Difference between revisions of "Newest Fantasy Reviews"

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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Manifest Destiny Volume 1
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|author=A G Slatter
|author=Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Owen Gieni
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|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=It's 1804 and some newly-American soldiers are expanding the territory to the west, at the orders of President Jefferson – orders which allude to the pioneering party encountering some very unusual things.  And they do – first a huge arc of greenery, putting the modern reader in mind of the Missouri landmark arch as bastardised by something along the lines of the Statue of Liberty in the original 'Planet of the Apes'.  But when that site gets attacked the weirdness certainly starts to show itself…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1607069822</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Melanie Rawn
 
|title=Glass Thorns - Thornlost
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The Touchstone Players are back and now mostly married but the show must go on.  Talking of which, it's their playwright Cayden's 21st naming day.  He's come of age but his aristocratic mother would still rather he went to court as a courtier than the entertainer that his wizard/elven/fae heritage equips him for. However Cade has other concerns.  He, the dwarf glister, Mieka who wields Cade's magic, Rafe (who manipulates it) and Jeska the masker (who can literally become anyone) are no longer the court favourites. Also, you remember the danger that Cade foresaw for Mieka from Mieka's wife in his elsewhen premonitions?  Well, there's more!  (There follows some spoilers for the previous novels so read them first before reading on.)
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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>1781166641</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=Rebecca Alexander
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|isbn=1803364548
|title=The Secrets of Life and Death
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=A girl covered in magic sigils dies in London watched by Jackdaw (Jack) Hammond.  Jack had tried to cure her but the girl escaped.  Now Jack has another chance to provide the treatment linking them with Elizabethan alchemist/mathematician/royal advisor John Dee.  Indeed some would even call Dee a sorcerer.  Jack could achieve so much if she does it better the next time but the fight won't be easy.  She's not the only one who wants her new subject, although she may be the only one who knows how to save her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953243</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Hilda and the Black Hound
 
|author=Luke Pearson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Hilda and the Black Hound is the fourth book in the “Hildafolk” series, each of which is a self-contained tale about a highly inquisitive little girl and her adventures. This time Hilda joins the Sparrow Scouts and befriends a house spirit whilst in the meantime a mysterious beast stalks the town of Trolberg.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909263184</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tanya Huff
 
|title=The Wild Ways: An Enchantment Emporium Novel (Enchantment Emporium 2)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Charlie Gale, the lass who has magic in her music (literally!), leaves the rest of the family behind to play at a Celtic festival on the Canadian coast. You can never leave the Gale family behind though even when the problem is an oil company drilling offshore in a seal sanctuary area.  This may not be a popular occupation but the oil company has the clout to use a little leverage.  Charlie pits herself against them with the help of a Selkie family but in the process (family link incoming) also pits herself against the formidable Aunt Catherine.  Back home Allie is having trouble with Jack, the young sorcerer dragon they rescued from the underworld last time. Indeed, in the Gale households there's no such thing as peace and quiet anymore!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781169624</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Rachel Greenlaw
 +
|title=Compass and Blade
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|rating=3.5
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|genre=Teens
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|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
  
{{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=Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
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|isbn=0008664730
|title=The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day (Science of Discworld 4)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The wizards of the Unseen University are custodians of Roundworld. It may be different from their own turtle-carried Discworld (it's round for a start!) but they're still rather fond of it. However, there's a problem: the Church of the Latter Day Omnians have taken a shine to it too and would like to claim it.  A court case will decide the winner, a court case that will have a guest spectator. For Marjorie Daw (yes, like the nursery rhyme) has arrived from Roundworld just in time. What on Earth will happen next?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091949807</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=T Kingfisher
|author=Octavia E Butler
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|title=Thornhedge
|title=Kindred
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Life is a nightmare for black women (and indeed men) back in the southern USA in 1815.  For Dana that's just history as she lives over a century away with her husband in their new LA apartment.  However one day everything changes: Dana starts to feel faint, the edges of her modern life blur and she's back in the era that can take more than her liberty. She knows her time travel is somehow linked to plantation owner's son Rufus but that doesn't help.  In fact its knowledge that could make matters worse.
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|summary=''You had a right to retake your place.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472214811</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=Den Patrick
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|isbn=1803364238
|title=The Boy with the Porcelain Blade
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Lucien has reached his 18th birthday and final testing. This is the important one for Lucien is Orfano and as such lives for the day when he passes and can be adopted by one of the four houses. He hopes for the Fonteini, the house of fighters and with it will come an understanding of all the mysteries of Landfall.  However there are some mysteries that are secrets even from the Orfani and for a very good reason.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057513383X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Nicole Jarvis
 +
|title=A Portrait in Shadow
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary=''I want all of Florence to know my name''
  
{{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=Louise Welsh
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|isbn=1803362340
|title=A Lovely Way to Burn (Plague Times Trilogy 1)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=The summer of the great heat wave is also the summer of death.  Stevie thought nothing of the three establishment pillars turned snipers; the news just didn't register. Then the illness came: plague-like symptoms sweeping across the world.  When Stevie's boyfriend dies it's easy to put it down to the pandemic but Stevie has a hunch and she won't stop till she's followed it, no matter what happens or who tries to stop her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546513</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Thomas D Lee
 +
|title=Perilous Times
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre= Fantasy
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|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.
|title=Night Broken (Mercy Thompson)
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|isbn=0356518523
|author=Patricia Briggs
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Phew.  That's the sound of relief I gave when I found this book, the eighth in this lengthy genre series, was on form.  As the quality had hardly ever dipped in the past you might be wondering why I sounded particularly anxious this time. Well, book seven was that dip, and this time round things have changed – for the first time the British market gets a hardback.  But we've not jumped the shark. If anything, the fantasy side of this series is following on from [[Mercy Thompson: River Marked by Patricia Briggs|book six – River Marked]] and the fae implement that was so much a feature of that book is being requested by a dangerously powerful character.  But the urban fantasy side of this series is not without its dangerous characters – as Mercy is forced to bring the worried, frantic yet exceedingly manipulative figure of her husband's first wife into the shelter of their household…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>035650154X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Amelia Estelle Dellos
|author=Richard Ford
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|title=Delilah Recovered
|title=The Shattered Crown (Steelhaven: Book Two)
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|rating=4
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=''The king is dead… his city is next'' shouts the strapline, and it's not wrong!
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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....
Following on from [[Herald of the Storm by Richard Ford|Herald of the Storm]], Janessa is the new queen and is quaking; she's young, inexperienced and watching the massed hordes of Amon Tugha approach to rout the kingdom of Steelhaven.  This isn't the only problem her father's untimely death has left her with; there's a whole heap of trouble (internal as much as external) and hardly anyone Janessa can trust. Little Rag is now in the Guild but it's not all she dreamt it would be or as safe as she'd hoped. Meanwhile Merrick the ex-mercenary and Kaira, the former spear maiden are settling into their new job as bodyguards to the Queen. Merrick, though, has other things to think about as his past comes back to haunt him.  Waylian the witch's assistant is still alive, which is good. And Regulus?  He just wants to offer his men's swords in defence of Steelhaven but just didn't realise how difficult that would be, even before the fighting officially starts.
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|isbn=B0BKYFDLLV
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755394062</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|title=The Islands of Chaldea
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
|author=Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones
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|rating=4
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Imagine a story – a good old-fashioned adventure with journeys and magic and villains and young people finding their strengths despite the odds, and coming at last to the place they belong. Then imagine another story, a heart-touching one this time, about the writing of that story, and you have the whole of this charming book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007542232</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Libriomancer
 
|author=Jim C Hines
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Pulp fantasy may be frowned upon by some who believe that novels should be about emotions, inner journeys and despair. Fantasy and science fiction can have all these things as well, but they can also be fun, entertaining and laser pistols. ‘Libriomancer’ by Jim C Hines is a great example.  It is a book that follows Isaac Vainio, a Libriomancer who has the power to draw magic from books. He must use this gift to good effect when one day, whilst sitting comfortably cataloguing, he is attacked by three vampires.  Does that sound fun to you?  If so, read on; if not, this may not be the book for you.
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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>0091953456</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356520471
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Heather Fawcett
|author=Mur Lafferty
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|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|title=Ghost Train to New Orleans: Book 2 of the Shambling Guides
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary= After delivering [[The Shambling Guide to New York City (The Shambling Guides) by Mur Lafferty|The Shambling Guide to New York]], a travel guide for the coterie of the undead, Zoe the inadvertent citytalker goes to New Orleans to research the next oneShe sets off with a feeling of foreboding, but perhaps she's being overly pessimistic? I mean, she's travelling with two gods, (one of whom is a rather strident ex-Valkyrie), a baby dragon, two vampires (one of whom hates her) and Arthur, her boyfriend the Public Works employee(Yes, Public Works as in the body that polices and, where necessary, clears away the coterie.) Oh and by the way, Arthur may be turning into a zombie soon. The trip will be fine; what could possibly go wrong?
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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 faeriesWhilst 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 trackEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustrationBut why is he here?  What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501914</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356519120
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Golden
|author=Anne Leonard
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|title=Road of Bones
|title=Moth and Spark
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Horror
|summary=Prince Corin has been bewitched by the dragons, something he'll forget until the time is right for him to free the fire breathers from enslavement to Emperor Hadon of MyceneIt doesn't stop there though - that's not all he's been bewitched byThe commoner Tam happens to be attending the summer court at his palace; a house party for unmarried debs to find the husband of their parents' dreamsTam isn't actually looking but Corin finds her anywayHowever their world doesn't run as smoothly as their hearts: war is about to start, murderous treachery stalks the palace and Tam has visions she can't explainAlthough as time goes on their purpose becomes clearerTam and Corin realise that their reason for being together extends beyond love – they've been brought together to save the world.
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|summary=The Kolyma Highway… the 'Road of Bones'… the R504Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the world's most notorious routesFor 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 dustI 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 coversYou 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 projectsThey pick up their oh-so-chatty local guide, gain the company of a local beauty, and fetch up at the guide's childhood villageAnd that's where things start to go awry…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670015709</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803361476
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Andrew Givler
|author=Joanne M Harris
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|title=Soul Fraud (The Debt Collection Book 1)
|title=The Gospel of Loki
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Loki is a shape shifter and the most recent addition to the Norse gods in the halls of Asgard. He’s there to help the likes of Odin and Thor but sometimes things go wrong or his actions are misunderstood.  Loki definitely doesn’t deserve his ‘Trickster’ nickname and will explain why to anyone who will listen.  This is Loki's gospel, his long-overdue side of the story and it’s all here: how he arranged a mason to rebuild Asgard (shame about the horse), his marriage to Sygni, the problems fathering a werewolf and giving birth to a foal, what Freyja’s gold necklace cost mankind and, of course, that day Thor became a beautiful bride. (An occasion Thor has never spoken of since for some reason!)  Indeed, Loki is there to help and facilitate - if anyone tells you differently, don’t believe them!
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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>1473202353</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.
|title=A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent
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|isbn=1958204021
|author=Marie Brennan
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=We could all wish for a little of Lady Trent in ourselves.  It's obvious what she feels she has inside her, for ever since she was a young girl she ignored society and decorum and was interested in science, nature, and the discovery of all that was unknown about dragons.  She even went on a hunt for wolf-drakes, disguised as a male, and that's a species that prefers female prey. But as renowned a pioneer as she is, she has never told anyone in such detail of her life stories, starting with this one – a journey to the cold, mountainous land of Vystrana, which successfully uncovered a lot of the truth about dragons – but also a lot that was much harder to explain…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783292393</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Olivie Blake
|title=Unnatural Creatures
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|title=The Atlas Six
|author=Neil Gaiman
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Fantasy
|summary=
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|summary= Dark, sharp, and highly inquisitive, ''The Atlas Six'' makes its publishing debut after becoming a Tik-Tok sensation.
''I wished I could visit a Museum of Unnatural History, but even so, I was glad there wasn't one... If someone actually caught a werewolf, or a dragon, if they tamed a manticore or stabled a unicorn, put them in bottles, dissected them, then they could be only one thing, and they would no longer live in the shadowy places between the things I knew and the world of the impossible, which was, I was certain, the only place that mattered.''
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|isbn=1529095239
 
 
So says Neil Gaiman in the introduction to this anthology of sixteen ''unnatural creatures'' (to capitalise or not to capitalise, that is the question).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408845466</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Daniel Abraham
|author=Jen Williams
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|title=Age of Ash
|title=The Copper Promise
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Former knight Sir Sebastian Caverson and Wydrin of Crosshaven (aka Copper Cat) are swords for hire.  On this occasion they're hired by Lord Aaron Frith of Blackwood to enter the Citadel, of which dark legends abound. They don't know what they need to do once in there, but that doesn't matter. The trip unleashes something that would have made them forget their purpose anyway, not to mention their pay: they awake Y'Ruen, the last godIn return for the alarm call, Y'Ruen breathes death across the known world with a little family assistance but that's not the worst bitThe worst bit (at least for them) is that Sebastian and Wydrin are the only ones who can stop her.
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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 successorFor a night the Kithamar is un-ruled.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472211111</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356515427
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Ann Sei Lin
|author=Tanya Huff
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|title= Rebel Skies
|title=The Enchantment Emporium (Enchantment Emporium 1)
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|rating= 5
|rating=4.5
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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=All the Gale family have powers and there are many in the clan, mostly women.  This is one of the reasons that 24-year-old Allie (or Alysha Catherine Gale to the aunties) jumps at the chance of moving to the other side of Canada when her gran leaves her a junk shop.  Ok, it may not be an ordinary junk shop and it could mean that Gran is dead but the fact that the love of her life has left her for a man makes her mind up. With the help of Joe O'Hallan, a tall leprechaun with a gift for selling yo-yos, Allie sorts out the Enchantment Emporium but once there she hasn't escaped all supervision. Indeed, someone is watching her closely; very closely indeed.
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|isbn=1406399590
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781169608</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09Q3P283Y
|author=Jaye Wells
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|title=Shadebringer
|title=Dirty Magic: Prospero's War: Book One
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|author=Grayson W Hooper
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Gray Wolf is the new magic drug in town but it's a mite more evil than the usual sex potions and enchanted uppers and downers. Gray Wolf ensures that the user becomes a craven devourer of flesh - human flesh. Kate Prospero, cop seconded to the MEA (the government agency charged with clearing the streets of dirty, illegal magic) has her work cut out.  Unfortunately this work includes having to go into the Cauldron, the dangerous underbelly of a town called Babylon.  However Kate has a lot to prove, having been born an adept in that very underbelly and now having to face the forces that helped create the tragedy still haunting her.  Also, if she didn't have enough to worry about, her ex-lover is implicated in Gray Wolf's manufacture and her kid brother is choosing his own way in life; not a good thing, not a good thing at all.
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|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>035650297X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jennifer Saint
|author=Nora Roberts
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|title=Elektra
|title=Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy)
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|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.
|summary=American Iona Sheehan moves to Ireland in order to discover her ancestors' roots and oh so much more.  Her ancestors were witches and her cousins Branna and Conor O'Dwyer have acquired the family talent. Under their care and tutelage Iona has her own skills honed as she develops the magick passed down to her in between her work at the local stables. Unfortunately magick isn't the only thing to have survived the centuries. Cabahn, the nemesis of Sorcha, the first O'Dwyer dark witch, has unfinished business with the cousins and not in a good way.
+
|isbn=1472273915
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749958588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Dean Koontz
|title=Last to Rise
+
|title=Quicksilver
|author=Francis Knight
+
|rating=2.5
|rating=4.5
+
|genre=Thrillers
|genre=Fantasy
+
|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=Rojan has spent his life running from any sort of responsibility, but it's all catching up with him now. With the Mishans and Storads both knocking on Mahala's door, war seems inevitable. The inhabitants of Mahala are starving as trade dries up, the natural resources of the city all used. And the paltry amount of Glow the few pain mages can generate isn't enough to protect them.
+
|isbn=1542019885
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>035650168X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tasha Suri
|author=John R Fultz
+
|title=The Jasmine Throne
|title=Seven Sorcerers: Books of the Shaper: Volume 3
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Vireon the Giant-King, Emperor Tyro and Feathered Serpent/Sorcerer Khama are readying their armies to face the Almighty Zyung, would be conqueror of the Five Cities, a Shaper and evil piece of work.  Meanwhile Sharadza (Vireon's sister) and Iardu (the good Shaper, mostly) take on swifter forms to beg assistance from every place and being they can think of. For the time is coming when the world's freedom depends on victory against insurmountable odds. Back at the armies, Dahrima the Axe, giantess and leader of Vireon's spear-maiden body guard, has sworn to die for her king but also has some emotional issues.  As for Ianthe and Gammir, the
+
|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.
causes of much suffering in the past, they once again have their own agendas that could mean Zyung is the least of anyone's worries.
+
|isbn=0356515648
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500837</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Genevieve Gornichec
|title=World After (Penryn and the End of Days Book 2)
+
|title=The Witch's Heart
|author=Susan Ee
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Penryn successfully (depending on how you look at things) liberated her little sister Paige from the sick experiments of the angels now ruling over the world. Believed to be dead at the start of the story, Penryn finds herself at the control centre of the human resistance movement whose treatment of her sister and other victims of angel brutality seems less than human. In order to protect her sister she feels the need to leave the resistance and risk life in the nearly destroyed world amongst predators such as angels and even more horrifying creations spawned by the angels. All the while Pen clings to the hope of a reunion with Raffe, the angel responsible for saving her life and true owner of the powerful sword she carries with her.
+
|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>1444778536</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1789097061
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Hannah Whitten
|title=The Girl With All the Gifts
+
|title=For the Wolf
|author=M R Carey
+
|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Meet Melanie.  Not something that's likely to happen, but it's a standard introduction and I'll run with it. If you do find her, it's either in a subterranean cell, or a classroom. Or the shower-room, where she and the other children get disinfected, and get to eat a bowl of maggots – the only nutrition they have all week. All this is on a military base so secure they've only seen a few members of staff – either military or mostly lacklustre teachers – and they've certainly no real hope of seeing sunlight. They are there because of the Breakdown, when most of the world got turned into ravenous, mindless ''hungries''.  But these children did not turn all the way. And as unlikely as it is, as implausible a heroine as she is, young Melanie might just be the saviour of mankind.
+
|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>0356502732</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0356516369
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=John Gwynne
|title=Rags and Bones
+
|title=The Shadow Of The Gods
|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Anthologies
 
|summary=Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472210522</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jay Kristoff
 
|title=Kinslayer (Lotus War Trilogy 2)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|genre=Fantasy
|summary= Spoilers for [[Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff|Stormdancer]] follow so
+
|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.
read it first!
+
|isbn=0356514218
The Shogun is dead, murdered in the public square by 16 year old Kage rebel
 
Yukiko to avenge her family and in retribution for the evil hold that he has
 
over the dystopian land of Shima.  He may be dead but Hiro (equally nasty
 
and Yukiko's former lover) has a plan to take power which includes marrying
 
Aisha, the Shogun's sister and secret Kage sympathiser.  Yukiko has to stop
 
the wedding with the help of Buruu, the flying thunder tiger and Kin, the
 
former 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 the
 
thoughts of animals and feel the emotions of anyone and anything is becoming
 
a curse.  Meanwhile in Hiro's palace there works No One, below the radar and
 
beneath contempt, but one day.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230759025</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest For Sharing Reviews]]
|author=Mark Lingane
 
|title=I Love Lucid
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Lucid is more than a full-immersion role play game; it's THE full-immersion role play game.  Its inventor Seth Pascal has ensured that all that needs to be done is to plug in and the player's brain will take them to the virtual world while during sleep, providing perfect lucidity and an alternative life within an avatar.  However it's also becoming the game to die for.  Yes, literally die for as players are being murdered while they're connected.  Detective Evan Waugh is the investigator given the case to prove that he still has what it takes.  However there's an added complication for both he and Seth as the investigation continues.  Her name is Ellen, the woman for whom Lucid isn't just a way of life, it ''is'' her life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00G0T342Q</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Time Traveller's Almanac
 
|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Anthologies
 
|summary=From H.G Wells to ''Doctor Who'', there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject of time travel, literally ''anything is possible''. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy the universe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:13, 18 February 2024

1803364548.jpg

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

1803362340.jpg

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

1803361476.jpg

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

0356515427.jpg

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

1406399590.jpg

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

B09Q3P283Y.jpg

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

1472273915.jpg

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

1542019885.jpg

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

0356515648.jpg

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

1789097061.jpg

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

0356516369.jpg

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

0356514218.jpg

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

Move on to Newest For Sharing Reviews