A.E. Warren ★★★ In the twenty-third century, humanity isn’t limited to just Homo sapiens. A deadly pandemic and the famine that followed led to humans experimenting with their genome in an attempt to makes themselves more resilient. Now there are two newer, better human species, and Homo sapiens has been pushed to the bottom of…… Continue reading Subject Twenty One
A Master of Djinn
P. Djèlí Clark ★★★★★ In 1912, England and the Empire were no longer of great import, while Egypt had risen to be one of the great world powers. 40 years ago, the mystic al-Jahiz opened a portal between the mundane and magical worlds and the djinn were loosed on the world, bringing sorcery, alchemy, and…… Continue reading A Master of Djinn
This Fragile Earth
Susannah Wise ★★★ In a near future world in which everything – utilities, transport, agriculture, communications, medicine, even pollination – is run by a single centralised computer system, what happens when that computer shuts down? This Fragile Earth is the tale of one family trying to survive in their new world. I found the novel…… Continue reading This Fragile Earth
June Releases
May has been mostly spent reading urban fantasy, namely Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer series, Mark Hayden’s King’s Watch series, and the fantastic Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix. Urban fantasy seems to be where my head is at right now, so I’m just going with it. The Last Dragonslayer is technically YA, but…… Continue reading June Releases
The Essential John Wyndham: The Pulp Fiction Collection
John Wyndham, edited by Christopher Broschell ★★★ Whether they realise it or not, most people will be passingly familiar with at least one John Wyndham work, even if they’ve only seen it on film or TV and took no notice of the writer’s name in the credits. The most common is probably The Day of…… Continue reading The Essential John Wyndham: The Pulp Fiction Collection
Howls from Hell
Foreword by Grady Hendrix ★★★ The HOWL (Horror-Obsessed Writing and Literature) Society came to being as a subreddit gathering of horror fans and writers, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Howls from Hell is their first anthology, featuring sixteen emerging authors. Anthologies are always a mixed bag, but they are a great…… Continue reading Howls from Hell
Anna
Sammy HK Smith ★★★ In her post-apocalyptic world, she has chosen to leave her home and wander the wastelands, subsisting on what she can scavenge and hunt. Women have become mere chattel in this new reality, bought and sold and violated at the whim of the men who snare them, so she avoids human contact,…… Continue reading Anna
Threadneedle
Cari Thomas ★★★★★ “Magic is the first sin; we must bear it silently” When Anna’s father murdered her mother and killed himself, it was her aunt who took her in. Aunt is a witch, a Binder. Anna is being raised to become a Binder, taught that magic is a curse, a temptation that must be…… Continue reading Threadneedle
May Releases
Wow, this month has really sped past. So much so that I didn’t quite realise when I was, and hadn’t got round to writing this post yet. If it seems a bit rushed, now you know why. I’ve also had two projects on this month, one of which is irrelevant to the blog but seems…… Continue reading May Releases
![Shards of Earth [The Final Architecture #1]](https://thebookdragondotcodotuk.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/56616571._sy475_.jpg?w=309)
Shards of Earth [The Final Architecture #1]
Adrian Tchaikovsky ★★★★★ The Architects came for Earth first. Humanity had nothing to stop them, so Earth fell, torn asunder and remade at the Architect’s whim. Decades and many dead planets later, our last best hope were the Intermediaries, a handful of surgically altered humans borne into space by a female warrior caste, the genetically…… Continue reading Shards of Earth [The Final Architecture #1]
