The Book Plank

King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells, King Rolen's Kin #4 The story of Byron, Fyn and Piro picks up immediately where the cliff-hanging ending of The Usurper let off!  When Cobalt stole the Rolencian throne, Byren, Fyn and Piro were lucky to escape with their lives, now they’ve rallied and set out to avenge their parents' murder. Byren is driven to defeat Cobalt and reclaim the crown, but at what cost? Fyn has sworn to serve Byren’s interests but his loyalty is tested when he realises he loves Byren’s betrothed. And Piro never wanted to win a throne, now she holds the fate of a people in her hands. Yes! The conclusion to King Rolen's Kin! King Breaker is the fourth and final book in the Epic Fantasy series King Rolen's Kin, I originally thought that the series would have been summed as a trilogy, but Rowena Cory Daniells decided to write one last story to connect all the dots. The first thing that falls to note to King Breaker is the length of the story,...

The Creative Fire by Brenda Cooper, Ruby's Song #1 Nothing can match the power of a single voice... Ruby Martin expects to spend her days repairing robots while avoiding the dangerous peacekeeping forces that roam the corridors of the generation ship The Creative Fire. The social structure of the ship is rigidly divided, with Ruby and her friends on the bottom. Then a ship-wide accident gives Ruby a chance to fight for the freedom she craves. Her enemies are numerous, well armed, and knowledgeable.  Her weapons are a fabulous voice, a quick mind, and a deep stubbornness. Complicating it all-an unreliable A.I. and an enigmatic man she met - and kissed - exactly once-who may hold the key to her success. If Ruby can't transform from a rebellious teen to the leader of a revolution, she and all her friends will lose all say in their future.     The Creative Fire was one of the latest releases in the YA line up of Pyr. I hadn't been able to read it that time...

Vicious by Victoria Schwab Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be lef...

The Eidolon by Libby McGugan The divide between science and the human spirit is the setting for a battle for the future.When physicist Robert Strong loses his job at the Dark Matter research lab and his relationship falls apart, he returns home to Scotland.  Then the dead start appearing to him, and Robert begins to question his own sanity. Victor Amos, an enigmatic businessman, arrives and recruits Robert to sabotage CERN’S Large Hadron Collider, convincing him the next step in the collider’s research will bring about disaster. Everything Robert once understood about reality, and the boundaries between life and death, is about to change forever. And the biggest change will be to Robert himself...  I have had my eye on this book for quite some time already, working in the science field myself the blurb really got me excited for The Eidolon, blending the science and human spirit. Well this can turn the story around in a lot of different directions. And w...

Author interview with Max Gladstone Max Gladstone's debut, Three Parts Dead , was released last year and ever since it hit the shelves it was on my to read list but I never quite got around to read it until this summer and well... It quite blew me away. What an amazing story Max Gladstone managed to create. Such a rich environment, great characters and the whole promise of the story is very cool, just to top it all off! The second book, Two Serpents Rise, is out this month and again Max Gladstone proves that he is a new force to be reckoned with in the UF genre. His books are a whole lot of cool! Author bio: Max has taught in southern Anhui, wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, sung at Carnegie Hall, and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia.  Max graduated from Yale University, where he studied Chinese.   Two Serpents Rise , his second novel, is about water rights, human sacrifice, dead gods, and poker. ----------------------------------------------------------...

The Mangle Street Murders by MRC Kasasian, The Gower St. Detective #1 Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes.  March Middleton is Sidney Grice's ward, and she is determined to help him on his next case. Her guardian thinks women are too feeble for detective work, but when a grisly murder in the slums proves too puzzling for even Sidney Grice's encyclopaedic brain, March Middleton turns out to be rather useful after all... I have been trying to read other genres besides the standard science fiction and fantasy genre. One that I was and still am eager to explore is crime. Fictional crime offers a lot of possibilities from the current day and age to the past. And one ...

The Plague Forge by Jason M. Hough, Dire Earth Cycle #3 The elevators connected Earth to the stars. The towers suppressed the deadly plague. As the final Builder event approaches, five keys will unlock their secret. After discovering the first key in the wreckage of a crashed Builder ship, Skyler Luiken and his crew follow the migrating aura towers in search of the four remaining relics. But time is running out: the survivors learn that the next Builder event will be the last, and one of the objects has already fallen into dangerous hands... As the alien Key Ship looms above Earth, and the surface below is ravaged by corrupt councils, fanatical cults and infected subhumans, the team race to retrieve the missing artefacts. Will they finally reveal the Builders’ plan? OK so first off YES the conclusion to the Dire Earth Cycle! Ever since picking up The Darwin Elevator this has been a series that I have been looking forward to read. Its action packed, has great characters ...