Review: Of Bone and Thunder

 Of Bone and Thunder by Chris Evans From my brief investigations into the author (Chris Evans of The Iron Elves trilogy) it would seem that he’s a bit of a military historian and I definitely think that’s where this book stems from. It’s a story inspired by the Vietnam War (obviously with a fantasy twist) and you definitely...

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Review: Fearsome Magics

I've only picked up short story collections relatively recently, I (exceedingly) foolishly thought that they might not be good as a full length novel. This book, Fearsome Magics (edited by Jonathan Strahan), proves I could not have been more wrong. Inside we have stories from Garth Nix, K.J. Parker, Justina Robson, Ellen...

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Review: Emperor of Thorns (Audiobook)

Once again this was an audiobook but I actually got a signed hardcopy as a gift (awesome gift!) and it turns out the new POV character's chapters were in a different font, which I thought was really cool!  Anyway!  As per usual Mark Lawrence does a wonderful job of throwing us right into the action and then folding in...

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Book Review: Assail by Ian C Esslemont

Look at it! It's so awesome! Hopefully I was not alone in my giddy excitement when I saw the title of this book. Assail. All Malazan fans will know the weight that sits on that continent. Throughout Erikson’s series we have seen some of the toughest characters be chewed up and spat out by Assail. And sometimes they even survive....

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Review: Orb Sceptre Throne - Novel of the Malazan Empire

  Well I think you can understand now why the gap in blog posts, eh? It was because I was reading through a Malazan book. So, fair warning, if you haven't read any of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series or Ian C. Esslemont's books which don the subtitle 'A Novel of the Malazan Empire' on each cover then I suspect...

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Review: Shanghai Sparrow

I genuinely had no idea what I was in for with this book. I thought the cover art was awesome (steampunk dragon? Yes please) so I grabbed it and gave it a twirl, and then when I was done twirling I read it! So what is Shanghai Sparrow? Well to start with it's written by Gaie Sebold! The book is set in a steam punk British Empire, which...

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A New Look!

We've been quiet on the ol' western front, and the eastern front come to think about it... But that's just because we've been investigating some exciting new opportunities to explore in the near future! And for the mean time the blog(s) now have a dashing new look! Isn't that exciting?! Yes. Yes it is. So keep your eyes peeled and we'll have a review up later this week, I promis...

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Review: The Lost Castle (The Chronicles of Krangor)

I love a good fantasy book, and I love dinosaurs. So what's not to love when you mix them together?  That's why I picked up The Lost Castle the first in a series called The Chronicles of Krangor written by Michael Pryor, which is a fantasy novel where all the characters are dinosaurs of one sort or another (bet you didn't see that...

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Review: A Natural History of Dragons

I have some shocking news for you. Are you sitting down? Good. I love books. What? That didn't come as a shock to you? Well I suppose it is pretty obvious. But, why am I telling you this?! Because I'm hideously self-centered and I need you to know! Muhahah! No, wait, that's not it. It's because I think that A Natural History of Dragons by...

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Iron Druid Chronicles; Impressions

This week I want to talk about the Iron Druid Chronicles, which tell the story of Atticus O'Sullivan. I won't be giving a review of a specific book because I've been getting through the audiobooks and am already on the fourth book in the series (of a current six with the seventh to be released later this year). Atticus is a 2,000 year old...

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Lost Words - How to insult, describe and perplex with words from 17th century and beyond!

I was planning on writing a post about when is the right time to call it a day with a book you're not enjoying. And I was doing well writing that. But then I found this website. Here we have another list similar to the one that I've shown you before with the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Only this time the words have been forgotten...

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And Now For Something Completely Different! A Real Tale From History

I love me some history, I love it so much that I studied various kinds of history for pretty much my whole education. I grabbed 2 degrees in Classics and Ancient History (they were mine I promise, I didn't steal them). One of the things I love about it is all the stories that you could make from it. Maybe one day I'll give it a go! But...

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