Graham

An excellent take on a near future dystopia. Like all great dystopias this one stays close enough to reality that the loss of control and slip into totalitarianism feels scarily real. This one adds a nice sci-fi twist as the explanation for the country's acquiescence with this new reality - the world has stopped spinning and become in lock-step with the sun. This means that one side of the planet is permanently in sunshine and therefore becomes too hot to be habitable, and the other side is permanently in darkness, becoming to cold to be habitable. All that is left is a thin band of normally habitable ground in the twilight zones between light and dark. This is a clever construct and thought experiment. A reality such as this would definitely cause the chaos and threat of ‘other' that could lead to the type of dystopian state being proposed.

The central story is around a secret hidden by a dying former member of the government. What this secret is and who wants to reveal/suppress it becomes the main bulk of the story.

I really enjoyed this - the world building with its paranoia and totalitarian state was believable and all the more scary for it. The sense of isolationism and fear of foreigners that pervades the fight for resources seems sadly too real. With the main setting being the UK and the current Brexit isolationism being actively promoted it seems very apt for the times too. I got a very ‘Children of Men' type vibe from the story too.

This was the first book I received through Goldsboro Books book of the month club. I am not so familiar with the authors works, but I was pleasantly surprised with the book. The story centers around a pair of sisters and the different directions their life took when surrounded by poverty, drugs and corruption. Both of them are somewhat damaged by the experience, but in very different ways. The cycle of poverty and abuse amplified by substance misuse is powerfully told.

The writing itself is entertaining and easy to read, pulling you into the story. The book is told through the eyes of one of the sisters and there is a real sense of vulnerability behind the scenes. The power of the story comes from the sense of how difficult it is to break out from the lives that the characters live. The story is viscerally real and uncomfortable in the way that you can sense there is a reality to these people's lives that too many people actually live.

The main protagonist (Mickey) has on the face of things got it all sorted despite her having lost her mother and been raised somewhat reluctantly by her grandmother. She has a job as a policewoman and a son. Her sister (Kacey) on the other hand has properly fallen off the wagon is a prostitute and a habitual drug user. The underlying threat comes from a series of murders of prostitutes in the town and Mickey's desperate search for her Kacey. But it is more than just a police procedural and more about the relationship between the sisters.

First off, I highly enjoyed this. It is another coming of age tale, so fits with a lot of the fantasy tropes, but it is told in such an engaging way with such good world building that any derivation in the story fades into the background. Our protagonist has been sent to join some martial order, and we follow his progression through the school and eventual appointment by the king to lead his armies.

There are some really clever and unusual literary stylisations here. The chronicler style of story telling is increasingly popular in speculative fiction. Blood Song opens with that chronicle style - we meet our narrator and get him introduced to our protagonist. Blood Song however subverts this. You begin to realize that although there is an apparent narrator, the voice telling the story is actually the protagonist, and the narrator himself is only hearing part of what is being written. An interestingly meta situation where we now have an unreliable narrator, yet the story is being told is complete. This is the first book in a trilogy and yet feels remarkably complete - all the plot items alluded to in the chronicle do come to pass in this first book. It will be interesting to see how this is continued in the second book.

This story falls into the Grimdark category by my reckoning. There is a large degree of moral ambiguity and a lot of violence. The politics portrayed here are interesting - the Machiavellian manipulations of the political actors are well thought through.

A very promising first book. I have read several of Anthony Ryan's short stories before but this is the first of his full novels. I look forward to the rest of the series!

Gentlefriends, how have I not read this series before now? The Nevernight Chronicles are rapidly rising to my favourite series. The gentle sardonic wit that underlies these tales of brutal assassination and mass murder is a joy to read. Mia has to be one of the best and most likably sympathetic portrayals of an assassin/mass killer out there.

This second installment takes the action away from the assassin training school to a gladiator training school, with Mia producing an elaborate plot to assassinate someone based on posing as a gladiator.

The real stars of the show are Mia's two shadows - Mr Kindly and Eclipse. Their bickering is hugely entertaining and provides the comedic background (along with the narrators footnotes) to what is otherwise a brutal story.

Godsgrave takes all the good parts of Nevernight and just continues with them. A worthy successor.

A really interesting and intriguing read. This is a historical fiction novel based around the first Vardø witch trials (yes, there were more than one there!). At this point in time I have been living in Norway for about 10 years, so reading more stories set in an around my adopted country is appealing to me. This one grabbed me with its interesting concept and cool looking cover (yes, I occasionally judge a book by its cover). The setting of 17th century Norway is not one I am so familiar with - it is away from the modern day reality that Nordic noir tends to focus on and the earlier Viking period or norse mythology, which form the backbone of a lot of peoples image of Norway. I know there is a lot literary fiction set in 19th century Norway (eg the works of the ‘four greats': Kielland, Ibsen, Bjørnsen and Lie), but I always found that a bit heavy to dive into.

Norway is such a large country that even into the 17th century the reach of the church was still limited, especially up in the far north. Here the Norwegian people and the Sami people coexisted to a certain extent - the Norwegians practicing chritianity, but the Sami holding to older traditional beliefs. Certain religious elements found this very objectionable, and led to many Sami being tried as witches. The Vardø witch trials were something a bit different in that they were the first in which Norwegian women were tried as witches. This provides the background history for the story.

Essentially the story here is how petty grievances can lead to drastic and brutal outcomes in the settings of paranoia that such religious persecution generates in small and isolated communities. The plight of the various people involved is harrowing and the sense of paranoia generated feels visceral at times. You get a real sense that the instigators do not understand the consequences until it is too late. A harrowing read.

I will focus my review on the 3 short stories contained in this magazine.

The Pachinko Gambit:

I was impressed by this one. It was quirky, fresh feeling and well developed. It takes a few grimdark tropes (mercenary company, made of criminals) and an interesting setting (defense of Japan from China/Korea in a near future dystopia) but then twists expectations in the way that the story progresses. The characters felt well developed and the setting suitably gritty and the whole thing provides a witty critique of the military-industrial complex within capitalist society. Very entertaining - I will have to look out for more of Chris Edwards work

The Thrallcatcher's Apprentice:

Well written with good characterization. The newbie apprentice attempts to prove their worth against two arrogant older apprentices. As usual for grimdark, this is appropriately morally grey in its approach and none of the characters are particularly likeable, but they are all well fleshed out. The world is a bit of a mystery and not really developed which makes the motivations hard to follow, but the twists and turns in the story hold the interest well

The Road to Hella:

This short story takes the ‘story within a story' approach to telling its tale. The story here is pretty grim and dark - the main storyteller has made a pact with deity to exchange the souls of 1000 killers to return the soul of his loved one. As usual with these type of deals with the devil, the fine print is important. A well told tale, and probably stylistically the most accomplished of the three in this quarters magazine.

The Raven's Shadow books are first and foremost simply entertaining. Anthony Ryan has a strong and engaging voice that makes these books eminently readable. The key draw for me are the characters - they are all richly developed and fun and engaging to read. Whilst Vaelin is a bit of a super character, the others are all nicely flawed and limited. Even Vaelin, despite his apparent immense abilities, still finds himself frequently in the wrong place, so there is definitely a sense of risk carried through the book.

As I said in my Blood Song review, these books are not innovative or boundary breaking, but they are extremely well written. I would rather take a well written and enjoyable book over a truly innovative one. Hard to put down and a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy!

A story of two horribly manipulative people manipulating each other in horrible ways. I was initially intrigued by this based on it taking its premise from a sad real world story (the Gypsy Rose story). The idea Munchausens syndrom by proxy, of a mother manipulating a child into thinking they are extremely ill, whether through malice or a misplaced but real fear is a powerful one. I'm not 100% sure this telling really does it full justice though. The main issue I find in this story is just how unlikable all the characters are. What sympathy you feel towards the characters from there situation is quickly eroded by the sheer nastiness and vindictiveness displayed. I kind of get the dehumanising aspect of being made to live as an invalid, but this book is extremely dark and lacking any kind of redemption arc. Everyone here is horrible, and ultimately you end up lacking the sympathy that you need to justify what they are doing to each other.

The sad story and the real mental health issues highlighted probably deserved more than this basic revenge plot

An Icelandic crime procedural. This taps into the strong history of Nordic noir novels. The Icelandic setting provides a suitably bleak setting for a grim story of abuse, emotional damage and murder in a small tight nit community. The Nordic countries have been producing some of the best crime noir novels over the last couple of decades. The powerhouses of the genre all seem to come from this region. As a resident in Norway, it always fascinates me seeing the references to Scandi culture. The ironic thing is that these countries are in reality some of the safest in the world with a very low level of violent crime. Eva Bjorg definitely follows in the veins of the Nesbø and Larsson type novel, with a gritty realism and emotional trauma. The images of abuse that we get teased with are frightening in their realism. All the protagonists are in some way damaged or compromised. The small community setting lends a claustrophobia to the proceedings - everyone knows everyone and there are several possible motives out there.

The pacing of the novel is good - the way the jigsaw pieces are gradually placed together makes the reveal at the end feel well earned. There is nothing especially innovative in the story here, but the way it is constructed and the genuineness of the voice gives it a powerful dynamic. Definitely a new voice in Nordic Noir that I will have to follow more!

There are some things done extremely well and some things which i really struggled with in this, the first full length novel by Jed Herne. Let's start with the good stuff: the world building is phenomenal in this book. The discs of Paya, each self contained and separate from one another, populated by angels who can fly across the voids of space between is a fantastic concept. The angel's having been overthrown by a people who grew up on a planet with higher gravity and are thus stronger is another great nod to science and grounds this fantastical world with some reality. The construction of the discs and the modes of transport between, the breathfung, a fungus that allows breathing in space, all give a certain ‘hardness' to the setting. There are rules that have to be followed and obeyed. The angels themselves are not all powerful and wise, and the good vs evil is somewhat grey.

What jarred me when reading was the characters however. Everyone in the book is thoroughly unlikable and somewhat one dimensional. This comes out particularly awkwardly in the dialogue and thought processes of the main character, who seems like a petulant teenager most of the time. This does improve as we go through the book, but a lot the dialogue just comes across flat to me.

The questing story arc gives a slightly Lit-RPG feel to the book. The story did maintain my interest, with a few nice twists in it.

There is a lot of potential in here. The world building is first class, but the story is let down a bit by the characters and the dialogue. An intriguing read by a promising new author still finding his feet.

The French Revolution is providing some fertile ground for fantasy literature at the moment - we already had Kat Dunn's excellent Dangerous Remedy, and now we get The Court of Miracles.

The Court of Miracles is essentially a retelling of Les Miserables from the perspective of Eponine (Nina) and the criminal underworld. What follows is a swashbucklingly fun tale of how Nina rises in the Court of Miracles (the criminal council that runs the underworld). Nina is a great heroine figure - adaptable and skilled.

The main thing to say about this story is that it is simply fun. It uses characters that we are familiar with from the classic telling of Les Mis and fleshes out their stories providing interesting twists on plot elements we already know. All the favourites from that story are here from Gavroche to Thernadier to Javert to St Juste. It removes a lot of the dour setting of the original and replaces it with a more exciting adventure stylings. What fantasy there is here is very much of the low variety lending a realism to the story as well.

Whilst this is nothing revolutionary in a literary sense, it is a fun retelling of a revolution.

My first taste of GRRM not in his Song of Ice and Fire series. I was intrigued going into this as his ASOIAF is a fantastic series, well deserving of its plaudits. With that in mind there were big things expected here from me.

Nightflyers plays along many of the classic themes of sci-fi horror/mystery, with the claustrophobic sense of dread of being on a spaceship isolated from the rest of humanity. The eventual identity of the threat in this story is reasonably well foreboded without it being spelled out - so far so good. The book does fall into quite a few sci-fi tropes however, especially with its stilted, Asimovian style dialogue in places.

There was some interesting potential in one of the main things foreboded in the book with the mysterious species moving through the dark spaces between stars without actually visiting them. In the end this intriguing plot device is almost an after thought. It is a shame it was not developed further.

This is a good sci-fi. It doesnt reach the great heights that GRRM has reached in some of his other works, but the story is told well and the concepts are interesting. Solid if not spectacular.

The illustrated version is also rather pretty!

A story of grief and how to overcome it, based on a real place in Japan. The phone box of the title is a phone disconnected from the phone lines in a windswept garden. People come here it to talk to the ones they have lost, trying to gain closure from being able to say all the things they wished they could say to them.

The novel here follows the story of a women who lost her daughter and mother to the recent Japanese tsunami and man she meets who has lost his wife, whilst travelling to use this phone. The main focus of the story is the unfolding relationship between these two people, both of whom have suffered extreme grief. Learning how to love again after such loss is a struggle. Laura Imai Messina deals with these heavy themes with a deft touch. There is a gentle sense of beauty and love pervading what is otherwise a very grief laden story.

This is the latest book I have received through my FairyLoot subscription - a monthly YA book box. YA stories always have a fairly easy reading style and this one is no exception. It provides a great light and easy reading break from more meaty books. Shielded follows the story of a princess who has a magic birthright in a land where magic is viewed with suspicion after evil magicians in the past fought wars which devastated the land. She is a descendant of the mage who defeated these evil ones. At the opening of the book she is betrothed, somewhat against her wishes, to the prince of the neighbouring country to gain support and aid for a war going on against the remnants of the evil mages. On her way to her betrothal her party is attacked and she is left to believe that all her family have been killed. Vowing vengeance she then proceeds to try and find the mage responsible.

This ticks a lot of modern tropes of YA. There is nothing especially original about the story being told here. The writing is easy to read and fun, but the plot is extremely predictable. I have been reading more YA recently than I have in a while, and this was particularly heavy on the YA tropes. The better YA books have subverted some of the tropes in interesting ways - this one was all to predictable. It also has one of the tropes of YA fantasy that annoys me the most - the false curse. If you are going to have your characters cursing, do it properly or at least tie it in with the mythos you have set up in someway. I get that YA is meant to avoid swearing, but replacing swear words with random words is not actually not swearing. And it is deeply jarring to me as a reader.

Overall I don't regret reading it - it was fun and provided a welcome break from the heavier material that is my more usual reading matter. I just wished it would break its self imposed boundaries a bit more and be a little bit less predictable as the writing was fun to read.

Book 3 out of 4 in the Long War series, this is definitely middle of the story territory. All of the major characters are scattered and this book feels like an attempt to reel in quite a few of them. I am a big fan of this series - the world building is epic, with a very nice religious element built over the top. The multiple POV characters all have their distinct feel and motives.

We pick up very much where we left off with some characters dealing with the aftermath of the Ro invasion of Ranen, a few questing to find a temple to link an Old Blood to the gods and another group slowly working their way trying to kill off the main villains, the so called Seven Sisters. These three groups remain more or less distinct through the story, but the characters within each of the groups coalesce more. You can feel that there is definitely a build towards a climactic finale.

If I have one complaint about this series, it is that the pacing can sometimes feel a little bit off. There is a rush to complete things - Ras Jas Rhami's effortless hunting of the Seven Sisters can feel a bit too godlike at times and the sense of peril is lost. Fortunately this book corrects this and adds some significant challenges for our heroes, although it does still feel abrupt at times.

Overall, an enjoyable read. The darkness that permeates the story is nice, and it is well balanced with the humour and easy going dialogue of the main characters. Definitely curious to see how this series ends as it seems to be going from strength to strength.

A curiously post-modern story considering this is based on a medieval poem! The main concept revolves around the idea of gender identity. There is a constant question of nature vs nurture - if you are raised as a man and identify as a man is that enough to overcome your nature as a woman. Being based on a medieval poem this inevitably brings up the biases of the day towards women, but the very fact that this poem exists shows that the idea of gender fluidity has been around for a long time.

This is essentially an Arthurian influenced tale of a knight who is trying to gain acceptance in society, the twist here is that they were born as a woman. We see Merlin playing a big role and our knight explores the feudal landscape of both England and France.

The language has been modernized and the theme is already pretty modern. This is an interesting read both for its historical context and for its current relevance - an interesting combination!

This book is probably a 3.5 for me. The premise is clever enough - an AI augmented reality game built to determine morality and test it and the acts that this leads a group of school kids to do as they become more immersed and addicted to the game. The ideas of what people can be persuaded to do is an interesting concept - the morality of the crowd is quite different to what is individually preached after all. Peer pressure can persuade people to do beastly things. The bulk of the books play around this theme is extremely clever and interesting.

Unfortunately it is let down in the end by a couple of bits of lazy story telling and an utterly unnecessary final chapter - the ambiguity left by missing out that chapter would probably have served the story much better than the final chapter does. This chapter falls very much into ‘and then they woke up' school of lazy endings. The chapter structure in the book is also slightly odd and jarring with extremely short chapters which are not necessarily forming natural breaks in the flow of the story - a slightly jarring thing to read.

However, other than this slightly jarring structure and one lazy storytelling trope in the final chapter the book is on the whole excellent. The theme is brilliantly realized, the prose easy to read, the characters interesting and the story reads in a very satisfying way. It could easily have been a 4 or 4.5 without the final chapter!

Oh what a disappointment. The final book in the Raven's Shadow unfortunately loses so much of what made the first two books so brilliant - namely the intimacy and the characters. Blood Song and Tower Lord really were text book examples in character work - building the main characters in the story in a way that really engaged me as a reader. You got to feel their motivations strongly and understand what drove them. Unfortunately, we lose that completely here as the series gets lost in its own mythology and attempts to sprawl into an epic but just ends up muddled.

We pick up pretty much were we left off in Tower Lord - Alltor has been relieved by Al Sorna and the Volarians are on the back foot. Rather than keep the focus on the defense of the Unified Realm, this story now spins off into a giant assault of Volaria. This seems scarcely believable - a nation ruined by war suddenly launching an all out and successful assault on the largest and most powerful empire in this world? The Volarians go from being powerful warriors with the ability to inflict severe damage to little more than a road hump.

Whilst all this is going on, Vaelin, probably the best character is sent on some random quest up in the north and that section where he is walking across the ice drags in a most unfortunate way. The increase in the scale of the conflict and the scattering of the main characters has lead to the engagement dropping off unfortunately.

Don't get me wrong, and I know I have been hyper critical in this review so far, this is still not a bad book. The problem it suffers is that it is a significant drop off in quality from the previous two in the trilogy. The writing style is nice a pleasant to read. There is lots of action, that is still well written. This is not a bad book. It just could have been so much more than it is though...

The basic premise of Blood Heir is very familiar - a world where magical people are persecuted and controlled by people who fear them. This is not a particularly new or original concept. However, Blood Heir is an exceptionally well written example of this trope. Amelie has a very engaging writing style that draws you in a pleasant way. The world she has built is richly realised with the characters and places given some interesting depth. Whilst the story deals largely in tropes, they are all very well executed ones and together form a pleasing whole.

Rebel against an evil empire! Sound familiar? There is definitely a clear influence on this story and it hangs like a shadow over everything. This is classic space opera territory. Whilst this may sound cliched it does however create its own niche and own world in impressive style.

We are largely following two characters. One is your typical no nonsense working class rebel. The second is the daughter of the emperor who has been converted to the rebel cause in secret. Together they put together a crew in an attempt to try to stop someone disrupting a ceasefire agreement between the main powers in the galaxy.

Elizabeth and Laura have an engaging writing style. The characters are well fleshed out and have distinctive and interesting personalities. There is a slight overpoweredness to a couple of them (the supreme programmer and invincible warrior ninja) which gives a bit of a Mary Sue feel at times but there is always the sense of peril kept which helps to balance out some of the more extreme deus ex machina moments. The supreme AI controlling the empire is a great counterbalance to these overpowered characters. There is also a slight tendency to indulge in one of my pet peeves, which is made up curse words - if you need characters to swear just have them swear normally or it ends up sounding silly. This is somewhat forgiven by at least using the worlds own mythology to create the curses. Other than these few minor things, this book is great fun with a well crafted cast, a well built world and smoothly written style.

This does pretty much what it says on the tin, and delivers a fun and epic space opera type adventure. I do look forward to following this crew's adventures further.

There is an intriguing concept behind this story - 8 short stories linked together by an overarching main story about an editor putting together a new edition of a collection of stories. There is something beguilingly meta about the whole construct, and it is definitely an interesting concept. The way the stories are tied together is interesting with link sections between the short stories providing the overall drive for the main plot.

Where this falls down to me is in the quality of the short stories that form the framework. Some of them just struggled to grab me, and when the whole overarching plot is based around these individual short stories, they need to all be really gripping and well crafted.

Ultimately, this was a worthwhile read - the main linking story is interesting and cleverly put together. The overall concept is delightfully meta. I just struggled a little with some of the components

This was an intriguing read, with some really interesting themes and well developed world building. There is a lot of darkness here too.

The story essentially follows two main POV characters, one from each side of major conflict, but both with a not quite 100% loyalty to their given faction. And the two factions are starkly different in their outlooks! On the one hand you have the people of Mercury and Venus (the Icarii)- a science based Utopia that hides some darkness beneath its glossy exterior - and on the other you have the people of Earth and Mars (the Geans) - who follow a militaristic theocracy.

The politics that drive these two governing systems provides an intriguing background to the story of rebellion and overcoming the system that takes place in the foreground. The Gean military theocracy has echoes of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale with its extreme gender bias and oppression. The titular First Sister is a priestess, but also essentially an object to be used by the men she ministers too. A brutal and uncomfortable read. The more utopian Icarii science based society also has its dirty laundry too - an apparent testing program using the poorer and more repressed parts of society as guinea pigs with frequently horrific consequences. The underlying message that extremism and a blindness to social consequences are evil is a truism that is hard to deny.

The lead characters are engaging and the to POVs (Lito and First Sister) give a good insight into the cultures. The relationships developed are complex and really draw you into the story. The characters presented are an interesting array of LGBTQ+, although this is very much background and incidental to the plot. Hiro appears to be non-binary and the first sister is bi.

The story of conflict and rebellion between to opposing and different ideologies is a classic trope of sci fi, but the way that it has been done here is perfection really. The world building is truly phenomenal and the sad echoes of our times in the cultures presented really do give food for thought

At times fascinating and at other times frustrating, this was one of the more culturally interesting books I have read recently. Star Daughter pretty much does what it says on the tin - it is the story of the daughter of a star, where the star came to Earth to act as a muse for someone, fell in love and had a child. The cultural interest came from the Indian cultural nods that pervade this story - this is no western YA fantasy. I really have not read much in the way of Indian fantasy and myth, and this story certainly throws you in the deep end with some of it. It is definitely refreshing to read something outside of ones cultural norms, so for that reason alone I would have been glad to have read this story.

The frustration comes from some of the inanity of the characters. The lead character somehow decides that breaking into other peoples rooms to prove her innocence of something that noone is exactly challenging her on seems like a stupendously bad idea. Somehow, that stupendously bad idea leads to nothing and that plot line almost peters out. I am also slightly disturbed by her obsession with feeding someone blood (and how slow she is to realise that her own blood will do, once she has completed her transformation). The whole competition at the center of the plot is also a bit bizarre - it all just seems very contrived.

The cultural interest here is good and I do appreciate being exposed to different cultural references, but the plot and the characters are a bit lazy and tropey

Celebrity authors have a very mixed track record. However, I am pleased to report that Richard Osman's first novel is very much on the positive side of this experience. The Thursday Murder Club reads like a classic genteel British light comedy film - think Best Western Marigold Hotel and its ilk. The setting in a retirement village immediately gives it a relaxed and charming sense. It plays upon classic murder mysteries in a fun and easy going way.

You can definitely hear Osman's voice in the writing style, with its gentle wit and very ‘English' feel. It makes for pleasant easy reading with a cosy familiarity to its style. The characters are charming in their Britishness and well enough developed to engage the reader. The murder mystery plot is well enough realised and keeps you guessing effectively till the end.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one - a lovely easy read.

This is one of the grittier YA books I have been introduced to recently. It follows the found family theme with a piratical setting. The main character is the daughter of the head of a large trading enterprise, but she has been abandoned on a remote island and left to fend for herself after a shipwreck which killed her mother. This has led to a rough existence where every day is a struggle and has taught to her to be very self sufficient. The other islanders will not hesitate to steal what little she manages to gain.

She escapes by getting passage on a boat and eventually joining its crew. She quickly realizes the links from her new ship to her father and seeks to find her inheritance from him.

Overall a highly enjoyable read. Adrienne has an engaging writing style. The crew of misfits she has put together make for a likeable ensemble cast. There is a fair amount of plot armour to the characters, but this is YA, and there is still plenty of threat and violence. There is certainly a lot of grey morality on display, which sets this apart from a lot of the YA I have read.