TL;DR Review: A cranky boomer gets dropped into a Fortnite-esque video game world…and you can imagine how poorly that goes! Synopsis: A death game where the prize isn’t power or money — it’s health insurance. + Insert coin to keep breathing. + To erase his crippling medical debt, 50-year-old Dave signs a contract that uploads […]
Book Review
SPFBO XI Review: Flint in the Bones (Norwich Map Runners #1) by Eva St. John
Synopsis In a city where history bites back, murder is just the beginning.Detective Eliza “Bish” Barnaby thought she’d left her home behind—along with its plague outbreaks, random time-shifts, and tendency to accidentally host people from the 1600s during breakfast. But when a dangerous practitioner escapes custody in London, Bish is forced back to Norwich, a […]
Violence and Vigilance: (Turesia Untamed Book 1) by David T. List
Synopsis: Violence & Vigilance is book one of Turesia Untamed, an epic fantasy series featuring an eternal vendetta, scars of grief and loss, untethered rage, and hope against all odds. Irdessa the Undying, a renowned arena fighter in Fohrvylda, has escaped imprisonment but at great cost. Broken and alone, she must outwit and outfight her […]
Review: Fire in the Hearth (Scars of Magic #2) by Steven Raaymakers
A stunning return to the Scars of Magic series, improving on just about everything while retaining the brutal survivalist tale of Esterra Stake.
Review: The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
Synopsis: Get cosy at The Faraway Inn, the YA fantasy from bestselling author of The Spellshop, Sarah Beth Durst. When Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s bed and breakfast for the summer, she’s shocked to find it run down rather than cosy. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn […]
Review: Mortedant’s Peril (The Trials of Irody Hasp #1) by R.J. Barker
Synopsis Irody can speak to the dead.But the living want him silenced. Mortedants can speak to the dead, and Irody Hasp is the greatest of them. Not that they’ll admit it. Or that anyone actually likes the Mortedants, in particular Irody. Nonetheless, Elbay is a city of tradition and it calls for Mortedants to attend […]
Review: Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee
Synopsis The Kaul siblings’ battle with rival clans reaches new heights in the heart-pounding continuation of the Green Bone Saga, an epic trilogy about family, honor, and those who live and die by the ancient laws of blood and jade. On the island of Kekon, the Kaul family is locked in a violent feud for […]
Review: Crownfall by Michael Vadney
Synopsis: The gritty underworld and razor-edged found family of Six of Crows collide with the mysterious magic and sweeping intrigue of The City of Brass, all against the vivid industrial backdrop of Arcane in Michael Vadney’s nobledark fantasy debut. Nearly a decade under the empire’s grip has left Burunt a troubled land. Kyndel Heim knows […]
Review: The Hunger of the Gods (Bloodsworn Saga #2) by John Gwynne
Synopsis: The Hunger of the Gods continues John Gwynne’s acclaimed Norse-inspired epic fantasy series, packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance Lik-Rifa, the dragon god of legend, has been freed from her eternal prison. Now she plots a new age of blood and conquest. As Orka continues the hunt for her missing son, the Bloodsworn sweep […]
Review: Abyss by Nicholas Binge
Synopsis Severance meets Lovecraft in this surreal tale of corporate horror and existential dread. Joe always had potential, but he doesn’t expect much, and he hopes that his new job as an admin assistant won’t expect much of him. But when he enters the offices of Ponos—a company he’s never heard of and knows nothing about—he […]
Review: Mushroom Blues (The Hoffman Report #1) by Adrian M. Gibson
Synopsis ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. Blade Runner, True Detective, and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick, and China Miéville in Adrian M. Gibson’s award-winning fungalpunk noir debut, now with a foreword from acclaimed author Nicholas Eames and six pieces of original interior artwork. Two years after a devastating defeat […]
SPFBO XI Review: Blackwater (Serpents and Shadows Book 1) by Emily Blakeney
Synopsis There is much to be done when the kingdom isn’t looking. Iona Strider is a ruthless pickpocket cursed with a disobedient shadow. Violent, too. Worse, she can’t remember who cursed her, or why. But she does know one with each passing day, her control of the shadow dwindles. In her relentless pursuit of answers, […]