Has a book ever made you feel completely uncertain of how you’ll rate it? Like, what if you’re blown away by its ideas, but at the same time they make you feel utterly out of your depth? Or maybe, a book that you didn’t think would fit your tastes actually ends up surprising the hell out of you. Truth be told, it’s not often that I experience such conflict with a novel, but I’m also not surprised to find myself feeling like this about Too Like the Lightning. After all, it only makes sense that a complex book will require a complex review. Technically, Ada Palma’s debut novel can be described as political science fiction, but that’s also a gross oversimplification, for here you will also find plenty of historical allusions, social commentary, and philosophical discourse—all coupled with more traditional elements of the genre. In addition, the “story” here isn’t really that but a whole lot more, but I’ll go further into that later. First, we’re introduced to our narrator, Mycroft Canner, writing this account in the year 2454. The world has transformed into a utopia where fast, expedient travel to and from any point in the world has effectively made…

City of the Lost is the first book in a new series from Canadian mega-author Kelley Armstrong; unlike the majority of Armstrong’s works, this book is a thriller without any obvious speculative elements. Set in the northernmost territory of Canada, the horror in City of the Lost comes not from the supernatural, but from the horrors people will commit when removed from the constraints of civilization. To save her best friend Diana and escape her troubled past, homicide detective Casey Duncan agrees to an insane proposition: in exchange for her crime-solving skills (and a “small” fee, of course) Casey and Diana will be erased, disappearing from society into an off-the-map settlement called Rockton. A community of approximately 200 people, Rockton is a safe haven for those who need to escape. With no internet access, no electricity, and no marked location, Rockton truly is the city of the lost. The setting of City of the Lost is so crucial to the story that it’s almost a character unto itself. Inspired by a family vacation Armstrong took to the Yukon, this novel showcases Canada’s stark northern beauty. Surrounded by the tundra and boreal forests, Rockton is a cross between a frontier town…

The Summer Dragon is a wonderful tale full of dragons and mystery. The author, Todd Lockwood, is an established illustrator, and it shows with all of the wonderful illustrations included through out the book. Not to mention the absolutely gorgeous cover. I was immediately quite taken with the protagonist, Maia. She is a determined young woman, set on getting a dragon of her own. Her family runs a dragonry, so she has been raised with dragons and understands them. The special thing about dragons is they form a unique bond with one human, their rider. This bond is developed when the dragons are still young (called qits). This year, their dragonry has more qits than normal and both Maia and her brother are hoping to get one each, so they can then raise a new breeding pair (the dragons also bond with their mate at a young age). It seems the perfect plan, they are both of a good age to bond with a dragon, and a new breeding pair will help ensure dragon production in the future. Dragon raising is a political business. Most of the qits are reserved for the war, to be handed over to the military. It’s…

The Days of Tao novella is set several years after Rebirths of Tao and features Cameron who is settled in college. I have always loved the  interactions between Tao and whoever is hosting him so this instantly made my must read list. Cameron is trying to lead a normal type of life. Something he has not been able to do, pretty much since forever. His parents lives revolve around the Genjix/Prophus war, and as a host he has been trained to join them since birth. He finally has the opportunity to put all that aside and study abroad in Greece. This is a wonderful chance for him to finally be on his own and try to fit in and do all the normal things that typical kids do. Classes, homework, peer pressure, making friends. All that good stuff. But, Cameron? He’s not a typical kid. Typical kids don’t have aliens in their brains telling them things. Typical kids don’t have parents heading up a war. So, of course, Cameron is pulled out of his moment of typical college life when a Prophus agent in Greece needs extraction and Cameron is the only available agent that can help. As Cameron gets involved, the shit totally hits…

Next time someone asks me what a “beautiful story” is, I will tell them to read this. From the warm and smooth prose style, to the main character’s personality, and her narrative voice, to  the plot – nearly everything about this story, made me feel like I was reading a fairytale. Anna is a twelve year old girl who has recently escape to Oxford from Greece, when the Great War broke. She lost everything leaving Greece behind, including her mother, and now all she has left is her father and her doll, Pin, her only friend. Anna is home schooled, and her father often has meetings with other Greek refuges at their house every week. During these meetings, Anna will at times go outside, and explore around the town to play. On one such night she travels a bit too far in the woods and witnesses the murder of a man. From that moment on, her whole world changes. I found it a little difficult to give a brief plot outline for this story for two reason: first, because it was unclear at the beginning what the actual plot was, and second, because as this book is broken up into…

  The Silent Army is the fourth installment of what is turning out to be quite an epic fantasy series by James A Moore.  If you haven’t started the series yet then please be aware that this review will undoubtedly contain spoilers for the previous books in the series.  Also, if you do plan on starting this series I would strongly suggest starting from the beginning in order to really get a feel for all the characters and their different allegiances. The conclusion of the last book was incredibly dramatic with the Silent Army rising to defend Canhoon (or the City of Wonders, as it is also known) against attack from the Sa’ba Taalor.  At the same time the army of the Sa’ba Taalor are on the move, their strategies are in place and although the events at the conclusion of No.3 caused them a momentary blip nothing is unsurmountable to them.  Or at least so it seems.  Ruthless, determined and with their Gods constantly feeding them guidance they are a force to be feared and they sweep across the land terrorising and transforming it in their wake. Meanwhile we become re-acquainted with Andover Lashk and his companions who travelled to The Mounds to…

The full title of this anthology is actually Sharp Ends: Stories from the World of the First Law, so fans of Joe Abercrombie’s novels set in this universe should be in for a treat. All thirteen tales in here are set in the Circle of the World, spanning a period that starts about a decade before the beginning of The Blade Itself and ends a few years after Red Country, and some feature locations and characters that have appeared before in his novels. Most of the stories in here have also been previously published in other places, but here they all are for the first time, collected together in this neat and convenient little package, along with some new content besides. I must confess here though, that these types of anthologies aren’t typically in my scope but of course I had to make an exception for Sharp Ends because Abercrombie is one of my favorite authors! When I pick up a collection of short stories, I usually go for those that are made up of standalones and original tales rather than the ones containing shorts/novellas which tie into an existing series’ “universe”. In general, if I’m going to spend time…

  Talk about your emotional roller coasters. I started out clutching the side of my e-reader with anticipatory glee, loving the sheer excitement of each new development . . .  until I hit the point where I wanted to hurl it across the room as I cursed the name Sebastien de Castell . . . before I found myself holding it in shaky hands as I bravely tried to deny that a book was on the verge of making a grown man cry.   “Time to stick the pointy end through the bad man’s heart.”   If you thought the first two books were great (and Knight’s Shadow was one of my favorite books last year) then be prepared to have the bar raised impossibly high with Saint’s Blood. Falcio suffers more here than any other hero in recent memory – and that’s saying something, considering what he endured with the Greatcoat’s Lament last time around. He’s still suffering from that torture as the book begins, haunted day and night by his seemingly endless torment . . . and his anguish just gets deeper. He’s a man both physically exhausted and emotionally broken, kept alive by nothing more than the slender threads of love and devotion. Even that’s not enough,…

Fun fact, Hill mentioned in the foreward/introduction that the title of his book came from Bradbury’s original title of Fahrenheit 451. The Fireman felt very different from Hill’s other books. There is not the magical call of Christmasland, though there was a nod to it in the book as well as  a slew of references to other genre books, particularly Harry Potter. There was not a ghost haunting a rock star or magical keys that unlock abilities, or horns that appear overnight. This book felt less fantastical and more thriller, but you’ll find absolutely no complaints here because it is an extremely thrilling read that I found almost impossible to put down. The premise is that there is a new, incredibly dangerous plague called Draco Incendia Trychophyton (aka Dragonscale). Dragonscale is quite frightening because it can cause its victims to burst into flames, incinerating anything and anyone near by. Dragonscale is absolutely fascinating. I have to admit, it sounded like it would take a stronger suspension of disbelief until I read the book. Hill presents the Dragonscale in such a way that if feels clinically/scientifically possible. There are many traits he assigns to it, and when broken down makes it sound more plausible. Granted it is still fiction,…

What an odd and magical story this was! I’ve only read one other Seanan McGuire story, but from what I understand, she seems to be one of those authors who reinvents herself with each story she writes. Every Heart a Doorway can be read on several levels, and only writers with great skill are able to pull that off successfully, in my opinion. McGuire does so brilliantly, giving us a magical yet menacing tale of a group of teens who have been sent to a special school in order to deal with a very unusual loss, a tale that quickly becomes a murder mystery. But dig deeper and this story is about growing up and leaving childhood behind. For such a short novella, McGuire gives her readers everything they could want: a fascinating premise for a story, a tantalizing mystery, and even hard-hitting emotional content. The story revolves around Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a school where children and teens who have found a secret doorway to another world and then been cast out of that world can come to be rehabilitated. Each student has spent time—often years—in one of many worlds, and all of them are trying to…