The Book Plank

Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun The world has stopped sleeping. Restless nights have grown into days of panic, delirium and, eventually, desperation. But few and far between, sleepers can still be found - a gift they quickly learn to hide. For those still with the ability to dream are about to enter a waking nightmare. Matt Biggs is one of the few sleepers. His wife Carolyn however, no stranger to insomnia, is on the very brink of exhaustion. After six restless days and nights, Biggs wakes to find her gone. He stumbles out of the house in search of her to find a world awash with pandemonium, a rapidly collapsing reality. Sleep, it seems, is now the rarest and most precious commodity. Money can't buy it, no drug can touch it, and there are those who would kill to have it. This book appeared in my post all of a sudden. I hadn't heard anything about the release of Black Moon , the synopsis showed some very interesting idea's. A dystopian setting, not filled with ...

The Forever Watch by David Ramirez The Noah : a city-sized ship half-way through an eight hundred year voyage to another planet. In a world where deeds and even thoughts cannot be kept secret a man is murdered; his body so ruined that his identity must be established from DNA evidence. Within hours all trace of the crime is swept away hidden as though it never happened. Hana Dempsey a mid-level bureaucrat genetically modified to use the Noah 's telepathic internet begins to investigate. Her search for the truth will uncover the impossible: a serial killer who has been operating on board for a lifetime... if not longer. And behind the killer lies a conspiracy centuries in the making. When I read about the release of The Forever Watch I was very excited. There are three letters in the synopsis that got me stoked. DNA. And finding out that David Ramirez is an ex-scientist in the field of Molecular Biology I knew that this would be an excellent read with top notch scienti...

WAR FEVER You can tell when writers are sucking up to readers. The giveaway in Historical Fantasies is the War Weary Warrior. Ironjaw Misgivings murders ten men before breakfast but guilty nightmares keep him from his beauty sleep. He'd run rings around Alexander, make Genghis Khan look a sissy, but all Ironjaw yearns for is his little highland farm where he raises organic lima beans. Ironjaw is as peace-loving as Gandhi but somehow he's always the one holding his sword aloft crying ‘Charge!’ Convenient that. I’m musing about martial matters because my war of the worlds is drawing to a close. In Spira Mirabilis, a multi-ethnic coalition faces down an empire of fanatics . The empire is crumbling from within, but the coalition is fracturing, and the winner will not be the greatest killer, but the one who falls apart last. The composition of each army then is crucial, and my recruitment policy was catholic: I handed out weapons to underage cripples, blind pacifis...

Into the Void by Tim Lebbon, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #1 On the planet Tython, the ancient Je’daii order was founded. And at the feet of its wise Masters, Lanoree Brock learned the mysteries and methods of the Force—and found her calling as one of its most powerful disciples. But as strongly as the Force flowed within Lanoree and her parents, it remained absent in her brother, who grew to despise and shun the Je’daii, and whose training in its ancient ways ended in tragedy. Now, from her solitary life as a Ranger keeping order across the galaxy, Lanoree has been summoned by the Je’daii Council on a matter of utmost urgency. The leader of a fanatical cult, obsessed with traveling beyond the reaches of known space, is bent on opening a cosmic gateway using dreaded dark matter as the key—risking a cataclysmic reaction that will consume the entire star system. But more shocking to Lanoree than even the prospect of total galactic annihilation, is the decision of her Je’da...

Zero Cool by Michael Crichton writing as John Lange, Hard Case Crime #41 American radiologist Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. But when he meets the beautiful Angela Locke on a Spanish beach, he soon finds himself caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. From Barcelona to Paris, from the towers of the Alhambra to its catacombs, Ross is an ordinary man in desperate circumstances: racing to uncover a secret lost for centuries, before he becomes its next victim. This is my fourth Hard Case Crime book and so far I have been enjoying them very much. I am very fond of SF/F genre but venturing in the crime books has been something that I was and still am looking forward to, since I read quite a lot of books, the HCC books amongst others keep things diverse. I read one book of Michael Crichton before, Drug of Choice , he wrote these books when he was still a medical student at Harvard medical school. I was impressed with the blockbustery way...

Gollancz signs-up space opera from multi-award-winning author Gollancz, the science-fiction and fantasy imprint of The Orion Publishing Group, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World Rights to a two-book space opera from John W. Campbell and Hugo-Award-winning author, Elizabeth Bear. Combining a unique concept with a compelling plot, Elizabeth Bear’s novels imagine the invention of The White Drive: an easy, nonrelativistic means of travel across unimaginable distances. The gripping story follows salvage operators, Haimey Dz and her partner Connla Kurucz, as t hey pilot their tiny ship into the scars left by unsuccessful White Transitions, searching for the relics of lost human – and alien – vessels. Elizabeth Bear is the author of a number of novels and short stories. She has received extraordinary recognition including two Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2005), a Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award, an Asimov’s Reader’s Choice award, a Spect...

left Tor USA cover - right Tor UK cover Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson Caeli-Amur: an ancient city perched on white cliffs overlooking the sea; a city ruled by three Houses, fighting internecine wars; a city which harbours ancient technology and hidden mysteries. But things are changing in Caeli-Amur. Ancient minotaurs arrive for the traditional Festival of the Sun. The slightly built New-Men bring their technology from their homeland. Wastelanders stream into the city hideously changed by the chemical streams to the north. Strikes break out in the factory district. In a hideout beneath the city, a small group of seditionists debate ways to overthrow the Houses. How can they rouse the citizens of the city? Should they begin a campaign of terror? Is there a way to uncover the thaumaturgical knowledge that the Houses guard so jealously? As the Houses scramble to maintain their rule, it becomes clear that things will change forever in Caeli-Amur. Another author th...

Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines, Magic Ex Libris #1 Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of a secret society founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. As such, he is gifted with the magical ability to reach into books and draw forth objects. But when Gutenberg vanishes without a trace, Isaac finds himself pitted against everything from vampires to a sinister, nameless foe who is bent on revealing magic to the world at large... and at any cost . How cool is this? Please read the second sentence of the synopsis: " gifted with the magical ability to reach into books and draw forth objects" if this doesn't get you excited to read Libriomancer as an SF/F fan I frankly have no idea what will! Libriomancer is the first book in the Magic Ex Libris series written by Jim C. Hines who is well known for his other series that include Jig the Goblin and Princess. The Magic Ex Libris is his latest series that takes place in an urban fantasy setting with an element...

The Emperor's Knives by Anthony Riches, Empire #7 The seventh novel in Anthony Riches' acclaimed Empire sequence brings Marcus Aquila back to Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family. But the revenge he craves may cost him and those around him dearly. The young centurion's urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands. A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait. The knives are unsheathed, and ready for blood . . . Roman fiction has always been a direction of fiction that I have read with a lot of pleasure. My first introduction was Nick Brown's Agent of Rome series, which is also published by Hodder and Stoughton. Anthony Riches first book in the Empire series, Wounds of Honour , was published back in 2009. Last February saw the ...