When Lacey Garrett takes a moment to answer a message board poster's question, she has no clue that doing so will soon have her teleported to another planet. Zain Masters believed that he had been scouting a simple, out of the way world. Then a hidden laser shot his ship out of the sky. Lacey is the only person who seems to understand the strange markings on a local monument. Markings that seem to hold the key to a way out of his situation. But something dangerous lurks beneath the surface. Barry's third book in the Un series is a fun adventure/romance, but the planet hopping plotlines of the previous entries is missing this time out. Lacey and Zain spend most of the novel in one place, a desert planet the Warrior Programmer dubs Death Valley. Despite the lack of world building diversity Barry's story is a delight to read. Highly recommended.

Once upon a time, Texan writer Joe R. Lansdale was forced to put his ailing mother in a rest home. The writer found the place both sad and creepy...and a wonderful setting for a story. Combining two fallen heroes from his youth (Elvis Presley and President John Kennedy) with an interest in archeology (i.e. mummies) Lansdale drafted the story Bubba Ho-Tep, wherein the eldery men who may or may not be who they say they are (the aforementioned misters Presley and Kennedy) battle a soul sucking mummy that is feeding on the frail residents of the rest home they live in. Lansdale's story is sad, spooky, funny, and ulitmately heartwarming as the two find themselves vitalized by the battle with a nemesis that only they can see and touch. Ironically, Lansdale did not care much for the story and was surprised when it became a fan favorite. He was also stunned that Phantasm writer/director Don Coscarelli wanted to make the story into a movie. Considering how oddball the concept was, it is no surprise that financing Bubba Ho-Tep would prove problematic. But Coscarelli stuck to his vision and snagged Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis to star and managed to make the movie he wanted to make. When no one would distribute it, he distributed it himself and a bona-fide cult classic was born. In this book are Lansdale's story and Coscarelli's respectfully faithful shooting script. Whether you are a fan of Lansdale, Coscarelli, or Campbell (or all of the above, like me) this book is required reading. Highly recommended.

Rick, a small town Kentucky police officer, awakens from a gun shot induced coma to find the world a very different, and very horrifying, place. The dead now walk and attack the far out numbered living. While he slept, the world had ended...

While the opening was a tad too close to 28 Days later for my taste (wouldn't it have been more interesting to start at minute zero and progress through the erupting zombie plague?) the story quickly grew on me and, in the absence of a fourth Romero zombie movie, it satisfies. Required reading for any zombie fan.

When the Crown Prince (i.e. heir to the royal throne) Antony diTalora makes a visit to a neighboring country's refuge camp he is simply doing what he considers his duty. Jennifer Allen, the woman running the camp, knows that the Prince is simply there for the routine charitable press photo and not because he has a true calling to help ease the suffering of those in need. But Jennifer soon discovers she has underestimated the Crown Prince, while Antony cherishes the effect Jennifer has had on his heart. Nicole Burnham's debut novel was a finalist for the Golden Heart Award. Highly recommended.

No one, save a very few, takes paleoclimatologist (the study of past climate trends) Jack Hall's worries about the melting polar ice disrupting the North Atlantic current and causing a massive superstorm very seriously. Then the current disappears and the weater goes mad. Now they listen, but it's too late to avoid a new ice age and the people in the North are doomed to a certain death by freezing. That certainty does not stop Jack Hall from setting out to rescue is son, who is trapped in the frozen wasteland that was once New York City.

Whitley Strieber, who co-wrote (with radio personality Art Bell) The Coming Global Superstorm (the book that writer/director Roland Emmerich admits 'inspired' his epic disaster movie), does an excellent job of fleshing out the obviously action heavy script. The result is a quick rollercoaster ride of a book. Fans of Strieber, Bell, or Irwin Allen reincarnate Roland Emmerich's movie will want this in their collection. Recommended.

As most fans of Art Bell and Whitley Strieber know, this is the book that inspired Roland Emmerich to write and direct The Day After Tomorrow. For that reason alone it is a must read for any disaster movie/novel fanatic. Bell and Strieber use a combination of myth interpretation, amatuer and/or pseudo-science speculation and fictional dramatization of the actual prophesied event to educate/scare the reader with their theory that a single and quite massive 'superstorm' might bring about either a new ice age or global flood. Whichever it might be depends on what time of year the storm is unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Some of the examples sited are a tad suspect. I am fairly certain that Carl Sagan debunked the moon-is-a-broken-off-part-of-Earth theory way back when Cosmos was a first run television series and, while each culture may have a flood myth, this does not necessarily mean that a global flood occurred. Just about every region of the world will flood at some point or another and it is a long stretch to imply that the myths are linked to a single event. The less said about the use of an astrological calender, the better. Nonetheless, if you are as big a fan of Mrrs. Bell and Strieber as I am, then you will probably find this book an entertaining 'what-if' piece of infotainment, but I remain a 'wait and see' skeptic in regards to whether or not said superstorm actually exists.

When Bree 'Banzai' Maguire and her wingman Cam 'Scarlet' Tucker are shot down over North Korea, their fight for survival takes a strange turn. A deranged scientist has shot them down strictly to use as guinea pigs in a cryogenics experiment. Something goes wrong and Banzai is not awakened until the year 2176 by a treasure hunting SEAL name Ty Armstrong. But things do not go as planned and Banzai winds up the affectionate prisoner of an arrogant, yet gentle, prince. Some romance fans may grumble that action and world building take a front seat to the romance, then again this is the first of a five book series, so the world needs to be very well developed to hold the stories to come. Undoubtedly most futurist fans will love it, recommended.

Chief Brian Skelley is supervising a bomb search and diffusion training exchange exercise in Scotland when a strange relic is discovered. One that explodes and sends Skelley man back in time to 1301, the time of William Wallace's rebellion. Caira Mackenzie is struggling to keep her secret (both her husband and her father are now dead and Castle Kilbeinn is without a laird) from the nearby British. Can the recently discovered Skelley help or hinder Caira? A Blast to the Past is brisk, breezy fun, with the adventure aspects getting just as much attention as the romantic story. All in all a short and satisfying read. Recommended.

It has been twenty years since Lionel Westfall and Sophie Bowerbank were discovered in a compromising session of heavy petting. Lionel's father, the Earl of Wraxham, sent his son off to war and then forced him into a marriage that added considerably to the family standing and coffers. Sophie, a lowly rector's daughter, was left behind, her stolen heart broken. She vowed to never marry, having tasted a pure love in Lionel's arms. But that was in the past, now Lionel returns home both a widower and notorious rake, with six sons, one suffering from night terrors, sorely in need of help. Help he finds in Sophie's tutoring of his children. But someone has dark plans to put an end to the quickly reigniting passion between the former couple. The Kissing Gate moves quickly and the troubles Lionel and Sophie share are nicely balanced with their more intimate interests. Recommended.

Bruce Campbell relates the humor filled story of how he and a bunch of friends turned their hobby into an actual career. Moving from amateur home movies, to summer stock theater, to a low budget horror movie that has become legend in The Horror Geek Circle and then on to a hard won, albeit strictly working class, career in Hollywood, Campbell maintains a down to earth tone that never, ever talks down to his fans, or clients, or smart people. Highly recommended.