There is a lot to love in A Hero Born though, and I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to read this Chinese classic.
Shields in Shadow by Andy Peloquin
Shields in Shadow was an exciting popcorn read – thriller-type pacing, good gory battles, and some fun characters to root for. All in all it looks to be a great start to a series that is worth keeping an eye on.
Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence
Limited Wish, the second book of the Impossible Times trilogy is just as fast paced, intriguing and full of heart as the first book was. Maybe even more so. Maybe some twists didn’t sit as well and was a bit predictable at places, but I’m just really nitpicking here. I would have jumped right at book 3 if I could, but alas, I have to wait – impatiently – for it to be released.
SPFBO: The Werewolf Whisperer by Camilla Ochlan and Bonita Gutierrez
SPFBO 5 review!
Grimdark Magazine #19 by Adrian Collins
After a well deserved break – Adrian, chief editor of Grimdark Magazine (GDM) got married, congrats once again! – the Nineteenth issue was released with a strong line of contributors. You can read a short stories from Joe Abercrombie, Trudi Canavan, Alan Baxter, Michael R. Fletcher and Lee Murray, an interview with Geoff Brown and Syama Pedersen, two book reviews of The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht and Blood of an Exile by Brian Naslund, plus an article from T. R. Nepper.
Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford
The story was quick, lots of fun, with some fluttery first-time love feelings, and a good dose of danger for our heroine to overcome. I liked the first half because of the setting and the sisters, and second half for the characters and the intrigue. The ending felt a tad bit rushed but I enjoyed this book as a whole and blew through it in a few sittings.
Red and Black by Nancy O’Toole Meservier
The characters do have a lot of introspection and awareness of their own faults with good reasons for their choices. At times I thought they were maybe a little too aware of their own shortcomings during these self-examinations but the characters really were wonderfully handled. Even Calypso and other support characters had motives beyond just being bad, for the sake of being villains.
The Ragged Blade by Christopher Ruz
This one was an assorted bag of fabulous, and some odd, not quite sure how I feel about it stuff. It’s a slow building world that relies on the MC Richard, to tell the story through a combination of flashbacks – partly through sharing stories with his daughter Ana (who is mute for the most part), combined with present day events.
Gedlund by William Ray
As military fantasys go, I found a lot to like in this one. There’s a lot of battles which get progressively bigger until the finale. There are organising troops, gun use, and marching – some of my favorite parts were the parade row marching and just any of the scenes where they had to keep or use a tempo. I especially loved the use of sound combined with the visuals to bring the scenes alive.
The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford
This opens with a bang, befitting the title but it’s weird bang – kind of like small town fireworks with the reload time between the bursts of color, as this stops mid-action to give us a bit of catch-up. Once we are caught up though, it’s go-time, and the rest of the book is an easy, quick, and fun read.