Archives for reviews - Page 3
Faded Embers by Anne Wheeler [Book Review]
Faded Embers by Anne Wheeler My rating: 5 of 5 stars A story of betrayal, conspiracy and redemption. Fourth in the Shadows of War series that started with Asrian Skies. While we still follow Avery, the real protagonist of this volume is Gareth Chase. The true horror at the heart of Haedara is brought to light in Faded Embers. Faded Embers Faded Embers is set a short while after Shattered Honor, the third book in the Shadows of War series. There is an uneasy peace between the Haedarans and the Commonwealth. Asria is semi-independent, but with Haedaran troops still in orbit and on the planet. Avery is Queen, and her son is around three years old. As the story opens she prepares for her coronation. Tensions are high because of the continued occupation. When Chase re-appears he isn't entirely welcome,…
Citizen of Earth by Joseph J. Kassabian [Book Review]
Citizen of Earth by Joseph J. Kassabian My rating: 4 of 5 stars There's a lot to like in Citizen of Earth. Kassabian creates some really interesting characters, especially the protagonist Vincent Solaris and his main companion. The action is suitably chaotic, albeit well described. That said I did have some niggles, especially in the early part of the book. The characters take a lot of physical abuse in training, which seems to consist only of physical abuse and not of any training, even though the learning but is referred to later. There must have been some time jumps in the story, but these are only obvious when referred to much later. There's also a Vietnam in SPAAACE vibe to it too, like the worst excesses of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. We get over it all though with the second half…
Emilie Knight – Author Interview
Knight with the hardback of Dagger and Scythe (photo: Emilie Knight) This week's post is an Author Interview with Emilie Knight, her new book Dagger and Scythe is officially released tomorrow! It's the second title in the Ichorian Epics series, the first being Era of Undying. Here are Emilie Knight's answers to my questions. Emilie Knight - Author Interview How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I’ve been writing seriously for a few years. I’ve been writing since high school, but in 2017 I really sat down to focus on it as a career with novels, rather than short experiments for myself. Do you write for a living, or do you also do other work? I work in a call center in a car dealership. It’s a fine job, customers can be rude quite…
At The Trough by Adam Knight [Book Review]
At the Trough by Adam Knight My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was offered an ARC of At The Trough. It took a bit of getting into, partly because At The Trough swaps between several point of view characters, one per chapter. So it took 2-3 chapters for each character to properly hook me into the story. Once I'd got there it kept me up until 2am on a work night! At the Trough At The Trough is a very dystopian near future, a warning of what could happen if the super-rich managed to take control of education. The scenario is close enough to reality that you can see a plausible join into the present. It's a plausible, if very dark, future. This is part of what made it compelling to me. At the Trough is like Fahrenheit 451…
Horrible Histories the Movie – Rotten Romans [Review]
The pre-preview Q&A before Horrible Histories the Movie (photo: James Kemp) I went to see Horrible Histories the Movie with my children Lucy and Alexander on Sunday morning at the BFI riverside. They had a preview screening of Horrible Histories the Movie as a combo of their monthly kids shows and also as part of the London Comedy Film Festival (LoCo). Ahead of the screening we had a short Q&A with Caroline Norris (producer & writer), Sarah Hadland and Sebastian Croft (Atti). Horrible Histories the Movie The subtitle to Horrible Histories the Movie is Rotten Romans because the core story is the interaction between Orla (a young celt, played by Amelia Jones) and Atti (a young Roman, played by Sebastian Croft). This story is set in the backdrop of Boudica's revolt against the Romans, see the synopsis below for non-spoilered…