I’ve had a nice few days reading through a number of books that have mysteriously appeared on my kindle. (You just click buttons and they appear!) A few quick notes… Servant of the Crown (Melissa McShane): I bought this one on a whim. It turned up on a list of newly released books from Amazon and, seeing that the price wasn’t so high and the … Continue reading Fantasy Book Reviews
Goodreads lists Night of the Hunter as the 25th book of the Legend of Drizzt, and it draws heavily on events of past books. This makes it a challenging book to read if you’re not familiar with the series. A reader entering the series with the 24th book, The Companions, had a good introduction to the characters, with a very accessible book, as I mentioned … Continue reading Book Review: Night of the Hunter (Companions Codex 1)
One of the occasional troubles with writing in a shared world is that the Powers That Be occasionally dictate a change of the world on you. Or determine that there’s a cross-over event that you’ve got to participate in. This might be a problem when you’re writing a tightly-plotted series, or it could be a spur for further creativity. The Sundering novels, set in the … Continue reading Book Review: The Adversary by Erin M. Evans (Sundering #3)
I first became aware of Brandon Sanderson when he was chosen to complete the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. That led me to his other works, which have, so far, proven to be really entertaining. His Mistborn series, in particular, shows a fine attention to detailed world-building and intricate magical systems. Sanderson’s books, apart from having epic plots and good characterisation, are notable … Continue reading Book Review: Legion by Brandon Sanderson
I read a lot of books. My reading speed for novels is in the order of 200 pages an hour, which is coupled with the ability to happily sit reading for four or more hours uninterrupted. This accounts for a lot of my evenings and weekends. As a result, I tend to look for either longer books or for series of books to read. When … Continue reading Days of Angels – The Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh
The ninth book of The Dresden Files sees Jim Butcher use his first major flashback scene of the series. It’s a technique that Butcher doesn’t use often, but it’s very effective in this case. Harry has never been the cheeriest of souls, but he’s definitely been affected by the stress of the previous tales, enough that his friends are noticing and are getting worried about … Continue reading White Night (Jim Butcher) book review
The eighth book of The Dresden Files moves back to a smaller scale after the apocalyptic trimmings of Dead Beat. The book focuses on the relationships Harry has with Murphy and with the Carpenter family, whilst Harry investigates the odd murders occurring at a horror convention. I mention in my review of Dead Beat that the Dresden books aren’t horrors; this is especially true of … Continue reading Proven Guilty (Jim Butcher) book review
Returning to my read-through of The Dresden Files before the next book gets published… The Dresden Files aren’t horror stories, despite the trappings of vampires, zombies and the odd occasional evil spirit. They’re very firmly rooted in the Urban Fantasy tradition, drawing a lot from the hard-boiled detective stories, although with a level of world-building that most writers can only envy. However, Dead Beat, the … Continue reading Dead Beat (Jim Butcher) review
Love and family are important themes in the sixth book of The Dresden Files and are brought into sharp juxtaposition with the setting for much of the story: the set of a pornographic movie. Much of the action revolves around Harry tracking down the source of a curse that is killing several of the actresses in the production, while the White Court vampires show an … Continue reading Blood Rites (Jim Butcher) book review
The fifth book of The Dresden Files is a damn good book. Two major plots wind their way through the book: a hunt for the Shroud of Turin, and a duel with one of the major vampires of the Red Court, but it is the character interactions that make me like this one so much. Butcher is primarily dealing with the themes of temptation and … Continue reading Death Masks (Jim Butcher) book review
