The Book Plank

In a land where magic has been forgotten and peace has reigned for centuries, unrest is simmering. Three kingdoms battle for power… A princess must journey into enemy territory in search of a magic long-thought extinct. A rebel becomes the leader of a bloody revolution. A Sorceress discovers the truth about the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield. It’s the eve of war. Each must choose a side. Kingdoms will fall. My encounter with this book was actually pretty funny. I was browsing new, interesting books to read and this was one on my list. And then a few days passed and all of a sudden Puffin books dropped in the request for reviewing this book! What a coincidence! Falling Kingdoms is written by Morgan Rhodes, which is the young-adult writing pseudonym of paranormal romance author Michelle Rowen. Falling Kingdoms is her first venture into the young-adult genre and Falling Kingdoms is a very good entry. The story centers around three different kingdoms an...

Late last year I reviewed both Redlaw and Redlaw:Redeye , two books written by James Lovegrove with a vampire inspired urban fantasy theme. But before they were published, James Lovegrove had already written many other books, and his Pantheon series – also published by Solaris -  has always been high up in my to-read list. I am a huge fan of deity-inspired books and although there are quite a few on the market I haven’t seen any others which place a heavy emphasis on the military aspect. The Age of Ra starts off with quite the military scene, showing the main protagonist, David, involved in a heated battle and argument. Already from this start on it is noticeable that the universe in which this story takes place is unique and a little out of the ordinary. The tone is really set with everything revolving around the Egyptian pantheons. There is a division among the countries, where some are followers of Osiris, others of Set and again others for Nephthys. The p...

March 14, 2003. In Kuwait, American forces are lock and loaded for the invasion of Iraq. In Paris, a cover agent is close to cracking a terrorist cell. And just north of the equator, a sailboat manned by a drug runner and a pirate is witness to the unspeakable. In one instant, all around the world, everything will change. A wave of inexplicable energy slams into the continental United States. America as we know it vanishes. As certain corners of the globe erupt in celebration, others descend into chaos, and a new, soul-shattering reality is born. Without Warning is next to The Aylesford Skull one of the kick-off books of this years Titan Books line up. Though both books are completely different in set up and genre they both add a lot of value to the line up of the growing list of Titan repertoire. Later this spring for both series the last two books will also be published, and if they are just as good as the predecessors, Titan Books is in for a good year! Witho...

It is the summer of 1883 and Professor Langdon St. Ives – brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer – is at home in Aylesford with his family. However, a few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay; the crew murdered and pitched overboard. In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull. The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives. When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race to London in pursuit… There are many things that keep my interests up in the fantasy genre and one of them is the sub genre steampunk. Last year I read a few books that featured this setting in a wild and flashy display. And to my pleasure there was a review request for The Aylesford Skull by James P. Blaylock and on the cover it mentioned “Steampunk legend”, this got my hopes up high. Looking furthe...

Behind the king’s life stands the menacing Protector, and beyond him lies the Protector’s Shadow…Centuries after the death of Uthar the Great, the throne of the Ontilian Empire lies vacant. The late emperor’s brother-in-law and murderer, Lord Urdhven, appoints himself Protector to his nephew, young King Lathmar VII and sets out to kill anyone who stands between himself and mastery of the empire, including (if he can manage it) the king himself and his ancient but still formidable ancestress, Ambrosia Viviana. When Ambrosia is accused of witchcraft and put to trial by combat, she is forced to play her trump card and call on her brother, Morlock Ambrosius – stateless person, master of all magical makers, deadly swordsman, and hopeless drunk. As ministers of the king, they carry on the battle, magical and mundane, against the Protector and his shadowy patron. But all their struggles will be wasted unless the young king finds the strength to rule in his own right and his own name. Some...

On the brink of perfecting the long sought-after human/ AI interface, Philip Kaufman finds his world thrown into turmoil as a scandal from the past returns to haunt him and dangerous information falls into his hands. Pursued by assassins and attacked in his own home, he flees. Leyton, a government black-ops specialist, is diverted from his usual duties to hunt down the elusive pirate vessel The Noise Within, wondering all the while why this particular freebooter is considered so important. Like I mentioned in my review of Neal Asher’s “ Gridlinked ”, I have not had the opportunity to read that many sci-fi novels for Fantasy Book Review, but that it always has been a genre that has appealed highly to me. Gridlinked really wetted my appetite and I saw “The Noise Within” in the line-up of Solaris and they kindly provided me with a review copy. From the blurb the human/AI interface part really caught my attention. Adding a certain high tech yet thrilling element to the space opera sto...

n an alternate world, in a nameless totalitarian city, the autocratic Mayor rules the school system with an iron fist, with the help of his Educators. Fighting against the Mayor and his repressive Educators is a group of former students called the Truancy, whose goal is to take down the system by any means possible – at any cost. Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Tack is just trying to survive. His days are filled with sadistic teachers, unrelenting schoolwork, and indifferent parents. Things start to look up when he meets Umasi, a mysterious boy who runs a lemonade stand in an uninhabited district. Then someone close to Tack gets killed in the crossfire between the Educators and the Truants, and Tack swears vengeance. To achieve his purpose, he abandons his old life and joins the Truancy. There, he confronts Zyid, an enigmatic leader with his own plans for Tack. But Tack soon finds himself torn between his desire for vengeance and his growing sympathy for the Truants… Wh...

It’s always night in the Nightside. It’s always three o’clock in the morning, and the dawn never comes. People are always coming and going, drawn by need, searching for pleasures and services unforgivable in the sane, daylight world. You can buy or sell anything in the Nightside, and no-one asks questions. No-one cares. John Taylor is a private eye working the mean streets of this shady netherworld, selling his talent at finding things – anything – to the highest bidder. From hunting for teenage runaways, to questing for the Unholy Grail… Earlier this year I picked up “ A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin ” based on Joshua’s review and since then I have been scouring for books that also feature urban sorcerers, because in my eyes this is for me the best urban fantasy setting. One of my first findings were the books of Simon R Green and his Nightside series, and now I finally I had a chance to catch up with the first book in the series, and well, the setting is just spot on, produ...