First off, if you've come here expecting a ranty moan about ebook pricing, this probably isn't the blog post for you. If on the other hand, you're interested to hear what I learned from speaking to a work colleague who has started pirating books at 64, read on. Let's kick it off by saying that [...]
I read Rivers of London at a bad time. I’d just read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson and absolutely loved the book, feeling it a pinnacle of post-Tolkien fantasy. I raved about that book. So of course anything I read after that was going to feel like a come-down no matter how much [...]
I fear this review is going to be a little worthless. You see, as a writer or critic we have some experience of the tools of writing: the character arcs, the themes, the worldbuilding, and so on. We’re able to unstitch novels and look at these component parts, judging each on its own merit. Hence [...]
I used to love ebooks. When I got my first ebook reader, a Bookeen cybook, I used it all the time and swore it was the future. I used to buy all my books from a place called Fictionwise that used bizarre economics whereby I always got more back in credit than I spent (to [...]
The Name of the Wind tells the life story of Kvothe, a legendary hero, and goes about showing the more realistic story behind the legend. It’s a book about deconstructing legends and in that sense, it’s a book about story. The problem for me is that a novel must have plot. It must have a [...]
2011 is going to be an insane year for good books. It looks like all those authors who only release a book every few years are releasing books in 2011. I think Fantasy readers are going to be spoiled for choice, and I see that as a good thing. Let's face it, everyone is going [...]
It's that time of year where I need to find the gold suit at the back of the wardrobe, brush it off and present my best cheesy smile as I look back at 2010 and name my favourite reads. The focus of my reading in 2010 was on new fantasy authors. I wanted to see [...]
The cover quote from Peter Hamilton says “Retribution Falls is the kind of old fashioned adventure I didn't think we were allowed to write any more” and I think it’s very true. It’s mixture of strange lands, airships and magic cutlasses makes it at time feel like a fantasy novel, a steampunk novel and a [...]
As a rule, I don't have a problem with Tie-In Fiction. I'm very much in the "you like what you like" camp and don't think you should ever be ashamed of your reads. The argument against tie-in fiction is often that it is of a lesser quality, that because it is work for hire, authors [...]
It was both a blessing and a curse that I came about the audiobook for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Crime doesn't tend to be a genre I read a lot in, but I'm pretty genre agnostic when it comes to reading. So when a newspaper was offering the audiobook for free as part [...]
