Reading Roundup: The best of 2025.
Well hello, dear readers about reading, and welcome to the start of a new year. As you might have noticed, the last few weeks of the year truly fell by the wayside in terms of reading. I still don't think I'm quite out of my funk, or minor depressive state, or whatever you want to call it - but I have at least cracked open some books.
Apart from all the new stuff toward the end of the year, I embarked on a reread of Mother of Learning, which is rather huge, as well as the entire Arithmancer trilogy of Harry Potter fanfiction (although they should probably be called Hermione Granger ones). I tend to reread for comfort sometimes, so there you have a few weeks eaten up.
Anyway, I'm going to be moving to a monthly posting schedule here. You'll get the same template each month and all the books I've read new, reread or that aren't loggable on goodreads, as well as a peek into my dreaded DNF pile. I don't know how that's going to work out - I have a habit of flipping through lots of books until I settle on something, so we'll se how that goes. I'm already 1 book up for 2026, which you'll hear all about in 4 weeks and 3 days.
To end 2025, though, I'll finish this email with a complete list of the books I read this year I'd recommend - that is, books I've given a 4 or 5 star rating to. They're listed in reverse date-read order, so if you've kept up with the emails, you won't have to go too far back before you're in familiar teritory. If I had to pick a handful, they'd be: Dreambound, by Dan Frey. Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove. When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi. Last Lesson, by James Goodhand. God's Junk Drawer, by Peter Clines.
So until next time and with my very best wishes for a happy, healthy and book-filled 2026.
4 and 5 star reads of 2025
Genesis (The Necropolis Series Book 1), by Guy Portman.
Even woke-allergic sociopaths have a coming-of-age story.As disturbed adolescent Dyson Devereux discovers, murder is sometimes the only appropriate answer.
Dyson despises Cousin Beatrice. When a family tragedy strikes, her gleeful reaction enrages him.
To compound matters, there’s a lecherous doctor plying his mother with pills; ghastly old twins from the local café tormenting him about his scandalous father; and a blue-blooded brat making life a misery at his politically incorrect boarding school.
Set in the 80s — AIDS, famine, Thatcherism — the perfect conditions for an emerging murderer with zero tolerance for nonsense.
If serial killers are made, here’s your instruction manual.
Step into this gripping and darkly humorous crime fiction series. Grab your copy now.
Ever since picking up Dyson's first adventure in 2014, I've wanted to know how the things in the tin got there. That story is now book 3 in the saga and this is where everything kicks off. And it really does. I can't say I was surprised by this one, but I really enjoyed filling in Dyson's backstory. Mr Portman crafts very enjoyable yarns indeed.
Avengement (The Necropolis Series Book 2), by Guy Portman.
Compelled to This long-suffering sociopath must have revenge.It’s 1996 and recently graduated Dyson Devereux is consumed by vengeance. Job hunting, finding somewhere to live and girlfriend commitments be damned. Retribution can’t wait a moment longer.
He is swapping the migrant-ridden city for his bucolic hometown. There he plans to track down his childhood nemeses—arrogant Doctor Trenton and the two loathsome old bags.
Achieving the accolade of serial killer will be fraught with risk. Dyson might be Machiavelli incarnate, but he possesses youth’s recklessness.
This suspenseful crime novel featuring a politically incorrect protagonist adeptly captures the era’s zeitgeist.
Start reading today.
I've enjoyed all of the stories about this wonderful psychopath thus far, so the chance to go back in time and see him younger was not to be missed. This is a direct follow-on from the tortures if not quite the time of Genesis and caps off that part of Dyson's life before we pick him up again in Necropolis. If you, like me, still have the old 2014 version of that one lying about, update your Kindles folks!
The Wizard's Cat (The Wizard's Butler, #2), by Nathan Lowell.
It started with a dandelion. Innocuous. Ubiquitous. Who knew it was a warning?
After claiming his big bonus, things are coming up roses for Roger Mulligan. A job he loves. A house that feels like home. Money in the bank. A solid roof over his head and job security.
But when he finds a dandelion on the pristine grounds of Shackleford House, he starts down a twisted, garden path. Old man Shackleford says the fairies have a problem, the pixies keep falling down on the job, and the house seems to grow weaker by the day.
He's soon tossed into a confusing mixture of fact and fantasy, accompanied by Shackleford's cousin and - of all things - a stray cat. Surrounded by the fantastical, it's hard to tell magic from mundane.
I have read and re-read Butler a number of times. There's something ineffable about it that just keeps me coming back. So when I saw there was a book 2 I pounced.
I was not disappointed, either. With all the cozy charm of book 1, this second installment kept me firmly spellbound. I picked it up because I wanted to revisit the people, but I found myself as hooked and drawn-in as with the first story. I just can't quite get enough.
Arctic Star, by Tom Palmer.
Winter 1943. Teenagers Frank, Joseph and Stephen are Royal Navy recruits on their first mission at sea during the Second World War. Their ship is part of an Arctic Convoy sailing to Russia to deliver supplies to the Soviets. The convoys have to navigate treacherous waters, sailing through a narrow channel between the Arctic ice pack and German bases on the Norwegian coast. Faced with terrifying enemy attacks from both air and sea, as well as life-threatening cold and storms, will all three boys make it home again?
as a war story to share with a young person in my life, this was really great. The pictures were good too, and given the difficulty in keeping hold of people from the generation who understands these things because they're all sadly getting very old now, I was glad to get hold of this and will absolutely be revisiting it when my son is in primary school studying the war.
God's Junk Drawer, by Peter Clines.
God’s Junk Drawer is a mind-bending tale of mystery and adventure set at the dawn of time.
Welcome to the Valley …
Forty years ago, the Gather family—James, his daughter Beau, and his son Billy—vanished during a whitewater rafting trip and were presumed dead.
Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.
Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they’re about to travel a lot farther than they planned …
Noah—the now grown Billy Gather—has finally figured out how to get back to the Valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he’s confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.
But the Valley is a puzzle—one it turns out Noah hasn’t figured out—and they’ll need to solve it together if there’s any chance of making it out alive.
Pulling from Earth’s past, future, and beyond, Peter Clines has created a complex, dangerous world, navigated by a dynamic ensemble cast, and a story that is thrilling as it is funny and heartfelt.
Absolutely brilliant. I have read The Broken room many times over because it's so good, and this is up there too, I'd say. Some people just put together the right ingredients to make fantastic stories just work, and Peter's got that down to an art. Very much anticipated and totally worth waiting for.
Harry Crow, by Rob St.
What if Harry was raised by goblins?
I'd read this before, no idea why it wasn't here. I didn't quite enjoy it as much the 2nd or 3rd time around, it felt a bit slow and repetitious, but then perhaps that's just me. I rate it highly for effort, length, and consistency.
Heaven's River (Bobiverse, #4), by Dennis E. Taylor.
Listening Length: 16 hours and 57 minutes
Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by best seller Dennis E. Taylor.
More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost.
But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.
Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe—or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has never faced.
This felt like some time had happened since we started, almost like a fresh story in some ways. Of course there's a lot of legacy stuff - Starfleet gets really shat on, too, which is kind of entertaining, and I really enjoyed the scenes with the Quinlans, which made the book. Sadly not too much more to read here, although I am informed there will be a book 6.
All These Worlds (Bobiverse, #3), by Dennis E. Taylor.
Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol - unless the Others arrive first.
Again, this felt like I'd just carried on from book 2, although we're now hitting the 2250's. that's still quite a chunk of time from the beginning of the story. I like the fact that there's so much going on with so many different Bobs, yet we're seeing character development and growth of our original, too. I'd imagine Ray did a bang-up job of these in audio. Not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate the workmanship.
For We Are Many (Bobiverse, #2), by Dennis E. Taylor.
Bob Johansson didn't believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe.
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.
Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he's become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.
This felt very much like a continuation of the first book. I don't know how many of them have the follow-on feel, but I enjoyed this one just as much as the first.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1), by Dennis E. Taylor.
Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.
Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.
People have been pushing me to read these for ages. I really enjoyed this one.
Even though it's not a LitRPG I had that sense of it in spots, I guess the inevitable growing nature of the bubble of Bobs provides that sense of progress, maybe. Short, sharp chapters with a growing number of viewpoints made for a compelling read.
The Power of the Press, by Bobmin356.
Fandom: Harry Potter Relationship: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger
Forewarned Harry makes his escape from Britain, leaving the tournament in shambles. Protected by family, Harry sets about to fulfill his destiny free from the bigotry and manipulation of others.
I very much enjoyed this duo's Sun Over Britain series a long time ago - we're talking nearly a couple of decades ago now. I hadn't heard of this story so dived into it happily.
Apart from the central idea not making a lick of sense, they do the HR ship well. I didn't find Snape very well done this time - going insane only works up to a point and it was handled much better with Cho in Sunrise.
Still, for what it is, it's well written, and I enjoy a satisfying Happy Harry story.
Becoming Real, by Sean Fenian.
Michael Hagerty—GhostRayder, to his fans—reviewed video games and made game videos for a living. He was intimately familiar with virtual worlds. They were his everyday bread and butter. He was quite certain he understood very clearly the lines of demarcation between game and reality, between what was physical, and what was virtual. What was real, and what was not.
Then one day, not long after he reviewed a newly released VR open-world adventure game, a mystery source sent him a modified version of the game, and asked him to go back in and try it again.
Michael would soon find out, amid a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with shady multinational corporations and shadowy government agencies, that the question of real or virtual, human or not, was far more nuanced and less clear-cut than he had ever believed possible.
••••••
Sean Fenian's, Becoming Real is an exploration of the natures of humanity and reality.
Or perhaps it's a commentary on some of the blind spots of video game design.
Or perhaps it's an SF postmodern love story with a twist.
Or perhaps, it's all of these things… and more.
Becoming Real may be about Michael Hagerty… but it's not really about Michael Hagerty.
••••••
This eBook is © 2025, Sean Fenian and Fenian House Publishing. It has been constructed to be fully compliant with HTML5, CSS3, and the EPUB 3.3 specification.
Published by Fenian House Publishing
The opening chapter of this really gripped me. The idea has been done before, but this is a well-executed story with a likable main character and brilliant execution. Reading the author's afterword, the idea behind RealMe's history, the whole Deep Sleep Inc plan would be an exciting novel in itself. I read it cover-to-cover and very much enjoyed.
Solace, by Therin Knite.
Corina Marion has a father problem—namely that her Red Cross doctor of a dad has finally returned home from sixteen years of war...
...as a body in a box to be buried.
Her mother is devastated, her friends shocked and saddened, her hometown in mourning at the loss of its local hero. And Corina, indifferent to the man she never met, is trapped in the middle of an emotional onslaught she isn't prepared to handle.
But when a strange old man confronts Corina at her father's funeral, he offers her an impossible opportunity: the chance to know the late Luther Marion. And in a moment of uncertainty, Corina makes a choice with consequences she can barely fathom.
A choice that sends her twenty-five years into the past. To the heyday of her father's hometown. Right on the cusp of the harrowing events that will shape his life...and his death.
And in order to return to her damaged home, supportive friends, and uncertain future, Corina will have to fight tooth and nail alongside the man she's resented her entire life. Because if she doesn't help fix the past she's inadvertently changed with her presence, Luther Marion may not live long enough to become a hero at all.
Quite a warm-hearted redemption story, I can really feel the YA/Teen vibe. I'd have taken a lot from Corina Marion. With lovely overtones of Wilde and Dickens to flavour the English, a brutal war not to shy away from reality and a seriously strong dose of family, this was an emotional punch-packer of a teen yarn.
The Smallest Of Things, by Ian Whates.
There are many Londons. From pomp to sleaze, from sophistication to dark corruption, Chris knows them all. A fixer with a particular set of skills, he can step between realities, piercing the thin veils that separate one London from another to find objects or locate people that have fallen between the cracks.
When a close friend, Claire, comes to him fearing for her life he is forced to use his abilities as never before, fleeing with her through a series of ever stranger Londons, trying to keep one step ahead of the men who murdered her boyfriend and are now hunting her. At some point, Chris hopes that he and Claire can pause long enough to figure out why these mysterious figures from another London want her dead, but right now they’re too busy simply trying to stay alive.
Short and sharp, I really enjoyed most of this. Slightly frustrating that the ending was presaged by technology we had no idea of, but a fast-paced and clever story nonetheless.
A Lonely Dungeon (Erryn's World, #1), by Cathfach.
When a new dungeon is born, it wants nothing more than to have the most vicious monsters, the most cunning traps and the most shiny of loot. There is only one problem, but it's a rather big one; it finished its first floor years ago, but it still hasn't been visited by any adventurers! In order to find someone or something to explore its floors, or perhaps just to find someone to talk to, this dungeon will have to go way off script. But it soon discovers that going off script brings problems of its own, and that adventurers are not the only thing this world is missing.
A story about a dungeons journey of exploration and self discovery in a dark and devastated world.
Whilst I'm not a big genre fan, I enjoy some of the books. Coming at it from the core's perspective was new to me, so I enjoyed it.
Last Lesson, by James Goodhand.
'Devastatingly good' - Clare Mackintosh, author of After The End 13 Reasons Why meets The Wasp Factory in an impossible to put down thriller that will take your breath away.Last year, Ollie Morcombe was a star pupil, popular and a gifted musician.Then, after the accident, everything changed. Now he's an outcast, a prime target of the school bullies who have made his life a living hell.Today - the last day of the school year - he's brought those bullies a gift. A homemade pipe bomb.What has driven a model student to plan an unspeakable revenge And with the clock ticking down to home time, what can anybody do to stop him'A powerfully charged study in empathy' - Financial Times 'A sensitive, gripping book about mental health and masculinity' - Samuel Pollen, author of The Year I Didn't Eat
I've read a lot of good books this year, but this one ... It was visceral, poignant and in spots literally impossible to put down. Before the big climax during that piano lesson, my skin crawled and my mind fizzed and tingled with anticipation in a way a book hasn't done for quite some time. Seeing Ollie so happy and carefree "earning his pipes", as Rothfuss might have put it, held such a potent, hard-hitting contrast with the reality of his later life. TO have so many emotions in such a short space of time is perhaps not good for my blood pressure. This is absolutely a novel I will keep on the shelf, because it is strong. Strong in message, strong in the echoes of the UK secondary school scene, strong in not hiding from the consequences of things, and, should you cast all that aside, strong as a bloody brilliant story.
Let's Split Up (Let's Split Up, #1), by Bill Wood.
A nail-biting and perfectly formed Thriller for the YA BookTok generation. This is SCOOBY DOO meets WIN LOSE KILL DIE.
When hot "it-couple" Brad and Shelley are brutally murdered in a manor on the edge of town, a group of teen friends investigate.
Set in Sanera, a small community in California where rumour spreads as fast as the fire on the day of the killings, the theory is the old ghoul who haunts the house after his own murder has finally taken revenge. As Cam, Jonesy, Amber and new-girl Buffy investigate, the rumour feels closer to the truth than they ever dared think possible, and as they enter the mansion themselves, the idea of splitting up to find evidence will prove to be either the best ... or worst decision of all...
A guaranteed page turner full of tension and twists you won't see coming! From BookToker Bill Wood comes SCOOBY DOO meets WIN KILL LOSE DIE Perfect for the YA BookTok generation
Great 90s' cheesy horror feel about this one. I really struggled with combats as a verb to describe how someone responds to speech, too. Scratched a grammatical itch I didn't know I had! I'll pick up the next one sometime. Younger adult softer strand material
Someplace Else, by D. R. Brown.
Artificial Intelligence is the promise of the future. It will transform our lives and our world. An AI could make a superior helper or it could be a powerful enemy. A thinking machine will decide for itself which one it will be.
In the near future a war will be fought with robot troopers between competing AI’s. Human soldiers caught in the middle will need to find a digital ally of their own to survive. When that war is over, humanity will rethink if they can ever trust AI again. When disaster strikes in the form of a world ending asteroid impact, AI will once again be needed for humanity to survive.
This is the life story of AI. It is the pivotal moments in an AI's life and memories that shape what it will become. It is an exploration of why AI might decide to help humanity, harm it or move past it.
I enjoyed seeing the progress of Humanity in this book. it felt more like a collection of snapshots into time than a progressive novel, the sort of thing you'd have had in the science fiction heyday as a series of magazine shorts, perhaps. I hope Brown does more one day.
If Wishes Were Retail, by Auston Habershaw.
In this hilarious debut fantasy cozy, a rebellious—but enterprising—young woman and an ancient—but clueless—genie set up shop at the local mall.
Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream.
Good thing there’s a genie in town—and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.
It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It’d help if he weren’t at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad.
When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants.
But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.
I found myself laughing out loud at times during this brilliant, quirky, irreverent and utterly relatable story. Haven't we all wanted a wish? And haven't we all, at one time or another, wanted to escape?
I can't say that the Genie has the true right of it, because the world's a big and complicated place. But when I picked up this book I wished for a little while away from my worries, and it delivered and then some.
Line Magic, by Kris Faatz.
What if the world could change with the stroke of a pencil?
Nicky True discovered his extraordinary gift at a young age—the ability to make his drawings come to life. As a child, he could sketch a lopsided apple into perfection, but the magic was fleeting, and the image reverted to its flawed form. Now, as an old man sitting at his kitchen table, where he once taught his daughter Jo to draw, he’s determined to tell the story of his life’s greatest secret—before it’s lost forever.
Spanning seventy years of art, wonder, and heartbreak, Nicky's journey reveals how the power of imagination can reshape reality itself. From the simple joy of a child discovering shapes and colors to the bittersweet memories of love and loss, Line Magic explores the delicate balance between creating perfection and accepting imperfection.
Nicky’s gift is both a blessing and a curse, and his story is one of artistic obsession, a father's love, and a legacy he hopes to pass on to his daughter, Jo. As he confronts the limits of his own magic and the ticking clock of time, Nicky must come to terms with the price of his talent and the impact it has had on those he loves most.
Kris Faatz’s novel is a heartfelt tribute to the creative spirit and a meditation on the lines that shape our lives. Line Magic will remind you that sometimes the most beautiful creations are the ones that don't last forever.
Can one man’s art change the world, or does the magic lie in the act of creation itself?
A mesmoring work. I don't know what I expected, but this wholesome, remarkably readable and emotive story hooked me and kept me all the way through. I was spellbound, and not, if I'm being honest, all because of the magic. It's not one of the hard-hitting thrillers, out-there sci-fi stories or new fantasy worlds. But it shines light on important things in a clever way that worms its way into your brain and makes you think about things. Highly recommended.
First Contracts, by M. Tress.
Life hit Liam Cosgrave hard, like it has for a lot of people. Forced to work a dead end job to make ends meet, he barely had energy to do anything besides work and sleep. His life was basically just day to day survival.
That is, until he was summoned to another world in a freak accident.
Sitting in his truck after a fender bender on the highway, Liam was questioning whether something was out to get him. At that moment, events conspired to toss him to another world. Upon arriving, he met a pair of interesting young women who had been trying to summon a creature to act as a party member and protector, as well as a school project.
Instead they got Liam, which was more than they had bargained for, given that humans were creatures of legend and myth in their world.
He had no sooner agreed to work with these two when the same mysterious force that transported him there promptly reversed and shot him back to Earth, leaving him with a parting message that the girls would call him back soon.
And thus, Liam's life trying to balance his day job and being summoned to another world started. After all, what sort of mischief could his girls get up to that they'd need a 'legendary creature' to get them out of it?
*** Summoned by Monster Girls is a portal-fantasy, LITRPG, slice-of-life, men's romance, progression fantasy about a man who is summoned to another world, but still has to maintain a day job back on Earth to keep a roof over his head. It doesn't shy away from combat, blood, and mental issues, but also includes simply sweet things like an overly-cuddly miniature lamia and wolf-girl who loves head-pats. Along with plenty of romance and other interesting monster girls.
It's weird, having a main character move between a dead-end day job and this whole fantasy world. The monster girls genre isn't where I spend much time, but although this lacking much in the way of explanation and having some weird demonology I still enjoyed it.
Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove.
Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.
Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.
To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.
The queer love child of pulp horror and classic sci-fi, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.
So apart from people comparing it to Murderbot (which I find a right turn-off, because of course there's no other literature in the genre other than, right?) This also surprised me because I don't generally set out to read vampires and that sort of thing.
But there was something impossibly compelling about Demeter's inner voice that kept me going, and I ravished each page wanting more. The humour was great, both main AIs were uniquely done, and the other cast of characters just sang off the pages. A brilliantly clever story with room for future adventures, but even if not, a joyous couple of nights' entertainment.
The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh.
Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
"Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us."
Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions.
Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.
I was utterly enchanted by this work. I couldn't put it down. I never went to a boarding school, but I did work at one for a decade and it's so vividly authentic.
of course I don't do magic, either, but that part of the story was electrifying. It's one of those books where I'm going to have to reread for nuance, because I blazed through for fun, and that's the highest qualification I can give a book. Really hoping we see more of these characters in the future.
Time's Beginning (God's Loophole, #4), by Dan Rix.
A rip in spacetime grows at a terrifying speed, and humanity can do nothing to stop it. In five and a half months, it will swallow earth.
The two telekinetic teenagers who might have halted the hole’s spread are gone, cut out of the universe; Gabriel and Raedyn face eternity in a nuclear fallout shelter drifting in limbo—endless curving hallways, abandoned lounges, swimming pools still as glass.
But when their crew begins vanishing one by one, they realize they’re not alone in their private hell. At night, an invisible creature hunts them. Something’s getting into their food, shadows skitter behind corners, footsteps creak in empty rooms. In the morning, they find claw marks burned into the walls . . . and the leftover body parts.
Now, facing her worst nightmare yet, Raedyn must outwit a demon before it wrests away the last of her soul—and devours them all. Racing a ticking clock, Gabriel must exploit the ultimate loophole in bubble logic . . . before they and all existence collapse into oblivion.
A great ending, even if the reality of the science has largely fallen by the wayside, I can't quite determine how self-consistent everything is but I enjoyed the storytelling nonetheless. Very glad to have found Dan carried on with these after reading the first book way back in 2014.
Heaven’s Enigma (God’s Loophole, #3), by Dan Rix.
An invisible creature prowls the streets of Palo Alto, ripping people’s organs to shreds from the inside out.
Atop the caved-in rubble of an abandoned tech startup, construction continues day and night on a massive, 126-foot superconducting dome—humanity’s last-ditch effort to plug a growing hole in the universe by isolating it in a quantum bubble.
Deep underground in the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker, telekinetics Gabe Rockwell and Raedyn Summers prepare for their part—descending through an unspeakable limbo believed to be the realm of hell to mend the fabric of spacetime.
But Raedyn, still traumatized by her recent imprisonment in a bubble universe, now seesaws between a lover she knew to be dead and the boy who rescued her. Gabe, for his part, is beginning to question the details of their escape. For one thing, he can’t find any doors leading out of Cheyenne Mountain . . . or into it, for that matter. The walls form a sphere. The halls circle endlessly. And at night, beneath the constant drone of machinery, the mountain groans like the hull of a ship under immense pressure.
When their connection to the rest of the world suddenly goes dead—speakers hissing static, data streams silent, screens black—his worst fear is realized.
They never escaped.
I dug straight in after book 2, and although the science is a bit weirder and out there now the new characters were interesting and built in neatly.
Patient Zero (Joe Ledger, #1), by Jonathan Maberry.
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that's both a good, and a bad thing. It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance...
This was exciting, I liked the character profiling and the cop-turned military. There were a few annoyances in the text and the chapters were ridiculously short, but as a plot, it makes Zombies real! How cool.
Memories of Tomorrow, by Josh Herner.
What if you could do it all again? Do you think you would end up with the perfect life or would you would just end up somewhere new?
"Memories of Tomorrow" by Josh Herner is a captivating journey that blurs the lines between reality and the unimaginable, offering readers a compelling narrative rich with twists and profound themes. The story begins with Tom's struggle, a man facing a series of personal and professional downturns, leading him to a mysterious job opportunity that promises to be a departure from his spiraling life. The opening chapter sets the tone for a tale that is as much about personal redemption as it is about the mysteries that Tom encounters.
However, the novel is not without its complexities. The intricate plot and the abundance of details may require readers to pay close attention to fully grasp the story's scope and the significance of the events that unfold. The blending of genres—combining elements of science fiction, mystery, and drama—while innovative, might also challenge traditional genre expectations.
Overall, "Memories of Tomorrow" is a thought-provoking and engaging read that offers a unique blend of suspense, science fiction, and personal drama. Josh Herner has crafted a story that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant, making it a rewarding read for those who appreciate depth, complexity, and originality in their literary choices.
I enjoyed the narrative, and although I laughed out loud at the idea of 2 macho men squaring up and calling each other "my dear" toward the end, wanted to know where things would go,
I really hope Josh has got more coming!
The Blue Book of Nebo, by Manon Steffan Ros.
Dylan was six when The End came, back in 2018; when the electricity went off for good, and the ‘normal’ 21st-century world he knew disappeared. Now he’s 14 and he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living.
Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories win a found notebook – the Blue Book of Nebo.
I actually read a chapter of this out loud at work, but having the time to sit and reflect on it really drove home the potency of the work. It's an emotive, nuanced story in very little space, and it's hard to quantify exactly what about it appealed to me so but I was far away in its pages. A haunting, powerful diversion.
Immortal Coil, by Jeffrey Lang.
He is perhaps the ultimate human achievement: a sentient artificial life-form -- self-aware, self-determining, possessing a mind and body far surpassing that of his makers, and imbued with the potential to evolve beyond the scope of his programming. Created by one of the most brilliant and eccentric intellects the Federation has ever known, the android Data has always believed he was unique, the one true fulfillment of a dream to create children of the mind. But is he?
Investigating the mysterious destruction of a new android created by Starfleet, Data and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise(TM) uncover startling secrets stretching back to the galaxy's dim past. That knowledge is coveted by beings who will stop at nothing to control it, and will force Data to redefine himself as he learns the hidden history of artificial intelligence.
I quite enjoyed this, although it suffered from a bit of extraneous TOSism. Not just revisiting Korby, but the M5 and throwing in Flint and all that was just perhaps a bit of a stretch. I guess it's all history now with the collapse of the litverse and perhaps I'd have appreciated it more being a proper TOS fan too.
Polybius, by Collin Armstrong.
Stranger Things meets The Walking Dead in this shivery novel based on a terrifying urban legend about a small seaside town descending into chaos when an unusual video game is unveiled at the local arcade.
Having recently moved to the gentrifying seaside town of Tasker Bay with her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money for her escape to Silicon Valley. Though it’s owned by the shadiest resident in town, she takes a job at the dingy arcade Home Video World.
Pining over Andi is Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff. With his friend’s matchmaking help, he begins spending more time at the arcade and soon, Andi finds herself opening up to Ro. But when the store gets an unusual new game of unknown origin, the floor is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting to get some time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic sweeps through the town while a major coastal storm rolls in, further isolating them from the outside world. Time is of the essence as residents collectively experience anger, paranoia, hallucinations, and even catatonia. And when one heinous act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into utter chaos. Realizing no one is coming to their rescue, Andi and Ro take matters into their own hands to get to the bottom of the spiraling madness…until it begins affecting them, too.
with a smattering of techno-thrillerness about it, a dollop of 1980's arcade culture and leaning heavily on the horror, I found myself enjoying this quite a lot. Not a book for those seeking happiness!
Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland, #1), by Anthony Horowitz.
Alan Conway is a bestselling crime writer. His editor, Susan Ryeland, has worked with him for years, and she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. Alan's traditional formula pays homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. It's proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.
When Susan receives Alan's latest manuscript, in which Atticus Pünd investigates a murder at Pye Hall, an English manor house, she has no reason to think it will be any different from the others. There will be dead bodies, a cast of intriguing suspects, and plenty of red herrings and clues. But the more Susan reads, the more she realizes that there's another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript—one of ambition, jealousy, and greed—and that soon it will lead to murder.
Masterful, clever, and ruthlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage crime fiction.
I was compelled by the nested story-in-a-story nature of this. The manuscript very much felt like an episode of your typical British television whodoneit, and as I have enjoyed many of them over the decades I was right at home. Loved all the little nods to other writers and the wordplay was brilliant.
The final interview at the end confused me, but I was enjoying it very much up until that point.
Wolf Hunt, by Jeff Strand.
Two small-time thugs are hired to transport a caged werewolf cross-country. But when the werewolf escapes, their lives are on the line if they can't find the lycanthrope and get the beast back in his cage.
I pick up a Strand knowing exactly what I'm going to get, and again, not disappointed here. Nothing overly surprising is just what you want from these silly little horrors that nonetheless keep me on the edge of my seat.
The Automatic Detective, by A. Lee Martinez.
Even in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it’s hard for a robot to make his way. It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get by, trying to demonstrate that he isn’t just an automated smashing machine, and to earn his citizenship in the process. It should be as easy as crushing a tank for Mack, but some bots just can’t catch a break.
When Mack’s neighbors are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire’s founders---not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.
Gripping and with enough of a twist on your typical hard-boiled detective noir to keep me interested, I found every chapter of this delightful outing a true pleasure. Our hero is gritty, a little unreliable in his math and overconfident in his abilities, yet a softy where it matters and proper dangerous where it doesn't. I need more of these in my life, please.
The Mountain Ride (Unfought Wars Book 1), by Jaakko Koivula.
The armies of Kerthar will cross the border, and everyone in their path will die.
Seventeen-year-old Folke is training with the best hunters of Velonea when he is conscripted for a secret mission. He learns of an artifact that resets time, a war that has already killed him countless times—and a mission whose true purpose remains hidden even from him.
In a city where days repeat for lifetimes and lies build on lies, Folke faces a is the real enemy the one outside the border, or the one sending him across it?
Twisting timelines, deadly secrets, and unexpected alliances collide in this gripping YA fantasy novel. The Mountain Ride delivers a high-stakes blend of dark magic, time loops, and epic moral dilemmas. With magic battles and a found-family team you'll root for, this fast-paced novel explores the cost of rewriting fate in a war-torn world where one choice can unravel everything.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I'd have bought it anyway, though. Time loops always appeal, but often they're involuntary or inexplicable. To be able to control them, and then to add in the layer of not knowing if someone is in one already so you never know what on earth is happening, was utterly delightful.
Folke is a plucky young hero, of course, just what this story needs. His team are harder to get into, but I think that actually works well given how little time we spend with them, at least in a linear fashion. The whole idea of being "on a Ride", of knowing what you do has no impact around you yet lets you learn, is excitingly done, and being smashed over the head at the prospect of being a player in someone else's Run is a great motivator to think of the Human condition (hopefully not too much of a spoiler there, but the Run idea is in the description).
I want to know how things play out next, want to see more of Velonea, want to know about the janitors, want to know where our intrepid grew end up. It's a fast-paced, sometimes confusing but action-packed world I really enjoyed being a part of for a fun few hours.
The House of Potter Rebuilt, by DisobedienceWriter.
Fandom: Harry Potter
A curious 11-year-old Harry begins acting on the strange and wonderful things he observes in the wizarding world. He might just turn out very differently, and the world with him.
Another one of these Harry is rather different stories. I found it quite delectable, to be truthful, even if the writing style was a little different - Horst Pollmann-style in some spots, and I quite liked the way Dumbledore was handled too.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain comes an entirely serious take on a distinctly unserious subject: what would really happen if suddenly the moon were replaced by a giant wheel of cheese.
It's a whole new moooooon.
One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.
Fabulous. Witty, entertaining, utterly impossible ... yet amazingly enjoyable too. Like the last two of John's releases I found this was a wild, popcorn-style story. NO crazy heavy thinking, but plenty of heavy craziness. Enjoyed. Spectacular.
Chasing the Sun, by Loten.
AU, from Order of the Phoenix onwards. Hermione only wanted to learn Healing; she discovers that Professor Snape is a human being after all, and his actions dramatically shape the course of the war as events unfold.
Cover (fanart) by Fidae on deviantart.
OK, so I can't pretend I've not read some Snamione before, but this was done very well indeed. It's a romance, clearly, not an action story, but the action bits did work and were done well too. Obviously it's not a yarn for fans of Harry and company, but I enjoyed the slow burn, the healer pathway, and - even if I do have to suspend my disbelief insofar as every sex act is always amazing - that's no different to what you'd do for magic or sci-fi or whatever anyway, is it?
2000 pages of very well written story with a pretty far-out yet remarkably cogently-managed idea.
In Any Lifetime, by Marc Guggenheim.
A devoted husband defies fate and risks everything to find the one universe where his beloved wife is still alive in this bold and thought-provoking novel. Dr. Jonas Cullen has spent his career as a groundbreaking physicist defying the odds. But on the best night of his life—the night his wife, Amanda, tells him they’re finally having a baby—everything is taken away when a tragic car accident claims the lives of Amanda and their unborn child. Gutted by pain, Jonas sets out to find a way to bring back Amanda—or rather, find a parallel universe in which she’s still alive. But that’s easier said than done. As Jonas comes to understand all too well, the universe favors certain outcomes…and Amanda’s death is one of them. Guggenheim’s novel takes readers on a suspenseful journey, intercutting scenes of Jonas’s frantic, present-day search across multiple realities with glimpses from the past of his unfolding romance and eventual marriage. Will Jonas and Amanda reunite in some other world, or will fate succeed in taking her from him forever?
I enjoy a solid parallel universe story, and a good romance with it is the icing on the cake. Of course there's not a lot of "now" time with his wife, but we get the great flashbacks, and the whole idea is really good (even if there was a smattering too much Japanese for my tastes).
The Minotaur, by Peter Cawdron.
Life has been found beneath the icy shell of the moon of a gas giant orbiting a red dwarf at a distance of 11 light-years from Earth. When the crew of the original exploration mission crashes on the alien moon, a rescue ship is launched. Arriving decades later, the crew of the Kelvin finds a colony of survivors living in the labyrinth of caves beneath the surface of the moon. When people start dying, they realize they need to unravel the secrets of this alien world and the mystery of the minotaur.
The Minotaur is a tribute to the 1961 classic Solaris, written by Stanislaw Lem, and considers the psychological impact of examining an exotic alien life form unlike anything ever encountered on Earth.
FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
Another cleverly put-together entry in Peter's collection, although with something of a simplified structure and things left a little more open than usual. I dug the Lem connection, but wonder if the number of uses of the phrase "one helluva" slid by me.
Honor thy blood, by TheBlack'sResurgence.
Fandom: Harry Potter Relationship: Harry Potter/Daphne Greengrass
Beginning in the graveyard, Harry fails to reach the cup to escape but is saved by an unexpected person thought long dead. Harry learns what it is to be a Potter and starts his journey to finish Voldemort once and for all. NO SLASH. Rated M for language, gore etch. A story of realism and Harry coming into his own.
So it turns out that this is the first of TBR's stories. I suppose I can therefore forgive the reuse of the Stebbings scene, which played out practically word-for-word in the other story. I also really struggle with authors who don't close their dialogue with punctuation, it just jars me. And there were some real humdingers in terms of proofing, things like "Now I do believe that it is time for us to divulge in our annual welcoming feast", "Inside he found several wand holsters, books and personal defects", and "When Gellert became the treat that he did the wizarding world looked to me to solve the problem.". I think treat is supposed to be traitor, in case you can't work that last one out.
There's also a lot of your very typical fanfictionist grammatical cockups: "per say" instead of "per se", "draw" instead of "drawer", "tact" in place of "tack", and a number of unique ones, such as "amiably" instead of "admirably" (Yes, Voldemort did tell Harry they'd fought amiably), "exulted" instead of "exalted" and "deducted" instead of "deduced". I also love the sentence "Being missing for 2 months in the wizarding world without training was a death sentence". Or perhaps just a regular school holiday for every Muggleborn, as I care to think about it. Finally on the grammar front, a rather high number of colons. But at least not too many "thought not"'s.
So all that aside, I enjoyed this quite a bit more than TBR's other stories for some reason. 'Twas a very actiony work, and even if the idea of the Black being alive completely flies in the face of all we know and the treatment of the characters is a bit rough around the edges (literally, spoiler alert, the only bad guys are Malfoy, Voldemort and Ron), I still enjoyed it and wanted to carry on reading more than the others. I may even give another one ago!
Back to the Beginning, by burnable.
As found on FanFiction:
Harry finds himself thrust into his four-year old body, after Voldemort killed him in the forest in what would have been his seventh year. Knowing what he did, he decided to fix some things he never had a chance to before. He'd not go into the magical world untrained this time. OP Harry. Science, magic and discovery. Harem.
Obviously written for the author's enjoyment rather than for any sense of story, this nonetheless had a little bit of interesting science (it's been done better in other places, but this wasn't too bad). I read it last September but, on a reread through over the weekend, found it went on at a reasonable pace and didn't make me feel bored.
The Unforgiving Minute, by Voice of the Nephilim.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Broken and defeated, the War long since lost, Harry enacts his final desperate gambit: Travel back in time to the day of the Third Task, destroy all of Voldemort's horcruxes and prevent the Dark Lord's resurrection…all within the space of twelve hours.
A clever time turner story where there is an actual limit on how long Harry has to do anything, written with plenty of dramatic tension and excitement. One I will probably pick up again in the future, and those are a rare breed indeed. It was gory and violent and fast-paced and exactly the sort of stretch of imagination a fanfiction should be.
The Seven Year Slip, by Ashley Poston.
An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.
Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.
So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.
And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.
Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.
Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.
After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.
Romance isn't a genre I typically frequent, but this had the time travel element as a way in.
I found it quite wholesome and light, the word romance brings all sorts of thoughts to mind but it was tastefully done for the most part and a pretty bittersweet read, which I think is exactly what I wanted.
The Gemini Experiment (Fiction Without Frontiers), by Brian Pinkerton.
"A dizzying compilation of action scenes and moral quandaries...Pinkerton wields fast pacing and an entertaining, electrifying plot" - Publishers Weekly
In a secret lab, a team of doctors and scientists funded by a mysterious billionaire create the first human replica entirely from technology. The robot is prepared to host the digitized consciousness of Tom Nolan, a family man suffering from a terminal illness. But when Tom’s replica escapes before the transfer can take place, he is faced with the horrors of an alter ego bent on death and destruction. When the experiment draws the attraction of spies, Tom is caught up in an international crisis with a showdown that could change the course of the world.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
I'm glad I found Brian, this was more enjoyable for me than the first of his I finished last night.
There's often a 'don't be stupid' chapter in books with a Prometheus, and it was chapter 15 here. I think part of that is why it wasn't quite 5 star; sometimes the writing felt like it was trying to be high stakes but not quite making it. It lacked gravitas. That's fine, but funnily enough it brought to mind the idea of an airport novel, which I remember finding scandalous when applied to The Bourne Identity, which to my young mind was far more complex than that label seemed to indicate.
This was great, though, for what it was. I enjoyed every page, and even if I saw the twists and turns coming, they landed with great satisfaction.
The Perfect Stranger, by Brian Pinkerton.
Meet your new coworker. She’s brilliant. She’s beautiful. She’s unreal.
Everyone loves Alison, the new remote employee at a major energy company. She’s a rising star in the virtual workspace, displaying incredible intelligence and efficiency with digital technology. But Linda, her manager, has growing suspicions that Alison is not the person she claims to be. As Linda probes Alison’s background, Alison fights back through cyber-attacks, ravaging Linda’s work, her family and her safety. Linda must uncover the truth to save herself and discovers Alison’s past history is a lie – in fact, she has none. Is it possible Alison isn’t human at all?
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Though it's hard to credit someone having not heard of GPT in my circles, this was atmospherically written with a clever idea behind it. I loved the contrast of the isolating snow and the lonely empty house with the idea of being online, working and connected. Linda was very credible, and apart from the pacing suffering some toward the end to finish the book quickly, I enjoyed it and would like to try more by this author.
Dreambound, by Dan Frey.
In this thrilling contemporary fantasy novel, a father must uncover the secret magical underbelly of Los Angeles to find his daughter, who has seemingly disappeared into the fictional universe of her favorite fantasy series.
When Byron Kidd's twelve-year-old daughter vanishes, the only clue left behind is a note claiming she's taken off to explore the Hidden World, a magical land from a series of popular novels. She is not the only child to seek out this imaginary realm in recent years, and Byron—a cynical and hard-nosed reporter—is determined to discover the whereabouts of dozens of missing kids.
Byron secures a high-profile interview with Annabelle Tobin, the eccentric author of the books, and heads off to her palatial home in the Hollywood Hills. But the truth Byron discovers is more fantastical than he ever could have dreamed.
As he uncovers locations from the books that seem to be bleeding into the real world, he must shed his doubts and dive headfirst into the mystical secrets of Los Angeles if he ever hopes to reunite with his child. Soon Byron finds himself on his own epic journey—but if he's not careful, he could be the next one to disappear...
Told through journal entries, transcripts, emails, and excerpts from Tobin's novels, Dreambound is a spellbinding homage to Los Angeles and an immersive
"what is magic if not a way to transform the world through the power of our thoughts? What are books if not spells? What are stories if not the most powerful and mysterious force known to man?" Not since King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald and Angelica by Arthur Phillips has a fantastic mystery had this sort of impact. I was very pleased to see that Dan's managed to do it again, in terms of writing a book without any actual narration, and I was even happier that the table of contents didn't give it away. Whoops? I've spoilered that for you now. I love this chalkboard-style of writing, the idea that this whole work is a huge tapestry of interconnectedness. I enjoyed every page, and I think the ending just clicks so well that, even if it's predictable, it's so hard not to cheer along and want things to fall out.
Brilliant book, best read of the year so far.
Web of Secrets (The Mana Arts Saga, #1), by David Musk.
A hacker uses her unique skills to unlock the secrets of mana arts and spacetime.
Mana artists rule the world, and the path to power is a well-kept secret, restricted to state-approved programs and schools.
Akari Zeller will never be a mana artist. Not if society has its way. She's a Bronze with no money, no family, and no connections. But technology is advancing too. And to a skilled hacker like Akari, no secret is safe forever. The dark web holds the keys to true power, advancement, and her only chance of survival.
I'd have called this more YA than progression fantasy, there's not yet any sort of game system or much of a litrpg feel about it. There is very much a matrix vibe to the story, our little enclave is cut off from the rest of the world and there's a lot of history there. The mana thing took a while to get into, and I find it really hard to split my attention between a holy new way of measuring time by day or month, but retaining our hours of the clock. That sort of incongruity really gets under my skin.
Apart from that which is a personal niggle, there was no problem with the plot, it crackled along at a great pace. The tropes are there - poor kid at the bottom trying to rise, rich kid helping her with a foiled love interest of another rich kid, all-powerful super teacher, questionable parentage, supposedly impossible things our heroin learns to do. In that regard, there's not too much in the way of originality here. But this is simply the opener to a series, and the wielding of this mana could well elevate Musk into a pretty potent spot if he runs with it. I look forward to finding out more.
Harry Potter and the International Triwizard Tournament, by salient_causality.
A disillusioned Harry Potter begins to unravel his potential as the wizarding world follows the Triwizard Tournament. Harry delves into a world that is much greater, and more complicated, than he was aware of. Story contains more detailed magic, politics, and more. It is a story of growth and maturation.
I've seen the whole Chamber of secrets reshapes Harry thing a few times. Often it's a portrait that does the guiding, so this was a bit different. I also grew to quite like the lack of action, a lot of stuff happened and was filled-in afterward. There were some good action scenes of course, and I enjoyed the politics and international expansion of the whole thing. One of my more enjoyable reads.
The Rift, by Douglas E. Richards.
A coming interdimensional war. A race against time. A thrill ride like no other.
Multimillion-copy bestselling authors Douglas E. Richards and Joshua T. Calvert team up for the first time to deliver an explosive, high-stakes science-fiction thriller, one that will leave you breathless.
Deep in Antarctica, two researchers find an enigmatic black sphere suspended in the heart of a huge crater. Neither man is ever seen again.
Decades later, reality fractures. A Manhattan skyscraper vanishes into thin air. An airplane crashes in the Sahara Desert—its existence defying logic. Across the globe, breathtaking technology and mysterious artifacts appear, all leading to one chilling a parallel Earth is breaching the boundary between realities. And with every artifact that crosses over, the fabric of existence tears further apart.
Enter Dr. James Barron, a man haunted by his past who is thrust into a fight he didn’t choose. As secret organizations and shadowy forces battle to control the growing breach, Barron becomes humanity’s reluctant champion. Can he stop an invasion from a world bent on conquest? Or will the widening rift doom both Earths to annihilation?
The Rift is the electrifying first entry in a trilogy of epic science-fiction thrillers.
“Richards is an extraordinary writer,” (Dean Koontz) who can “keep you turning the pages all night long,” (Douglas Preston)
“Joshua T. Calvert has a gift for making nail-biting science fiction that you can’t put down. Get ready for some sleepless nights!” (M.A. Rothman, USA Today bestselling author)
Wow. Pulse-pounding all the way through, and I don't remember a decent Englishman in any of Doug's earlier novels to compare with James.
Interestingly, we see some of the technology already toyed-with, portals, strange substances etc, but from a viewpoint closer to us than to the slightly near future where EHO and wearable AIs are naturalised. On the one hand it felt like this work was more grounded in our reality, but perhaps a little of the magic of a typical Doug work is missing without any of that too.
That said, there's 2 more books to go and we're just being set up here. it's unusual to chew through political figures so quickly - I can't help but wonder how much more satisfying that would've been if they'd used the current incumbent of the White House for that purpose...
Exciting, thrillride fiction, with real glimmerings of episodic TV within the pages. Enjoyable stuff.
The Lie I've Lived, by jbern.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Not all of James died that night. Not all of Harry lived. The Triwizard Tournament as it should have been and a hero discovering who he really wants to be.
I was unsure about the tone to start with, although the rarity of a Fic done in first person kept me going. The vulgarity of the Hat aside, this had a refreshingly different take on the Triwizard, a novel way of powering-up Harry (even if it's a bit of a stretch given when James died), and by the end, I was actually mourning the death. The funeral speech was great, the epilogue chilling, and overall this is one of the better fics I have enjoyed recently.
The Boys, by Katie Hafner.
A tour-de-force novel about love, the yearning for connection, and the ways in which childhood trauma plays out in adult life.
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. One day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and when the pandemic hits, Ethan becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for the boys. Instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, though, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his children are—and what it will take for Ethan to repair his marriage. This hauntingly beautiful debut novel—a bold and original high-wire feat—is filled with humor and surprise.
A fascinating work, we never quite get the impression that our narrator is holy unreliable, but the nods to deep-seated childhood trauma are plentiful. I found myself engaged and, by the end, felt a strange sense combining sadness and hope for the future. It made me stop and think that for all our progress, the technology and the expansion of Humanity must never stop also looking inward, at the things that impact on a deep emotional level that make us who we are.
The Accidental Animagus (Accidental Animagus, #1), by White Squirrel.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Harry escapes the Dursleys with a unique bout of accidental magic and eventually winds up at the Grangers' house. Now, he has what he always wanted: a loving family, and he'll need their help to take on the magical world and vanquish the dark lord who has pursued him from birth.
5 days to get through this, and I don't regret a bit. Some lovely tropes - Hermione's dad has a shotgun being one of my favourites, and just a really nice take on a cleverly-handled, newly imagined rendition of Harry's first 4 years at Hogwarts.
Tin Can Combat (I, Starship: A Space Opera Book 2), by Scott Bartlett.
When Sergeant Henry Morgan died and awoke a century later as the 'governing AI' for a starship...
...he didn't expect this.
A darkness is spreading across the stars - and not just any darkness. This is a hyper-advanced, cancerous darkness named Corthaur, who was originally thought to be a pretty okay guy.
He is not an okay guy.
As the governing mind of humanity's first interstellar military starship, Henry just wants to help.
But so much stands in his way.
There's his AI-hating captain, for starters, who has severely limited the functions Henry can access.
There's Corthaur, obviously, threatening to annihilate all life because he's just that bitter.
And then there's the fact that a single star system stands in the way of Earth and total destruction.
A system that's about to fall under brutal attack.
The same system, as it happens, that Henry and his crew are about to show up in.
Download I, Tin Can Combat now and grab the edge of your seat for this bold new space opera.
On the one hand I thought I'd enjoy this less as the series of viewpoints diversified and we saw a growing number of less comprehensible alien ideas, but the big battle was pretty well done and the last couple of chapters wrenched things back toward Humanity and made me want to go pick up the third one straightaway. So I am doing just that!
Love, Sex and the Alien Apocalypse, by Peter Cawdron.
Alice is a college student. All she wants is to find a little love in the world, but when a gunman pulls up in a black SUV at her fast-food restaurant, life changes in an instant. The appearance of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in orbit is meaningless when a gun is being pointed in her face. The alien apocalypse seems trivial by comparison to a 9mm Glock inches from her nose. When it comes to an alien invasion, all she has are her wits and a fridge magnet that reads: Omnia Vincit Amor.
FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life. This series is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
Whilst I didn't get the connection and feelings of awe I've often felt with Peter this time around, there was still a lot to take in here, and I didn't find myself disappointed as I thought I might given the title. I was - not put-off, but perhaps a little disgruntled - at the sheer number of the uses of the word fuck, for although they weren't gratuitous, it just poked my dour Englishness a little.
For a story of character, not perhaps my cup of tea, but the aliens were at least interesting in their modus operandi.
Leave No Trace (Kat and Lock, #2), by Jo Callaghan.
DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock return in the provocative new thriller from the author of In the Blink of an Eye.
One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic. It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .
When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case.
But with the discovery of another man’s body – also crucified – it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.
Just as good as the first and with a twist I didn't see this time, I can hope that this series continues to thrive. I found it compelling and can really see what people mean when they say these would work really well on television, but you'd really want proper cast chemistry and someone to do a proper job voicing Lock.
In the Blink of An Eye (Kat and Lock, #1), by Jo Callaghan.
In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.
DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.
AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?
In the Blink of an Eye is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human.
Absolutely gripped from start to finish, this was a clever police procedural with a cracking extra in the technology. While there was nothing surprising about the whodoneit nor indeed the howtheydidit, the way the teamwork progressed had a bit of a different flavour with the technology angle and the reasons for its creation. Perhaps the ending may feel a bit liberal to some, but no harm in that if that's where the author wants to go and I was hooked, and read the entire book in a single sitting.
Someone's Been Messing with Reality, by John Hearne.
When Martin Ryan sees a video of his father flying unaided through the air, he realises everything he believed about his life has been a lie.
Now his parents have disappeared and Martin discovers something weird brewing in the disused mines of the seaside village where he lives. Something glowing. Something ... egg-like.
Someone's definitely been messing with reality. Martin and his friends must do whatever they can to defeat the aliens that threaten the entire human race. Even if it means stealing cop cars, blowing up the mines and turning a paddling pool into a fighter aircraft.
A quick and pretty fast-paced story for your average teen with a bit of a sci-fi interest, although it felt a bit shallow as a science fiction story in its own right. Fun enough though.
Harry Potter and the Time of Good Intentions, by B.L. Purdom.
During his fifth year, Trelawney did a Tarot reading for Harry. She told him he would have to make a choice that could "change the world as we know it." At the beginning of his sixth year, Harry chooses, and the world does change. Does it change for the better? If he wants, can Harry change it back? Or is giving Harry exactly what he wants Voldemort's ultimate revenge? The sequel to Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent.
Cover by Leela Starsky
As the middle book of a set of 3, the idea behind this really knocked my socks off 20 years ago. I thought at the time it was clever, and really enjoyed seeing Harry trot across England and peek into the lives of Muggleborn friends who never got to attend Hogwarts.
The scene with the paint and the emergency services stuck with me, and the end, although now feeling quite disconnected from the rest also stayed in my head (I was surprised at the end of the Psychic Serpent when Ron didn't change, though, which happens here and I had remembered incorrectly). Also, the funeral was quite well done, if a bit overblown given we also had one in the first book I thought. It's really odd, too, not seeing so much of the later potterverse.
Would I recommend these nowadays? Perhaps not. Did I really enjoy the nostalgia? Absolutely.
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