The Book Plank

Best Books of 2015 So which books did I enjoy the most? Compared to the other lists this was definitely the hardest one to make. I would have loved to make this a 10 book list but I had to stick to my own set rules. After a lot of contemplation I came down to the following 5 books. Just as with Harry August Claire North/Catherine Webb managed to shock and awe me with Touch a terrific blend of Science Fiction and Thriller. As I said in the review, this book would make a perfect storyline for a movie. The new Bourne series? It has my vote.  Sebastien de Castell wrote a solid entry with Greatcoats  last year but has really outdone himself with Knight's Shadow this year. In every possible way he has raised the bar for himself. The book itself is action packed. Sword fights, arrows zooming through the air and of course magic and gods that walk the Earth. Time Salvager  is the best time traveling book of this year. Welsey Chu had proved himself with the Lives of Tao and ...

Best Science Fiction of 2015 Science Fiction. The genre that excites, invents and build grandiose invents. Science Fiction has always been the books that inspire technology, look at Star Trek tablets anyone? The counts for the light sabers of Star Wars an Harvard - MIT collaboration resulted in a break through ( link ). So you never know what the next big thing will be! Last year Catherine Webb aka Claire North surprised me with Harry August  a terrific book about time traveling. During LonCon3 in London in 2015 I learned about a new book of Catherine, a book where you can jump bodies by touching. If that doesn't get your hopes up I don't know what will. Cathrine Webb writes once again anastonishingstory fast paced, pitch perfect thriller. Adrian Tchaikovksy. The man with a thousand-and-one ideas. After finishing his Shadows of the Apts series he brought two stand alone book this year. One of them was Children of Time  a scifi space op...

Review Round-up February Here are my favorites of February, which books did you enjoy reading the most? Cheers, Jasper --------------------------- 1. Touch by Claire North, Orbit So what finally remains to said is: Read this book! Claire North's is on a sure fire winning streak. Just as with The First Fifteen Lives , Claire North has gone out of her league with the story of Touch . Touch for me was a definite darker tinge story that The First Fifteen Lives , owing to the chasing and also with the body jumping. Kepler is shown as a very interesting and enjoyable protagonist and has his work cut out for him. One thing that I totally forgot to mention was the control that Claire North has with body jumping, it is easy to jump from person to person, but in all case none of the ghosts do this. The details and bigger picture that Claire North shows with body jumping and inhabiting it, an action reaction sequence makes a very nice whole to the story. And let's not ...

Touch by Claire North Kepler had never meant to die this way — viciously beaten to death by a stinking vagrant in a dark back alley. But when reaching out to the murderer for salvation in those last dying moments, a sudden switch takes place. Now Kepler is looking out through the eyes of the killer himself, staring down at a broken and ruined body lying in the dirt of the alley. Instead of dying, Kepler has gained the ability to roam from one body to another, to jump into another person’s skin and see through their eyes, live their life -- be it for a few minutes, a few months or a lifetime. Kepler means these host bodies no harm — and even comes to cherish them intimately like lovers. But when one host, Josephine Cebula, is brutally assassinated, Kepler embarks on a mission to seek the truth — and avenge Josephine’s death. Last year I read a book by Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and it was awesome. Plain awesomeness in a book. When I visited Lo...

(p)review forecast February part two Here are my selected books for the second half of February, what will you be reading? Cheers, Jasper 1. Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor A standalone, action-packed pseudo-Napoleonic historical fantasy adventure from the esteemed author of the Shadows of the Apt series. Denland and Lascanne have been allies for generations, but now the Denlanders have assassinated their king, overthrown the monarchy and marched on their northern neighbour. At the border, the war rages; Lascanne's brave redcoats against the revolutionaries of Denland. Emily Marshwic has watched the war take her brother-in-law and now her young brother. Then comes the call for more soldiers, to a land already drained of husbands, fathers and sons. Every household must give up one woman to the army and Emily has no choice but to join the ranks of young women marching to the front. In the midst of warfare, with just enough training to hold a musket, ...