Come, rest your weary bones, draw a flagon and hark to the tales of Nuns & Dragons, of bravery and steadfastness in the face of mighty and implacable foes. Settle down and indulge yourself in wild flights of fancy brought to life by your fellow travellers.” The Nun & Dragon is a local like no other – share in the wild and wonderful tellings of a gifted panoply of authors, tales replete with wonder, a liberal coating of mysticism, the odd splash of darkness and a sprinkling of grim humour. Over the last couple of years my passion for short stories has been re-ignited by some great small publishers and the anthologies that they are producing. Anthologies are a great way to discover the work of writers you have never read before so when I was offered the opportunity to take a look at the latest from Fox Spirit I jumped at the chance. C’mon dragons, nuns the coming together of the two. That’s never going to be a bad thing is it? The Ballad of Gilrain by Sarah Cawkwell – Gilrain the knight and his trusty manservant, Therin, meet a troublesome dragon. This first story features a nice blend of humor and action to start things off. In addition you can download the…

Please note Mockingbird is a direct sequel to Blackbirds and due to that fact it’s entirely possible this review may contain minor spoilers. Consider yourself warned, people. Miriam Black has a terrible talent. The first time she touches someone, she will see the moment of their death. Still in her early twenties, she’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. It is all she can do to keep her talent – her curse – in check.  But when Miriam touches a woman while standing in line at the supermarket, she foresees that the woman will be violently killed – right here, right now. Earlier this year I read and reviewed Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig and if I’m being honest I have to admit that it did blow my tiny little mind just a bit. Like a David Lynch directed version of The Littlest Hobo (if the Hobo was a young women with supernatural powers rather than a dog) I really enjoyed this dark, nightmarish tale. When I heard there was another novel featuring the same character, I was keen to give it a whirl. Once again I found myself amazed at how quickly I was hooked….

Alice isn’t having the best of days – late for work, missed the bus, and now she’s getting rained on – but it’s about to get worse.   The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. If the balance is to be restored, the angels must act – or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. That’s where Alice comes in. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory – a disgraced angel with a drinking problem he doesn’t want to fix – Alice will learn the truth about her own history… and why the angels want to send her to hell.   What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding – and can she trust either side?  It probably won’t come as much of a surprise when I reveal that I have been looking forward to Blood and Feathers for quite a while; pretty much since I heard about it, to be honest (eagle eyed readers of the site will have spotted it being mentioned on the preview of 2012 post way back in January). There…

Hidden under the surface of everyday London is a city of monsters and miracles, where wild train spirits stampede over the tracks and glass-skinned dancers with glowing veins light the streets. When a devastating betrayal drives her from her home, graffiti artist Beth Bradley stumbles into the secret city, where she finds Filius Viae, London’s ragged crown prince, just when he needs someone most. An ancient enemy has returned to the darkness under St Paul’s Cathedral, bent on reigniting a centuries-old war, and Beth and Fil find themselves in a desperate race through a bizarre urban wonderland, searching for a way to save the city they both love.  The City’s Son is the first book of The Skyscraper Throne trilogy: a story about family, friends and monsters, and how you can’t always tell which is which. I remember reading somewhere, years ago, that a city has many faces. I couldn’t tell now where I read the phrase, but I liked the idea and it has always stayed with me. I’ve since come to the conclusion that when I’m reading well written urban fantasy the author is sharing tantalizing glimpses of these faces. The City’s Son, the debut novel by Tom Pollock, is a great…

A thousand years have passed since the Clan Lords and the Fey commanded dragons and raised mighty citadels. The remnants of their ancient power lie dormant and a new conflict threatens the kingdom of Antia…  King Daris rules a peaceful and prosperous land, but his conniving brother Jerim covets the throne and civil war looms. But there are worse threats to Antia than mere human greed. Two people will stand against mortal and demonic enemies: Alyda Stenna, Captain of the Hammer of Antia returns from campaign to a hero’s welcome after prosecuting war abroad with brutal efficiency. Garian Tain, the spymaster’s apprentice, hunts for an assassin through the streets of the capital while the knights bask in the adoration of the crowds. This is just the beginning.  Both will fight overwhelming odds in a bid to save the kingdom. War and betrayal will test them to their limits. One will rise; one will fall; both will be changed forever. Earlier this year I read the anthology Day of Demons, published by Anachron Press, and one of the highlights was The Deal by K T Davies. It was a fun fantasy tale and it left me keen to read more of…

Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke brings you London as you’ve never seen it before – science fiction and fantasy in the great tradition of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens lived and breathed London in a way few authors ever have, before or since. In his fiction, his non-fiction, and even his own life, Dickens cast an extraordinary shadow over the city he so loved – so much so, indeed, that his name has become synonymous with a certain image of London. A London of terrible social inequality and matchless belief in the human potential; a London filled with the comic and the repulsive, the industrious and the feckless, the faithful and the faithless, the selfish and the selfless. This London is at once an historical artifact and a living, breathing creature: the steaming, heaving, weeping, stinking, everlasting Smoke. At the tail end of 2011, those crafty folk over at Pornokitsch published their first anthology Stories of the Apocalypse. I’ll admit that I rather enjoyed it (what can I say, I have a soft spot for the end of the world, feel free to ask me about it sometime). In April this year, their second release Stories of the Smoke was released. I had…

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…

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…

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…

Accused of practising pagan magicks, a young boy flees for his life… In fear for her life, a woman suffering from a mysterious illness is forced to break out of the mine where she has been enslaved… An innocent warrior is exiled by the holy man of this mountain tribe and told to make his own way in the world…  In the Empire of the Saviours, The People are forced to live in fortified towns. Their walls are guarded by an army of Heroes, whose task is to keep marauding pagans out as much as it is to keep the People inside. Several times a year, living Saints visit the towns to exact the Saviours’ tithe from all those coming of age – a tithe often paid in blood. When a young boy, Jillan, unleashes pagan magicks in an accident, his whole town turns against him. He goes on the run, but what hope can there be when the Saviours and the entire Empire decide he mud be caught? Last year I read Necromancer’s Gambit by A J Dalton and, although I had some issues with the editing, overall I enjoyed the dark fantasy that the author created. You can’t ever go…

Day of Demons is a collection of powerful stories featuring the conflict of demons and humans over the course of a day. Read how one women’s inner-self awakens to unexpected and frightening consequences, or how a charismatic half-breed thief is forced to strike a deal with a pen-stealing imp. Read about a mother as she struggles to cope with a deadly, satanic bargain, and a sword-wielding anti-hero as he returns out of exile to face his demonic fate. Nine stories, nine demons, nine authors. From fantasy, to horror, to contemporary fiction, this anthology will fright, delight and grip you with tales of daring-do, danger and of course — demons. Last year Anachron Press launched with the rather marvellous anthology, City of Hell. This week sees the launch of the second collection from this fledgling publisher. The Deal by Karen Davies – A fantastical tale that follows a young adventurer who learns the hard way that coming to an agreement with even the lowliest of demons can cause you no end of grief. A nice balance of action, humour and re-interpretation of classic genre tropes gets things off to a great start. The ending is left wide open and I’d love…

When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods – and a skrayling ambassador – to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital? Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is seconded to the ambassador’s bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally – and Mal Catlyn his soul. Maliverny ‘Mal’ Catyln is a suitably heroic sort and he certainly typifies what you would expect from an Elizabethan dashing blade.  Driven to protect Queen and country, he throws himself into his role and won’t let anything stop him. Mal has a  roguish charm and his mix of easy manner and strong resolve make him a perfect protagonist. Though Mal is an interesting lead, there were a couple of other characters that I was more taken with. Coby is a teenage girl who is forced to live her life pretending to be a boy, calling herself Jacob, in order to survive on her own. She is intelligent, inquisitive…