SUMMARY:

It's almost impossible to imagine that the stuff of science fiction is now reality... a reality concealed by a clandestine enclave that has controlled every major scientific breakthrough for centuries. Discovering a mass of unknown matter hurtling directly toward Earth, they send an army of embryos to colonize Earth V2. Their future mission is to protect Earth, but Dedridge, the leader of the V2 population, rebels. Aana stands between his loyalists and the cause for Earth, where a man rises through the ranks of the Air Force to become the protector of the planet. It's brother against brother, and world against world, in a battle for survival.

Before I start the review, let me state that I'm very happy once-upon-a-bookstore is one of the few sites that actually realized my visa card was genuine and I was able to spend last night reading Earth V2 as opposed to spending hours on the phone arguing with the bank. Again. For the fourth time this month. So, kudos to them.

My first impressions of Earth V2 were a little conflicted, as right away I was thrown into a world of detailed technology, locations, and having to meet a lot of people. However, this quickly changed as I was soon immersed in following not one but several well-rounded characters, and by the end I couldn't stop reading.

There is also a splash of horror in this novel as well. Without going into too many spoilers, there is a delightful technical detail of a ship called the Space Womb as it travels to V2. With horror comes the sense of realism, which is the strength of the book by far. I'm happy to say that overall it was very difficult for me to predict the plot.

Bottom line: A little bit technical in the beginning, but the characterization and level of detail make this book a great read.

http://www.lyricalpress.com/earth_v2
http://www.lyricalpress.com/malcolm_ducard
http://www.earthv2.com/trailer.html

Hm, once again a slow update on my own blog site. Part of the delay is having technical problems (my paypal got hacked into, there are still bugs on my browser, etc) and another part is being busy writing War of the Soulites 2-the sequel that still needs an actual title. I'm happy to say that is around 30,000 words right now, so hopefully it'll be done soon. It's not easy to write a book!

Anyway, here are some updates:

This is the book trailer for War of the Soulites which took 3 days and cost 40 dollars to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLw5Ttqj3d8

Here is a really awesome and detailed interview about War of the Soulites:
http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/interview-with-natasha-bennett-author.html

And here's a shorter interview:
http://authorscoop.com/2009/03/24/5-minutes-alone-with-natasha-bennett/

Release date is still tentatively set for May 4th-almost three weeks ago! There will be updates before that time. You know, unless the cornflicker virus turns my laptop into part of skynet. In which case updates will happen the speed of whenever-I-find-500-bucks-for-a-new-laptop.