I'm reprinting my review of Book 5 in Jean's Star Sojourner series. The books, and my review, are available on Amazon.

Jules Rammis is an astrobiologist with telepathic (“tel”) powers and a penchant for getting into trouble. In this, the fifth book in Jean Kilczer's Star Sojourner series, trouble has come to him. He's been kidnapped by Boss Slade, the Altairian master of a none-too-nice mining operation on the planet New Lithia. Slade is losing too many slaves to attempted rebellion, and he needs Jules' tel abilities to help him keep the situation in hand.

Rammis is my kind of hero – a good guy who just works at doing what he sees as the right thing to do. Kilczer handles dialog and action with equal aplomb, and in good balance. And … There is plenty of action, especially as Jules digs in to the task of taking down the lithium mine and rescuing the 300 slaves who have been captured from across a galaxy. There's also humor, romance, and adventure in abundance.

I must make note that, even though this book is part of a series, Satan's Forge does fine as a stand-alone. There's enough backstory to provide what the reader needs to know, when he or she needs to know it.

If you enjoy an exciting SF read that focuses on people rather than hardware – which, to my thinking is the best kind of SF – then you will love Satan's Forge. Since 5 stars is as high as the rating goes, I give it 5 stars. I'd give it more if I could.

The cover is done, the book is coming ... Soon! A new title in the Star Sojourner series by Jean Kilczer, an author I am proud to claim as a friend. If you haven't met her hero, Jules Rammis, you're in for a treat! If you've read her earlier books in this series, you already know that. Jean mixes science fiction action, adventure, danger and humor in a wild ride across worlds, with a good-hearted hero who just can't seem to stay out of trouble. Tangleroot is another winner.

Do all writers live in two worlds? Even when I'm not writing, I spend a lot of time in the world of my Portals books – that Earth of the not-too-distant future when gateways have opened between our human world and the Realms of Magic, home to all the beings that we've long dismissed as myth and folklore.

 Kat Morales and Tevis, the human and elf police detectives in that world, have become like best friends, people I hang out with a lot. So much so that I sometimes feel less writer than chronicler – simply writing down the stories they tell me. It's a beautiful sensation. When I'm in that zone, it's like watching a movie, seeing the events unfolding before my eyes, and I'm the transcriber hurriedly scribbling down what various characters see, smell, feel, taste …

It's a world of wonder – the world that our ancestors knew, where unicorns move silently through shadowed forests, companions to nymphs and satyrs.

  It's also a world of danger. Magic is a two-edged sword, potentially as harmful to the
spellcaster as to the spell's intended target. And not all the creatures known to our ancestors were benign. So in the world of the Portals, there are evil Wizards, beings with godlike powers and dark hearts, creatures who consider humans nothing more than lesser beings to be manipulated.

  Even nymphs and satyrs have a dark side. Even pixies …

Don't look for Tinker Bell in the world of Portals.

  But it's easy to get lost in a different world when you write fantasy or science fiction. How about those who write crime novels or romance set in our existing world? Do you
also live in two worlds, the reality around us, and the world of your books? And … Westerns. I like Westerns too, as a reader – and historical novels. Now
there would be an interesting world to live in – the past of, say, regency England or Medieval Italy.

  Or the Old West of Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp …

So … As a writer, where do you spend the most time? In the everyday world, or in the world of your books? Or is it about equal between the two?

  And … for that matter … as a reader, where do you like to hang out?