I have decided to host a new feature on the blog, the (p)review forecast. This will be a biweekly feature in which I will highlight some of the books that I am planning to review in the coming two weeks, hence the preview of the reviews, the (p)review. I always aim to do twelve books in a month, depends a bit on the spare time I have and how many pages the books have, but it usually turns out to be more than twelve. So for the biweekly (p)reviews I'll stick to six books and hope to do them all, for each book I will post the synopsis below as found on goodreads
Here are the upcoming books for the second half of August:
1. The Last Caesar by Henry Venmore-Rowland (Transworld UK)
AD 68. The tyrant
emperor Nero has no son and no heir.
Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many.
Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue -- all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome and self preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician.
And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played -- for good or ill -- in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war.
Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many.
Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue -- all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome and self preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician.
And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played -- for good or ill -- in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war.
2. Planesrunner by Ian McDonald (Jo Fletcher Books)
There is not one you.
There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours
is one among billions of parallel earths.
When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.
To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.
Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!
3. Heirs of the Blade by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)
She remembered how it
felt to lose Salma, first to the wiles of the Butterfly-kinden girl,
then to hear the news of his death, abandoned and alone in the midst of
the enemy. She remembered how it felt to see her father hacked to death
before her eyes. But of her murder of Achaeos, of the bite of her blade
into his unsuspecting flesh, the wound that had sapped him and ruined
him until he died, she remembered nothing, felt nothing. In such a
vacuum, how could she possibly atone?
Tynisa is running, but she cannot
escape the demons of her own mind. Amidst the fragmenting provinces of
the Dragonfly Commonweal her past will at last catch up with her. Her
father’s ghost is hunting her down. At the same time, the Wasp Empress,
Seda, is on the move, her eyes on the city of Khanaphes, the fallen
jewel of the ancient world. Whilst her soldiers seek only conquest, she
sees herself as the heir to all the old powers of history, and has her
eyes on a far greater prize.
4. Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines (Del Rey UK)
The Mighty Dragon. Stealth.
Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap.
They were superheroes fighting to make Los Angeles a better place.
Then the plague of living death spread. Billions died, civilization fell, and the City of Angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland.
But the ex-humans aren't the only threats the heroes face. Another group is amassing power . . . led by an enemy with the most terrifying ability of all.
They were superheroes fighting to make Los Angeles a better place.
Then the plague of living death spread. Billions died, civilization fell, and the City of Angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland.
But the ex-humans aren't the only threats the heroes face. Another group is amassing power . . . led by an enemy with the most terrifying ability of all.
5. Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox (Titan Books)
In 1971 university
students Walter Bishop and William Bell use an exotic chemical compound
to link their subconscious minds. Unexpectedly, they open a rip in space
through which comes a menace unlike any our world has ever seen - the
Zodiac Killer. His singular goal is death, and it falls to Bishop, Bell,
and Nina Sharp to stop him
6. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (Tor)
A god has died, and it’s
up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm
of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His
city falls apart.
Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.
Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.
When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.
Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.
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These are my picks of the second half of August, what will you be reading?
Cheers,
Jasper
Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.
Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.
When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.
Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.
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These are my picks of the second half of August, what will you be reading?
Cheers,
Jasper