October Review Round-up

With the Review Round-up posts to plan to make a monthly review round-up based on the books that I have read in those months, since this blog is about one month old this will be the first round-up post. 

In October I have read about 20 books minimum, and to my pleasure they were all great. I haven't come around a book lately that did not met up with my expectations and some even exceeded them.
Genre wise I have read books from urban fantasy, supernatural, young adult, historical fiction, epic fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. To list all the books it would be to big of a post so I want to just highlight a few that I found particularly enjoyable.

My top 5 of favorite book of October are:

1. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

2. MetaWars: Fight for the Future by Jeff Norton

3. The Kings Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells

4. The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick

5. Maria and the Devil by Graham Thomas

1. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair is the first book in the Thursday Next series written by Jasper Fforde. After finishing the The Woman Who Died a Lot this summer I really wanted to read the series from the start to get to know who everything started. In The Eyre Affair, I found on of the best reads that I had so far. Mainly due to the daring idea that Jasper Fforde introduced with The Eyre Affair, combining many elements like sci-fi, history, humor, thriller and detective, in a very engaging manner. Combining everything to with a great main protagonist: Thursday Next, who definitely has a mind of her own and does not mind telling other about her opinions in a humorous and witty manner. With The Eyre Affair I definitely got a glimpse of what the series has to offer. This book should be made compulsory reading material.

Read the full review here

2. MetaWars: Fight for the Future by Jeff Norton

I got into contact with Jeff Norton via Goodreads, I firstly didn't know whether to ask Jeff for reviewing his book, since I didn't quite know what to expect, but I was surely glad that I did!!

MetaWars: Fight for the Future is a combination of many great concepts which Jeff Norton translated into a young adult book. But even for adults like me you get the idea that there is much more to it that just meets the young readers mind. The world that Jeff Norton created in MetaWars combining a escapism with dystopian, is very rich and puts you to thinking whether we might go their sooner or later. Even putting the main protagonist, Jonah, for the task to choose between the Millennials or the Guardians, created a compelling story. It is definitely recommended for the younger and older readers. 
Which side are you on?

Read the full review here

3. The Kings Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells

Similarly to MetaWars I got into contact with Rowena via Goodreads and she kindly provided the review copies of The Kings Bastard and Besieged. Although they are both great reads I can only highlight one here. What I mostly liked about The Kings Bastard was the divided courtly politics in Rolens court, where even the king and queen have different opinions and have their favorite children - and where two of the children are a bit on the outside of the family. Next to the politics, betrayal, lies and action have their own way on the story. But next to these three things there is also a obscure magical power called Affinity which has its own influence into the storyline. Even if you are of royal blood you are not free of the consequences. And finally there is a great integration of a spy into the court of Rolen that leaves you clueless.. The Kings Bastard in the end a well rounded story and a great first book in the series of King Rolen's Kin. It is a recommendation for everyone who likes Epic Fantasy.

Read the full review here

4. The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick
Ok, a western inspired steampunk. could it be any better? Yes, with using an introduced alternate history setting! The Buntline specials takes place in a alternate wild west, featuring Indians, cowboys, technology and robots. it shows a nice combination of several elements to create an interesting story. In the background there is Edison thinking up new ingenious way to help the town of Tombstone and where Buntline carries them out. I first thought this story would revolve around Buntline and Edison but it goes a totally different way. Instead it focusses on Doc Holliday of who I actually never heard before. The introduction of the alternate history elements only became apparent to me at the end of the story but looking at the characters there is a humorous take on this historical event. Especially Doc Holliday was portrayed in a humorous way together with Johnny Ringo. If you are into steampunk and want to read something fresh other than the normal Victorian setting I present for you "The Weird Wild West"!

Read the full review here

5. Maria and the Devil by Graham Thomas
When I was introduced to Hats off to Brandenburg earlier this summer I was more than pleasantly surprised by the concept behind the book and more than impressed by how the book was written and the wonderful plot twists in the end. And so I got to chat with Graham over mail and in an interview and got to know that more books were due to be released this year. Which is among others Maria and the Devil. Graham informed by that this was not like HOTB but totally different. A supernatural western. And I liked it. I could see similar writing styles as in HOTB but there was a certain uniqueness to Maria and the Devil. I really grew into Maria herself, she was shown in such a good, engaging and compelling way. On top of it was a nice storyline where Maria is waiting for her husband The Devil (a real persona) but by a serendipitous event a band of gunslingers stumble upon her home who want to exact revenge on The Devil. It is by this band of gunslingers that the story gets interesting and unpredictable. And even more on top of everything is the supernatural undercurrent that resonates calmly in the beginning and begins to resonate more as the ending occurs its creepy, especially with the Hobo Spider, Graham can definitely talk you into arachnophobia. With Maria and the Devil, Graham proves to be an author to watch in the future!

Read the full review here

And authors, if your books aren't mentioned in the top doesn't mean that they are bad, but with the amount of books that I read each month I do have to make a selection, sorry if you book is not listed here!

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I still have a lot of books on the plank and I am looking forward to all of them!
I do not have a particular reading order but I choose the books on a random base. I am looking forward to every book that I have pending of course, otherwise I would not have them for reviewing.

I want to say thanks again to each author/publicist who has send me books so for or of which they are still in the post!