Category: Books
Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood (book review).
Strong emotions can leave their mark. One of the theories behind hauntings is that powerful events are recorded by the fabric of the place they happen in and are replayed when the right trigger is tripped. Other ghostly sightings are attributed to unfinished business on the part of the deceased. This might be benign or, […]
Model Builders’ Manual by Mat Irvine (book review).
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from a book by model-maker Mat Irvine, thinking it might be showing me how to make models. It does but the ‘Model Builders’ Manual’ starts with a history of model kits, mostly in a variety of plastics, before going into various techniques. If you ever wondered why different […]
Requiem, Changing Times by R.J. Parker (book review).
The Requiem has been stolen, an artefact that would allow the forces of evil, known as the Fury, to spread across everything and rule with a dark iron fist. The Fury has the scent of those who took it and they have a name…Clint Holden. O’Neil, a dwarf with a pet squirrel, and a human […]
Doing Time by Jodi Taylor (book review).
You would think that the first three chapters from individual first person perspectives of the three key players that Jodi Taylor’s novel, ‘Doing Time’, would be doing the same throughout. It doesn’t. From therein, it becomes a third person narrative. These three chapters do suffer a bit. Mostly because they are in first person and […]
Luna: New Moon (book 1) by Ian McDonald (book review).
I’ve read Ian McDonald’s short story ‘The Fifth Dragon’ a couple of times, a story set in the early days of moon colonisation that sets the scene for the five big family corporations who dominate the lunar economy. It was intriguing enough that I wanted to read the trilogy of ‘Luna’ novels that follow on […]
Magic Triumphs (A Kate Daniels novel book 10) by Ilona Andrews (book review).
In a more and more competitive market, writers have to do more to make themselves noticed, not only by the potential publishers but by the readers as well. Thus, the first novel in a series needs to put the protagonists into great peril, ramping up the tension and perhaps allowing them to survive by the […]
Images Of The Past: A Century Of Man-Made Disasters by Nigel Blundell (book review).
I have to confess that the main interest in reading about disasters is ensuring that such things should never happen again and lessons were learnt from it. Nigel Blundell’s book, ‘Images Of The Past: A Century Of Man-Made Disasters’ covers 15 significant ones, although some chapters, deal with collective ones as that befallen the American […]
The Future Of Erotic Fantasy Art by Paul Peart-Smith (book review).
I pulled my copy of ‘The Future Of Erotic Fantasy Art’ four years ago and using some spare time to catch up with this book and found mint copies are still out there. The first introduction by artist Chris Achillés defines ‘erotic art’ as featuring women in a state of undress but not necessarily of […]
Roman Soldier Operations Manual by Simon Forty (book review).
When I was originally offered books from Haynes new range based on historical warriors, I did wonder if it fell in our remit. However, with so many books in our genre resetting history or even telling tales with a historic background, then they do make for useful research. Simon Forty’s book, ‘Roman Soldier Operations Manual’, […]
Anackire (The Wars Of Vis Trilogy book 2) by Tanith Lee (book review).
When the term ‘prolific’ is used to describe a writer, the implication often is that the resulting work will be the kind of enjoyable romp, characteristic of the old pulps. Often this assumption is true and there are many readers who appreciate this kind of book. Rarer is to find a prolific writer whose works […]
