Books tagged with: island

Tome of the Undergates was a fun, bloodthirsty and action packed novel with a young and yet confident voice and Black Halo promises more of the same, picking up where the first book ended. These mismatched and grumpy souls that make up Lenk's rag-tag band manage to get themselves shipwrecked on an i...

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 similarly comple...

Encrypted is a fantasy novel by Lindsay Buroker, set in the same universe as her previous novel "The Emperor's Edge". Tikaya Komitopis is one of the great "hero's" of the war, instrumental in snatching a resounding victory from the jaws of defeat. She isn't however a fearless war hero or a calculati...

Fingers and other Fantastic Stories is an anthology by the talented Romanian author Marian Coman, current editor in chief of the newspaper "Obiectiv - Vocea Br'ilei" and a very talented writer. Fingers is his first work to be translated from his own language and includes four short stories that were...

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 com...

Mystery is a horror novel by Peter Straub. This is the first book by Peter Straub that I have read. I have seen his name mentioned in the alt.books.stephen-king newsgroup a few times and when I found this book at the library, I thought "why not?". The About the Author thing on one of the last pages...

Nation is the first novel in some time (since the 1996 novel Johnny and the Bomb) Terry Pratchett has written that is not a part of the Discworld series. Sir Terry had apparently been ready to write it for four years and could wait no longer. Primarily aimed at children, Nation is everything that co...

Storm Thief takes place in the fantasy world of Orokos, a city on an island run by a totalitarian government, ravaged by chaos and by the probability storms that re-order the world wherever they strike. It has been this way for so long that history has forgotten it, and its citizens don’t believe th...

I have been lucky enough to be one of a select few to receive an early copy of The Death House , wrapped in brown paper and twine and promising much. I have to say it's an impressive read. The story involves a unique childrens home (The Death House) where those who are found susceptible to an unexpl...

The Good, The Mad and the Undead follows on from the authors previous book A Heist Too Far which we were lucky enough to review last year. Here we are re-united with the dangerous, blue-skinned assassin Mallik who has split up with his comrades Dick and Jules in order to let the heat die down follow...

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 most tragic tale from the Time of Legends tells of the fall of the greatest houses of the elves and the fates of three kings: Pheonix, Witch and Shadow. There was once a time when all was order, now so distant that no mortal creature can remember it. Since time immemorial the elves have dwelt up...

Walking the tree, by Kaaron Warren (the author of Slights), is a fantasy novel set on the island Botanica. This is no ordinary island however, almost the entire space is taken up by one enormous tree. Small communities live around the coastline and depend on the tree for shelter, firewood and even m...

It’s New Year’s Eve when the beloved and popular Olivia goes missing on the Orkney island that was her home. Of all her friends and family, it’s her little sister Alex, who takes it the hardest. Blackbird is the claustrophobic account of Alex’s life immediately following her sister’s disappearance....

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...

A Question. If something hurts, does that make it true? With this intriguing opener of a question begins Seth Dickinson ’s The Monster Baru Cormorant , the first of three planned sequels to 2015 ’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant . Dickinson burst onto the fantasy scene with Traitor , a geopolitical epic...

Having grown up in a village, life there had its pros and its cons. There is a real sense of community, and everyone knows each other. Great, but also not so great. Any small incident can become gossip, no matter how benign, so I can only imagine what would happen should a fire break out and a body...

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Peter Pan is cheeky, certainly a hero, but he was also annoying and domineering. Did the Lost Boys want to stay on the island, or did Peter force them? On reflection, Peter Pan had some issues, but Disney put an airbrush t...

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...

What modern fantasy has shown is that you do not need to set your fantasy world in alternative medieval Europe. Our planet is full of varied and rich cultures that can be married with fantasy concepts to make alternative takes on the genre. The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell is the latest unique...