Several years ago, I reviewed a few books by Patrick W. Carr called The Darkwater Saga. At the time, there were three books in the series that I have in paperback (and on Kindle) and an e-book exclusive prequel novella. I enjoyed the series. The plots were intricate, the characters (with a few "Red Shirt" exceptions) were developed well, and it had a good resolution.
(What's a "Red Shirt" character? Stealing from the classic Star Trek imagery of the disposable guys who beam down to the planet and get eaten, mind probed, zapped, whatever just to prove it's a serious situation.)
After finishing those, Carr published one more novel and then vanished from the writing scene for a time. Which was a bummer, because I liked his fiction and, while he did include some serious themes and moments that are not for kids, he did drop in unnecessary profanity or explicit sexual material. Unfortunately, too many publishers seem to think that adult readers won't know characters had sex unless the author writes up a four-page description of the moment. I kind of want to say: I'm an adult, I know what's happening here, let's move on. I end up avoiding the authors whose works are consistently punctuated with that or the profanity bug. I know you talk like that at work, I just don't need to read it.
Carr's works were good and challenging and I had hoped for many more. But he, as mentioned, disappeared for a while. Reasonable, when you consider he was not making a full-time living writing but continued as a high school math teacher.
However, he's back. One of the reasons he states on his website for taking a break is that hitting the publication deadlines had required him to release some of the Darkwater books before he thought they were ready. He's starting by re-releasing those books with some additions, referring to the new releases as the "Director's Cut."
The first process was to elongate the prequel novella, By Divine Right, into a full-length book. The following three books in the series were then renumbered to make for sane numbering: 1-4 for the current works.
These are available on Kindle here. The writing is just as good as before, there are a few more plot explanations than the originals, but it still packs the same punch. There might be a few places that editing missed the update (one character's name was changed but that change got missed in one place), however you can easily tell what is meant. Those are no problem.
I know some folks will lament not being able to grab these in paperback, and I get that. But you need an e-ink Kindle anyway :) so grab one and load these books on them.
