Between Final Fantasy XI and trying to find a job, I’ve not been reading much lately. But I’ll try my luck once again and let random.org decide my next where I’m going to try and find my next read. Page 199 of January releases.

Page 199

Nothing on this page. There was a book that wasn’t public domain but it had no preview.

Page 191

Resident Evil 7 Story: Episode 1. The Haunted House by Vedar Everon

What is this? Did Capcom actually release some novelizations of its games? If they did, this doesn’t look like it came from them. This looks more like copyright infringment.

Interstellar Fugitive: Space Opera Thriller (Combined Plan8 Slaves Omnibus and YuFu’s Run) by Rayner Ye

This was a boxset, which hey, I don’t mind.

Now I’m going quote the description and to stop quoting exactly where I stopped reading:

YuFu only seeks the comfort of his wife and six children.

But his wishes dissolve when the government wipe

Page 205

Possible copyright infringement shows up again but otherwise nothing on this page.

The Time Altar: Book 1: A Time to Fight by Daniel Clerc

The Time Altar Series finds its home in the Twenty-Fifth Century. In the aftermath of a near-extinction event at the end of World War IV, the world is unrecognizable. Seventy years have transpired since that cataclysm and in that time a brutal fascist regime has succeeded in consolidating its power over a continental country called United America. It’s an indomitable police state. The people live under constant surveillance. They exist in perpetual fear that the government’s secret service androids will drag them off in the middle of the night. When neighbors disappear without a trace their hopelessness only deepens.

This is all infodump, in the description. And this is just the first paragraph. It goes on for a bit more. I find infodumps that are part of characterization okay but I prefer to read stuff that just throws me off into the deep end right from the start.

But that’s for when it’s part of the story, not when it’s the product description.

Between Worlds (The Occupation Saga Book 1) by J.L. Williams

I have to be honest and say that I actually smiled a little reading the description. It starts off serious enough:

Inspired by the likes of James Galloway’s Subjugation and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, Between Worlds is a thrilling military sci-fi set in a strange new universe…

Then here’s the rest of it:

Jason had thought about punching a Shil’vati.

Who hadn’t?

Not only had the aliens conquered Earth with almost trivial ease, the seven-foot purple amazons had also had the audacity to start running the planet better than Humanity ever had.

He’d never actually act on that desire though. He was a reasonable guy, just trying to his finish engineering degree and get on with his life. Preferably without attracting any attention from his new alien overlords.

At least, that had been the plan…

Warning: This novel contains adult themes.

I dove into the preview and found out that the description is actually the beginning of the book as well. There’s a bit of an infodump but at least it was done from the point of view of the character.

Then, I found myself at the end of the preview and wanting to read more. So I bought it.