Graham

I actually managed to read the short story this is based on (Iphegenia In Aulis) before reading this. The base concept here is massively intriguing - vampiric children being experimented on in a lab based setting. Vampires can come across as a bit tired, so doing it in this way, from the perspective of one of these child vampires, is a brilliant way to subvert the genre. The dynamic is instantly shifted from the good vs evil dynamic to a much more sympathetic one. These children are damaged through no fault of their own, are being experimented on in a terrifying way. It allows the ‘who is really the monster?' question to be asked in a very clever way.

The short story had set up the basis for this, and this novel expands on it by taking the child out of the laboratory and back into the real world. The relationships develop, the characters motivations are all explored.

This really was a refreshing take on the post apocalyptic vampire genre. Strong shades of 28 days later pervade through the imagery presented (not a bad thing) and the basic set up allows a good deal more pathos to be developed towards the ‘monsters'. An intelligent and clever take on what can be quite a tired genre.

Post apocalyptic fantasy of a sorts. Luke Arnold introduces us to a fantasy world where the magic is suddenly gone. He asks the interesting question on what happens to all the fantasy creatures that relied on magic?

Sunder City is a place that used to be the industrial heartland of a magical land, churning out magical artifacts from the magical fires beneath it. When the magic goes out, the city remains but its industry is gone. Fetch Phillips is a man for hire - a kind of private investigator. He is brought in to investigate the disappearance of a vampire. There are some strong Dresden vibes here, even if the setting is quite different, with the fantasy noir stylings.

Interspersed in this noir tail is the story of what lead up to this magical apocalypse, what makes someone (something?) a monster and plenty of interesting world building. Luke Arnold has a wonderful light humour to his writings (like the best noir) and this is an eminently readable, creative and fun take on a genre bending tale.

I struggled with this one. Overwrought and melodramatic, it struggles with its own earnestness. it loses to much of the fun that makes YA enjoyable to read.

I am not the biggest YA reader, and I do find that it tends towards some tropes that can get frustrating. One of my least favourites is love triangles, and this one seems to try layering love triangles onto love triangles. It doesn't work. The characters end up extremely annoying. The earnestness becomes overwrought and ultimately falls flat on its face. The basic world set up here is one of the most interesting aspects, but it gets lost within the unimpressive romance that has been layered on top. I like the romanesque fantasy - it is rare enough to give a wonderfully fresh feeling. But this is written as more of character piece. The main characters are annoying. The villains frustratingly one-dimensional. The lack of motivation in a lot of the characters makes the whole story feel distant.

A definite drop in quality from the first and I can only hope the series improves in its last two entries. Definitely a troubled second album...

The Wolfen is a bit of a victim of its time. The concept is brilliant, taking a fantastically convincing approach to the myth of Werewolves. Everything on the mythology side is amazingly done. However, I don't find the actual prose particularly good. This is definitely a book which tells, rather than shows. The characters almost feel like caricatures at times. Whitley writes a brilliant monster, but his humans struggle to convince. It definitely lays into some of the social mores of its era - the attitudes towards female policing, whilst undoubtedly true to when he wrote it, feel troubling to a modern reader. Based on this example I am not sure he knows how to write women. But beyond this, there is at the core a fun story. The Wolfen are an intriguing monster playing on some interesting fears. If you can get passed the very 80s writing there is quite a bit of enjoyment to be had

PKD is primarily known these days for his sci-fi. The Cosmic Puppets is probably his only attempt at a fantasy novel. One of his earlier and less well known works, the immaturity of the prose is definitely evident, but the wild ‘what if' ideas that characterize his best sci-fi works is absolutely present.

Here we are playing with the ideas of creation. The whole story steeped in heavy Zoroastrian imagery - the cosmic battle between light and dark - this time played out in a kind of urban fantasy setting. The idea of ‘what is real?' is something that PKD plays with a lot over the years. It is intriguing to see his early ideas on this front. The concepts have evolved into much more well fleshed out examples in his later works, but seeing how he has previously explored them is definitely interesting.

This is certainly not one of his best books. His prose is weak, the setting dated. However, seeing where some his more famous ideas started being developed is certainly fun for people who like his works.

I loved this. A gritty look at the importance of justice and how difficult it is to not have bias when taking judgement, how power corrupts. In many ways this seems especially pertinent when considering the erosion of rights in part of the world and the use of power to control the idea of justice. In The Justice of Kings we follow the apprentice of a Magister as they do their rounds in a kingdom. At the outset of the book the Magisters are the ultimate power, the arbiters of law based on a presumption of neutrality and justice. The throne has other centers of power that resent this and it is machinations around this that form the main plot of the book.

The ethical and moral questions asked in the book are intriguing and well followed through. The fallibility of people is a reason why perfect justice does not exist and this is explored in depth here - despite our main characters desire for justice and the respect they hold the law in, you cannot help but empathize with the challenges they face in upholding the principles the espouse.

I was probably the new series I was most anticipating so far this year and it has not disappointed in its opening novel. I really do look forward to where this goes!

I found this a frustrating read. In many ways I respect that it is written in Trinidadian English, but as someone not used to the tense structure used in that vernacular it was a somewhat jarring read for me. My bigger issue was with pacing though - this novel starts extremely slowly and only marginally ups the pace. The magical realism is intriguing - the concept and theming of the book was done in a nice a haunting way, really leaning into some of the folk mysticism surrounding death in Caribbean cultures. The two main characters were likeable in there own way, but the fact it took until over halfway for them to come in contact left the start of book dragging.

Literary fiction is often a bit heavy for me and this was definitely on that side of the scale for me - I would call this a literary magical realism novel if I am trying to categorize. The prose is pretty, but again it acts as a speed bump on the story (my usual criticism of the more literary styles). For people who enjoy that style of writing, this is an excellent example of it. The fantastical elements were intriguing, but the pacing dragged to much for me to really enjoy it.

There have been some really fantastic found family style sci-fi novels I have read recently, and this one is certainly up there! Embers of War follows the story of a former warship (The Trouble Dog), whose AI got a conscience and refused to be a fighter any more instead joining a humanitarian organisation to assist and rescue spaceships in distress. The crew members have found themselves there for various reasons, some having fought on opposing sides in a recent war. The development of the relationships of the crew and the ship form the backbone of the novel.

Overlaid over this is a much grander space opera style story. The former war is referenced multiple times, and the implications of this play large in the politics at play. The Trouble Dog is drawn in when it sent to the aid of a downed space liner in a mysterious space system.

The characters really do shine in this novel, Gareth Powell really makes you care for them despite all their various differences. Thoroughly enjoyed, and I am looking forward to seeing the story continue to develop!

I get the impression that the city of Kithamar itself is the main character of this story. The story is entirely self contained within this city, only vague allusions to a larger fantasy world are made. The city itself is characterized by an extreme wealth stratification that makes for a nice gritty fantasy read. The characters range from the ruling family to poverty stricken thieves. The main plot interweaves the different levels of the society as a cult like group try to maintain their control on the city. The manipulations through calls for patriotism are a dark reminder of many events that are happening in the real world. Alys provides the central character - a thief who is drawn into the plot after her brother's death.

Being so focused on one place allows a real depth to the world building for the city, giving life to a very real feeling place. Daniel Abraham has a beautiful prose style that works well to bring this place to life. The characters are interesting, although maybe not as well developed as the place. I am intrigued where the story will go now though - it felt reasonably self contained so far so it will be interesting to see how it develops in the series

3 stories in this issue:

Monster/Hunter - Jordan Ross

A fun little exploration of greed and power, and the relationship between predator and prey. Trophy hunting taken to its extreme in a dark and twisted way. 4/5

The Saga of Hilde Ansgardottir - Jesse Bullington

I can appreciate that the author is going for a traditional skald style of story telling. Unfortunately I am not a fan of this style. Otherwise this would have been a very interesting cross between norse mythology and lovecraft... 3/5

The Shapes of our Fever - T.R. Napper

Cyberpunk tower assault. Playing along typical cyberpunk storylines (the rich enjoying a lifestyle and privileges at the expense of an underclass - that underclass rising up in rebellious acts against the figures of authority). Whilst not treading anything original it is a fun yarn told in an entertaining way. 4/5

I thoroughly enjoyed most of this. MA Carrick has crafted an intriguing buddy fantasy, but this time the buddy characters are both female. This is The Gentleman Bastards with a gender flip! We follow two con artists, who are trying to pull a con to ingratiate themselves with one of the noble families in a Venice-like fantasy city by pretending to be a long lost cousin. The main character (Ren) is likeable and well crafted. The con she is pulling is elaborate but built in a way that makes sense - her alter ego Renata is a carefully crafted facsimile of noble woman. Her partner in crime, Tess, takes on the role of servant, utilizing impressive needlework skills to keep Ren in fashion. This obsession with fashion is, however, the weak point of the book. A pet peeve of mine is when an author spends too much time describing clothing, unfortunately a trap that this book falls into too often.

The political scheming and Machiavellian plans that make up the core of the story are brilliantly done however. The buddy dynamic is well done and the character work is brilliant. The story is all contained within the the city of Nadezra for now, but the wider world is hinted at in intriguing ways. The Zorro like figure of the Rook is also intriguingly built into the plot.

Finally, whilst the magic system takes a bit of back seat, what is shown so far is cleverly done, with an interestingly cultural approach to magic

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and definitely intend to keep on reading further into the series as it appears!

This book has been unfortunately horribly mismarketed. The title and artwork suggest an Agatha Christie style murder mystery in Russia. Whilst this is a crime novel, it really isn't anything like a Christie style murder mystery. For one thing, the cast are not really contained enough to be a proper whodunnit.

The main issue with this story is the main character (Olga) really quite annoying. I get the impression that Farrington has been repeatedly told to ‘write what you know' and has ended up writing about someone who wants to write a book. This is a bad take - the trope has been overdone and is utterly unrelatable for most non-authors. This has ended up with a messy construct of a Russian Railway worker wanting to write a book and coming up with a completely dire idea with random faux-wisdom about using learnings from the railways as a life improvement handbook. Olga is also rather simply constructed - there is no real emotional nuance to her leaving a pretty flat character

Beyond these peeves is a nice enough crime story, hinting at some of the corruption endemic to the Russian state. Here politicians and crime lords intertwine in an all too believable setup

The basic premise of this sounds really fun - a 1920s art deco steampunk alternative history. Certainly an intriguing set up. In many ways the vibe reminds me of the boardgame Scythe. The world building is certainly the highlight of this - the combo created provides a vivid setting. The issue for me was the characters and story. It all just mulched together into a bit of mush. I dont think the memory loss story line really helped this as it just added to the sense of confusion.

I loved the setting. I just wished story was a bit more memorable. It wasn't bad, just nothing special.

This is an undeniably ambitious series. Here, in the second book, we are introduced to a completely different main character, with a new narrator construction. Whilst the first book took the form of an interrogation transcript, this one is more a series of stories told in tavern. The world is expanded and more stories are brought in, which intertwine with the first book in a pleasing way. I get a certain Malazan vibe with this interwoven story style (although the prose is very different). If anything, the prose has improved into this book, the scope of its story is slightly narrower and a lot of the heavy lifting on the world building front has already been done in the first book. This lets the room breath more and feel a little less rushed.

I am ultimately intrigued where this story is going, and thoroughly look forward to continuing!

This book came 3rd in the 5th edition of SPFBO. This is not a bad result, considering the winner that year was Sword of Kaigen, which is a phenomenal book. Blood of Heirs is an impressive debut and competent start to a trilogy. Alicia weaves two main POV characters in an intriguingly disparate and seemingly unconnected manner, with the links only gradually becoming apparent. This is a dark world, impressively built with distinctive cultures. The characters are well developed and likeable. The prose is elegant and impressive for a debut novel.

If you want to try out some Indie fantasy, you can do a lot worse than this!

I really appreciate horror that has a grounding in reality. The psychological element is key for me. The Hunger ticks all these boxes, being firmly based on a real story. The Donner Party is very much part of the American mythos, but is a bit less known elsewhere. The story of a group of pioneers who had a disastrous attempt to cross to California in the early years of westward expansion in the US. The reality of what happened to the is truly horrific - the rumours of cannibalism in order to survive and the shear number of them who died on the trip. Katsu adds an intriguing hint of supernatural - some mysterious tribe influenced by a spirit that drives people to acts of extreme violence. The reality of how real this supernatural thing is is left entirely up to the reader - and I love that type of ambiguity.

This was a brutal read, fitting for such a brutal event. Thoroughly enjoyed!

I somewhat regret listening to the audiobook version of this. I found the narration to be not great, leaning heavily on some cultural stereotype for the accents used - a little bit offensive to listen to. The story itself is set in a clever take on a steampunk world, with vast machinery powered by blood lotus, a plant that has ‘particular' needs to grow and produces a vast amount of pollution when used. The military industrial complex that it powers forms the backbone of the society - a scarily believable allegory for modern capitalism and hydrocarbons. The world building here is well done.

The story mostly follows the daughter of the chief tracker of the emperor, being sent to capture a thunder tiger - a griffon like beast. Some characters are a bit one dimensional - I found the childlike petulance of the emperor somewhat grating. The motivations are a bit confused as well. However, they are all distinctive and interesting. The plot is somewhat generic, with its main distinction being the world and the female lead. Kristoff writes with a very accessible and conversational style which is fun and easy to follow and this book is no exception to that.

Overall a fun fantasy romp. Avoid the audiobook though.

A bucolic English pastoral setting makes an intriguing setup for what is pretty clever thriller. CJ Tudor has proven adapt at creating atmosphere in small village settings and this is no exception. Here we see a vicar moving to a country church after a scandal at her inner city one. It doesn't take long before secrets from the village begin to become apparent, and the plot cleverly weaves in a way that does keep you guessing till the end. Just the right amount of ambiguity is left to make things interesting too! I have thoroughly enjoyed all the CJ Tudor I have read and this is no exception.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the Murderbot novellas and this, the 4th entry to the series, is the best so far. The basic premise remains - we have our Murderbot (security unit) who has managed to rewrite their programming to make themselves self aware but has to hide that they have overridden all their protocols. We return almost full circle as the Murderbot finds out that Dr Mensah, who befriended them back in the first novella, is in danger. Despite going rogue they are still a SecUnit at heart and they go in to rescue Dr Mensah. The action stakes are raised in this outing, the action sequences some of the best yet in the series. The characters were all in place before so less time needs to be put into the character development and the novella can focus on the plot. The novella format works in our favour as it gives just enough time to produce a tidy, fast paced action pastiche without dragging or feeling slow.

So happy that more Murderbot is in the works!

This was properly creepy. The scary hick family in the woods has been a classic trope of American horror, but I don't think I have seen it done this well. The intriguing part here is we get to view it from a member within the family (Michael). He is very much a part of the horror they inflict upon the hapless people they imprison, but he does not gain much pleasure from it. Seeing the sadistic games that his family plays, the true history of himself unwinds in a horrific way. One of the creepiest books I have read!

Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems to have made a career out of taking classic tropes and making them Mexican. This example is Mexican vampires. She has created an intriguing world of different vampire bloodlines with different powers with their conflict with both themselves and the human world. In this world the native Mexican (Aztec) vampires have largely been outcompeted by the imports from Europe (an interesting allegory to the cultural impact of european history), and we follow one of local vampires (Atl) on the run from a rival european gang, and a street sweeper (Domingo) who falls for her.

The worldbuilding is clever enough - I do like the allusions to the many myths of blood drinkers across the different cultures that exist in real life. The Mexican setting, as often seems the case with SMG, is somewhat incidental - it could in reality be set almost anywhere without impacting the story. This is one of her earlier works which has only just been rereleased and the prose is definitely weaker than in her more recent works. It is an interesting take on a genre which often feels done to death. This at least had some intriguingly original aspects!

DNF after 25%. This was just a diarrhea of words vomited up on a page. I found it utterly impenetrable. The whole thing meanders pointlessly without a real semblance of purpose. I get the concept - a retelling of a classic from the viewpoint of an absent (female) character. But this does not really do that. It's setting after the end of the a pretty apocalyptic play means it doesn't really have any retelling to do and what plot it could have generated it doesn't even attempt instead favouring an overly flowery style that screams pretentiousness without even attempting to explore the potential ideas it promises. The stuff it does add feel contrived. A first husband (named Michael of all things)? Banishment to an abbey without any real explanation as to why?

The antithesis of what I want in a book. I'm sure there are people who love this type of meandering explorations of descriptive prose, but i am not one. I just can't get behind the lack of purpose behind it, the lack of plot.

Ultimately this book failed to deliver what it promised. It was marketed as ‘The Hunger Games but bloodier and with magic'. The Hunger Games set up was there but felt horribly contrived. It just felt like such a lazy construct and has been done better in multiple other books. The bloodier aspect doesn't hold true - in reality it was fairly tame. For a Battle Royale style fight to the death this was mostly a lot of nothing. The magic system was confused and contrived as well. The biggest let down was the world building. It was effectively absent. When you have such a contrived fight to the death concept you need to have a world that makes this make sense. The world building here was so cursory as to basically be nonexistent. Also, a comment on the title and the constant allusions to villainy - a properly well balanced and written villain is extremely difficult. They need to have a motivation and a believability to generate the necessary sympathy. The characters in here are barely villainous at all despite their preaching on it, and what villainy is present is often not really rationalized properly to generate the necessary sympathy for the action. Grimdark this is not. The book does pick up a bit towards the end and leaves us on a bit of a cliffhanger. It avoids some of the more annoying YA tropes but the prose is somewhat lazy and dumbed down. Overall a 2.5 stars for me. I can see some potential, particularly based on the last 3rd. I just wish there had been more effort on the world building to give the context that is extremely lacking.

I quite enjoy it when authors take you into there previously established worlds from another angle. Ann Leckie is doing exactly that in Provenance. Here we enter the universe that was established in the original Imperial Radch trilogy, but we have new characters, new worlds, new politics. The events told previously are obliquely referenced and seem to be occurring somewhat concurrently, but we follow the goings on in a minor backwater system with its own petty squabbles on a different scale.

Here we follow Ingray, minor scion of an important family trying to secure her status and inheritance by rescuing a con artist from prison. But when she does so she ends up engaging the services of a captain running from a reclusive species and dragged into a conflict between her home world and one of its neighbours. Full of the same clever political machinations that typified the earlier Imperial Radch stories this is an intriguing companion novel. Separate but interlinked, sharing all the same DNA and telling a pretty enjoyable tale in the process

Who knew there was so much to be said about chopping and stacking wood? This was a very informative guide to the subject and its history, especially in the Nordic regions. Fascinating, but as I don't have a wood stove maybe not the most useful for me! Nonetheless, for a book on such an apparently niche subject this is very approachable, engagingly written and perhaps it will encourage me to get a wood stove in the end (I do kind of want one...)