An avid sci-fi and fantasy reader who sometimes does historical fiction or even mainstream.
You might notice that most of my reviews are 5 stars. That's because if I start reading a book that doesn't engage me, I stop reading it. Life is too short. I've realized that it's not fair to review a book I haven't read and nobody really needs to hear why I didn't get into a book especially when they might like it.
My goals with reviews are to be brief and give other potential readers an idea of why they might like the book. I leave it to the marketing people and other reviewers to describe the plots.
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Dinosaurs and portals, and a girl who can find both in the latest book in …
When Seanan McGuire started this series, I was blown away that she had the brilliant idea of addressing what happens to the children who come back to Earth after being in magical worlds. And blown away by how well she did it.
Now she is nine books in and still finding new and interesting stories for us.
New York Times bestselling author Garth Nix’s exciting adult debut: a new collection including all …
Nix gave us a good taste in Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: Three Adventures but it is really wonderful to have all of these stories now. I firmly hope we get more because there is plenty more to learn about both Fitz and Hereford and the adventures they can have are limitless.
I'm someone who loves fantasy as well as military and naval fiction set in the 1700s and early 1800s and puppets. It's like Garth Nix created these stories just for me.
In June 14, 2007, the king and the prime minister of Sweden went missing from …
Completely fun.
If you're wondering if it's as good as The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and its sequel, I would say that it is.
Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with …
Adrian Tchaikovsky writes such different stories and in so many genres, that you probably should not assume that just because you've loved other things he's written, you'll love this.
But if you like a fantasy world with compelling characters and a variety of magical systems that are internally consistent but different from each other and cogent observations about bureaucracy and power, you will like this.
The second book, House of Open Wounds is out. The third, Days of Shattered Faith, is on pre-order right now. It would be all right with me if there are many, many more.
Join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical island, and a mysterious AI-driven …
Join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical …
This was a fast read but I think it is going to haunt me for a long time with its forecast of where we are heading with the ultra-rich, techbros and surveillance capitalism.
Two years ago, the Monochrome inquiry was set up to investigate the British secret service. …
It's not obvious for a long time how this story connects with Slough House. Which makes sense because I get the feeling that Mick Herron likes to discomfort his readers.
To fix the world they first must break it further.
Humanity is a dying breed, …
It seems that Adrian Tchaikovsky has a goal to write a stand out novel in every subgenre of science fiction there is.
I really enjoyed this post-apocalyptic novel about a robot valet who just wants to find someone he can work for.
This next part might be a spoiler: I have a feeling that Tchaikovsky read Daniel H. Wilson's How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion and incorporated my favourite tip which was to disguise yourself as a defective robot.
Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to …
I think that Malka Older has done a really good job of creating characters who think a bit differently than we do because of the world and time they live in.
And a good job of giving us an interesting story.
It feels like she has room to give us more, and I'm looking forward to it.
Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees …
A solid entry in the Slow Horses stable.
Tom Bettany, a British ex-spy crammed with dark skills, comes out of retirement when he …
If you haven't read any of the Slough House books, you could start here.
But it would probably be better to start with Slow Horses.
If you have read any of the Slough House books, you'll want to read all of them, and this more or less counts as one. So you have to read it and it will not let you down.
"London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one: Cover your arse. …
Not much to say except this completely maintains the excellence of the Slough House series. Bonus - we learn more about River.
An anonymous representative of the Devil, once a high-ranking Duke of Hell and now a …
Is it wrong that I prefer the KJ Parker books to the Tom Holt books even though it's the same author with a different name?
During this one, I clued in that Prosper's Demon, the narrator of Inside Man, is in the same world as Saevus Corvus and Orhan the engineer.
This is a fun read and it raises good questions for anyone who has ever pondered what it would mean for there to be an omniscient supreme being with a "plan" that is behind everything we experience.
Avoiding the lifestyle of his late gangster father by working as a clock repairman, Joe …
I don't know if this is steam punk, urban fantasy or what, but it's fun.
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always …
This is entirely as interesting and fun as all of Ann Leckie's previous books and it goes in directions that I'd never have expected from the others.
She is also gifted at writing aliens that are truly alien - just about incomprehensible to humans - and not just creatures that are basically like us but maybe a little angrier or something. Similarly her humans think differently from each other.