The Book Plank

Best Debut of 2015 Debuts. Authors often only get one real chance of making a name for themselves. It's basically an all or nothing game. First one of the biggest challenges an author faces is getting published. After that you are basically in with the sharks.. uhm critics... My favorite debuts of 2015 were: Genevieve Cogman's The Invisible Library. The idea of librarians and books jumping has already been done before. However not in the precise way that Genevieve Cogman does it. Every bibliophile will enjoy the wild idea that Genevieve came up with. The Vagrant  by Peter Newman had some very bold idea's when it came down to the story. The world was amazingly rich, a unique blend of a pre and post apocalyptic vision. Crashing Heaven is one of the hardest SF books that I read so far in my reading career. A dark and grim story, Jack Forster's relation with Hugo Fist the AI, is just brilliant. Finn Fancy Necromancy was also nominated with Best First in Series. It's a...

Best First in Series of 2015 Making a new entry into an existing genre is a hard thing. There are a lot of ongoing series and getting through with a new idea is a hard thing to do. Luckily there are plenty of authors who still come up with just that new idea. Here are my favorite First in Series of 2015. To start off the list Finn Fancy Necromancy which is both an debut and an first book in a series. This Urban Fantasy story had some very wild idea's which all proved to work to the fullest extent in the end. Randy Henderson shows a great enthusiasm. I read David Walton's Quintessence  a few years ago, a great book. This year Pyr published his Superposition. What a great premise. David Walton knows his technology and creates a wild and provoking story. Flex  by Ferret Steinmetz was one of the freshest Urban Fantasy stories I read this year. Mancy, the ability to gain a specific branch of magic if you love it hard enough. As I said in the review, it takes more just to come up ...

Author interview with Ishbelle Bee Author bio: Ishbelle   Bee writes horror and loves fairy-tales, the Victorian period (especially top hats!) and cake tents at village fêtes (she believes serial killers usually opt for the Victoria Sponge). She currently lives in Edinburgh. She doesn’t own a rescue cat, but if she did his name would be Mr Pickles. ------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Ishbelle, welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us. BP: First off could you give us a short introduction as to who Ishbelle Bee is? What are you hobbies, likes and dislikes ? IB:   I live in Edinburgh, Scotland and I am half Scottish and half English ( I was born in London). I write adult fairytales infused with horror elements and inspired by folklore and mythology. My hobbies are reading and illustrating. I like cheesecake and  I dislike thoughtless, rude people and tripe. BP: Mi...

The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath  by Ishbelle Bee, The Peculiar Adventures of John Loveheart, Esq #1 1888. A little girl called Mirror and her shape-shifting guardian Goliath Honeyflower are washed up on the shores of Victorian England. Something has been wrong with Mirror since the day her grandfather locked her inside a mysterious clock that was painted all over with ladybirds. Mirror does not know what she is, but she knows she is no longer human. John Loveheart, meanwhile, was not born wicked. But after the sinister death of his parents, he was taken by Mr Fingers, the demon lord of the underworld. Some say he is mad. John would be inclined to agree. Now Mr Fingers is determined to find the little girl called Mirror, whose flesh he intends to eat, and whose soul is the key to his eternal reign. And John Loveheart has been called by his otherworldly father to help him track Mirror down… Last year Angry Robot announced that they had gott...