A special illustrated edition of the stunningly original and brilliant first novel from a storytelling genius. Under the streets of London there’s a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, and pale girls in black velvet. Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he bargained for about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and yet utterly bizarre. There’s a girl named Door, an Angel called Islington, an Earl who holds Court on the carriage of a Tube train, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining… And Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him below the streets of his native city. I’ve always considered Neverwhere to be the granddaddy of modern urban fantasy. Thinking about all the excellent books I’ve read since I started The Eloquent Page, I’m sure there are many who owe their genesis to Gaiman’s masterwork. Books like The City’s Son by Tom Pollock, Sixty One Nails by…

Be warned The Silver Tide is the third book in a trilogy. If you haven’t read books one and two there is a good chance that the following review may contain some mild spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Tales of the Black Feather Three and their exploits abound far and wide, and Wydrin of Crosshaven, Lord Aaron Frith and Sir Sebastian have become sell swords in demand. Having foiled powerful mages and evil magic, they now face a challenge unlike any before – in the form of Wydrin’s mother. Devinia the Red, notorious pirate and captain of the Poison Chalice, is intent on finding the fabled treasure hidden within the jungles of the cursed island of Euriale. She needs the skills of her daughter Wydrin and her companions to get there, and our heroes cannot resist the lure of coin and adventure. But no explorer has returned from the heart of the island, and it’s not long before the Three find themselves in the clutches of peril. Deep within the island of the gods, there are remnants of forces best left undisturbed… And so with a heavy heart we have come to the final book in The Copper…

If you seek, they will find…The travels of Marco Polo are known throughout the world. But what if his story isn’t complete? What if his greatest adventure has yet to be discovered? Guided by a journal believed to have been dictated by Polo himself, the Hunters set out in search of his final legacy: the mythical treasure gathered during Polo’s lifetime of exploration. But as every ancient clue brings them closer to the truth, each new step puts them in increasing danger… This is the first novel I’ve read by Chris Kuzneski and it was pretty good fun. The action rattles along at a good pace and there are plenty of twists and turns. A quick Internet search reveals that there are a couple of books in The Hunters series already published.  There appears to be a couple of references to these previous novels scattered throughout the narrative, but I never felt like I was missing out on anything massively relevant. I have a tendency to devour thrillers pretty quickly. I find them easy reading and I love it when the action kicks off on page one and doesn’t quit until the book is done. The good news is that…

Please note The Iron Ghost is a sequel to The Copper Promise, so it is entirely likely that this review may contain minor spoilery type stuff. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian and Lord Aaron Frith are experienced in the perils of stirring up the old gods. They are also familiar with defeating them, and the heroes of Baneswatch are now enjoying the perks of suddenly being very much in demand for their services. When a job comes up in the distant city of Skaldshollow, it looks like easy coin – retrieve a stolen item, admire the views, get paid. But in a place twisted and haunted by ancient magic, with the most infamous mage of them all, Joah Demonsworn, making a reappearance, our heroes soon find themselves threatened by enemies on all sides, old and new. And in the frozen mountains, the stones are walking… Last year Jen Williams delivered a rock solid debut in the form of The Copper Promise. Chock full of engaging characters, a cracking plot and more action than you could shake a big pointy stick at it was a successful reimagining of traditional fantasy tropes injected with a modern…

It is ten years since the attack that reduced Pittsburgh to ashes. Today all that remains is the Archive: an interactive digital record of the city and its people. John Dominic Blaxton is a survivor, one of the ‘lucky ones’ who escaped the blast. Crippled by the loss of his wife and unborn daughter, he spends his days immersed in the Archive with the ghosts of yesterday. It is there he finds the digital record of a body: a woman, lying face down, half buried in mud. Who is she … and why is someone hacking into the system and deleting the record of her seemingly unremarkable life? This question will drag Dominic from the darkest corners of the past into a deadly and very present nightmare. When thousands die in a tragedy does the death of one more victim mean anything? That’s the jumping off point for Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch. In near future America a bomb levels Pittsburgh. The entire US is consumed by grief at the scale of the atrocity. Using the latest technology to create a virtual representation of the city, an electronic archive is created to recapture all events in the city leading…

A madman is on the rampage in the Los Angeles streets. The City of Angels has become The City of Fear. And everyone from the Oval Office down wants a quick result. The heat is on Jake Mottram, head of the FBI’s new Spree Killer Unit, and psychological profiler Angie Holmes to find the madman responsible.   Until now, they’ve been great together. Both at work and in bed. But a killer is about to come between them, in ways that could cost them far more than their careers. Will they survive the spree about to come? SPREE  Life and death in LA – like you’ve never seen it before. Jake and Angie are the flip sides of the same coin. Jake is all about taking direct action and instinct, while Angie focuses on analysis, introspection and investigation. Both of these approaches to solving cases have benefits but also failings. Their professional relationship sometimes throws up conflicts that spill over into their personal lives. Getting to see both individuals as more than just agents, but as human beings, gives a nice extra depth to the plot. Throughout the main narrative that features Angie and Jake, there are chapters from the killer’s perspective. The lunatic spree-killer is referred to only…

There are some far-fetched rumours about the caverns beneath the Citadel: some say the mages left their most dangerous secrets hidden there; others, that great riches are hidden there; even that gods have been imprisoned in its darkest depths. For Lord Frith, the caverns hold the key to his vengeance. Against all the odds, he has survived torture and lived to see his home and his family taken from him … and now someone is going to pay.  For Wydrin of Crosshaven and her faithful companion, Sir Sebastian Caverson, a quest to the Citadel looks like just another job. There’s the promise of gold and adventure. Who knows, they might even have a decent tale or two once they’re done.  But sometimes there is truth in rumour. Sometimes it pays to listen. Soon this reckless trio will become the last line of defence against a hungry, restless terror that wants to tear the world apart. And they’re not even getting paid. When it comes to fantasy novels I think my needs are relatively simple. I want memorable characters, lashings of action, really angry dragons, curses, torture, captures, escapes, enigmatic mystics and, if at all possible, a sense of awe and…

Time for a guest review. Here’s @MrSamStrong taking a look at Breach Zone by Mike Cole. Take it away Sam.  (Please note: Breach Zone is the third book in a trilogy. As such, this review most definitely includes spoilers for Control Point and Fortress Frontier. You have been warned.) The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Across the country and in every nation, people began “coming up Latent,” developing terrifying powers—summoning storms, raising the dead, and setting everything they touch ablaze. Those who Manifest must choose: become a sheepdog who protects the flock or a wolf who devours it…In the wake of a bloody battle at Forward Operating Base Frontier and a scandalous presidential impeachment, Lieutenant Colonel Jan Thorsson, call sign “Harlequin,” becomes a national hero and a pariah to the military that is the only family he’s ever known.In the fight for Latent equality, Oscar Britton is positioned to lead a rebellion in exile, but a powerful rival beats him to the punch: Scylla, a walking weapon who will stop at nothing to end the human-sanctioned apartheid against her kind. When Scylla’s inhuman forces invade New York City, the Supernatural Operations Corps are the only soldiers equipped to prevent a massacre. In…

The small New England town of Coventry had weathered a thousand blizzards…but never one like this. Icy figures danced in the wind and gazed through children’s windows with soul-chilling eyes. People wandered into the whiteout and were never seen again. Families were torn apart, and the town would never be the same. Now, as a new storm approaches twelve years later, the folks of Coventry are haunted by the memories of that dreadful blizzard and those who were lost in the snow. Photographer Jake Schapiro mourns his little brother, Isaac, even as—tonight—another little boy is missing. Mechanic and part-time thief Doug Manning’s life has been forever scarred by the mysterious death of his wife, Cherie, and now he’s starting over with another woman and more ambitious crimes. Police detective Joe Keenan has never been the same since that night, when he failed to save the life of a young boy . . . and the boy’s father vanished in the storm only feet away. And all the way on the other side of the country, Miri Ristani receives a phone call . . . from a man who died twelve years ago. As old ghosts trickle back, this new storm…

Present Day: Cadair Idris, Snowdonia. Hannah Wilde flees to Llyn Gwyr, a remote mountain farmhouse, her husband bleeding to death on the passenger seat beside her. In the back of the car sits their seven year old daughter. Hannah’s father is missing. Her mother is already dead. Mysterious strangers are converging on the mountain. And Hannah must decide who to trust – and who to sacrifice – if she’s to defeat the predator who has stalked five generations of her family. 1979: Balliol College, Oxford. Charles Meredith, a brilliant, obsessive professor, clashes with a beautiful French woman in Balliol’s library. When the woman disappears, and her identity is exposed as a sham, Charles is dragged into a terrifying pursuit. 1873: Gödöllö, Hungary. Lukas Balázs prepares for his végzet night, the celebration that symbolises his entry into adulthood. But the festivities are about to go horribly wrong, and only Lukas knows why.  A centuries-old secret is about to unravel … Jakab is coming. There is something intrinsically appealing about the idea of secret societies. The idea that somehow, often hidden in plain sight, groups of individuals exist who are different from everyone else. They live their secret lives, going about their secretive business, and…

1351 BC: Akhenaten the Sun-Pharaoh rules supreme in Egypt…until the day he casts off his crown and mysteriously disappears into the desert, his legacy seemingly swallowed up by the remote sands beneath the Great Pyramids of Giza. AD 1884: A British soldier serving in the Sudan stumbles upon an incredible discovery – a submerged temple containing evidence of a terrifying religion whose god was fed by human sacrifice. The soldier is on a mission to reach General Gordon before Khartoum falls. But he hides a secret of his own. Present day: Jack Howard and his team are excavating one of the most amazing underwater sites they have ever encountered, but dark forces are watching to see what they will find. Diving into the Nile, they enter a world three thousand years back in history, inhabited by a people who have sworn to guard the greatest secret of all time… Jack Howard is a modern day Indiana Jones type, part academic, part action man. Along with his friends and colleagues of the International Maritime University, he travels the globe uncovering facts behind myth and legend. His latest adventure finds him in Egypt and the Sudan attempting to track down the lost…

Time for a cheeky little guest review. Over to friend of The Eloquent Page @MrSamStrong. Today he’ll be casting his beady eye over Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole. The Great Reawakening did not come quietly. Suddenly people from all corners of the globe began to develop terrifying powers – summoning fire, manipulating earth, opening portals and decimating flesh. Overnight the rules had changed… but not for everyone. Alan Bookbinder might be a Colonel in the US Army, but in his heart he knows he’s just a desk jockey, a clerk with a silver eagle on his jacket. But one morning he is woken by a terrible nightmare and overcome by an ominous drowning sensation. Something is very, very wrong. Forced into working for the Supernatural Operations Corps in a new and dangerous world, Bookbinder’s only hope of finding a way back to his family will mean teaming up with former SOC operator and public enemy number one: Oscar Britton. They will have to put everything on the line if they are to save thousands of soldiers trapped inside a frontier fortress on the brink of destruction, and show the people back home the stark realities of a war that threatens…

For millennia it has lain there undiscovered. Now the time has come… Research scientist Evelyn Edwards always knew the Antarctic held deep secrets but the discovery of a 40,000 year old body buried under the ice caps surpasses even her wildest expectations. But just as her team begins extracting the body the dream turns into a horrific nightmare as they are targeted for death by someone who wants to keep this secret buried. Evelyn barely escapes with her life… On the run, alone and desperate, she turns to her ex-husband Matt Adams, a former member of an elite government unit, for help. Soon, they find themselves caught up in a frantic race against time, which takes them from Area 51 to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, as they try to uncover the biggest conspiracy of all time before it’s too late for everyone… If mankind thought it knew its origins, the time has come to think again because its every belief is about to be challenged… I enjoy including the occasional thriller in my reading, especially when I’m looking for a break from fantasy or horror. There are a couple of things that make an effective thriller for me….