132,617
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Den PatrickA G Slatter|title=The Boy Who Wept Blood (Erebus Sequence 2)Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Anea is now '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the ruler of Demesne butworld, rather than retain lies Silverton; a town under the current aristocratic system protection of ruling housesthe Briar's, she works towards a republic, empowering family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the plentiful but poor peasantsDarklands. As no turkey votes Though she has always wished for Christmasmagic, not all ruling houses align with Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her ideas, making life treacherous – fatally so family for some. Dinogenerations and as such since she was young, her half-brother is doing all he can to protect training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her butgrandmother suddenly dies, AneaEllie's desire cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to spend most of her time communicate with the dead, putting her scientific machines isn't doing her any favours in at the popularity stakesheart of a maelstrom of chaos. For Dino hiding away is not an option; he's got questions Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and he wants determine what to live long enough do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to answer themsurvive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473211522</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=R D ShanksRachel Greenlaw|title=A Reverie of BrothersCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Mare is a Red - a race kept in lives ''I can hear the song of poverty and servitude by the Silvers, a race with wealth and mutant powers that allow them to live lives sea. The call of luxury. Learning to survive amongst the slum like conditions that the Reds inhabitdeep, Mare is swiftly thrown into the world of the Silvers - one that proves to be more dangerous than she had ever imagined, with treachery, plots and deadly games lurking round every corneranswering beat in my heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409155846</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne RiceT Kingfisher|title=The Wolves of MidwinterThornhedge|rating=2.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Things have certainly changed for Reuben Golding now that he is a werewolf. He's living with hardly a care for his journalism career in a huge, rich mansion in the woods in rural west coast US, with some exotic European retainers and servants, and several fellow werewolves, who are doing their best at times to help him in the transition, and guiding him in the ways of the immortal. He's using his new-found powers to be You had a sort of vigilante, ridding the world of evil people and rescuing their victims, but it's much closer right to home that the change in his life really manifests itselfretake your place. Just because he has cut ties to his past, it doesn't mean they cannot return to haunt him. The transaction that left him the mansion might not have been completely smooth after all. And even if he might have an endless future, it's not to say he's going to get the one he thinks he wants and deserves, especially where his lover Laura is concerned…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009958493X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick RothfussNicole Jarvis|title=The Slow Regard of Silent ThingsA Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyHistorical Fiction|summary=Deep below the University, the ancient home of magic and learning, a young girl lives amongst the caves, tunnels, and abandoned rooms. In Seven days, her friend will be visiting - one ''I want all of her few friends, and someone who Auri cannot wait Florence to see. Those seven days are filled with Auriknow my name''s preparations - her hunt amongst the tunnels and caves for a proper gift, and her thoughts as she goes about her business.
Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnate. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473209323</amazonuk>1803362340
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreview|title=An English Ghost StoryFrontpage|author=Kim Newman|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=The Naremores, a family with a troubled past, leave London in search of peace in the quiet Somerset countryside. Finding the perfect home – 'The Hollow' – appears to symbolise a turning point and the end of all their problems. The Hollow seems possessed of a healing magic which can restore health and relationships as well as hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, the positive power of the Hollow is suddenly challenged and the family are plunged into horrors that perhaps they should have foreseen…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781165580</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAmelia Estelle Dellos|title=Shifting Shadows: Stories From the World of Mercy Thompson|author=Patricia BriggsDelilah Recovered|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=To recap, then – We meet Patricia Briggs. Besides one standalone book [[Aralorn: Masques and Wolfbsane by Patricia Briggs|Aralorn]] Dee at a point when her many novels have been set in one universe – a world in the NW USA where all kinds of fantasy creatures live in amongst humanslife isn't going as planned but things might, just might, whether officially or otherwisebe about to look up. Car mechanic Mercy Thompson is part-coyote, and therefore can shapeshift, but we've also seen how she has other minor talents in solving problems and identifying threats that other aspects Out of the fantasy world can deliver. Her colleagues have been faework, about to lose her best friends (and worst enemies) vampiresflat, and sheDee is up for an accountant's now the partner of the regionjob. But it's alpha werewolf – who employs a not to be. Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch as fixer; everywhere you look there is lore as to how all these species interrelate and hunters. She survives the books drip with rules about every aspect of living beyond the mundaneattack but not unscathed. So far there is a minor trilogy set Witch hunters? What on the edges of Mercyearth has that to do with Dee? She's worldjust an ordinary woman, but eight major – and majorly successful – books fully focussed on living an ordinary life. Slivers of memory of things that are not ordinary at all return to her. But Patty Briggs must clearly have a very restless imagination, and a things will to narrate strong stories, and never be the results have also led us to this fat volume of short stories, that come from instances, characters and times scattered throughout her mythologysame....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356505278</amazonuk>B0BKYFDLLV
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= Revelation (Reve) Maskelyne is Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the latest lives of a long line two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of girls named Revelations women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Sears family. This has a significance she's unaware of as she divides Weaving Academy to learn to control her time between a happy marriage, parenthood abilities and sharing then join the limelight military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with her husband Jeremy as illusionist team The Amazing MaskelynesNico. Until Giorgina on the day she kills Jeremy… The tragic event triggers the realisation that someone has been stalking Reve other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for most her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of her life. For the protection Daughters of her 15-year-old twins and 10-year-old daughter, Reve runs to Hawley Five Corners, Izdihar – a large New England estate thatgroup campaigning for women's been rights. Giorgina also happens to be in the family for centurieslove with Nico. Reve has always known that not all magic What follows is illusion but now she has to rely on thata story of an unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780891466</amazonuk>0356520471
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The FreeHeather Fawcett|authortitle=Brian RuckleyEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=The Free are a band Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of mercenaries - magical warriors who have travelled Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the world village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and are renowned put her final investigations for their skills in battleher book back on the right track. Finally reaching a point where they can retire from war Enter Wendell Bambleby, their leader Yulan her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. But why is offered one final contract - one he cannot refuse.here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356501957</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=ErenChristopher Golden|authortitle=Simon P ClarkRoad of Bones|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersHorror|summary=People 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- Mumlevel 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 - are keeping secrets from Oli. Why have they had there to encourage the project to leave London and come fruition to live claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the country with Uncle Rob? Why hasnpair't Dad come too? Why does everyone keep turning off 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 TV news every time it comes on? Why does Emguide's dad dislike Oli when he doesnchildhood village. And that't even know him? When will Dad come? When will life s where things start to go back to normal? awry…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472110978</amazonuk>1803361476
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edward CoxAndrew Givler|title=Soul Fraud (The Relic GuildDebt Collection Book 1)|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The Genii War was ''Matt has a terrible life. Seriously—it's awful. It is so devastating bad that now, 40 years later, Dan the world Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a dismally different place. The Labyrinth, once a hub permitting access to unlimited locations is now a prison. The police, under the control of the Resident and blissful life in exchange for his especially enabled Relic Guild, maintain ordersoul. The war may have left lasting reverberations but at least the Genii have been destroyed. If they hadn't been, combine their malevolent presence with the fact that the Relic Guild is not as strong in numbers as they once were and things could worsen considerably. Errrr… Labrys, we have a problem!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473200296</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benedict JackaOlivie Blake|title=Hidden: An Alex Verus novel The Atlas Six|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Anne WalkerDark, sharp, life mage and former good friend of Camden magic shop owner/future diviner Alex Verus is in trouble. Alex would love to help her but first he has to find her. Meanwhile his guilty past as a dark mage apprenticed to the less-than-nice Richard Drakh has come back to haunt him. In fact there are rumours that Richard himself is coming back to haunt Alex personally as Richardhighly inquisitive, ''s more than mildly miffed about AlexThe Atlas Six's betrayal. Hang on Alex – it's going to be makes its publishing debut after becoming a bumpy ride!Tik-Tok sensation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356502317</amazonuk>1529095239
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Angus WatsonDaniel Abraham|title=Age of Iron (The Iron Age Trilogy)Ash
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Location: Here or hereabouts Date: 67BC. The Romans are coming but, before they turn up, We meet Alys under the collection most northerly of disparate tribes theyOldgate're destined to call Britannia s four bridges, she has other problemsa knife in her hand and a meeting that she dreads. There is much infighting among these mini-kingdoms and currently Dug Meanwhile the Warrior's region City of Kithamar is subjected to at a massive killing machine – point in the army turning of King Zadaryears when the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possible. Everything's fine though; Dug It is just one the night between the funeral of a Prince and the people who want to kill himcoronation of his successor. Yes, there's Dug, Lowa For a night the talented archerKithamar is un-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 anywayruled.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356502619</amazonuk>0356515427
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah HarknessAnn Sei Lin|title=The Book of LifeRebel Skies|rating=5|genre=FantasyTeens|summary=Historian witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont are back home Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the 21st century but now face sky where soldiers of the tragic news of Aunt Sarah's partnerEmpire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, Em's deathsomeone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. Hard-He asks her to-get-along-come with Baldwin has taken over as head him, to leave the life of the de Clairmont clan and dreary servitude that is making life dangerously difficult for Dianaall she has known. Well, Matthew and their unborn twins. If this isnsoon Kurara won't enoughhave any say in the matter, they still need to find and remove because the secret manuscriptMidori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, Ashmole 782 – and she is forced to flee out into the Book of Lifeworld. HoweverShe joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, they have very dangerous competition.and a whole world of adventure awaits her…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755384776</amazonuk>1406399590
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09Q3P283Y|title=The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real MagicShadebringer|author=Emily Croy BarkerGrayson W Hooper|rating=34
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Feeling Clyde Robbins signs up for the need for a little escapism and fantasy reading, I chose this debut novel by Emily Croy Barker, expecting an enchanted but modern fairy tale for grown upsUS Army during the Vietnam War. HoweverHe's not really that invested in the fight against Communism, I have to say, I was nor is he particularly interested in a little disappointedcareer in the military. The book starts out brilliantlyIf he's honest - which Clyde usually is, introducing us to Nora in her mundane life as she struggles to write her university thesis whilst dealing with a relationship breakdownhimself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, then by chapter twoat least, suddenly transports gets him out of the reader to a magical other-world, rather like rut he''Alice in Wonderland'' or ''Harry Potter''. We then follow Nora as she meets the enchanting, beautiful, Ilissa s in a land where everything turns out to be too good to be true and looks are very much deceiving. Nora is literally locked into marriage with IlissaHe's son Raclin good in training and we learn that her only way out of this entrapment is through the help of magician Aruendiel, an enemy of Ilissa and from another land named Uland. A promising start, suggesting unexpected events, conflicts, quickly put onto a fast paced story and twists to comenon commissioned officer training course. Unfortunately, for me, the intrigue soon faded and the exciting plot beyond this never really materialisedHe's chuffed with himself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405913096</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Codex BornJennifer Saint|authortitle=Jim C HinesElektra
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Bands 'Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of three women who live in the heavily male dominated world of Ancient Greece. Cassandra, Clytemnestra, and Elektra are famed for having that tricky second album syndrome, but all bit players in the same can be said for authors when writing story of the second book in a seriesTrojan War. [[Libriomancer by Jim C Hines|Libriomancer]] was the first in a series Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that blasted onto often the scene with an infectious enthusiasm that allowed you to forgive its one or two minor flaws. Could silent women have the follow up continue most compelling stories and the momentum, or will it stagnate?most extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953472</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Ripper AffairDean Koontz|authortitle=Lilith SaintcrowQuicksilver|rating=42.5|genre=FantasyThrillers|summary=Emma Bannon, Sorcerer Prime and servant Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the chance to get to the crownbe a mercurial character yet, has been locked away for he's lived in her house for some time nowa nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, trying to avoid being drawn into affairs of treason and murder, thank you very muchnow is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when Archibald Clare discovers the secret Emma 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 supernatural urge – has been keeping from demanded of him - in that he go to a derelict diner, find a violent incident at gold coin worth a court that takes fortune, cash the life value of it out of Clare's manservant, Valentinelli - Emma finds herself unable to avoid being thrown back into his bank and prepare for going on the fraylam. For someone sorcerous And all this is murdering frails just in the darker corners time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of Londiniuminterest to them. Helped to escape, and though Emma would rather Clare spend time resting and recovering he finds his facultiesflight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, she soon starts to realise the discovery that they may be the only ones capable of stopping whatever danger he is blooming not unique in the nighthaving some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356500942</amazonuk>1542019885
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben PeekTasha Suri|title=The GodlessJasmine Throne|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=These are strange times in MieeraOn the night of her sacred burning, Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses to step on to the land made from the bodies of dead godspyre. The Leeran army She is closing in immediately sent to be imprisoned on the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a Mieera defended only by a scratch army community of citizens and The Dark, a band of mercenary saboteurs led by cynically tough Bueralanpeople who got powers from the mysterious deathless waters. Ayae But now the cartographer's apprentice has a temple is nothing more personal crisisthan an overgrown, decaying ruin. She's pulled from One day, Malini witnesses a burnt out building alive and totally unscathedgirl kill someone with magic. This can only mean one thing: she's one Instead of the cursed. As the effects of this newly endowed immortality hit reporting her she must decide what to do. Zaifyrfor such a gruesome crime, Malini claims that the mysterious charmed man, has some ideas but then so do girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the sinister Keepers which doesn't help muchgirl to become her own personal maidservant. Meanwhile that army is getting closer…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447251245</amazonuk>0356515648
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Hornor JacobsGenevieve Gornichec|title=The IncorruptiblesWitch's Heart|rating=3.54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Fisk A modern and Shoestring are approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a couple forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the mercenaries paid stake three times because of Odin's wrath. Her attempts to guard Ruman high born Cornelius and his family of spoiltlive in peace, back-biting in-fighters on board their steamerhowever, The Cornelianare quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she was tied to the stake—and refuses to leave her alone. The exception After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to the continuous badly-mooded is Corneliusfall for Loki' daughters charms, and the healer, Livia. She seems to have struck two start an unusual family made of up a rapport with Fisk; the reason why they get on so well seems hidden in half-dead daughter, a dark secret son that Shoe hopes to crack if they live that long. The truth is that life is cheap – the Stretchers roam the land's a wolf, bloodthirsty and dangerous ensuring another son that Fisk and Shoe earn every penny Cornelius allows them's a snake.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057513366X</amazonuk>1789097061
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen MaitlandHannah Whitten|title=The Vanishing Witch|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=More and higher taxes are being levied on the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France. They may cause annoyance to the rich but they're breaking the poor, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his family. Meanwhile some of the better off are facing problems from other quarters. Cloth merchant Robert of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders. It's not a good time to be English and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and For the peasants will be revolting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147221501X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaye Wells|title=Cursed Moon: Prospero's War: Book TwoWolf
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=ItIn Red's now six weeks since Kate Prospero saved her brother Dannyfamily, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's life by cooking misfortune, she is the illegal dirty magic antidote to her Uncle Abe's poisonous recipesecond daughter. Abe is safely in prison Sent alone into the woods with nothing but Katethe cape on her back, as an MEA cop trained Red knows what to track expect: within the woods is a wolf, and punish practitioners he is the one who will decide the fate of dirty magic, now has a secrettheir kingdom. There are also other matters clawing at her mind. A series of thefts and murders If she is disrupting Babylonnot a worthy sacrifice, causing it the monsters he keeps contained to become more dangerous by the day - woods will be released, and that's saying something! Indeed as the Halloween new moon approaches fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the murder and mayhem will increasestories go. Meanwhile Kate is discovering even older secrets But when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than hers which cause her to question everything be killed within the hour, shefinds that the legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's been brought up to believea man.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>035650302X</amazonuk>0356516369
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Widow's House (Dagger and the Coin)John Gwynne|authortitle=Daniel AbrahamThe Shadow Of The Gods
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The fourth in Daniel Abraham’s majestic Shadow Of The Dagger and the Coin series has pretty much everything you can want in an epic fantasy adventure – even more so than Gods is the first three. There’s action, war, politics, betrayal, great relationships between family and friends. There’s a surprising amount installment of laughter herethe Bloodsworn Saga, even if it’s all rather bleak, as some set in the era of the heroes are using gallows humour to cope with Vikings in the amount shadow of death Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and destruction they're forced their bones lie scattered for all to see. Even better than any of thisThis story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, thoughwith mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is the superb characterisation. Abraham has given us perhaps half a dozen character arcs which are absolutely masterful. From the widowed woman trying to save her country by betraying its leaderthick book, while juggling with an inappropriate romance with a servant (these two intricate plot and fascinating characters that are probably my favourite couple ever), woven together to create a villain who manages to be simultaneously evil enough to make your skin crawl yet often pitiable wonderfully realistic and, sometimes, even likeable, all of the main players here are brilliantly portrayed. I also think the dialogue here is outstanding, hugely quotablegritty world in which our heroes must do battle.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356504697</amazonuk>0356514218
}}
