Written in Red (The Others #1) by Anne Bishop
5 August 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Anne Bishop, The Others #1, Written in Red
My Five Word TL:DR review: Great Start. Loving it already
I’m always happy to find a new urban fantasy series and The Others is my most recent venture and one that I’m very happy to say has got off to a very good start.
Written in Red introduces us to the world of The Others. The Others basically embrace just about everything supernatural that you’ve ever encountered in a story. There are shapeshifters, blood drinkers, elementals and other characters who are so terrifying that even the other creatures give them a wide berth. The humans in this world are prey and a fragile truce exists between the two as a result of humans being creative and inventive and the Others developing a taste for the products humans create. But, one step out of line and entire villages and towns have been known to disappear, almost overnight.
This first instalment introduces us to Meg Corbyn, on the run in the middle of a snow storm, freezing cold, weary and on the verge of collapse. She makes it to a sanctuary of sorts – a Courtyard, a place run by the Others that tolerates humans but operates on its own rules. Meg is being chased and is hoping for the ‘rules’ of the Courtyard to protect her. She encounters Simon Wolfgard, alpha male within the courtyard who gives her a job as the Human Liaison, mainly because he’s being badgered by someone else about the role and this gives him the ability to swiftly terminate any further discussions – the job now being taken.
As I mentioned above, Meg is on the run, she’s a cassandra sangue which basically means she can foretell the future – but in order to do so she must cut herself, her own blood bringing forth the vision. Strangely enough, this ability is what makes Meg so interesting to the Others, she isn’t quite human, or at least she’s something more, and so within fairly short order, and maybe because they realise that Meg is being pursued by people powerful enough to use the law to suit their own purposes, the Others decide to take Meg under their wing and protect her. Of course, this leads to problems in the form of outside attacks but these events only serve to create a firmer bond between Meg and the other members of the Courtyard.
As first books in series go this one really worked out well for me. I often find that the first book in a series can be a little lacking in some respects, particularly in terms of forming attachments to any of the characters as there’s usually such a lot to discover. I didn’t have that experience with Written in Red, maybe because it’s a tad longer than I would normally expect, and also maybe because the author writes in a way that assumes the reader will already have some knowledge of the supernatural. She gives a fairly brief but easy to understand idea of the world set up and then moves on quickly to the story with the expectation that you’ll be on board and I really enjoyed this approach. Other information is offered up as and when needed without huge exposition or the need to over explain everything. There’s a gentle touch in terms of leading readers forward and letting them enjoy the plot and get to know the characters.
And, the characters are great. There’s a lot here that’s easy to like. Meg works her magic fairly quickly, she’s almost childlike in her innocence and lack of understanding of the wider world and this naivety quickly endears her to many of the others from the Courtyard. There’s also a certain chemistry developing between her and Simon that is quite enticing to read about and I think I will enjoy that element of the story if it is indeed going to take a turn down that route. Personally, and I often find this, I really enjoyed some of the side characters and there is surely no shortage to choose from here. One of my favourites was Tess. She runs the coffee shop but she’s one of those characters that you really don’t want to mess with – and her hair gives a good indication of her mood so definitely take heed – furiously curling and turning toxic green and you might want to consider leaving, quickly – before things go from red to black!
In terms of criticisms I didn’t have too much really. I mentioned above that this felt slightly longer than I’m used to and there is a lot of attention to the smaller detail, such as everyday humdrum elements like eating, dressing, showering, driving to work – but, at the same time that this can feel a little monotonous at some points at the same time I kind of liked the attention to detail and dare I say that, in a supernatural world of bears, crows, vampires and other unnamed critters, those little details can be quite grounding.
To cut a long story short I very much enjoyed this first instalment and have in fact already picked up the second in audio and started to listen.
I’m so happy that Lisa (Way Too Fantasy) and I decided to buddy read this one. We, of course, ended up reading at different paces but the idea of reading the series together definitely provided the incentive I needed to kick of this series and so far so good – and of course, being incredibly late to this particular party means I don’t have to wait for the next books in series – win:win.
My rating 4 out of 5 stars.
Copy bought for kindle.
Can’t Wait Wednesday : Paris By Starlight by Robert Dinsdale
5 August 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Paris by Starlight, Robert Dinsdale
“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 : Paris By Starlight by Robert Dinsdale. This sounds amazing and I loved The Toymakers so I’m very excited for this release:
Every city has its own magic…
Every night on their long journey to Paris from their troubled homeland, Levon’s grandfather has read to them from a very special book. Called The Nocturne, it is a book full of fairy stories and the heroic adventures of their people who generations before chose to live by starlight.
And with every story that Levon’s grandfather tells them in their new home, the desire to live as their ancestors did grows. And that is when the magic begins…
Nobody can explain why nocturnal water dogs, only native to Asov, start appearing at the heels of every citizen of Paris-by-Starlight like the loyal retainers they once were. There are suddenly night finches in the skies and the city is transforming: the Eiffel Tower lit up by strange ethereal flowers that drink in the light of the moon.
But not everyone in Paris is won over by the spectacle of Paris-by-Starlight. There are always those that fear the other, the unexplained, the strangers in our midst. How long can the magic of night rub up against the ordinariness of day? How long can two worlds occupy the same streets and squares before there is an outright war?
Expected publication : August 2020
Top Ten Tuesday: Ruby Tuesday
4 August 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books with Colours in the Title, 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 :
Books with Colors In the Titles
Many of these books are pre-blogging so I haven’t linked to any reviews for this week’s themes.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
My TL:DR Five Word Review : Could not put it down
To be honest, I requested a review copy of The Glass Hotel because I loved Station Eleven. I didn’t read the description and when I picked up the book I’d only read a couple of reviews and had very little idea what to expect, although I was becoming a little nervous because on the face of it the premise seemed a little outside of my comfort zone. In fact, if somebody was to try and give me an idea of what The Glass Hotel was about I think it would probably come across really badly and I’d undoubtedly run a mile. So, basically, I’m not going to talk about the plot at all because I think at best I would end up tying myself in knots and at worst maybe even discourage others from reading this because of my botched attempt at summarising the gist of the story.
Here’s a snippet from Goodreads :
‘From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it.’
So, I’m going to focus on other things here and it’s all going to be positive.
On the face of it a story spread over a couple of decades with a backdrop that examines the financial crisis of 2008 particularly centring on ponzi schemes couldn’t sound less appealing to me even if it tried. And yet, here I find myself absolutely loving this book and wanting to wax lyrical about it. To be blunt, I simply can’t believe how much I enjoyed this story. I feel like I’ve been mesmerized or hypnotised or some special magic has been worked. I read this in one day, ignoring the everyday mundane banalities such as eating or chores and in fact staying up until the wee hours to finish it and even though I was shattered when I eventually crashed into bed I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
This book is complex. It goes back and forth between people and times and yet it all comes together in perhaps one of the most satisfying ways I’ve ever encountered. The characters are so well imagined that I feel like I know them and the strong emotions that this creates really contributes to the overall experience.
On top of this the writing is brilliant. I take my hat off to the author for pulling together such a myriad of tales using what can reasonably be described as quite ‘dry’ material and yet managing to make this into a compelling tale filled with mystery, sadness and unexpected depth.
To be honest, I’m not going to say too much more because I feel like my review has taken on the semblance of a headless chicken running around hysterically.
In a nutshell I loved this book. It’s a haunting story, beautifully written, that depicts people in many guises. Like a pebble dropped into a pond it look at the ripples we cause through our actions, sometimes knowingly, sometimes whilst fiercely in denial and sometimes by pure chance. It’s not a heartwarming tale of love and laughter. It’s not a tale of swords and sorcery. But it’s a book that managed to overwhelm me in the most unexpected way and, because of that, I love it.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Rating 5 of 5 stars
#SPFBO : My Third Batch of Books
2 August 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Andrew Marc Rowe, Jacob's War, James Alderdice, Jordan J Scavone, Mark Hood, My Third Batch of Books, Night Warrior, Patrick LeClerc, SPFBO, Spitting Image, The Hammer of the Gods, The Story of Evil, The Usurper, Tony Johnson
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 first batch of books here and my update here, and my second batch of books and update here and here.
As with previous years I’m hoping to read a batch of books each month. I will read at least 30% 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 and the six books I will be reading this month are outlined below:
Spitting Image by Patrick LeClerc
Immortal Sean Danet can heal others with a touch. Over centuries he’s learned it’s safer to hide in plain sight, moving and changing his identity often, but finally, after too long as a rootless vagabond, he’s found a place he belongs. Friends he can trust and the love of an intelligent, beautiful woman. The life he dreamed of and never expected to attain.
When a sinister new adversary targets him for his abilities this tranquil existence is overturned––he finds himself unable to trust those closest to him, unable to trust what he sees. Can he untangle the mystery and outwit his latest foes? Or is his only hope of safety to return to a bleak and lonely fugitive existence?
Spitting Image is a tense, twisting, face-paced adventure which finds Sean confronting both deadly enemies and the consequences of his decisions as he chooses once and for all what is worth defending.
Website:
The Usurper (Brutal Saga #0.50) by James Alderdice
When a tyrant wears the crown, a hero must become an Usurper…
The Fates weave a tapestry of life and death for young Gathelaus the Sellsword. Now an unexpected opportunity presents itself for the famed mercenary, he has but to claim the blood red crown…
But once you wear the crown, how long can you hold it until that power is turned against you? Follow Gathelaus on a journey through a life of magic, action and intrigue; battling gods and monsters across a mystic realm …
The Usurper is an action-packed heroic adventure in the vein of classic pulp fiction and heroic fantasy. If you like Conan the Barbarian, The Witcher and Logen Ninefingers along with vengeful sorcery, savage duels, larger-than-life characters, and witty humor, then you’ll love James Alderdice’s barbaric tale.
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Night Warrior by Jordan J. Scavone
When a bolt of lightning strikes seventeen-year-old Viranda’s home during a severe thunderstorm, she awakens, dazed, to find a strange blood-covered man sitting calmly on her bed. This man claims to be Cillian Balor, The Night Warrior, the same character Viranda herself had created in her novel. Cillian believes Viranda to be the Goddess of Fate from his homeworld of Lingard. However, Viranda claims there is no Goddess of Fate in Lingard; she should know, she did create it after all. When other characters from her book begin to appear in her world, Viranda fears what would happen if the likes of Finn Razorclaw, a deadly werewolf and the arch-rival of Cillian, or the feared witches of The Black Cat Clan arrived as well. With the help of her best friend Bee, and a protection gnome named Mo, Viranda and Cillian must discover the secret to Cillian’s existence and prevent catastrophic damage by powerful supernatural beings.
Jacob’s War by Mark Hood
Meet Jacob Williams.
A survivor of the First World War, forever changed by his experience. Now he’s facing down the terrors that conflict unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
Weak spots have always existed between our world and that of the Fae; stone circles help to keep the most dangerous sealed shut. But now Stonehenge is failing…
It falls to the members of the Fae Defence Society to repair the ancient monument, protect humanity from the terrors it holds back and prevent another disastrous war.
Jacob and his wartime comrade Harry are on the front lines in a supernatural battle which threatens everything.
Website: https://www.thefairieswantmedead.com/
The Hammer Of The Gods: So You Want To Be A Star (The Druid Trilogy #1) by Andrew Marc Rowe
Pitted against a perverse pantheon of warring deities, Gudleik Sigbjornsson and Rosmerta O’Ceallaigh are two dreamers living worlds apart, hoping to create a better life for themselves by following their dreams. It won’t be easy: Gudleik’s soul is the battleground between two gods of Asgard. And Rosmerta is supposed to do as her parents have done: offer her life to the service of an ancient Celtic fertility god. But the gods are only half of it… the biggest foes the two will face are to be found within their own minds.
Can Gudleik overcome the ugly blessing of a trickster god and prevent Ragnarok? Will Rosmerta find the courage to forge a new path? Will there be a whole load of dirty jokes and comments on the human condition?
Yes, yes, there will be… to that one, the third question.
Also, check dis out: there is a bunch about Merlyn and King Arthur of Camelot, a Goblin King, an ancient fell jellyfish god, encroaching Christian zealots, characters whose proclivities are too crude to mention here, because, well, gotta make the advertising copy pop, you know?
An epic fantasy comedy as blue as the cover art, get your copy of The Hammer Of The Gods today!
Website:http://www.andrewmarcrowe.com/
The Story of Evil – A Hero’s Downfall (#1) by Tony Johnson
During an entertaining jousting tournament, a mysterious villain attacks the capital with his army. Because of this disastrous event, Stephen Brightflame, a nineteen-year-old who aspires to become a knight, embarks on a quest to save the kingdom from further destruction. He joins up with a convicted felon, an arrogant warrior, and a Halfling woman, but quickly learns their pasts are just as dark and disturbing as his own. Experience the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy that’s been called, “fascinating and captivating” featuring “well-rounded, enjoyable characters, intense action scenes, and riveting twists”
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Once again, good luck to everyone. If you’d like to visit my blog for a guest post, excerpt, etc, then leave me a note in the comments.
