Duckett and Dyer: Dicks for Hire is great, interdimensional fun … wait, interdimensional? Yes, and they’re amateur detectives. This is a great, quick read for anyone who loves books like the Stranger Times series and Rivers of London – both of those being series I enjoy so I immediately felt comfortable, cozy reading this book. The characters are real, flawed and the plot entertaining.
About Dan Smith
The Spawn of Spiracy (A Disaster of Dokojin #2) by Jesse Nolan Bailey
The Spawn of Spiracy is every bit the successor to the Jealousy of Jalice; the world expands in every direction, the world bigger, the characters familiar. Without needing to really mention it, Nolan Bailey is a great writer, the pages atmospheric, drawing me in once more. The world is rich, and there’s plenty new problems for our cast: the Sachem is banished, but the danger not gone. And there’s an experimental Dokojin that might be the answer. Though, somehow, Spiracy is loose.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
The Kaiju Reservation Society is wondrous, an adventure in a new world – like Godzilla movies? Read about the ‘real’ thing. This book scratches the Kaiju movie itch for me, I’ve been a huge fan for years, and if you like them, you’ll want to read this.
Book Tour/Review: The Jealousy of Jalice (A disaster of Dokojin #1) by Jesse Nolan
Vivid in its description, bloody and brutal in its execution, the Jealousy of Jalice is a horror of a book that begs you read on. Jesse manages to paint a picture of a complex world without the first few pages, adding to that conflict which spans backwards by years and all while pushing the story forward: Jalice has been kidnapped. But don’t f*** with Jalice.
Review: Soul Stealer Graham Masterton
Soul Stealer is a horrifying and compelling page-turner that really pushes the edge of the genre and what’s readable; there’s no hiding it, some of the scenes in this book are horror in its most acute form.
This Charming Man (The Stranger Times #2) by C. K. McDonnell
llip has suddenly developed pointy teeth; he’s getting really wary of daylight and to top it off … he can no longer see his reflection in the mirror. Well, what does he think has caused that? Perhaps its an STD, he surmises … and that, reader, is completely on brand for a book in The Stranger Times series, it had me roaring from the get-go and is utterly, utterly entertaining. It’s certainly for fans of Pratchett and other comedic novels, but really does cut its own shape in the genre with a heavy focus on fantasy, world-building and urban-central storytelling. I loved this and it continues to be a series I look forward to.
Review: Unsouled (Cradle #1) by Will Wight
Unsouled was a book that gripped me right from the start; reader, I read this book voraciously in two sittings whilst on my honeymoon. It’s the perfect storm of everything I love: anime, manga, Asian-inspired fantasy novels, tv shows … the list really does go on.
The Shattered Skies (The Cruel Stars #2) by John Birmingham
The Sturm have been pushed back, but not defeated, their larger forces still roam the Volume; despite the efforts of McLellan and Herodotus and the rest of our cast, their threat isn’t gone – and this sequel treats us to a whole lot more of what the first did. If epic space battles and advanced tech are your thing, or you’ve read the Expanse and want more spaceships and AI, this is a series that should shoot to the top of your TBR.
The Cruel Stars (The Cruel Stars #1) by John Birmingham
Combat Intellects, mechs with humans written from a source code, old family dynasties, more advanced tech than you can throw a stick at, and that’s just in the first chapter. It’s a smorgasbord of everything that’s cool about modern science fiction; it’s bonkers in all the right ways. It would definitely suit fans of explosive space battles in series like the Expanse and the body-switching, souls uploaded into chips, and other weird tech of Altered Carbon.
Of Darkness and Light by (The Bound and the Broken #2) by Ryan Cahill
Arrows whoosh. Fire burns. Hearts beat. Blood pumps, spills; the start of Darkness and Light is visceral like the Fall, but this situation seems entirely worse. What starts in fire and loss end in complete darkness with a singular ray of light that is the exciting, jaw-dropping cliff-hanger that rounds off such an expansive novel. It lifts the lid on the story that started with Of Blood and Fire. The Dragonguard and the imperial army descend upon one boy and his adolescent dragon. The night holds its breath as we wait for the fires to come …
Review: The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf #1) by Richard Swan
The Justice of Kings is a triumph, a marvel that has placed courtrooms and wordplay as epic a battle as legions of men versus beasts ever were; with intrigue laced into every word of Helena’s tell-all tale of justice, and the lengths a single man will go to mete it out, the Justice of Kings is a tale above them all? When I say I enjoyed this book, it is the biggest understatement I’ve made this year.
Review: Of Blood and Fire (The Bound and the Broken #1) by Ryan Cahill
Of Fire and Blood is a nostalgic and warm read, plucking on the lute strings of themes I enjoy around a warm fire of favourite tropes, gathered for the tale. It’s certainly not a fantasy trying to be an edgelord, it’s a book offering warmth and safety. A great, old timely tale wearing new clothing.