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Eversworn ( Daughters of Askara book 3)

Hailey Edwards

7.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Steal the salt. Bind the grimoire. Escape the male. Daughters of Askara, Book 3 When an exchange of...

David McK (3623 KP) rated Stormchild in Books

Oct 19, 2025

As an author, Bernard Cornwell is probably better known for writing historical fiction: the Sharpe series (set during the Napoleonic Wars), say, or the Uhtred of Bebbanburg series (in and around the time of Alfred the Great).

What is not so well, known, however, are his more contemporaneous 'Sailing thrillers'.

Of which there are currently five (Wildtrack, Sea Lord, Crackdown, Stormchild and Scoundrel)
with this being the fourth published in that, totally unconnected to each other, series and also coincidentally the fourth I read (I've yet to read Crackdown).

In this one, published during the early 1990s, Cornwell's hero of the novel is a man who, following the death of his wife in an explosion at sea (itself following the death of his son in a bombing in Northern Ireland) is trying to track down his long-lost daughter, who was last seen sailing away from him to join a cult of what-proves-to-be extremist environmentalist.

Bold choice.

Making the environmentalists the baddies.

To be clear, they're portrayed here - or, at least, the (fictional) cult that she has joined - more as extremists than environmentalists.

Like I suspect many others, I found this to be an enjoyable enough read but not up to the standards of his Cornwell's usual historical fiction works. Which the man himself acknowledges on his own website: "I enjoyed writing the thrillers, but suspect I am happier writing historical novels ..."

Kudos

Tremors

News and Education

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

Wonderful app easy and intuitive as few of its kind, fully renovated its graphics and functionality,...

Christine A. (965 KP) rated The House of One Thousand Eyes in Books

Nov 28, 2018

Felt as if it could have been a glimpse into real people living in East Berlin (0 more)

Story wraps up nicely at the end but it ends abruptly. (0 more)

Realistic, historical fiction YA about living in East Berlin in the early 1980s

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Lena Altmann is a 17 year old girl who lives in East Berlin. After her parents were killed in an explosion, Lena was forced to move in with her aunt. Lena's only respite comes when she spends her Sundays with her uncle, her aunt's brother. One day he is erased. He along with all of his possessions,and his birth records are gone. His published books have disappeared from bookstore shelves. He is just gone, disappearing without a trace.

Lena frantically searches for him but knows government spies are everywhere and she feels alone. Her aunt is a hardcore member of the Communist party. Can she trust her? Can she trust her friends? Can she trust anyone?

Through her story, Michelle Barker shows what it was like to live in the "Better Berlin" in the 1980s. She shows the rigidness, fearfulness, suspicion, and oppression of life in East Berlin.

The House of One Thousand Eyes did not feel like fiction. You could feel and hear Berlin. You could believe Lena, her uncle, and her aunt were real people and this book just captured a portion of their lives.

Although the story wraps up nicely at the end, it ends abruptly.

Kudos

David McK (3623 KP) rated Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron (Alphabet Squadron #1) in Books

Dec 23, 2019

During the mid-to-late 90s (prior to even the Prequels), there was an explosion of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels.

Most of those novels concentrated on Han, Luke, Leia and co.

Most, but not all.

Alongside those, there was also two separate series of books, initially taking Wedge Antilles as a key character, concentrating instead on the fighter pilots of (initially) Rogue Squadron and (later) Wraith Squadron, taking inspiration for the X-Wing and TIE fighter computer games of the time.

And those novels themselves - now considered 'Legends' i.e. no longer canon - could very well have provided inspiration for this, the first of a spin-off trilogy (I think) from a series of graphic novels.

Whereas Rogue and Wraith squadron both had their pilots flying the same type of fighter craft, and both were very cinematic in their presentation, this novel - definitely in the first half (which, I felt, dragged somewhat) - concentrates more on its members psychology, with the so-called Alphabet squadron headed up by an ex-Imperial keen to prove her loyalty to the New Republic. And why is it called Alphabet Squadron? Because the pilots fly a mix of starfighter, from an A-Wing (i.e. that which crashes into the Star Destroyer bridge in Return of the Jedi) to a B Wing (the cross-shaped bomber glimpsed in flight), to an X-Wing (the type Luke Skywalker flies) to a U-Wing (The personnel carrier introduced in Rogue One) to a Y-Wing (the initial bombing run on the Death Star).