Before there was Jaws, there was… QUINT Fifteen years since I landed on Amity, an island full of rich folks adrift between the Hamptons and Montauk. Got a business and a boat, got me a truck with my name and a pretty shark scratched on the door. Carved it myself. Bad job. I got ghosts around me, lot of ghosts. Gotta put ‘em somewhere. Can’t drink ‘em all. Ain’t here for company, and I only got two stories for telling company anyways. Thinking if I get them stories down, on paper mind, then that’s just between me and the ink. You already know the end of his story: now find out where it all began. So much more than a fisherman, Quint is a survivor, a fighter, a man who has left three wives in his wake. From his time as a young sailor facing the horrors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, to a deadly night-long showdown with a frenzy of sharks years later, before he finally settles on the island of Amity. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched Jaws. It could well be my favourite film. If I put my mind to it…

After a much-needed* sabbatical from The Eloquent Page, I’m back to it with a renewed sense of purpose. 2024 promises a whole host of great new genre fiction and I intend to point you in the direction of some of the best. I’m easing back into reviewing this year with a short story collection for Black Shuck Books called The End by Kayleigh Dobbs. It’s a small but perfectly formed anthology picking apart my very favourite sub-genre – apocalyptic fiction. Let’s dive right in… The Claim They Stake – Since Billy stopped taking his medication, events have taken a worrying turn. Billy is most concerned about his elderly neighbour. Mr Tiley has gone from being a kindly old gentleman to a lizard creature wearing a human suit.  Billy’s sense of paranoia feels palpable. The growing sense of his panic and desperation is infectious. I’m sure if I was in the same position I’d be bowing down to our reptilian overlords in a matter of minutes.  If, like me, you’re old enough to remember shows like V or sports pundit turned raging conspiracy theorist, David Icke, this story will be a real treat. I have to make an apology to the…

Before this week’s review, I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone all the best for this forthcoming season. For reasons I shall not bore you with, my output has been somewhat sporadic in 2023. After today’s post, I’m going to have a much-needed break with my lovely family for a couple of weeks and then I promise that The Eloquent Page will return in 2024. Hopefully, I’ll be able to manage my time a bit better and get back to a more regular posting schedule. As ever, my often rambling book-related waffle will remain front and centre 🙂 Apologies for that interruption. Now back to the bookish stuff you came here for in the first place… At the very moment when Daniel Littlewood decides to end his worthless life, he’s not himself any more. He’s the suave and deadly hero of a Hollywood dream filled with fast cars, beautiful women and jetsetting intrigue. As fantasy and reality begin to collide and a global conspiracy threatens the fate of the world, the only question is, Just how badly Daniel Littlewood screws up this time… This week I’ve been taking a look at The Beggar and The Ghost by…

Please note, Aliens: Bishop is a direct sequel to the events in Aliens and Alien3. If you’ve not seen both of these cinematic gems then the book-related waffle that follows will contain some mild spoilers. Consider yourself duly warned! Massively damaged in Aliens and Alien3, the synthetic Bishop asked to be shut down forever. His creator, Michael Bishop, has other plans. He seeks the Xenomorph knowledge stored in the android’s mind, and brings Bishop back to life―but for what reason? No longer an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Michael tells his creation that he seeks to advance medical research for the benefit of humanity. Yet where does he get the resources needed to advance his work. With whom do his new allegiances lie? Bishop is pursued by Colonial Marines Captain Marcel Apone, commander of the Il Conde and younger brother of Master Sergeant Alexander Apone, one of the casualties of the doomed mission to LV-426. Also on his trail are the “Dog Catchers,” commandos employed by Weyland-Yutani. Who else might benefit from Bishop’s intimate knowledge of the deadliest creatures in the galaxy? This week I’ve been reading Aliens: Bishop by T R Napper. Based on the book blurb it ticks…

When lorry driver Dougie Alport carries out a deadly attack on his employer’s head office, the reverberations of his actions unleash a grief in his wife Maureen that threatens to reveal the secret she has spent years hiding from their son, Boyd. Moving north to start again is Maureen’s best response. But as the walls begin to throb with mould and his mother slips from his grasp, Boyd decides to flee, finding solace with a new friend at the landfill site on the edge of town. Here, a startling discovery upends Boyd’s new life and forces him into a reckoning with his mother, her past, and his future. Something a bit different this week. In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Lamb by Matt Hill explores the breakdown of the relationship between a mother and son. The book covers two distinct time periods. Firstly there is Boyd’s life immediately after his father’s attack and then a flashback to Maureen’s formative years. Boyd is on the cusp of his journey into manhood. Like many teenagers, he is consumed by thoughts of his future, of the person he could become. When his life is ripped away, Boyd suddenly finds himself adrift from…

A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. He’s not alone – there are six others. None of them can remember their names, but all bear the scars of recent surgery. When a message appears on the onboard computer – Proceeding to Point A – the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form, and the group is plagued by questions. Who is directing them, why have they lost their memories, and what are the screams they can hear beyond the mist? Regular readers of The Eloquent Page know I’m drawn to apocalyptic fiction like a moth to a flame. When it comes to the fall of humanity, I just can’t get enough. I’m not entirely sure what that says about me but we dont have time to unpick that right now. We’re here to discuss Red River Seven by A J Ryan.  That first paragraph is about as close to a spoiler as I can get when it comes to talking about this book. Something, somewhere has gone horribly wrong….

From one of the most original voices in fantasy comes a twisted tale of murder, betrayal, and battlefield salvage. There’s no formal training for battlefield salvage. You just have to pick things up as you go along. Swords, armour, arrows – and the bodies, of course. Over the years, Saevus Corax has picked up a lot of things. Some of them have made him decent money, others have brought nothing but trouble. But it’s a living, and somebody has to deal with the dead. This week, I’m taking a look at the recently released Saevus Corax Deals with the Dead by K J Parker. The story really couldn’t be simpler*. Saevus Corax has an uncanny knack for rubbing people up the wrong way. Cleaning up after battles should be a straightforward business, everyone who could cause a problem is usually dead, but after managing to irritate the two largest militant banking orders on the entire continent Saevus is forced to go on the run. Stumbling from one potentially lethal incident to the next, this joyfully chaotic series of ever-escalating events is a great deal of fun**. More through luck than judgment, Saevus finds himself at the epicentre of everything. He’d…

Please note, A Savage Moon is the fourth book in The Wanderer Chronicles. If you haven’t read books one, two and three then what follows may contains minor spoilers. Byzantium, 718AD The great siege is over. Crippled warrior, Erlan Aurvandil, is weary of war. But he must rally his strength to lead a band of misfit adventurers back to the North, to reclaim the stolen kingdom of his lover, Lilla Sviggarsdottir. For this, they need an army. To raise an army, they need gold. Together they plot a daring heist to steal the Emperor’s tribute to his ally. Barely escaping with their lives, they voyage north, ready for the fight. But when fate strands them in a foreign land already riven by war, Erlan and Lilla are drawn inexorably into the web of a dark and gruesome cult. As blades fall and shadows close in, only one thing for them is a savage moon is rising. And it demands an ocean of blood. What with global pandemics and what have you, it’s been a few years since the last instalment of The Wanderer Chronicles. A Burning Sea, book three in the series, was released way back in September 2020. Fortunately,…

Leven has no memory of her life before she was a soldier. The process of turning her into a Herald – a magical killing machine – was traumatic enough that it wiped her mind clean. Now, with the war won and the Imperium satisfied, she finds herself unemployed and facing a bleak future. Her fellow Heralds are disappearing, and her own mind seems to be coming apart at the seams. Strange visions, memories she shouldn’t have, are resurfacing, and none of them make any sense. They show her Brittletain, the ancient and mysterious island that the Imperium was never able to tame. Leven resolves to go to this place of magic and warring queens, with the hope of finding who she really is. Envoy Kaeto has done a number of important little jobs for the Imperium, most of them nasty, all of them in the shadows. His newest assignment is to escort the bone-crafter Gynid Tyleigh as she travels across the Imperium – as the woman responsible for creating the Heralds, his employers owe her a great deal. But Tyleigh’s ambition alarms even Kaeto, and her conviction that she has found a new source of Titan bones, buried deep in…

Please note, that House of Odysseus is a direct sequel to Ithaca. It is highly likely that if you’ve not read the first book what follows might contain something akin to spoilers. Dont say I didnt warn you! In the palace of Odysseus, a queen lies dreaming . . . On the isle of Ithaca, queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband Odysseus sailed to war with Troy and never came home. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace—a peace that is shattered by the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra. Orestes’ hands are stained with his mother’s blood. Not so long ago, the son of Agamemnon took Queen Clytemnestra’s life on Ithaca’s sands. Now, wracked with guilt, he grows ever more unhinged. But a king cannot be seen to be weak, and Elektra has brought him to Ithaca to keep him safe from the ambitious men of Mycenae. Penelope knows destruction will follow in his wake as surely as the furies circle him. His uncle Menelaus, the blood-soaked king of Sparta, hungers for Orestes’ throne—and if he can seize it, no one will be…

WELCOME TO NIGHT CITY. THE CITY OF DREAMS. IF IT HASN’T CHANGED YOU YET, IT WILL . . . AND IF IT DOESN’T KILL YOU, YOU MIGHT COME OUT THE OTHER SIDE AS A LIVING LEGEND. In neon-drenched Night City, a ragtag group of strangers have just pulled off a heist, robbing a convoy transporting a mysterious container belonging to Militech. The only thing the group has in common is that they were blackmailed into participating in the heist – and they have no idea just how far their mysterious employer’s reach goes, or the purpose of the artifact they stole. This newly formed gang – composed of a veteran turned renegade, a sleeper agent for Militech, a computer nerd, a therapist, a ripperdoc, and a techie – must learn how to overcome their differences and work together, lest their secrets be unveiled before they can pull off the next deadly heist. I’ll begin with an admission; I haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077. It’s a shame, I love CD Projekt Red’s other gaming monolith, The Witcher, but I just can’t do first-person games. They give me terrible motion sickness. That said, I am still a huge fan of near-future cyberpunk dystopias,…

Please note, The Bone Fields is the fourth book in The Pantheon series. With that in mind, it is highly likely the book-related waffling that follows will contain some minor spoilers. Dont say I didn’t warn you! THE GAME From the beginning, The Pantheon has been a secret society of bloodshed and order. Modern-day gladiators abandon their lives, fall into rank and battle to the death – cheered on and funded by online watchers. THE PLAYER Tyler Maitland was recruited to fight in the Games, but his real ambition is finding his missing sister-even if it means bringing down The Pantheon for good. THE END The start of the Twentieth Season delivers never-before-matched teams to the fields of eastern Europe, where a hidden force will blow the truth of the Games wide open, once and for all… THE FINAL SEASON STARTS NOW. It seems like only yesterday we were first introduced to Tyler Maitland. Directionless and downbeat, his life was a matter of just existing on a day-to-day basis. Then he discovered the world of The Pantheon, a secret game backed by the world’s great and good. A world-spanning league of the most ferocious warriors pitted against one another for…

Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester – a humble man who can nonetheless navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no-one else. But once he was more. Once he was a warrior. Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of the small and helpless. When she ventures into the Deepforest to find a missing child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land at war, in a forest full of monsters – Cahan will need to choose between his past life and the one he leads now – and his choice will have consequences for his entire world. I loved both The Wounded Kingdom and The Tide Child trilogies, so I was excited when Gods of the Wyrdwood dropped through my letterbox with a satisfyingly solid thump. R J Barker’s latest is released this week and I’m pleased to confirm it is everything I have come to expect from the author, and more.  It’s clear that Cahan du Nahare is a man haunted by the ghosts of his past. Every action he takes is an attempt to run further away from who he once was. Cahan wants to live peacefully, under the radar of the authorities, but…