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Review: A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
A Little Hatred is a story that relishes and thrives being in the darkness. It’s a leveling up from The First Law Trilogy. The achievements have been collected, the characters have grown and the bloody destruction continues. Although this is technically a new series, I do believe that your reading enjoyment will be enriched by reading the First Law Trilogy. The backstories and journeys will be far more satisfying if you do so. A Little Hatred is like nothing I have read before, I do think that it even surpasses his fantastic first law series – which Is saying something because I loved it! Abercrombie has settled into his writing,…
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The Fort (City of Victory #1) by Adrian Goldsworthy
Sometimes you just pick up a book and fall into another time. The Fort by Adrian Goldsworthy is one such book. The time, the characters, the narrative. Everything just seems to slot into place. The characterization skills are terrifically utilized and the plot was swift-moving and often balancing on a knife-edge. I am a huge fan of historical fiction and I genuinely believe that I would be hard placed to see a better example of it than, The Fort. Flavius Ferox is a character that instantly called to me. He’s vivid, he’s alive and passionate. His character arc and internal monologue cast me into a time where brutality is the…
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The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence | Book Review
The Girl and the Mountain yet another stonking story from Mark Lawrence. Once again, the author had that perfect formula for breaking me. It’s a straight run on from The Girl and the Stars, it didn’t skip a beat, not for one second and I settled into meeting old friends again. An ending that had me needing more, an ending that proved just how addictive Lawrence’s writing is. His writing skills are so dastardly and intoxicating that its impossible not to race to the end. I’ve had to wait a few days to write this review because I have been living in a hungover, adrenaline intoxicated state. Let’s take a…
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Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito | Book Review
Venus in the Blind Spot is my first ever Manga novel. It isn’t something that I would have necessarily picked up but I received it in an Abominable Book Box. It certainly won’t be the last. The artwork and the storytelling is both horrific and awe inspiring. There is tales of misadventure, Japanese lore, and the undercurrents of love and suffering constantly being the backbone of the collection. Darkness has seeped into these stories and it’s a set of stories that aren’t likely to be forgotten in a hurry. The characterization was spot on. On first meet you think these people have the perfect lives, perfect families and perfect lifestyles…
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The Institute by Stephen King | Review
The Institute, much like Sleeping Beauties felt like a trip back in time by Mr King. He’s back to that standard that his fans love. I’ve owned this book for over a year now and only just got the courage to pick it up. I am a mega King fan and hoped and prayed that this would be everything that I wanted and guess what the main man pulled it straight out of left field. The dynamics, the characterisation and the environment had me fist bumping the air…because you know, no-one around me likes reading and pandemic…gah! One thing you can almost bet your bottom dollar on is that King…
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Sorcery Of A Queen by Brian Naslund | Review
Thank you to Tor UK, Brian Naslund, Jamie-Lee Nardone and Stephen Haskins for a review copy of Sorcery Of A Queen. “You of all people should know how rumours go. There’s a kernel of truth that gets inflated each time it passes from one drunken mouth to the next, until you have an enormous dragonslayer with a foot-long cock pissing down the neck-stumps of decapitated dragons.” It has been such a pleasure to be back in the wonderful world of Terra once again. The magic, the dragons, the relationships and the tongue-in-cheek humour. Brian Naslund has this inert skill to just know the formula for have the brain completely enraptured…