November : My Month In Covers
November has been a busy month, I’ve not read quite as many books as I would have liked but I still have December to catch up. I’ve also finished Stage 1 of the SPFBO competition – my final post is here – this was a tough decision to make but I’m relieved to have completed the first part of the competition. Anyway, my covers this month:
Friday Face Off : A cover that is 60s sci fi
29 November 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 60s sci fi, Books by Proxy, Friday Face off
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – I’ll be updating the list next week to include themes for 20202, if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme is:
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” – a cover that is 60s sci fi
This week I’ve gone for a book that I think I’ve used before but I’ve chosen it because it is a book that was originally published in the 60s and I’ve decided to use all 60s covers. My book this week is Dune (Dune #1) by Frank Herbert.
The Covers:
This week my favourite is:
Which is your favourite?
I’ve included events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share then let me know in the comments). I also have a list prepared for 2020 and so will set up a separate page soon for forthcoming themes. As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment.
Next week – A cover that puts you in mind of winter
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ or one of your favourite covers) (I’ve added some new themes – some of these are slightly different, in order to avoid too much repetition I’m trying to make the themes more of a suggestion that everyone can interpret how they like
2019
6th December – Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York” – a cover that puts you in mind of winter
13th December – A cover that features a temple/or religious icon
20th December – Longest Night – a dark and foreboding cover
27th December – the festive season – a cover that is glittery or sparkling
(2020 – January is Vintage SciFi month so I’ll be including possible themes to take that on board.
3rd January – New Beginnings – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
10th January – vintage sci fi – “Live long and prosper.”
17th January – Horizon – “Your “beautiful” ship killed its crew, Doctor.”
24th January – Chinese New Year – Year of the Rat
31st January – First Contact – “Ack, Ack, Ack, we come in peace”
7th February – Lion- “Is that a lion with horns and a pitchfork?”
14th February – romantic – “thus with a kiss I die”
21st February – meringue – the puffy dress?
28th February – Leap Year – One Ring to rule them all – A cover with a ring
6th March – Skeleton – them bones, them bones, them dry bones…
13th March – Exotic – ‘That which yields, is not always weak”
20th March – Brown – a cover or covers that are brown
27th March – Freebie – choose one of your favourite covers
3rd April Fools – a trick of the eye – a cover that is more than meets the eye
10th April – Moody – a cover that is atmospheric,
17th April – out of focus – double vision or all a blur
24th April – Armour – ‘“Pretty armour doesn’t make a warrior.”
1st May – Canine – “And then there were cats, thought Dog.:
8th May – graphic novel cover – “Love belongs to Desire, and Desire is always cruel”
15th May – pink – as pink as cotton candy – any cover that is pink
22nd May – Sorrow – a cover that makes you feel sad
29th May – Silhouette – an island, a person, anything you like
5th June – Flight – any type of flight – to flee, to fly
12th June – The bodice ripper – exactly as it seems
19th June – Time – time waits for no one
26th June – Windows – windows to the soul?
#SPFBO Semi Finalists and Finalist Announcement
Today sees, for me, the completion of Stage 1 of the SPFBO competition. I’ve really enjoyed the first stage and I have to say I had some incredible books in my batch.
Firstly, the following books are the ones I’ve completed fully and reviewed (I’ve provided mini reviews for my other books as I went along.
Cry Havoc by Jack Frey
Healer’s Ruin by Chris O’Mara
The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King
From the Shadows of the Owl Queen’s Court(Yarnsworld #4) by Benedict Patrick
Never Die by Rob J Hayes
Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights by Liam Perrin
Vortex Visions by Elise Kova
The Blade Within by Jackson Lear
River of Thieves by Clayton Snyder
From the above I have chosen five Semi Finalists, to be fair to the authors I would stress that all of these books were very good and I definitely recommend them all. And in fact I am hoping to be able to go back and read fully some of the other books from my batch – time allowing.
My five semi finalists:
And this is where the really tough decision kicked in and kicked me to the floor (not at all dramatic)!
I’m not going to deny that it’s been very difficult to choose a finalist. The nine books above were all very good and I recommend them – narrowing that list down to semi finalists was tough enough – going further and choosing just one – well, it was stressful and if it made me feel like that then I can’t even begin to imagine how all the authors feel.
Basically I narrowed my choice down to three. I made a list of all sorts of pros and cons and was then left with two choices – which I really couldn’t choose between.
I don’t always score my books but I rated different aspects of both books in this case to try and find a score for each and see if that would help. Even with that in mind it’s been difficult to stick to one decision and there has been lots of to ing and fro ing and a tiny bit of dithering. In the end I’ve chosen my finalist but I would stress that this was a really difficult decision.
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My finalist:
My congratulations to the author 😀
I would also like to put forward under the ‘Senlin Safety Net’:
My apologies to the other authors from my batch. I’ve had a fantastic time reading all these books and I wish that I could choose more than one but that’s the nature of the competition. Thank you so much to all the authors for taking the time to enter and for taking the risk to put forward your work. You definitely get my round of applause.
River of Thieves by Clayton Snyder
26 November 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO5, Clayton Snyder, River of Thieves
River of Thieves is one of the titles on my list of books for the fifth SPFBO competition and was one of the books that I decided to roll forward after having read the first 30% with the idea of reading and reviewing fully. In this respect this is my final review from the books I rolled forward. My next post, hopefully Wednesday, will reveal my semi finalists and finalist. So, straight to my review of River of Thieves.
River of Thieves kicks off to an immediately intense start. One of the characters is cursed – and although the very nature of a curse is to be something bad – he and his partner Nenn seem to have turned it into something advantageous. Although, I can’t deny it’s not the most pleasant scheme that they’ve come up with! There is stabbing, blood and plenty of ick.
Cord and Nenn are the two central characters, and Nenn is our storyteller. They’re always on the lookout for that ‘one last job’ that will really set them up. Although, at the same time they barely seem to care about money. Cord eventually lands upon that ‘one thing’, he has a plan in mind, a heist, the king of heists in fact. The two set off, Nenn barely knows what’s going on from one day to the next, Cord keeps his cards close to his chest, but the first step is to gather other members to their little crew before setting off to find trouble.
Again, I’m not really going to go into the plot, it’s best discovered whilst reading.
So, what I really liked about this book. It’s harsh, it’s dark, it’s grim but it has some great banter to bring some light relief between events. Cord and Nenn make a great pair and just continually snipe at each other. It’s highly entertaining – in between the other goings on. The start is fast and furious, it pulls you in immediately and leaves you in no doubt that you must continue to find out what’s going on.
It’s very imaginative, in fact a little bit horror filled and gory – but this is offset somewhat by the funny aspects and constant references – which I’m sure I missed a good deal of.
The writing is also strong. I’ve not read anything by Clayton Snyder before but I would definitely love to read more and hopefully from this series? I’m not sure if more books are intended but I have my fingers crossed.
Without elaborating on the plot the action is split into three distinct sections, each dealing with different adventures which keep the story fast paced and intense. Briefly, monsters, pirates, unusual spiders! magic, corruption and the fight to do right – even if it’s kind of wrong at the same time.
In terms of criticisms. Well, the only issue I had was I think I kind of lost the plot a little bit in the middle, I still don’t quite understand how or why but I seemed to lose the thread. Don’t get me wrong, I knew what was happening with each of the individual sections but kind of lost the bigger picture. That’s my bad to be honest and I feel like I should go back and reread what was going on. To be fair – I did not skim any part of this but maybe I was just reading it too fast with that dose of eager anticipation that sometimes occurs when you’re all cranked up as a reader.
Overall, I had a really good time reading this. It’s dark humour and quite near the knuckle but it feels really fresh, like the author just thought ‘what the hell, I’m doing this and lets see what happens’ it’s a little bit liberating in some respects and shocking in others but it works.
The strangest tale of not-heroes, they’re out their righting wrongs and injustice, kicking ass and getting themselves into a lot of danger.
I also absolutely have to call attention to the cover – which is awesome.
I received a copy courtesy of the author for which my thanks. The above is my on opinion.
The Blade Within (Raike #1) by Jackson Lear
25 November 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Jackson Lear, Raike #1, The Blade Within
The Blade Within is one of the titles on my list of books for the fifth SPFBO competition and was one of the books that I decided to roll forward after having read the first 30% with the idea of reading and reviewing fully. In this respect I have 1 more review to follow which I’m hoping will be in fairly quick succession followed by a post to reveal my semi finalists and the book I will be taking to stage two of the competition. So, straight to my review of The Blade Within.
I have to say from the outset that The Blade Within was very entertaining and a quick read, I was always keen to get back to the story in fact I was more than eager to pick it back up.
The central character is called Raike. Raike is not a character that you really want to meet at the dead of night in a dark alley. Although that being said he’s not quite as bad as he likes to make out. I guess you could call him a diamond in the rough. He’s part of a mercenary gang who wields magic. This is a book that is very territorial. Any gangs wandering into another gangs area – it doesn’t go down well – and Raike is about to enter just about everyone’s territory and bring down a lot of trouble in the process.
As the story begins a young girl has disappeared from an orphanage. You could be forgiven for thinking she ran away – but there was a note (not from the girl herself) – and a strange ghostly appearance only nights before that seemed to single her out for attention. Raike appears on the scene. He makes enquiries and receives answers. He knows things are rotten in Denmark and is determined to try and find the girl. This is personal.
Okay, I will just step back a little. Raike was himself an orphan, he lived at the very orphanage that this young girl went missing from, and a number of years ago a young girl, that he was very attached to, also went missing, and the same, or very similar, note seemed to accompany her disappearance. The whole experience never truly left Raike, he left the orphanage and took up with a band of mercenaries, learning magic in the process and now here he is, with history repeating itself. The problem is. Raike has been renamed, his past his behind him and to return to such things places not only himself, but all his comrades in danger. But, Raike isn’t the only orphan determined to bring this young girl back and pretty soon he has a small band of his comrades out investigating.
I won’t go further into the plot other than to say that this is a mystery story with a dose of fantasy thrown in.
The world here, in fact the characters too, feel a little generic. If you read quite a bit of fantasy I don’t think this will feel like it’s reinventing the wheel in either respect but at the same time it’s very easy to get along with and is actually a very compelling read. This book has a grimdark feel but I would say on the lower end of the grimdark spectrum – it’s not overly blood thirsty and didn’t make my stomach turn over, there’s banter and cursing but not enough to make your toes curl and overall it seems like a really good mix.
We meet a number of characters. I’m not going to name them all but I found myself really enjoying the crew that Raike surrounded himself with. One of the characters in particular is a real charmer and another is strong with magic not to mention incredibly intimidating and a little almost invincible seeming. Raike himself is like a dog with a bone, he doesn’t always make good decisions but I liked that he wanted to help the underdog here. He’s not about money or profit more right instead of wrong – even if his methods of achieving that are sometimes dubious.
In terms of criticisms. Well, to be honest, I had only one thing that worried me and I really can’t discuss it in a review because it would definitely be a spoiler. It’s just something that didn’t sit quite right for me, but of course might differ for other readers. Of course we’re dealing with a bunch of reprobates here but at the same time, as a reader, I want to be on their side. I know they’re not perfect characters, but, I’m grasping at whatever straws are thrown my way to make me feel that basically, deep down, badass or not, their bark is worse than their bite, they still have that core of decency even if it’s well hidden. Now, I’ve probably made that seem worse than it is, it’s one element of the story that just worried away at me and so I couldn’t deny it’s presence but it might not cause that reaction in others. Did it spoil the read – no. I still found this a really good story and would definitely read more in the series to see what scrapes Raike gets into next.
Good writing, likable-in-spite-of-themselves-characters and a thriller that intrigued me to the end.
I received a copy courtesy of the author for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 