Reviews with titles starting D
A weighty tome that dramatises the historical events of the Huari Empire in the Andes, mixing in a fantasy plot, Dark Sun, Bright Moon is difficult to categorise. On one hand we have a meticulously researched historical context with pictures and appendices to explain terms and illustrate scenes,...
The best thing about Amanda Foody’s debut lies in the title itself. Her ‘Burning City’ is an immersive, sensory experience that rivets from the very first page. The smoke from her traveling circus wafts off the page, the dirt and ash from the trodden ground almost tangible on the tongue....
Day Shift is the second novel in Charlaine Harris's Midnight Texas series, following on from the quite excellent novel Midnight Crossroad we reviewed in May last year. It's a welcome return to the inhabitants of the strange small cross-road town that is Midnight. There doesn't seem to be...
The Word of Kemmler, a book of potentially catastrophic power should it fall into the wrong hands. Mortiferous forces have gathered in Chicago and it would seem the windy city may be the resting place of the ancient tome.
Of course that means it's up to Harry to prevent the book falling...
Dead by Dawn is the 7th novel in the Jason Dark series by Guido Henkel. A woman in good health dies overnight, and to make matters worse it's Jason Dark's next door neighbour who's snuffed it, something wicked is at work in London town. As his investigation leads him down to the seedy...
I’m going to start by saying that this isn’t usually a book I’d consider reading, my usual reads being Sci-Fi and Fantasy (usually humorous), or history books, but I was very surprised and really, really enjoyed it.
The book is seen through the eyes of a Collector, Sam Thornton,...
Dead Man's Steel is the third and final volume in the Grim Company Series by Luke Scull. We reviewed the first book in the series - The Grim Company - back in 2013 and remarked that it was one of the best fantasy books of the year.
Last year the Sword in the North, the second in...
Christopher Golden is an acclaimed American Author. He has worked in Horror, Fantasy, Teen and Young Adult fiction. He's known for his tie in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his collaboration work with Mike Magnolia, Nancy Holder and Amber Benson.
His latest book ‘Dead...
Dead Things was one of the few books I bought with post-christmas vouchers, after first seeing the author on twitter where he regularly trades jokes with Chuck Wendig. It's an urban fantasy adventure that follows the life of Eric Carter.
Eric's a necromancer, an angry young necromancer...
Dead Winter is the first novel in a new series that's set within the "Time of Legends" collection, itself set within Warhammer Fantasy with the aim to tell the stories of some of the greatest heroes of the Warhammer world.
A thousand years have passed since the Age of Sigmar and the...
Deadhouse Gates is the second book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. Picking up where Gardens of the Moon left off, Deadhouse Gates reunites a host of old characters and throws some new ones into the fray. This time the action is focused not on Genabackis, but on the...
The fifth book in the Dresden Files following the adventures of that intrepid wizard Harry Dresden. It begins as Dresden books often do, with attempts on Harry's life and that pretty much sets the pace for the whole story.
If you've read the previous books you will be familiar with the...
Death Most Definite is an urban fantasy novel by Trent Jamieson. Steven de Selby has a most unusual career, he helps spirits pass to the underworld, and stops Zombies (stirrers) walking the earth. He and his parents are necromancers, also known as "pomps". This being the 21st century, these...
I have always loved the Arthurian legend, there is something quite special about King Arthur, the Knights of Camelot and of course Merlin, by far my favourite character from the stories. One of my favourite cartoons is still the Disney classic "the Sword in the Stone" and I always look forward...
I read a lot of genre fiction that has been mixed with a crime drama as it is an excellent way of giving a story a solid throughline. A murder mystery can concentrate the narrative when exploring a high concept Science Fiction world. It is also a great way of giving grit to an Urban Fantasy...
Death's Disciples is a dark urban fantasy novel by J Robert King and published by Angry Robot Books. When she woke up in the hospital, she could barely remember getting on the flight, let alone the terrorist bomb of that killed everyone else on board. But she can hear the voices in her head,...
There have been thousands of years of conflict between humans and parahumans, a war that's been happening in secret has finally reached an uneasy truce. But now this peace is threatened by the awakening of an unspeakable evil, a sadistic serial killer who is slaughtering teenage shapeshifters...
Demon Gates is a high fantasy novel by Robert Day. The land of Kil’Tar has a long and bloody history of war between the Kay‘taari and the Ashar’an. Aided by Dragonkind, the Kay’taari have protected the world against the Ashar’an and their demonic followers for many centuries. With...
I’m already a fan of Landy’s previous work, Demon Road shows some of the same great dialogue and riveting narrative that made his Skulduggery Pleasant series such a great read. But his latest offering is definitely darker in tone and content, with murderous demon parents, twisted witches,...
As a committed reader, you start to see the signs that you are living a long life. One stark reminder is when a favourite author dies. This has happened too often already for my liking; one particularly heavy hit was Sir Terry Pratchett. In a world in which authors continue to write into their...
Dillons Dream: Water and Earth is a speculative fiction novel by Dr Shawn Phillips and has been written for young adults and adults alike. Dillon lives in the picturesque Antelope Valley in California and ready to graduate high school very soon. One fateful day his life is torn apart by a...
One man's quest for the justice of his wronged mother brings war to a land made soft by a forced but enduring peace. As the conflict spreads a few survivors flee into an alien world of currency, corruption, commerce and cruelty while behind them a long buried darkness returns, something that the...
Power is an interesting dynamic; some people want it, whilst others have no interest at all. Joan of Arc had a lot of power for a while but then it went (being burned at the stake will do that to you). Was she a heretic and a witch that craved this power, or was she someone caught up...
Dodger, a young sewer "tosher" who works beneath the streets of Victorian London is guided along series of events that will transform his life and those around him. It all starts when a young women is beset upon by two ruffians and Dodger rescues the young lady from certain death.
I was...
Dorothy The Darker Side of Oz by Scott Stanford is a modern, dark interpretation of the classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (originally written by L. Frank Baum). Having seen the original film a number of times (not a fan but the family are) and not actually having read the book, my...
Down Station is actually a real station on the London Underground. You can't however visit this place though, the Trains don't stop there and if you're lucky you can but catch a glimpse of it between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line. You can see the outside of this...
Dracula Cha Cha Cha is the third novel in the Anno Dracula series, set in the alternative history of 1959 where Vampires are just another part of the population. This time we are in Rome as Vampires, intellectuals and other important people are gathering to witness the marriage of the count...
At the basic level, Marc Turner’s Dragon Hunters is about three things: huge water-dragons, awesome sword-fights, and Machiavellian politics. The second book in Turner’s Chronicles of the Exiles trilogy - although not strictly a sequel to the first When The Heavens Fall - also has a...
The fifth book in the dragon series by Stephen Deas, Dragon Queen is certainly value by weight of pages. The previous tale, The Black Mausoleum weighed in at just over three hundred in the mass market paperback, whereas Dragon Queen is twice that and a little more.
The first trilogy of...
Dragon Rider is the second novel is the Prophecy of the Kings series, written by David Burrows. After the climatic cliff hanger at the end of Legacy of the Eldric, we find our intrepid adventurers return to a world that has changed without them. War now threatens the land and Nations who once...
Arianus, the World of Air, is composed entirely of porous floating islands, aligned in three basic altitudes. In the Low Realm, the dwarves (called "Gegs", an elven word for "insects") live on the continent Drevlin and cheerfully serve the giant Kicksey-winsey, a city-sized...
Dragonfly Falling is the second volume in the Shadows of the Apt series, folowing on directly from the events of "Empire in Black and Gold" At the start of Dragonfly Falling the two young companions, Totho and Salma, arrive at Tark to spy on the menacing Wasp army, but are there mistakenly...
For some reason the dragon has captured the imagination of each generation. From Smaug in The Hobbit to Disney’s Mulan and recently George RR Martin’s contemporary classic “A Song of Ice and Fire”, each putting their own particular spin on the myth. I must admit that I’m a sucker for a...
I picked this book up as I was looking for more urban fantasy to try. I love the Dresden files and given that new books in that series only seem to appear infrequently, I was getting an urban fantasy itch. This book stood out as it was recommended by talented and under-appreciated author Dave...
Readers and reviewers of dark fiction have certainly noticed, during the last years, that the number of Australian authors appearing in books published in the UK and in USA is constantly on the rise, and that the quality of their contributions is usually top notch. This Australian renaissance,...
Dreams and Shadows is a contemporary urban fantasy fairytale which tells the story of two young boys Ewan and Colby who both become embroiled in the secret world of the Limestone Kingdom - a parallel world where Wizards and Genie's co-inhabit with creatures much older and largely forgotten. Ewan...
Dreams of Chaos, the first in a trilogy by Allen Stroud, is a companion piece to the computer game Chaos Reborn from Snapshot Games. Set in the 14th Century, it explores an alternative history of our world mainly set between Europe and the Far East with copious amounts of wizardry and religious...
A secret manuscript by Charles Dickens friend Wilkie Collins that has been sealed away for 125 years reveals a dark secret that obsessed both freiends, a secret that ended their friendship and almost caused murder. On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress,...
Druid's Bane is the first volume in the Arkaelyon Chronicles, written by Phillip Henderson. The Illandian Spring Tournament is about to reach its crescendo. With the king’s only daughter, Danielle de Brie, and her twin brother, Kane, preparing to face each other in the tourney ring for the...
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