I’d read a blurb of The Boy with the Porcelain Blade long before the book arrived on my desk as a potential review option and I knew I was interested. There’s a lot in the title; “Porcelain Blade” sounds gothic, interesting, fragile and dangerous. I forgot to consider “The Boy”. Our hero is young. In […]
Life before death? A review of The Death House
Imagine a near future in which it no longer snows in England. The Government, sometimes referred to as Black Suits, has the power and the desire to take children away from families should genetic screening suggest the presence of the Defective gene. We can assume these Defectives have caused problems. There must be some reason for […]
Man meets Intelligence: A review of On The Steel Breeze
Don’t make the same mistakes as I did with Alastair Reynolds’s sci-fi. Despite the mermen and the ghosts I found the start of “On The Steel Breeze” to be quite slow. I wasn’t paying full attention when a few small paragraphs described how the main character Chiku divided into three identical copies and decided to […]
Mashpunk: A review of In Dark Service
I liked In Dark Service by the time I got to the end. The promise of the book kept me intrigued and although I may not ever understand why I struggled to push on through at the start, I am glad I got to the end. This is a good book. I had two concepts […]
Listen to Edward Cox’s The Relic Guild
http://soundcloud.com/orionbooks/the-chase-continues-listen-to-a-clip-from-edward-coxs-the-relic-guild-read-by-imogen-church/s-ZBBgG This audiobook clip comes from Edward Cox’s The Relic Guild. Young Clara struggles to survive in a dangerous and dysfunctional city, where eyes are keen, nights are long, and the use of magic is punishable by death. She hides in the shadows, fearful that someone will discover she is touched by magic. She knows […]
Sherlock and the fear of death: blog touring with Anna Caltabiano
Gollancz will publish The Seventh Miss Hatfield on the 31st of July. Geek Native’s review is already up and called Pride, Prejudice and Time Lords. There’s one interesting fact that the review didn’t mention as it has no relation to the quality of the story but does offer an interesting twist. Anna Caltabiano, author of […]
Fast moving: A review of Barricade
My business trip started with a taxi ride from the bottom of Leith Walk in Edinburgh, I got to London, spent two days in business meetings and then flew home. I read Barricade in that time. I mention my own travelling not just to illustrate how fast moving and compelling Barricade is but also because […]
Pride, Prejudice and Time Lords: A review of The Seventh Miss Hatfield
When I first read about Anna Caltabiano’s story my brain focused on the time travel, magic and curse. As it turns out; there’s more and less geeky elements to the story as well. We start with a young Rebecca who ends up talking to a mysterious neighbour. True to expectations Rebecca ends up drinking something […]
A gentle Texan murder, with vampires: A Midnight Crossroad review
Midnight Crossroad is the first in a new series, called Midnight, Texas, from Charlaine Harris. I’ve not read or watched any of Harris’ previous works and that turns out to be important. Charlaine Harris may be best known for her Sookie Stackhouse books which, on TV, are known as True Blood. Geek Native interviewed Harris […]
In Dark Service: Exploring Far-Called with Stephen Hunt
Stephen Hunt is geek of note and respect. He step up SFcrowsnest.org.uk, a hugely popular geek site (Geek Native has envy issues), he is an internet pioneer and his fiction has been so successful he writes full time now. The Times described his Jackelian Novels as “inventive, ambitious work, full of wonders and marvels”. Hunt’s […]
