Book Review: Max Brook’s World War Z

Its very rare to find a peice of creative writing that goes beyond just being a clever use of words, structures and gimmicks that is worthy of commercial and literary success; and yet World War Z is just such a work. A great many people will be put off by the oral history (interview) format […]

Book Review: Camdeboo Nights by Nerine Dorman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars To relegate Camdeboo Nights to being a mere gothic romance would be unfair and inaccurate, although a romance between a vampire and a young woman is at the center of this tale. Despite its misleading cover, Camdeboo Nights is an urban fantasy novel mixing western superstitions with the more […]

Book Review: Rebel Elements

Jasmine Giacomo has envisaged a fantasy world that brings together diverse nations, with a rich history and a clever magic system that immediately put me in mind of the physical rituals demonstrated in the wonderful Avatar, the Last Airbender cartoon series. Giacomo uses her background in martial arts to combine hand-to-hand combat, with energy focusing […]

Book Review: Shawn Mihalik’s Flute Player

My rating: 2 of 5 stars The Flute Player is a whimsical fairytale set during the bombing of France during WWII. The story is split between a hospital and a village situated in a magical land that exists between reality and dreams. A young lady has had an accident and lies in a coma, whilst […]

Book Review: Mockingjay (Hunger Games)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Mockingjay is the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I started reading this trilogy back in September 2011 and have had this final part sitting on my kindle for nearly eight months. Its not that I didn’t want to read it right away. I wanted to draw out […]

Manga: The Enigma of Anime

Originally posted on Fabulous Realms:
‘Manga’ is now officially defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a ‘Japanese genre of cartoons, comic books and science fiction films, typically with a science fiction or fantasy theme (the Japanese definition is slightly different, but more on that anon). Since the days of Akira, quality Japanese animation has…

Book Review: Darrin Grimwood’s Destroy All Robots

A giant toy robot looms over a pair of terrified marines, overlaid with the legend ‘Destroy All Robots’. The kitsch cover art of Darrin Grimwood’s new novel matches the cheesy creature-feature opening with a ship pulling into the cove of a mystery island, marines pouring out onto the beach and steely-eyed General declaring ‘Destroy All […]

Book Review: Healer’s Touch by Deb E. Howell

Howell’s Healer’s Touch is an interesting twist on a stock fantasy character class. Instead of Healers being gentle and mild-mannered clerics, they are highly feared by the populace and coveted by military powers for their destructive abilities. Healer’s Touch title character, Llew is a street urchin who has suffered abandonment by both parents at a […]

Book Review: Nightingale by David Farland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nightingale is the first in a series of urban fantasy books by David Farland, bestselling author of the Runelord fantasy series and mentor to a whole new generation of bestselling genre writers. Nightingale is about a changeling boy named Bron Jones who has been raised through the social welfare […]

Book Review: Sean Benham’s Blope

Blope by Sean Benham My rating: 1 of 5 stars BLOPE is an sf story set in an alternate reality in which Taiwan (the Eternally Free Taiwan) is the world power, and its Emperor has won a big chunk of America in a Russian Roulette game against the US President. The Emperor decides to run […]