Difference between revisions of "Newest Fantasy Reviews"

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[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
 
[[Category:Fantasy|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Fantasy]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Fantasy==
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{{Frontpage
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|author=A G Slatter
{{newreview
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|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|author=Celia Friedman
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|rating=5
|title=The Wings of Wrath (The Magister Trilogy)
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The first part of Celia Friedman's ''Magister'' trilogy was a wonderfully dark piece of fantasy.  It contained some beasts you wouldn't be surprised to come across in a horror novel and stretched the idea of magic being a draining power to an interesting place psychologically. The second part, ''Wings of Wrath'' is more of a straight fantasy novel, lacking some of the horror elements that made the first part such a draw for me, but it's still a very good read.
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|summary='' 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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495336</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's 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 communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.
|author=Wayne J Harris
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|isbn=1803364548
|title=Sins of the Angel
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Dr Gideon Matthews, a shouty hellfire and damnation preacher, has just delivered a sermon all about the evils of women being allowed into the church hierarchy and, on his way home afterwards, he is murdered. The following day however he wakes up in hospital or, actually, an angel called Gabriel finds himself inside Dr Matthews' body, able to recall Dr Matthews' memories and thoughts and feelings but acting now as himself. Gabriel goes a little bit wild, finding himself overwhelmed by the new feelings and desires he experiences in this body, sinning left, right and centre and causing scandal at his every move. He is also wondering for what purpose he has been brought into this body and finds that he is dreaming about a demon, someone who is persuading an unknown monk to commit murders in God's name and who seems to be getting closer and closer to Dr Matthews in order to kill him too...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1438994699</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|author=The Harvard Lampoon
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|title=Compass and Blade
|title=Nightlight: A Parody of Twilight
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Humour
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|genre=Teens
|summary=Most people will have heard of the worldwide phenomenon that is [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]]. The books by Stephenie Meyer and the film have made a legend of the romance between vampire Edward Mullen (Robert Pattinson plays the movie role) and teenage schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).
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|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013330</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|author=Kate Elliott
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|isbn=0008664730
|title=Traitors' Gate (Crossroads)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Kate Elliott's ''Crossroads'' series has so far come in large, slightly off-putting chunks. They've been decent reads, by and large, with a huge cast of wonderfully drawn characters, but the sheer size and slow pace of the action has meant I didn't enjoy them as much as I may otherwise have done. ''Traitors' Gate'', the third in the sequence is different in only one aspect; the character development is still there, the huge page count is still there, but the pacing is a lot better.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498351</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=T Kingfisher
|author=Amanda Downum
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|title=Thornhedge
|title=The Drowning City
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|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating and guessed the latter. I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings.  I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocative.
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|summary=''You had a right to retake your place.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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T Kingfisher's latest novella is a lovely reimagining of a fairytale that is well known and well beloved. But whilst there is a princess trapped in a tower, sleeping under an eternal enchantment, Thornhedge is not her story. Instead, our protagonist is Toadling, who was stolen away by fairies when she was a new-born baby and secreted away to the land of fairie where her childhood was spent being taught how to draw magic from her veins and cast spells.
|author=Lisa McMann
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|isbn=1803364238
|title=Wake
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janie's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
|author=Lauren Kate
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|title=A Portrait in Shadow
|title=Fallen
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Sarah Beth Durst
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=Ice
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska. She loves the ice and the wilderness of her remote home and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanks. However, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very young.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Thomas D Lee
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|title=Perilous Times
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|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
 +
|summary= ''Hate is the path of least resistance''
  
{{newreview
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Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call.
|author=Jeanette Winterson
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|isbn=0356518523
|title=The Battle of the Sun
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Amelia Estelle Dellos
|author=Kristin Cashore
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|title=Delilah Recovered
|title=Fire
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Possessed of great beauty, the kind that drives men mad, Fire is used to people trying to kill her. She isn't used to them doing it by accident. When a poacher in the woods outside her home accidentally shoots her, Fire is hard pressed to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing him. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harm, she is made unsure by the strange fog that exists in the man's mind.
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|summary= We meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as planned but things might, just might, be about to look up. Out of work, about to lose her flat, Dee is up for an accountant's job. But it's not to be. Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the attack but not unscathed. Witch hunters? What on earth has that to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life. Slivers of memory of things that are not ordinary at all return to her and things will never be the same....
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B0BKYFDLLV
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|author=David Gemmell
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
|title=Legend
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Dros Delnoch, a massive fortress with six walls of defence, is in danger of falling to the Nadir.  With its fall, the Drenai empire is soon to follow.  The Nadir haven't lost yet and as a result, morale among the defenders is low and desertions are rampant.  The men long for a hero, but the legendary Druss has hidden himself away in the mountains and become a myth.
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|summary= Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and then join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498580</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356520471
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Heather Fawcett
|author=Terry Brooks
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|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|title=A Princess of Landover (Magic Kingdom of Landover)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Mistaya has a lot to deal with in this book.  But then so do her parents, Ben (human) and Willow (half Dryad), as for much of the time they do not know where she is: your basic parental nightmare if you have a fifteen year old daughter whether you are the ruler of a magical kingdom or not.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495808</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kelley Armstrong
 
|title=Frostbitten
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's back to the werewolves in this latest volume in Armstrong's immensely popular Women of the Otherworld series, and I must say I'm relieved because the werewolves are my favourites. Time's moved on a little since we were with them last. Elena and Clay are now utterly settled in their wolfish marriage and their twins are three years old. Elena has just found out that Jeremy is looking to retire and also to make her the new pack Alpha. Ambitious and competitive, she's the ideal pack member for the job - but how will it affect her relationship with Clay, the pack enforcer? To add to this worry, a contact from the past has churned up some unwanted memories.
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|summary=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 Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration.  But why is he here?  What does he want?  And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497762</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356519120
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Golden
|author=Mike Carey
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|title=Road of Bones
|title=The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor)
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Horror
|summary=Felix Castor is a talented exorcist living in London, with zombies, ghosts and succubi for friends, and the odd human. His best friend, Rafi, has been taken over by a demon called Asmodeus, for which Felix feels slightly responsible. As such, he needs to get Rafi back to normal - the problem is that Asmodeus has other ideas - basically to kill everyone who has anything to do with Rafi. Felix himself is probably on the list, but before he worries about himself, he needs to do something about his closest friends - namely Pen, his landlady, Juliet, a succubus (a demonic female spirit) and Sue, Juliet's lover. At the same time, there are horrible things going on in a central London gym, and Castor must do something about it before people start to die. Can he solve all his problems without losing any of his loved ones?
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|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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496553</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803361476
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Andrew Givler
|author=Jesse Bullington
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|title=Soul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1)
|title=The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=When Hegel and Manfried are ticked off, you know about it. Returning to a town for vengeance - someone didn't like their scrumping there as children - they leave several dead, and several more corpses behind when a posse is sent off to seek its own justice. They're journeying south, graverobbing their way through mediaeval Europe, and they don't care how many people they have to kill, betray, get vengeance on, or blaspheme, or what they have to eat or drink, until their task is done.
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|summary=''Matt has a terrible life. Seriously—it's awful. It is so bad that Dan the Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a blissful life in exchange for his soul.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497835</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Poor Dan! I know, I know, we shouldn't feel sorry for soul-catching demons. But he really is a terrible salesman. He never hits his targets and, when he fails to get even Matt to sign on the dotted line, he's so desperate that he simply forges Matt's signature.
|author=Walter Moers
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|isbn=1958204021
|title=The Alchemaster's Apprentice
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Meet Echo the Crat. He is a rare example of his species, which is a cat that can speak every language known.  His life among the miserable, permanently ill citizens of Malaisea is not great, which is why, when the strange scientist from the castle that looms over everyone and everything offers him a month of entertaining gluttony before he kills Echo, as opposed to three days' starving penury on the streets, the offer is accepted.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846552222</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Olivie Blake
|author=Patricia Briggs
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|title=The Atlas Six
|title=Hunting Ground (Alpha and Omega)
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|rating=4
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Life with a werewolf is a question of balances.  You have to swing your new-found status as the motherly, calming, but powerful Omega wolf, with his Alpha-male studly status.  You have to equate his inner Brother Wolf being practically a different entity to his human side, and know when and how to relate to both.  And you have to remember that you might be playfighting in the snow one minute, and the next told by your father-in-law to go to Seattle, and act as figurehead for a revolution in werewolf life - and stand in the face of a very wicked and powerful European werewolf, vampires, and more.
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|summary= Dark, sharp, and highly inquisitive, ''The Atlas Six'' makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497959</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1529095239
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Audrey Niffenegger
 
|title=Her Fearful Symmetry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=When Elspeth Noblin dies of Leukemia, she leaves behind a strange bequest that will have dramatic and tragic consequences. She leaves her London flat and all the trappings of her life to the 'mirror' twins of her own twin sister who currently live outside Chicago. This is news to the twins who didn't even know that they had an aunt. The only condition of her legacy is that the twins, Julia and Valentina, have to live in the flat, which is adjacent to Highgate Cemetery, for a year before they can sell it. It is clear from the outset that Elspeth has secrets about her relationship with her twin sister Edie, which she is keen to keep hidden from the twins, but when it turns out that Elspeth hasn't quite left the apartment after her death, things get a whole lot messier for everyone.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085611</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Daniel Abraham
|author=Michelle Zink
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|title=Age of Ash
|title=Prophecy of the Sisters
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=This book is almost four hundred pages long, but I read it so quickly that it might as well have only had one hundred pages! Lia Milthorpe and her twin sister Alice have never really been allies, always slightly at odds with one another.  When their father dies and they become orphans, the twins discover that they are enemies in truth, on opposing sides of a prophecy that could destroy the world. With the help of her new friends Sonia and Luisa, Lia must find the Keys before Alice does and prevent demons from taking over the world.
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|summary= We meet Alys under the most northerly of Oldgate's four bridgesshe has a knife in her hand and a meeting that she dreads.   Meanwhile the City of Kithamar is at a point in the turning of years when the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possibleIt is the night between the funeral of a Prince and the coronation of his successor. For a night the Kithamar is un-ruled.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654480</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356515427
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Patricia Briggs
 
|title=Cry Wolf
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=It is not easy to move in with a werewolf.  He is two hundred years old or more, and you've been a werewolf for three years.  He comes with generations of baggage, a father who is the capo di capi of werewolves in North America, and a job as his assassin and general fiery dogsbody.  You are only just beginning to get to grips with your new status, and his temperament, and how they are expected to mix before you're confirmed as a coupleSo when it comes to him clearing up a mess with regards to a lethal, rogue werewolf nearby - making humans take too much notice - the timing could have been better.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497940</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=K S Turner
 
|title=Before the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=''Before The Gods'' is presented as an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle and shrouded in mystery. The front is adorned by a beguiling image created by the author. A glance at the back cover serves only to tantalise rather than reveal what might be in store.
 
 
 
''This is where it all began. Everything. Love, hate, good, evil, us and them. This is before they were gods.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956224202</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Ann Sei Lin
|author=Barb and J C Hendee
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|title= Rebel Skies
|title=Child of a Dead God
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|rating= 5
|rating=3.5
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|genre= Teens
|genre=Fantasy
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|summary= Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire 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, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her 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 she 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 a whole world of adventure awaits her…
|summary=Margiere, half-human, half-vampire, is being drawn south by dreams of an icebound castle. Her quest to discover a mysterious ancient artefact borders on obsession – a dangerous one that threatens the lives of her travelling companions. But little sage, Wynn, will follow her, seeking knowledge for her guild on the long forgotten history of their world, as will Chap and Elven warrior Sgäille, who swore an oath of guardianship to Margiere and Leesil.
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|isbn=1406399590
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497312</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Markus Heitz
 
|title=The Dwarves
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The charismatic dwarf, Tungdil, abandoned at birth, and brought up in the land of ''long-uns'' (humans), was raised and apprenticed to a magus. He finds that his peaceful life is about to change dramatically. Plucked from obscurity and anonymity, he is sent on a quest to find his fellow dwarves, delivering messages en route: naturally, adventure will follow him, and perhaps he is even the long lost heir to the dwarves' throne - time will tell!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316049441</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09Q3P283Y
|author=Christopher Moore
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|title=Shadebringer
|title=You Suck
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|author=Grayson W Hooper
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
 
|summary=You know that old adage about books and covers?  Well this is a case in point.  The title isn't great, but the cover design for the paperback imprint is, like, duh!, the pits.  It is so uncool…so unrep-resent-ative of the book.  This is not a cocktail thing.  Not even a "Bloody Mary" thing.
 
 
Well, except for the tiny bit that is, but you'll discover that in due course.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498092</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=K E Mills
 
|title=Witches Incorporated (Rogue Agent)
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=''Witches Incorporated'' is the second book in K.E. Mills' rogue agent series, which are about the exploits of wizard Gerald Dunwoody and his friends. In this book, Gerald has a new job as a secret agent for the Ottosland government.  He's on a deadly mission to hunt down a saboteur, determined to make amends for his past.  Meanwhile, his friends have set up an agency (Witches Incorporated) and are themselves heading for danger when they accidentally cross paths with Gerald's saboteur.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497282</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tad Williams
 
|title=The Dragonbone Chair
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=To Simon, an orphaned servant at the Hayholt, home of an aged king, it seems that his life will forever be dull and mundane. The King's youthful glory days were long ago and Simon, who dreams of adventure, sees his peaceful but quiet life as a tragedy. When the old King dies his son Elias is crowned, but begins to act strangely. Strange weather strikes the realm, terrifying beasts are attacking from the North, and the King, far from helping his people from these problems, is adding his own heavy taxes. Simon is caught up on a journey that is as full of danger and intrigue as he ever dreamed of, but finds it less than he hoped for. An ancient enemy is stirring, the High King Elias is aiding this enemy and it seems the only hope for the kingdom lies in the knowledge of the mysterious League of the Scroll and the finding of three ancient swords of power.
+
|summary=Clyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during the Vietnam War. He's not really that invested in the fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in a career in the military. If he's honest - which Clyde usually is, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in. He's good in training and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. He's chuffed with himself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498394</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jennifer Saint
|author=Kevin J Anderson
+
|title=Elektra
|title=The Edge of the World
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Kevin J. Anderson is perhaps better known for his Science Fiction books, such as continuations to the ''Dune'' Saga and numerous ''X-Files'' and ''Star Trek'' books. Having only ever read his ''X-Files'' books, I was unsure how I would like a fantasy book by someone who was so ingrained in my mind as a Science Fiction author. I needn't have worried, his first foray into the fantasy genre is a good start.
+
|summary='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 all bit players in the story of the Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the silent women have the most compelling stories and the most extreme furies.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496634</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1472273915
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Dean Koontz
|author=Marie Brennan
+
|title=Quicksilver
|title=In Ashes Lie
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Thrillers
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not 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, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going on the lam. And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides.
|summary=It's September 1666 and although the mortals' Civil War is over the war amongst the fae is still raging in London.  There's now a greater threat to the Onyx Court and it could destroy everything when a spark starts a fire which for three days spreads through the city devouring everything in its path. Can the mortals and the fae unite to find a way to defeat a foe which neither can better on their own?
+
|isbn=1542019885
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497185</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tasha Suri
|author=Jim Butcher
+
|title=The Jasmine Throne
|title=Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera)
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The 'Furies' of the title refer to elemental spirits of earth, air, fire, water and metal which bond with humans and grant them magical abilities. Welcome to Alera, where all the citizens have magical powers. All except fifteen year old farm boy Tavi, a native of the Calderon valley who for some reason has been unable to create any bonds with an elemental.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497444</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tom Holt
 
|title=May Contain Traces of Magic
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=It's a hard life being a salesman. Chris Popham spends all his time driving between customers trying to sell them things they don't really want to buy – products of JWW retail, magical goods. Portable parking spaces, bank holidays on a CD, the Book of all Human Knowledge, and the firm's most popular product, DW6, only don't ask what it's for, because no one knows.
+
|summary= On the night of her sacred burning, 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 community of people who got powers from the mysterious deathless waters. But now the temple is nothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. One day, Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magic. Instead of reporting her for such a gruesome crime, Malini claims that the girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the girl to become her own personal maidservant.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495050</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0356515648
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Genevieve Gornichec
|author=Brian Keaney 
+
|title=The Witch's Heart
|title=The Mendini Canticle (Dr Sigmundus Trilogy)
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In this fantasy world, the nasty king is dead, but that does not mean things are going well for the resistance fighters we are interested in - for what they immediately see is their guiding light replace him, and appear to be even worse.  Meanwhile, in the country next door, another young hero is wondering how his best friend has disappeared.  He encounters a passing mystical, elder man with token white hair, who explains it is down to magic - but they see the rest of the friend's family being taken by the military.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160901</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marcus Alexander
 
|title=Who is Charlie Keeper?
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Twelve-year-old Charlie Keeper lives in a slightly peculiar house with slightly peculiar noises and slightly peculiar visitors. Her life isn't so great; her parents disappeared years before and she lives with her senile grandmother and under the auspices of the wicked family lawyer, Mr Crow. She really does need to get away. And get away she does. Fleeing one of Mr Crow's particular nastinesses, Charlie falls through a gap between worlds and finds herself in Bellania, home of myth and legend, and place of magic.
+
|summary= A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odin's wrath. Her attempts to live in peace, however, are 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. After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki's charms, and the two start an unusual family made of up a half-dead daughter, a son that's a wolf, and another son that's a snake.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955891205</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1789097061
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kelley Armstrong
 
|title=The Awakening (Darkest Powers 2)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=We left poor Chloe Saunders just as she'd been taken captive by the rather sinister Edison Group. She'd only just escaped their clutches, too. And that was after she'd only just discovered that she's not a disturbed teenager, but an immensely powerful necromancer, capable of summoning ghosts and raising the dead. She's in good company; fellow captives Rae (half-demon) and Tori (witch) also have supernatural powers. Still free are Derek (werewolf) and Simon (sorcerer).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497118</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jaine Fenn
 
|title=Consorts of Heaven
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=Fantasy and science fiction are genres that mesh well together.  Some authors have written successfully across both genres, but not usually in the same story.  Jaine Fenn has managed to combine both in one book and it's an interesting read.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575083239</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Hannah Whitten
|author=Margo Lanagan
+
|title=For the Wolf
|title=Tender Morsels
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Liga's upbringing has not been a happy one. Her mother died young. Her father has sexually abused her and forced herbal concoctions on her in order to abort the resulting pregancies - except the last one. After his death, she was gang-raped by village boys and fell pregnant again. In her degradation and despair, she resolves to throw herself and her baby off a cliff. But the moon-babby takes pity upon her and spirits her away to an alternate reality in which people are kind and everything is safe. Here, she brings up her daughters - the pacific Branza and the fiery Urdda - in peace and harmony. It is, after all, her heart's desire.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385613237</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jim Butcher
 
|title=Turn Coat (Dresden Files)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Some time ago, I read the ninth book from Jim Butcher's ''Dresden Files'' series. [[White Night (Dresden Case Files) by Jim Butcher|White Night]] was a decent enough book, but did conform to a couple of the more obvious clichés and this took the edge off it for me. But with the eleventh in the series, Butcher seems to have been improving as he goes along and I found ''Turn Coat'' to be far more enjoyable.
+
|summary=In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolf, and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be released, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds that the legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a man.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496979</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0356516369
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=John Gwynne
|author=Steve Augarde
+
|title=The Shadow Of The Gods
|title=Winter Wood (The Various)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=''We are all one. I am the fly upon my own cheek, and in another life I watch myself through his eye''.
 
 
Pegs, an amazing flying horse that speaks in colours, gives Winter Wood's schoolgirl heroine, Midge, his parting words in this splendid fantasy adventure which can be enjoyed by confident readers, teens and adults alike.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>055254969X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=D J MacHale
 
|title=The Rivers of Zadaa (Pendragon)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Don't get me wrong - I never mean to disparage a book when I convert its mood, plot or impression into a two or three word comparison with something else.  So if I say there is a lot here that boils down to Eloi vs Morlock, it's to point out I'm quite sure our author has knowledge of The Time Machine, in book or on film, and wanted to do something a little similar.  And the key word is 'little' - there's a lot that's Machale's own here in the balance between his two races.  One is above ground, one a lot paler for being subterranean, and the battleground between the two - played out on and under the desert capital city on Zadaa, in a heated time of drought, is perfect for the big bad, Saint Dane, to get his claws into.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384854</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=D J MacHale
 
|title=Blackwater (Pendragon)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=One of the most telling pages in this book was the one with the author's CV on, which declares his prior career in film and TV.  It's one of the hallmarks of the best genre TV series that each episode can immerse you in a universe unique to that week's programme, while never losing sight of the grand, major story arc.  And to that rule I can begin to add the best of teen fantasy fiction, such as this.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384846</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jaye Wells
 
|title=Red-headed Stepchild
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=In a world where relations between mage-kind and vampire-kind are so bad they exist on the brink of war, being halfblood is a major liability. Though she has been a loyal servant of the Dominae, the vampire rulers, since birth, Sabina Kane has always been something of an outcast, fit for only one profession – assassinating. And she's very good at it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497568</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=D J MacHale
 
|title=The Reality Bug (Pendragon)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Sometimes I have to doubt the book reviewing gods.  When they suggest the best thing for me to spend my time on is a ten-part teen series, and I should read books 4-7, I have to wonder what I'm letting myself in for.  Can I really enter such a cumbersome entity at such a point, and still find merit in it?  Well, on this evidence, I certainly can.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384471</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Griffin
 
|title=A Madness of Angels
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Matthew Swift is doing something he didn't expect to ever do again - waking up in an unfamiliar bedroom.  It should have been his bedroom, and once upon a time it was, but he shouldn't be waking up, as he was killed horrifically a couple of years ago.  He has been invested, or infested, with something that has brought him back to life, for revenge - on the killer or killers, and, he claims, on those who brought him back to the earth.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497339</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mike Carey
 
|title=Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Mike Carey is not a name I'd come across before, but on hearing he'd written the book that the film ''Constantine'' was based on, I was certainly interested in his work.  ''Ticker Than Water'' is the fourth in his series involving Felix Castor and whilst that gave me slight pause about coming in to an already well established series, my desire to check out Carey's work outweighed any concerns I had
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496561</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stephen R Lawhead
 
|title=Tuck (King Raven Trilogy)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The struggle for Elfael reaches its conclusion in the third volume of Lawhead's Robin Hood trilogy. In this book, we see things through Friar Tuck's eyes. Bryn ap Brychan has been betrayed by the greedy William Rufus, who reneged on his promise to restore the Raven King's rightful throne to him, despite owing his life to the Welsh rebel. So it's back to the forest to regroup and plan again. But time is against the Grellon - Abbot Hugo is planning to bring men in force and to wipe out Bryn and his followers once and for all.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654138</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Max Frei
 
|title=The Stranger
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Max is a dreamer, in that he does a lot of it, partly tempered by his naturally off-kilter circadian rhythm and night-shift routine.  He is used to thinking back on, and chasing, dreams, but even he is surprised when he permanently dreams himself into a different world, a country called the Unified Kingdom, and the city of Echo.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575089741</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tom Siddell
 
|title=Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=While having used the internet for several years now I have never needed to use the favourites option much – there is a routine for my comings and goings online that I can handle, and I don't think I regret losing out on a regular visit to any particular site much.  The downside of this is that a lot of online graphic novels have probably passed me by, as I habitually don't form the habit of clicking to them.  It's a relief then that one very well-acclaimed example, Gunnerkrigg Court, has come to my attention in book form.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184856175X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Trudi Canavan
 
|title=The Magician's Apprentice
 
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=It seems that wherever you go in fantasy circles at present, Trudi Canavan's work comes highly praised.  Reviews of her current and past work speak of it in glowing terms and readers have clearly felt the same way, giving her high marks on websites like Amazon and propelling her to the top of the ''Sunday Times'' bestseller lists.  Here at The Bookbag, however, we're a discerning bunch and previous reviews of her work have criticised her weak character development. Having had my first taste of her work, I can see both points of view, but would agree more strongly with the latter.
+
|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495972</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0356514218
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest For Sharing Reviews]]
|author=M F W Curran
 
|title=The Hoard of Mhorrer
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=M. F. W. Curran's previous novel, [[The Secret War by M F W Curran|The Secret War]], provided the reader with a great opening into this series.  Curran builds his characters very well and then puts them into a very gripping story.  It was with great anticipation I jumped straight into the follow up, ''The Hoard of Mhorrer''.  Whilst it contains many of the elements that made the first book so good, it is different enough to be more than just a copy of what worked so well last time.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023070980X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=M F W Curran
 
|title=The Secret War
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=In books, stories of vampires and demons fighting men have been done over and over again and it's tough for a new writer to find a different slant to put on events.  The same can be said of war stories, particularly in film and TV versions, where the focus has switched away from the fighting itself and more towards the human aspect, with some having the war as a background character rather than a focus.  What M. F. W. Curran has done with ''The Secret War'' is combine both to great effect.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230711189</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:13, 18 February 2024

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Review of

The Briar Book of the Dead by A G Slatter

5star.jpg Fantasy

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 world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's 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 communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat. Full Review

0008664730.jpg

Review of

Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

3.5star.jpg Teens

I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Full Review

1803364238.jpg

Review of

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher

5star.jpg Fantasy

You had a right to retake your place.

T Kingfisher's latest novella is a lovely reimagining of a fairytale that is well known and well beloved. But whilst there is a princess trapped in a tower, sleeping under an eternal enchantment, Thornhedge is not her story. Instead, our protagonist is Toadling, who was stolen away by fairies when she was a new-born baby and secreted away to the land of fairie where her childhood was spent being taught how to draw magic from her veins and cast spells. Full Review

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Review of

A Portrait in Shadow by Nicole Jarvis

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

I want all of Florence to know my name

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. Full Review

0356518523.jpg

Review of

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

3star.jpg Fantasy

Hate is the path of least resistance

Set in the near-distant future, in a world on the verge of climate collapse, Britain is in great peril. The British Isles desperately needs a hero (or several) to save the day and rescue what little remains. What no-one expected was that one of the Knights of the Round Table would answer the call. Full Review

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Review of

Delilah Recovered by Amelia Estelle Dellos

4star.jpg Fantasy

We meet Dee at a point when her life isn't going as planned but things might, just might, be about to look up. Out of work, about to lose her flat, Dee is up for an accountant's job. But it's not to be. Dee is attacked by two men calling themselves witch hunters. She survives the attack but not unscathed. Witch hunters? What on earth has that to do with Dee? She's just an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life. Slivers of memory of things that are not ordinary at all return to her and things will never be the same.... Full Review

0356520471.jpg

Review of

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

4star.jpg Fantasy

Drawing inspiration from Egypt, The Daughters of Izdihar explores the lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and then join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a 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. Full Review

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Review of

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

4star.jpg General Fiction

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 Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik? Full Review

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Review of

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

3.5star.jpg Horror

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… Full Review

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Review of

Soul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1) by Andrew Givler

4star.jpg Fantasy

Matt has a terrible life. Seriously—it's awful. It is so bad that Dan the Demon is shocked when Matt turns down his infernal offer: 10 years of a blissful life in exchange for his soul.

Poor Dan! I know, I know, we shouldn't feel sorry for soul-catching demons. But he really is a terrible salesman. He never hits his targets and, when he fails to get even Matt to sign on the dotted line, he's so desperate that he simply forges Matt's signature. Full Review

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Review of

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

4star.jpg Fantasy

Dark, sharp, and highly inquisitive, The Atlas Six makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation. Full Review

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Review of

Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

4.5star.jpg Fantasy

We meet Alys under the most northerly of Oldgate's four bridges, she has a knife in her hand and a meeting that she dreads. Meanwhile the City of Kithamar is at a point in the turning of years when the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possible. It is the night between the funeral of a Prince and the coronation of his successor. For a night the Kithamar is un-ruled. Full Review

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Review of

Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin

5star.jpg Teens

Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire 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, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her 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 she 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 a whole world of adventure awaits her… Full Review

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Review of

Shadebringer by Grayson W Hooper

4star.jpg Fantasy

Clyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during the Vietnam War. He's not really that invested in the fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in a career in the military. If he's honest - which Clyde usually is, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in. He's good in training and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. He's chuffed with himself. Full Review

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Review of

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

'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 all bit players in the story of the Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the silent women have the most compelling stories and the most extreme furies. Full Review

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Review of

Quicksilver by Dean Koontz

2.5star.jpg Thrillers

Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not 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, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare for going on the lam. And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides. Full Review

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Review of

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

4star.jpg Fantasy

On the night of her sacred burning, 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 community of people who got powers from the mysterious deathless waters. But now the temple is nothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. One day, Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magic. Instead of reporting her for such a gruesome crime, Malini claims that the girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the girl to become her own personal maidservant. Full Review

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Review of

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

4star.jpg Fantasy

A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odin's wrath. Her attempts to live in peace, however, are 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. After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki's charms, and the two start an unusual family made of up a half-dead daughter, a son that's a wolf, and another son that's a snake. Full Review

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Review of

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

5star.jpg Fantasy

In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolf, and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be released, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds that the legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a man. Full Review

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Review of

The Shadow Of The Gods by John Gwynne

5star.jpg Fantasy

The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle. Full Review

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