Customer Reviews

Blood and Roses: A Jayne Taylor Novel

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In Blood and Roses, Jayne Taylor spent three years as a noncombatant running relief supplies to hospitals and refugees in the European theater. During that time she killed a man, rescued a novice who later became her friend and the nanny to the four children she adopted after the war. Now it's 1920 and Jayne and her family are returning to the US to make a life for themselves Jayne sees the man she killed on the wharf in New York. But perhaps that's just travel weariness. The main problem Jayne has is finding a job to support her family--lady jobs don't pay enough. As a truck driver for the mob running booze she can feed and clothe them but then a woman doing a man's job never has an easy time of it.

Next thing she knows, a mob driver on another route has an illness similar to the one she saw in Europe and her partner on the truck might just be more than he seems. Before she knows what's going on, Jayne finds herself forced to work for the pre-Federal Bureau of Investigation (minus pay of course), and in a flying saucer on the way to Japan trying to stop the development of a weapon of mass destruction. The investigator who forced her to work with him won't listen to her or tell her anything and she thinks she knows more than he does about what he's dealing with based on what she saw during the war.

There's a definite feeling of the '20s going on here. There's the story which is interesting enough in its own right but also the subtext of a woman trying to make ends meet in a world that thinks she's better as a decorative accessory on a man's arm. This is the decade that saw a lot of big changes in women's rights and while this doesn't deal with the issues of the vote it does deal with the everyday issues of trying to survive.

Blood and Roses.is an interesting blend of the old hard-boiled detective fiction and gee whiz science fiction. It's a lot of fun in a strange off kilter way.

Each of Ann Zeddies books is better than the last

Typhon stories that she wrote under the name, Toni Anzetti, are great. Definitely worth reading at least once. I'm glad she's started using her own name (see Steel Helix)... makes it easier to find her stuff.

I haven't read the Deathgift books, but I plan to.

Blood And Roses is excellent.

The characters have depth. The scenes and action are real. Ms. Zeddies is really an excellent story teller.

Many science fiction heroines are portrayed as over-the-top superwomen... tougher & meaner than any men. It's like the authors, in trying to overcome the 'weak woman' stereotype go too far and end up with characters that are cliche.

Jayne Taylor is nothing like that. She's an interesting and courageous individual who just happens to be a woman. She's intelligent, resourceful, and just won't give up. Zeddies makes Jane alive.

While this is a science fiction story, I think that people who aren't generally into sf would like it. It's just an excellent story, written well. It would be an excellent story even if the science fiction aspects were removed... although they do add a lot.

I hope that Ms. Zeddies writes more Jayne Taylor novels, soon!

After spending three years in France as a relief worker, Jayne Taylor goes one step beyond her usual heroics when she kills a German soldier who is holding Sister Madeline hostage. Madeline looks like she is suffering from radiation poisoning but she receives medical attention and recovers. When the war ends Jayne adopts five war orphans and with Madeline brings them home to America. Needing to earn some money she convinces a mobster to let her drive the truck carrying liquor during prohibition. On her first run, she and another end up in a flying ship heading towards Japan.

They land on Sado Island where they become separated. Carmeron is held prisoner by sentient insects that look like monsters while Jayne is in the same underground chamber of caves trying to find Cameron with the help of a mysterious stranger who knows more than he should about the bugs and their plans. The Japanese warlord Noriyama wants to use the same substance that the alien prisoners are mining to make a weapon that will give the Japanese dominance in world affairs. Jayne, Cameron and the mysterious stranger will do everything in their power to stop them.

Combine the action of a Lara Croft movie with the premise of H.G. Wells book War of the worlds and readers will have some idea what BLOOD AND ROSES is all about. Jayne is a modern day heroine who is living in the 1920's doing things that are usually the province of men including saving the world. The audience will like Jayne for her loyalty, her humanity, passion and bravery but they will find themselves paying attention to the mysterious stranger and hope he and Jayne will have more adventures in future books. The premise of this tale would make a fantastic movie.

Harriet Klausner