Books

Peter McLean is back with another instalment of his entertaining Don Drake series. The rough-around-the-edges diabolist-for-hire continues to pine for his guardian angel, make stupid decisions, get himself into trouble, and generally fuck up whenever he possibly could. Three books ...

The trouble with writing a spectacular opening novel of a series is that every follow-up is held up to a bar already set incredibly high. Of course, writing a smashing first instalment encourages readers to pick up any follow-ups, so ...

I feel like I need to preface this review with a disclaimer: the author of this book, Jon Spira, is a (long-suffering) friend of mine. Having said that, I pride myself on approaching such things with absolute objectivity to the ...

The Bear and the Serpent is the second in Clarke Award-winning Tchaikovsky’s Echoes of the Fall series. Where the first novel found us following a very personal journey of self-discovery, the second novel is far more macro in scope. This ...

It’s only natural that you end up comparing a writer’s new work to what they’ve previously delivered. Given that Jen Williams’ Copper Cat series was one of the most fun I’ve read in recent years, it was always going to ...

One of my favourite people on this planet, Jon Spira, also happens to be a ruthless critic – yes, far worse than me – and a mentor of mine. When he began reviewing the recent behind the scenes tell-all, Jaws 2: ...

I love a good thematically organized short story collection, be it situated around an issue or a specific concept, the variety of stories around a singular subject matter can make for some intriguing reading. Every author interprets the theme differently ...

Can you think of any books that entirely populated by women? No? Well, now you’ll be able to name one. Kameron Hurley’s first stand-alone novel, The Stars are Legion, coming from Saga Press in the US and Angry Robot in ...

Publishing industry insiders are predicting that 2017 will find readers turning to happier tales of escapism and hope. As a result, genre publishers are talking about the This is a big shift from the pessimistic dystopias that have dominated bestseller lists ...

One of the perils of being a book reviewer is accepting an author review copy of a book in a series when the book is not the first in the series. If you have no prior knowledge of the series ...