Release the Virgins

Release the Virgins by Michael A. Ventrella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Release The Virgins was a project that I discovered via Kickstarter and given the wealth of writing talent it was a simple decision to back the project. Once however I read about the anthologies creation via the use of the phrase "Release The Virgins" in each story I was if anything even more excited about the prospect of this unusual concept. As it turned out the results far exceeded my expectations with the majority of the eighteen stories using the phrase with clever, creative and intelligent intent and yes as pointed out by the editor the line was drawn on the number of stories which featured unicorns. So if you are looking for an entertaining collection of short stories with Dinosaurs, Unicorns, Private Detectives, Interstellar Sleeper Ships and even the threat of world wide Cthulhu inspired destruction covered with plenty of humour (subtle and not so) then Release The Virgins is for you.

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Sentienced to Death by Barry J. Hutchison

Sentienced to Death by Barry J. Hutchison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The 11th novel in the Space Team series sees Cal and the gang onboard the Currently Untitled having to deal with the consequences of mucking about in the timeline which resulted in a human race which swept through the galaxy leaving blood and terror in its wake. Of course the fact that in this new timeline a young Cal having been exposed to alien life and space travel went in a very different direction to the Cal we know presents all manner of guilt trips on our normally self assured so called Captain. Further guilt is piled on thanks to Mizette of the Greyx being the last of her race and while on a "not date" with Loren they end up rescuing the last member of the Symmorium the young Tyrra and fleeing both the Earth forces (EDI) and Zertex, the new adventure begins.

Sentienced to Death is an alarmingly fast paced story full of action, comedy but surprisingly still manages to strip the gears when we get some more character dependent interaction as Cal and others try to deal with the galactic situation they helped to create. A nice touch was to have Splurt be a visually representation of Cal's angst and the Librarian was a very entertaining character with the mechanics of creation and evolution being a very nice touch indeed. Another excellent addition to the Space Team series and we get a good "after credits" aka epilogue which bodes....

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