ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine March 2014 | Page 43

Review of Orbs by
Nicholas Sansbury Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ceri London

The inclusion of material from Solar
Storms (the prequel) could have been a
little smoother, but overall the story
developed at a fast pace to reach a
satisfying end with plenty of nail-biting
moments that left me ready to devour
the next story. This promises to
develop into an exciting series.
For more info, check out Orbs here.

Review For Whom The
Bell Tolls
Myth Rating 5 Stars
Christoph Fischer

The dynamics between Sophie (eminent
scientist) and the pilot assigned to
transport her to a biosphere facility
hooked me into this story. Sadly, the
pilot moved on and new characters
moved in, and I was

There was interesting character
development, even for the AI on the
biosphere team. I went from liking
Sophie to being unsure about her
before warming to her again. I enjoyed
the military characters. Overton’s
perception of kids as ankle biters fitte d
him well. Timothy? I wanted to
understand him, but the value he
should have offered the team eluded
me.
Each
character
responded
differently to the stresses they were
under and by the end a new team
dynamic was emerging.

This provides the setting for the coming
of age of young Vlad and his ‘good’
counter part Andrei. Vlad is being held
hostage by the Turks and during this
time has his first romantic and sexual
encounters while his father is struggling
with both, his allies and his enemies in
the Balkan. The relationships between
father and son, the son and his captives
and the individual characterisations are
way beyond what a fantasy /
paranormal book might offer. The
writing is of literary class.
O’Neill has done a fantastic job at
presenting us with the historical
Dracula as opposed to the purely
fictional books about Dracula, which
distinguishes him from less ambitious
and accomplished works in the genre.

Chilling

unimpressed by Sophie’s “boss” as his
introduction of the Biosphere facility
left much to be desired, but there were
reasons for this that were divulged later
What kept me hooked (and compels me
to give five stars) is that ORBS proved
scary. Thiss tory pla ys on the fragility of
Earth’s ecosystem and mankind’s
resilience to alien invasion. The alien
monsters
are
described
with
bloodcurdling realism.

with the Turks. In that regard the book
is an excellent account of the historical
and political dynamics and dramas on
the Balkan and Europe of the time and
worth reading for the well researched
and competently written historical
account alone. The detailed descriptions
of the politics and customs of the time
are amazing.

The Dracula Chronicles: For Whom
The Bell Tolls by Shane KP O’Neill is a
very well written historical account of
the early days of Vlad Dracula in
Transylvania from 1431 onwards.
Although young Vlad will later on
become a Vampire and the figure that
inspired other Dracula stories, O’Neill
sticks with this book to the historic
figure and describes only the first years
of Vlad’s existence.
Introductory chapters introduce the
theme of the First Great War of the
Angels, of Lucifer and his great plan to
find the perfect human to carry out his
evil plan. The fight between good and
evil forces has come to the earth plane
and finds itself in the duality which is
being set up between a gypsy boy called
Andrei and Vlad Dracula junior.
Vlad Dracul senior is the Voivode of
Wallachia and at the time in conflict

Dark and atmospheric but without any
actual vampires this is an amazing and
very unique book that hopefully will
appeal to the fans of the vampire genre
as much as it did to this satisfied fan of
historical fiction.
Read on for more about Shane and this
historical novel!
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The battle for souls has raged since the
truce that followed the First Great War
of the Angels. God has struck the
ultimate blow and sacrifice to gain the
advantage and defeat His fallen angel
and estranged son, Lucifer. As Lucifer
stands at the foot of the Cross that
drains the last ounce of life from Christ
and eradicates man’s sins, he realises
that his work must begin anew.
In time, he comes to understand that
his only chance to win this battlewill be
to destroy the institution of the Catholic
Church to turn man against God, once
and for all. He searches for more than a
millennium for the candidate to see his
plan through to an end and finally

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