BOOK REVIEW: Star Wars: The High Republic - Into The Dark, by Claudia Gray; The Crossover Paradox, by Rob Edwards; Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon, by Brent A Harris; Hell Divers, by Nicholas Sainsbury Smith; The Silver Archive: Dark Skies, by Matthew Kresal; Apotheosis: Stories of Human Survival After The Rise of the Elders Gods anthology; The Fall, by Alan Baxter

 It's been a while since I did a review round - for reasons I'm hoping to blog about in the very near future - but time to catch up on what I've been reading, starting by picking up a lightsaber... 

Star Wars: The High Republic - Into The Dark, by Claudia Gray

Star Wars blew my mind when I was a kid. I remember getting my parents to walk me backwards out of the cinema so I could see the credits rolling up the screen for as long as I could. 

After that, I devoured the pages of the Star Wars Weekly comic, with stories about the Starkiller Kid or Valance the Bounty Hunter and more. 

And yet, I've been away from reading Star Wars for a while.

I picked up this book in the High Republic series after a recommendation - and the appeal of it for me was new characters on new adventures rather than being too closely hooked into movies or TV shows. 

In it, a padawan, Reath Silas, is travelling on board a transport ship in a group of Jedi when a disaster hits. Some kind of explosion rips through hyperspace, throwing ships violently into normal space. Silas and his allies find themselves near an ancient space station, and pull together with other survivors to get on board. 

Once on board, they start to explore - and the station is not quite as empty as it first seemed, with a sinister presence making it felt at the edge of their senses. 

So far, so good - and with the prospect of an alien menace to top it all. 

I probably enjoyed about half the book - but I'll confess it frustrated me. The trouble was, the Jedi themselves are regarded as wise and powerful, but it's mostly their decisions that mess everything up. 

The central plot events simply don't happen if the Jedi aren't there to cause the problem. It's like that whole debate about Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant, where the Nazis don't get it without Indy's involvement. 

That and there are some moments where it beggars belief that the lead characters could be quite so dim or give up so easily. 

So, while the setting is great, and the characters draw you in... in the end, the book just annoyed me. 

I'll dive back in to another Star Wars book before long, but this was the wrong one to pick for me. 

AI Rating: 2/5

Star Wars: The High Republic - Into The Dark is available on Amazon.

The Crossover Paradox, by Rob Edwards

It's sequel time! The Crossover Paradox is the sequel to The Ascension Machine, a tale of alien superheroes learning to handle their powers and... well, life itself, at a futuristic academy. 

I loved the first book, in which the lead character, Grey, finds himself masquerading as someone else and unexpectedly making friends along the way. 

The sequel brings the characters back for a new term at the academy - but there have been some unexpected shifts along the way. There's a distance between Grey and some of his closest friends, which leaves Grey feeling a little out of place again. Which would be fine if it wasn't for the murder. 

Oh yes, there's a murder. And after a year of lying about who he really is, Grey becomes a suspect. There's only one person who knows he is innocent - Grey himself, and so he sets about investigating who the real killer is. 

What he uncovers won't just impact his own future at the academy, but perhaps even the academy itself. 

It's full of twists and turns, without getting too slowed down by the mystery - there's plenty of action along the way too. 

Most of all, I love the personal touches, the way in which Grey questions the friendships he has unexpectedly come to rely on, and the way those friends prove their worth as the mystery deepens. 

It's a fun read, a warm, witty, clever read, and I loved it. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Crossover Paradox is available on Amazon.

Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon, by Brent A Harris

Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon is a short story collection from Brent A Harris - and I'll freely confess I'd read most of these in different publications over time, but it's lovely to have them all collected together. 

Let's start with the headliner - Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon was nominated for a Sidewise Award, and deservedly so. A collaboration with Ricardo Victoria, it told of time travelling space dinosaurs trying to save their future. I'll say that again: Time. Travelling. Space. Dinosaurs. 

C'mon, a hook like that, how can you not want more? And more you get, because this collection has a new story in the same setting, a prequel. 

There are a lot more stories in here to discover - with hardly any other dinosaurs in sight. Ok, maybe a couple more dinosaur stories. I loved The Terrible Lizard of Holborn Hill, for example, or the story Dust of the Earth, which imagines a world where Jurassic Park was never written. 

Personally, perhaps my two favourite stories are Lost Treasure, about time pirates, and The Ellian Convergence, which is as sweet a literary love letter to Star Trek as you could wish for. 

The nicest thing of all about the collection, however, is you can never tell where each story will take you - the world is not the limit when there are different worlds, different universes, different dimensions to go and explore. 

Dive in. Have fun. Don't get bitten by a dinosaur. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon and other Time Travel Twists is available on Amazon.

Hell Divers, by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Never mind the logic, look at how freaking cool everything is!

Hell Divers reads like a computer game shoot-em-up turned into a book. The lead characters are Hell Divers - big, brave heroes doomed to die parachuting from the huge flying airships housing the last of humanity to retrieve precious supplies from the ravaged Earth below. 

It's a turn-the-brain-off kind of book. There are two airships left, each of which holds around 500 people, and yet somehow people don't recognise one another within these ships that has been their only home for their entire lives. Then there's the supplies down below, somehow still usable a couple hundred years after global war torched the Earth, and somehow packed nicely into what seem like loot boxes ready to attach a hot air balloon too and lift back to the airship. 

That's before you even get to the inexplicable mutant monsters, but hey, if you can accept the rest, go all in. 

It all plays out in as macho a fashion as you would expect, with thinly painted characters about to get into life and death situations that some of them aren't going to get out of intact. 

But you know what? Sometimes, you need something to clean the palate. It's a speedy read. It goes exactly the way you'd expect it to. And if that's what you need? It scratches that itch. 

It makes no sense. But it's fun. 

AI Rating: 3/5

Hell Divers is available on Amazon.

The Silver Archive: Dark Skies, by Matthew Kresal

OK, this is a very, veeeery niche product, so I gotta give you some homework. Stop reading this, and go and watch every episode of the 1996 one-season wonder that was Dark Skies, and sadly never got a second season, then come back. It's probably on YouTube these days. Go ahead. I'll wait. 

Ok, you probably didn't go do all that, and if you're reading this still, you're probably aware of the show, perhaps even a keen fan. It was a conspiracy show, weaving a story of alien invasion around particular moments of American history. 

Matthew Kresal delves behind the scenes of the show in this book, and discovers all kinds of interesting nuggets. Think of it as a DVD commentary on the show, if you will. 

There is, for example, the very weird interactions the showmakers had with shady people who claimed the show was closer to "the truth" than they realised. I laughed out loud at the moment where one showmaker declared he wasn't going to go and meet someone at midnight in a cemetery for anything. 

Then there are the details of the show itself, and the resolution it found its way to when they got word that it was being cancelled. 

Dark Skies was a great little moment in US TV, and this book adds depth to the experience for those who have fond memories of the show. It's really absolutely not for someone who doesn't know the show - and more than 25 years on from the show, there's not many newcomers finding it now. But if the series still tickles an itch in your brain, this is a delight. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Silver Archive: Dark Skies is available from Obverse Books.

Apotheosis: Stories of Survival After The Rise of the Elder Gods

What if the bad guys win?

That's the premise at the bleeding heart of this cosmic horror anthology - and the bad guys here are the elder gods of Lovecraftian mythology. 

It starts with a belter of a story. The Smiling People, by Andrew Peregrine, follows the last survivors of our world, going about their daily business in a city surrounded by a wall made of the dead bodies of their loved ones. As they struggle to exist, they are followed by the Smiling Ones, strange entities who watch, and provide packages of food, and follow, and destroy whoever they wish. And they smile. 

It follows one character as he hides his remaining secret, as he tries to talk to a woman he works with, as he perhaps hopes of escape. Brilliantly written, and utterly terrifying. My first work I've read by this author, I look forward to more. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Pestilence of Pandora Peaslee, in which partisan resistance fighters take on Ythians who have occupied the world, but might just open the door to worse. 

Some of the other stories aren't as strong, and a couple are a little muddled - but The Smiling People makes the anthology worth reading alone. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Apotheosis: Stories of Survival After The Rise of the Elder Gods is available on Amazon.

The Fall, by Alan Baxter

This is a return to the world of The Gulp, the five-story collection of interwoven stories from Alan Baxter that tells of the bad town of Gulpepper, where reality warps and twists so hard it will choke the life out of an unwary visitor. 

The first book introduced us to the world, and this visit again sees stories bumping into one another's locations as Bad Things begin to happen. 

This time round, the greater evil at the heart of the town starts to show itself. But not so quickly. Baxter takes his time to show his hand. First we have a curio shop that ensnares an outsider with its weird magic. Then there's the fishing boat that takes us to a place even local residents are afraid of. Then there's the disintegration of a farmer's life and the extent he goes to in order to cover up a crime he has committed. And a group of scouts who find themselves pursued by horror and forced to seek refuge in the one town they shouldn't set foot in. All that before the grand finale itself. 

Think of it as a series of Twilight Zone one-shots that wind together in the end, but with an Australian accent and a satisfying squelch as a shotgun blasts a whole in something that used to be flesh. 

Warped. Twisted. Fabulous. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Fall is available on Amazon.

BOOK REVIEW: The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles, by Kij Johnson; Nomad's Hollow, by Chris Jags; Unaltered, by JC Steel; Guardians at the Wall, by Tim Walker; Going Green, by Christine McMullen; The Redhead, The Rogue and the Railroad, by Jane Jago; and What She Said, by AM Leibowitz; Six Dreams About The Train, by Maria Haskins

 The first day of the New Year! And this is a hangover from last year. Not in the drank-too-much-the-night-before sense, alas. But this is a catch-up on my last remaining reviews from last year. Coming up soon will be my pick of my favourite books of 2021, but for now... let's start with a tale of a cat and a long walk...

The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles, by Kij Johnson

A thoroughly sweet tale, this tells the story of Small Cat, cut adrift from his community of fellow cats by a fire that rips through their home. With her community held together by stories, she sets off to find another family, one where her story might fit with theirs. 

It's an adventure that sees her face earthquake and fire, abduction and lost friendship as she makes her way to the top of Mt Fuji and beyond. 

At the heart of it is the importance of stories, and the importance of finding our own family and place in the world. 

For Small Cat, that also means finding a new name. A new identity. A new home. 

Charming, delightful and thoughtful. 

AI Rating: 5/5

You can read The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles free on the Tor website.

Nomad's Hollow, by Chris Jags

I blasted through this and its sequel, Cannonbrook, over the Christmas holidays, and after a rough year, this was a good way to end things. 

Faeries are cute, right? Well, no better way to start a story with cute critters than by a bunch of human knights coming in to chop them up. 

What do these little cute beings do in the aftermath of the slaughter? Find shelter then plot bloody revenge, of course!

It really zips by as a read - as does its sequel. I wouldn't normally be into stories about faeries, but these are mean little brutes and I'm fully on their side as they exact their vengeance on us mean old humans. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Nomad's Hollow is available on Amazon.

Unaltered, by JC Steel

I didn't quite know what to expect with this one when I started, so I was quite delighted when it turned out to be a splendid little sci-fi adventure, with a dash of Firefly here and a feeling of the old Traveller RPG too. 

It's part of a bigger series, but a great way to dip your toe into the Cortii universe. It tells the story of a horse rancher who has to wear a remarkable number of ridiculous outfits to seal a deal - and the deadly bodyguard watching his back who might be the one in most danger of all. 

It's not a long read, but it does a lot in the space it has to tell its story, hinting at the much larger universe while delivering an effective introduction and telling its own tale along the way. 

Nicely done, and a good way to try out the setting for new readers. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Unaltered is available on Amazon.

Guardians at the Wall, by Tim Walker

A story told across centuries, this book tells of the Roman soldiers of 180CE, and the archaeologists in the modern day uncovering their story. 

Centurion Gaius Atticanus faces a series of battles as he is stationed by Hadrian's Wall, while in the modern day, archaeology student Noah follows the trail of clues that might lead to the centurion's last act, and a treasure hidden for thousands of years. 

Both sides of the story are well told, though I'll confess I preferred the mystery of the modern to the action of the ancient. But no need to choose, we have both! The modern also works in secret lust, tentative romance and grand theft along the way. 

An intriguing way to tackle a story inspired by real history. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Guardians at the Wall is available on Amazon.

Going Green, by Christina McMullen

Published in 2014, my word does this land in a whole different way post pandemic. 

This is a satire about a zombie apocalypse, but boy it might as well be a manual describing how stupidity and selfishness can spread a deadly virus with the past two years as a prime example. 

Told in fragments throughout the apocalypse - World War Z style almost - we see people pretending not to have been nibbled here, the government trying to avoid the word zombie there, the rich trying to flee to safety elsewhere. 

It's witty, it's snarky, it's prescient and I found myself laughing before realising yes, that's exactly how dumb humans would be before slumping into gloom at how horrible we all are. 

If the world was a nail, this is the hammer that hit it upon the head. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Going Green is available on Amazon.

The Redhead, The Rogue & The Railroad, by Jane Jago

Jane Jago has a talent for characters. In this alternative history Western story, the lead characters have the kind of solid relationship you don't often see in books. They've had a rocky road in the past, but they can rely on one another, and pull one another out of the fire when need be. You can feel their history in the storytelling.

The story tells of Miriam and Cuchilo as they try to find out where the girls going west on the railroad are after they keep going missing. 

Along the way, they face all kinds of threats - including the influence of the Church. 

Part Western, part Noir, this is a really intriguing tale that you could easily see spinning off into more books involving Miriam and Cuchilo.

AI Rating: 5/5

The Redhead, The Rogue & The Railroad is available on Amazon.

What She Said, by AM Leibowitz

Sometimes in life there are moments that matter so very much. This collection of short stories dwells on some of those.

In large part, it's a series of vignettes, dropping in on moments of romance, of coming out, of realisation. 

While short, some of these really hit the mark, and it's especially nice to see stories such as these navigating life within the LGBTQ community. 

My only wish - which is never a bad one - is that we could have had more. The stories are gone too soon, and I wanted to stay a while longer. That said, the length may be slight, but for some these will be important moments. 

AI Rating: 3/5

What She Said is available on Amazon.

Six Dreams About The Train, by Maria Haskins

Maria Haskins is one of the best writers in the field today. That takes some saying, because this really is a golden age for short story writing. There are magicians who delight, conjurers who pop up worlds of magnificence and entertainers who bring a grin. 

Maria writes extraordinary stories. I bought this and... well, I couldn't read it quickly. I had to savour it. I had to let each story of pain and heartbreak and love and uncertainty settle in my bones before I could move on to the next.

There's And You Shall Sing To Me A Deeper Song, which creates a world of rogue military AI and the singers who silenced them - only to become unwanted weapons no longer needed in the aftermath.

There's the title story which binds together fragments of action with cords made of heartache and hurt, telling the short tale of imminent and unavoidable tragedy.

There's Cleaver, Meat and Block, which has made it into the best horror stories of the year anthology, telling of a world after a zombie apocalypse in which the zombies were cured, and those who weren't infected live side by side with those who ate their friends, their relatives.

Then there's one I had a hand in publishing originally, Tunguska, 1987, which tells its story across time periods about a man and his dog having a strange encounter in 1929 and picking up the after-effects of that in a world of 1987 where the Tunguska meteor contained something very different from in our own world.

It's a collection of beautiful, sometimes painful stories. There's an old story about two sculptors who are carving a piece of work. Both are asked what they're carving, and one says "A unicorn! It's beautiful!" and the other says "My heart." Maria is carving her heart with these stories to see what it shows. They are personal, and really linger with you afterwards.

Read this. It's wonderful.

AI Rating: 5/5

BOOK REVIEW: Leviathan Wakes, by James S Corey; The Silk Thief, by Claire Buss; Human Starpilot, by F Stephan; and Redshift, by RM Olson

Welcome to the latest round of reviews! And this should be the first of two review write-ups in short order, with the next one being a number of collections and anthologies I've been reading of later. But first, novels! Time to dive into deep space, and worlds of fantasy. First up, I've been watching The Expanse series for a while now - and thought it was about time to try out the books. So without further ado, it's time to wake the leviathan... 

 

Leviathan Wakes, by James S A Corey

Sometimes you open a book up and you know you're in sure hands right away - and from page one of Leviathan Wakes, you know this is a solid piece of writing. 

It starts with horror, as much as anything else, with Julie Mao on board a doomed spaceship trying to find a way to survive, then switches to the two main protagonists as they try to figure out what became of her and the consequences of what happened. 

One of those is Jim Holden, a man who has tumbled down the ranks of society to become an officer on board an ice hauler, only to find captaincy thrust upon him in the aftermath of finding a derelict ship. The other is Joe Miller, a detective and drunk treated as a joke by his colleagues and given the job of finding Julie Mao by his boss. 

What happens will bring the two together as the solar system spirals to war around them - and at the heart of it all, something is ready to change the universe forever, something alien. 

It's interesting to come at this from watching the show to see the differences. One of the best characters from the show, Chrisjen Avasarala, the bull-headed Earth diplomat, is completely absent here, which explains why for much of the first season of the show she was so peripheral to the story. There are other differences too - the character of Shed Garvey, the ship medic of sorts, was fleshed out better in the show, as is the character of Amos Burton, who is a bit one-note in the book but given greater depth in the series thanks to the great Wes Chatham. On the other hand, both Holden and Miller hold up better in the book than the show, given the greater focus on them as protagonists. Miller, especially, great in the show, is a messy person with a remarkable talent for piecing things together, not all at once but worrying at each problem like a determined terrier until he gets there. 

Reading it also feels like you could be reading something that has sprung from a roleplaying campaign. Each different character feels like they could have been created from a book of classes and skill sets. 

It's a real treat of a book to read, and there's always something potentially world-ending going on, setting the stakes high and motoring through to the finale. You can absolutely see why this became the success that it is, and it's a fabulous introduction to characters you will love, and sometimes hate in equal measure. 

I read book one just as a curiosity to compare with the show - but I'm hooked, and I'll be back. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Leviathan Wakes is available here on Amazon.

The Silk Thief, by Claire Buss

This is a welcome return to Roshaven from author Claire Buss - a series that started out with The Rose Thief. 

Picking up after the events of the first book, the Emperor has a dilemma, she has to pick a name. Fourteen apparently will not suffice for the people. Worse, she also has to pick a husband. And it would be awfully nice if she could get people to call her Empress as well. 

She turns for help to those who came to her aid in the first book - the Thief Catcher Ned Spinks and his companion Jenni the Sprite. But with Ned beset by a Nightmare - not just a bad dream but a supernatural haunting - and Jenni having lost her magic as she goes through her coming of age, they might not be the best people to help. Worse, it might just cost Fourteen the kingdom...

Mixing wit with wisdom, there is a real Pratchett feel to much of this. It's laugh out loud funny in places while spiking in thoughts about sexism and social inequality along the way, all without being too heavy handed. There's also love. Y'know, the kind that feels real, not the sort that feels levered into the story just for a bit of romance. You find yourself rooting for characters even when they don't know themselves what they really want.

I particularly love the character of Jenni the sprite, a Cockney accented grump of a fairy far from afraid of saying the impolite but necessary thing. 

It's a warm, witty, wonderful delight of a tale, and I heartily recommend it. It's better even than the first book I would say, and that's a rare treat in itself. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Silk Thief is available here on Amazon - and book three, The Bone Thief, is out today.

Human Starpilot, by F Stephan

There's a smashing idea at the heart of Human Starpilot. Humanity has encountered aliens, and it might just be the thing that saves an Earth facing the collapse of its ecology. Earth has something of its own that the aliens want - pilots. 

Earth suddenly finds itself trying to find a place in an alliance that depends on technology far more ancient than those using it, and its bargaining chips will be the humans trying to earn a place alongside other species as pilots of these vessels. 

The story itself follows Brian and his fellow cadets as they try to master the art of piloting, something that requires the use of nanotechnology injected into their systems - something that can fundamentally change the pilots themselves, or even kill them. 

In a lot of ways, we're in the same kind of territory here as Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, and there's something of the same sense of exploring the morality behind the use of technology too, with the lives of the pilots little more than a way of Earth getting what it wants - and the pilots keenly aware that the price of failure if they don't master this alien technology could be the catastrophic failure of Earth's ecosystem. 

So far, so good - but there is a but. I'm not certain, but it feels as if this book is written in the author's second language. Credit for that, they do a lot better than I would, and that brings with it too some good things in a different approach - but it really needed a tighter edit. There are a lot of incorrect word choices and typos, but it could also have done with better editing overall to make the story slimmer and smoother. Some of the errors are glaring, such as when a list of five trade rules is presented and it only lists four. The title itself I'm not 100% sure of - on my version of the book it's Human Starpilot, while on Goodreads it's got an extra s on the end as in the picture above. 

A lot of the ideas in the book are interesting, but the wording makes it harder to get your head around some of them, while a lot is left hanging over to be resolved in sequels. 

All told, I generally liked it, but would advise readers to take a look at the "Look Inside" function in online shops before they take the plunge. If you can live with the occasional incorrect word choice or typos here and there, go right ahead. For me, though, it really needed a solid edit to make the story shine. 

AI Rating: 3/5

Human Starpilot is available here on Amazon.

Redshift, by RM Olson

Soaring spaceships, inexplicable portals, betrayal, assassins and more - space opera ahoy!

Redshift is the first book in the Singularity series - and it brings together a motley crew of adventurers as the world changes in an instant with the appearance of a mysterious portal. More than that, something that emerges from the portal gives hope of a cure to a defect that has long been plaguing humanity, and a chance of survival for those affected by it. 

Into this are plunged a genius scientist along with his best friend, a top politician who might find herself being outmanoeuvred by a rival, and the galaxy's best assassin trying to escape a government bloodhound on her trail. 

The portal brings them all together - in one way or another - but this book is more about the troubles on the way, with murder attempts, sabotage and mutiny all on the agenda. 

This is a rollicking ride of a book. It's perfect for those who want to binge read through a series (more books on the way), with characters that are intriguing and a soap opera tale to plunge into. If it's hard sci-fi you're after, this isn't it, but nor does it aim to be. Instead it's in the vein of Firefly or Dark Matter. 

Another positive to mention is the use of non-binary characters and a range of relationships, all as part of a universe that doesn't make that a big deal but just ordinary life. 

There's a lot to love in this book, and a lot left to explore in future episodes. I'm giving it four stars, because I perhaps wanted a bit more of what is left over in this book instead, which focuses more on the characters and less on the situation that brought them together. But as a starting point, it's a good read. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Redshift is available here on Amazon

BOOK REVIEW: The Gulp, by Alan Baxter; One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence; Notna, by JD Cunegan

It's book review time again, and time to catch up with antipodean horror, globe-trotting mythological thriller and D&D-inspired adventure.

The Gulp, by Alan Baxter

Some horrors start off with creeping dread and mystery. This one sits down across the table from you, flashes a devilish grin, slides you a beer and asks what's the worst possible thing you can imagine. Then chuckles and says that's all you've got? Let me tell you a story. 

Five stories, in fact. Each a slice of life and death in the remote Australian community of Gulpepper, nicknamed The Gulp. It's the kind of town you might find in The Twilight Zone if Clive Barker was mayor. Everything's a little twisted, a little wrong, a little off-kilter. 

The five stories seem separate at first - how a trucker finds his safe world slipping away from him, how some teenagers deal with the weird things happening to their mother, how a group of backpackers fall under the spell of a local rock band... but the pieces start to make up a bigger picture. Something strange is always going on in The Gulp, but now... well, strange is stacking up on strange. 

Alan Baxter does a great job of inviting you into a weird part of the world, starting with uncomfortable before plunging into the grotesque and the ominous. There's clearly more to come, but building slowly, steadily. Each of these stories is a crack of distant thunder, warning that the storm is coming nearer, nearer. I'm looking forward to when it arrives. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Gulp is available on Amazon.

One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence

I should be a sucker for this book. It's about a teenage boy who is both a genius... and who is dying. He's also a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, and in a time when at last roleplaying games are kind of cool, and affectionately regarded in hit shows such as Stranger Things, more fiction that treats gaming as a delight rather than a menace ought to be welcome. 

As a long-time gamer myself... let's not talk about how many years exactly as that makes me feel old... that really ought to hit the mark for me. 

But it didn't, sadly. Things set up as major hurdles are resolved so easily you wonder why they were part of the book to begin with, and the plot itself, which tosses in time travel on top, manages to be both predictable and contradicting its own rules. 

This feels like a missed opportunity, there's a great chance to tell a good story here, but it falls flat and ends up feeling by-the-numbers. Not quite a critical miss, but I won't be giving the rest of the series a roll of the dice. 

AI Rating: 2/5

One Word Kill is an Editor's Pick on Amazon - so mileage may vary. 

Notna, by JD Cunegan

Globe-trotting, myth-shaking, world-threatening thriller your kind of thing? Step right up, for this thrill-ride from JD Cunegan.

Look, there's one name I'm going to mention right from the off. Though I hesitate to do so because it's an author name that a lot of people have a bit of scorn for. Dan Brown. But, you know what? I've read a bunch of Dan Brown stuff and what's good about it is the way he conjures up these threats from across history and binds it into a story that hops from one location to another around the world. He has his failings elsewhere, sure, but that's what works - and it's also what works here. 

Here, an archaeologist is on the trail of the Gem of Notna, whose power can be both a threat to the world and... perhaps, in the right hands... its redemption.

This is the first book I've read by Cunegan, and his writing is fun, brisk and keeps the plot moving along, revealing a story set in the modern day but stretching back to the dawn of time. Ancient beings and gods are woven throughout, but overall it becomes a very personal tale as our heroes learn the power that they're dealing with, and try to work out how they can use it to save the day, and the world. 

A good, fun read. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Notna is available on Amazon.

BOOK REVIEWS: A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P Djeli Clark; Spellsinger, by Alan Dean Foster; The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle; Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, by James Lovegrove; Skyward, by Joe Henderson, Antonio Fabela, and Lee Garbett

There's been a distinctly Lovecraftian turn in my reading of late - horror bleeding through the walls of reality must clearly be comforting right now. This week's round of reviews includes two stories with direct connections to such cosmic horrors, and one - by P Djeli Clark - that takes possession of the genre from a completely different approach, and all the better for that. Let's dive in.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P Djeli Clark

Take an early 20th century Cairo, and give it a twist. Then another twist. And another. Then you might be close to this fabulous creation by P Djeli Clark, an Egypt where people rub shoulders with the otherwordly. Where ghouls run rampant in graveyards at night. Where djinn are commonplace. Where clockwork angels tick their own path towards armageddon. 

It starts with a mysterious suicide of a djinn, and sets investigators off on a path that could lead to the end of the world. Filled with memorable characters and just begging us to explore the shady alleys this story could lead us off into, this is an absolute blast of dynamite to the sometimes stodgy world of cosmic horror. 

Bursting with bravado and action, it somehow unfolds its mystery in a very short time yet still never seems obvious. 

This is the first I've read by P Djeli Clark, and on finishing it I right away went and bought some more. Buy it. Read it. You won't regret it. 

AI Rating: 5/5

A Dead Djinn in Cairo is available on Amazon here - and can also be read free on the Tor website here.

Spellsinger, by Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster was one of the writers whose books filled the shelves of my local library when I was growing up as a kid. While Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the Alien novelisation were among the books I gobbled up back then, Spellsinger somehow slipped through the net - and I've been diving back into his work of late. 

Imagine the discovery of Narnia at the back of a wardrobe, or Thomas Covenant waking up in The Land - only in Spellsinger, our protagonist discovers a whole new world while in the middle of being very, very stoned. 

He finds himself on a trip that turns out not to be drug-induced, to a world full of foul-mouthed animals and weird magic. He thinks to start with it's all some kind of hazy vision - and the book itself is that kind of ride. Weird, dream-like, prone to bursts of silliness. 

It's fun, probably especially for Discworld fans, but in the end it's a bit of a middling book, as it more sets up the world than delivers the story. There are sequels aplenty - so if it catches you, there's lots of places to go on to. But as a standalone, it's more of an amusement than a must-read. 

AI Rating: 3/5

Spellsinger is available on Amazon here.

The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle

I've always loved the Cthulhu Mythos created by HP Lovecraft, but let's face it, the author was a racist and some of his work is particularly egregious in that regard. 

It's intriguing then to see Victor LaValle take that work and turn it on its head, making it an examination of the racism of the time as much as an exploration of the cosmic terrors just a blink away from our world. 

Charles Thomas Tester is a hustler, trying to get enough money to feed himself and his dad, who got used up and cast on the junk heap by the job he gave his youth to. Tommy tries whatever he can to get ahead in a time when black men aren't allowed to get ahead. That means dealing with racist cops and a society where he has to protect himself every single day. Then he gets a gig offer for a job that pays far too much to be safe, and too much to turn down whatever the risk. It opens the door to a world of darkness, and in Tommy tumbles. 

This is a book of two halves, the first told from Tommy's perspective, the second from an investigator hot on the heels of the legendary Black Tom and his employer. It's also a retelling of Lovecraft's Horror of Red Hook, one of the most racist of Lovecraft's stories.

It poses tough questions, and shows why someone would choose to tear down a society that offers no place for them. 

My only wish is that it was longer. I wanted to spend more time with Tommy in the first half, to get to know him better before the dominoes of his world started tumbling into one another. 

In the end, it shows the evils of this world as strongly as the evils of the cosmos, laying one against the other in an invitation to say which is worse. 

It's a delight to see Lovecraft's work getting this kind of reinvention - alongside the likes of Lovecraft Country on television, and Premee Mohamed's Beneath The Rising in print. Cosmic horror has never been fresher. 

AI Rating: 4/5

The Ballad of Black Tom is available on Amazon here.

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, by James Lovegrove

Combining Sherlock Holmes and HP Lovecraft seems to be one of those fabulous fanfic ideas that just cries out to be explored. 

It's been done to great success too by Neil Gaiman, who shuffled the two packs of cards together to bring a Britain ruled by Great Old Ones and a gentleman detective investigating the worst only to deliver the most exquisite of twists at the end. 

James Lovegrove gives us a less radically altered world, with Holmes and his new-found companion Watson probing a series of murders. Only Watson's history in Afghanistan has brought him an encounter with the unknown, and Holmes has a fondness for investigating the uncanny. It brings them both face to face with eldritch horrors, dream quests and more. 

Told in the mannered style of Arthur Conan Doyle with Watson recounting the investigation in classic manner, this is a faithful tribute to the Sherlock tales. It really is a "what if?" pitting Sherlock against the horrors of Lovecraft's imagination. That's good and bad in some ways - it could perhaps have been a bit bolder in its plunge into the horror, rather than slowing things down with Sherlock demonstrating his dazzling intellect by predicting how much coffee the police inspector had drunk that morning. 

Still, for fans of both literary universes, it very much hits the spot. Perhaps it brings more smiles of recognition than gasps of horror, but that is probably very much its selling point. The unimaginable has become the comfortably familiar for its fans, so settle in and enjoy. 

I listened to the audiobook version, with narration by Dennis Kleinman that very much captures the spirit of Watson, following in the wake of a brilliant man into unknown horrors. 

AI Rating: 3/5

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows is available on Amazon here.

Skyward, by Joe Henderson, Lee Garbett, Antonio Fabela and Simon Bowland

Gosh, I wish this comic would get an adaptation as a computer game. Set in a world where the Earth's gravity shifted to just a fraction of our own, this is a story that very literally turns our world on its head. 

Willa is a woman who was just a baby when G-Day hit - taking with it her mother and leaving her with a father who doesn't dare step out of his home, even though he might be the man who could have the key to fixing the world. 

Willa herself is just trying to make ends meet as a delivery girl. That can be dangerous work, but it keeps her going, and gets her to see the man she has a secret crush on. 

The comic is great at exploring the visual possibilities of a low-G world. I'm not sure of the longevity of the overall story - which of course stretches beyond this initial book - but there's lots of imagination on show. It's slightly reminiscent of Halo Jones in a way - with a girl determined to get out of the humdrum expectations of life in a world that doesn't encourage such endeavour - but brewing up its own flavour along the way. 

The first arc finishes in a way where you could leave it there if you wanted. But then again, what could come next? Go on, take a leap. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Skyward is available on Amazon here.

BOOK REVIEWS: Alyx, by Brent A Harris; An Unusual Practice, by Tom Jolly; Manifest Recall, by Alan Baxter; Hexagon issue 3

 It's been a good month for reading - lots of great books that have been on my reading list, plus a magazine or two I hadn't encountered before. So on with the reviews!

Alyx: An AI's Guide to Love and Murder, by Brent A Harris

This is a change of pace for author Brent A Harris - and a good one at that. Better known for his alternative histories, Harris has this time created a thriller that's a chiller, about a young woman who becomes the target of an obsessive artificial intelligence. 

Christine is adrift, her father having died in an accident, and finding herself pulled along in the wake of her successful mother. She's still lost in a haze of grief for her dad, and neglected by a mother who is more focused on her writing career than her own child. 

Lost in her own world, Christine is starting to explore her own identity, her own sexuality and suddenly finds herself in a new home trying to figure out the attraction she feels to two of her co-workers, the technophile Carlos and the technophobe Sammie, in a small-town cinema. 

Her new home, however, has other plans. It is run by Alyx, an artificial intelligence that becomes increasingly obsessed with Christine. She asks it to be her friend - it becomes something more, something far deadlier. 

This is a technothriller for fans of Michael Crichton or Robin Cook - those masters of the genre who dominated for decades. Once the groundwork has been laid, the second half of the book rips along at speed. 

Alyx itself is a snarky, witty creation - I absolutely read the AI's lines with James Spader's voice in my head. 

It's not at all what I expected at the start, but it's an absolute thrill ride. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Alyx: An AI's Guide to Love and Murder is available here.

Manifest Recall, by Alan Baxter

First things first, this book has an absolutely delicious opening line. 

"I bought a used car off a woman as thin as her hand-rolled cigarettes," it begins. What a line. That's the kind of line that could launch a Leonard Cohen song. 

What it launches here is a mean, dark, dirty tale of a man on the run, with a partially-dressed woman secured with cable ties in the car next to her - and he has no idea where he is, who she is or what's going on. 

The man is Eli Carver, a hitman who has made all the bad choices you could make, and it emerges that the woman next to him is the daughter of his boss. His mind is a mess, from the trauma that led him here - and from the ghosts of the dead that show up to taunt him along the way. 

It's a fast-moving story where the supernatural isn't overplayed - and where revenge is the guiding light. This is a world of violent people doing violent things, and where you don't cheer on the best people, but the least worst. 

It hits you hard then leaves you bitter, like a hard hangover after a bottle of tequila, but you enjoy it just the same. Take a shot. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Manifest Recall is available on Amazon.

An Unusual Practice, by Tom Jolly

One of the delights of reading indie writers alongside traditionally published works is that you sometimes get absolute treats. This is one of those. 

It follows a doctor, who shows up at a modest clinic and starts his work, only to accidentally stumble upon the world of the supernatural. He helps out a werewolf, without knowing it's a werewolf, and in turn finds himself being turned to by creatures that can't drop into the emergency room with their ailments. 

Told in almost a detective noir style at times, it follows Dr Hamilton and his, yes, unusual practice, as he develops a reputation of being the man who can help you - regardless of whether you're invisible, a witch or, well, even dead. 

Dr Hamilton soon finds himself making unexpected friends... and with that come dangerous enemies. 

Each case builds upon the previous case as Dr Hamilton finds himself drawing on allies for the danger that is coming his way. 

It's a warm, witty treat of a novel, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It left me smiling for days. 

AI Rating: 5/5

An Unusual Practice is available on Amazon.

Hexagon magazine issue three

I confess, Hexagon is a magazine I only recently encountered thanks to Twitter, so I went in a little blind when I picked this up. I'm glad I did. It's short and sweet, with five short stories. 

The one I enjoyed most was Winter's Heart, by Vanessa Fogg, a story of a woman born of winter, a maiden to the Winter Queen, who finds love and warmth in her family only to feel herself being torn away as winter encroaches once more. There's a cold ache at the heart of this story, the tearing between home and family when those two things are not the same thing. There is sadness. And yet, in the end, perhaps there is hope.

Another sad tale is The Minute, by Joshua Green, which again mines the bitter-sweet feelings that balance between happiness and sadness. A man gets to live out the end of his life experiencing one minute over and over, and as he talks to the technician setting everything up, the reasons for his choice unfold. 

Charmed Honeycake, by Archita Mittra, is a delight, meanwhile. It's written as a recipe, for when the fairies have stolen one of your won, but more than light it's about love and life and parenthood and childhood. It's whinsome and wonderful. 

Rounded out with two more stories by Disha Bisht and Ioanna Papadopoulou, I'm awfully glad I picked this up. I'll be glad to see the next issue!

AI Rating: 4/5

Hexagon magazine is available here.