Can’t Wait Wednesday : Call of the Bone Ships by R.J. Barker
30 September 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Call of the Bone Ships, Can't wait Wednesday, RJ Barker, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is : Call of the Bone Ships by RJ Barker. I loved The Bone Ships and can’t wait to tuck into this one. Check out the description and the fabulous cover:
A brilliantly imagined saga of honour, glory and warfare, Call of the Bone Ships is the captivating epic fantasy sequel to RJ Barker’s The Bone Ships.
Dragons have returned to the Hundred Isles. But their return heralds only war and destruction. When a horde of dying slaves are discovered in the bowels of a ship, Shipwife Meas and the crew of the Tide Child find themselves drawn into a vicious plot that will leave them questioning their loyalties and fighting for their lives.
Expected publication : November 2020
Top Ten Tuesday : Guess the quote?
29 September 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Quotes, Movie quotes, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic :
Favorite Book Quotes
I’ve gone a little off topic this week, well, I’m using movie quotes instead of book quotes – although some of these may well have been book quotes first. Also, just to be a big tease I’m not putting the films these quotes are taken from – see how many you’re familiar with (and share the number – not the titles – in the comments):1.“Oh, it’s quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password, and the doors will open.”
2. “Inconceivable”
3. “God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys god. Man creates dinosaurs.” / “Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.”
4. “No one would have believed, in the middle of the 20th century, that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s.”
5. “Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain. … Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.”
6. “They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially ‘colonised’ it. So technically, I colonised Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!”
7. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!
8. “the children of the night. What sweet music they make.”
9. “I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcyle”
10 Do you have a favourite quote that you fall into automatically??
The Phlebotomist by Chris Panatier
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Absolutely Bloody Brilliant, pun intended.
The Phlebotomist is a book that really took me by storm. To be fair I read a glowing review for this over on Books Bones and Buffy but even so, and even though I requested a review copy, I felt a little hesitant about picking this up. I think it’s all to do with my reading mood, the way it fluctuates without warning and the current pandemic situation which I cannot deny has greatly affected my emotions and ability to settle down. Then along comes the Phlebotomist to laugh in the face of all of that and just provide a really damned good bit of respite from the everyday mundane.
Seriously, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one (yes, I read a review but it was very secretive and gave little away – apart from the fact that this is good). And, to be honest, I’m going to give very little away too, in fact I’m not really going to go overboard on the plot but will look at world and characters instead.
The Phlebotomist is set in a fairly near future (2060s??). Our worst fears have been recognised and war and nuclear blasts have changed the way we live. There are grey zones that still suffer from the fallout and people who desperately need blood to help them recover. Patriot is an organisation that harvests blood – your country needs you! And, depending on your blood type, your life can be one of relative luxury or incredibly tough with barely enough food to survive. Areas are divided by blood types with the most affluent areas being inhabited by those with the most sought after blood types.
Enter the scene Willa Wallace. I love this woman Willia is the Phlebotomist. She’s old enough to remember the world pre nuclear blast and she still likes ‘old school’ methods when it comes to a lot of things. She is responsible for her grandson, her own daughter having passed away, and she works for Patriot as a Reaper – sounds grim eh? (Ha, another pun). Willa collects blood, but she doesn’t just go through the motions, she’s smart, she likes to read (high five Willa) and she has common sense. Unwittingly, Willy stumbles into ‘something’ and that’s when things start to go pear shaped. I won’t elaborate further other than to say this went in a direction I never saw coming and I loved it.
The other characters. Well, we have an ex marine called Lock (short for the Locksmith) who is basically a hacker. Lock uses old technology to stay under the radar, she has a number of hideouts and her main priority is the group of ragtag children that she’s taken under her wing and cares for. Everard is a bit of a tough character, he’s not above committing crimes, he might have a tweak of conscience about it but he’s prepared to make hard choices when it comes to keeping the children safe. The other character is Kathy, I can’t say too much about her because of spoilers but she’s great and I have to say these three females just about made my day.
Long story short I really enjoyed this. I couldn’t wait to pick it up, it was entertaining, fast paced, high octane, bloody, and violent, in places and emotional. What a ride.
The writing is really good. Panatier strikes a perfect blend between those tense moments where you’re holding your breath and then the relief that swiftly follows. He provides clear information about the world and the way of life. He provides his cast with very ‘real’ motivations and he manages to provoke heartfelt emotion. On top of this there is much drama and over the top heist style scenes that give you a real rush – not to mention woohoo moments.
Okay, I enjoyed this. Maybe you can tell. It just give me a real boost.
In terms of criticisms. The only thing I can think of is that some of the tech info felt a little bit less like a conversation and more like a convenient way to quickly deliver all the knowledge in one swift chunk. It’s not something that bothered me though.
High speed chases through the air, corporate conniving, conspiracy theories, do we really know how the other half lives? It’s all here. I would read more of this world without hesitation in fact I strongly hope that more is forthcoming and I can only hope this gets optioned for adaptation, it would be great on the big screen.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Rating : 5 stars
#SPFBO : My Fifth/Final Batch of Books
300 books 10 Judges 1 winner
The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (details here.) My Introductory post is here.
You can find my updates for batch 1, batch 2, batch 3 and Batch 4 by clicking on the links:
As with previous years I will read a batch of books each month. I will read at least 30% (or 100 pages) and hopefully will choose one or two books from each batch to roll forward and read fully and review before choosing semi finalists and a finalist. My book list is chosen randomly. This month I will have 7 books to check out (as I carried MidLich Crisis over in order to wait for the audio copy to become available). I’m hoping to complete all of these fairly swiftly and provide an update asap (in fact I’ve already started reading in order to get a little ahead. Expect my next update fairly quickly, maybe in another week or so if things go according to plan.
Long Stories: Early Immortals and the Birth of Death by) by Evan Witmer
Immortals have infested the Earth, using dark magic to stay alive eternally. God creates an assassin, Death, to teleport around the world and kill them off one by one. All goes according to plan till Death meets Lucy, an adorable little girl that’s over a century old. Unable to cut her to bits, Death finds another way…
Twitter : @FictionOdd
Tuyo by Rachel Neumeier
Raised a warrior in the harsh winter country, Ryo inGara has always been willing to die for his family and his tribe. When war erupts against the summer country, the prospect of death in battle seems imminent. But when his warleader leaves Ryo as a sacrifice — a tuyo — to die at the hands of their enemies, he faces a fate he never imagined.
Ryo’s captor, a lord of the summer country, may be an enemy . . . but far worse enemies are moving, with the current war nothing but the opening moves in a hidden game Ryo barely glimpses, a game in which all his people may be merely pawns. Suddenly Ryo finds his convictions overturned and his loyalties uncertain. Should he support the man who holds him prisoner, the only man who may be able to defeat their greater enemy? And even if he does, can he persuade his people to do the same?
Website : http://www.rachelneumeier.com/
Voice of War by Zack Argyle
Chrys Valerian is a threadweaver, a high general, and soon-to-be father. But to the people of Alchea, he is the Apogee—the man who won the war.
When a stranger’s prophecy foretells danger to Chrys’ child, he must do everything in his power to protect his family—even if the most dangerous enemy is the voice in his own head.
To the west, a sheltered girl seeks to find her place in the world.
To the south, a young man’s life changes after he dies.
Together, they will change the world—whether they intend to or not.
Twitter : SFFAuthor
Website : https://www.zackargyle.com/blog
The Flight of the Darkstar Dragon by Benedict Patrick
Impossible world. Impossible dragon. Impossible adventure.
Lost with her ship and crew in an unfamiliar land, Min’s first command could be her last.
Nothing here behaves the way it should:
The magic that powers her skyship has been drained, rendering it immobile.
The sky is an endless twilight, lit by the luminous fish that swim in it.
Off starboard, there’s also the country-sized dragon that is looking particularly hungry.
It will take all of Min’s training and experience to get her people safely back home, but as the truth about the Darkstar Dimension begins to be revealed, Min will have to prove to her crew – and to herself – that she is still the best person for the job.
Twitter : benedictpaddy
Website : http://www.benedictpatrick.com
Warbringer by Aaron Hodges
Centuries ago, the world fell.
From the ashes rose a terrible new species—the Tangata.
Now they wage war against the kingdoms of man.
And humanity is losing.
Recruited straight from his academy, twenty-year-old Lukys hopes the frontier will make a soldier out of him. But Tangata are massing in the south, and the allied armies are desperate. They will do anything to halt the enemy advance—including sending untrained men and women into battle. Determined to survive, Lukys seeks aid from the only man who seems to care: Romaine, the last warrior of an extinct kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s Archivist leads an expedition deep beneath the earth. She seeks to uncover the secrets of the Gods. Their magic has been lost to the ages, yet artefacts remain, objects of power that could turn the tide of the war. But salvation is not the only thing waiting beneath the surface. Something else slumbers in the darkness. Something old. Something evil.
Twitter : aarondhodges
Website : http://www.aaronhodges.co.nz/
Exile by Martin Owton
Aron of Darien, raised in exile after his homeland is conquered by a treacherous warlord, makes his way in the world on the strength of his wits and skill with a sword. Both are sorely tested when he is impressed into the service of the Earl of Nandor to rescue his heir from captivity in the fortress of Sarazan. The rescue goes awry. Aron and his companions are betrayed and must flee for their lives. Pursued by steel and magic, they find new friends and old enemies on the road that leads, after many turns, to the city of the High King. There Aron must face his father’s murderer before risking everything in a fight to the death with the deadliest swordsman in the kingdom
Website : http://www.martinowton.com
Mid-Lich Crisis by Steve Thomas – I posted information about this book in Batch 2 which you can check out by clicking on the link.
That’s it for this month. Good luck to all the authors.
#SPFBO 6 – Cover love (10)
25 September 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 6, A Dream of Fire, Brian D Anderson, Cover Love, Dragon Mage, Dragonvein, JR Rasmussen, Tameri Etherton
The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (details here.) My Introductory post is here. This year I’m aiming to shine a little bit of focus on some of the books either through posting excerpts to act as teasers for potential readers or through posting some of the covers and highlighting the book that way (not just for my own books but other entries). The invitation is open to all authors from the competition – if you’d like to post an excerpt then give me a shout in the comments (also, if you’ve contacted me recently and I’ve not responded please give me a(nother) shout, I’ve noticed recently that a lot of my comments have gone straight to Spam or Pending so I may have overlooked something.
As part of the competition there is a cover contest. The details can be found here.
So, this week’s chosen SPFBO covers are below, this week is all about the dragons. Take a look and see if you have a favourite:
