A.G. Slatter - All the Murmering Bones

Audiobook Review

This... is a weird one.

Take some dark, gothic fantasy elements, combine it with a family drama and a self-apreciating voice, and tell a tale that moves towards and touches upon horror territory.

Lauren Dane - Goddess with a Blade

Audiobook Review

A hardboiled detective / supernatural investigator femme fatale, doing her thing in Sin City? Promising…

Or, perhaps, not. Few action scenes, some romantic stuff, cock sucking, more access scenes, repeat ad nauseum. If you like sex scenes in your books, sprinkled with some Vampire hormones then go and read this. I gave up after a couple of chapters. Explicit sex scenes every other chapter just ain’t rocking my boat. If it’s yours then there are at least 5 sequels to work your way through.

Craig Alanson - Ascendant / Transcendent / Deceptions

Review.

Ascendant tells the story of young Koren, who actually is the most powerful wizard ever, and doesn't know. Add a demon taking its time to invade our lands, and some opposing kingdoms in in-fighting noble families, and you have an acceptable (young adult) fantasy series.

Richard Kadrey - Sandman Slim 2 - Kill the Dead

Audiobook Review

You can't kill the dead. Well, it turns out you can. With a bit of training.

You know what's worse though than killing dead? Next to being kicked out of hell and finding out you're not entirely human? That must be staying a virgin after meeting your favorite porn star, but I guess that's only a problem if your name is Jason Stark.

Alan Dean Foster - Catalyst

Review.

Catalyst, or Cat-a-lyst, stayed on the shelf for two years before I read it. I was reading quite a bit at the time. (You wouldn't be able to tell, now would you?)

Eager for adventure, movie star Jason Carter tags along on a treasure hunt in Peru where he and his friend discover a lost civilization intent on conquering the world

Rachel Aaron - Part-Time Gods / Night Shift Dragons (2020)

Audiobook Review.

Part-Time Gods and Night Shift Dragons are both nice, 'uppety' 'peppy reads'. Some action, some magic, some romance. These are parts 2 and 3 of the DFZ series, which started with Minimum Wage Magic, and take place in the same universe as the Heartstriker series.

Kalayna Price - Alex Craft 1 - Grave Witch

Audiobook Review

Dabbling in romantasy lately, are we?

Well. It's only for scientific purposes. And if the story is half-decent, then why not? I can always skip the random porn inserts that seem to haunt modern day fantasy novels...

Lindsay Buroker - Dragon Blood Omnibus

Audiobook Review

There's a whole subset of romance novels in fantasy settings, which all seem to follow a certain pattern. This is one of those.

Sometimes they stand out (Rachel Aaron's DFZ series, for example) and sometimes they are 'pulpish' (like this one). Great if it's your thing, but Lindsay Buroker can do better, as she proved with her Dark Currents series.

E. William Brown - A Perilous Waif / Fimbul Winter

Book Review

I read two different, very different books by the same author. At first I wasn't even sure if it was the same author as these appear to be intended for very different audiences. Why he choose to publish both under the same pen name is a mystery to me.

Because Perilous Waif is fantastic, whilst Fimbulwinter is a piece of shite.

Christopher Nuttall - Schooled in Magic - Little Witches / The Right Side of History (2020....)

Audiobook Review.

Two typical Schooled in Magic novels, both relative short, and the plot meanders a bit without going anywhere. I fear Nuttall's a bit done with this universe. Power creep has made the heroine too big to fall.

As for these two books: they should have been one. Perhaps that would have redeemed both a bit.

Casey White - Silvertongue

Audiobook Review

Last year I was (trying to) do a review per week, and haven't kept to my schedule when 2024 started... So, let's use a week or two to catch up. First target: Casey White.

Casey White is an independent self publishing author, with a number of novels to her name. I can't figure out how many, as there are multiple authors with the same name / alias 😎

Netflix - The Witcher

Series Review.

Netflix doesn't get it right all the time. In fact, there's lots of rubbish, and Netflix added their fair share to it.

Still, sometimes there's just something that's worth binging. Take, for example, the first season of The Witcher.

Richard Kadrey - Sandman Slim 1 - Sandman Slim

Audiobook Review

Sandman Slim is everything Bobby Dollar tries to be... hardboiled, noir-styled, supernatural detective. It's moody, dark, first-person present tense, and the hero is just as much a jerk as you and me... if not even more so.

Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon / Fire and Hemlock

Book Review

Today, that's Archer's Goon by Diana Wynn Jones.

Somebody once told me it's a parody on Zelazny's Amber series, but I do not entirely agree. Well, there were some similarities, like all those ultra-powerful brothers and sisters quarreling and plotting all the time. There's also the main character who lost his memory, but that is where the similarity ends. And there are enough other things in the book make you smile. Not bad... not bad at all.

Alex Archer - Rogue Angel 7 - God of Thunder

Audiobook Review

Simple one shot stories, with sword wielding Anjaa bashing another few heads. I do hope to see some recurring characters, some continuity.

If everything is just one-shot (which it probably is) I might start to suffer from the Next Generation effect... ie. everyone dies, but is back at the start of the next episode. (Unless they wear a red shirt 😉)

I know. False hope.

Christoper Nuttall - Fists of Justice / The Gordian Knot / ...

Review.

Nuttall continues.

The guy is productive, I'll give him that. He either makes a lot of money, or needs to write to just come by. I suspect the latter 😊 because we all cannot be like Stephen King 😌

Lindsay Buroker - The Emperor's Edge / Dark Currents / Deadly Games / ...

Review.

I like my eBooks good, and my audiobooks cheap. Finding a decent title cheap is sometimes a challenge though, so The Emperor’s Edge was a nice discovery. I’ve listened to the first 5 books thus far, and they are quite enjoyable.

Steven Brust - Taltos / Yendi / Jhereg / Teckla / ...

Review.

Time to check out Vlad Taltos... I'm reading the books in chronological order, not the sequence Brust wrote them. At least they were published in a different sequence... There are some inconsistencies in the series, but they don't hurt the overall plot all too much.

I've not yet read all the novels in this series. I need to do some re-reading and then try the newer ones.

Lisa Shearin - Raine Benaris 1 - Magic Lost, Trouble Found (2007)

Audiobook Review.

The cover suggests a fantasy novel, and yeah, it is. Raine Benaris is a seeker (a combination of sleuth / retriever / artifact blood hound) who finds herself involved in the search for a millennia old artifact that might lead the goblins to victory. Make that victories.

Alexandra Bracken - Passenger 2 - Wayfarer

Audiobook Review + Alexandra Bracken

This is the sequel to Passenger. It's an interesting read, and the main character appears a bit stronger than before, willing to fight. Her counterpart and love interest ends up with the most important power in these two books, purely by (bad) luck.