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Book Review – Damian’s Workshop, by Deborah Kaminski

Damian's Workshop

Damian’s Workshop by Deborah A. Kaminski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Damian’s Workshop is a sci-fi story set in the near future, about Brooke, a graduate student who invents a device, the Memex, to enhance memory, which could possibly be used to ameliorate Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disorders.Brooke and her lab mates are testing the machine on mice and applying for permission from the University to test in humans, but are turned down. Brooke is fearful because she may not have enough time to complete her doctoral research before her money runs out, so she makes the fateful decision to test the Memex on herself.
Brooke finds that the Memex thrusts her psyche in the head of a man called Damian who lives in Constantinople in the 13th century. She does not control Damian, her mind simply occupies his head and experiences everything that he does. Brooke eventually figures out which era she is visiting–the time of the 4th Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked by the Crusaders. Thus she has an unparalleled opportunity to observe an important historical event first hand. Or does she? Could all of this be just a dream sparked by the Memex, having no basis in reality?
The plot alternates between Brooke’s 13th century experiences and her contemporary struggle to get the Memex approved and ascertain if she’s really observing history. Author Kaminski has obviously done her homework–the passages describing daily life in ancient Constantinople are detailed and vivid, and her characters, both ancient and modern, come alive on the page. You will also find multiple POVs which the author handles deftly, weaving the individual characters’ tales into a coherent whole.
If Damian’s Workshop has a flaw, it’s that there’s too much detail, at least for me. I’m sure some readers will find Kamiski’s chronicle of quotidian events in the characters’ lives fascinating, especially the historical material, but for me, it caused the pacing to lag, and I found myself rapidly turning pages to get to the answers to important plot questions raised by the author. However, I’d much rather read an author who attempts to do too much than too little.




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Review of Venom! on Texas Book Nook

Today’s stop on the Great Venom! Blog Tour is Texas Book Nook (https://www.texasbooknook.com/), who posted a great review.

I’m going to jump in with the others who so thoroughly enjoyed this book.  You will be very pleasantly surprised on the deep and intriguing story you get out of it.
What a clever story with a wonderful balance of endearing moments and mystery.
Thomas A. Burns, Jr. has created a novel in which the main character shows growth. For me that is always something I look for in my favorite main characters. I love that this is a series in which we can watch her over the course of many books. 

Thanks so much! Please give this great site some traffic.

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Book Review – Dark: A Dark, Paranormal Romance, by Kat Kinney

Dark: A Dark Paranormal Romance (Blood Moon, Texas Shifters #1)Dark: A Dark Paranormal Romance by Kat Kinney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Sexy Romp with Werewolves and Vampires in the World of Blood Moon, Texas
If there’s one thing that Dark shows, it’s that author Kat Kinney does nothing half-way. It’s a story replete with werewolves, vampires, sex and angst, and the convoluted plot flows relentlessly to an unexpected, but well thought out conclusion.
Humans have recently learned that they share the world with shifters and vampires, and an uneasy truce is in place. Against this backdrop, Hayden Crowe, aspiring rocker and part-time barrista is assaulted one night after a gig by a feral werewolf and bitten. Stunned and frightened, she instinctively flees to an old flame, Ethan Caldwell, proprietor of the coffee shop Dark, to help her cope with her radically changed life. Ethan is a born werewolf, who is aware of the difficulty of integrating a newly bitten into the community of packs, and afraid that he won’t be able to do it for Hayden, which will result in her death.
Dark is billed as a romance, and it is, and any good romance must explore the ebbs and flows of a newly-forming relationship. Kinney does that, in spades, with plenty of steamy sex scenes interspersed with attacks of angst brought on both by raging emotions and the werewolf virus coursing through the characters’ veins. The characters are rich, developed both by narration of current events and backstory, with chapters in the past written in italics to help the reader keep track of the era. There’s also the mystery – who did this to Hayden, and why?
If Dark has a failing, it’s that the author tried to cram too much into one story. It is a laudable effort, but for me, it fell short, and it was just too much to keep track of. It was a kaleidoscopic read that necessitated backtracking to keep track of all the disparate threads, and that prevented total immersion in the storyworld for me. I was most interested in the mystery, so I found it tedious to be yanked back into the love story – this is always a problem with hybrid works like this. So I give it four stars, but if you like this genre, I think it will be well worth your time and money.


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