"The Athena Project" by Brad Thor (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Order The Athena Project from Amazon Here
Read a Recent Interview with Brad Thor on the Athena Project Here

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Brad Thor is the author of nine previous novels featuring a series character. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California wherein he did his degree in creative writing, film and television production. He was also the producer and host of the “Traveling Lite” TV series. He was also invited to be a member as a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell Program which is a think tank initiative which tries to divine all future methods of attack on the United States, His previous books have featured on the New York Times bestsellers list. He has also appeared as an analyst/pundit for various TV channels.

CLASSIFICATION/FORMAT/INFO: The Athena Project is 322 pages long divided over sixty numbered chapters, with a Prologue. Narration is set in the third person perspective and features many characters namely Gretchen Casey, Megan Rhodes, Vicki Suffolk, Ben Matthews, Alex Cooper and many others. The Athena Project is the first volume in a new series which will feature the Athena team members. This book can be read as a standalone novel, but The Athena Team was first introduced in this year’s Scot Harvath book called “Foreign Influence” and the plot in this book has some vital connection to that book as well.

November 23, 2010 marked the North American Hardcover and trade paperback publication of The Athena Project via Atria Books.

The Athena Project is set in various locations in Europe and across the American continents.

ANALYSIS: I have encountered Brad Thor's books in the past. My experiences with his works was a bit of a mixed bag. Some I thought were good, some average and some not-so-good ones. Throughout his works Thor has established a series character by the name of Scot Haryath who is an ex-navy seal. The various books cataloged his adventures, pitfalls and overall geo-political world scenario. The Athena Project was what I believed to be a nice departure from Thor's previous signature style plots, however I was to be proven wrong on that count.

Please note that I will be doing a bit of an overview of this year's release Foreign Influence as well because of its close link the The Athena Project.

Foreign Influence starts with Scot’s fre-nemy “The Troll” being attacked and then framed for a terrorist attack. This leads Scot to meet with the Troll and then have to figure out why he was being framed and also make sense of certain other things which have happened previously. On a parallel storyline John Vaughn a cop moonlighting as a detective takes on a case which involves tracking down a hit-and –run driver. Both plots race along as the reader will try to figure out their point of convergence which comes at a predictable point. Along the former plot thread, Scot Harvath is assisted by the Athena Team members at a crucial point in his mission but not without some losses to themselves as well. Foreign Influence was a good thriller which began a very enticing plot arc and the book ends on a nice cliffhanger as well which begets the question as to how much of the story would be carried forward in the The Athena Project which is a spin-off series of the main Scot Harvath books.

The Athena Project begins with a prologue set in WWII and gives us a small precursor to the idea which is behind the team’s formation. The first chapter shows us the starting point of the plot of this book and from the second chapter we are re-introduced to the four heroic gals who are a part of a covert group of female athletes who have been selected for some serious black-ops work. Megan Rhodes, Alex Cooper, Gretchen Casey and Julie Ericsson are the members of this group who come from differing backgrounds however they share a common trait of being specialized athletes and who have successfully negotiated the course of becoming a part of the ATHENA group. Their mission is to nab Nino Bianchi who helped cause some of the events in Foreign Influence. Their mission is to take him and find the next link which will aid Scot Harvath in his mission as well [Scot also makes a cameo in this book]. Once their mission is over the Athena members are instantaneously ordered to partake in another mission whose roots lie in Nazi experiments and are therefore have to go to the Czech Republic to secure a few objects. This however turns out to be a trap and the girls have to think as they run and regroup.

On a yet different plotline is the clandestine love story of Ben Matthews and Vicki Suffolk though both seem highly motivated in each other; their reasons for doing so are veiled partly from the reader. This plotline is set in Denver, Colorado and has to do with a certain query regarding the Denver International airport.

Brad Thor has set enough action, political and historical intrigue in this tale to make the reader feel as if they are really reading a page turner. Along with all the political and historical intrigue there is enough technological applications which the plot hinges upon and which has to be found and countered otherwise it could have catastrophic complications. This book is very much within the range demonstrated by Brad Thor in his previous books and is an exciting direction taken by the author whose primary series might have gotten a bit stagnant.

With this year’s Foreign Influence and Athena Project, Thor has written some real winners and his fans will do very well to read both books back to back as this adds on to the reading experience envisioned by Thor.

Now onto the drawbacks of this book, primarily The Athena Project is very action-heavy and there is very little focus upon the character development aspect of the novel. Each character is very black or white and not overly three dimensional. Readers are presenting with their reasons for doing whatever they are doing and occasionally the heroes flirt with the gray nature of their jobs by having to debate about doing activities that might cross the line from good to bad. However, there isn't much development beyond that.

A second drawback is that there isn't much to differentiate the four characters from each other despite the fact that they were given different backgrounds. They often seem to be clones of each other and not much is given to separate them from each other This might be a bit unfair on my part as this is the first book in a series and there might be more surprises planned in the future books but in this book the plot and characters are a bit cliché ridden and little else is done to dispel that from the reader’s minds.

CONCLUSION: In the end I would say I enjoyed the premise and this action packed novel, however it didn’t entice me as much as I thought it would. I will be checking out next year’s dual offering of Scot Harvath and the Athena gals as Brad seems to have a grand climax planned and based on this indications it does seem to be a great thriller read.

Author Guest Post: Henry Neff Author of the Tapestry Series

Visit Henry Neff's Official Website Here
Order The Fiend and the Forge from Amazon Here

One of the first books that I reviewed for Fantasy Book Critic included a book out of Henry Neff's Tapestry series. Because of my level of nostalgia, this book holds a very special place in my fantasy reading. So when Fantasy Book Critic was asked to host a blog tour spot with Henry Neff I couldn't resist.

Henry Neff recently published the third book in the Tapestry series, The Fiend and the Forge and is currently working on the fourth book.

Without further ado, here is Henry Neff discussing what he writes best about, fantasy.


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Photo Caption: Max McDaniels arrives in Blys, one of the four demonic kingdoms that have come to replace human cities.

What differentiates fantasy and science fiction from other genres is that its authors choose to create entire worlds. For many, I suspect that’s the core attraction - the opportunity to concoct a reality whose rules, institutions, or denizens diverge from our own. But while both create worlds, fantasy and science fiction writers often choose different tools for the job.

A number of fantasy authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, and Robert E. Howard construct worlds that are rooted in a forgotten period prior to recorded history or take place in some alternate reality. Whether it’s Middle Earth, Earthsea, or Hyboria, we recognize elements of the landscape and can often connect the dots from these mythic pasts to our own time and place. Others – J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and Susan Cooper among them – splice their fantasy worlds into contemporary life. When one boards the Hogwarts Express or steals though the wardrobe, one enters a world where magic and fantasy predominate.

While many fantasy writers choose to operate in the past or present, science fiction writers often prefer to operate in the future. Authors such as Frank Herbert, Gene Roddenberry, and Orson Scott Card construct vast universes in which our world and Earthly antecedents are distant memories.

But what if Middle Earth existed not in our past, but in our future? That’s a fun dynamic to ponder and one I’ve chosen to explore in my own work. When creating The Tapestry, I’ve tried to combine the techniques employed by fantasy and science fiction writers and construct a fantasy future that’s rooted firmly in our own past and present.

The Tapestry’s very first book, The Hound of Rowan, begins on a Chicago train. The names, surroundings, and conventions are familiar to us as Max McDaniels is invited to attend a school of magic that’s been engaged in an ancient, secret war. While some readers initially thought I was simply creating an American version of Harry Potter, those with a bit of patience have seen the story venture into new and unexpected places. Throughout The Second Siege, the world we know is in turmoil – its major cities overrun by creatures while entire governments topple to enemies from without and within. During Max’s adventures in The Fiend and the Forge – few people even remember that those very cities and governments ever existed. Their environment has become one where myth and magic predominate…and humans no longer rule the roost.

As I embark upon The Tapestry’s fourth and final volume, I’ll continue to use techniques found in both fantasy and science fiction to reshape a world in which a fantasy future is built on our past and present. Doing so gives me the flexibility to introduce new countries, economies, and creatures while linking them to a world with which my reader is familiar. It’s a fun landscape in which to operate and all a writer can ask for.

For more information about Henry H. Neff and The Tapestry, please visit www.henryhneff.com

A new Face and Feet on High Heels Blog...

A very nice hello and welcome to all High Heels and Stockingsfans, here I'am - Vivian - the new face and feet of Higherheel. Maybe you have already recognized the new design, but thats just the beginning - I'll bring a lot of fresh air to this Highheels-Blog ;). It has been quiet a long while and a lot of things happened since the last post on this Shoe-blog. But from now on you'll see the updates coming often ..
For now, just a few new High Heels photos of me as a kind of first introduction of me. On my first photos I wear 6 inch high Oxford Style High Heels from Pleaser Shoes and fishnet stockings. Hope you like the photos - a longer, more detailed introduction with me wearing 4 inch red pumps will follow soon ....

High heeled greetings
- Vivian

Update: This High Heels and Stockings photos are now available in a pictureset including 10 high res shoe Images..
Buy now for just $6.89 -

"G" by John Berger (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

John Berger at Wikipedia
Order G HERE or read an excerpt

INTRODUCTION: Sometime ago I stumbled by chance upon a remark that "G" by John Berger is the strangest book to have won the Man Booker prize (in 1972), not to speak of the author's acceptance speech that became notorious. I was curious and after I checked and liked the excerpt from "Amazon read inside" above, I finally got the book.

"Winner of Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, John Berger's "G". relates the story of a young man forging an energetic sexual career in Europe during the early years of this century. Berger sets his novel against the turbulent backdrop of Garibaldi and the failed revolution of Milanese workers in 1898, the Boer War, and the first flight across the Alps, making "G". a brilliant novel about the search for intimacy in history's private moments."

ANALYSIS: As storyline goes, G is a modern interpretation of the classical Don Juan story but from the perspective of several of the women involved. G. himself - the illegitimate son of a rich but strange English girl and a conventional Italian businessman - is seen through the eyes of the women, the narrator who inserts his comments here and there and only sometimes directly, this last especially in the midst of violent events at which he is essentially a bystander until they engulf him.

Hypnotic and quite un-intelligible either by the men in his circle who mostly dislike and even hate him, or by the women who are mostly fascinated despite themselves, G remains a mystery to the end with his actions confounding everyone expectations. The book is worth reading for this unexpected moments, though of course it has more strengths. The prose is just beautiful and on many occasions mesmerizing and the introspective descriptions of people in a romantic and erotic context are among the best I've ever read.

"G" focuses on several key moments: Garibaldi's Italian saga and the early years of the modern Italian state are interlinked with G's conception and childhood, The Boer War coincides with G's sexual awakening, a 1910 aviation first with some of G's conquests as a young man and the Great War with G's apotheosis so to speak... G himself looks for the strange, in women and events, so for example one of his "conquests" is interesting for him only as long as her husband is threatening to shoot him...

The novel has an unusual structure with paragraphs linked in a whole as well as authorial insertions about this or that; overall the structure works well despite the seeming scattering in places, though it requires constant attention to detail. The combination of personal and historical, story and authorial musings give the novel its "interesting-ness" flavor that I appreciate a lot and I am highly recommending it for a very rewarding and entertaining reading experience.

"Lovers and Beloveds - An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom" by MeiLin Miranda (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

Official MeiLin Miranda Website
Order "Lovers and Beloveds" HERE or HERE(Kindle) or HERE(Smashwords)
Read 50% from "Lovers and Beloveds" HERE (either online or download various formats)

INTRODUCTION: "The Tremont family has conquered kingdom after kingdom, and rules its continent. Now, Tremont stands on the cusp of an industrial revolution; trains and steam engines are new, and the Scholar Priests of Eddin's Temple make exciting discoveries daily. Magic is long forgotten, but the Gods are not. Prince Temmin must now leave his childhood home to live with his father--Harsin the Fourth, by the Grace of Pagg, King of the Greater Kingdom of Tremont and Litta, Emperor of Inchar. Harsin expects his son to become the kind of ruthless, pragmatic man he is. But his immortal advisor Teacher has other plans, involving the seductive human avatars of the Gods called the Lovers. Teacher intends to bind Temmin to the Lovers' Temple, bring him closer to his people, and set him on a path that will lead to ultimate glory for Tremont--or its end."

"Lovers and Beloveds" is an indie title I have discovery from a review inquiry. The Jacqueline Carey comparison the author used attracted my attention, while the excerpt linked above convinced me to read the book and I am really glad I did. I would note that indeed Lovers and Beloveds has "Kushiel vibes"; while it is more explicit though in the same tasteful vein as there, it posits a world where the Gods' embodiments - including the erotic one in dual male/female manifestation - play an important role in society.

FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION:"Lovers and Beloveds" stands at about 400 pages divided into 17 chapters with an Appendix about Tremontine Calendar and Measurements and one about Pronunciations.

The main POV of the novel, Temmin is the only son of King Harsin and for reasons we discover as the novel goes on, he has been raised far away from the capital in his mother's stronghold, very sheltered and with limited possibilities of female companionship. To the scorn of the capital's young bloods, he is still virgin when the king summons him to assume his responsibilities as heir. That factoid is very important since it is provable in a conclusive way in a special magic ritual which is fatal otherwise. But that magic ritual involves subtle issues about the power distribution in the Kingdom, so having the heir undergo it is not in the King's interest and the novel's main motive driver follows from here.

The mysterious Teacher who seems to be a long-lived magician advising the King and who is both in the King's power to command but who can also try subtly to influence things starts training Temmin as well as dropping hints about important events from his family's past that somehow never made it into the official histories. One such event is the subject of the secondary thread of the novel which starts interspersing with the main narrative after a while.

"Lovers and Beloveds" is secondary world fantasy in the Legacy of Kushiel vein with quite a lot of explicitness which is integrated well into the main story. The first volume in a series, "Lovers and Beloveds" stops at a good "to be continued" point and offers a complete and satisfying reading experience. I am very interested in the sequel which is tentatively expected in the second part of 2011.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The novel starts slow and a bit on the raw side but it picks up considerably after a while; I liked the writing and was intrigued by the premise so I persevered beyond the clumsy descriptions in the first several pages, where things seem just out of kilt somehow, not quite making sense in the "pseudo-medieval" setting we are introduced to.

The later events and world building will make sense of that part, but here we encounter one of the common problems in secondary fantasies that contain "unhistorical elements", whether in social mores or in how political power distributes, namely that the author knows much more than us, but fails to convey the reasons for the 'way things are' against our empirical knowledge of the human nature.

"Lovers and Beloveds" ultimately depends on the character of Temmin and while he becomes quite interesting by the end of the novel, readers have to put up with a lot of silliness and even dullness before; not a bad prince as they go, but still spoiled and naive which makes for the worst combination sometimes.

The emotional distance of 3rd person narration works against the book to some extent - one big reason the Kushiel books are so good is the immediacy of first person narration - and since we essentially follow Temmin's path with few outside events recounted, I think that a first person narration would have made the book better.

The secondary story that Temmin sees in the magic book of the subtitle (Intimate Story of the Greater Kingdom) is somewhat cliched and predictable, so a bit overlong as a subthread but it works as a morality tale/history lesson and I guess it may play a role in later world building expansion.

The huge strength of the novel is the writing style which is excellent and helps smooth some of the issues mentioned above, while keeping one turning the pages and accepting at least temporarily what the author "sells"; once getting going, the world building is pretty good, still a little bit sketchy to the end but not with great flaws and I expect continuing volumes to expand it. The characters develop and show a lot of nuance after a while, so I urge everyone to give this book a little time to develop as story and hero go.

All in all the series has extremely great promise so I am very interested in the sequel, while Lovers and Beloveds (A+) is one of the best indies - more or less a debut since the book has been expanded a lot from its first edition - I've read this year. If you are a fan of Jacqueline Carey I would definitely urge you to try this one and as mentioned give it a bit to settle down and of course I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in beautifully written fantasy of intrigue and eroticism and who is not afraid of some explicitness.