Phenomenons: Every Human Creature Edited by Michael Jan Friedman - A Phenomenal Collection Of Shorts From A Phenomenal Bullpen Of Writers!

Phenomenons: Every Human Creature Edited by Michael Jan Friedman

Phenomenons is a new collection of short stories gathered by Mike Friedman inspired by his love for comic book superheroes.

In the foreword to this volume, Mike credits his parents for his love of reading by encouraging his comic habit, because as far as his mother and dad were concerned, "reading is reading." This fed not only his love of comic book literature, but other forms as well. He cites his parent's encouragement as a source for creating Phenomenons.

What follows is a collection of short vignettes featuring numerous superheroes who experience varying levels of success in their crime-fighting endeavors. All the principal characters are ordinary people, each with an extraordinary power. But all take their cue from one hero who inspired them, the mysterious Grey Guardsman, a shield wielding character who either appears or is referred to in every story. 

Of course, with every superhero story, there also must be a super villain, and with this collection, there may be several, including the self-doubt of many of the heroes. But the real villain seems to be the economy of the times. There is a lot of greed in the world these stories are set in, and it seems the rich just keep getting richer, while the common people suffer. A situation no true superhero can tolerate, no matter the odds they face.

This anthology includes two entries by the editor, Mike Friedman, who gathered an all-star bullpen of writers who contributed their genius project. They are (in alphabetical order) Ilsa J. Bick, Michael A. Burstein, Russ Colchamiro, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Mary Fan, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Dan Hernandez, Heather E. Hutsell, Paul Kupperberg, Ron Marz, Aaron Rosenberg, Hildy Silverman, Geoffrey Thorne, and Marie Vibbert. Add in the artwork by Ciao Cacau, Mike Collins, and Blair Shedd, and you have a phenomenal and fun collection of high entertainment value (yes, the pun is intended).

I tried to find a favorite story to write about but found it impossible to choose because all the vignettes included are superior in every way. They are all very different from each other and take different tacks. What binds them together is they are all set in the same world and in the same era. And they are all leading to a showdown in the future, so I am hoping there will be another volume coming soon.

If you enjoy reading about the lives of superheroes seeking justice under difficult conditions, then this is a collection for you. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Michael Jan Friedman is the author of more than 70 books of fiction and non-fiction, about half of them set somewhere in the wilds of the Star Trek universe.

In 1992 Friedman wrote Reunion, the first Star Trek: The Next Generation hardcover, which introduced the crew of the Stargazer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s first command. Over the years, the popularity of Reunion has spawned a number of Stargazer stories in both prose and comic book formats, including a six-novel original series.

Friedman has also written for the Aliens, Predator, Wolf Man, Lois and Clark, DC Super Hero, Marvel Super Hero, and wishbone licensed book universes. Eleven of his book titles, including the autobiography Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Ghost Hunting (written with SciFi’s Ghost Hunters), have appeared on the prestigious New York Times primary bestseller list, and his novel adaptation of the Batman & Robin movie was for a time the #1 bestselling book in Poland (really).

Friedman has worked at one time or another in network and cable television, radio, business magazines, and the comic book industry, in the process producing scripts for nearly 180 comic stories. Among his comic book credits is the Darkstars series from DC Comics, which he created with artist Larry Stroman, and the Outlaws limited series, which he created with artist Luke McDonnell. He also co-wrote the story for the acclaimed second-season Star Trek: Voyager episode “Resistance,” which guest-starred Joel Grey.

As always, he advises readers that no matter how many Friedmans they know, he is probably not related to any of them.

For more on Michael Jan Friedman and his fiction, follow him on Twitter@FriedmanMJ, like him on Facebook, and check out Crazy 8 Press.

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Renegade: The Companion Chronicles Book 5 By Joshua Todd James - Mayhem In A Mining Town Where No One Is To Be Trusted

Renegade: The Companion Chronicles Book 5 by Joshua Todd James

I received a review copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Renegade is the fifth book in the Companion Chronicles series by Joshua Todd James. Picking up where Man in a Box left off, we continue following the adventures of artificially intelligent android Jacob Kind. Jacob, synthetic person, witnessed the murder of his owner, mentor, and as Jacob refers to her, his mother, Sylvia. He knows who the murderer is and is chasing him across the country to see that justice is done. He is being sought by the police for being a cop-killer, and by the company who built him because of the changes he has undergone through his ordeal.

Overall, I have enjoyed this series of books with great enthusiasm, including this volume. At the same time, I am deeply disturbed by the dark turn taken by the principal character. It is no surprise to that this has happened because the author is plumbing the depths of the darkest part of humanity. Through reading this work, I find myself happy to be who I am to have never experienced the side of society Jacob has been forced to witness as he pursues his quarry. 

As with the rest of the tales in the Companion Chronicles series, this is a story that will hopefully make readers think and look inside themselves. By exposing the darkest parts of ourselves, perhaps Joshua will help us want to be better humans. 

Companion Jacob Kind is on a quest for justice for the murder of Sylvia, his Primary. He has been through a lot and has learned to kill when necessary. After escaping a brutal fight club situation, he comes to a town where he is mistaken for someone who has been hired by a mining company to kill a member of the community that has proven to be an inconvenience.

Jacob, finding himself in need of money, takes the offered bounty and heads off to investigate the situation. He meets and falls in love with Raven, a member of a group of environmentalists who also engage in acts of terrorism and give him a counteroffer to take out the head of the mining company.

Taking their money, he plays a dangerous game of chess as he manipulates one side against the other while determined to keep Raven out of the line of fire.

Before it is all finished, the real hired assassin and Jacob's nemesis, Munson Tolliver, arrives on the scene where to two vow that one day in the near future, they will have their final showdown.

The principal character, Jacob Kind has changed. He is no longer the innocent and naïve artificial person he once was. He has been through the ringer and has learned to be a brutal killing machine. He still maintains his sense of justice, but his capacity for violence and appalling human behavior has ramped up to a terrifying point. Jacob cannot be blamed for this eventuality owing to all the inhumanity he has witnessed during his short life.

It saddens me to see the direction Jacob's growth has taken. While he still seeks justice for Sylvia's murder, he has also decided to take it into his own hands, resolving to kill Tolliver himself, rather than bring him to the system. But who can blame him? He has had little to no help from anyone, nor has he seen any example of the system working. As a matter of fact, the system doesn't allow any room because there are no laws protecting his kind.

He is performing as he has learned, and his education has not been in any way positive.

My favorite point of plot in Renegade is a glimmer of hope for Jacob in the form of Raven. She is the supposed leader of a group of terrorists who claim to environmentalists, but she is also the only one of her group who is genuinely what she appears to be. The rest are using her as a figurehead to keep the heat away from themselves.

We see a little of Jacob's innocence surface when he strikes up a short relationship with Raven, and he sees it as a possible long-term situation. But Raven is a self-proclaimed "free-spirit" and Jacob hasn't really had an experience with such a person.

My takeaway from Renegade is a little different than it has been for the previous books. In this tale, it is a look at how Jacob has assimilated the worst of humanity and learned to use it with deadly efficiency. He has become a little greedy, a killer without remorse, and he has learned to manipulate people.

While I find it a sad situation for a character that would otherwise have a great capacity to do good, he has been forced into the position he is in to survive long enough to achieve his goal, the elimination of Munson Tolliver at any cost.

As with the rest of the Companion Chronicles, I give Renegade my highest recommendation as stories that will make the reader think about their own implicit biases and what the result of unleashing those biases might be.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Joshua Todd James is a novelist, screenwriter, and playwright based in New York City. He wrote the feature film Pound of Flesh, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, among others. He is a member of WAGE and is represented by Snowpeck Management and Gersh.

His books include The Companion Chronicles which detail the adventures of synthetic person Jacob Kind in the books titled Some Animals, Minority of One, Freedom Run, Man in a Box, Renegade, and Domo Arigato, Mr. Robato.

You may join Jacob's chase for justice on the author's website: Joshua Todd James.

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Terms Of Service: Subject To Change Without Notice by Craig W. Stanfill - A Look Into The Future, Or Perhaps The Present

Terms of Service: Subject To Change Without Notice by Craig W. Stanfill

I received a review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I downloaded this book; I am happy to say I immensely enjoyed it.

Terms of Service is set in a dystopian world about 250 years in the future. It is full of hard sci-fi concepts and many ideas from today projected into the future. It reads like futuristic sci-fi, but also feels very familiar in the now. Imagine a world in which there is absolutely no privacy whatsoever. Everything you do and say is constantly monitored and regulated. This is the future that author Craig Stanfill envisions, but he also causes one to stop and think about personal privacy.

In this world, there are rules that are strictly monitored and enforced with few privileges for those who are not at the top of society. Break the rules and punishment is swift and can also be severe depending on the infraction. Smaller infractions are usually more irritating or inconvenient, and major problems could result in being assigned to hard labor outside of main society.

At the beginning of the story, it is actually more humorous as we get to know the principal character simply called Kim. She goes about her life with frustrations, causing her to endure minor inconveniences. However, as the story progresses, the saga becomes darker and more frightening.

Kim lives a mundane, work-a-day kind of life in the big city. One could consider her a middle-class citizen. She has a job working for an AI company, a small spartan apartment that is fully automated. As long as she is employed, she want's for nothing except a little adventure now and then.

However, Kim is not a happy person. She goes home after work to have her dinner, which is determined by her artificially intelligent refrigerator, and view what is on the vids on her visor entertainment system. After that, she drinks herself into a stupor and sleeps until it is time to start all over the next day.

After a rather large misadventure, the company determines she is worth more time and is "promoted." Her living arrangements improve, but her new position causes her some consternation, and she learns what is expected of her.

I found the principal character, Kim, to be someone I would like to know. She has a few radical ideas about things that go against the norms of the society she lives in. Afforded few luxuries, she has a life that is unremarkable for the most part, mostly living within the rules of the company. But now and then, she gets sidetracked by friends and develops a sense of justice that could lead to her downfall. I like her. She is a nonconformist and thinks for herself.

As I mentioned, the first part of the story was amusing. I laughed at several points before the story took a more sinister tone. The things I found most fascinating was how Kim's refrigerator closely regulated much of her life. If she wanted steak for dinner, the fridge would deliver tofu. Her struggle with the appliance was never ending. She would commit some small infraction and the machine would dispense items she didn't want. Sometimes, her apartment would monitor her reaction to something it had served her, and if she seemed to like it, she would get more of it, often more than she really wanted.

Even her shower would mete out punishment for small infractions. Break some small rule and it was a cold shower the next morning.

If Terms were intended to be a comedy, those examples would be funny, but what the plot point actually does is use a light tone to set up what comes later. As the plot is rendered, those pesky appliances, as well as other AI controlled items, contribute to a terrifying situation later in the tale.

My takeaway from Terms is the idea of privacy, now and in the future. There is none. I have said for a long time that privacy is a myth. And the question is, who has taken away our privacy? As far as I am concerned, we have done it to ourselves.

Do you have a cellular phone? Do you interact on social media? Do you shop online? If the answer to those is yes, then I contend one has no privacy. I do all three and see evidence of it all the time. If I buy a book on Amazon, I immediately get ads by email and on social media, suggesting a plethora of suggestions for other books I might like. If I mention where I am having dinner, I get all kinds of suggestions for where to have dinner in the future, complete with coupons! It never ends.

In terms, the concept of no privacy is taken to the extreme, where every movement Kim makes is monitored and recorded for later use against her.

The really sad thing is, even though the author has set this story in the distant future, he also explains how much of what he writes is reality, and it is happening now.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It gives us information at our fingertips. It guides on our journey to get from one place to another. It puts us in immediate touch with our friends and family. But at what cost? Think about it.

Terms of Service is a highly entertaining, well-written story that will make the reader think about the present and the future differently, as the author intended. I honestly could not put this book down for long and had to get back to it when I had to set it aside. I’m recommending it for its entertainment value and the warning it contains. I would not want to live in the future as described in these pages, but it would also seem that the future is now. If you found Orwell's 1984 disturbing, be warned, this is like that tome on steroids!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Craig W. Stanfill obtained his PhD in artificial intelligence in 1983, and has spent his career doing ground-breaking research in AI and enterprise computing. He has written numerous scientific papers, co-founded a software company and been awarded more than 80 patents. He continues to work in technology as he begins a second career writing speculative dystopian fiction. Dr. Stanfill lives an active lifestyle, and is an avid bicyclist, skier, sailor, and musician. With his wife, Sharon (herself a software engineer), he has roamed the world, always seeking out new places and cultures to explore. Together they have one son, who has followed in his parent's footsteps as a software professional and now works for a high-profile technology company.

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The Rose: Volume 2: A Sci-Fi Fantasy Thriller by PD Alleva - A Portrait Of An Alien Invasion In Chaos

The Rose: Volume 2: A Sci-Fi Fantasy Thriller by PD Alleva

I received a review copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Rose: Volume 2 continues right from where the first book left off. Sandy has been kidnapped by Alien Vampires and now, her child, who was taken from her before birth, is being kept from her. As any mother would, Sandy's only concern is to find her infant son and take him back. Phil, a skilled warrior, has made it his mission to find and rescue Sandy and her son. What stands in his way is an evil, ambitious alien, Sanos. In this second book of the series, the battles escalate on all fronts and it turns into another blood bath as humans fight to survive, Phil seeks to defeat Sanos and find Sandy, and Sanos is on a quest to take over as the leader of the alien forces and enslave the people of the Earth.

This segment of the saga picks up where volume one leaves off.

Sandy, who was kidnapped in the first book, is still being held hostage and continues to intensely seek the whereabouts of her infant son, who was taken from her before he was born. She finds herself transformed into something other than human and begins a campaign to win the confidence of her captors with deception. At the same time, Phil, the freedom fighter who caused much destruction and mayhem to the alien vampires, continues his attempt to rescue Sandy from the alien clutches. The ambitious Sanos, a vampire with a lot of power, works to take his place as leader of the invaders, but realizes he will have little success as long as Phil lives.

This story is intense and loaded with action from the beginning to the end, and the stage is set for a final showdown that will determine the future of humanity.

Sanos is obsessed with gaining power and is dividing the alien forces. His quest to become the leader of the invading forces has complicated their goals. The vampires and grays didn't think their task to enslave the people of Earth would be as difficult as it has become, but Sanos doesn't seem to care about anything except his own ambitions, and his power is becoming overwhelming.

The only hope is that Sandy will be able to make the aliens think she is on their side, and at the same time, the only way Phil will be able to rescue Sandy and her child, is to once and for all, destroy Sanos, finally destabilizing the alien power base.

In Rose 2, my takeaway focuses on Sanos and how reckless he has become. He doesn't seem to care what the goals of his fellow aliens are, he only wants to become the leader. His efforts are continually thwarted by Phil, and defeating him has become an obsession that threatens to lead the invasion to ruin. Sanos' power has corrupted him to where he seems to be the focal point of the story and there is going to be an epic showdown between him and Phil. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully in the third installment of this saga.

As second books in trilogies go, this one is well done setting the stage for an inthralling conclusion. This segment moves at a blinding speed and the action never lets up, while at the same time, gives us a lot of insight into the characters introduced in the first volume. If you enjoy an action-packed story with great characters, both good and evil, you're going to love this novel. It is intense!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in Westchester County, New York, living in South Florida since 1992. A child of the 90’s PD has coined a new genre, Alternative Fiction. Why? Because Multi-Genre Author sounds like you’ve got marbles between your cheeks. 

Horror, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Supernatural, Dark Fiction, Thrillers and Mysteries, a little bit of sumpin sumpin for readers who enjoy intellectual and yet over the top lets blow our minds and rock out to amazing and extraordinary stories, heroes and villains. PD's latest release is The Rose Vol 1, a dystopian science fiction thriller, a series that features a sophisticated although primal and ravaging species of Alien Vampires living in hollow earth who have conspired with alien greys and elite humans in an attempt to subjugate the human population. Vol 1 was published on October 7, 2020 with Vol 2 slated for publication in early December 2021. PD will also publish his horror novel, Golem in early October 2021.

PD can best be described as a kind hearted, compassionate, hypnotizing, mesmerizing, do good save your life simpleton who would rather hang out all day with the characters in his books than venture too far away from home. A lover of isolation, meditating on the beach at sunrise, and howling at the moon after sunset, he’s either the life of the party or the oddball sitting alone in the corner with that really strange look in his eye as if he’s talking with people that are just not there, perhaps receiving a few concerned stares as he laughs at himself or maybe a funny joke one of those voices just told him. OH, All IS WELL ISN’T IT?

PD loves the creative process that comes with writing. From the spawning of a new idea to jotting down notes or sending a hurried email to himself even during the most off time to do so (the book always come first), to the artful craft of editing all the way to publication, there is nothing better than producing an exceptional book. 

An avid reader who loves to talk books, PD will write short reaction reviews for the books he has finished and has not one issue answering questions from readers as they come.

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