I’ve been a big fan of mythology my whole reading life. Didn’t matter what culture it came from, it was all good. This year, I’ve got to read some versions of my old favourites like the Norse Eschaton Cycle and Robin Hood, except they’ve had a dark twist that the legends deserve. Now, it’s the turn of Heracles (that’s right, […]
So, who’s heard of portal fantasy? I can’t honestly say I’ve ever read any before this year, and this is my second in a few months, having read and reviewed The New Magic by Joseph Malik a while back. There are similarities that were likely more to do with the sub-genre than anything else, so I’m not going to bother […]
I picked this one up ages ago, and it’s been languishing on my TBR ever since. Then a few days ago I heard it was a semi-finalist for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off, which is run by the venerable Mark Lawrence and has churned out some gems over it’s short life. Having read this, I can see this being […]
I’ve been meaning to get on the Ben Galley bandwagon for a while now, but my immense TBR has continued to hinder my attempts. When I got a chance at an ARC with a (hooray!) deadline, I finally got to check out one of the best self-published authors out there. So here goes – In the Arctian Empire, the gods […]
This is not your father (or mother)’s epic fantasy. In fact, this may be as far from epic fantasy as possible. This is more like a poster child for grimdark or sword and sorcery, and it is (mostly) glorious. Life in The Circle is hard. The people live in clans (think Germanic tribes), sometimes warring amongst themselves, but mostly just […]
Another day, another audiobook finished. This time we have CT Phipps’ homage to HP Lovecraft, and we run the gamut through much of HPL’s more popular stories, tying it all together nicely along the way. The Old Ones have returned and laid waste to the Earth, leaving a planet greatly changed from the one we know. Much of the Earth […]
It’s over. Nine glorious books (ten if you include Darkness Forged) and Ragnarok is here. This has been one of the finest series I’ve ever read, independent or otherwise, and it’s been a pleasure to be on board as a beta reader for the last half of it. All the characters are back, and the stories are brought to their […]
You may (or may not) remember I wrote a review for Darkstorm, the precursor to Darkmage, a while back. As far as I know (yell at me if I’m wrong), Darkmage was actually written (or at least published) before Darkstorm, so this is essentially book one, and Darkstorm is book 0.5. I liked Darkstorm, but most of the first 70% […]
I’ve been meaning to read some of this author’s stuff for a while now, but the weight of my TBR always pushed it back. Needless to say, when Netgalley gave me the chance to check out his latest, while also applying a deadline, I was more than chuffed. And it’s a good book, to boot. The story is told from […]
