Top Ten Tuesday: Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, which is now being hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book.

Makes Me Want To Read A Book

Pirates: From an early age of reading I’ve always had a thing for pirates, whether they’re raiding the high seas, or doing the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs. I love me a good book about pirates.
Found Family: Who doesn’t love a story that includes found family? I just finished reading the first book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s the Founders trilogy, FOUNDRYSIDE, which included the protagonist, Sancia eventually finding her tribe.
Tense Psychological Thriller: If done well, this beats out so many other genre hands down. Especially if it involves spies.
Slow-Burn: I’m up for this each and every time, whatever the circumstances or genre.
Small Town Mystery: I love cosy mysteries in general and yes, small town Agatha Christie style murder-mysteries in particular.

Makes Me Want To Avoid A Book

Enemies to Lovers: Is there anything more manufactured than this trope? One that is severely over used IMHO.
Heart Wrenching: An over-used phrase. Is every romance to be heart wrenching, I mean, seriously?
Insta Love: I cannot stand this trope. Give me slow-burn every time.
Love Triangle: Another over used trope especially in romance. Give it a rest.
For Fans Of: Rarely is a book described this way actually aimed at Fans Of a certain author or genre.
Unreliable Narrators: Again, another over used trope.

Celebrating Military SF

There is one thing you can be sure of, modern science fiction gives us plenty of choice to choose from when it comes to sub-genres. Of course, it all depends on who you speak to about what may, or may not, make it onto the list but, for arguments sake, here are a few of what makes it onto my list:

Alien Invasion
A. I. (Artificial Intelligence | Nano Tech | Virtual)
Colonisation (also: Terraforming)
Dystopian
First Contact
Galactic Empire
Generational Ships
Military SF
Near Future
Parallel Universes
Post Apocalypse
Robots & Androids (see also AI above)
Space Exploration
Space Opera
Time Travel
Utopian

Of these, I think I dislike time travel the most, while on the flip side, one of my favourites is military SF. But what is it about one that I dislike, and what is it about the other, that I like? Well, I thought you would never ask.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Deep Down Dead

DEEP DOWN DEAD by British author, Steph Broadribb, just oozes authenticity so much so you can almost smell the burnt rubber on the asphalt, and the cordite smoke after each shoot out. It’s one of those rare books that when started, is almost impossible to put down. A page-flipping, tense, action-packed crime thriller, that will leave you breathless. Indeed, the frantic pace is one long roller coaster ride that doesn’t stop until the last page, with an ending that says: ‘This ain’t over yet, honey!’ And that there is plenty more where this came from.

A fact that makes me so happy. Because, simply put, the characters of Lori and JT are so well written, they draw you straight into the tangled story that Broadribb has crafted for them, tailor-made down to the last detail. This is not just a simple case of bails-bond Lori Anderson going to collect a ‘Jumper’ but so much more complex when the Jumper turns out to not only be her mentor, but someone she fell in love with. Throw in a couple of wrenches in the guise of the Miami Mafia on the hunt for JT, but also a pedophile group hell bent on silencing him, and Lori—Momma Bear—has her hands full staying one step ahead. And keeping her, and JT alive, long enough to save Lori’s daughter, Dakota, who’s been kidnapped.

And, as these guys find out the hard way, you don’t mess with a Momma Bear and come between her and her child!

From the crisp, snappy banter, to the subtext and romantic tension between JT and Lori, to the dynamics of a plot that twists and turns at every corner, everything clicks into place perfectly. DEEP DOWN DEAD is one hell of a satisfying read, with one kick-ass, memorable heroine in Lori Anderson; a woman who just doesn’t know how to give up, when fighting to save her child’s life.

A thrilling debut outing. If this doesn’t leave you wanting more, then I don’t know what will.

Top Ten Tuesday:

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, which is now being hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books on My Spring 2026 To-Read List.

So, what’s on my radar?

Nothing like an eclectic mix of genres and authors. And you, what’s on your list?

SF Gizmos & Gadgets

Or, all the futuristic stuff I’ve always dreamed of owning.

And who hasn’t dreamed of owning items we see in a movie, or on TV. I remember my friend Linda and I desperately wanting to join the USS Enterprise so we could each have a phaser, not realising till much later on, that this meant we might end up being an Infamous Red Shirt — usually the first characters to get shot at or die a grisly death in nearly every episode of Trek! But that didn’t stop us dreaming or pretending during lunch break that our bananas were communicators. Flipping them open, and then, talking to them.

No wonder I was considered a weird kid at school.

It didn’t stop with Trek, I lusted after the tech in most SF TV shows I’ve watched over the years. From light sabres to magnetic boots, to the TARDIS and Firefly’s ‘Serenity’. I wanted it all and, when I found out I needed H. G. Wells’ Time Machine to travel into the future, I started creating my own fictitious hardware and tech by writing it into existence. Hey, why not? I have a very vivid imagination.

Funny thing these days is technology is catching up fast. There was a time when I dreamed of a Dick Tracey watch, and now, I owe an Apple iWatch. Like the flip phone inspired by Star Trek, and the diagnostic beds now in existence, to a version of the tricorder being used on the ISSN — The Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS) is used by astronauts and is designed specifically to biochemical molecules with the purpose of “identifying microbes on space station services” through use of the Gram Staining Method.

We even have a sort of hover bike now on sale based on drone tech, but scaled up considerably.

Hover boards are not that far away!

Let’s just hope that sentient Toasters (a.k.a. the Cylons) are a long way off in the far future. I also wonder when we’ll get memory crystals, or crystal storage technology?

Maybe that’s not so far off as we think. Whatever the tech, we know that science fiction can inspire real-life technologies and, if we live long enough, might even be witness to some incredible breakthroughs in the decades to come.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in checking out a great listing of future tech featured in SFF books going back to 1899, check out the Glossary of SF Ideas, Technology and Inventions. Which, I might add, is an amazing resource—never assume you came up with the idea first, you’ll probably find out H. G. Wells, Verne, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, to some SF fanatical TV scribe beat you to it.

See you in the future!