Science Fiction & Fantasy book reviews
I kind of anticipate this being a fairly short review, cos most of what I said in my review of The Court of Broken Knives also applies here, with a few bits to add. This is literally the bleakest series I've ever read. Ever in my life. Ever. It's honestly kind of hard to take... Continue Reading →
I came out of reading The Poppy War a little bit underwhelmed by the writing, but interested enough in Rin and the story to want to carry on reading the series. I definitely wanted to know how Rin was going to respond to the fall out of her mic-dropping actions at the end of that... Continue Reading →
Ryhalt Galharrow is a Blackwing captain, part of a loose organisation of grizzled soldiers bound in service to the demi-god mage Crowfoot. When not on assignment from Crowfoot Galharrow is a freelance mercenary of sorts, defending the city of Valengrad and the outposts along The Range from both The Deep Kings, with their 'Darling' mages... Continue Reading →
A CLASH OF KINGS is so fucking good man, definitely equally as good A Game of Thrones. It picks up where the previous book left off, with the Seven Kingdoms in the midst of a brutal internecine war. Sansa Stark is held hostage by the Lannisters in King's Landing; Arya is making her way back... Continue Reading →
THE SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE is the second book in the Elric Saga and I think, perhaps more than any book I've reviewed so far, I might struggle to pull the various coalescing streams of thought I have about it into coherent sentences. I've thought about this book a fair bit and concluded... Continue Reading →
This is gonna be a weird review to write, cos I actually read this book twice in the space of four months and didn't enjoy it the first time round. Then I was convinced to give it another go (cos apparently reading 31 books for a month-long reading event wasn't quite enough to do without... Continue Reading →
Morally dubious mercenaries are a staple of grimdark fantasy and, as much as I love the trope, it can be quite difficult to bring a fresh spin to it. But Adrian Selby's debut novel SNAKEWOOD is a very original take on an established trope. It tells the story of Kailen's Twenty, a famous mercenary company... Continue Reading →
Aaaargh why has it taken me so long to read this book?!!? It's so good! THE BLACK COMPANY is the story of an elite mercenary unit called, well...The Black Company, and mostly follows a small squad through the narration of the Company's physician and Annalist, Croaker. The majority of the book follows them on campaign... Continue Reading →
I've been looking forward to reading THE POPPY WAR for a good long while now. An East-Asian inspired grimdark fantasy based on the horrors of the second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre with a main character loosely based on Mao Zedong drew me like a moth to a flame. It's a book that's had... Continue Reading →
Oh my god this is good grimdark. Shady as fuck characters, a grimy city with a violent underworld, corrupt government and a good smattering of violence thrown in for good measure. The real selling point of PRIEST OF BONES as a story though, is its main character and his somewhat...unorthodox profession. Tomas Piety is many... Continue Reading →
