It’s the second week of December, which means the Look Inside feature should be available for books published in November. There are 214 pages for books published in November, and today’s lucky numbers from www.random.org are: 137, 180, 121, 127, 214.

I’ve said before I didn’t want to read series, but this time I’m giving the first books in a series a chance, as some of the best books I’ve read are actually trilogies.

Anyway, here goes: Page 137 of science fiction books released in Nov 2020

Page 137

All True Value by David Matuszek

The description is kinda meandering but at least there wasn’t anything technically wrong with it. The length of 545 pages gave me pause though. This is a long book.

But reading the preview, there was a couple of things I didn’t buy into. First was that immortality pill. I didn’t believe that it would be illegal worldwide and carry the death penalty. Like why? It just seemed like an excuse for the two characters to go off into space and colonise another planet.

Then there were the aliens communicating in English, albeit translated, which turned me off immediately. I’m sure other people will be okay with that but it just didn’t work for me.

The weak description and long length, combined with a prologue and first chapter that I didn’t find interesting, makes this a pass for me.

Echoes: Lucifer and the Dark Goddess by nikki broadwell

The first sentence in the prologue is:

A splash of water, ever widening circles as leaves stirred in the gentle breeze to land delicately, bright spots of color on an otherwise dark expanse.

This was really hard to parse. Even then, I’m not sure I got the meaning. There also seems to be some tense mixup. The first part seems to read as present tense then it goes into past tense. Or maybe I’m reading it wrong.

Whatever the case, I can’t read the first sentence. Pass.

Anchorite: A WorldSim Novel by C. S. Hall

The preface started off really well, like there was some voice there. But the first chapter starts off like this:

Crunch! That was the sound of the onomatopoeia as Ursula’s fist descended for the third (or was it the fourth?) time into my face.

First of all, the preface sold this as a journal. But I can’t think of any reason why someone would write a journal this way.

Second, I don’t think this is the way to use the word onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is:

the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss)

I don’t think onomatopoeias have sounds.

MAW by Danielle DeVor

The first few sentences:

Marko was frozen. Literally. Something was keeping him from moving.

If Marko was literally frozen, then he would be ice cold or in a block of ice.

Chasing the Dawn: Book 1 of the Eternal Crusade Continuum by Geoffery C.Carter

I couldn’t get past the first two sentences in the description. Places don’t fall under invasions and people survive due to, not under, someone’s bravery.

How Our World Ended by Arthur C Wiese Jr

Multiple typos in the description in the four line description.

Page 180.

Spaceship Vision: One Tin Soldier by Elton Gahr

First sentence in the description is missing a comma. Second one too. Is this how the whole book is going to be?

Dominion of the Divine: Origin by J.S. Nathaniel Nathaniel

The description has some grammar mistakes.

An advanced species known as Ouroboros control humans’ everyday lives, and they’ve been doing it for millions of years.

Now, I think it should be controls as a species is singular. To know whether to use singular or plural versions of verbs, just replace Ouroboros with something else. E.g:

An advanced species known as Homo Sapien controls humans’ everyday lives.

Ouroboros have systematically annihilated powerful civilizations since the beginning of time…

Cats have systematically annihilated powerful civilizations since the beginning of time…

Ouroboroi(?) have systematically annihilated powerful civilizations since the beginning of time…

The Hand Bringer by Christopher J. Penington

The description cuts off abruptly. The description on the paperback edition seems okay though. But paperback was published in 2017, which makes me wonder why the ebook is being published only now. Anyway, if the publisher/author can’t be bothered to do basic checking on the Kindle version, then I won’t be bothered to spend money on it.

Rogue Justice by Ronald Kaehr

This is another book by Page Publishing, which published the previous book with the cut-off description. This book was also first published in 2017. What’s going on here? Why are all these ebooks by Page Publishing being republished again?

Anyway, $9.99 was a bit steep.

The rest of the page was filled with Page Publishing books first published in 2017 with a $9.99 price tag.

Page 121

Kingdom of a thousand: The best sience fiction by Eftos Ent

WTF is this? Evem the title has a typo.

EUROPA by A. J. KURT

Skipped due to janky description.

Page 127

Smartly Dressed Violence by Mark Ryan

The title was interesting. However, the first sentence in the description is probably missing some commas.

Page 214.

Cause and Consequence by Clyde Holtcombe

Nothing happened the first few paragraphs.

Sharper Mind Darker Dreams by Leonard Seet

I usually cringe when I read self praise in the description but that’s just me. I’m not going to judge others for doing it.

There’s a rule about not starting books with the character waking from a dream. I think this might be the exception to the rule.

It’s $6.99, which is a bit expensive, but it’s also 400+ pages. I’m gonna give it a shot. Sold!