The sequel to When the Heavens Fall features gritty characters, deadly magic, and meddlesome gods Once a year on Dragon Day the fabled Dragon Gate is raised to let a sea dragon pass into the Sabian Sea. There, it will be hunted by the Storm Lords, a fellowship of powerful water-mages who rule an empire called the Storm Isles. Emira Imerle Polivar is coming to the end of her tenure as leader of the Storm Lords, but she has no intention of standing down graciously. As part of her plot to hold on to power, she instructs an order of priests known as the Chameleons to sabotage the Dragon Gate. There’s just one problem: that will require them to infiltrate an impregnable citadel that houses the gate’s mechanism — a feat that has never been accomplished before. But Imerle is not the only one intent on destroying the Storm Lord dynasty. As the Storm Lords assemble in answer to a mysterious summons, they become the targets of assassins working for an unknown enemy. And when Imerle sets her scheme in motion, that enemy uses the ensuing chaos to play its hand. Time for some fantasy and the latest from Marc…

Welcome to London, but not as you know it. Oxford Street burned for three weeks; Regent’s Park has been bombed; the British Museum is occupied by those with nowhere else to go. Lalla has grown up sheltered from the chaos, but now she’s sixteen, her father decides it’s time to use their escape route – a ship big enough to save five hundred people. Once on board, as day follows identical day, Lalla’s unease grows. Where are they going? What does her father really want? What is the price of salvation? Regular readers of The Eloquent Page are well aware of my almost un-heathy addiction to apocalyptic fiction. I’ll begin by reaffirming that admission, I think about the end of the world more than is probably entirely normal. I know this might sound terribly morbid, but let me assure you that it really is not. I don’t wish anyone dead. I certainly don’t want to be around to see it. I’m just insanely curious about what form our end will take, and what will come afterwards. With that in mind, it will not be a surprise when I tell you I am always on the lookout for the next apocalyptic…

You wake up … something’s wrong … you’re human. An ancient space-being called Moomamu has awoken on Earth and wants nothing more than to get back to his home in the stars. Taking the advice of his cat, Gary, he makes his way up t’north to meet the Tall-One-With-Insight. As he journeys across a land of underground trains, cappuccinos, and a man obsessed with killing him, he soon learns that being on Earth is a symptom of a bigger problem, and going home, just might destroy the planet. If I’m entirely honest, hipsters are a bit of a mystery to me. Ironic really, if I was about a decade younger and was slightly better groomed, I rather suspect I might be one (I do enjoy a good beard). From my current perspective however, they are an entirely different species. So for an author to come to the conclusion that hipsters could conceivably be from another planet seems like a completely reasonable suggestion as far as I am concerned. Moomamu finds humanity more than a little baffling (I can’t say I blame him). In his eyes we are a violent, contrary bunch who just don’t make much in the way of…

Please note Jani and the Great Pursuit is a direct sequel to Jani and the Greater Game. If you haven’t read that first then it is highly likely that this review may contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! Understood? Splendid…tally ho!! Jani and her stalwart companions Lieutenant Alfie Littlebody and Anand Doshi find themselves chased from India, via Greece, to London by the British authorities, Russian spies and a Hindu priest – who all want what Jani carries, the ventha-di: the key that will open the door to other worlds. In London she attempts to rescue the imprisoned alien Mahran – the only person who might help her save the Earth from the invasion of the merciless Zhell, the self-styled Masters of the Cosmos. But will she escape London and reach Tibet before the forces of evil capture her – and before she is betrayed by someone she considers loyal to her cause? Back in August 2014, I read a novel called Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown. It had a wonderful steampunk edge and was a perfect example of how good action/adventure should be. Jani and the Greater Game was great fun. I remember I…

Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons – a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura’s job is to censor video games, and he’s tasked with getting to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura’s hiding something… He’s slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame’s origins are even more controversial and dangerous than the censors originally suspected. Fiction, by its very definition, is essentially geared toward answering the question “what if?” Alternate history particularly delights in positing this conundrum. As soon as I read the blurb for United States of Japan, I knew that I had to read it. I’m willing to admit the giant robot on the cover also helped to sell me on the premise. An alternative version of 1980s America where Japan and Germany defeated…