The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is a mix of political intrigue, intimate character-work and vast, effective world-building; it was a joy to read and would certainly appeal to those fantasy fans who don’t necessarily need their action upfront and overwhelming, for its pages are etched with rich characters and a complex storyline.
Head of Zeus
Review: The House with the Golden Door (The Wolf Den #2) by Elodie Harper
Synopsis: The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glamorous yet perilous . . .Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the Wolf Den, the city’s most notorious brothel, but now her survival depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought. At […]
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.
Review: Equinox by David Towsey
Towsey has created a deeply atmospheric and captivating book that brought together the aging inspector Adamat from McClellan’s Powdermage trilogy, the ambience and eerie feel of the tv series The Alienist, as well as that near constant sense of the uncanny present throughout Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman comics. Talk about a right mix huh?
Guest Post: An Introduction to The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu
Welcome to Dara! This series took up the bulk of my time and creative energy over a ten-year period. I learned a lot about myself as a writer, as a father, as a husband, as a grandchild, as a technologist, as a lawyer, and as a person. I can’t wait to take you and other […]
Review: Disappearance of a Scribe by Dana Stabenow (Eye of Isis #2)
‘Stabenow brings Alexandria’s Hellenistic period to life… She is now as much at home in ancient Egypt as she is in the Alaskan wilderness’ Publishers Weekly ALEXANDRIA, 47 BC. Cleopatra – seventh of her name, avatar of the goddess Isis, ruler of the Kingdom of Egypt – watches over her city. The war is over, […]
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.
Eleni’s Top Reads of 2021
Hello as always dear reader or listener,
If you’ve been around me and my writing/tweeting even a tad throughout this past year, odds are you’ve seen me happily ramble about any one of the books or series on this list. I could talk about what I loved from each of these for dayyyys, that is a known fact, but for this post I thought I’d keep it to cover extravaganza and one or two quotes from each. Needless to say that I rec every one of these with eyes closed but if you’re feeling like you need more convincing, I’ll link my reviews (if I’ve written one) with each title, otherwise if you just want a quick chat about them, you know where to find me!
Guest Post: Horror as the Great Misunderstood by A. M. Shine
The horror genre has always been haunted by misconceptions. It is, I believe, that crimson jewel hidden amidst the cobwebs and the shadows, discovered by many but not by all. In the realm of literature, it is an exceptionally potent word. Regardless of whether an author has written a ground-breaking coming-of-age novel or the greatest […]
Review: The Watchers by A. M. Shine
The Watchers is the fantastic, heart-thumping, page-turning debut from A. M. Shine that really left me no choice but to keep reading – to finish the tale at a pace, running from the shrieks in the night. This book gave me major Cabin in the Woods x Lost vibes: feels like they’re in limbo somewhere. The mystery is different, strange, because there’s rules and they know what hunts them … they just can’t see them at all. There’s but one warning for you before you read on, reader: Stay in the light.
Map Reveal & Interview: A Clockwork River by J.S. Emery
Book info A Clockwork River by J.S. Emery Release Date: 14th October, 2021Page Count: 802Published by: Head of Zeus, an Ad Astra BookHead of ZeusAmazonBook DepositoryGoodreads Synopsis A sister searches for her missing brother as a new power rises amid the splendour and the squalor of a once great city. Time is running out for the […]
Review: The Hood (Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet #2) by Lavie Tidhar
The Hood delivers myth and magic with a splatter of sweary violence and comedy in all the right places in what is one of the most unique and masterful reads of 2021.