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[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Girl With All Briar Book of the Gifts|author=M R CareyDead|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Meet Melanie. Not something that's likely to happen, but it' There's a standard introduction and part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I'll run with itcan. If you do find herThis secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy itfor a while.''s either in Within a subterranean cellremote mountain pass, or far away from the world, lies Silverton; a classroom. Or town under the shower-room, where she and protection of the other children get disinfectedBriar's, and get to eat a bowl family of maggots – witches who protect the town and the wider world from the only nutrition they have all weekDarklands. All this Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is on the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a military base so secure they've only seen a few members of staff – either military or mostly lacklustre teachers – steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and theypotions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie've certainly no real hope of seeing sunlight. They are there because of s cousin Audra becomes the BreakdownBriar Witch, when most of the world got turned into ravenoustown's leader, mindless ''hungries''and Ellie takes her place beside her. But these children did not turn all As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the wayheart of a maelstrom of chaos. And Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as unlikely as it isthe Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, as implausible a heroine as she is, young Melanie might just be the saviour of mankindunder threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356502732</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
{{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|author=Jay KristoffT Kingfisher|title=Kinslayer (Lotus War Trilogy 2)Thornhedge
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= Spoilers for [[Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff|Stormdancer]] follow soread it first!The Shogun is dead, murdered in the public square by 16 year old Kage rebelYukiko to avenge her family and in retribution for the evil hold that he hasover the dystopian land of Shima. He may be dead but Hiro (equally nastyand Yukiko's former lover) has 'You had a plan right to take power which includes marryingAisha, the Shogun's sister and secret Kage sympathiserretake your place. Yukiko has to stopthe wedding with the help of Buruu, the flying thunder tiger and Kin, theformer Lotus Guild engineer. Yes, the Lotus Guild - the Shogun's lot.Yukiko has problems of her own as well, in that her ability to hear thethoughts of animals and feel the emotions of anyone and anything is becominga curse. Meanwhile in Hiro's palace there works No One, below the radar andbeneath contempt, but one day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230759025</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Nicole Jarvis
|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thomas D Lee
|title=Perilous Times
|rating=3
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=AJ SmithAmelia Estelle Dellos|title=The Black Guard (The Long War)Delilah Recovered
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Ro Canarn is falling We meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as planned but things might, just might, be about to the brutal conquest look up. Out of the Red Knights. Duke Hectorwork, its rulerabout to lose her flat, Dee is up for an accountant's job. But it's not to be. Dee is on attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the verge of death and his twin offspring Lady Bronwyn and Lord Bromvy are attack but not unscathed. Witch hunters? What on the runearth has that to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary woman, outcastliving an ordinary life. However this is merely a portent Slivers of greater troubles ahead. One memory of things that are not ordinary at all return to her and things will never be the evil Seven Sisters is seen accompanying the Red Knights so if there is a secret agenda it's not a good onesame.... Meanwhile if Ro Canarn can fall, is anywhere safe anymore?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781855625</amazonuk>B0BKYFDLLV
}}
{{newreview|title=A Dance of CloaksFrontpage|author=David DalglishHadeer Elsbai|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summarytitle=Thren Felhorn is the leader of the Spider Guild and is a name feared by everyone in Veldaren. For good reason, for Thren has united the Guilds, those groups populated by the thieves and murderers of the city. Thren’s long term aim is to lead the Guilds in a war against the Trifect – the three richest families who control the majority The Daughters of the city’s legal activities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502783</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Bronze Gods|author=A A AguireIzdihar
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=A historical manuscript has been found in what is now Germany (so Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the story goes) chronicling an ancient civilisation inhabiting lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the fortress city rights of Broken (or Brocken women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in the original German)a society pitted against them. Those who anger the government are cast out Nehal, born into the surrounding forests where they must face upper class, wishes to attend the dangers of man-eating wolves Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and worsethen join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. These outcasts can only survive by collaborating Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and becoming one tribe: feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the BaneDaughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Although, Giorgina also happens to be honest, they're becoming in love with Nico. What follows is a bit story of a nuisance an unjust society, filled with their terrorist wayshypocrisy and cruelty, therefore Sixt Arnem, Sentek from which blossoms a group of the Broken Army is ordered to eradicate them admirable women fighting for once their rights and for allovercoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751551538</amazonuk>0356520471
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Elysian FieldsHeather Fawcett|authortitle=Suzanne JohnsonEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=Drusilla Jaco (DJ) Emily Wilde is the sentinel for the preternatural community in the greater New Orleans area an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and is still recovering from bereavementshe has travelled extensively, Katrina and broken ribs from researched meticulously, to write her last adventure. No such luck as life taking things easy on her, however's work, as it is discovered that the copycat very first encyclopaedia of a famous serial killer faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is notso good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in factthe small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, a copycat. The Axeman of New Orleans himself she is not sure what she has been raised from done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the dead by a necromancer or necromancers unknownright track. To make matters worse Enter Wendell Bambleby, her loup-garou fiend Jake bit her in a fit of pique dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and her best friend’s creepy boyfriend won’t leave her alonedelight, much to Emily's frustration. She doesn’t know what But why is he wants and she doesn’t know whether she’ll turn into a wolf at the next full moon but she here? What does know that he want? And what exactly is going on with the Axeman is after her, specifically. faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755397703</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Apocalypse Now NowChristopher Golden|authortitle=Charlie HumanRoad of Bones
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyHorror|summary=Baxter Zevcenko is a sixteen year old student in South Africa who believes everything in life is business related and for The Kolyma Highway… the sole purpose 'Road of increasing his own powerBones'… the R504. Baxter deals porn at his school and is Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the leader world's most notorious routes. For months of the year it's a gang spread of misfits who have carved sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its 'spring' sees it turn into a niche within the school’s hierarchy out huge blodge of the student populations need for smutunremitting, apocalyptic-level mud, which dries into rutted, puddly dust. I don't think google streetview updates it very often. The group is called the Spider Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and other Siberian minerals, and Baxter believes himself because he wanted to be the arachnid at the centre 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 an impressive web 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 ability project to manipulate and scheme his way fruition to power 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 richesfetch up at the guide's childhood village. His heroes are Rasputin and Machiavelli and we are made aware very early on And that as well as being a despicable power hungry megalomaniac he is also quite possibly insane.'s where things start to go awry…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780891318</amazonuk>1803361476
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benedict JackaAndrew Givler|title=ChosenSoul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1)|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Alex Verus, seer and London magic shop owner, ''Matt has had a year of crowded uncomplication since we last caught up with himterrible life. Crowded because he now shares his small flat with unqualified but adept mages Anne and Variam as well as his apprentice Luna. Uncomplicated because his biggest problem seems to be progressing LunaSeriously—it's training and finding someone to pick up Anne and Variam's apprenticeship; not huge awful. It is so bad that Dan the Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his normal kind are infernal offer: 10 years of a matter of blissful life or death. However all is about to change. You remember that way back in his youth Alex worked for a dark mage? Well he was hoping to forget that. Was? Yes, past tense, exchange for now Alex's past has invaded his present and is in danger of curtailing his futuresoul.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502309</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Susan Cooper|title=Ghost Hawk|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=I loved Susan Cooper's [[The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper|The Dark is Rising Sequence]], but as surprised as I am to say this - this book is far better. While still suitable for older children, this is definitely a book that adults will want to read as well. The book is more mature than her early works, and while obviously gifted from the start, Cooper's talents have matured as well. This book is nothing short of a masterpiece.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782300007</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Broken HomesOlivie Blake|authortitle=Ben AaronovitchThe Atlas Six|rating=54
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=I’ve been waiting for Broken Homes to come out for months. Months. When it arrived on my doorstepDark, I whisked it awaysharp, cackling like Gollum over my new precious and was no use to anyone until I’d finished it. Then sat and thought about it for a while. Then re-read my favourite bits. The considered further. This is the conclusion I reached: if there are no further Peter Grant books, Mr Aaronovitchhighly inquisitive, you and I are going to have ''wordsThe Atlas Six''makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575132469</amazonuk>1529095239
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robin SloanDaniel Abraham|title=Mr Penumbra's 24-hour BookstoreAge of Ash
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Unemployed and desperate, Clay Jannon wants a jobWe meet Alys under the most northerly of Oldgate's four bridges, any job! So, despite not having touched she has a paper book knife in years, he jumps her hand and a meeting that she dreads. Meanwhile the City of Kithamar is at a point in the chance turning of working years when the night shift worlds are at Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore. Mr P is a very particular employer. The books their thinnest and all things are lent (not sold) to members of a unique clubpossible. Clay It is to serve these visitors, log their visit in the smallest detail (including their mood, their choice night between the funeral of clothing a Prince and what they say). Oh and Clay must never open any the coronation of the books. He doesn't but he's curioushis successor. Perhaps if he realised where his curiosity would lead he'd be For a little more cautiousnight the Kithamar is un-ruled.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782391193</amazonuk>0356515427
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Cold Steel: Spiritwalker: Book ThreeAnn Sei Lin|authortitle=Kate ElliottRebel Skies|rating=45|genre=FantasyTeens|summary=The Master Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Wild Hunt has stolen away Cat Barahal's husbandEmpire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. She's being blamed for However, when a murder. Fire mage James Drake wants man named Himura arrives to kill tell her. And rebellion that she is burning up a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the streets back in EuropaEmpire. Can Cat save He asks her man to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and crush her enemiesshe is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and maybe even change her a whole world?of adventure awaits her…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498858</amazonuk>1406399590
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09Q3P283Y|title=Siege and StormShadebringer|author=Leigh BardugoGrayson W Hooper
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Sharon Li, former coffee shop barista and current community-support-worker-cum-apprentice-shaman, continues to run Magicals Anonymous, a self-help group Clyde Robbins signs up for those with mystic issuesthe US Army during the Vietnam War. It sounds a simple life, however there thereHe's one factor that ensure not really that 'simple' remains an illusion: her acquaintance with invested in the Guardian of fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in a career in the Citymilitary. If he's honest - which Clyde usually is, Defender of the Gate with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and so forththis one, The Midnight Mayorat least, aka Matthew Swiftgets him out of the rut he's in. MatthewHe's workload includes investigating good in training and is quickly put onto a number of supernatural disappearances. Or at least it did till he too went missingnon commissioned officer training course. So who ya gonna call? No, they donHe't call them; they call Sharon and along s chuffed with the mission comes unwanted promotion: Sharon Li, Deputy Midnight Mayorhimself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500659</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Never PagesJennifer Saint|authortitle=Graham ThomasElektra
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary='Elektra'There are two rules that by Jennifer Saint tells the Dream Investigator must follow:''<br>''1. Document everything.''<br>''2. Keep moving forward.'' Master G is story of three women who live in search the heavily male dominated world of his one true loveAncient Greece. Cassandra, Clytemnestra, Lucy. But Lucy is lost and Elektra are all bit players in the NeverRealm, story of the dimension Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that separates often the living from whatever comes after. In silent women have the NeverRealm, memories do not exist. So how is Master G - the Dream Investigator - to find her? From the very first moment, his journey into the NeverRealm is destroying his mind, turning thoughts and knowledge most compelling stories and recollection to sand, shifting sand. He will need courage to face the nightmarish environment. He will need fortitude to resist the degeneration. He will need to find Brekker, his unreliable scientist friend. And he'll need the companionship of Paisley, a dog named after a carpet..most extreme furies.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956742203</amazonuk>1472273915
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Before the FallDean Koontz|authortitle=Francis KnightQuicksilver|rating=42.5|genre=FantasyThrillers|summary=After destroying MahalaMeet Quinn Quicksilver. He's power sourcenot had the 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, Rojan reallycall it mind-control, really wants call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to keep a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his head downbank and prepare for going on the lam. The Ministry thinks And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's dead - which helps - but with the last scraps of power fast fadinginterest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, people are starving and the danger discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of riots burgeoning power – and chaos loomsa whole lot more besides.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356501671</amazonuk>1542019885
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony Ryan|title=Blood Song: Book 1 of Raven's Shadow|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Young Vaelin Al Sorna's father takes him to the gates of the Sixth Order of the Faith and leaves him there. Vaelin's father is the King's Battle Lord and Vaelin's mother someone the lad has sorely missed since her death but this doesn't matter. As a member of the Order Vaelin has no family except his Order brethren. The long life-threatening training binds him closer to his fellows while exposing him to greater dangers and mysteries than he's ever known. However one day he'll outgrow his comrades. One day he'll become a name whispered with fear and awe. For Vaelin will become a deadly weapon: Hope Killer himself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502465</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTasha Suri|title=The Mirror Chronicles: the Bell Between Worlds|author=Ian Johnstone|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=The hero of this long and engrossing book is a boy of twelve, orphaned, lonely and unloved. He spends the little free time he has in creating beautiful kites covered in complicated, colourful designs until the day he meets a strange old man who sets him on the path to his destiny as a saviour of not one but two worlds. But in line with the traditions of the genre, this path will be fraught with fear, danger and loss.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007491220</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marie Harbon|title=Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Following several main characters - scientist Paul, businessman Max, remote viewer Tahra and mystery woman Ava - across two time frames spanning the 1940s to the present day, ''Seven Point Eight'' blends science fiction and fantasy in a sprawling, absorbing, diffuse novel that will attract fans of both genres.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005IBYKC0</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Royce Prouty|title=Stoker's ManuscriptJasmine Throne
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=In a world where vampires are On the new romantic heroesnight of her sacred burning, Stoker’s Manuscript Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses to step on to the pyre. She is immediately sent to be imprisoned on the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a bit community of a Godsendpeople who got powers from the mysterious deathless waters. I, for one, am absolutely delighted to find some good old fashioned evil as sinBut now the temple is nothing more than an overgrown, night dwelling, blood guzzling, crucifix hating Romanian villainsdecaying ruin. Of courseOne day, this means sacrificing sexiness, romance and attractively sulking out of Malini witnesses a window but since what we get in exchange is stunning views girl kill someone with magic. Instead of Transylvania, thought-through biology (reporting her for want of such a better word) of gruesome crime, Malini claims that the creatures girl saved her from an attacker and stakes that are elevated beyond one person, I say sharpen up begs for the spike pitgirl to become her own personal maidservant.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099574454</amazonuk>0356515648
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bee RidgwayGenevieve Gornichec|title=The River of No ReturnWitch's Heart
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= Nick was born in England in 1790 A modern and is rather partial to pickled bits approachable reimagining of pig and beef jelly. He finds this rather difficult to explain to his girlfriends, him being the Norse myths that centres around a young man and this being America, 2013witch named Angrboda. His 19th century Napoleonic war wounds are hard to explain away too. His second lease on life She hides in a forest at the 21st century is thanks to edge of the mysterious Guild whose main rule is nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that no one can return to she was survived burnt at the time or home country from which they originated. He doesnstake three times because of Odin't mind as they pay him well for his silence but all this is about to changes wrath. Eventually they seem Her attempts to think live in peace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the one that they can send him back and won't take no for an answer. Any thought of a possible catch is suppressed by thoughts of Julia, was cut from her chest before she was tied to the girl Nick left behind in England. It's all a bit fishy though.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718176987</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mur Lafferty|title=The Shambling Guide stake—and refuses to New York City (The Shambling Guides)|rating=4leave her alone.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Zoe is After an unemployed book editor who had initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to leave her last job, and indeed her last city, in rather a hurry. Zoefall for Loki's personal exodus brings her to New York charms, and the possibility two start an unusual family made of up a half-dead daughter, a job son that sounds perfect: editing 's a travel guide to NYC itself. Howeverwolf, its projected readership isnand another son that't one for which Zoe has written befores a snake. New York City is full of monsters or coterie to be polite. Vampires, werewolves, demons, sprites, zombies… the list goes on as all alternative life is there, both in and out of the office. So the first question is if she survives her colleagues, will she survive her readership? The second question being, of course, who or what is Granny Good Mae?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356501906</amazonuk>1789097061
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen Lloyd JonesHannah Whitten|title=The String DiariesFor the Wolf
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= Hannah Wilde flees into In Red's family, the Welsh mountains with first daughter Leah becomes queen, and husband Nate while the life blood slowly seeps out of himsecond daughter becomes a sacrifice. They run to escape the evil that has relentlessly haunted HannahTo Red's family for generationsmisfortune, she is the second daughter. Some people see it as a Hungarian legend Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the Wildes it's real woods is a wolf, and insatiable and won't forget themhe is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. They know what If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to do: verify everyonethe woods will be released, trust no one andthe fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when Red enters the woods, if in any doubtexpecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, RUN! Although one day she finds that may the legends are lies. The wolf is not be enougha monster—he's a man.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472204670</amazonuk>0356516369
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan CooperJohn Gwynne|title=The Dark is Rising SequenceShadow Of The Gods
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=As a child, I read The Grey KingShadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, book 4 set in the era of the Vikings in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence. I loved the book so much it topped my Christmas list for yearsshadow of Ragnarok, but sadly Santa never delivered. As an adult I finally bought when the entire sequence Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for myselfall to see. This book story is intended as a child's bookthe ultimate in High Fantasy, and it is brilliant as book for childrenJohn Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, but it archaic language and battles galore. This is also well loved by many adults, whether as a cherished memory of their own childhood or as a thick book discovered as , with an adult. I'll admit intricate plot and fascinating characters that as child, this can book can completely draw into other worlds are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in a manner not possible for an adult, but this is still an excellent read, whatever age you may bewhich our heroes must do battle.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0140316884</amazonuk>0356514218
}}