Five Odd Honors Review

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(More customer reviews)If you enjoyed the first two books in this series, you will undoubtably enjoy this one as well. The book rotates points of view between Brenda, Pearl Bright and Loyal Wind (the original horse exile). In the beginning, this constant switching felt jarring and interrupted the flow of the story. Once I had read more and remembered exactly who Loyal Wind was things seemed to move more smoothly.
While, Lindskold's writing style is very detailed and the ideas are interesting, I would prefer more action and less talking. The characters talk about what they're going to do extensively. Then talk about when the right time is to do it. Then they talk about what preparations need to be made and who will do it. At one point in the book, I was completely bored with one of the storylines which amounted to a lot of waiting around, talking, and using mah jong tiles to try and figure out who is causing problems for Pearl Bright.
Reaching The Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice seemed somewhat anticlimactic. Nothing much happens there until well into the book, but it's worth the wait. My favorite parts of the book are the ones centered on Brenda and her learning more about her maternal heritage and what comes along with it. I hope the next installment progresses her relationship with Flying Claw one way or the other.
Note for Kindle buyers: There are many occurrences of words/names being broken in two, or multiple words being combined into one. This tends to disrupt the reading experience, and will hopefully be fixed soon.

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Smoke and Mirrors Review

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(More customer reviews)From the back cover, the reader knows that the main character is a telepathic prostitute... yet it is still a shock that in the opening paragraph, she discovers that her current client is not even Human.
Thus begins a fantastic and thought-provoking sci-fi novel, set on futuristic terraformed worlds representing the extremes of the climates of present-day Earth. While Smokey and her young daughter both lovingly refer to her profession in admirable terms (Smokey even refers to herself as the best whore on the planet), the sex is very tastefully written and is not gratuitous. In fact, the sex scenes in the novel are essentially required to further drive the narrative, even though many of Smokey's discoveries are made when she is not in a horizontal position.
The science presented in Smoke and Mirrors is also intriguing. While not presented with the same level of intricate detail as in a Michael Crichton novel, the science is introduced in easy-to-understand language, and is entirely plausible for the futuristic setting. While the political situation is not given quite the same level of detail, it is definitely prominent, and also itself drives the technological and narrative aspects of the novel.
In short, Smoke and Mirrors is an excellent novel. Unfortunately, while the core mystery of the novel is fulfilled at the end, the reader is not - there are several threads which could themselves launch very interesting sequels.

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Hiding her telepathic gifts from her many enemies, industrial spy and prostitute Smokey of the planet Arizona senses a deadly nature in a new customer and begins a war of illusion while protecting her young daughter.

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