Winter approaches Westeros like an angry beast. The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud. In the northern wastes, a horde of hungry, savage people steeped in the dark magic of the wilderness is poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown. And Robb’s defences are ranged against the South, the land of the cunning and cruel Lannisters, who have his younger sisters in their power. Throughout Westeros, the war for the Iron Throne rages more fiercely than ever, but if the Wall is breached, no king will live to claim it. Someone of you may have spotted that I started reading this gargantuan series just before the first season of the television adaption aired here in the UK. So far I’ve managed to stick to this routine. Book two was read last year and I’ve been waiting patiently for another year to pass before I could immerse myself in the lands of Westeros once again. The War of the Five Kings continues and everywhere violence, treachery and political power-plays abound. Martin really likes to make his characters suffer doesn’t he? No one is safe from their creator’s steely gaze. Arya…

Behind urban life, weird and horrific things fester. The whispers and chills of things long gone… the promise of power from the darkness… the seduction of those that lie in the shadows… the occult is all around us: in town houses, in mansions, and in your very own street. Editor Colin F. Barnes collected together fifteen stories by a cast of critically acclaimed authors from around the globe who look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.  When I get the time I like to try and include the occasional short story collection in my reading schedule. It’s nice to take a break from the confines of the novel and enjoy some fiction in the short form. I’ve always felt the horror lends itself particularly well to this format. Nothing better than a series of short, sharp shocks is there? Some of this particular collection highlights include: Just Another Job by Gary McMahon – Two men break into a house with a very specific task in mind. But wait, this is a story by Gary McMahon so you shouldn’t be surprised when I tell you that not everything is…

In the tiny English village of Alder, dreams and nightmares are beginning to come true. Creatures from local legend, science fiction and the dark side of the human mind prowl the town. Paul, a young academic composing a thesis about the end of the world, and his girlfriend Hazel, a potter, have come to stay in Alder for the summer. Their idea of a rural retreat gradually sours as the laws of nature begin to breakdown around them. Paul and Hazel are drawn into a vortex of fear as violent chaos engulfs the community and the village prepares to reap a harvest of horror. Alder is just like any other village, everyone knows everyone else’s business and some of the families have lived there for countless generations. To an outsider, life would appear wonderful in this rural idyll, but bubbling just beneath the surface lies a whole host of repressed emotions, violent tendencies and age-old lusts. Right at the centre of all this pent up frustration and angst is the local manor house, Agapemone, home to Anthony William Jago and his followers. Jago is, as you might expect from the leader of a religious cult, suitably enigmatic. His presence is…

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city. The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer. There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs. But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into? One of the delights of starting any new urban fantasy novel is uncovering the rules of the new worlds you’ve just discovered. Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman tells the story of the Fae, and long-lived humans, referred to as the Fae touched, who all live a seemingly idyllic Victorian era existence in mirror images of Bath and various other cities throughout the world. Everything seems perfect, but beneath the paper-thin veneer of civility, power struggles and politics threaten to tear their society apart. The best examples of the urban fantasy…

When dirigible pilot Elle Chance accepts an unusual cargo in Paris she finds herself in the middle of the deadly war between the Alchemists and the Warlocks. The Alchemists will stop at nothing to acquire the coveted carmot stone and its key, and Elle must do everything in her power to thwart their diabolical plans.  Embarking on a perilous cross-continental adventure with the mysterious Mr Marsh, Elle is forced to question everything she ever knew about herself to fulfil her destiny and prevent a magical apocalypse… The first thought that struck me when I finished reading A Conspiracy of Alchemists is that there is a wonderful sense of fun on every page.  Liesel Schwarz is certainly skilled when it comes to putting the reader right in the midst of the frenetic, fast placed world she has created. Though things rattle along at breakneck speed, the good news is that for the most part, the character development doesn’t suffer because of this (more on that a bit later). There are reverential nods to many classic adventure stories and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to describe this succinctly. The best comparison I can come up with is – imagine a…

In the dying days of 1850 the young detective Charles Maddox takes on a new case. His client? The only surviving son of the long-dead poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his wife Mary, author of Frankenstein. Charles soon finds himself being drawn into the bitter battle being waged over the poet’s literary legacy, but then he makes a chance discovery that raises new doubts about the death of Shelley’s first wife, Harriet, and he starts to question whether she did indeed kill herself, or whether what really happened was far more sinister than suicide. As he’s drawn deeper into the tangled web of the past, Charles discovers darker and more disturbing secrets, until he comes face to face with the terrible possibility that his own great-uncle is implicated in a conspiracy to conceal the truth that stretches back more than thirty years. The story of the Shelleys is one of love and death, of loss and betrayal.  Last year I read Tom-All-Alone’s and I’ll happily admit that I had no idea what to expect. I was just getting back into reading historical fiction, after a long absence, and though the idea of a historical crime novel appealed, I was unsure…

Time for a cheeky little guest review. Over to friend of The Eloquent Page @MrSamStrong. Today he’ll be casting his beady eye over Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole. The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Suddenly people from all corners of the globe began to develop terrifying powers – summoning fire, manipulating earth, opening portals and decimating flesh. Overnight the rules had changed… but not for everyone. Alan Bookbinder might be a Colonel in the US Army, but in his heart he knows he’s just a desk jockey, a clerk with a silver eagle on his jacket. But one morning he is woken by a terrible nightmare and overcome by an ominous drowning sensation. Something is very, very wrong. Forced into working for the Supernatural Operations Corps in a new and dangerous world, Bookbinder’s only hope of finding a way back to his family will mean teaming up with former SOC operator and public enemy number one: Oscar Britton. They will have to put everything on the line if they are to save thousands of soldiers trapped inside a frontier fortress on the brink of destruction, and show the people back home the stark realities of a war that threatens…

A man without faith. A woman without hope. My name is Aiden Fleischer. I was forced from my home, moved among the victims of Jack the Ripper, was tortured by a witch doctor, and awoke on another planet. Throughout it all, my assistant, Clarissa Stark, remained at my side. On Ptallaya, we were welcomed by the Yatsill. The creatures transformed their society into a bizarre version of our own, and we found a new home beneath the world’s twin suns. But there was darkness in my soul, and as the two yellow globes set, I was forced to confront it, for on Ptallaya … A RED SUN ALSO RISES … and with it comes an evil more horrifying than any on Earth. Upon their arrival on Ptallya, Aiden and Clarissa meet a strange race called the Yatsill. These enigmatic creatures have the power to telepathically mine thoughts. They use Clarissa as a subject for their powers, and very quickly begin to establish a new order based on her memories of home. A slightly surreal parody of London society springs up almost overnight. This new regime is made up of Aristocrats and the Working Class. Everything initially seems quite idyllic, but as…

In Kuwait, American forces are locked and loaded for the invasion of Iraq. In Paris, a covert agent is close to cracking a terrorist cell. And just north of the equator, a sailboat manned by a drug runner and a pirate is witness to the unspeakable. In one instant, all around the world, everything will change. A wave of inexplicable energy slams into the continental United States. America as we know it vanishes. From a Texas lawyer who happens to be in the right place at the right time to an engineer in Seattle who becomes his city’s only hope, from a combat journalist trapped in the Middle East to a drug runner off the Mexican coast, Without Warning tells a fast, furious story of survival, violence, and a new, soul-shattering reality.  Genre wise, Without Warning could probably best be described as a bit of a hybrid. It takes the best elements from a standard Clancy-esque thriller as well as a nice, inexplicable science-fiction macguffin and throws them together to create a page turning mash-up of the two. Events begin to unfold in an alternate 2003. Large portions of the US Military are poised to invade Iraq when in a…

In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain’s best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed ‘Ack-Ack Macaque.’ The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he’s starting to doubt everything, including his own existence. A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul. Meanwhile, in Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run. And all the while, the doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon. There used to be a popular comic strip by Bill Waterson called Calvin and Hobbes. It featured the adventures of a young boy, named Calvin, and his stuffed toy tiger, Hobbes. As soon as I read the title of Gareth Powell’s latest novel I was immediately reminded of a single frame from one of my favourite strips. Calvin is more than excited when he learns that one of his favourite author’s has a new…

Another year is nearly done, and if this post has been published then it appears that those Mayan types were wrong (or we’re now living on borrowed time. I can’t decide which). 2012 has been a busy year here at The Eloquent Page. I’ve read over one hundred books and managed to attend three conventions.  So, without any further ado here is my annual post covering my highlights of the year. Book of the Month (January to December) Jan – Hell Train by Christopher Fowler Feb – Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin Smith Mar – Redlaw by James Lovegrove Apr – Alchemists of Souls by Anne Lyle May – Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig June – Empire State by Adam Christopher July – Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis Aug – Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan Sept – Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton Oct –  Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon Nov – Blood Fugue by Jospeh D’Lacey Dec – Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth And now for a few specific categories of my own devising.* Best Ongoing Series – Department 19 by Will Hill – The second novel in this series ,The Rising, was released this year and it’s great.  Brilliant characters,…

‘Not the end of the world, just the end of the year’ Alasdair Stuart, one of the UK’s most knowledgeable and passionate genre journalists has finally decided to do a book. And not just any book, he’s not just offering up his in depth genre gems for your delectation, it’s better than that. In the Pseudopod Tapes, Alasdair gathers a years worth of outro’s from one of the worlds leading horror podcasts and collects them all together for you in this volume. Stuart hosts Pseudopod with a sharp wit, clear insight and warm humour. It translates extremely well to the page.  You may have noticed that The Eloquent Page doesn’t do interviews. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, there are a plethora of websites and blogs out there that do interviews far better than I ever could. Secondly, and I’ll admit this may not be immediately obvious on the web but, in real life, I’m somewhat socially awkward when it comes to authors and writery types. These are the people who fill my head with stories for goodness sake. They are all a bit rock and roll and I remain constantly in awe. Don’t believe me? If…

Half-vampire Darwin stumbles across a corpse on the streets of London, and in a pocket discovers a notebook in a mysterious language. Divided between human ethics and vampire blood lust, Darwin finds himself both condemner and saviour of a race who’ve never considered him one of their own. Now, he must try and lead the survivors to sanctuary in New Salisbury before Mr West completes his genocide of the vampires in his quest to obtain the book… Maureen Summerglass is eighty-two years old, a prisoner in her ramshackle home. She is afraid to let people enter in case they discover the oak door in her cellar. Threatened with homelessness and retirement from her job as a gatekeeper between worlds, Maureen breaks protocol when the death of a close friend is covered up… and enters the city of New Salisbury to search for his missing notebook. There, she discovers a world unlike the one of myth and fairy tale she imagined, and instead one of black market economies, brand names and tuk tuks. As she investigates, not only is she in extreme danger, but discovers she may be the first human female able to use magic… People who know me in…