Book Review: Kelly's Reef SPOILERS!

On October 30th, 2013, James R. Burke--a fellow writer and colleague of mine--published his first novel Kelly's Reef. Though by no means a sci-fi story, it does have some rather great sci-fi plots and plenty of action to satisfy the reader. Synopsis: On a medical rescue mission to Djibouti, North Africa, Dr. Jake Matthews, TJ, a supply officer, and Charlie, a master chief who “fixes” things for the government, encounter a plot to use Blue Death as a bio-weapon. Kelly, the resident CIA station chief, sends them on a daring mission to save a local terrorist who has the answers. Back home on Guam, Jake discovers women are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate-and all pregnancies are abnormal. Somebody thinks it’s related to blue globes Jake found while scuba diving on a local reef. That somebody is after the globes, and is killing everyone involved. What is it about Blue Death and the blue globes Jake discovered that is damaging pregnancies? What is in the water that is wreaking all the havoc? What does the government knows and isn’t revealing? From Djibouti, to Guam, to Cozumel, Jake searches for answers. Loosely based on adventures aboard the USS Carl Vinson and while stationed on Guam, the author brings to the reader the possibility and plausibility of using the natural human reproductive system as a bio-threat to mankind.

Part 1 Djibouti:
Commander Jake Matthews is a navy physician stationed on the USS Carl Vinson. He and Lieutenant Commander Thelonious Justis (TJ) receive orders for a secret medical mission off the coast of Somalia. In route, they rescue Master Chief Charlie Albright, wounded by a Somali warlord. Charlie is a "fixer" for the government. Aboard the UNNS Swordfish, a navy "research" vessel spying on Somalia, Jake discovers there are two female crewmembers that became pregnant and spontaneously aborted. What is concerning is that one is a lesbian and had no male contact and the other had a tubal ligation years prior. Jake also sees mysterious blue globes loaded into a metal camera case. Jake repairs Charlie's gunshot wound and them meets Kelly. Kelly is the local CIA station chief, who also runs a house of ill repute to gain Intel on the local terrorist cells. It's revealed that Jake's real mission in Djibouti is to treat a local terrorist who has Blue Death, a potential bio-weapon. Kelly's World Famous Bar and Grill blows up and the group has a gun battle in the streets of Djibouti before escaping. Jake transports the case of blue globes and Alzera back to the aircraft carrier, but Alzera dies in route, before revealing his secret.

Part 2 Guam:
Hanna Sanders is a nurse who works with Jake. She is also the twin sister of Emily, Jake's wife. She, Jake, and Charlie are scuba diving at night to visit Auraka, a two-headed green eel known to Jack and Charlie. An earthquake and a tsunami hit. Jake and Charlie rescue Hanna, trapped underwater. During the rescue, Jake discovers more of the blue globes similar to what he saw in Djibouti. Some have ruptured and released a blue substance into the ocean. Over the next several weeks, Jake learns that women are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate and most are abnormal. Jake, Charlie, and TJ have an unexpected reunion aboard the Swordfish where they learn that everyone involved with the Djibouti mission is missing or dead, and that Blue Death causes abnormal human reproduction. The original samples Jake was transporting have disappeared. Hanna is pregnant, but she can't be. She has quadruplets--all abnormal. She undergoes surgery to repair the problem. Charlie, who plans to marry Hanna, receives orders for a mission to Cozumel. Jake has the globes analyzed and finds they contain an extraterrestrial virus, based on a faulty DNA translation table. Someone else knows and threatens his family, but before he can get everyone safe stateside, his wife Emily finds she is pregnant as the result of exposure to the alien virus. Commander Birdina Hawke (Hawknose), an antagonist with a personal grudge, hates Jake. He suspects her of being the letter writer and after Blue Death. Someone kills her, and Jake becomes the prime suspect. Jake and TJ find evidence that she was selling Blue Death to a biotech company. An emergency calls Jake back to labor and delivery late one evening. While gone, someone attacks his wife and mistakenly kidnaps Hanna, the twin sister. Investigators discover her body. Jake suspects Hawknose, but her death occurred a week before the attack. The murder weapon is the same one that killed Hawknose, and belongs to Jake. Jake and Emily escape the solitude of an island resort hotel only to have Kelly reappear. She tells Jake that she and Charlie know who killed Hanna and Hawknose. She also explains that Blue Death is part of a UFO event in 1947 (Roswell). That object broke into four pieces. The government has known about Blue Death since then, but when Alzera found it, they were able to backtrack the other two chunks to Guam and Cozumel. Charlie, currently in Cozumel, has located the final source of Blue Death. Kelly and Jake hatch a plot to trap the killer and destroy Blue Death. The next day, Jake's house is broken into. The military police accuse him of the deaths of Hawknose, Hanna, and a civilian guard. Jake makes a run for it and the military police shoot him.

Part 3 Cozumel:
This section opens with Kelly and an unidentified person describing how Charlie found the last site and plans to dive on it. TJ knows, and plans to join the dive. Last scene is on a dive boat on the reef of Cozumel. Charlie and TJ find the site, which is a fake site made up to look like part of a UFO. Back onboard, Charlie accuses TJ of being Hanna's killer, wanting the fame and glory of proving extraterrestrial life Jake reappears from below decks to accuse TJ of the kidnapping and explains that he faked his own death to trap TJ. They explain that the dive tank TJ used had a carbon monoxide mixture and he is going to die. TJ is sick, vomiting, and thinks he has the bends. TJ pulls a gun as Kelly also comes up from below deck. Jake emptied TJ's gun while they were underwater. Kelly's operative, who is acting as a boat hand, shoots TJ in the leg and they throw him overboard. Kelly congratulates them on successfully uncovering TJ and asks for the last of the globes. Jake turns the table on her. There are no other globes, the site was a fake, TJ took Ipecac to fake having the bends, and that Kelly has been behind this all along. Jake realized she was lying to him because of a poker tell and a mistake she made during the reunion. She confesses and orders her associate to shoot Jake. He shoots her instead, because of loyalty for Jake saving his wife's life in surgery earlier in the book.

Throughout the story, there are subplots: why Hawknose hates Jake, the threats from the letter writer, and the building suspicion that Jake is responsible. The reader also learn about the evolutionary biolgoy of DNA replication and taht a translation table difference cannot occur on this planet. Action scenes include a chase through Somalia, a bombing in Djibouti, a medical emergency on a small airplane in a storm, the undersea rescue following the earthquake, and an emergency cesarean section. A cast of quirky characters and Jake's sense of dark humor enliven the story.

Book Review: The Tir Alainn Trilgoy Book III: The House of Gaian SPOILERS!

In October 2003, Anne Bishop returned to finish off the Tir Alainn Trilogy with one heckuva finale. This 420 page novel covers only a couple of months overall, but it has a lot happening and that is what makes it the most fascinating book in the entire series. Synopsis: It began as a witch-hunt. But the Master Inquisitor's plans to eliminate all traces of female power in the world have expanded to crushing the Sylvalan barons who oppose him--and to destroying the wellspring of magic in the Mother's Hills. Faced with this evil, humans, witches, and the Fae become uneasy allies. But even together, they aren't strong enough to stand against the armies the Inquisitors are gathering. So they look for help from their last possible ally. The House of Gaian. The reclusive witches who rule the Mother's Hills. The witches powerful enough to create a world--or to destroy one... And the witches' long-held creed "Do no harm" is about to give way to a more important one: Survive.

Ashk--the Green Lady of the Forest and Hunter, trains Neall in the ways of a Lord of the Forest. Morag--the Gatherer of Souls--questions whether she should've ended it back in Brightwood and killed the Master Inquisitor when she had the chance. Padrick tells the clan that because of Liam's absence and passionate speech, the vote to ultimately subject all women to become controlled by men has failed and that the Inquisitors have declared war. Gwynith, a friend of Ashk's and a Lady of the Moon, alerts Ashk to the fact that Dianna's power is waning and wants to be there when the next one is chosen. In the Mother's Hills, Selena and her sister Rhyann leave for Brightwood. Breanna, with Falco and Liam, meet Lucian who demands that Falco kidnap one of the witches living in Willowsbrook and take her to Ridgeley so Dianna can recover. Breanna says no with an arrow and tells him to get off her property and she doesn't care who he is. Liam escort Lucian back to the edge of town, an argument breaks out in which Liam says that the Fae are the Mother's spoiled children and demands to know why there aren't any witches at Brightwood. While Ashk and company leave for Willowsbrook, Adolfo finishes his torture and implied rape of a female Fae, trying to create the ultimate nighthunter. Selena arrives in time for the changing of the Moon's power. She dances for the Mother and wins the power from Dianna, who tries to kill Selena--now the Huntress and Lady of the Moon--in anger and hatred. She wounds Dianna and shows the rest what they're now dealing with: the Queen of the Witches, something that the Fae have also forgotten. Gwynith pledges her loyalty to Selena and lets her know that the Hunter is heading for Willowsbrook. Meanwhile, others have started arriving in Willowsbrook to prepare for the fight that has broken out in the north. Adolfo orders Ubel to take ten warships to the north and blockade the ports. In Tir Alainn, Lucian demands that Selena give her power back to his sister or that she force a witch to live at Brightwood; Selena threatens to cut Tir Alainn off from the rest of the living world by taking away the shining roads should any of the Fae try and force a witch to leave if they say no. Ashk senses something wrong with Morag and wants to know what it is and instead of answering, Morag makes her promise to do what needs to be done should she fail. Ashk agrees.

On Selkie Island, Jenny--the sister of Mihail--meets with the Lord of the Selkies so she can get firsthand reports of her brother returning with the family safely. Because Selena and Ashk are making the same demands, the rest of the Fae start helping out the humans and witches. Mihail and his family try to flee but Ubel's blockade holds them captive until Mihail starts a fire that blows up a good bit of the Inquisitor ships. He flees with Ubel on his trail. Lucian corners Aiden and uses magic to reveal that Ari's alive and well; in anger, Lucian burns Aiden's hands and runs Bretonwood with Morag hot on his heels, ready to kill Lucian. A foolish Inquisitor attacks Willowsbrook early and dies, but the men under the barons surrender as they refuse to follow them any longer (they did refuse before but were always hanged) when Selena and Gwynith arrive. Liam, Donovan and Varden figure out that Adolfo is a Fae offspring and is seeking revenge, even though Adolfo doesn't know his true parentage. Rhyann meets up with Ashk's group and heals Aiden. During a patrol, Selena and Liam get to know each other and start to become lovers, which is good for Falco and Breanna as they no longer have to endure Liam's remarks over them being lovers. Ubel bears down on Mihail when a bitch of a storm provided by Jenny arrives and shreds the Inquisitor ships to mulch while Sweet Selkie and the other fleeing ships arrive at Selkie Island intact. Ubel, the only survivor, is taken prisoner. Ashk and her party with enough Fae, Sons and Daughters of the House of Gaian, and humans arrive to help defend. Morag finally arrives in Bretonwood, a few minutes after Lucian does and sees him trying to force Ari to leave but Neall and Merle hold him off. Lucian wounds them and Ari, in anger, erects a circle of fire around Lucian. Before it can kill him, Morag rips Lucian's spirit from his body and drags him kicking and screaming to the Shadowed Veil and shoves him through it. Breanna finds her grandmother dead, poisoned by Jean who is jealous of Breanna because all the men talk and pay attention to her but not Jean. Jean runs away and is kidnapped by an Inquisitor who turns her over to Adolfo who turns her into a nighthunter. Ashk teases Selena about changing into her shadow hound form and Liam petting her in his room when Fiona tells them that Jean is missing.

Still in Bretonwood, Morag gets wind of Ubel being held in custody and his outrageous demands. She meets with him and his surviving underlings and rips their souls out of their bodies and leaves them there, ordering the bodies to be left where they fell. Adolfo releases his new nighthunters to slaughter Liam and anyone in Willowsbrook who stands in his way. Morphia puts them to sleep while the defenders attack, but Keely and the dog Idjit are killed. Ashk and Selena blanket the town in fog after the Inquisitors use catapults to try and bomb them out. Morphia tells Ashk that something evil will come out in the fog. Adolfo holds Rory as captive and is about to perform the nighthunter spell on him when Morag interrupts the whole thing. As a result, the spell backlashes onto Morag and Adolfo, turning them both into nighthunters at a fast pace. Breanna warns Ashk and Selena what Morag has become and also learn that the fighting has stopped everywhere, but Adolfo and his Inquisitors are still set on killing everyone at Willowsbrook and are marching there. The battle is on and Morag comes charging out, intent on killing. The Huntress and the Hunter demand that Adolfo show himself. He does and they send him to a special kind of hell, one that he created to inspire the men to join him. He becomes a nighthunter entirely and sets out eating and killing his Inquisitors. Ashk finds Morag who says she just wants to go home. Ashk kills her, much to Morphia's anger and shouting, and the nighthunter persona is lifted away and Ashk tells Morag not to stay away too long. As a spirit, Morag leads the dead to the Shadowed Veil. Morphia leaves the following day, unable to look at Ashk. Ashk hears that Ari's given birth to a healthy boy and the Crones arrive and redraw the boundaries of everyone, including the Fae's beliefs. Everyone parts ways with Falco staying with Breanna so she won't be alone; Selena also staying with Breanna so she doesn't intrude into Liam's home when his mother and youngest sister are also living there, but that doesn't mean they won't court; and Ashk points out to Aiden and Lyrra that when Ari has a baby daughter and looks into her eyes, she'll see Morag looking back. In the end, Aiden and Lyrra move to a small village where they're known for their dancing horse.

All in all, one hell of a fast paced novel that leaves plenty of room for character development and wraps up all the loose threads. Anne Bishop has mastered the fantasy world well that anyone picking up any of her books would instantly recognize it as a masterful piece of fantasy.

Book Review: Tir Alainn Trilogy Book One: Pillars of the World SPOILERS!

Published in October 2001, during the midst of her Black Jewels series, Anne Bishop began another story about witches and fantasy, but this time, set in a different world and place than her bestselling series. Synopsis: The trees whisper of danger... The youngest in a long line of witches, Ari senses that things are changing--changing for the worse. For generations, her kin have tended the Old Places, keeping the land safe and fertile. But with the Summer Moon, the mood of her neighbors has soured. And Ari is no longer safe. The Fae have long ignored what occurs in the mortal world, passing through on their shadowy roads only long enough to amuse themselves. But the roads are slowly disappearing, leaving the Fae Clans isolated and alone. Where harmony between the spiritual and the natural has always reigned, a dissonant chord now rings in the ears of both Fae and mortal. And when murmurs of a witch-hunt hum through the town, some begin to wonder if the different omens are notes in the same tune. And all they have to guide them is a passing reference to something called the Pillars of the World....

The novel opens with Dianna, the Fae Lady of the Moon and Huntress, observing with Lyrra, the Muse, and Aiden, the Bard, that the shining roads from Tir Alainn are disappearing. They note that the disappearances have something to do with the wiccanfae (what the Fae believe to be evil people and witches) dying or leaving the Old Places and something called the Pillar of the World. In the eastern part of Sylvalan, the Master Inquisitor, Adolfo, sees to the death of a witch, something that gives him great pleasure. As he puts it, he's cleansing the land and men of the evil influences of women and has devised ways to make them "obedient" (read: subservient). In the human village of Ridgeley, Ari is cajoled into buying a magicked candy that'll bring whatever desires she wants. She hopes for a man who is strong, kind, and who can accept her for herself. Dianna notes that her brother, Lucian, the Fae Lord of Fire and Lightbringer, is restless as are most of the other Fae men. Morag, Death's Mistress and the Gatherer, notices all the spirits of the dead witches and resolves to find answers. Ari, walking home, comes across a lone black horse (Lucian in disguise) and gives him the magicked candy. He follows her home. Neall, a friend of Ari's, notices his cousin Royce demanding that Ari part her legs for him. Neall does nothing as the Huntress rides by and scares Royce off. Dianna sees how happier Lucian is and urges him to get to know Ari better so they can find out just why the shining roads disappear when a witch dies. Over the next several weeks/months (the novel's not that clear) Dianna, Lyrra, Aiden and Lucian come to view her as a friend; Lucian thinks of her as a lover, nothing more. Adolfo meets with the head of Royce's family and forms a plan to capture and torture Ari into confessing how evil she is so he can justify executing her. Morag talks to Ahern, the Lord of the Horses, and they try and stop Adolfo. Meanwhile, Dianna, Lyrra, Aiden, Lucian and Falco--the Lord of the Hawks--learn from Ari just how powerful the witches are and that they are the Pillars of the World. Ari asks Lucian if he can give her what her heart wants instead of trinkets; he can't and she decides that Neall can offer everything Lucian can't/won't. Adolfo takes some of his Inquisitors and decides the time is right. During the fight, Adolfo captures Ari and Neall, with the help of Ahern and Morag, gets her out of Brightwood but at the cost of Ahern's life. Morag tells Lucian and the others that "she's gone." Lucian and Dianna are pissed but agree that Dianna will take care of Ari's place to maintain the shining road. In anger, they banish Morag from all the Fae Clans, something that the Fae in the west have no intention of listening to because Lucian and Dianna are whining like children who've gotten their noses bloodied in far too long. Lyrra leaves Dianna to take care of the Old Place since Dianna took until the next Spring to return from Tir Alainn. In the end, Morag travels to the western city of Brenton and meets Ari and Neall who offer her a place in their clan. Morag accepts.

A well written fantasy novel, and, as SF Site said "Anne Bishop's novels are genuine gems of fantasy much to be prized." Her novels get better with each reading. It's such a shame that the Tir Alainn trilogy was only three novels. It seems like it has more to tell.