THE COMING END When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a coming global apocalypse are building. But this does not stop the young elite of New York from partying without a care. CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? And then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the Secret Runners of New York. But this is no ordinary clique – they have access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future. And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying: the rumours about the coming apocalypse are true . . . RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN! As society crumbles and Skye and Red race to figure out how to use their knowledge to survive the impending annihilation, they soon discover that the chaotic end of the world is a fine time for revenge . . . Hurrah! This week I get to review a book in my favourite sub-genre of fiction – apocalypse fiction. Hold onto your hats, folks, because once again it’s the end of the world. The unique hook for this cataclysmic tale? It’s only those pesky teenagers and their angst-ridden high school lives versus…

Please note Splinter is the final novel in the Sentinel trilogy. If you haven’t read books one and two in this series, then there is a good chance what follows is going to contain a minor spoiler or two. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The world is falling apart around Nicholas Hallow. Amid rumours that the Dark Prophets have returned, a deathly gloom pollutes England, unleashing a savage hoard of nightmare creatures. Fighting the tide of evil, Nicholas returns home to Cambridge, where an old ally helps him seek out the mysterious Skurkwife, who could help Nicholas stop Malika and the Prophets for good. Meanwhile, Sam Wilkins unites the Sentinels against the forces of darkness, but with Jessica’s sanity slipping, and Isabel suspicious of her shadowy past, it’s a battle that could cost the Sentinels everything. I’m always a little sad when I get to the last book in a series I’ve really enjoyed. I know that all good things must come to an end, but I’ll miss the characters I’ve grown to like. And so, with a heavy heart, we find ourselves having reached the final book in the Sentinel trilogy. I read the first two books, Sentinel…

Leon and his younger sister Grace have just moved to London from New York when news of an unidentified plague begins to fill the news. Within a week the virus hits London. People in the streets turn to liquid before their eyes, and what follows is a frantic hunt for a safety which may no longer exist. For the Alex Scarrow fans amongst you, a quick internet search reveals that Plague Land was previously published under the title ReMade. Just thought you should know before you decide if you want to read any further. Leon and Grace are in a difficult place in their lives. They’ve moved from one side of the planet to the other after their parents’divorce. A new country and a new beginning is going to be hard whatever age you are, but especially so if you are still a teen. Everything is just so different from what both of them are used to. Britain isn’t America, and Leon is finding it particularly hard to adjust. Any chance of starting again disappears with a frantic transatlantic phone call from their father. Leon and Grace are at either end of the teenage spectrum. Leon is nearly, but not…

Nineteen years ago, a brain disease known as the Great Madness killed most of the world’s population. The survivors all had something different about their minds. Now, at the start of adolescence, their children enter a trance-like state known as the Changeland and either emerge with special mental powers or as cannibalistic Ferals. In the great forest of south-western Australia, thirteen year-old Arika and her twin brother Narrah go through the Changeland. They encounter an enemy known as the Anteater who feeds on human life. He exists both in the Changeland and in the outside world, and he wants the twins dead. After their Changings, the twins have powers that let them fight their enemy and face their destiny on a long journey to an abandoned American military base on the north-west coast of Australia. If they can reach it before time runs out. Regular readers of The Eloquent Page will be well aware that I have a special place in my heart for the end of the world. If I’m honest, I can’t ever let the opportunity of a new literary apocalypse pass me by. The latest title I’ll be adding to my ever growing list of world ending…

There’s one truth on Australia: You fight or you die. Usually both. Seventeen-year-old Chan’s ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. They never found one. The only life that Chan’s ever known is one of violence, of fighting. Of trying to survive. But there might be a way to escape. In order to find it, Chan must head way down into the darkness – a place of buried secrets, long-forgotten lies, and the abandoned bodies of the dead. Seventeen-year-old Chan, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, keeps her head down and lives quietly, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the violence and disorder. Until the day she makes an extraordinary discovery – a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so would bring her to the attention of the fanatics and the murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And a safe return to Earth is by no means certain. Way Down Dark is the new novel from J P Smythe and I’ll begin with a small admission, I’ve never actually read anything by this particular author. I’m always a little…

Please note Ruins is a direct sequel to Sentinel and if you have read book one in this series it is entirely possible that this review might contain the odd spoiler or two. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. In his desperate search for answers about the Sentinels, an ancient society of demon hunters that his parents belonged to, fifteen-year-old Nicholas Hallow is tipped into a fresh nightmare of terrifying monsters – and even more sinister humans – which threaten to send the world spiralling into chaos. Can Nicholas track down the mysterious girl who holds the key to their fate?  Ruins picks up events not long after the end of book one. Nicholas Hallow is starting to settle into his life as part of the Sentinels. He is beginning to accept his place as part of a secret society tasked with protecting all humanity. Nicholas still has lots to learn however and so some on the job training is required. Working as Sam Wilkins assistant is the best way to learn, the old man has a knack for locating evil in all its many forms. I was glad to see Sam appear again, he was probably my favourite character from…

They are the world’s best-kept secret – an underground society whose eternal cause is to protect the world against the dark creatures and evil forces that inhabit the night. Now Sentinels are being targeted, murdered and turned as the fury of an ancient evil is unleashed once more. And when 15-year-old Nicholas Hallow’s parents are killed in a train crash, the teenager is drawn into a desperate struggle against malevolent powers. I’m sure that everyone has had daydreams of living a different life; of waking up one morning and discovering your regular life is changed so dramatically that everything is new and exciting. It’s great to dream but for Nicholas Hallow the dream becomes a nightmare when a family tragedy unlocks a new life that he could never have expected. The Sentinels are the de-facto guardians of humanity. This secret society are the chosen few, just slightly out of step with normal existence. They suffer and fight for us so that we can live on in blissful ignorance. I’ve always liked that idea, the premise that groups like this could exist side by side with the rest of us, hidden in plain sight. Nicholas is an engaging lead, and it…

Please note Vowed is a direct sequel to Banished so it is entirely possible that this review may contain something akin to spoilers if you haven’t already read book one. Actually if you haven’t read Banished why are you here? Go read it and then come back and we’ll talk. A Blackhart can see the supernatural behind everyday crimes. But some crimes hide even greater evils . . . Kit Blackhart must investigate why children are disappearing from a London estate. Their parents, the police and Kit’s fae allies claim to know nothing. And as more children disappear, the pressure mounts. Luckily, or unluckily, government trainee Dante Alexander is helping Kit with the case. Yet just as her feelings towards him begin to thaw, his life falls apart. As Kit struggles to unravel Dante’s problems and solve their case, she meets fae Prince Thorn in her dreams – but their relationship is utterly forbidden. Then Kit digs too deep, uncovering a mystery that’s been hidden for one thousand years. It’s a secret that could just tear down our world. Last year I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy of the debut novel by Liz de Jager, Banished while…

Fifty years ago, the world was almost destroyed by a chemical war. Now the world is divided: the mutants and the pure, the broken and the privileged, the damaged and the perfect. Thirteen years ago, a covert government experimental facility was shut down and its residents killed. The secrets it held died with them. But five extraordinary kids survived. Today four teenagers are about to discover that their mutant blood brings with it special powers. Rush and three brothers and sisters he can’t remember. Two rival factions are chasing them. One by one, they face the enemy. Together, they might just stay alive . . . At first glance, the inhabitants of City Four all appear perfect. Science has helped to make them that way. All disease, sickness and the genetic differences that exist in humans have been removed. Parents can choose exactly what their children will look like, everything down to the colour of their eyes and their hair. Nothing is left to chance. The only fly in the ointment of this, otherwise perfect, existence is the groups of individuals who live outside the city walls. The other survivors of the last war, the mutants (mutes) exist in the slums…

Kim Curran’s last book, Control, ended on an epic cliffhanger. I’ve been waiting patiently for Delete to arrive* Sadly it’s not quite with us yet, we have to wait until August to find out how Scott Tyler fares. In the meantime, we’ll just have to content ourselves with the striking cover art. Great stuff, it fits perfectly with it’s predecessors. I can’t fault the fella that came up with cover quote either!   * I’m lying obviously I want to read immediately, if not sooner.

Kit is proud to be a Blackhart, now she’s living with her unorthodox cousins and sharing their strange lives. Especially since their home-schooling includes spells, fighting enemy fae and using ancient weapons. But it’s not until she rescues a rather handsome fae prince, fighting for his life on the edge of Blackhart Manor, that her training really kicks in. With her family away on various missions, Kit must protect Prince Thorn, rely on new friends and use her own unfamiliar magic to stay ahead of Thorn’s enemies. As things go from bad to apocalyptic, fae battle fae in a war that threatens to spill into the human world. Then Kit pits herself against the Elder Gods themselves – it’s that or lose everyone she’s learnt to love. The world of the Blackhart’s is a mysterious one. Monsters, mythology and magic all exist, and it’s up to the members of an extraordinary family to keep us all safe from them. When we first meet Katherine ‘Kit’ Blackhart, she is still a bit of newbie when it comes to her inheritance. Her grandmother has kept her in the dark about her ancestry up until now and she has lots to learn about the family…

Gosh, has it really already been twelve months since we all survived the Mayan apocalypse? It’s amazing how quickly we all forgot about that isn’t it? All those giant beasties, strange lights in the sky and everything. Crazy times, eh? Never mind, I’m sure there will another rapture-like event arriving imminently. While we’re waiting, why not pull up a chair and we can talk a bit about some of the top genre books that have arrived in the last year. I’ve decided, as I’ve done in the past, to hold an impromptu little awards ceremony. As ever the categories and winners are decided on by a crack team of intelligent, well-educated genre experts me. Here they are then, in no specific order, without any further rigmarole/needless waffle. Welcome Return of the Year Award – The Republic of Thieves delivered exactly the experience I was hoping for. I found myself getting happier and happier with each passing chapter. Just wonderful to have Locke Lamora, Jean Tannen and the other Gentlemen Bastards back. Great to see Scott Lynch’s return and to confirm he is still delivering exquisitely crafted fantasy. Character of the Year – Ack-Ack Macaque – This was a no brainer. C’mon people, he’s a cigar smoking, smart-mouthed simian who flies…

Cast of Wonders, a young adult audio fiction podcast, invites you to the magical world of Camp Myth, where centaurs, kitsune, dryads, cyclops, mermaids and other mythical youngsters spend their summers adventuring and earning merit badges. Starting September 25th, Cast of Wonders will debut Phoenix Watching, the first Camp Myth novel by Chris Lewis Carter. This longer story unfolds over fifteen chapters, and will air one chapter a week every Wednesday. This is in addition to the weekly stories and Little Wonders every Sundays. Even better, Phoenix Watching will be a full cast production, featuring the voice talents of Kate Baker, Adam Black, Tina Connolly, Christiana Ellis, Alethea Kontis, Alasdair Stuart, Ian Stuart, and the Cast of Wonders creative team of Graeme Dunlop, Barry J. Northern and Marguerite Kenner. The project will have a special page on the Cast of Wonders website where fans can see artwork from Phoenix Watching, and find links to all the episodes after they air as well as links to purchase their own copy of Phoenix Watching or the Camp Myth roleplaying game. There might even be a few surprises that crop up as the story progresses, so be sure to check back for the…