Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books We Like :: Page 27

Thank you, oh thank you Literary Gods! I was terrified that BLOOD AND FEATHERS by Lou Morgan (Amazon) would turn out to be Twilight with angels standing in for vampires. Why read on with the threat of a sparkly-vampire guillotine hanging over my head? Well in case you hadn’t noticed I have become a big fan of Solaris Books. So far this is a publisher that has done little to steer me wrong. Oh and there is a quote by EBR favorite, Sarah Pinborough that goes a little like this…

“Dark, enticing and so sharp the pages could cut you, Blood and Feathers is a must-read for any fan of the genre.”
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I’m one of those guys that plays video games for the story. I much prefer a solid campaign over online multiplayer any day of the week. For this reason I am a huge advocate of tie-in fiction. I love to delve deeper into characters and events that are barely touched upon while playing the game. When I caught word of a prequel novel to the Darksiders franchise from THQ my interest was piqued. When I saw that it would be penned by Ari Marmell, author of the YA Widdershins series, I was sold. May I present you, DARKSIDERS: THE ABOMINATION VAULT (Amazon).

There exists a vault containing weapons of unimaginable power. The vault remains a legacy of the atrocities committed by the Nephilim. Of the four Horsemen, the last surviving Nephilim and protectors of the Balance, only Death is aware of its being. Now an unknown enemy strikes from the shadows, intent on acquiring the weapons stored within the vault and unleashing a wave of destruction across Creation. Only Death, with the assistance of his younger brother War, has the ability to prevent the coming catastrophe.
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The people who claim Gallantrybanks as their capitol don’t have American Idol. They don’t have rock stars. Sure there are the rich and famous, but the rich are the nobility. The American Idol of Gallantrybanks are the Trials, and their equivalent of famous rock stars are what they call tregadors.

The tregadors are troupes of four men who work together to create plays using magic–and not with simply images, but with smells, sounds, and whatever else is necessary to draw in the audience. If a young man is lucky enough to have the skill and the group, he can become famous and rich.
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Being a book critic is sort of like getting to experience Christmas at least once a week. Getting books from your favorite authors months before release is the gift that keeps on giving. Earlier this year I read GREATSHADOW by James Maxey (EBR Review), and despite my cynical reservations it blew me away. Now we have HUSH (Amazon), the much anticipated sequel that I had to wait excruciating months for. Months! With great excitement I started reading about the most original and colorful fantasy world I have encountered in recent memory.

HUSH picks up almost immediately after the events of GREATSHADOW. If you haven’t read GREATSHADOW please stop with this review and go buy it. Otherwise you may encounter some spoilers, though I will try to keep those to a minimum.
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In a perfect world reviewers would read books with no biases at all and based the work completely on its own merits and not compare it to other books, or other works of the same author.  No prejudices would sway the reviewer for good ill.  Wake up.  We don’t live in that world and perfect as we Elitists are, we still have our biases.  That being said I’m going to give you a review of SHADOWS IN FLIGHT (Amazon) the latest work in the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card.  Firstly let me lay my biases out for you so you can know understand where this review is coming from.
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Occasionally I read the back of a book and an idea grabs me.  Honestly that’s what I love about SFF books.  There are tons of great ideas out there and I love when an author plays with one and lets me tag along for the ride.  The idea of personal incorporation in the Unincorporated Series was one such idea.  China Miéville’s works are so jam-packed with ideas that he often tosses a few of them out on a single page just to toy with your mind.  I read the back cover of THE NIGHT SESSIONS by Ken MacLeod (Amazon) and the only thing I remembered from it was “What if robots found religion?”

Holy Crap! Wow! What an idea! What a great, big, wonderful, let’s explore this and all of its ramifications, kind of idea!  I was hooked.  I needed to read this book right away.
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When I heard that Paolo Bacigalupi was going to follow up his award-winning debut novel, THE WINDUP GIRL (EBR Review), with a smaller YA book, I was a little disappointed. I loved THE WINDUP GIRL. It was rich and intense. It was complicated and diverse. It was gritty and cruel and I thought it was great. How on earth could Bacigalupi… wow this review is going to be hard to write if I keep having to write his last name. Let’s go with Paolo from now on shall we? Anyway, how was Paolo going to match those strengths in a YA novel? Turns out I needn’t have worried.
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THE INHERITANCE & OTHER STORIES (Amazon) by Robin Hobb and her other pen name Megan Lindholm, is a compilation of old and new short works, several of which are set in previous worlds she’s built. Whether new to or experienced with Hobb/Lindholm novels (I’m particularly in love with her two Farseer Trilogies), this collection of short stories is worth reading on their own merit. She doesn’t fear to tread those difficult subjects that make us squirm or create people we can’t help to love… or hate.
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Continuing in the tradition of James Lovegrove‘s exceptional Pantheon series comes the e-novella AGE OF ANANSI (Amazon). This is a story that breaks away from the Military SF nature of the previous novels, though it does remain true to the thematic roots.

Dion Yeboah is a successful criminal defendant, a man with the keen ability to bend the law in his client’s favor but never break it. One day, however, the trickster god Anansi pays Dion a visit and offers him a deal he cannot refuse. At Anansi’s behest, Dion travels across the Atlantic to participate in a multi-pantheon trickster god free for all in the United States. The competition is stiff and if Dion wants to keep his head he will have to rely on his precision honed wits to overcome the likes of Loki, Set, and even the infamous Coyote.
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Let me be clear about something right away. HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL by D.J. Butler (Amazon), is not the next Great American Novel. It is the first in a series of novella-length works (Rock Band Fights Evil) that appeal to those of us who need a bit more Pulp Fiction in our reading.

HELLHOUND follows Mike Archuleta as he takes one last gig as a stand-in bassist for a band out in the middle of nowhere. Why is this his last gig? Because he plans suck-starting his gun after the set. Mike is a complete alcoholic, a pretty good bassist… and he is haunted by the ghost of his dead brother, Chuy. Naturally, whenever someone uses the phrase “one last [insert job here]” you know right away that things will go wrong.
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