It’s no secret I’m very excited for Rogue One this winter. While the movie can’t come soon enough, in the meantime I thought I would whet my appetite with the prequel novel that’s meant to portray events that take place in the preceding years. In case you’re wondering whether you need to read Rogue One: Catalyst before seeing the movie though, the answer is: Only if you want to. Like most Star Wars novels in the expanded universe, I would not consider it required reading, and might even recommend against making this your first Star Wars novel if you’ve not read any before. But if on the other hand you’re the kind of “big picture” reader who appreciates a good background story, then this book will likely put some of the movie’s events into context and enrich your experience when you watch it. Opening soon after the end of Episode II: Attack of the Clones and into the early years of the Clone Wars, Catalyst tells story of Galen Erso and Orson Krennic, both of whom will be featured in the upcoming film. A long and complicated history exists between the two men, and James Luceno seeks to explore this…

The fractures are becoming kaleidoscopic in the third instalment of the Fractured Europe sequence. University intelligence man Rupert is now settled in Europe and working as an agent for Rudi; former chef Rudi is trying to work out who is behind a string of terrorist attacks; and who knows what the Community – or the Coureurs – are really up to… Be warned, this is not a book you can make any sense of without having read the previous 2 instalments (Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight). If the first two novels in the Sequence were companion volumes exploring post-EU Europe and the mysterious Community, Europe in Winter embraces the brave new world of open borders. The action – and there’s a lot of it – is split between Rudi, still doggedly trying to work out what the hell is going on, and a string of new (largely one-shot) characters who introduce us to the various new developments first hand. We begin with a disaster: an attack on the Line that cuts the belligerently transcontinental railway somewhere just north of Kazakhstan. We see it first hand, but we get no clue to motive – or to who is behind it. Other operations follow thick…

Having fairly recently read and enjoyed Masks and Shadows by Stephanie Burgis I had no hesitation at all in putting in a request for Congress of Secrets.  This book definitely does not disappoint and in fact I personally enjoyed it even more than Masks and Shadows.  Using real historical events and people Burgis once again brings to us a story that weaves together magic and mystery in a most compelling way. The year is 1814, Napoleon has fallen and the Congress of Vienna is being hosted by Emperor Francis.  A meeting of nobles, ambassadors and royalty with all the ensuing pomp and ceremony that such an occasion would herald.  Negotiations for territory are the main order of the day while behind the scenes Vienna is held in the grip of fear, political speech is restricted, secret police maintain strict control over the general populace and dark alchemy is being practiced in the most unexpected places. This really was a good read.  I love this author’s style of writing.  She really can set a scene and make it appear effortless.  I like how she builds her characters and I think she hits the nail spot on in terms of cutting back…

In my ongoing search for fiction with diverse settings and characters, I was excited to be offered a review copy of Rosewater from the wonderful folks at Apex Books. One of the reasons I like to read fiction from smaller publishers is that they have more freedom to publish books that might not fit the constraints of larger publishers. This means that much of what Apex publishes is fresh and original and edgy. Rosewater is a perfect example of this. It’s a beautifully written alien invasion/first contact story that isn’t afraid to break the rules of story format, and its African setting makes it perfect for those readers seeking diversity. This book is complex, and you will need to have patience while reading it. But that said, it’s an extremely satisfying read that ends on a (sort of) hopeful note, and left me with questions that I will be thinking about for days to come, no doubt. The story takes place in Nigeria, in a small town near Lagos called Rosewater. Rosewater has sprung up around an odd alien domed structure that residents call Utopicity, where once a year, a split in the dome opens up and fills the air…

Early next month, The Immortal Throne by Stella Gemmell is releasing (Dec. 6, 2016). If you missed her first book,  The City, it is exciting and fun to read;  a great good versus evil story with lots of grit and a city that takes center stage to the point where it almost feels like another character. I am definitely looking forward to The Immortal Throne, and encourage those that haven’t read her first yet to give it a try. Today we are thrilled to offer the chance to win a copy of her first book, The City. About the Author ABOUT STELLA GEMMELL Stella Gemmell is the author of The City. She has a degree in politics and is a journalist. She was married to the internationally acclaimed and bestselling fantasy novelist David Gemmell and worked with him on his three Troy novels, concluding the final book, Troy: Fall of Kings, following his death in 2006. Stella lives in East Sussex and writes in what was once the dairy of a fifteenth-century farmhouse. Giveaway About the Books In her debut solo novel, Stella Gemmell, coauthor of the “powerful” (Booklist)  conclusion to David Gemmell’s Troy series, weaves a dark epic fantasy about a war-torn civilization and the immortal…

Most novels come with expectations, but when I began reading The Promise of the Child by Tom Toner I had none, expect maybe wondering who the child was going to be and why it had been promised. This is a debut novel by Toner and set in the far future, but when the opening quotes come from Byron and Wilde and the prologue begins in 1319 Prague, my curiosity was piqued. The plot, as it sprawls over 500 pages, is complex and shouldn’t be summarised for the new reader. There is plenty to discover and the best way is simply to read it. The story follows numerous threads and characters through journeys both large and small. The main actor is Lycaste. He lives in the far future, on what is now called the Old World. He has an unrequited love despite being a renowned beauty, but must face greater battles ahead. He is our everyman that we see Toner’s world through. Sotiris Gianakos is 12,000 years old, from Cyprus. His sister has recently died and he is facing grief. This is the story of their coming together, and how they change each other’s lives. So far, so not very science…

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi may be short, but the concept behind it opens the door for a much larger story. Imagine a world where death is not necessarily final, all depending on how you die. If you die due to illness, natural cause or an accident, then death is the end. However, if you happen to die by the hand of another, if you were murdered, then you will wake up, alive and well, in your bed. At least 99% of the time. So, consider the implications this can present, the different ways that people will be motivated to game the system of death. People participating in high risk activities, suffering from life threatening conditions, they can see this new option to hopefully reduce their risk of death. Scalzi’s world explores the good and the bad with allowing people to tamper with the natural order of things, as this concept pretty much it grants people a way to cheat death. Enter the facilitators for cheating death: dispatchers. Their job is pretty much to murder dispatch people just before they would otherwise die in some way that would not ordinarily grant them a second chance at life. Since this is a novella, I am…

As the second volume in a historical fantasy series about Ancient Rome, The Gates of Hell can be viewed as the “next chapter” of the events following the Final War of the Roman Republic. Approximately five years have passed since Alexandria fell. Marc Antony and Cleopatra are dead. Their daughter Selene has been taken into their conqueror’s household, becoming one of Augustus Caesar’s adopted children. But for all that, she knows she is still a hostage and the longing for avenging her parents still burns inside. The book begins with Selene taking matters into her own hands, seeking her own Shard of Heaven after finding out about the godlike abilities they can grant to the people who wield them. She manages to find and obtain one disguised as a statue in the Temple of the Vestals, bringing another of one these powerful artifacts into play. Meanwhile, her arranged marriage to Juba of Numidia, an adopted son of Julius Caesar, ultimately grew into to be a relationship based on love and respect. Together with her husband, who also possesses a Shard of Heaven, they begin to experiment and practice with their artifacts, learning how to harness their power. At the same…

I picked up Feedback completely fresh to the Newsflesh series. So fresh, I didn’t even realize it was a series and started reading completely innocent of Mira Grant’s universe of bloggers fighting for life, liberty and the American way against a backdrop of the zombie apocalypse. The minimal zombie action in the beginning was a bit surprising, but I did not lose interest before the biting and moaning got underway, and now I understand why the book was structured that way. Grant was reorienting audiences of other books in her series to the perspectives of her new central characters. Zombie action blogger Aislinn “Ash” North is the central character providing POV for the band of bloggers we follow throughout. Ash is Irish, loud and lovely. In this frightened America people are still reeling from a zombie rising that decimated society some 25 plus years before, Ash makes her living by filming and writing about her own zombie-baiting adventures in the great outdoors. Her partners include Ben North, her news blogging husband, Audrey Wen, fiction writer and Ash’s lover, and Mat Newson, a genderfluid person who does makeup tutorials and handles IT. While all the central characters are fully developed with…

Dominion is the second in the Burned Man series by Peter Blake.  The story picks up not long after Drake (the first in series) left off and the action is fairly intense from the get go. I thought Dominion was a solid instalment in the series, the characters have been fleshed out and added to and the dark side of London is explored further.  Be warned, if you haven’t read the first in series there may be spoilers contained below. Dominion, probably in the style of other UF stories, is a self contained instalment – it can probably be read as a stand alone although I would always suggest starting from the first so that you pick up more background to the characters. At the start of the story our main protagonist, Don Drake, former hitman (or diabolist), has been roped into checking out a potential problem below the streets of London – in fact below the Tube.  Basically, deep beneath the underground tunnels of London live the elementals, gnomes.  It seems that their home is slowly being destroyed by something they know only as the ‘Rotman’.  Everything is decaying, including those who lay eyes on this monster and the…