Category: Fantasy

Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge 

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  This is a remarkable novel. Of the three CILIP Carnegie nominees I've read, this is my clear front runner. And I'm saying that having read Patrick Ness! Before I review it, however, I'm going to play a game with my sixteen year-old stepson, whose birthday it is today. Despite his protestations, he is going… Continue reading Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge 

Tinder, Sally Gardner

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This is the first of my reviews of this year's CILIP Carnegie Medal nominees. Well, my second. Patrick Ness' More Than This I read back in August - see here for my review - six months before the shortlist was announced. And to be honest, it will take some beating!Anyway, this is my first knowing CILIP Carnegie read. And… Continue reading Tinder, Sally Gardner

Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson

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 I've been considering reading this for a while.  I do like Sanderson's world building, especially in the Mistborn series; I also have a penchant for superheroes, dating back to a misspent youth. Sanderson's take on superheroes was appealing and tempting, especially as the sequel to Steelheart, entitled Firefight, came out in January this year. And yet... For… Continue reading Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson

My Swordhand is Singing, Marcus Sedgwick

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Sedgwick has been on my radar for a few years now, creeping into the shortlists for the Carnegie Medal regularly. I'd previously read his White Crow, and Midwinterblood. The first of those I had thoroughly enjoyed, bouncing between time zones; the second was breathtaking, tracing echoes of a story back through generations and encompassing wartime escapes,… Continue reading My Swordhand is Singing, Marcus Sedgwick

Death Bringer, Derek Landy

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Death Bringer. An apt title to read this week as I have struggled with another vile bug. Or possibly the same vile bug that I've had since Christmas and never really shifted. The Death Bringer virus. Or perhaps just book six in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. I lost faith a little with Mortal Coil and… Continue reading Death Bringer, Derek Landy

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

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Woohoo my first finished novel of 2015 and a start to my Reading Challenge! This book was not what I expected. There was something very evocative and intriguing about both the title and cover - as well as the photographs inside. Almost all of which, according to the note appended to the novel, are genuine… Continue reading Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

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Ahhhhhh..... Some books are like taking a duvet day in December with a warm fire burning in the corner. And hot chocolate. Even though I don't like hot chocolate, the idea of hot chocolate. And in the arms of someone who loves you. These books are comforting. Warming. Safe. And so it is with Good… Continue reading Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch

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I've been reading some weighty books recently. Miéville. Ali Smith. Haruki Murakami. All brilliant. But sometimes, just sometimes, a slightly lighter read is called for: fun, engaging, escapist. And Aaronovitch delivers exactly that in his Peter Grant novels. An authentic police procedural with an engaging first person narrator whose wit is warm and genuine. With… Continue reading Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch

The Scar, China Miéville

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Miéville is one of my favourite authors: acutely political, wildly imaginative and linguistically sparkling. I discovered him through Perdido Street Station and adored the sprawling city of New Crobuzon: mercantile, rapacious, brutal but utterly compelling. It is a city populated by renegade scientists, scarab-headed khepri, eagle faced garuda, the amphibian vodyanoi, the cactacae and brutally… Continue reading The Scar, China Miéville

Half A King, Joe Abercrombie

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I've been meaning to get round to reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy for a while but haven't managed to find the time recently. Work. Children. Babies. Goatee growing. You know: the things that take up your time. But with the summer holidays coinciding with a new book, Half A King, I thought I'd… Continue reading Half A King, Joe Abercrombie

Summer Reading

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With a week to go before the summer holidays, my reading list is starting to grow. Currently queued up on the ereader I have the following: These are crime thrillers penned, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, by John Banville who wrote The Sea. I was particularly intrigued by The Black-Eyed Blonde as a new Raymond… Continue reading Summer Reading

Words Of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

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Fantasy is a difficult genre to keep fresh. Tolkien looms as an edifice; George R. R. Martin, similarly. Sanderson is a fresh voice within that genre: like Martin, he eschews the vague mystical nature of Tolkien's magic and fantasy races; unlike Martin, the magic is a central facet of his world-building and he eschews the… Continue reading Words Of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson

The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker

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There are some books - most books probably - which I read, finish and review pretty much straight away. They are like those meals which are fine, tasty and enjoyable but which you move on from. Some, however - stretching the metaphor perhaps to breaking point - I like to savour more, to digest, before… Continue reading The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker

Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett

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You can't go wrong with Pratchett: he never fails to offer up decent stories with a sparkle of wit, a smattering of engaging characters and a bucketload of humanity - in all its various forms and species! And Raising Steam continues the pattern: here, Ankh-Morpork's journey towards modernity is quite literally driven by the arrival… Continue reading Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett

Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch

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This is the fourth in Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series - see previous blog posts for my thoughts on Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground. There is a different feel to this book from the previous ones and, to my mind, a welcome change. There is a greater focus on the quest… Continue reading Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch

Zom-B, Darren Shan

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Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can - sometimes - get some reception... I bought this for my son and wanted to cast my eye over it before he read it. He is only twelve and these are zombies. My ears still ring with his… Continue reading Zom-B, Darren Shan

The Long Earth, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

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Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can - sometimes - get some reception... I can imagine the genesis of this novel. It seems to have started as an idea, a concept. A damned good idea but very much an idea rather than a novel. I… Continue reading The Long Earth, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

A Feast For Crows, George R. R. Martin

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Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can - sometimes - get some reception... I teach. Summer holidays are great times to read. I expect to get a lot read so I thought this was an apt time for the next instalment of Martin's Song of… Continue reading A Feast For Crows, George R. R. Martin

Neil Gaiman and mothers

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What is it with Neil Gaiman and mothers? I am in the midst of listening to the wonderful The Ocean at the End of the Lane - personally, I think that this book is going to be a clear favourite from Gaiman who is already one of my favourite authors! - read by Gaiman himself.… Continue reading Neil Gaiman and mothers

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

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Fantasy is my (not so) secret (not so) guilty pleasure in reading. Fantasy introduced me to reading through The Hobbit and Tolkien. Fantasy was my escape from teenage tedium ... my family was far too middle class to have angst! And I still enjoy a healthy dollop of fantasy, as readers of this blog will… Continue reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder

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Some books are born great. Some books achieve greatness. Some books have greatness thrust upon them. This book is not one of them. It's not great. It's not beautifully written. It's not literary. But it is immensely fun! Mark Hodder propels us into Victorian London: the search for the source of the Nile, Stanley, Livingstone,… Continue reading The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder

Mortal Coil, Derek Landy

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I have been enjoying this series. They were nothing exciting, nothing terribly original. But they were fun. They were light hearted. They were fast-paced and witty. But niggles and worries are starting to mar my enjoyment of them now. The worse elements are coming to the fore and the books are becoming increasingly dark, violent… Continue reading Mortal Coil, Derek Landy

Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick

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This is my second foray into Marcus Sedgwick's writing: White Crow, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal a couple of years ago was the other. And this is by far superior, more beautiful, more powerful, more poignant. This book is shortlisted for the Cilip Carnegie 2013 and tells the tales of Eric and Merle. Tales. Tales… Continue reading Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick

Playing With Fire, Derek Landy

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Reading this immediately after the first in the series, Skulduggery Pleasant, is interesting: it highlights both some flaws and some developments. In terms of plot, there's a sense of déjà vu from the first book: a general from the previous war escapes from prison; he sets about acquiring an artefact to bring back ancient Gods,… Continue reading Playing With Fire, Derek Landy

Skulduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy

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I read Landy's The Faceless Ones - the third in the Skulduggery Pleasant series - and, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it: a smart and sassy heroine; an enigmatic and intriguing (possibly anti-) hero; a wide range of engaging characters. So I have taken the fact that the current seventh book, The Kingdom… Continue reading Skulduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy