YOU DIE WHEN YOU DIE . . . You can’t change your fate – so throw yourself into battle, because you’ll either win or wake up drinking mead in the halls of your ancestors. That’s what Finn’s tribe believe. But when their settlement is massacred by a hostile tribe and Finn and several friends, companions and rivals make their escape across a brutal, unfamiliar landscape, Finn will fight harder than he’s ever fought in his life. He wants to live – even if he only lives long enough to tell Thyri Treelegs how he feels about her. Hardwork doesn’t really live up to its name. It is actually quite an idyllic place to grow up. The villagers lead a cosy life, the local native tribespeople are more than happy to provide them with resources like food. Everything is nice and tranquil up until the point where a group of warriors arrive with the intention of killing every man, woman and child. A massacre ensues, but a small group of Hardworkers manage to escape their gruesome fate. Pursued by the fearsome Owsla*, the elite warriors of the Calnian empire, the villagers run for their lives. When we first met Finnbogi the…

For info – The Boy on The Bridge shares the same universe as The Girl with All the Gifts. If you haven’t already I would strongly advise reading that The Girl with All the Gifts first. It will undoubtedly enhance your enjoyment of The Boy on the Bridge.  It is also possible that if you haven’t read The Girl with All the Gifts that this review may contain minor spoilers. Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy. The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world. To where the monsters lived. A virulent contagion has decimated the world’s population. Exposure to the “hungry plague” immediately leads to infection and metamorphosis into a carrier who craves human flesh. Those remaining, who have avoided being infected so far, cling to their humanity with a ferocious tenacity. What little is left of the British authorities attempt to maintain order in a stronghold known as Beacon. In a last-ditch attempt to save everyone, they send out a small group made up of a military escort and scientific experts. The team’s goal? To learn as…

Charlie meets everyone – but only once. You might meet him in a hospital, in a warzone, or at the scene of traffic accident. Then again, you might meet him at the North Pole – Charlie gets everywhere. Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. Either way, this is going to be the most important meeting of your life. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you do, eventually we all have to confront the concept of death. You could be a pragmatist, happy to accept that moving from life to death is merely the transfer of energy from one form to another. You could be deeply devout, believing in an all-encompassing deity who will lead you into a far better afterlife. The choice is ultimately your own. The one thing that makes us all the same, accepting that with life comes death. Claire North’s latest is an exploration of what makes us tick and what happens when the ticking finally stops. Charlie is a truly fascinating character. The Harbinger of Death isn’t the job he ever expected to be doing, but he finds that it fits him well. He gets to travel, meet interesting…

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best — the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk – or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for. It’s time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld. I made a decision earlier this year that I was going to try and read all the debut authors who are being published by Orbit in 2017. I’ve done a bit of research, and their books all sound right up my street. The first freshman author out of the gate is Nicholas Eames with his inaugural effort – Kings of the Wyld. Saga were the best of the best, a group of mercenaries without peer. After years on the road they have all gone…

A word of warning, After the Crown is a direct sequel to Behind the Throne. With that in mind it is highly likely this review may contain something akin to minor spoilers if you haven’t read book one. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Former gunrunner-turned-Empress Hail Bristol was dragged back to her home planet to fill her rightful position in the palace. With her sisters and parents murdered, the Indranan empire is on the brink of war. Hail must quickly make alliances with nearby worlds if she has any hope of surviving her rule. When peace talks turn violent and Hail realizes she’s been betrayed, she must rely on her old gunrunning ways to get out of trouble. With help from an old boss and some surprising new allies, she must risk everything to save her world. Earlier this year, I read Behind The Throne by K B Wagers. It’s an excellent slice of science fiction adventure, with a cracking narrative and characterisation. The sequel is upon us and I can confirm that book one was no fluke. After the Throne is just as brilliant, just as exciting and just as much fun as its literary sibling. When we last left…

It has been twenty years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs – once thought of almost as gods – were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs’ fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion’s Four Tenets. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience. As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought – and lost – before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests. But when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. And…

There’s nothing special about Ben Garston. He’s just a guy with an attitude in a beat-up leather jacket, drowning his sorrows in a downtown bar. Or so he’d have you believe. What Ben Garston can’t let you know is that he was once known as Red Ben. That the world of myth and legend isn’t just a fantasy, as we’ve been led to believe. And he certainly can’t let you know the secret of what’s hiding just beneath his skin… But not even Ben knows what kind of hell is about to break loose. A centuries-old rivalry has just resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered. I love that moment when a book clicks. When you’re reading an author’s work for the first time, and suddenly you just get it. There is always the little frisson of panic whenever an author is an unknown quantity. Will I enjoy their work or will it be for someone else and not for me?  Within a handful of pages I knew without question that James Bennett was going to be an author whose work I was going to enjoy. ‘Red’ Ben Garston is a complicated…

Hail Bristol has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. When she is dragged back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir, she finds that trading her ship for a palace is her most dangerous move yet. There is a wonderful moment as a reviewer that I always enjoy when it happens. That split second when you’re a dozen or so pages into a debut author’s first novel and everything clicks. The joyous frisson when you just get it, and realise that the author’s work really resonates with you. I experienced that exact sensation after I started reading Behind The Throne by K B Wagers. Hail has spent decades running away from the Indranan Empire. In that time she has shed the mantle of royal princess and has become almost the polar opposite – a hard talking no-nonsense gunrunner. When circumstance steps in and forces her to return home, her family and subjects are more than a little dismayed by her appearance and attitude. The stuffed shirts who run the empire on a day to day basis just don’t…

Kid is trying to survive in a world gone mad. Hungry, thirsty and alone in a desert wasteland, she’s picked up on the side of the road by Wolf, Dolly, Tank and Pretty Boy – outlaws with big reputations and even bigger guns. But as they journey across the wild together, Kid learns that her newfound crew may not be the heroes she was hoping for. And in a world that’s lost its humanity, everyone has a bit of monster within them… Picture this, the world has gone to Hell in a hand cart. Three hot meals and a comfortable place to sleep are nothing but a distant memory. Society has all but collapsed, and what remains has devolved into chaos. Everywhere bands of bloodthirsty raiders travel the radioactive wastelands killing and, if you’re really unlucky, eating you. The choices you have left are more than a little limited. In fact, there is really only one question left to answer – what exactly would you be prepared to do in order to survive? This is the question that Kid keeps asking herself. Completely alone and miles from anywhere she has a simple choice – accept a ride from a group…

LEGENDS AREN’T BORN. THEY’RE FORGED. Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar’s army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people. First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar’s most fearsome warriors, who’s vowed revenge on the king for her sister’s execution. Now Dug’s on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join ­- and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side. All Dug has is his war hammer, one rescued child and one unpredictable, highly-trained warrior with a lust for revenge that’s going to get them all killed . . . It’s a glorious day to die. Turns out Iron Age Britain is not an easy place to get by in. The country is fragmented into many warring tribes constantly at one another’s throats. Bickering warlords try to grab hold of as much land and power as they can manage while trying to ignore the ever growing threat of the Roman Empire. Dug Sealskinner is a slightly shabby warrior, past his best, with a suitably world-weary outlook towards life. It’s not difficult to spot, the sardonic attitude, resigned acceptance of…

A SOLDIER’S MISSION IN A RAVAGED WORLD: SURVIVE, RESCUE, REBUILD. In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker twenty feet below ground, a soldier waits for his final orders. On the surface, a bacterium has turned over 90% of the population into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed. But now the day has come when he must open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into the chaos . It seems like only a couple of days since I was reading a book about the end of the world and the inevitable zombie apocalypse. I finished it off, picked up the next book in my review pile, and it turned out to be a book about the end of the world and the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Like I said in my last review – zombies, they’re just so hot right now! The Remaining follows Captain Lee Harden, a specially selected operative, as he attempts to fulfil his final mission. The America he grew up in has almost entirely disappeared in a matter of a few short weeks. From the ashes of society he has been tasked with starting again. Harden’s only companion is his dog, Tango, and after nearly…

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them. But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives . . . and will do anything to get them. Sally ‘Sal’ Mitchell owes her life to an Intestinal Bodyguard™, a parasite that has allowed her to recover from a massively traumatic car accident. Without this medical miracle there is no way that Sal would have survived the severe injuries she sustained. Six years after the event and Sally has had to re-learn everything. Her life before the accident is gone, her memories a total blank. I was surprised how much this particular element of the story struck a chord with me. I’ve been in a very similar situation to Sal, minus the tapeworm I’m pleased to say, and I often ponder the person I was…

I do hope that everyone is having a relaxing and enjoyable festive season. Now that most of the serious over-indulgence is done with for another year, I thought it was about time to take a look at what new book-related loveliness is due in 2013. Here are my top ten books I’m looking forward to reading in the next six months or so. Hope you enjoy. Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth Powell Publication Date: 3rd January Publisher: Solaris Genre: Simian Steampunk Science Fiction The Blurb: In 1944, as waves of German ninjas parachute into Kent, Britain’s best hopes for victory lie with a Spitfire pilot codenamed ‘Ack-Ack Macaque.’ The trouble is, Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar-chomping monkey, and he’s starting to doubt everything, including his own existence. A century later, in a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s and nuclear-powered Zeppelins circle the globe, ex-journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband and stole her electronic soul. Meanwhile, in Paris, after taking part in an illegal break-in at a research laboratory, the heir to the British throne goes on the run….