When I saw the description of this book, I was definitely intrigued. A Western Fantasy with a sharp-shooting female protagonist? Oh, yes please! I couldn’t help but immediately think of Wake of Vultures, which I loved and had hopes of loving this one just as much. So, how did it hold up to my expectations? Well, it was a fun read, I will definitely give it that. Amani lives in a small town that survives off of their local gun factory. But even with that, their town does not seem to be thriving. The culture here is one were women take a lesser and more subservient role, they are pretty much second class citizens. Needless to say, that means this is a male centered society, where they make the rules. They also get to take multiple wives. It’s not at all a a desirable place when you are a woman, especially a woman with no one to look after you. Amani has lost her parents, and has been living with her uncle and his plethora of wives and children. You quickly assess she is not valued or loved, but she does soon learn she is a commodity. Facing the prospect of a…

Arena was not the story I was expecting; it was a little less video games and little more love than I would have preferred, but it also had a several things I was impressed by. In the story, Holly Jennings dives into the troubles females face daily, the pressures that athletes of all sexes deal with in their sports, the prejudices that minorities encounter their whole life, and the use and battle with drug addiction to overcome all these issue in life and more. Kali Ling, know as “The Warrior”, is one of the top RAGE tournament players in the world. Being both a female pro-gamer, and of part-Asian descent, has made her path not an easy one, but now that she is in the pros, life is not any easier. Forced to pose for adds in gaming magazines that highlight her female and Asian qualities, and being forced to go out at night to clubs by her team’s manager, are things that are now frequent for Kali. The escape she needs, and craves, to get away from this life, is the virtual gaming world – RAGE. It is in virtual reality that things feel real to Kali and she…

The Last Day of Jack Sparks is the story of a successful pop culture journalist, who made his fame writing books that focus on his experience as he explores a given topic. Books like Jack Sparks on Drugs, where he throws himself into the world of drugs and experiments to his heart’s delight, all in the name of research for his book. Not surprisingly, his books can be controversial, they are type of thing people will read to find out why everyone else is talking about them. For his latest book idea, he decides to delve into the world of the supernatural. There is definitely some humor in places as Jack Sparks clearly does not believe in the supernatural, but for the benefit of his book, he has to give things a try. The interesting thing about this book, is you know going in that Jack Sparks is dead (it’s right there in the title!), and he died in some mysterious way while writing this book on the supernatural. It definitely casts a little darker edge to things as Jack is very honest in that he finds the idea of there being truth in the supernatural as being rather ridiculous. As opposed…

I was so looking forward to this book and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. You may now call me ‘She that reads until late at night’ or ‘Devourer of Books’ or perhaps ‘Goddess of book love’ (you’ll understand if you’ve read this!) Gushing will commence but firstly a little about the book. The book starts with a murder victim found by a lone woman walking her dog. However, not only is this no ordinary killing but this is no ordinary ‘lone woman’. Manhattan is about to become the scene for a number of grisly murders. Unfortunately the police have few clues but Selene DiSilva recognises only too well the signs of a ritual sacrifice and doesn’t intend to let this brutal killing go unsolved. Once known as the Protector of the Innocent she’s about to team up with a classics professor and the two will embark on a desperate scramble around Manhattan in a bid to pick up clues before the body count rises. I don’t think too much more introduction is really necessary to be honest, it’s an interesting plot that involves quite a lot of ancient history being thrown into the mix and it moves forward…

We start the book with Deadman’s Hand.  This is the first in the Assassin’s series and opens as a stranger rides into the town of Deadwood on a pale horse. His name is Gabriel and he seeks revenge. Doug is the local storekeeper who witnesses Gabriel’s arrival and who will narrate this tale.  It seems from this point onward that Doug, in spite of himself, is going to be pulled into the strange world of Gabriel and the man that he seeks.  At the same time, on the other side of town another stranger has appeared and following some sort of altercation is now spending time in the mortuary!  Strange coincidence?  Or has Gabriel been beaten to his quarry? This is only a short story but nonetheless is an intriguing tale with a small but interesting cast of characters.  I don’t want to elaborate too much on the plot because it would be easy to spoil the story for others.  What I can say is that Gabriel is no ordinary man.  Cursed hundreds of years ago he seeks the man called Temple who killed his family.  Temple, likewise is no ordinary man, he is in fact a demon, incredibly difficult to…

Once they were a band of mercenaries who shook the pillars of the world through cunning, alchemical brews, and cold steel. Whoever met their price won. Now, their glory days behind them, scattered to the wind, and their genius leader in hiding, they are being hunted down and eliminated one by one. A lifetime of enemies has its own price. Now that description made Snakewood one of my most anticipated reads of 2016.  I mean, how could a grimdark fan not love the idea of a story about past their prime mercenaries dealing with unknown enemies who are trying to slaughter them for past wrongs.  At least, I couldn’t help myself, so I was overjoyed when I received an advanced reading copy of this one. And, as promised, this story opens with the surviving members of “Kailen’s Twenty” (a legendary band of mercenaries) discovering they are being hunted down one by one.  Why they are being killed is both a mystery to them and to the reader, but one which the author attempts to slowly reveal by adding “historical” chapters regarding the group’s past endeavors  — as relayed by different people. Through this interchange between past and present, the survivors of Kailen’s…

As much as I wanted to love The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I have to be honest in that I only thought it was okay. I mean, I can see how these stories established a reputation for Ken Liu, and there’s no doubt that some of them are indeed award worthy, but I didn’t connect with nearly as many as I would have liked. Before you start getting disappointed, however, let me say that I blame the format, not necessarily the content. I’ve always been drawn to doorstopper fantasy novels like The Grace of Kings, where we have six or seven hundred pages to immerse ourselves in the world, so it’s not a surprise that many of these stories fell flat or felt a little shallow. Having said all that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t heap some praise on those stories that did work for me. “State Change” hooked me from the start, with a young woman’s strange obsession with freezers, glaciers, and ice cubes. Rina lives in a world where our souls physically manifest as small items that we must keep close at all times, which is easy enough if your soul is a rock or a…

It wasn’t until I had finished reading The Ballad of Black Tom that I found out it was based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story called The Horror at Red Hook and that several of the characters have the same names. This would have been more interesting to me had I actually read Lovecraft’s story first, but I did enjoy going back afterwards and looking up the details (thank God for Wikipedia!). What’s much more interesting about LaValle’s take on it is that he’s turned Lovecraft’s famous xenophobia on its head and written a story about one man’s experiences with racism in 1920s New York City. I mean, think about it: an African-American author, writing a story that deals with racism, based on a story by a famous racist. It sounds crazy, but LaValle pulls it off, although I have to say I was more interested in the mechanics of what he was trying to do, rather than the story itself, which to me lacked cohesion. The Lovecraft elements are subtle, and unless you’re familiar with the story it’s based upon, you may not notice them at all until the end. What did scream “Lovecraft” to me, however, was the unsettling feeling that runs…

Just finished reading The Silver Tide by Jen Williams.  This series is so good that it makes me want to cry because it’s now come to an end.  Literally, I could cry right now!  Enough about me though, to the book with a small cautionary note about spoilers for the first two books in the series. This book is so good, I absolutely loved it.  It’s jam packed with so many goodies that I’m sure I developed an ache in my jaw from just gaping ridiculously whilst reading.  Not only do we get to return to this fantastic world and spend time with, frankly, three of my most favourite characters from fantasy at the moment, but we go on some totally crazy adventures. At the start of the story the Black Feather Three are going to be enlisted by none other than Devinia the Red.  Their mission: to delve, boldly I might say, into the heart of the cursed Island of Euriale (otherwise known as the Island of the Gods) where hopefully heaps of treasure lies waiting for their little grabby hands.  Why, you may ask, is this treasure left lying around?  Well, nobody who wandered into the jungles of…

Speak by Louisa Hall is a very unusual book.  I admit that my curiosity was piqued by the cover and I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I picked it up.  As it is I found this a totally fascinating and thought provoking read.  It certainly isn’t an action book and I’ll just make that perfectly clear from the outset but in spite of the lack of any action this was a compelling read that drew me in. This is a combination of five stories that intertwine.  I’ve heard comparisons to Cloud Atlas and whilst I can see where those comparisons are coming from this is a story that stands on it’s own two feet.  Each story is told in a certain style, so we have a diary, letters, court transcripts, a memoir and also direct communication to us through one of the characters. The main threads are told as follows: We follow a young woman called Mary whose family take the decision to uproot and relocate to America during the 1660s.  Mary’s tale is told in the form of a diary.  It’s a somewhat sad tale but told in a fascinating voice and a style that I really…