Books tagged with: duty

Anno Frankenstein is a novel in the Pax Britannia series featuring the intrepid adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. In this alternative universe, Magna Britannia is the undisputed superpower of the world whereas since the second great European war, Hitler’s Nazi party has been reduced to the status of...

The Witcher series is something quite special and Baptism of Fire is no exception. Written by the talented Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and translated by the equally talented liguist David French (who translated the previous book in the series Time of Contempt). The people behind the series have...

Closer to the Heart is listed as The Herald Spy book 2, it is worth noting, however , that while the characters do appear in Closer to Home (The Herald Spy book 1) the book is itself a complete story, rather than a continuation of the existing story arc. In fact, the characters life before these boo...

Dresden’s time as a spirit-on-a-mission in Chicago was a lot more draining then he was prepared for. Waking up from a coma, Harry realizes that his body has been preserved by the guardian spirit, Demon Reach and his new employer, the Queen of Air and Darkness. Mab, the Fairy Queen of Winter, nurses...

Connors Folly is the second volume in the Trance Warriors fantasy series by Robert C Auty, following on from the Siege of Scarn. The epic siege is finally at an end the new Grynn King is tasked with taking the fight to the enemy, to do so he must first find the white palace and finish his training...

Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone who had military experience wrote urban fantasy? The result is Control Point, a quite brilliant blend of other-worldly fantasy and gritty combat. The novel follows the US Army Lieutenant Oscar Britton who finds himself working alongside SOC (Super...

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 to re...

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 had s...

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 deciding...

Last year we reviewed Control Point, a contemporary fantasy that managed to blend a strong military style with that of fantastic magical powers. The author managed to create a successful combination with tons of action and tense drama; narrated in a powerful, unique voice. Fortress Frontier is the n...

Full Dark House is the first novel in the long running series that follows the enigmatic detectives Bryant and May as they attempt to solves crimes that few would dare to touch. The novel begins in a very unexpected and quite brilliant manner, by one of the main characters dying in a large explosion...

Stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky are always sober, meticulous and carefully constructed. Guns of the Dawn is no exception, an unusual novel, set in a fantasy world inspired by the late 19th and early 20th century and the clash of progress therein. Our protagonist, one Emily Marshwic, struggles to maint...

Harbinger of the Storm is the second volume in the Obsidian and Blood series of novels by Aliette de Bodard, and follows on from the events in Servant of the Underworld, both published by Angry Robot Books. One and a half years have passed since the events in Servant of the Underworld and the Emper...

Knife of Dreams is the eleventh volume in the epic Wheel of Time series and is the last full volume written by Robert Jordan. If you have like me arrived here after reading the first 10 volumes then you will appreciate this moment, a long journey, hugely rewarding and it is with a sense of trepidat...

The noble and venerable order of The Knights of the Blazing Sun dedicate themselves to the warrior-goddess Myrmidia and in her name travel the land as Templars. The young knight Hector Goetz is sent to investigate a group of knights gone missing on the distant island of Svunum. Reunited with his co...

Lirael is a young adult fantasy novel written by Garth Nix and is the second volume in the Old Kingdom Series. The novel is split into three different parts with the first set 14 years after the events of Sabriel and the other two parts set 19 years after. Sabriel and Touchstone are married with tw...

Arthur Wallace, inspired by 80's films such as Tango and Cash, is an Oxford copper who finds himself entirely unprepared when fate chooses him to step up and play the hero; recruited as he is by the mysterious government agency MI37. Luckily he's always lived by the mantra "What would Kurt Russell...

Harry Dresden is once again thrown into magical conflict in Proven Guilty. As always, our wise cracking wizard-for-hire is up to the challenge! Proven Guilty smoothly picks up where Dead Beat leaves off. Harry Dresden, now named a Warden of the White Council, struggles to fulfill his role as magic...

Sabriel is a young adult fantasy novel written by Garth Nix and is the first volume in the Old Kingdom series. The Old Kingdom is a land where magic is common and spirits roam freely (a fact denied by the government). Outside of the Old Kingdom lies Ancelstierre, which has a technology level and so...

I remember reading the very first Spooks book a number of years ago and really enjoying it. Never having been sent any to review until since I've had little opportunity to read any others in the now quite size-able series (13 volumes at the time of writing). It's clear I should have read more Delane...

Stone of Tears is the second volume in the epic Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Darken Rahl has finally been defeated and Richard and Kahlan race off back to the mud people to marry. Nothing goes to plan however and as they are waiting for the wedding preparations to be completed three Sis...

Supernatural: War of the Sons is an original story based on the hit TV series Supernatural (naturally) featuring the brothers Sam and Dean. The novel has been written by Rebecca Dessertine and David Reed. Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a demonic supernatural force 27 years ago and in...

The Bands of Mourning, part of the second series of Mistborn books, taking place hundreds of years after the original Mistborn trilogy, follows the adventures of Wax, Wayne, Marasi, and Steris once more. The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone...

Those good fellows over at Titan books have released a brand new edition of the best-selling sequel to Anno Dracula, complete with an additional novella. Continuing the alternative history tale where the vampire hunter Van Helsing was defeated by Dracula, bringing Vampirism into the open and for a...

The Dragon at War is a fantasy novel by the author Gordon R Dickson. Over a century ago, the dragon Gleingul fought and slew a sea serpent in single combat. A genuine David and Goliath moment as sea serpents are more than twice as large as dragons. Ever since, there has been great animosity between...

The Dragon Knight is the sequel to the Dragon and the George, by Gordon R Dickson. Fans of the Dragon and the George will enjoy this novel that continues the adventures of Jim and friends in an alternate 14-century reality. The novel begins 5 months after the battle at Loathly Tower. Jim and Angie...

The Dragon on the Border is a fantasy novel by the author Gordon R Dickson. Jim, the product of a technologically advanced civilization 600 years ahead of the one he now calls home and now minor apprentice in magic has become the target of the Dark Powers in their latest attempt to disrupt the bala...

I must admit that I am developing a bit of a soft spot for Zombie novels, I love the way that each I have read recently has something different to offer, from the pseudo first person account of World War Z to the subtle and gradual style of David Moody's Autumn, even though they are all descended fr...

The Falconer by Elizabeth May is the first in what appears to be a series of books following the adventures of Lady Aileana Kameron (or Kam) as she lives the double life of daughter of the Marquess of Douglas on one hand and the life of a fairy hunter (or aforementioned Falconer) on the other. ...

The Gathering Storm (formally under the working title A Memory of Light) is the 12th novel in the outstanding fantasy epic, the Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan, originally started in 1990 with "The Eye of the World". As Jordan passed away before completing what was thought to be the last vo...

Sometimes when I've read a really bad book it's hard for me to write a review about it - I just want to leave it at "this book is bad - stay away from it" and then forget about the book as fast as possible. With Stephen King's The Gunslinger it's the other way around. A short "Go buy this book at on...

The Heir of Night was reviewed by me for the 2012 David Gemmell Morningstar Award, which went on to win the award! I've been aware of the novel for some time now but as it was never sent to me it remained one I'd been meaning to buy and I'm very glad that I'm getting the chance to read it for the G...

The Kinshield Legacy is a fantasy novel by KC May. For two hundred years a mysterious stone tablet embedded with five magical gems has sat abandoned in a cave, while the kindom around it falls to ruins. But then, the gems in the tablet, one by one, disappear and the next King of the realm may final...

The Last Mermaid is a historical fantasy drama by Shana Abe. In 531 on the island Kelmere of the Kingdom of Isles, Picts ambush the royal party as they near their keep. Prince Aedan, heir to the High King throne, is stabbed trying to save his younger sister. When Aedan next awakens he finds himself...

The Lord of Chaos is the sixth novel in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, following on from the events in the Fires of heaven. On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, while in the mountain itself, the Dark one waits patiently in his ever weakening prison. Now Rand h...

The Malice is the follow-up to one of my favourite fantasy reads last year, Peter Newmans The Vagrant. It's a story set in a post-apocalyptic future where forgotten technology intermingles with demonspawn and twisted lands full of twisted mutants. It had the dark, haunted flavour of Stephen Kings D...

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.” Celia Bo...

A one hundred and forty year old Vampire who is sworn to protect the President of the United States, now THAT is an interesting concept. It's the idea of the author Christopher Farnsworth who presents us with an rich urban fantasy that manages to honour some well known and much loved series while st...

The Road to Bedlam is the second volume in the The Courts of the Feyre series, which started with the incredible debut novel Sixty One Nails by Angry Robot Author Mike Shevdon. The novel begins shortly after the events in Sixty One Nails with Blackbird expecting the birth of their child any time so...

The Shadow rising is the fourth book in the Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan. Prophecy has been fullfilled, the Stone of Tear has been breached and Callindor - the sword that is not a sword has been wielded, the Dragon is reborn. Selene finally reveals to Rand that she is Lanfear, one of the...

Will Swyfte, Mark Chadbourn’s protagonist in The Sword of Albion, has been widely compared to James Bond. An emphatic, smooth talking bachelor with fierce fighting skills and a place in the Queen’s palace, it’s easy to liken this spy to the most famous fictional agent of the 20th century. But there’...

Released in hardback last year, The Way of Kings was such a weighty tomb that it was decided it would need to be split into two volumes for the paperback version, lest people developed a bad back carrying it home. Reviewed here is the first part of the first novel in the Stormlight Archive, written...

This is the second part of the Way of Kings, the first novel in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson and the start of an epic series. As this is the second part of a book, it makes sense that you read the The Way of Kings Part 1 first. Starting to read this second part it becomes clearer why...

The new king of Thendylath Gavin Kinshield has vowed to protect the realm and it's people from the evil of the Beyonders - creatures of chaos who appear without warning and invade the world of men to wreak havoc. For this though he will need an army and of course a huge amount of funds to support su...

Tome of the Undergates is the first volume in the Aeons' Gate fantasy series by Sam Sykes. Lenk is in theory the leader of a band of "adventurers", in practice he struggle's to keep control over the unruly misfits - with Gariath the dargon man seeing humans as little more than prey, only happy in a...

Towers of Midnight is the penultimate novel in the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson. The Last Battle has begun and the seals on the Dark One's prison continue to crumble to dust. The very pattern itself is unravelling and the armies of the Shadow are boldly m...

When we left Gair at the end of the spectacular novel Songs of the Earth there had been a pretty big shock. Rather than start where the story left off, Trinity Rising instead follows Teia, a young woman who seems destined to witness great and terrible things. a young woman who has hidden powers few...

As with many urban fantasy detective novels, Whispers Underground starts with the discovery of a body. On this occasion its an American exchange student with a wealthy, politically powerful family who is found brutally murdered at the far end of the Baker street tube station. With the pressure of a...

It has been six, nearly seven, years since the last volume in the Dark Tower series and if you, like me, didn't even like the fourth volume, it has been an even longer wait. Luckily this book delivers. It's all action, it's all about the Ka-tet and it's about The Dark Tower from front to back. Havi...

Blackwing is a book that suprised me more than any other has so far this year. It's the debut of Ed McDonald and boy what a way to make an entrance. The book follows Galharrow, leader of the mercenary squad known as Blackwing. Galharrow and his band take on jobs most would consider too danger...

In short, this is a story set in a fantasy version of European renaissance including trade, religion and politics. You can draw parallels between different countries and religions in the book to real world versions of the same.  But simply describing a book in this way is somewhat lazy and misses...

Popstars of the 60s dread their back catalogue going into the public domain. Their retirement fund has now been opened to everyone to listen to for free. If you think that is sad, please spare a moment for the poor authors who have long died and whose work is open to all. The likes of Shakespeare, D...

There is a surprising amount of Fantasy that is essentially an epic game of magical rock, paper, scissors. Various mages, witches and Gods all fighting each other with differing powers. They are strong against one power, but weak against another. The balance of the world rests on all these powers ca...

Sherlock Holmes and his creator may be long dead, but this has not stopped the master detective living on in the works of others. James Lovegrove has written several stories that have expanded on Arthur Conan Doyle’s legacy, but The Cthulhu Casebooks offer something very different by blending...

It sometimes feels that if you have read one fantasy novel, you have read them all. The same tropes crop up again and again. This may be comforting to fans of the genre, but people that dabble may soon become bored. Those of us in the know realise that there is a wealth of variation if you are willi...

The Farseer Trilogy is one of those series that is so well crafted, unique that it defines a genre. It's been twenty five years since Robin Hobb (a pseudonym of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden) started writing about the Realm of the Elderlings and the adventures of Fitz and the Fool. Since then she h...

A brief admission to start. I've just finished Twelve Months and realised, slightly to my embarrassment, that I never actually got round to writing a review for Battle Ground. So here, six years late, is that review. I will keep this one largely spoiler-free; the events of Battle Ground are by now w...

For many people clowns are the stuff of nightmares and there they should remain.  In the modern age you can pretty much live a life free of these demon entertainers; just avoid going to the circus, CBEEBIES and any films about IT.  But what about if the clowns of your dreams decided to lea...

Since the days of The Lord of the Rings the fantasy genre has had a close relationship with the idea of a fellowship of characters. A group of disparate people of all races brought together to fight for a common cause. This produces a sense of shared responsibility and brotherhoo...

People moan about the rain, but I don’t always mind it. Many of my best memories of childhood are of sleeping under canvas and listening to the patter of rain, safe in the knowledge that I am all snuggly in my sleeping bag and close to loved ones. These fond memories would have quick...

Sometimes it is hard to see that something is not quite right as it has always been that way. Why in children’s cartoons does there always seem to be a misbalance between the male and female characters? Will boys not watch girls on screen? Will men not read about women in books? Fantasy has mo...

Are you a night person or a day person? Do you like to wake up at 5am and then go to the gym before a full day at work and an early night? Perhaps you like to wake up in time for Bargain Hunt and work from home into the late hours? Either way, you are you. The night owl and the early bird, same pers...

Destiny is a tricky thing as it is something that you should not be aware of. I want to be surprised if it turns out that I save the world, or perhaps destroy it. Some characters have their destiny thrust upon them from a young age and are told what it will be. Anton is a Blade Priest for Craithe, t...

No matter how many books are in a series and how long the journey, fantasy stories do end. But we all know that they never do. There is always an itch to discover what happened next, or what happened before, a rich lore and world to explore further. In Stephen Aryan’s The Coward we already fol...

A long running series is a mixed blessing. You can return to the same characters over the books, but too often a series becomes stale quickly and the characters seem to live in statis were they never change. This can never be said of the excellent Rivers of London novels by Ben Aaronovitch and...

Keeping it in the family sounds like a wonderful idea. Surround yourself with people you can trust, blood is thicker than water, but do family businesses work? Why do so many fail by the third generation? The first generation build the company from nothing, the second grow it further, the third &nda...

I really enjoy a retelling of the Arthurian Legend, which is a good thing as I have read a fair few. Each author tackles the story in a unique way looking to put their own spin on a well-known tale. Do you follow the classic beats making the likes of Morgana the villain? Perhaps it is Merlin's fault...

What is Fantasy if it is not epic battles against elves and orcs? Fans of the genre know that it can be a lot of other things than just that. Some of the best modern fantasy that I have read have been smaller stories set in fantasy worlds. How about a Die Hard-like experience set in a castle where a...

How do you like your science fiction and fantasy? I will admit to being someone who loves a simple and accessible tale, but the genres can offer so much more than this. There are few genres better equipped to take a reader to truly alien places, to worlds that feel like they were designed in a fever...

Who does not love a genre mash up? The industry certainly does as they ride that Romantasy train all the way to the bank. Although I do not mind a whimsical fantasy, I would not consider it my favourite genre. A mash up of genres needs a little more bite to interest me. How about Westerns with the O...

We only have so many books in us, and an author may just not have the time to experiment with different formats or genres, unless they are very prolific. They do not come much more prolific than Adrian Tchaikovsky, a writer who dabbles in various types of genre fiction, always bringing high quality....