The Book Plank

Best Young-Adult of 2014 The Young Adult genre has always been a genre to my liking. When I was young I never had the chance to read such books. Being from the Netherlands it's quite a different style of books for the younger readers, though there is shift now. I like fantasy and this is what I missed in my younger years. The best thing about many of the English Young Adult books is that they are also very well suited for an older audience. The books that feature on this list all reflect this in a certain way. ANd as you can see from this list, there are many influences in Young Adult fiction, from the dystopian Metawars: Freedom Frontier by Jeff Norton (whish is sadly the conclusion to the series) or Red Rising, Pierce Brown's debut, to the Epic Fantasy of Joe Abercrombie's Half a King , or Django Wexler's excellent The Forbidden Library and finally a completely different take on superhero fiction in Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart .  --------------------...

Review Round-up January I just cant believe that January went by so fast! It feels that is was a two week month instead of the four weeks, maybe it's largely owed to the fact that I read some very exciting books or that I longed to get back to reviewing/blogging after the Christmas break. I don't know, all I can say is that January has already proven to an amazing month reading wise and I hope that the others months will proof to be just as fruitful. And with each finished month, you can expect an Review Round-up post wherein I highlight a few books that I thoroughly enjoyed in the past month. 1. The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley, Tor   The Emperor's Blades copy was already on my reading shelves and it kept lurking and lurking to be read but the pub date was in January so I really had to exert some control. But when I finally was allowed to read it I was awed. The story that Brian Staveley has put down in The Emperor's Blade is just amazing and exactly ...

Metawars: The Freedom Frontier by Jeff Norton, MetaWars #4.0 The thrilling final instalment of the action-packed METAWARS series. With the Guardians and Millennials eliminated, Jonah and Sam are left to fend for themselves. When they discover their enemy, Granger, is also on his own they take the ultimate leap of faith and join forces to survive...and save humanity. The future of the world on and off-line is at stake and Jonah will not stop until he prevails. Even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice. It has been quite a ride so far in the MetaWars series and I went into Freedom Frontier with heavy reservations. From the book, Fight for the Future , Jeff Norton managed to win me over to his side. With the books that followed, The Dead are Rising and Battle of The Immortal , Jeff Norton kept up the pace and kept on improving his storyline as he went. The books never faltered for a moment. I have to say that not only I saw a great story unfolding, it also became apparent fo...