The Book Plank

The girl who could move sh*t with her mind by Jackson Ford For Teagan Frost, sh*t just got real. Teagan Frost is having a hard time keeping it together. Sure, she's got telekinetic powers—a skill that the government is all too happy to make use of, sending her on secret break-in missions that no ordinary human could carry out. But all she really wants to do is kick back, have a beer, and pretend she's normal for once. But then a body turns up at the site of her last job—murdered in a way that only someone like Teagan could have pulled off. She's got 24 hours to clear her name—and it's not just her life at stake. If she can't unravel the conspiracy in time, her hometown of Los Angeles will be in the crosshairs of an underground battle that's on the brink of exploding ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just to start off, how can this title not spark your enthusiasm? Jackson Ford coul...

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher My name's Griz. My childhood wasn't like yours. I've never had friends, and in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football. My parents told me how crowded the world used to be, but we were never lonely on our remote island. We had each other, and our dogs. Then the thief came. There may be no law left except what you make of it. But if you steal my dog, you can at least expect me to come after you. Because if we aren't loyal to the things we love, what's the point? ------------------------------- So, yes, where to begin. When I got A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World I quickly removed the jacket as I did not want to read any of the quotes on the cover. I also just found out after finishing the book that C.A. Fletcher is the synonym of Charlie Fletcher who for me is better known for the Oversight series a fantasy series brimming with magic. For others, h...

The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan, The Black Iron Legacy #1 A group of three young thieves are pulled into a centuries old magical war between ancient beings, mages, and humanity in this wildly original debut epic fantasy. The city has always been. The city must finally end. When three thieves - an orphan, a ghoul, and a cursed man - are betrayed by the master of the thieves guild, their quest for revenge uncovers dark truths about their city and exposes a dangerous conspiracy, the seeds of which were sown long before they were born. Cari is a drifter whose past and future are darker than she can know. Rat is a Ghoul, whose people haunt the city's underworld. Spar is a Stone Man, subject to a terrible disease that is slowly petrifying his flesh. Chance has brought them together, but their friendship could be all that stands in the way of total armageddon.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames, The Band #2 Live fast, die young. Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown. When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It's adventure she wants - and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death. It's time to take a walk on the wyld side. Last year saw the release of Kings of the Wyld, the first book in "the Band" series by Nicholas Eames. This book caught me by surprise. Kings of the Wyld of filled with a lot of cool ideas that came to full fruition with Nicholas' perfect execution.  The events of Bloody Rose pick up a few years later after Kings of the Wyld. Though the title says Bloody Rose, the main pr...

Book Review: The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn.  Ardor Benn is no ordinary thief. Rakish, ambitious, and master of wildly complex heists, he styles himself a Ruse Artist Extraordinaire. When a priest hires him for the most daring ruse yet, Ardor knows he'll need more than quick wit and sleight of hand. Assembling a dream team of forgers, disguisers, schemers, and thieves, he sets out to steal from the most powerful king the realm has ever known. But it soon becomes clear there's more at stake than fame and glory -Ard and his team might just be the last hope for human civilization.   There are a few titles that come out every now and then that catch me by the title. Having been away from the book review for quite some time I actually haven't looked into books that I wanted to read. Being a father of two young kids takes quite the time away from you. Anyway. Titles. They should draw you in and if the title of this book doesn't do it, I dont know what will work for you...

Age of Assassins by RJ Parker, The  Wounded Kingdom #1 Girton Club-foot, apprentice to the land's best assassin, still has much to learn about the art of taking lives. But his latest mission tasks him and his master with a far more difficult challenge: to  save  a life. Someone, or many someones, is trying to kill the heir to the throne, and it is up to Girton and his master to uncover the traitor and prevent the prince's murder.  In a kingdom on the brink of civil war and a castle thick with lies Girton finds friends he never expected, responsibilities he never wanted, and a conspiracy that could destroy an entire kingdom. Age of Assassins  came as a surprise for me, this book wasn't on my radar. Assassins are hands down cool. The stealthy kind of killers that leave no trace... My first introduction to reading about assassins in a series was by Brent Weeks with The Way of the Shadows, which was a remarkable experience. And which was also publis...

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw,  Dr. Greta Helsing #1 Greta Helsing inherited the family's highly specialized, and highly peculiar, medical practice. In her consulting rooms, Dr. Helsing treats the undead for a host of ills - vocal strain in banshees, arthritis in barrow-wights, and entropy in mummies. Although barely making ends meet, this is just the quiet, supernatural-adjacent life Greta's been groomed for since childhood. Until a sect of murderous monks emerges, killing human and undead Londoners alike. As terror takes hold of the city, Greta must use her unusual skills to stop the cult if she hopes to save her practice, and her life. I was quite intrigued by the cover and the synopsis of Strange Practice . It sounded like music to my ears. When I was imaging this story I thought that this book would take place somewhere in the 1700's or 1800's and not the modern day as it was. Should have looked better on the cover with the London Eye. Anyway this was...

The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross,  The Laundry Files #8 Bob Howard’s career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond spacetime, has entailed high combat, brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with indescribably repellent creatures of pure evil. It has also involved a wearying amount of paperwork and office politics, and his expense reports are still a mess. Now, following the invasion of Yorkshire by the Host of Air and Darkness, the Laundry’s existence has become public, and Bob is being trotted out on TV to answer pointed questions about elven asylum seekers. What neither Bob nor his managers have foreseen is that their organization has earned the attention of a horror far more terrifying than any demon: a British government looking for public services to privatize. There’s a lot of potential shareholder value in the Laundry’s “knowledge assets.” Inch by inch, Bob ...

The Management Style of the Supreme Beings by Tom Holt When the Supreme Being and his son decide that being supreme isn't for them any more, it's inevitable that things get a bit of a shake-up. It soon becomes apparent that our new owners, the Venturi brothers, have a very different perspective on all sorts of things. Take Good and Evil, for example. For them, it's an outdated concept that never worked particularly well in the first place. Unfortunately, the sudden disappearance of right and wrong, while welcomed by some, raises certain concerns amongst those still attached to the previous team's management style. In particular, there's one of the old gods who didn't move out with the others. A reclusive chap, he lives somewhere up north, and only a handful even believe in him. But he's watching. And he really does need to know if you've been naughty or nice. For me Tom Holt is one of the funniest writers out there. Ever si...

You Die When You Die by Angus Watson, West of West #1 YOU DIE WHEN YOU DIE . . . You can't change your fate - so throw yourself into battle, because you'll either win or wake up drinking mead in the halls of your ancestors. That's what Finn's tribe believe. But when their settlement is massacred by a hostile tribe and Finn and several friends, companions and rivals make their escape across a brutal, unfamiliar landscape, Finn will fight harder than he's ever fought in his life. He wants to live - even if he only lives long enough to tell Thyri Treelegs how he feels about her. The David Gemmell Award nominated author of Age of Iron returns with You Die When You Die - in which a mismatched group of refugees battle animals and monsters, determined assassins, depraved tribes, an unforgiving land and each other as they cross a continent to fulfil a prophecy. Angus Watson surprised us all a few years ago with his Iron Age series. This time he is r...

At the End of the Day by Claire North.  Charlie has a new job. He gets to travel, and he meets interesting people, some of whom are actually pleased to see him. It's good to have a friendly face, you see. At the end. But the end of all things is coming. Charlie's boss and his three associates are riding out, and it's Charlie's job to go before. Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. He never knows which.   So Claire North or better known as Catherine Webb, has released some amazing books over the last couple of years. Sort of like a revolution. I got to know her by her Matthew Swift series. Her first book by Claire North that started the revolution was Harry August. Simply brilliant. Then there was Touch again she touched some great topics in this one. And now The End of the Day . Stunning again.  Lets start, meet Charlie. Charlie just got a new job serving none other then Death himself. Yes Charlie is working as the Harbinger of Death. His jo...

The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey, The Girl with all the Gifts #2.  Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy. The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world. To where the monsters lived. You should know M.R. Carey by now from his stellar The Girl with all the Gifts  from back in 2014, which is by the by translated into a major movie production. If not I urge you to start reading his books. The Boy on the Bridge is the second book in the universe of The Girl with all the Gift, so there was a whole lot to live up to...  The Breakdown has ravaged the lands of Britain leaving it empty of human life and full of the hungries. Hungries in case you missed it from the first are the interpretation of zombies in this series. Its not due to a virus outbreak or such but by a much more interesting pathogen, but there has to be a cure somewhere. And there you are thrown in the story follow...