Off the Bookshelf: BLOOD FOR BLOOD, by Ben Wolf

Okay, here's the deal -- I don't do vampires. Or zombies. They both have too much of the "ick" factor, you know? Yes, I enjoyed "Buffy" when it was first on the air, and I don't mind catching reruns when I'm feeling nostalgic and too brain-dead to write. And yes, "Van Helsing" is always fun to giggle through. But get the picture? Vampires are the BAD guys. They need staking and dusting.

So for me to read a book where a vampire is the hero? That's really out of my comfort zone. Like, double ick. So why did I read this vampire book? Well, Ben Wolf is a fellow Realmie, as well as the mastermind behind Splickety Magazine (there are three "flavors," so if you want to try flash fiction, there should be something for your taste). Reason enough to trust him.

Interesting take on the whole conundrum of what exactly a vampire is, if there is a soul left, or if the vampire has to regain his soul, and just how do you develop a 12-Step program to get off the addiction to blood? (Besides the abstinence program advocated by the vampires in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series?)

Then there's the long-lasting effects of seeking revenge, learning to forgive, doing what is right no matter how much it hurts, and ultimately trusting in and obeying God. Then there's the concept of Jesus' blood being enough to overcome a vampire's bloodlust. Quite enough twists and turns and "hmmmm" moments to make up for the ick factor. Even if you're not into vampires, you might just want to investigate this story that steps back a century or so, and investigates what happens when a lonely, desperate, hungry vampire runs into an old-school Italian evangelist and his family.

Off the Bookshelf: A STAR CURIOUSLY SINGING, Kerry Nietz

The next book in my quest to read all the books by fellow Realmies in my to-be-read queue  before this year's Realm Makers conference.

This first book in the Dark Trench Saga is mind-blowing -- which, in the case of the culture imagined here could be actual, literal, and pretty painful.

The hero, Sand, is a debugger -- one of a group of people who have brain implants that let them touch the Stream -- essentially, the Cloud, the worldwide Internet -- touch data, manipulate and service machines, do research, all in the comfort and iffy safety of their own heads. For the Abduls (a slang term used by debuggers to refer to the repressive culture that rules the world), control of everyone's lives, their attitudes, their bodies, their very thoughts, is a top priority. Debuggers are considered property, and are controlled by pain, tweaks" that punish them whenever their free-roaming thoughts (necessary in their line of work) stray too far in the wrong direction.

And you thought Big Brother was bad.

Dark Trench is also a revolutionary, super-advanced starship. Sand is sent up to an orbital station to deal with problems relating to the first voyage of the ship, and the strange behavior of one of the advanced 'bots that service the ship and crew. What he discovers as he investigates leads to encounters with the song of the title -- am I giving too much away when I call it the song of creation, the song of truth -- essentially "the heavens are telling the glories." Whose glories? Well, the deity everyone is required to worship is called simply A. But the defective 'bot speaks of "A not A cubed." To speak of, even to think of, this particular being, reaching out through song and changing the very implant in Sand's head is considered so heretical as to deserve death.

What happens when Sand understands the 'bot's strange words and dares to think freely -- essentially, to become a freehead? What's a freehead? Read this and find out. Guaranteed not to hurt one bit when your mind is blown.