Synopsis: Bastard. Killer. Husband. Father. His wife cold in the ground, and two young boys to feed, Wil Cutter turns to what he knows: Violence. But a bounty is never just a bounty, and blood is never spilled in drops. Forced to ever more violent acts, he’ll have to ask himself: Is Hell too far […]
Book Review
Review: The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Synopsis Thor broke the sword Tyrfing to save the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that binds earth, heaven and hell. Now the elves need the weapon for their war against the trolls. Only Scafloc, a human kidnapped and raised by elves, can hope to persuade Bolverk the ice-giant to make Tyrfing whole again. But Scafloc […]
Review: Sistah Samurai by Tatiana Obey
Synopsis: Afro Samurai meets The Sword of Kaigen in this anime-inspired novella This is no revenge story. I ain’t got time for that. I’ve got errands to run and things to do and barely enough time to make it home before sundown. I don’t care why folks are going around stealing ink. I don’t care […]
Review: The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King
Synopsis John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit. It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from […]
Charlies Top Reads of 2023
Seriously we can only choose 10? Given the unfeasibly difficult task of narrowing down my ten best books from this year was no easy task. 2023 really was the year of indie books for me, that’s not intended as a slight to traditional published books. Just that I have been spoilt for choice with the […]
Review: Death’s Beating Heart (The War Eternal Series #5) by Rob J. Hayes
Synopsis The final book in The War Eternal series. Break Eternity. Sirileth has broken the world. The ground bleeds, the seas rage, the skies are torn asunder. Eska will not let her daughter face the consequences alone, but can she help without donning the mantle of the Corpse Queen once more? And will the people […]
Review: Cold As Hell (Black Badge Series #1) by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle
Synopsis In the West, there are worse things to fear than bandits and outlaws. Demons. Monsters. Witches. James Crowley’s sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good. He didn’t choose this life. No. He didn’t choose life at all. Shot […]
Review: Elder Epoch (Gunmetal Gods Series #3) by Zamil Akhtar
Synopsis The protector of the land is dead. A blood plague infests the soil and sea, eldritch angels vie for dominion over hearts and souls, and holy war boils between four gunpowder empires. The line between truth and falsehood, the righteous and the wicked, hope and annihilation is buried deep beneath blood-soaked sand. Review By […]
Review: The Darkness in the Pines (A Hell in Haven Prequel Novella) by David Green
Synopsis Before ‘The Devil Walks In Blood’ and ‘One Life Left’, Nick Holleran, Haven’s one and only Paranormal Detective, finds himself drawn into a dangerous game destined to change his second life completely. Treading water after being brought back from the brink of death, and finding his perception of reality altered forever, Nick is simultaneously […]
Review: Kraken Rider Z ( Kraken Rider Z Series #1) by David Estes and Dyrk Ashton
Synopsis If there’s one thing dragons fear, it’s a kraken. Even lowly hull-scrubber Zee Tarrow knows that. Like everyone on the island kingdom of Tosh, he grew up frightened by fables and horrible tales of the great beasts of the deep. It seems an odd thing to impress upon the children of the realm, because–luckily […]
Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Synopsis Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defence of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the […]
Review: Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cage of Souls is a captivating work of speculative fiction of the highest order. A standalone that felt like an entire series in scope and imagination. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s world building and storytelling is off the charts in this outrageously entertaining story.