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…

Please note A Clash of Kings is the second novel in an on-going series and may therefore contain potential spoilers for anyone who has not read book one of the series, A Game of Thrones. Proceed at your own peril.  The price of glory From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims. As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky – a comet the colour of blood and flame – five factions struggle for control of a divided land. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory is measured in blood. Almost a year ago I finally got around to reading the first novel in the saga A Song of Ice and Fire. I had actively avoided A Game of Thrones for a long time because, if I’m being honest, I was a little intimidated by the hugeness of it all. By the time I started reading there were already four novels available and the fifth was on the horizon. After completing, and enjoying, the first book I had significantly revised my…

Goliath of Gath isn’t much of a fighter. Given half a choice, he would pick admin work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king he finds himself issuing a twice-daily challenge to the Israelites: “Choose a man. Let him come to me that we may fight. If he be able to kill me then we shall be your servants. But if I kill him, then you shall be our servants.” Day after day he reluctantly repeats his speech, and the isolation of this duty gives him the chance to banter with his shield-bearer and reflect on the beauty of his surroundings. This is the story of David and Goliath as seen from Goliath’s side of the Valley of Elah. Quiet moments in Goliath’s life as a soldier are accentuated by Tom Gauld’s drawing style, which contrasts minimalist scenery and near-geometric humans with densely crosshatched detail reminiscent of Edward Gorey. Goliath’s battle is simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, as bureaucracy pervades even this most mythic of figures. Occasionally I like to try something completely different here at The Eloquent Page and today is one of those…

Rough music: (- n) a loud cacophony created with tin pans, drums, etc,; the cacophonous ringing of bells, hooting, blowing bull’s horns, the banging of frying pans, saucepans, kettles, or other kitchen or barn implements with the intention of creating long-lasting embarrassment. Sometimes, the sounds we hear in the dark have resonances that we cannot foresee… This story has a wonderfully simple premise and can check this content experience that beautiful premise. A man, called Cornish, is woken every night by a noise that only he can hear. Over a series of successive nights, the noise gets louder and louder and when he discovers the source he is forced to confront the truth behind the lies in his life. I liked the sense of ambiguity and uncertainty that flows through the narrative of this story. Is Cornish merely projecting his internal turmoil, are all the events he witnesses occurring just in his head or is something more sinister going on? As the plot unfolds the reader is given the opportunity to interpret the events that occur and draw their own conclusions from Cornish’s reactions. I read Rough Music a couple of times over the course of a few days and…

Meet Sam Thornton. He collects souls.  Sam’s job is to collect the souls of the damned, and ensure they are dispatched to the appropriate destination. But when he’s sent to collect the soul of a young woman he believes to be innocent of the horrific crime that’s doomed her to Hell, he says something no Collector has ever said before.  “No.” I have a confession to make – My name is Pablo and I’m an addict, I’m hooked on Angry Robot books. There I’ve said it, feels good to finally get it out there into the open. Things got so bad that I’ve actively avoided Angry Robot publications for the last couple of months. Ever since I pronounced them my publisher of 2011 in December, I realised that I had to go ‘cold turkey’ for a while. There was a serious danger of me reading nothing but Angry Robot books all the time and getting stuck on one publisher doesn’t work terribly well if you are a book reviewer. Up until very recently I’ve done quite well. There has been the odd wobble (I’m looking at you Empire State), but with the exception of that one lapse my life has been…