Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men. All will play the Game of Thrones. Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south, where the heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues; to the vast frozen north where a 700-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. The Game of Thrones. You win, or you die. I’m not adverse to a massive doorstop of a novel. Peter F Hamilton, Stephen King, Frank Herbert have all written huge books that I have not only read but re-read numerous times. When it comes to A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin things are just slightly different. I have been promising myself that I would read the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga for a long time. So long in fact that it became something of a personal Moby Dick, my literary equivalent of a great white whale. It got to the stage where I was a little intimidated by the whole thing and I never thought I would get around to reading…

Meet Callaghan, a hard-drinking, drug-fuelled, womanising no-good son-of-a-bitch. He’s the amoral hardcore photographer for Black & White, the tabloid rag that tells it as it is. Or at least, how it should be. Callaghan’s in way too deep with Mia, his Mexican stripper girlfriend… and even deeper with Sophie, estranged wife to Vladimir “Vodka” Katchevsy, infamous Romanian gun-runner and self-eulogising expert at human problem solving. People start to die. And Callaghan’s caught in the middle. A situation even his Porsche GT3, Canary Wharf Penthouse suite and corrupt politician contacts can’t solve. At the nadir of his downward spiral, Callaghan is approached by a man: a serial killer who brings him a very unique and dangerous proposition… Serial Killers Incorporated by Andy Remic is the first release from the new e-publisher Anarchy Books. Callaghan initially comes across as a self absorbed hedonist. He is all about number one. He is only really interested in something if he can ride it, drink it, screw it or stick it up his nose. When we first meet him he is the classic anti-hero. The rest of the world can go to hell as long as his appetites are sated. As the plot develops however, it…

From the undead vampire in the Romanian mausoleum, Boris Dragosani tries to draw an evil force so powerful he will gain supremacy in the ultra-secret paranormal agency he works for in Russia. His official job is as a necroscope – his speciality is tearing secrets from the souls of newly-dead traitors. And England too has her necroscope – her communicator with the dead. When Harry Keogh is recruited by the British Secret Service to take on the paranormal menace from behind the Iron curtain, the stage is set for the most horrifying, violent supernatural confrontation ever…. I first read Necroscope by Brian Lumley way back in the early nineties after stumbling across and then swiftly devouring Lumley’s other series, the Psychomech trilogy. I was keen to read more of his work and Necroscope was already on book three or four when I started so I knew there would be plenty to continue reading if I enjoyed the first book. The novel begins with a brief prologue outlining the business of E-Branch, the United Kingdom’s most secretive agency. Set during the Cold War era seventies and eighties, E-Branch recruits those people with ‘special gifts’. Using these abilities, like telepathy or far-seeing,…

Please note that this review contains some minor spoilers if you haven’t read Arrowhead and Broken Arrow, the first two novels in this sequence. Robert, The Hooded Man, leads the Rangers, who keep the peace in the ravaged wastelands of Britain, foiling the ambitions of warlords and petty tyrants who would take the country for themselves. Even the spirits of his beloved Sherwood Forest aid him, sending him dreams to guide his path. Arrowland by Paul Kane is the author’s third book, set in the Afterblight Chronicles universe. The world has been stricken by a pandemic that is fatal to all but those who have the blood type O negative. In the United Kingdom, from the ruins of Nottingham, ex-policeman Robert Stokes has started to create the beginnings of a new society. Adopting the mantle of the well known legend of Robin Hood he has successfully defended his community on a number of occasions. In the previous books I was pleased that Nottingham was used so effectively as the story’s backdrop. In the first two novels my adopted hometown has been central to the story. Anyone who has attended the British Fantasy Society convention, FantasyCon, will appreciate the in-joke about…

Strange anomalies are ripping holes in the fabric of time, allowing creatures from the distant past and far future to roam the modern world. Evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter and his team must track down and capture these creatures and try to put them back where they belong.   Primeval: Extinction Event by Dan Abnett is based on the popular UK television show of the same name. Nick, Abby and Connor are busy trying to deal with the anomalies that are appearing randomly across the UK. Connor notices that the anomaly phenomena are behaving differently each time they occur. While investigating the latest occurrence the team are kidnapped and taken thousands of miles away to help a foreign power deal with their own anomaly issues. Moving the action out of the UK to the wilds of the Russian Federation is a good move. The TV show has always suffered a bit with the limitations of its budget. There are no such considerations here. Meanwhile, with the majority of the Anomaly Research Centre team missing, it is up to the boss Lester, and his assistant Jenny, to figure out just what is going on. Enter the diabolical Helen Cutter, Nick’s estranged wife…

An ancient prophecy. An evil older than mankind. It is the beginning of the end. I was about three or four pages into The Mayan Prophecy by Steve Alten when I had a niggling suspicion that everything seemed awfully familiar. After bit of hunting around at the front of the book I discovered that the novel was originally published under the title Domain back in 2001. Though I had read it before, I decided to re-read and refresh my opinion of the novel. The Mayan calendar runs out on the 21st December 2012. Some have predicted that this heralds the end of mankind. The novel uses this premise as the basis for a thriller/science fiction adventure. In a Miami mental asylum inmate Michael ‘Mick’ Gabriel has spent the last eleven years incarcerated in solitary confinement for attacking a politician. He forms a relationship with the new psychiatric intern, Dominique Vazquez, who is assigned to care for him. As she gets to know him, she learns about his unconventional upbringing in South America. Mick was raised by his archaeologist father, Julius, amongst the ancient ruins of the Mayan culture. Julius, having spent decades researching the Mayan’s lost history, firmly believed that…

They thought space was the final frontier – they were wrong. Recently I spent a bit of time examining the phenomenon that is the mash-up novel. I reviewed the zombie/Jane Austen trilogy that begins with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and it was nice to read various authors attempts to bring two dramatically different genres together in such a full on way. For my next foray into the world of mash-up novels I decided to stick with zombies but bring things bang up to date with something that is set this century rather than at the turn of the nineteenth. Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin D Anderson and Sam Stall brings finds the hordes of undead taking on their most awesome foe yet, Star Trek geeks. I should point out, in the spirit of full disclosure, I would probably fall into this category. Jim Pike works at a large hotel in downtown Houston. As an ex-serviceman, after two tours of Afghanistan, he wants nothing more than to quietly go about his life acquiring as little responsibility as possible. His sister is coming into town to attend Gulf Con Star Trek…

One of the great things about running your own book review website is that you can write about whatever books you want. I have written reviews for a fair number of new releases so far this year so I decided, for a bit of a change of pace, that I would revisit some of the novels that I read as a teenager. Over the coming months, I plan to do a few of these types of posts. I’m keen to cast my jaded adult eyes over some titles to see if they still have the same resonance now as they had then.  Hopefully, if nothing else, this may introduce some new readers to fiction that they may not have experienced before. Have the books survived the ravages of time? Do they still have something to offer? Do I still feel the same way about them as I did before? High above London, on the rooftops of the city, lives a secret society of misfits governed by a bizarre code of honour. It is a world known to only a few people on the streets below – until the murderous battle for its leadership breakout. The first novel I have selected…

For those that have not read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as Dawn of the Dreadfuls please note that this review contains some minor spoilers. The final novel in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombie trilogy is published today. Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith picks up the story four years later. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are now happily married and living at Mr Darcy’s country estate, Pemberly. Elizabeth has hung up her flintlock and katana, as it is improper for a married woman to be involved in dealing with ‘the stricken‘. Everything should be perfect, she has the man of her dreams and leads the life she has always wanted but instead she feels unease with her life. She is unsure if she wants to start a family and misses her warrior lifestyle. During a long country walk Darcy is attacked and bitten by a zombie and the death of Elizabeth’s husband seems all but inevitable until Darcy’s aunt, the formidable Lady Catherine De Bourgh arrives. She has heard rumours of a possible cure but before Elizabeth can investigate further Lady Catherine demands Darcy is placed in her care. It falls to The Bennet clan to try…

Journey back to Regency England – Land of the Undead Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to the hugely successful zombie/Jane Austen mash-up novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Set five years before the first novel, it follows the five Bennet sisters as they are trained in the deadly arts of the warrior, in order to combat the undead menace that plagues England. The reader learns of Oscar Bennet’s part in ‘The Troubles’ and how, as a younger man, he made a promise to raise all his children as warriors, irrespective of their gender. It is a definite plus point that the reader gets to learn more about the character of Mr Bennet. In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies he is very much a secondary character but in the prequel his story is brought to the fore. He is head of the family and still, just about, in control of his wayward daughters. Once again Elizabeth is the main female protagonist but in this case she is only eighteen and much less sure of herself. Mr Darcy is not yet on the scene so she finds herself torn between the enigmatic Master Hawksworth, and a man of…

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” Recently I wrote the following statement while reviewing a book – I have often suspected any novel can only be enhanced by the addition of rampaging hordes of undead. The publisher Quirk Books, originators of the mash-up novel, were obviously listening and sent me some books that would allow me to test that theory. Over the next few days I’ll be posting reviews of a few of them. The first novel I read is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith. Before I begin, I have an admission to make, I have to be honest and admit that I have never read any of Jane Austen’s work. After discussing the book at length with my wife, who has read Austen, I am assured that the majority of the plot remains the same as the original text. The five Bennet sisters are all of marriageable age and their mother is keen to ensure that they all marry well into wealthy, well to-do families. The second eldest daughter, Elizabeth, is headstrong and independent. She refuses to bow to convention and…

Department 6 is the Army. Department 13 is MI5. Department 19 is the reason you’re alive. When I initially launched The Eloquent Page I didn’t even consider reading, never mind reviewing, any young adult fiction. Towards the end of last year I changed my mind and decided to take the plunge. I read The Enemy by Charlie Higson and All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and I have to admit I was just blown away by both. They were great examples of their respective genres and it was clear to me that young adult fiction had come a long way since my teenage years. With those experiences still fresh in my mind, I was keen to try another novel aimed at the teen market. There has been a lot of buzz around the Internet in the last couple of months regarding Department 19 by Will Hill so when I got the opportunity to read an advance copy I jumped at the chance. Seen through the eyes of sixteen year old Jamie Carpenter, the reader is introduced to the United Kingdom’s most secret government agency – Department 19. Jamie and his widowed mother are attacked by a strange creature one night in…

Hungry for You by A M Harte is a short fiction collection that examines the links between love, relationships and death.  There are ten short tales each with their own take on these themes. My personal favourites are listed below. Promises – An infected man watches as his girlfriend begins to turn into a zombie. In just three short pages Harte nicely sets the tone for what to expect from the other tales in the book. Hungry for You – This story was one of the highlights of the collection for me. It reads like a police procedural but with added zombies. Some interesting ideas about how the undead are seen, and used by the living. This reads like a prologue to a larger story and I would be keen to read more. A Prayer to Garlic – I like when an author takes an existing mythos and turns it on its head. What happens when an unfeeling creature like a zombie begins to care? Dead Man’s Rose–A women is trapped in an abusive relationship. She finds the strength to deal with her predicament only to end up even more trapped than before. The author uses both types of entrapment…