132,612
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The FreeA G Slatter|authortitle=Brian RuckleyThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=45
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The Free are '' There's a band part of mercenaries - magical warriors who have travelled the world and are renowned me that wants to keep this just to myself for their skills in battlehowever long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. Finally reaching I just want to enjoy it for a point where they can retire from war, their leader Yulan is offered one final contract - one he cannot refusewhile.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501957</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Broken Eye (Lightbringer 3)T Kingfisher|authortitle=Brent WeeksThornhedge|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=War is coming ''You had a right to the Seven Satrapies - not that most of the people in power want to admit itretake your place. The Color Prince may not have succeeded in keeping hold of his super powerful Banes yet, but he's steadily moving through the Satrapies, burning and killing everything in his path all the same.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499099</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Angus WatsonNicole Jarvis|title=Age of Iron (The Iron Age Trilogy)A Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyHistorical Fiction|summary=Location: Here or hereabouts Date: 67BC. The Romans are coming but, before they turn up, the collection of disparate tribes they're destined to call Britannia has other problems. There is much infighting among these mini-kingdoms and currently Dug the Warrior's region is subjected to a massive killing machine – the army of King Zadar. Everything's fine though; Dug is just one I want all of the people who want Florence to kill him. Yes, thereknow my name's Dug, Lowa the talented archer-ess who used to work for Zadar and Spring, a little girl. Some would say that they can't get through the army of thousands that surround the King but they're going to try anyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502619</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Codex BornAmelia Estelle Dellos|authortitle=Jim C HinesDelilah Recovered
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Bands are famed for having that tricky second album syndromeWe meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as planned but things might, just might, but the same can be said about to look up. Out of work, about to lose her flat, Dee is up for authors when writing the second book in a seriesan accountant's job. But it's not to be. [[Libriomancer Dee is attacked by Jim C Hines|Libriomancer]] was two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the first in a series attack but not unscathed. Witch hunters? What on earth has that blasted onto the scene to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary woman, living an infectious enthusiasm ordinary life. Slivers of memory of things that allowed you are not ordinary at all return to forgive its one or two minor flawsher and things will never be the same.... Could the follow up continue the momentum, or will it stagnate?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953472</amazonuk>B0BKYFDLLV
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Ripper AffairHadeer Elsbai|authortitle=Lilith SaintcrowThe Daughters of Izdihar|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Emma BannonDrawing inspiration from Egypt, Sorcerer Prime and servant to ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the crownlives of two women who could not be more different, has been locked away yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in her house for some time nowa society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, trying wishes to avoid being drawn into affairs of treason attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and murderthen join the military, thank you very muchbut instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. But when Archibald Clare discovers Giorgina on the secret Emma has been keeping from him - in other hand did not have a violent incident at a court that takes privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the life Daughters of ClareIzdihar – a group campaigning for women's manservant, Valentinelli - Emma finds herself unable rights. Giorgina also happens to avoid being thrown back into the fraybe in love with Nico. For someone sorcerous What follows is murdering frails in the darker corners a story of Londiniuman unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and though Emma would rather Clare spend time resting and recovering his facultiescruelty, she soon starts to realise that they may be the only ones capable from which blossoms a group of stopping whatever danger is blooming in the nightadmirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356500942</amazonuk>0356520471
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben PeekHeather Fawcett|title=The GodlessEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=These are strange times in Mieera, the land made from the bodies of dead gods. The Leeran army Emily Wilde is closing in an expert academic scholar on a Mieera defended only by a scratch army of citizens faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and The Darkresearched meticulously, a band of mercenary saboteurs led by cynically tough Bueralan. Ayae the cartographerto write her life's apprentice has a more personal crisiswork, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. She's pulled from a burnt out building alive Whilst she is brilliant at research and totally unscathedspeaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. This can only mean one thing: So when she's one finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the cursed. As the effects of this newly endowed immortality hit her village matriarch, she must decide is not sure what she has done, nor how to doredeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. ZaifyrEnter Wendell Bambleby, the mysterious charmed manher dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, has some ideas but then so do the sinister Keepers which doesnmuch to Emily't help muchs frustration. Meanwhile that army But why is getting closer…he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447251245</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Hornor JacobsChristopher Golden|title=The IncorruptiblesRoad of Bones
|rating=3.5
|genre=Horror
|summary=The Kolyma Highway… the 'Road of Bones'… the R504. Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the world's most notorious routes. For months of the year it's a spread of sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its 'spring' sees it turn into a huge blodge of unremitting, apocalyptic-level mud, which dries into rutted, puddly dust. I don't think google streetview updates it very often. Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and other Siberian minerals, and because he wanted to give too many people a lesson, it legendarily cost a life every metre it covers. You can easily find documentaries about it online, but that's a bit rich, for one of our main characters, Felix 'Teig' Teigland, is a film-maker, doing a recce with his cameraman buddy, John Prentiss – who's mostly there to encourage the project to fruition to claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the pair's prior TV projects. They pick up their oh-so-chatty local guide, gain the company of a local beauty, and fetch up at the guide's childhood village. And that's where things start to go awry…
|isbn=1803361476
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrew Givler
|title=Soul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1)
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Fisk and Shoestring are ''Matt has a couple of the mercenaries paid to guard Ruman high born Cornelius and his family of spoilt, back-biting in-fighters on board their steamer, The Cornelianterrible life. The exception to the continuous badly-mooded is CorneliusSeriously—it' daughter, the healer, Livias awful. She seems to have struck up a rapport with Fisk; the reason why they get on It is so well seems hidden in a dark secret bad that Shoe hopes to crack if they live that long. The truth Dan the Demon is that shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a blissful life is cheap – the Stretchers roam the land, bloodthirsty and dangerous ensuring that Fisk and Shoe earn every penny Cornelius allows themin exchange for his soul.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057513366X</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaye WellsOlivie Blake|title=Cursed Moon: Prospero's War: Book TwoThe Atlas Six|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=It's now six weeks since Kate Prospero saved her brother Danny's life by cooking the illegal dirty magic antidote to her Uncle Abe's poisonous recipe. Abe is safely in prison but KateDark, as an MEA cop trained to track and punish practitioners of dirty magicsharp, now has a secret. There are also other matters clawing at her mind. A series of thefts and murders is disrupting Babylonhighly inquisitive, causing it to become more dangerous by the day - and that's saying something! Indeed as the Halloween new moon approaches the murder and mayhem will increase. Meanwhile Kate is discovering even older secrets than hers which cause her to question everything she's been brought up to believeThe Atlas Six'' makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>035650302X</amazonuk>1529095239
}}
{{newreview|title=The Widow's House (Dagger and the Coin)Frontpage
|author=Daniel Abraham
|title=Age of Ash|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The fourth in Daniel Abraham’s majestic The Dagger and We meet Alys under the Coin series most northerly of Oldgate's four bridges, she has pretty much everything you can want a knife in an epic fantasy adventure – even more so than the first three. There’s action, war, politics, betrayal, great relationships between family her hand and friendsa meeting that she dreads. There’s Meanwhile the City of Kithamar is at a surprising amount of laughter here, even if it’s all rather bleak, as some point in the turning of years when the heroes worlds are using gallows humour to cope with the amount of death at their thinnest and destruction they're forced to seeall things are possible. Even better than any of this, though, It is the superb characterisation. Abraham has given us perhaps half a dozen character arcs which are absolutely masterful. From night between the widowed woman trying to save her country by betraying its leader, while juggling an inappropriate romance with a servant (these two are probably my favourite couple ever), to funeral of a villain who manages to be simultaneously evil enough to make your skin crawl yet often pitiable Prince and, sometimes, even likeable, all the coronation of the main players here are brilliantly portrayedhis successor. I also think For a night the dialogue here Kithamar is outstanding, hugely quotableun-ruled.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356504697</amazonuk>0356515427
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=AJ SmithAnn Sei Lin|title=The Dark Blood (The Long War)Rebel Skies|rating=5|genre=FantasyTeens|summary=The lands Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of Ro are slowly being subjugated by the evil sorceresses known as The Seven Sisters. Their only hope is Empire come to kill them drink and only one make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is up a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the task: the Dark Blood assassin, Rham JasEmpire. He chooses master forger and fixer Kale as his assistant butasks her to come with him, as this will reduce Kale's to leave the life expectancy markedlyof dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, Kalesoon Kurara won's not keen. Meanwhile Uthat have any say in the matter, albino Black Order clericbecause the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, his squire Randalland she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, axe maiden Halla Summer Wolfa sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, Timon the Butcher et al are dragged into and a bloody conflict during which they have to fight for more than just their own survival.whole world of adventure awaits her…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178185226X</amazonuk>1406399590
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy AdamsB09Q3P283Y|title=The Rain-Soaked BrideShadebringer|author=Grayson W Hooper|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The last thing Clyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during the Vietnam War. He's not really that invested in the afflicted people see before their death fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in a wet woman career in whitethe military. The last thing they feel If he's honest - which Clyde usually is their own personal rain cloud soaking them while everywhere else remains dry. All also happen to be , with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in top government jobs. WhatHe's happening? British Intelligence Department 37 (good in the form of August Shining training and Toby Greene) is there to find outquickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. This may not be the full extent of the problems facing them though; not with a South Korean delegation coming to the UK for talks and AugustHe's sister April wanting to get in on the actchuffed with himself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953162</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrez BergenJennifer Saint|title=Depth Charging Ice Planet GothElektra
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=16 year old Mina lives in Nede (that's Elektra'Needy' out loud), a suburb of by Jennifer Saint tells the Australian state story of Victoria where she's three women who live in the final throes heavily male dominated world of schoolAncient Greece. However she feels very much an outsiderCassandra, Clytemnestra, especially after the recent death of her mother. Mina's alienated further by her bullying elder brother and her father's attempts to move on with his life before Mina is ready. She has friends that she spends time with Elektra are all bit players in a disinterested Goth way, the friend who understands her most being Animeid. Animeid is even more different than Mina, being half-girl, half-bird, but neither story of them seems to mind. It doesn't affect anyone else after all – Mina's the only person who can see herTrojan War.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782796495</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anthony Ryan|title=Tower Lord: Book 2 of Raven's Shadow|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary= Reva, young adherent to the True World Faith, has a mission: murdering Lord Vaelin Al Sorna. Frentis (one time Sixth Order Brother to Vaelin) also has murder on his mind but can't help it as he works through the deathly wish-list of the mysterious woman who binds his will. Lyrna's brother Malcius now rules as King of the Unified Realm and she's happy to remain princess. However someone else thinks differently; she's summoned to a meeting that will prepare her for an uncertain future. Meanwhile the greatest threat the Realm has ever known advances. Friend or foe? The difference may be indiscernible but differentiating means survival.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502449</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guy Adams|title=The Clown Service|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=If British Secret Intelligence Service operative Toby Greene worked for MacDonald's he'd be sacked for ineptitude. Unfortunately for the nation he cost thousands of pounds more to train than your average burger-flipper so he's off to Section 37 instead. The Section's label mentions anti-terrorism but, as his former boss told Toby ''If the security service is the circus, then Section 37 Yet Jennifer Saint shows us where we keep the clowns.'' Meanwhile an old school Russian spy is coming to the UK with enough power to destroy London. This may only be Toby's first job for 37 and will include a touch of astral projection but what could possibly go wrong?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Lingane|title=Decay: 2 (Tesla)|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=The city has been rebuilt for war. The waves of cyborg attacks are just the beginning – what follows is more devastating. Not only that but also the flood of refugees surging in daily is as much of a problem as a resource. Actually in one or two cases often the word 'problem' is a bit of an understatement. In the middle of this hell Seb and Melanie are doing their best to fight and survive, although survival doesn't look like an option once they realise they silent women have to go into the enemy's hive most compelling stories and bring the battle to the cyborgs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992377986</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Landline|author=Rainbow Rowell|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Georgie McCool has always known what she's wanted and pursued it until she has it. She got her dream job writing comedy, she's about to get her own show, and she got her dream guy, Neal. Only, she's not so sure she has him anymoremost extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409154912</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy)Dean Koontz|authortitle=Marie RutkoskiQuicksilver|rating=42.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=Kestrel has two alternative futures ahead of herMeet Quinn Quicksilver. As He's not had the daughter chance to get to be a mercurial character yet, for he's lived in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, and now is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, call it a general supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a vastderelict diner, expansionist empirefind a gold coin worth a fortune, she can make a politically advantageous marriage or she can enlist in cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going on the militarylam. Kestrel doesn't want either and her life And all this is spent just in a delicate game time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of manoeuvres with her father as she tries interest to them. Helped to put off escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, the decisiondiscovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408858207</amazonuk>1542019885
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim HallTasha Suri|title=Shadow of the WolfThe Jasmine Throne
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The child Robin Loxley is mysteriously separated from his father during what had been a routine foray into On the forest. In grief night of her sacred burning, Princess Malini defies her brother and bewilderment Robin becomes a loner, choosing refuses to step on to raise himselfthe pyre. He's more than happy She is immediately sent to be imprisoned on the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a community of people who got powers from the solitary lifestyle until he meets Marian Delbosque, spoilt daughter of local gentrymysterious deathless waters. Their friendship But now the temple is cemented as they play together but their future won't all be childish gamesnothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. They have One day, Malini witnesses a quest and Robin, as girl kill someone with magic. Instead of reporting her for such a winter-borngruesome crime, has a destiny Malini claims that he can't begin to guess. The clue is in the mysterious words he heard whispered in girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the forest after his father's disappearance: ''Not yet. Too soon. He must suffer the woundsgirl to become her own personal maidservant.''|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191020000X</amazonuk>0356515648
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella GemmellGenevieve Gornichec|title=The City|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=The City has been fighting for centuries, be it the recognised war of Red versus Blue fuelled by the mysterious Emperor or the daily fight of the Dwellers struggling for existence in the sewer settlements. Such oppression breeds unlikely heroes. A former general, now a fugitive from a questionable justice, a 16 year old soldier trying to out-run her fatherWitch's reputation, a famed Red army leader and a little girl who believes in someone whom others hardly notice any more; these carry hope for the City, whether the City realises it or not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552168955</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Tropic of Serpents (A Memoir by Lady Trent)|author=Marie BrennanHeart
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=We are A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in sequel territorya forest at the edge of the nine worlds, so we must hope remembering nothing of her past life but that things have escalated for Lady Trent, and fact that she is finding life even harder than beforewas survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odin's wrath. And it is – as much as she would like Her attempts to go dragon hunting live in peace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her husband literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she cannotwas tied to the stake—and refuses to leave her alone. (And by dragon hunting I donAfter an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki't mean killing thems charms, I mean being and the two start an unusual family made of up a natural historian for the species in half-dead daughter, a world son that would rather massacre them for industrial purposes). Here's a wolf, repressed by the Victorian society she lives in, she can just about raise and another exhibition together, to son that's a different corner of the world, but she won't find herself with the possibility of observing dragons – she is instead faced with the demand that she MUST hunt dragons…snake.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783292415</amazonuk>1789097061
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Queen of the Dark ThingsHannah Whitten|authortitle=C Robert CargillFor the Wolf|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Colby Stevens lost his best friend to an army of fairies six months agoIn Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. And things havenTo Red't got much better sinces misfortune, she is the second daughter. The Seventy-TwoSent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a powerful wolf, and angry bunch he is the one who will decide the fate of demons want Colby their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to deal with the Queen of woods will be released, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the Dark Thingsstories go. But Colby knowswhen Red enters the woods, whatever expecting nothing more than to be killed within the demons have planned for himhour, it isn't goodshe finds that the legends are lies. Whatever he does The wolf is playing into their plans in some way or anothernot a monster—he's a man.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575130148</amazonuk>0356516369
}}
{{newreview|title=Dead Man's HandFrontpage|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)Gwynne|ratingtitle=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from time travel and vampires to theology; at first glance it definitely appears to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by the genre of the weird west, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adams' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west and provides a clear, insightful guide to this little-known genre. Far from being mismatched, the eclectic nature of this collection is in fact the greatest strength of the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventions, the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourful, memorable and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Irvine|title=Justice: Tainted Realm: Book 3Shadow Of The Gods
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=''The final battle. The ultimate price.'' Shadow Of The dead, regenerated King Lyf and his Cythonian army are poised to attack as Gods is the army first installment of Axil Grandysthe Bloodsworn Saga, complete with set in the other four era of the five legendary Heroes. Rix has to stop them all with Vikings in the help shadow of Tali (the escaped Pale slave)Ragnarok, Glynnie (when the ex-maid), Gods have battled and an army of Rix's own who would rather fight him than fight their bones lie scattered for himall to see. As Lyf and Axil both hunger for This story is the final master pearl that sits beneath Tali's skullultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the endgame approaches. Meanwhile Tobrygenre, former best friend of Rix and now an unpredictably dangerous Caithe shape-shifterwith mythical creatures, is still alive archaic language and without hopebattles galore. Although the 10 year old Rannilt would argue This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that last bitare woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498300</amazonuk>0356514218
}}
