Book Review: Domus by DS Lillico

Humanity needs a new home. 

The Seeker Project has been exploring deep space for over a decade. Eight men and women have journeyed to a distant planet to colonise a new human frontier on Domus. Before landing, the Captain of the Marauder does all he can to hide Domus' secret - it already has a dominant life form, and it is always hungry. 

In a hostile environment swarming with ferocious prehistoric predators, the project descends into a terrifying struggle for survival. The crew of the Seeker Marauder will have the fight of their lives not only to save themselves but to keep the dwindling flame of mankind burning. 

My Review: 
By 2017 the planet is dying and a new project begins. In 2037 4 men and 4 women are chosen to travel to a new planet, which will take 20 years, set up a base and repopulate. Things begin to unravel when one man dies of cancer before they arrive and one woman is not happy with her assigned partner and chases a man partnered with someone else. Tensions are high when they reach Domus and that is where their problems really begin.

I do have to wonder about the way the whole mission was planned. If it took 20 years to get there, why on earth were they not allowed to 'mate' during the journey? That way their kids would be adults by the time they got there and ready to pair off themselves, and there would have been extra pairs of hands to get things done when they landed. Let's hope the women can still have kids and that there are no complications with the 40 somethings giving birth. Why did they not screen the people better? Why not send more people than just eight if you are repopulating a whole planet? 

Anyway, the ship arrives safely at Domus. Racker decides to stay on the main ship while the others go down to the surface to get things started, just in case there is any trouble. It is the strained relationships that dominate the start of this book as they bicker and fall out, with two of the women sleeping with the partner of someone else and causing massive problems. The whole mission is at stake by the time Racker spots a bit heat signature coming their way. It is after they deal with the beast that Racker realises that it was a prehistoric crocodile and that he has also spotted extinct birds. It becomes clear that some of the life on Domus is hostile and they are sharing the planet with dinosaurs. 

It takes a while to get into the main part of the story, about 20% before the crocodile is mentioned and I could have done with things moving along a bit quicker than that, with a bit less on the relationship angst. However when the main focus switches to dealing with the dinosaurs, things become a lot more interesting. I liked the scenes where the humans were in danger from the various dinosaurs, and the switching POV when they are split up makes things more interesting as they all faced their own dangers. Of course, the ruptured relationships within the team also lead to a whole new danger.

It was a decent enough read and the dinosaur parts were good. I just felt that there was too much relationship angst in the first part of the book for me personally. 

Read February 2018.
2.5 stars

Book Review: Kitty's House Of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville #7)

Talk radio host and celebrity werewolf Kitty Norville has agreed to appear on TV's first all-supernatural reality show. What she's expecting is cheesy competitions and manufactured drama starring shapeshifters, vampires, and psychics. But what begins as a publicity stunt is all too quickly turning into a fight for her life.

Kitty and her fellow housemates arrive at the remote mountain lodge where the show is set, but no sooner does filming start when violence erupts. It doesn't take Kitty long to suspect the show is nothing more than a cover for some nefarious plot. Then the cameras stop rolling, cast members start dying, and Kitty learns she and her monster housemates are not battling for a prize: they are, ironically enough, themselves the ultimate prize, in a very different game. Stranded with no power, no phones, and no way to know who can be trusted, she must find a way to defeat the evil closing in...before it kills them all.

My Review:
As Cormac faces a parole hearing with Ben, Kitty agrees to take part in a reality TV show which sees her and a werewolf wrestler share a house with vampires and their human blood donor, two psychics, a magician, a talk show host,  a wereseal and a paranormal author. The paranormals are to convince the skeptic author of what they are without showing them what they can do, while being filmed in the mountain retreat. Kitty finds herself reunited with Ariel, Tina, Jeffrey and Grant again, but her delight soon turns to fear when they find half the crew dead, half missing and no way of calling for help. Now they have to work together to survive while they try to find a way out, and discover who is targeting them and why.

This is without a doubt my favourite book in the series so far. I loved seeing the characters I liked from previous books coming back into Kitty's life. Jeffrey was the one who helped her find closure over TJ's death by giving her a message from him, Tina was part of the film crew from the previous book, Grant helped her in books 5 and 6 and Ariel was her rival talk show host, who is becoming more of an ally. It was good to see them all interacting together. We also meet new characters, who are all interesting. Anastasia is an old vampire and she and Grant instantly distrust each other. Kitty is fascinated by younger vampire Gemma, and forms a bond with blood doner Dorian. I liked Jerome the werewolf and Leo the wereseal. The other awful character was Conrad the author, but he is meant to bad because he thinks they are all lying about what they are and won't easily be convinced. 

Tina is the first one to get the bad feeling about the whole set up and she warns them that something is wrong. The next morning, Kitty wakes up to find the power off, the production team missing and one of her housemates dead on the porch. A search reveals more bodies at the plane which has been drained of fuel and the radio destroyed and no satellite phone. It is clear that the show was a ruse to get them in one place where they can be hunted. It is also obvious that they are being watched. The group have to consider their options. With no way to call for help, they need to risk sending someone in the group outside but whoever they send could be at risk from those hiding in the surrounding woods. If they all decide to sit tight in the house, no help is going to come and they will be at the mercy of their attackers.

This book was very tense! I liked the opening which sets the scene by letting us get to know the new characters as they interact with old favourites. I found the interactions intriguing but knowing what the book plot was, I felt that sense of menace in the lead up to the plan being triggered against Kitty and her friends. The tension slowly builds and from the first death onwards I didn't want to put the book down. The action comes thick and fast as Kitty's group try their first plan and find themselves in trouble. It seems that whatever they do, the body count was getting higher. I also liked the way things switched between the deadly forest attacks and the siege at the house, giving good variety to the deaths of the characters. It was always changing and kept me interested right to the end.

What makes this book work is that I liked all the characters and got very attached to them all, which made it tougher when characters began to die. Even Conrad grows on me as the book progresses. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this is because it is a classic horror scenario that I read about and watch-the people trapped and being killed off one by one. The other good thing is knowing Cormac is coming back into play which is great news! This series is so enjoyable and I hope it keeps the standards up in the books to come.

Read February 2018
5 stars.

Books From The Backlog-Endurance

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf.  You might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. Go to Carole's blog and add your blog post link in to join in the fun! Hosted by Carole at https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.co.uk/

This seems like a fun feature and I have been planning to take part since Carole launched this so at last, here we go! I have a TON of unread books to choose from in various genres and I'm looking forward to sharing some of them with everybody. 

WELCOME TO THE RUSHMORE INN

The bed and breakfast was hidden in the hills of West Virginia. Wary guests wondered how it could stay in business at such a creepy, remote location. Especially with its bizarre, presidential decor and eccentric proprietor.

ONCE YOU CHECK IN...

When the event hotel for the national Iron Woman triathlon accidentally overbooked, competitor Maria was forced to stay at the Rushmore. But after checking into her room, she quickly realized she wasn't alone. First her suitcase wasn't where she put it. Then her cell phone was moved. Finally, she heard an odd creaking under the bed. Confusion quickly turned to fear, and fear to hysteria when she discovered the front door was barred and the windows were bricked over. There was no way out.

...YOU'LL BE DYING TO LEAVE

One year later, four new female athletes have become guests of the Inn. Will they escape the horrors within its walls? Or will they join the many others who have died there, in ways too terrible to imagine?

ENDURANCE by Jack Kilborn
Are you brave enough to finish?

I bought this back in 2010  when I had just finished reading Afraid. I was intrigued to learn that survivors from all the books he wrote under Kilborn and Konrath turn up again in the book Haunted House so I need to get all of these read soon, as I can't wait to get to read Haunted House! I've really enjoyed Afraid and Trapped so this one should be good too!

Game of Thrones Gossip #71 Davos

Welcome to my Game of Thrones Gossip, where us fanatics get the chance to discuss everything we love about this amazing TV series. I decided to do a whole series of these discussion posts that let us say everything we want and enjoy every second of it! Please feel free to comment fully and without restriction!

I have to warn you that it is important that you have seen all six seasons before reading any of these posts because these posts and blogger comments will be exploding spoilers all over the place. If you haven't watched the series and plan to, be warned that it's a bad idea to be here right now! I take no responsibility if you read on and things are spoiled for you.

Now I'm looking at the main characters introduced in season three, what our season two characters were doing and looking at all the bests bits. Enjoy the season three posts! 

Davos awakes after the Battle of the Blackwater to find himself washed up on the rocks and stuck there. He is able to flag down a ship and ask for rescue and his rescuers first ask which side of the battle he was on. Satisfied that he fought for Stannis, the men take him to his old pirate friend Salladhor Saan. He tells Davos that Stannis is allowing Melisandre to burn unbelievers from his loyal men and Davos decides he must return to Dragonstone to kill her. He is angry that she is influencing his master to evil things but she defends herself by saying that the deaths in the battle were not her fault as he had prevented Stannis from taking her, and claims she could have changed the result. A furious Davos pulls a knife on her and is promptly arrested and thrown into the dungeons.

Davos is visted by Princess Shireen in the dungeons and she is upset that he has fallen out of favour with her father. She cares little about him being called a traitor as he is the only friend she has and offers him books to pass the time. Davos admits that he can't read and she decides that she is going to teach him. Stannis is the next one to visit him and he decides that he will allow Davos to go free if he agrees never to raise a hand to Melisandre again. Davos accepts this but says it will not stop him disagreeing with her if it is called for. He continues to concentrate on his reading lessons and starts trying to read the mail that has come in, including the letter from Maester Aemon begging for help against the enemies in the north.

Stannis tells him that Melisandre intends to sacrifice his bastard nephew Gendry to her Lord of Light. Davos indicates that he believes Stannis is releasing him in order to have Davos save the boy, as Stannis himself does not want him to die. Davos is present to watch a restrained Gendry have his blood removed by leeches and used in a curse to kill Joffrey, Robb and Balon. Seeing that Stannis is determined to go ahead and not stand up to her, Davos decides it is up to him to save Gendry. He helps the boy into a boat and tells him to row back to King's Landing and hide back in Flea Bottom where the Lannisters and Baratheons can't find him. Stannis is furious at his interference and this time he is given a death sentence.

Davos decides to play his trump card and says that Stannis needs him, showing the letter he has read from the Night's Watch. Hearing that the Lord Commander is dead and the Night's Watch fears attacks from both wildlings and White Walkers, Melisandre looks into her flames and declares that Davos is right. She tells Stannis that Davos will play an important future role and that they must abandon the war for the Iron Throne and go north to aid the Night's Watch in the real war. Stannis is amused that the Lord of Light has saved Davos.

Can't Wait Wednesday-The Farm

Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at http://www.wishfulendings.com/ to spotlight and discuss books we're excited about but haven't read, which may not even be released yet. 

NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account. 

Denise Armstrong is a nurse, mother, widow, and military veteran. Raised by prepper grandparents, she learned at an early age to watch national and world events closely. She has been paying close attention to the economy, both around the world and at home. As she sees signs in her own community of the slowing of the economy, she begins to experience premonitions of a cataclysm to come. Denise decides to use the resources available to her to help her friends and family weather whatever crisis she KNOWS is coming. When Tom VanZant, a dear friend, confides he, too, is experiencing feelings of an impending catastrophe, they both realize it is time to hunker down to survive the storm about to occur. 

While they prepare, economic instability accelerates, violence escalates, and infrastructure deteriorates. Terrorist acts across the country and horrific brutality close to home further complicate this precarious situation. While safe (at least for the moment) on Denise’s farm, Denise, her family, and friends can only wonder: Have they prepared enough to let them survive?

I do like finding a new apocalypse series to try and this is the first time I've seen this one. It came out in April and I have just grabbed it!