Books tagged with: family

Among Others is about as different from any novel I have read than the Moon is from a piece of pie. It's not even a book I thought I would enjoy either, if someone had approached me and asked me to read a novel about a 15 year old girls account of her life in a boarding school - delivered in the for...

Illustration ©2019 Francis Vallejo from The Folio Society edition of Neil Gaiman’s  Anansi Boys. The asymmetrical sequel to Gaiman’s American Gods , Anansi Boys makes use of the same dramatic conceit, that Gods exist and walk amongst us. However, this story from Gaiman is more of an urban folk tale,...

Phineas (Finn) Gramayare has an unusual occupation. He's a part-trained necromancer, returned to the mortal world after being exiled to the Fairy realm for 25 years for a crime he didn't commit. Along with his Necromancy ability, Finn has decided to use his connections to offer a match-making servic...

Asa, the century old, vindictive and cruel vampire invades the home of single mother and physician Annalice forcing her to strike a bargain for her daughters life as the monster takes control of her own life and home. Caught in a race against a genetic timeline she must rely on her skills as a physi...

After the tremendous Turn Coat , I was expecting big things from Changes and boy does this book live up to the promises. It's impossible to write about Changes without giving away a few spoilers - however I'm not going to mention anything you can't read on the back of the book itself. So the big new...

Alex is a grumpy daydreamer who spends his life working in an office, commuting via trains and spending time with his family. He has a strong sense of detachment about the world around him and tends to float through life, that is until he finds a tunnel in the basement at work which leads to a very...

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 Ringers’ is a standalo...

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 who finds the...

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, and even t...

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...

Pryan, the World of Fire, does not orbit a sun— at least, not in the normal manner. It is a giant stone sphere containing four suns (similar to a Dyson Sphere), and it is always daytime. The "ground" is not the ground at all, but rather moss and the leaves of huge, mile-high trees; most people don't...

King Rat is the debut of the award winning British author China Miéville. The novel begins with Saul returning from a camping trip to the top floor flat he shares with his father, deciding not to wake him he goes straight to bed. In the early hours of the following morning he is rudely awakened by t...

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 two...

Manroot opens in the spring of 1930 with Katherine Sheahan and her father, Jessie, looking for work in the tourist town of Castlewood, Missouri. Jesse gets a job as a handyman and Katherine as a hotel maid. While her father eventually embraces the drink and disappears, Katherine makes a living for h...

Medusa’s Web by Tim Powers follows the story of siblings, Scott and Madeline, required to stay for a week in their aunt’s house by her recently amended will.  Their cousins Claimayne and Ariel, who live in the house are less than pleased by this requirement. The story has a creepy atmosphere, Scott...

Reviewed by Ed Prior. Moon Over Soho is the second novel in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series about Metropolitan Police Constable and trainee wizard Peter Grant and his magical mentor DCI Thomas Nightingale. Moon Over Soho finds PC Peter Grant still living with the fallout from his first enc...

Picus is one of those people who act as a magnet for trouble, disowned by his parents (or at least his quite scary mother) for not being blood-thirsty enough, hunted by the violent vampire Raben for the theft of an item that wasn't really his and wanted by the leader of the faie Queen Mab (the tooth...

I stumbled across Poison early in high school, and I loved it so much I went on to read whatever other works of Chris Wooding that I could get my hands on. For years I remembered Poison to be this incredible, fascinating novel, so when I picked it up again as an adult I was a little apprehensive. Bu...

I've bought a few Abercrombie novels over the past few years, partly due to the huge amount of positive feedback his work attracts but also as he is a fellow Lancastrian, hailing from the same fine city as I. Due to the sheer volume of review copies I receive I've yet to have time to actually read a...

It's funny how even if you follow a genre closely you can still miss some pretty successful authors, I guess that there are just so many novels published nowadays that this will become increasingly common. I haven't read anything by Holly Black before but I have been aware of her work without realis...

Graham Joyce has a wonderful knack of writing about very ordinary, very real characters that lead generally ordinary lives and yet making those people not only highly engaging but also act in a realistic fashion to events around them. He then places just one small idea that is outside the realms of...

There can be no doubt that Chuck Wendig has a way with words. He writes in a style which has an edge of grim reality, merging with that of the fantastic in such a way that feels entirely natural. As I've said before his books are always adult in nature and he pulls no punches in his depictions, alth...

One of my favourite series has now reached book four and continues to astonish and astound in the quality and conviction of the writing, the continued building of the rich tapestry that is The Courts of the Feyre and the journey of the complex characters that inhabit Shevdon's urban fantasy. The nov...

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...

Quick hit – "The Fire Song" is a great read. If that’s all you need to know, then my recommendation is to go buy, rent or borrow a copy and enjoy. If you’re looking for a little more, read on. First, a confession. I’m not your standard fantasy reader. I write crime fiction and like any writer, I rea...

Following the horrific murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a dis-used graveyard populated by ghosts and other undead creatures of the night - completely unaware of the death of his parents. Taking pity on the innocent child the ghosts agree to raise him as their own, naming him Nobod...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first volume in the The Inheritance Trilogy and the debut of N. K. Jemisin. This review has been written for the David Gemmell Morningstar award . Yeine Darr, ruler of her people is still mourning the untimely death of her mother when she is summoned to the magni...

(Seems to be titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the US). Not a word about Hollywood and the movie (which I will be seeing in a couple of days). Not a word about the merchandise and kids dressed as Potter. Not a word about how this book made the kids read again. Just the book. Some of...

The Reluctant Mage is the second volume in the Fisherman's Children series by Karen Miller. Rafel has been gone for months, last seen heading over Barl's Mountains into the unknown in a desperate quest to find help in the legendary magical Library but such time has passed and all hope appears lost....

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 soo...

What a great idea for a novel. A new little twist on the already satiated apocalypse genre. An underground cavern is unearthed opening the way for thousands of fast breeding “vesps” which hunt by sound and kill everything living they hear on their journey across Europe to our very own British border...

The Warrior Sage is a young adult high fantasy novel by Paul Mills. Chael dreams of a greater life than that of a simple farmer and when he and his sister take the long journey to Darvenlure it soon becomes clear that he may just get what he wished for. Along the road they meet a disarming and overl...

I've been collecting Jasper Fforde novels for a while now however until I got this one through the door I hadn't actually read any of them; after reviewing this book I kinda wish I had paid more attention to the author earlier. The Woman Who Died A Lot is the seventh novel in the Thursday Next serie...

If you've read any books by Graham Joyce you will feel very much at home with The Year of the Ladybird. Not only does it read very much like his previous stories - complete with the everyday path of the protagonist and minimal use of any genre tropes - but The Year of the Ladybird feels like a very...

Who is Charlie Keeper, a young adult fantasy novel written and self published by Marcus Alexander with original Artwork by Lobak Oren. This novel has created such a stir that Graffiti artists, including the Corrupt Government Crew have previously tagged Charlie Keeper inspired characters around Lond...

Ok this was my first time reading one of Mr. Shan’s novels and I must admit I wasn’t wholly impressed. However, reflecting back maybe I am being a bit too harsh. My experience as an adult is to read books aimed at my audience and not one of a younger audience. In that respect, yes, I got it and it w...

The Hanging Tree is the sixth novel in the Rivers of London series. For those who have yet to experience these wonderful books imagine an Urban Fantasy with police procedural elements, warmly written with a disarming humour and celebrating the many hidden rivers that wonder through London (with exce...

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, reach...

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory hasn't even been released at the time of writing and it's already been picked up by Paramount TV. It's the authors first foray into literary speculative fiction and follows the Amazing Telemachus Family. Back in the 1970's they acheived widespread fame for their magic a...

My second review of the Newcon Press Novella series released in Autumn 2017. This is a set of four stories. The Wind by Jay Caselberg, Cottingley by Alison Littlewood, Body in the Woods by Sarah Lotz and Case of the Bedeviled Poet A Sherlock Holmes Enigma , by Simon Clark. Cottingley by Alison Littl...

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. The ‘freaks...

This book, by Kiersten White, is a gender flipped historically based story of the early life of Vlad the Impaler or in this case, Lada  Dracul. White takes the bones of the historical accounts and layers it with a rich imaginings of characters and quirks, to give the reader some insight into a beliv...

It’s a bleak start to Den Patrick’s latest fantasy adventure and the first instalment of his Ashen Torment trilogy. It’s been a tough year in the village of Cinderfell and Blacksmith Marek is struggling to make ends meet for him and his two children. But feeding his family isn’t his only problem. Hi...

Religion is a tricky thing, a lot of people think they have picked the right one. Some believe in one God, but many people have several. The Mayans had some deities you would not want to meet in a dark alley as they prey on humans from the underworld. Meeting one of these Gods would be scary, but if...

There are books that ruin it for anyone else. Harry Potter has basically made it impossible to make a book set in a magical school without someone saying, “rip off”. Just don’t mention to those people that The Worst Witch has been around a lot longer. Still, it takes a brave soul to set their book i...

Dragons get a bad press. They may have been known to ransack a few villages and eat people, but if they were left alone, they would not bother you. They are, of course, extinct now. If one or two of them remained where would they hide? Somewhere remote enough to be away from crowds carrying pitchfor...

I have known a few archaeologists and historians in my time, and I can tell you that adventure is not always in their blood. I have found that they have chosen those professions as they seek the opposite of adventure. Perhaps a nice library or a quiet dig site. Given the choice between a cup of tea...

The Marvel Universe has plenty of areas to explore, it is not just  superheroes . You also have mutants, magic, aliens and so much more. Perhaps one of the hardest e lements to get your head around are the Gods of  Asgard. Suddenly, the Norse Gods of Odin and Thor are fighting alongside the likes of...

A short warning before the review: Peace Talks is the first half of a single story that concludes in Battle Ground, and certain late-book events spill across both volumes. I have kept the major plot resolutions and the ending out, but if you want to come to the book entirely cold, bookmark this and...

If you have ever been out to sea on a sailing boat, you may have felt that feeling of majesty and awe that the water evokes. This vast expanse that continues as far as the eye can see. Depending on your personality, it can instil a sense of fear or a sense of adventure. I have felt this feeling on l...

Have you ever sat down and read some Fairy Tales to your children? Not the  sanitised  versions that we read today, but the  originals.  If you have, you  gave  the kids nightmares a s  these are stories  not about happiness and magic but o f creatures  and  consequences . If you do something naught...

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 quickly turned to ter...

Nostalgia is a dangerous tool to use in a novel as what people think happened is not always the case. They prefer to see the past through rose tinted glasses. The 1980s can be seen as an era of Nintendo playing and Bermuda shorts, but that was not my 80s. I remember the Spectrum, my milk being stole...

The Fantasy genre is broader than some people try to make out. I have read Tolkien and there is nothing else quite like that, although many followed the path. Modern Fantasy is often darker and violent, but back in the 80s and 90s there was more of a sense of adventure and magic. The likes of the  D...

I have read many genre books and I see trends in what is currently popular or going through a period of high quality. The dark gothic fairy tale is having a moment in the sun as I have recently read some excellent stories that hark back to a feel of past fables but are their own modern take. T Kingf...

If you are of a certain age, you will know that the 80s was by far the best decade for pop culture, the films, music, comics, books, all unbeatable. All the films and TV shows basking in that 80s nostalgia prove it so. But wait, what is that? A load of 90s-based films and TV shows are starting to be...

I love fantasy novels, especially when an author takes the genre in a different direction.  Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez is a fantasy book unlike the others. The difference is that this fantasy world is based on Latin culture and the dragons are hunted and caught. Once captured this menace is n...

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 the n...

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 – sq...

Circuses are magical places; they are also mysterious and occasionally a bit murderous. All the elements that make them perfect for romantic visions of running away and visiting new places each week, are also perfect for someone who likes to snatch victims and not be around when the police start to...

The tie in novel can have a bad press, a book churned out to steal some of the glory from a popular TV show or film, but I have a soft spot for them. When done well they can expand the universe; tie in novels for the likes of Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars (twice) and many others have given fans c...

A lot of what goes on in Fantasy novels is miraculous, magic spells cause havoc on the battlefield, or dragons swoop through the air. Their very nature is that they are fantastical. Some of the characters are like Gods with their powers, but few claim to actually be deities. When Inanna is born, she...

People like to read for differing reasons. Some like to be entertained, whilst others like to be challenged, if you are lucky, you will get a book that will do both. Taking on an alternative history of the New Testament is challenging enough, but making the main protagonist a woman who says that the...

There is a perfectly sensible reason why the concept of Fairy Woods exist. Back in the day, the land was covered in thick forests, any person that travelled too far from the village or well-trodden tracks could easily get lost and become victim to one of several predators from wolves to wild boars....

I have read a lot of magical books in recent years and the genre is not rigid. There are books that are steeped in magic, the reader unsure what is real and what is fake. Other books like A. G. Slatter’s The Briar Book of the Dead have a sense of magical realism to them. Yes, the witches can curse p...

You should be careful what you wish for, but also careful what you promise. Are you going to be able to live up to the hype? Arcadia Books are pretty pumped with James Logan’s The Silverblood Promise stating that it is the best fantasy debut of the year. Let me be the judge of that and having read t...

What is the fantasy genre? It is not just one thing. You can have elves and orcs battling against the backdrop of high wizardry, but you can also write something simpler. Low fantasy is getting so low that it starts to feel like alternative medieval history. Like why write about real history when yo...

There is a long tradition of Folk Horror in the UK, but plenty of other countries bring their own flavour to the genre. American Gothic has all the trappings of classic Folk Horror, but has that distinct US flavour. The woods out there seem different, ancient landscapes unused to the people that roc...

For any author magic is a tricky beast as you can easily paint yourself into the corner. You can make the magic too powerful, or you can develop a whole magic system that is unbalanced. Things become even trickier when you add those tricksy Fae. Fairy magic is all about breaking rules on a contract...

Who doesn’t love a good pirate story? What about a story that has flying ships that drop gunpowder bombs? Or a story that has magic and mysterious civilisations living on remote islands? These all sound great and are wrapped together in a lovely fantasy package in Michael Livingston’s Seaborn , a bo...

I have not read the synopsis of a book I am about to read for over twenty years, ever since I read a spoiler on the back of the novel that revealed the massive twist that occurred two thirds of the way through. I will have to add Series Titles to the list of things not to read as The Vengeance by Em...

I have not lived in the village I grew up in over twenty years, but I still talk about going home when I am visiting. Where I live now has been my home for longer, but there is something about those formative years that make a place always feel like home. I return to see family, but for some people,...

In some books there is more one thing that a reader can focus on. It could be the characters that draw the reader in, or the narrative, or the world building. As a long-term fantasy fan, one element that I often end up focussing on is magical systems. How magic works in a fantasy world can change ev...

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...

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 story, g...

I am not sure if readers have noticed, but we have quietly entered a new Golden Era of Fantasy writing. There is a handful or more of established fantasy authors who have the experience and skill to be writing at the top of their game. Fantasy novels that are not just simple retellings of old tropes...