Review
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Review: This is How to Lose the Time War by Amal Al-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
I feel like everyone else that I know has already read this and loved it but I have just absorbed it and I have feelings that I simply must share. Gosh I loved this novella. Its poetic and epic and visceral and it really got to me in a way that I didn’t expect. Red is an operative of the agency she is aware that there is an enemy operative who is trailing her and she feels that she has finally met her match. One encounter Red finds a letter from her opponent, reads it and then decides to continue the correspondance at great risk to both of them.…
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Review: To be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
This novella is a long slow punch to the gut. I adore Becky Chambers writing I have loved her Wayfarers sequence and whilst this is not part of that universe it shares enough DNA that it feels similar. Ariadne, Chikondi, Elena and Jack are crew members on a mission from Earth to travel to four different envrionments on moons and planets for science! As ever with Chambers work there is a quiet humanity to her work where hope and doing things for the joy of them are celebrated and the work that four people undertake as well as how they interact and manage to get on. The emotional is…
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Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry
Charley and Rob are brothers with an awkward past. Charley a former child prodigy with the very unique ability that he can read characters out of books and have them appear in ort world. This concept I found utterly delightful, not least the opportunity to meet some of your favourite characters in the flesh. However, for Rob its something of an embarrassment, his brother is deliberately ruining his life and always has done. Especially as Rob is a Solicitor and has a serious life that he has built with his partner Lydia. The brothers are not close and Charley feels like the kind of vague professor who is so much…
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Playing in the Dark
Neil Gaiman at the Barbican was quite magical. The concert opened with the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing The Sourcerer’s Apprentice and I can think of no better way to set the tone for an evening. Neil then appeared and read short stories and poems and sections from his novels. Amanda Palmer read a poem of his called the Mushroom hunters which was one of the highlights of the evening as far as I am concerned we were also treated to the Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare Song from Iolanthe which is a real treat if you have never heard it before. The second half opened with one of my favourite pieces of…
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Review: The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
The Mortal Word was marvellous. Genevieve Cogman does it again and if I thought I couldn’t love Irene, Kai and Vale anymore then I was seriously mistaken. The Mortal Word is the fifth title in this series and once again the world is shaken up this time with a peace treaty between the Dragons and the Fae with the Library acting as Arbiters in the middle. The world-building has become richer as the series has progressed, I love the concept of the Language and maintaining the balance between order and chaos. Beyond this point, there may be spoilers for previous books in the series. I really feel for Irene she…
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Review: Cult of Chaos by Shweta Taneja
I feel very privileged to have read this book as it currently is not available in the UK it is published by Harper Collins India but I think there is a place for this voice in the Urban Fantasy market in the UK and beyond. Anantya is a Tantrist she is a good one too, a bit maverick and an outcast she helps the Dehli Police with their investigations whenever something a bit supernatural happens. The books feel a lot like the Urban fantasy I was reading a little bit Anita Blake and a little bit Patricia Briggs however, what stops it being the Urban Fantasy cliche is the fact…
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Review: I Still Dream by James Smythe
This novel is incredible. No, I mean it this novel blew me away. I am a sucker for books that hit me where I live and James Smythe grabbed me within that first chapter and just refused to let me go. Laura Bow is the protagonist, we meet her at age 16 in 1997. The internet is in its infancy and Laura has to sneak on the dial-up. This was felt so real it could have been me twenty-odd years ago. The novel is about AI Laura is a teenager who yearns to have someone to open up to, her absent father was a programmer and Laura cobbles together a programme…
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Review: The Fairy’s Tale by F D Lee
This a novel with a lot of heart, a good dollop of humour, a sprinkling of politics and an anti-establishment message and it really did me good to read something that didn’t take itself too seriously. Bea is a cabbage fairy, but a cabbage fairy with ambition. She wants to be a Fairy Godmother but this is not the land of fairy tales that we grew up with. There’s a sinister organisation that controls the stories and the denizens of Fairyland are being repressed. The threat of redaction hangs heavy over everyone. This is a wonderfully subversive look at Fairy Tales and it questions the notions of free will, true…
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Review: Witchsign by Den Patrick
This is a powerhouse of an opening to a trilogy. It has everything that I look for in a novel. An Empire that is corrupt and that seeks to illuminate those who are different. It feels so very relevant at the moment with a lot of countries becoming more inward-looking and exclusionary not least the UK and it’s a picture of what life could be like and indeed has been like for those who are do stand out. Steiner is a good lad, he works in the Smithy with his father and he fancies the innkeeper’s daughter. He’s probably dyslexic and he feels like he’s being judged most of the…
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Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Trail of Lightning defies being neatly boxed into one genre. Its post-apocalyptic urban fantasy and is written by a Native American about Navajo characters and concepts. This was new ground for me as a reader and whilst I’ve read a lot of Urban Fantasy set in the US the vast majority has been written by caucasian writers and The Sixth World feels fresh and different. The world-building is superlative, evocative and immediate and a reason why we need more own voices out there for readers to engage with. The main characters are drawn well and are both compelling and flawed. Maggie is a tracker and a Dinetah monster hunter trained…
