Reviewed by Ian Lipke Victoria Aveyard was born and raised in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts but moved to Los Angeles to earn a BFA in screenwriting at the University of Southern California. She writes both books and sheet music. Aveyard’s Blade Breaker shows that she has the breadth of vision to imagine and produce a hefty
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Sea of Tranquility is the first work of Canadian novelist and essayist, Emily St. John Mandel, that I have read, and I found it to be quite an unusual experience. The book is set out with a Table of Contents showing eight segments indicating that their contents cover events or storylines
Reviewed by Ian Lipke If there is no difference between a fantasy novel and a fantastical one, there should be. Richard Swan’s novel The Justice of Kings is a vastly different enterprise from Ken Follett’s Never, which is an epic tale of the fanciful. Richard Swan’s book is epic in size but certainly not in
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Angela Slatter, the author of All The Murmuring Bones, specialises in writing about dark fantasy and horror. This is her first novel set in the same world as her mosaic collections Sourdough and Other Stories and The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, as well as the novella Of Sorrow and Such. This story will be followed
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Ms Roberts’s foray into a new trilogy is to be commended, given the high quality of her earlier works. The Awakening maintains the high standard we have come to expect. In this book, her command as the puppeteer is more evident than usual but in no way diminishes the quality. She
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Sometimes I wonder why authors decide to write sequels to a story that has already won a major award and gained acceptance by the reading public. I suppose some writers cannot help seeking more and more recognition. Others become slaves to their own publicity. (I wonder what drives Nora Roberts). In
Reviewed by Ian Lipke This particular book is Book 2 of a trilogy that began with King of Ashes. The reason why each title was chosen remains a mystery for much of each book, the second more so than the first. In fact, it is not until readers are well into the books, almost at
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Six-legged bear-sized aliens living and procreating like bees in enormous hives that float in deep space; a state-of-the-art weaponized space ship; a volatile crew of four; and, artificial intelligence (AI) so evolved that humans are superfluous. Such are the elements of Max Barry’s latest speculative novel – Providence. This is a
Reviewed by Rod McLary Pandora English – the protagonist of this novel – is a living human being. The word ‘living’ is used advisedly as the area of New York in which Pandora lives is populated by the living, the dead and the undead. She lives in Spektor – an area of Manhattan where the
Reviewed by Rod McLary QualityLand was a best seller when it was first published in Germany in 2016. It has now been translated from the German to English and is to be published around the world. The story is set sometime in the near future in a world which is largely run by robots and