Thirty years ago, the Iron Wolves held back mud-orc hordes at the Pass of Splintered Bones, an led a brutal charge that saw the sorcerer Morkagoth slain. Now, a new terror stalks the realm. Orlana the Changer, has escaped from the Chaos Halls and is building an army, twisting horses, lions and bears into terrible, bloody hunters, summoning mud-orcs from the slime and heading north to battle the mighty region of Vagandrak where, it is said, the king has gone insane…  General Dalgoran searches to reunite the heroes of old for what he believes will be there finally battle. But Dalgoran discovers the Iron Wolves are no longer the heroes of legend, and they might just be more dangerous than the invading hordes…  Since their heroic heyday the various members of the Iron Wolves have fallen, and in most cases they have fallen pretty far. Drug abuse, psychopathic acts of violence, gambling (find more details here)and pit fighting are just a select few of the various vices on offer. I like this approach. Too often in fantasy heroes appear utterly indomitable, and it just gets so damn boring after a while; those holier-than-thou types with not a single chink in…

Please note The Cormorant is the third book in an on-going series. It’s entirely possible that this review may contain the odd spoiler or two. See I warned ya! Now I don’t expect any moaning if you spot one, you were warned! Miriam is on the road again, having transitioned from “thief”… to “killer”. Hired by a wealthy businessman, she heads down to Florida to practice the one thing she’s good at. But in her vision she sees her client die by another’s hand – and on the wall, written in blood, is a message just for Miriam. She’s expected. I have what can best be described a strange relationship with Chuck Wendig. Not literally, you understand. I don’t follow him around everywhere or anything like that (apparently that sort of thing can lead to restraining orders). No, I mean with his writing. I’ve read and adored both Blackbirds and Mockingbird. They are both deliciously dark modern adult fairy tales that grab you by the throat and refuse to let go until they’re done with you. Splendid stuff. I had assumed, based on my immense enjoyment of said novels that I was a dyed in the wool Chuck Wending fan. I…

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have probably noticed that I’ve reviewed The Language of Dying before. I read the PS Publishing edition and utterly adored it. The novella is being re-released by Jo Fletcher Books today and as it is so bloomin’ good I thought someone else’s opinion might be worth exploring.  Over to @MadNad for her thoughts… Tonight is a special, terrible night. A woman sits at her father’s bedside watching the clock tick away the last hours of his life. Her brothers and sisters – all traumatised in their own ways, their bonds fragile – have been there for the past week, but now she is alone. And that’s always when it comes. As the clock ticks in the darkness, she can only wait for it to find her… Like me, I imagine there are some authors you hate, some you like, some you love, and some you would read anything they wrote just because it came from them. I have four authors that fit into that category: Neil Gaiman, Mark Chadbourn, Joe Hill and Sarah Pinborough. What book was it that added Ms Pinborough to this exclusive list? The Language of Dying. I read this novella a…

They burned her home. They stole her brother and sister. But vengeance is following. Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried. Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust. . . The past never stays buried . . . After reading the book blurb above you could easily be mistaken for thinking that Joe Abercrombie has flipped his lid. Where the hell is the grimness? What has happened to the darkness? Shouldn’t…

Forget everything you know about the big bad wolf. It’s not that simple any more. Here are werewolves, skin walkers, demons and unknown dangers. Nothing can be relied upon, not species not shape, not gender. In this second Fox Pocket collection of short flash fiction we explore what happens when nothing is what it seems. You’ll need more than a red hood this time. The idea of this collection immediately appeals. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of weres and shapeshifters. Hell, I‘ll even go so far as admit I was a devotee of Manimal back in the day (oh yeah, I went there). The promise of an entire book full of shape-shifting tales is just too good to pass up. Fifteen stories from fifteen different authors, each promising insight into the animal within. Here are some of the standouts – Carlos by K.A. Laity – Poor old Carlos. Everyone deserves the chance to indulge in the thing that they love, but the life of a shape-shifting rodent isn’t always a happy one. This rather beautiful little story ends on a pitch perfect bittersweet note. Eigi Einhammr by Rahne Sinclair – Harald has been caught poaching the King’s…

It’s that MadNad person again. This time she is casting her beady eye over Sarah Pinborough’s latest. Beauty is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story which takes all the elements of the classic fairytale that we love (the handsome prince, the ancient curse, the sleeping girl and, of course, the haunting castle) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires. It’s fun, contemporary, sexy, and perfect for fans of ONCE UPON A TIME, GRIMM, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and more I had been eagerly awaiting the final part in Sarah Pinborough’s fairy tale trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed Poison and Charm, so I was confidant I would enjoy Beauty. I was wrong. I loved it! Probably my favourite of all three, Beauty wraps up, or more accurately, closes the story loop as chronologically the events here happen prior to Poison. The Huntsman is one of the central characters in this piece which cleverly ties it to the other two parts. Other characters from other stories are interwoven, but this character particularly seems significant in all three parts. An ever-present Prince, and a red-cloaked maiden complete the lead ensemble. Beauty is loosely based on…

In the run up to the convention we’re attending this week my better half @MadNad has indulged her latest passion… some fella called Joe Hill.  Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star, and knows everything about every film ever made. She’s also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud Theater. Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It’s hard to make friends when you’re the only inflatable boy in town. Francis is unhappy, picked on; he doesn’t have a life, a hope, a chance. Francis was human once, but that’s behind him now. John Finney is in trouble. The kidnapper locked him in a basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. With him, in his subterranean cell, is an antique phone, long since disconnected . . . but it rings at night, anyway, with calls from the dead. . . I shall be attending the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, where I will be one of a few lucky souls to share a room with Joe Hill and Peter Crowther in a unique opportunity to discuss  the…

Ecko Burning is a direct sequel to Ecko Rising. Beware! If you haven’t read the first book this review may contain potential spoilers. Just sayin. The Bard is gone, and with him Ecko’s only possible way home. Told the grasslands are diseased and the blight is spreading, his companions demand his help. Together they seek weapons in a ruined city where both nightmare and hideous truth await them.  Ruthless and ambitious, Lord Phylos has control over Fhaveon city, and is using its forces to bring the plains under his command. Back in London, the Bard is offered the opportunity to realise everything he has ever wanted – if he will give up his soul. As the blight spreads, Phylos’s brutality escalates. When the people’s anger finally erupts, the force of the violence threatens to destroy everything.  At the tail end of 2012 I read Danie Ware’s debut, Ecko Rising. I’d heard lots of good buzz surrounding the novel but nothing could have adequately prepared me for the marvellous mash up of science fiction and high fantasy that it turned out to be. The sequel is now upon us and the good news is that it’s just as good, if not better,…

Sometimes when I write a review I mention at the beginning the word “spoilers”. Guess what? This is the third book in an on-going series. If you haven’t read books one and two, I can 100% guarantee the S-word is entirely appropriate in this case…Honest, I’m not kidding… Ignore my warnings at your own peril. Having pulled off the greatest heist of their career, Locke and his trusted partner in thievery, Jean, have escaped with a tidy fortune. But Locke’s body is paying the price. Poisoned by an enemy from his past, he is slowly dying. And no physiker or alchemist can help him. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmagi offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him – or finish him off once and for all.  Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body – though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean’s imploring – and the Bondsmagi’s mention of a woman from Locke’s past…

Niclaus has just one aim in life – to win the Trial of Endurance to become the next leader of his village. The Trial is not without risks, and many have perished trying to complete it. But little does he realise that Cado, the leader of the magical village of Newgrange, has very different plans for him; plans that involve taking on the might of the Hakon the Black, the most feared Norse lord, and travelling far from everything he knows to defend the White Cross Followers. Hakon’s savagery knows no bounds; battle lines are forming; power beyond imagining is at stake – and at the heart of it all is Niclaus. Will he have the strength to fulfil his destiny?  I’m a sucker for Norse legends so when I heard about The Polaris Whisper I was intrigued. Cultures clashing, epic quests and hidden mysteries; sounds like a novel that might be right up my street. Niclaus spends a large part of the story ignorant of his origins and also what fate has in store for him. He has grown up in a small village with his brother, Orrin. Both siblings, along with all the other young men in the…

Bobby Dollar has a problem or four of epic proportions. Problem one: his best friend Sam has given him an angel’s feather that also happens to be evidence of an unholy pact between Bobby’s employers and those who dwell in the infernal depths. Problem two: Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell, wants to get his claws on the feather at all costs, but particularly at all cost to Bobby. Problem three: Bobby has fallen in love with Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands, who just happens to be Eligor’s girlfriend. Problem four: Eligor, aware of Problem three, has whisked Casimira off to the Bottomless Pit itself, telling Bobby he will never see her again unless he hands over the feather. But Bobby, long-time veteran of the endless war between above and below, is not the type of guy who finds Hell intimidating. All he has to do is toss on a demon’s body, sneak through the infernal gates, solve the mystery of the angel’s feather, and rescue the girl. Saving the day should just be a matter of an eon or two of anguish, mutilation and horror.  If only it were that easy.  Are you sitting comfortably? Good. I have a question….

Fergus’s world changes forever the day his car crashes near the remote village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he stays to work at the local stables as he recovers from his injuries. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love and be targeted for human sacrifice. Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The young archaeologist’s dream find the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior was ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman. And their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep. Fergus discovers that his crash is linked to the excavation, and that the countryside harbours some dark secrets. As Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark Age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate. I’ll begin with a confession, I’ve been told its good for the soul. I have spent the last week agonising over how to write anything resembling a coherent review of this book. Not, I should stress, because the book is bad, quite the reverse in…

Fashion Beast follows Doll Seguin, a sassy coat-checker who escapes into the carefree lifestyle of fashion, music and decadence while the world outside fears an oncoming nuclear war. It’s a re-telling of the classic fable Beauty and the Beast that immerses readers in the rich, living characters of its dystopian future setting.  I’d never heard of Fashion Beast up until very recently. Not a massive surprise really, I was eleven years old when it was originally published. At first glance it doesn’t sound like my sort of thing – a re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast set in the fashion industry, with direct input from pop svengali, Malcolm McLaren. That feels like a pretty weird mix to me. I’ll happily admit that initially, I was a little dubious there would be anything that I’d enjoy. One look at me would have you asking the question “What does this feckless jabroni know about intricacies of haute couture?“* I persevered however, and as I suspected, Fashion Beast is about much more than the vagaries of the fashion industry. I’ve long been a fan of Alan Moore’s work. If you asked me, I’d probably rate V for Vendetta as one of my all-time…