The Book Plank

Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex-other things, runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock. She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it’s tax time, and there’s not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night’s takings are at risk when Babylon’s hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat. Sometimes I come across a book that feels different. Babylon Steels felt like this. The book features a mix up of fantasy and science fiction elements and it is totally not your standard book. What Gaie Sebold does in Babylon Steel is ingenious and ...

Between the living and the dead is the Order of the Deacons, protectors of the Empire, guardians against possession, sentinels enlisted to ward off the malevolent haunting of the geists… Among the most powerful of the Order is Sorcha, now thrust into partnership with the novice Deacon, Merrick Chambers. They have been dispatched to the isolated village of Ulrich to aide the Priory with a surge of violent geist activity. With them is Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne that Sorcha is sworn to protect, and bearer of a terrible curse. But what greets them in the strange settlement is something far more predatory and more horrifying than any mere haunting. And as she uncovers a tradition of twisted rituals passed down through the dark reaches of history, Sorcha will be forced to reconsider everything she thinks she knows. And if she makes it out of Ulrich alive, what in Hell is she returning to? Geist is the first book in the series “Books of the Order” written by Philippa Balla...

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder – much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing – not even a smear of blood – to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know… City o...

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing washed up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences – the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and the unsettling will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest…. and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun- he with his encyclopaedic brain and she with her remarkable devices- must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot … or see England fall to the Phoenix.” Phoenix Rising is written by both Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris and is the first boo...

Dodger is a tosher – a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London. Everyone who is nobody knows Dodger. Anyone who is anybody doesn’t. But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him. And Dodger’s tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins… Sir Terry Pratchett is most famous for his Discworld series, which is already running 39 books, and although I have given these books a fair chance I just never could quite get into them. When the chance arose to review Dodger, a stand-alone young-adult book, I just had to give it another shot. From the short synopsis I didn’t really know what I was in for, but it turned out to be unique, fresh and gave me a sense of urgency to finish it. Dodger takes place in London during the reign of Queen Victoria, focusing on a time when the majority of inhabitants were poverty stricken. Several historical figures make an appearance in Dodger, including Charles Dic...

270 AD. Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters and the once invincible legions have been crushed. Arabia, Palestine and Egypt have fallen and now Antioch, Syria’s capital, stands exposed. Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He has been assigned the menial task of rounding up wounded legionaries but then urgent new orders arrive. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance. He must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands, and hold it against the enemy until reinforcements arrive. The Siege by Nick Brown is the first book in a series of historical fiction centering around the Roman Empire in the beginning in the year of 270 AD. When I first read the synopsis of The Siege, I immediately thought that this would be a fresh story. ...

Once he was a hero of the Great War, and then a member of the dreaded Black House. Now he is the criminal linchpin of Low Town. His name is Warden. He thought he had left the war behind him, but a summons from up above brings the past sharply, uncomfortably, back into focus. General Montgomery’s daughter is missing somewhere in Low Town, searching for clues about her brother’s murder. The General wants her found, before the stinking streets can lay claim to her, too. Tomorrow the Killing is the second book in the Low Town series written by Daniel Polansky. The first book Straight Razor Cure  had a really unique and very dark and gritty setting to it. But more over Daniel Polansky introduced me to the “Warden”, who remains most mysterious in the first book. And after finishing it, it raised many questions for me that I hoped would be answered in the books to follow. In this, Tomorrow the Killing lived up to my expectations, and above it. Again you get to meet u...