Iron Widow is an astonishing mash of everything that gets me excited about a novel – it’s giant, transforming mechs against an alien invasion. It’s one woman’s fight against a patriarchal society and certainly fits into the Handmaid’s Tale X Pacific Rim mould it’s been pitched as, but it’s so very much more. I’d dare say it’s got a pinch of The Way of Kings in there with reference to the Hundun Waste and the ultimate goal of liberating it. It’s a beauty of a novel and would resonate with comic, SFF fans everywhere.
Reviews
Review: Sinopticon by Xueting Christine Ni (Translator and Editor)
An incredible omnibus of Chinese Science Fiction compiled and edited by self-confessed geek, translator and author of From Kuanyin to Chairman Mao, Xueting Ni.
Review: Waffles and Pancake: Planetary-YUM by Drew Brockington
Synopsis Inspired by his beloved CatStronauts series, Drew Brockington is going back in time to when everyone’s favorite Catstronaut, Waffles, was a kitten! Fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Elephant & Piggie will love this fun, cat-tastic early graphic novel series. One very special Saturday, Dad-Cat decides to take Waffles and his sister Pancake to the […]
Review: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson
Far from the Light of Heaven is an action-packed murder mystery-cum-science fiction space voyage. It reminded me so much of the movie Sunshine, with a dab of Leviathan Wakes; it’s nail-biting, intelligent and heavens damned moreish.
Review: Fit for Consumption by Steve Berman
Fit for Consumption contains 13 tales – I hope that number was deliberate. They are all genuinely short stories, usually coming in somewhere around the 10 – 15 page mark, with just one story reaching 40 pages. It’s refreshing as sometimes with short story collections you get one really long (for a short story) tale that seems out of place. Not here. They’re all the perfect length that each time you pick the book up you’ll find yourself finishing at least one of the stories.
Monster Hunter International (#1 & #2) by Larry Correia
Monsters are real. But Monster Hunting is [semi] privatized. Enter Monster Hunter International (MHI)! Not all worlds need to be rich and fancy. Sometimes the solution is as simplistically elegant as picking up a gun and shooting a monster in the head. The author describes this as “a conglomeration of B-Movie stereotypes but tackled from the perspective tactical realism” and it’s just that.
Review: Shackled Fates (The Hanged God #2) by Thilde Kold Holdt
Shackled Fates is the second volume in the Hanged God trilogy, the story that carries right on from the first. Right back into the action, right back into the tale; the bard strums his guitar and continues the fireside tale of Vikings, their gods, and the impending final battle. Holdt effortlessly writes with a voice that’s whispered from ear to ear, passed down through the histories and into the story we have in front of us; with face-paced action, large-scale battles, and whispers in the wind, we’re transported through the Nine Worlds again on a story that promises to change the fate of them all.
Review: Priest of Bones (War for the Rose Throne #1) by Peter McLean
Following the story as told/written by Tomas Piety in first person, the reader is met with a matter of fact recounting of events that reveals a character who is choosing to share his story, while also keeping some of the details to himself. This is all done while commenting on it all in a manner that, I don’t want to say is bleak, cause it’s not really that, more like with very few fucks left to give and heavily influenced by the protagonist’s principles. This sort of unreliable narrator is the kind that fascinates me the most, especially because when done well, and I’d argue that McLean did it brilliantly, it reveals more about the characters themselves than what they’re actually telling the reader. At the same time, this makes for a fast moving story that doesn’t waste time on world building through long expositional paragraphs, but rather only focuses on the relevant details and events.
Draigon Weather (The Legacies of Arnan #1) by Paige L. Christie
Synopsis Draigon Weather The brutal, drought-bringing heat that arises from the colossal, near-mythical Draigon, is a fell portent, heralding the doom of a striving woman. When Leiel’s mother is Sacrificed to the Draigon to relieve the terrible drought, Leiel is marked by the shame brought to her family. She must leave school, relegated to a new […]
Review: The Fall (The Bound and the Broken #0.5) by Ryan Cahill
Cahill doesn’t hold back in depicting every exploding wall, dragon roar, and arterial spray of blood. The Fall is just completely epic and awesome.
Series Review: The Age of Madness by Joe Abercrombie
The Age of Madness series consists of three books: A Little Hatred, The Trouble with Peace, The Wisdom of Crowds. It is also part of Joe Abercrombie’s First Law universe, but it is hard for me to place exactly when this story takes place in relation to the rest because it was a very long time ago that I read them. Suffice to say, though, The Age of Madness fits perfectly within Abercrombie’s grimdark theater.
Review: The Living Waters (Weirdwater Confluence #1) by Dan Fitzgerald
The Living Waters is the first in a new duology from Dan Fitzgerald, the author of The Maer Cycle trilogy of books. I haven’t read his other series, but they are now definitely being shuffled closer to the top of my TBR, as The Living Waters grabbed ahold of my heart from the first page and didn’t let go. It’s a story bursting at the seams with adventure, wonder, and heart, and it’s one that has catapulted itself to the top of my favorite reads this year.