Thanks to the fine people over at Gollancz, I have the first two books in The Wolfhound Century Trilogy by Peter Higgins* to give away to you lovely reader types. How do we win? you cry. Couldn’t be simpler my friends. All you need do is visit my Facebook page and follow the simple instructions below. * Both books are available to purchase now.
Welcome to The Eloquent Page review of 2014. It’s been another barnstormer, genre fiction wise, in the last twelve months. I’ve managed seventy eight books and for the first time ever the site has had over two hundred thousand page views which equates to over fifty thousand unique visitors. That boggles my tiny mind. But never mind all this statistical mayhem. Let’s cut to the chase. It’s time for my awards for the year. Random as ever, and judged by a panel of one, me. The “They Did What?” Award – I’m a boring old sod at heart. I’m not massively interested in the vagaries of the book industry. I read what I like, and that’s about all there is to it. That said, even I’ll admit I was confounded and disappointed when I discovered that Angry Robot were discontinuing Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A. Both were brilliant imprints. Obviously, I appreciate there were probably entirely valid economic reasons why what happened happened, but personally I wish they were both still around. I read some cracking books from both imprints and I’m still disappointed that they are gone. One small silver lining is that Kim Curran’s final book in the…
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison is published by Headline and will be released on Tuesday 25th June in the UK. Fancy winning yourself a copy? Of course you do. Well it’s all terribly easy. Simply follow the instructions below. All you have to do is copy and paste the text below into a tweet . All those that post the tweet will be entered into a draw and 1 lucky winner will picked at random to receive a copy of the book. Please tweet the following text by 5pm Friday 28th June: Follow @TheEloquentPage & RT this for a chance to win a copy of The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison #thesilentwife RULES: To be entered into the draw you must have tweeted the above text sometime before 5pm Friday 28th June 2013, AND be a follower (old or new) of @TheEloquentPage twitter account. Unfortunately this competition is restricted to UK residents only.
Juggernaut by Adam Baker is published by Hodder & Stoughton and will be released on Thursday 16th February in the UK. Fancy winning yourself a copy? Of course you do. Well it’s all terribly easy. Simple follow the instructions below. All you have to do is copy and paste the text below into a tweet . All those that post the tweet will be entered into a draw and 1 lucky winner will picked at random. Please tweet the following text by 9pm Friday 10th February: Follow @TheEloquentPage & RT this for a chance to win a copy of Juggernaut by Adam Baker #Juggernaut http://bit.ly/AwOw7d RULES: To be entered into the draw you must have tweeted the above text sometime before 9pm Friday 10th February 2012, AND be a follower (old or new) of @TheEloquentPage twitter account. Unfortunately this competition is restricted to UK residents only.
The following press release dropped into my mailbox today and as I’ve enjoyed and reviewed a couple of Anarchy Books previous releases I thought I woud pass this info on. ANARCHY BOOKS PRESS RELEASE Saturday 19th November is a date for your diaries, with Anarchy Books releasing not one wholesome SF novel, but two! First comes New York Nights by SF Heavyweight, Eric Brown. “New York 2040 is a city of the lost. So, a good place to work in Missing Persons. But business is not so good that Hal Halliday can forget his sister, burned alive when she was a child. Now, only VR offers the chance to bring her back. The future may yet allow Hal to live in the past – if he can survive his next job…” Described by Peter F. Hamilton as “the name to watch in SF“, and Brown’s novel HELIX described by Stephen Baxter as, “a classic concept – a built world to dwarf Rama and Ringworld – a setting for a hugely imaginative adventure. Helix is the very DNA of true sf. This is the rediscovery of wonder”, this first digital release of New York Nights is available as a PDF, EPUB or MOBI format, for the low price of…
Jordan Reyne, New Zealand’s premiere bloodthirsty Celtic rock and machine sounds superhero, has teamed up with Anarchy Books to bring you a dazzling short story writing competition! Jordan Reyne’s new album, Children of a Factory Nation, is being released September 2011 and follows a family who lived in Wales in the late 1800s during the Industrial Revolution. Like many alive in their time, they faced problems relating to difficult working conditions, poverty, and the tyranny of circumstance. This album constructs stories from facts known about Johnathan, Mary, their children Molly & Thomas, and grandchild Wynne. The competition is to write a short story surrounding any character or sets of characters from Children of a Factory Nation using Jordan Reyne’s lyrics or the facts about their real life counterparts as a starting point. The competition will be judged by Andy Remic, SFF author and co-owner of Anarchy Books, John Jarrold, esteemed agent with decades of experience in the publishing industry as both editor and agent, David Bradley, editor of the fabulous SFX magazine,Lee Harris, editor at Angry Robot Books, James Lovegrove, SFF New York Times bestselling author,Gary McMahon, rising star of the Horror Genre (and all-round nice-guy beer drinker), Jared Shurinof popular online magazine Pornokitsch, and…
Regular visitors to the this site will know that I tend to stick to just book reviews and nothing else but last weekend I had the opportunity to spend a day at Alt.Fiction for the first time ever. As it is book related, I thought it would be fun to share some of my experiences. Now in its fifth year, this is the first time that the convention has been spread over an entire weekend. Like the huge coward that I am I decided I would just go on the Saturday. Then if it was terrible and/or I made a prize fool of myself, I could rush home and hide under my duvet weeping into my oversized pillow for the remainder of the weekend. The good news is that my fears were groundless and I only wish now I had taken the plunge and gone for a two-day ticket. One of the best things about an event like Alt.Fiction is that the program is chock full of events that cater to every taste. It’s great being able to pick and choose the panels you attend. You can get involved with as much, or as little as you like. I sat…
Thanks to MadNad for taking the time to sit down and write an article that puts a personal face on the proposed library closures across the UK. Once upon a time, in a land far far away, was a girl who was severely depressed and lonely after a relationship had failed. She lived in a new town, with no friends, and was then made redundant. Her home had halved in value, yet the mortgage payments had doubled. It was a tough time for our heroine, and money was scarce, but then she stumbled into the local library. This place was warm, and welcoming and nothing like the austere stuffy places of television land where everyone was told to shush. Through her membership, she was introduced to a free resource that proved invaluable. She borrowed books on DIY to aid her crumbling home. There were also books that taught her shorthand, and she was taught how to write a professional CV on their sole computer. Her time was filled with strange new lands that fired her imagination when she was introduced to authors such as Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Raymond E. Feist. She managed to pick up a…
Happy New Year! I hope 2011 finds you and yours well. A new year can only mean one thing – more books. In an effort to whet your appetite for some of the reviews you can expect to see on the site in the coming months, below are some of the novels I am looking forward to. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie– Thee Men, One Battle, No Heroes. I’m a huge fan of Abercrombie’s previous novels. I like his down and dirty take on the fantasy genre. I also just learned that he is doing a book signing in my hometown so there is a distinct possibility I will attend. Death’s Disciples by J. Robert King– Angry Robot have been producing some excellent novels over the last couple of years and they are one of my favourite publishers. This latest novel sounds exactly like the the sort of thing I enjoy. Terrorists, ghosts, revenge. Who could ask for more? The Scar Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn – Second book in the Swords of Albion series. The first novel in this series, The Sliver Skull, swashed my buckle and buckled my swash. I expect nothing less from this release. Anno Frankenstein by…
I’m very lucky in that I have had the chance to read some excellent novels in the past twelve months. I also took the plunge and launched The Eloquent Page back in July so I thought that now we are creeping towards the end of 2010 I would take the opportunity to reveal my literary highlights of the year. Not all of the books listed below were published in 2010 but I read them this year so as far as I’m concerned that meets my flimsy attempt at criteria. The books that I have reviewed on the site contain links back to the original reviews. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson – Brutal, daring and utterly gripping. Some of the subject matter is harrowing but once the story gets going you will be completely hooked. A superior thriller that establishes a hard as nails heroine in Lisbeth Salander. Well worth checking out the original Swedish language film as well. The Road to Bedlam by Mike Shevdon – I purchased Mike Shevdon’s debut novel Sixty One Nails on a whim and was totally captivated by the story. The sequel continues developing the tale of Niall and Blackbird. This…
As a festive treat Dark Fiction magazine has produced an audio anthology based on the twelve days of Christmas. In a moment of madness I offered to help out, little realising my offer would be accepted, and recorded the marvelous story Five Gold Rings by Peter Morrison. The entire anthology can be found here for free.
This week’s book review has been delayed due to circumstances outwith my control, lets gloss over the fact that the latest upgrade of my favourite online game was released on Tuesday shall we. While waiting for the review to arrive may I suggest you consider exploring the world of RSS, Really Simple Syndication, feeds. There are so many fantastic websites and blogs out there for the book lover it can be quite a chore to keep track. The good news is that a lot of them now use RSS. Spending a little time learning how to use this powerful tool means you will never miss an update from your favourite site again. First you need to learn a little about the technology, what software to use and how to set it up. The following two links are a good place to start. http://news-at.blog-city.com/rssfeeds.htm http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10088_7-5143460-1.html I use a free piece of software called Feed Demon to view my subscriptions and I find this a most convenient way to read/track the 92 feeds I am currently subscribed to. Listed below are the book related websites that have their own dedicated feeds and I currently follow. Every one of them is worthy of…
I don’t often post anything other than reviews but occasionally I make an exception to that rule. There are a plethora of fantastic genre fiction review blogs and websites out there and one of my personal favourites is Un:Bound. On the 6th December the plucky bunch that run the site, the theme to The A-Team is playing in my head now, are branching out into the realm of online video. Check out the official press release below. This winter, internet TV will finally be Un:Bound Un:Bound Video Editions began with a question ‘Why has no one ever done a vidcast about genre fiction?’. It’s a simple question and the answer to it proved to be as simple for Un:Bound editor Adele Wearing; because she hadn’t put together the team to produce one yet. That’s now changed. Like George Clooney in one of the good Ocean’s movies, Adele has assembled a team of specialists to bring the best in genre fiction news and reviews to the internet. They include film maker and technical genius Vincent Holland-Keen, two-fisted editor and Angry Robot wrangler Lee Harris, sleepless genre podcaster Alasdair Stuart and, on his insistence, the dread lord of Ry’leh himself, Cthulhu. With a team…
