When scientists with warped imaginations accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain’s animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies with a penchant for pre-dinner sex with their victims, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation. Abattoir worker Terry Borders’ love life is crippled by the stench of death that clings to his skin from his days spent slaughtering cows; teenage vegan Geldof ‘Scabby’ Peters alternates between scratching furiously at his rash and baiting his overbearing New Age mother; and inept journalist Lesley McBrien struggles forlornly in the shadow of her famous war correspondent father and the star journalist at the Glasgow Tribune. When Britain begins a rapid descent into chaos and ministers cynically attempt to blame al-Qaeda, Lesley stumbles upon proof that the government is behind the outbreak. During her bumbling quest to unveil the truth, she crosses paths with Terry and Geldof, and together they set out to escape a quarantined Britain with the evidence and vital data that could unlock a cure for the virus. Standing in the way are rampaging hordes of animals, a ruthless security agent and an army ready to shoot anybody with a case of the sniffles on the off-chance the virus has mutated. Three…

Strangeness and Charm is the third volume in the Court of the Feyre series. Please note there may be some spoilers for those who have not read books one and two. Don’t say I didn’t give you the opportunity to turn back now… In freeing Alex from Bedlam, Niall has releases her tortured and abused brethren into the wider world—individuals with strange and uncertain powers. Now he is tasked with bringing these fey-humans back into the fey courts for the sake of peace and stability—but what if they have their own plans, born out of torture and formed from a distillation of bitterness, resentment, Strangeness and Charm? The Road to Bedlam, book two in The Courts of the Feyre series, holds a very special place in my heart. Why? Well there is an internet meme that has been floating around since before I launched The Eloquent Page – it’s specifically a list of questions about books and one question is what was the last book that made you cry? Now, I’m not a massive crier but there is a scene in The Road to Bedlam that breaks my heart every time I read it. Long story short, I’ve never read anything…

Please note The Devil’s Looking Glass is the third novel in the Swords of Albion series. This review may contain some minor spoilers for those who have not read books one and two. Don’t say I didn’t give you an opportunity to turn away now before it is too late….. Still here? Good show. 1593: The dreaded alchemist, black magician and spy Dr John Dee is missing… Terror sweeps through the court of Queen Elizabeth, for in Dee’s possession is an obsidian mirror, a mysterious object of great power which legend says could set the world afire. The call goes out to celebrated swordsman, adventurer and rake Will Swyfte: find Dee and his feared looking-glass and return them to London before disaster strikes. But when Will discovers the mirror may help him solve the mystery that has haunted him for years – the fate of his lost love, Jenny – the stakes are intensely personal. With a frozen London under siege by supernatural powers, the sands of time are running out. Will is left with no choice but to pursue the alchemist to the devil-haunted lands of the New World – in the very shadow of the terrifying fortress home…

Set in a small town in 1990, Scarlet Fox is a twenty something, disillusioned, unemployed single mother. A troubled boy arrives and attempts to befriend her. The burnt remains of a family are found at a circle of Neolithic standing stones. Scarlet becomes haunted and obsessed by their memory.  Scarlet gets a night job at the new blood diseases laboratory and is pleased to study the lab’s chimpanzee. She becomes intimately involved with a colleague. But when events take over Scarlet is horrified to discover there are both virtuous and diabolical vampires in town. She is confronted with the choice of becoming a vampire or dying. But she is unprepared for the traumatic loss she suffers in making the life-changing step.  There is another death and the police become suspicious of Scarlet. Love is the only virtue not covered by the virtuous vampires, which allows the vice of envy to establish itself. The troubled boy and a rogue vampire reveal their destructive nature. On the night of the Harvest Festival a jealous drunken rabble, attack the laboratory. Over the years I have read a lot of horror, absolutely loads of the stuff. In fact, if you put a gun to…

Last week I reviewed Rome The Eagle of the Twelfth by M.C. Scott, it was rather fantastic. Afterward  I was pleasantly surprised when Bantam Press got in touch and offered an excerpt from the novel that I could share with readers of the site. As an added bonus, there is also some additional insight direct from the author herself. Please enjoy!    **** The heights were hemmed about by winter trees, blowing ragged in the coming breeze, shading the grey hillside with copper. The scent was of dying fires, and oiled leather, and iron; the scent of any army in the morning; the scent of awaited death; a scent so peaceful, I could have lain down with that as my shroud, and slept. And that was when the sun scraped through a finger’s width of mist and Helios cast a single ray, spear-straight at our Eagle, washing it with living light, the breath of the gods. Horgias took hold of the haft and raised it up so that it flew above us, our guardian and our care, ours to protect until death. We cheered, how could we not? And so revealed how very few we were. There was a moment’s…

They are known as the Legion of The Damned… Throughout the Roman Army, the XIIth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune. It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, the most vicious of opponents. For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining will be a baptism of fire. And yet, amid the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realises he has discovered a vocation – as a soldier and a leader of men. He has come to love the XIIth and all the bloody-minded, dark-hearted soldiers he calls his brothers. But just when he has found a place in the world, all that he cares about is ripped from him. During the brutal Judaean campaign, the Hebrew army inflict a catastrophic defeat upon the legion – not only decimating their ranks, but taking away their soul, the eagle. There is one final chance to save the legion’s honour – to steal back the eagle. To do that, Demalion and his legionaries must go undercover into Jerusalem, into the very heart of their enemy – where discovery will mean the worst of deaths – if they are to recover their pride. And that, in…

Please note that Doomsday is a sequel to The Mayan Conspiracy and due to that this review may contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. A deadly countdown has begun… Deep in the heart of the Amazon, an ancient Mayan stone is generating massive waves of energy while counting down to the apocalyptic date of December 21st 2012. Using a cryptic map and a prophecy that points to the end of the world, maverick agent Hawker and his partner Danielle Laidlaw are in a race-against-time to find the stone before it falls into the hands of a foreign power. And before the countdown stops… Doomsday picks up two years after the events in The Mayan Conspiracy, once again Danielle Laidlaw and Hawker are thrown together in an effort to save the world. The relationship between the two main protagonists is one of the books highlights, every time they are in the same room they continue to spark off of one another. The have a kind of bickering respect that makes their exchanges fun to read. Again most of the action takes place in South America and the lush jungles and mysterious ruins make for an effective backdrop to the…

The biggest manhunt in history begins Danny Shanklin wakes up slumped across at a table in an unfamiliar hotel room in London. He’s wearing a black balaclava, a red tracksuit and a brand new pair of Nikes. There’s a faceless dead man on the floor and Danny’s got a high-powered rifle strapped to his hands. He hears sirens and stumbles to the window to see a burning limousine and bodies all over the street. The police are closing in. They’re coming for him. With only his tech-support friend the Kid for backup, Danny set out on a nail-biting odyssey through the panicked city streets in a desperate bid to escape, protect the people he loves and track down the men who set him up – and make them pay. But with 500,000 CCTV cameras, 44,000 cops, 9 intelligence agencies and dozens of TV news channels all hot on his tail, just how long can an innocent man survive.  The best thing about reviewing books regularly is that if I read something that I don’t really enjoy or can’t connect with, I know that I’ll shortly be moving onto something that I will like. Last week I read a novel that…

In a world where ZOMBIES control banks and governments, only one young man sees the way things are and emerges from the CHAOS and destruction: GUY BOY MAN. While he tries to end human suffering worldwide and in his high school, Guy Boy Man meets a cute PINK-HAIRED girl named BABY DOLL15 who has a UNICORN that follows her everywhere. An EPIC ROMANCE begins, but forces BEYOND THEIR CONTROL are intent on keeping the young couple apart. One of those FORCES may—or may not be!—Guy Boy Man’s closest friend, a handsome African-American NINJA named SWEETIE HONEY; another could be four EXOTICALLY BEAUTIFUL, genetically engineered and behaviourally modified EASTERN EUROPEAN girls; yet another, the principal of their HIGH SCHOOL . . . not to mention an impending standardized test known as the ZOMBIE ACCEPTANCE TEST! Will Guy Boy Man find a way to be with Baby Doll15 in a WORLD WHERE EVERYONE IS DOOMED to become either zombies or zombie food??!! There is absolutely no way to get around the fact that this book is extremely weird. The zombies may or may not be actual zombies. The main protagonist may be a highly intelligent genius or may in fact be an…

Ulysses Quicksilver: agent of the throne, dandy and hero. Heart-broken, battered, mutilated and shot, he’s been driven backwards and forwards in time, and his latest adventure is taking him across Steampunk Paris… Time’s Arrow: Black Swan continues to offer readers a unique opportunity – to decide the course of this latest Pax Britannia adventure will take in the next part! In the tradition of Charles Dickens himself, Abaddon Books will be publishing Time’s Arrow in three ebook instalments. At the end of parts one and two readers will be able to vote on how the adventure progresses via the Abaddon Books website at www.abaddonbooks.com. The entire text will then be published in a paperback edition. This is book two, Time’s Arrow: Black Swan, in which our hero – wanted by the French Police for murder – battles his way across Paris, from the Louvre to Notre Dame, in order to prove his innocence. But does Ulysses try to contact Department Q for help or does he go in search of the mysterious M. Lumière? And who else will come to his aid in his hour of need? It will come as little surprise to regular visitors of the site, that…

It’s the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We’re out of oil. We’ve wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on an of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS – and his massive fortune – will got to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.  For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based on Halliday’s obsession with 80s pop culture. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle. Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions – and that will leave…

Miriam Black knows when you will die. She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides. But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try. I have a friend … let’s call him Tony (seems sensible that’s his name). Now Tony is a huge fan of this author’s writing. He enjoyed both Shotgun Gravy and Double Dead. He would be the first to admit that he regularly preaches the Gospel according to Wendig. Me? Well prior to Blackbirds I’ve not read a single word of Mr Wendig’s work but based on Tony’s man gushing, and the rest of the internet love that exists for this writer, I decide to give this novel a go. Very quickly, after reading only a couple of pages, I knew that I was going to relish the entire novel. The burden that Miriam has to bear makes her a creature…

A walking time-bomb ticks away in London… Captain Peter Skellen has resigned from the SAS and is looking for a new master. To Frankie Leigh, the rich and beautiful socialite and leader of the People’s Lobby, Skellen’s intimate knowledge of SAS counter-terrorist undercover operations makes him an irresistible recruit. The People’s Lobby are planning the biggest act of terrorism ever mounted in the capital. To the SAS and New Scotland Yard, Skellen is a menace who must be stopped at all costs. But how do you find a man who has been trained to disappear? How many men’s lives do you risk? I have to begin this post with a small apology. This following will in all likelihood wander off into the realms of self-indulgence on my part. I’m taking a look at a novel that was published way back in nineteen eighty-two. Ever since I first saw Who Dares Wins I have been slightly obsessed with it. I’ve always felt that it was a perfect self-contained British action movie. I can cite this as being the film that first ignited my interest in the thriller genre. In the past, I have even gone so far as to write a…