FanFiAddict
A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.
Honeycomb had me HOOKED. Wow. It took me by surprise so many times and I couldn’t put it down, I thought I knew what was going on but there were still moments that really caught me out.
This is a great high-concept thriller with a central plot that utterly hooked me. The idea of putting six people together in a locked house and giving them an experimental drug is such a great concept and S.B. Caves pulls it off so so well.
Adrian Tchaikovsky can do no wrong. Service Model is an utter triumph of fun sci-fi with an added edge of things being a liiiiittle too close to home. Told entirely from the perspective of Charles, a personal valet robot who embarks on quite the journey.
Charles at the start of the book is a very unintentionally humorous robot, and his observations of the world around him are so very naive. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book where he’s interacting with other robots who are following their routines, and the lack of human interaction is messing with their systems. A particular favourite was the detective and doctor robots, it was for me the first realisation of just how funny this book can be.
Hello book that involves court politics but is so easy to follow & I mean that as the biggest compliment ever. I’m forever getting lost in court politic books and while this one isn’t really set in a court at any point it’s all about assassinating the God King so it’s basically court politics, you get me?
Read Evocation when you want a character-focussed, slow-burn romance with a arcane backdrop. While the plot is present Evocation is far, far more about the evolution of David, Rhys and Moira’s relationship, with a special mention for how David and Moira’s friendship, and eventual relationship grows. The plot is really just a backdrop for our trio to bond, and while I did enjoy the plot it’s quite a slow mover until the very last pages where it suddenly concludes in just a few pages.
What’s better than a cover reveal? Three cover reveals in one! Angry Robot have created a gorgeous set of covers for A Betrayal of Storms, A Kingdom of Lies and A Deception of Courts by Ben Alderson. Let’s take a closer look:
I knew I’d love this book. From the very first page Adrian had me hooked and I carved out reading time so I had to put Mushroom Blues down as little as possible. I was utterly enthralled.
I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand Myrrh kept me absolutely hooked throughout, I found myself staying up late to read just a biiiit more. Polly Hall is very, very good at writing hooks that will keep you searching for answers. On the other hand I felt like the ending fell a little flat, I just wanted things to come together a little more in respects to Myrrh and Cayenne’s stories.
A queer, madcap, friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers time travel romance with the future of the world at stake, this charming fantasy tale is sure to satisfy fans of Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree.
It isn’t often that an art book makes you sit down and read it cover to cover, but The Art of High on Life did just that. Including a tonne of stunning art and commentary The Art of High on Life takes you through the whole of the game from start to finish. If you’ve finished the game it feels a bit like a trip down memory lane, but with some extra discoveries along the way. If you’re new to High on Life I’d recommend dipping in and out of the art book as you progress through each bounty.
This book is an absolute riot. It starts with a gig that descends into madness and it never really lets up from there. The backdrop for the story is a Black Metal band trying to make their fame and fortune, and it soon turns into a story of love, loss, madness and chaos. The biggest draw for me was the potential Anti-Christ lead vocalists and it left me with more questions than answers (which I’m perfectly fine with).
Now this is weird fiction at its finest. If you’re here for a plot-driven story you’re going to be disappointed, but if you’re here for the weird and the wonderful with a plot that meanders like the river our characters are traversing you’ll have a great time.
This is by far the darkest of Arden’s books that I’ve read. Usually my issue with historical fiction/fantasy set in the World Wars is the inevitable romanticisation of the war and what people went through on the front lines. Arden instead shows the darker side, the people who didn’t want to fight, the ends people went to just to be able to survive, and the absolute horrors that those on the front lines faced. I found my heart breaking as I read The Warm Hands of Ghosts and I felt true horror at so much of what Arden shows.
