performance 5 out of 5 stars

Story 4 out of 5 stars

Dumb…silly…juvenile…couldn’t put it down. Comfort food for that juvenile part of you that never quite outgrew your comic books. Just forget that it’s preposterous (after all, you were already warned by the title; what did you expect?), and go with the flow…

Andy 03-20-21 on Audible

Posted on

Your Free Excerpt, SciFi Review, & Astounding Science News

Your Free Excerpt, SciFi Review, & Astounding Science News are here in this blog post. Begin with your free excerpt below.

But it’s more than just my book. There are dozens of samples from dozens of authors.

Click at this Facebook post.

Your Free Excerpt of My Book–Plus More

Enjoy these excerpts from outstanding writers! Oh, and I have an excerpt from 'My Undead Mother-in-law' as well.

Posted by Andy Zach on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Which book do I have for you? None other than this one.

This story begins with a happy family story of zombies who start their own business sharing zombie blood. Diane Newby, My Undead Mother-in-law, is the natural leader. You can read a tiny snippet from late in the story here. (I promise: no spoilers)

Your Free Excerpt My Undead Mother-in-law back cover
My Undead Mother-in-law back cover, no blurb.

She gasped for air as she hauled herself up on the transom dock, and she tasted gulf water. Salt water! Her zombie bacteria were dying!

As soon as she stood up, two zombie ninjas charged her, one with a katana and one with a naginata. And she was weaponless.

The lead one called to someone behind her, “Get her!”

Glancing behind her, Diane saw the two woman bodyguards she’d thrown in the water were coming up behind her. They didn’t have weapons, so she turned her back on the two killer women in front of her and charged the two behind her, slowly, painfully.

From My Undead Mother-in-law

Subscribe to my newsletter if you want to read more! Tell me what you think of it, and I’ll give you another excerpt!

Get Your SciFi Review Here – and Your Free Excerpt #2

First, my review of a zombie novel, of all things!

Your Free Excerpt
Death Doll Cover

Andy Zach

from Amazon reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

 The worst enemies are not the zombies in this thriller

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2021

‘The Death Doll’ by Brian White is post-zombie-apocalypse story, but oddly, the zombies aren’t the main antagonist. I’ll let you read and find out who is.

The first chapter irritated me because none of the characters seemed to be acting rationally. True, they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, running for their lives, but still they were over the top. Or so I thought.

I’ve learned to have patience. Over the next few chapters, the author showed me each person’s point of view and their motivations and their irrationality made sense, after a while. Mr. White has given the reader some excellent characters–good, bad, and ugly ones.

If you’re a lover of zombie books, dystopian books, and action-adventure books, this next book is for you.

I received a copy of this book to review, but that did not affect my opinion of it.

Another My Undead Mother-in-law Excerpt for You

There they all ate four huge steak filets from the fridge. They didn’t bother cooking them. For the second course, they planned a whole chicken apiece. The four chickens roasted in the oven while they gobbled the steaks.

They finished clearing out the Newbys’ commercial-sized refrigerator. They each topped off all that protein with their food of choice: George ate a whole family-sized pizza, as did Don. By the time the pizza delivery arrived, they looked quite normal, for zombies.

Diane ate an entire cheesecake. And Maggie devoured a box of sugared flakes. They had never been so ravenous—and they had never been so close to death.

From My Undead Mother-in-law

You can find the excerpt here, along with a lot of other authors’ excerpts.

The latest excerpts on SciFi, Fantasy from SciFi Roundtable. I have another bit from 'My Undead Mother-in-law'.

Posted by Andy Zach on Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Last, but not least, Astounding Science Stories

Astounding Science Fiction was a SciFi magazine during the golden age of science fiction. These stories could have come from there, but they’re all genuine science stories.

Astounding Science Fiction cover

Behold the orrery from 150 BC and be amazed!

Posted by Andy Zach on Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Okay, this is science from 150 BC but it’s astounding and it’s like an alternate history scifi where mechanical technology from the 18th century is introduced to the 2nd century BC.

Now, cue Star Trek!

Posted by Andy Zach on Monday, February 8, 2021

Finally, let’s get back to my youth, where every SciFi story had a plasma drive.

Yum! I've been reading about plasma drive since the 60s!

Posted by Andy Zach on Tuesday, February 2, 2021