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Afterlife (Afterlife Saga, #1)
10.0
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Afterlife… just some gothic nightclub where gossip is fuelled by the presence of a rich and...
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Grim Company in Books
Nov 14, 2019
The Grim Company aims to deliver a swords and sorcery tail in the epic mould while being gritty, grimy and dirty in detail. And to a very large extent it suceeds, managing to tell a tale of war between city states from the point of view of some of the characters cauught up in it.
One thing that is always hard to do when starting out on a new story is to get used to the characters. The author must balance the need to ensure that enough time is spent to flesh out each character as they are introduced without overwhelming the reader and Scull is adept at this, the first few chapters detailing some of the misadventures, goals and dreams of the main characters.
And what characters they are. Cole is a young hero with a magical blade, who's destiny is to free the city of Dorminia from the tyrant Salazar, while at the same time being a real catch for any pretty girls. Or so he sees himself. To everyone else he is vain, boastful and arrogant. Jerek is a barbarian who has the market cornered in foul language, pithy insults and scowling at everything. Also good is Barandas, head of the elite guard of the city who is just trying to do his job.
The obvious author to compare Scull to is Joe Abercrombie, and the comparison is a fair one although (in this book) Scull doesn't quite manage to create the depth and range in Abercrombie's characters and situations. So although they aren't really classic fantasy archetypes, they are still close and don't subvert them. What Scull does bring is a little less cynicism than Abercrombie. Here it is worth fighting for what you believe is right, and honour still has value. This gives it a rather refreshing feeling.
The book also has strength in being the first of a series so it doesn't have to be a stand alone story and can leave enough threads for the next book to pick up. This allows the end, after a frenetic climactic battle, to relax into telling the aftermath rather than spending too much time trying to tie up all the loose ends.
Overall a good book for the fantasy lover. Not as grim or dark as 'grimdark' but still with enough spit and sawdust to add an underbelly to the reliable fantasy concepts it should appeal to a wide audience.
Rated: Strong language, bloody violence and some sexual references throughout
One thing that is always hard to do when starting out on a new story is to get used to the characters. The author must balance the need to ensure that enough time is spent to flesh out each character as they are introduced without overwhelming the reader and Scull is adept at this, the first few chapters detailing some of the misadventures, goals and dreams of the main characters.
And what characters they are. Cole is a young hero with a magical blade, who's destiny is to free the city of Dorminia from the tyrant Salazar, while at the same time being a real catch for any pretty girls. Or so he sees himself. To everyone else he is vain, boastful and arrogant. Jerek is a barbarian who has the market cornered in foul language, pithy insults and scowling at everything. Also good is Barandas, head of the elite guard of the city who is just trying to do his job.
The obvious author to compare Scull to is Joe Abercrombie, and the comparison is a fair one although (in this book) Scull doesn't quite manage to create the depth and range in Abercrombie's characters and situations. So although they aren't really classic fantasy archetypes, they are still close and don't subvert them. What Scull does bring is a little less cynicism than Abercrombie. Here it is worth fighting for what you believe is right, and honour still has value. This gives it a rather refreshing feeling.
The book also has strength in being the first of a series so it doesn't have to be a stand alone story and can leave enough threads for the next book to pick up. This allows the end, after a frenetic climactic battle, to relax into telling the aftermath rather than spending too much time trying to tie up all the loose ends.
Overall a good book for the fantasy lover. Not as grim or dark as 'grimdark' but still with enough spit and sawdust to add an underbelly to the reliable fantasy concepts it should appeal to a wide audience.
Rated: Strong language, bloody violence and some sexual references throughout
The Alex Crow
Book
From the critically acclaimed author of cult teen novel Grasshopper Jungle, Andrew Smith, comes a...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2204 KP) rated Death Waits in the Dark in Books
Apr 3, 2019
Don’t Wait in the Dark, Start Reading This Book
Summer has come to Blue Lake, Indiana, and with it the heat. Lena London and her mentor, bestselling author Camilla Graham, are trying to finish their latest manuscript, but the heat is making it hard to concentrate. However, a visit from Jane Wyland doesn’t prove to be a welcome distraction. Jane and Camilla were acquainted when Camilla first moved to the United States from England, but the two haven’t spoken in decades. Jane arrives to tell Camilla that she knows the secret the Graham family has been hiding, and Jane is going to share it with the world if Camilla doesn’t step up and acknowledge it first.
The trouble is, Camilla doesn’t know what secret Jane is talking about even when Jane implies that it is something from Camilla’s husband’s past. The next day, Camilla and Lena go to try to get more information from Jane so they can figure out what has the woman so upset. However, when they arrive, they discover that Jane has been murdered. What was this secret from the past, and did it get Jane killed?
As much as I enjoyed the first three books in this series, it was nice to see the plot move away from Lena’s boyfriend and focus on another character. This change also allowed the book to have even more of a gothic feel to it than the first three. While I’m not super familiar with that genre, I was definitely able to recognize elements of it as the book unfolded, and I enjoyed seeing how it was combined seamlessly with elements of a cozy mystery. The result works and we get a story that drew me in each time I picked up the book and made it hard to put down. The usual cast of characters are still here, and it was great to see them. The suspects didn’t get much page time, but they work perfectly for the story as it is told here since the main drive was to figure out what secret from the past upset Jane so much. This is a fun twist on the cozy mystery, and if you are looking for something slightly different, be sure to pick it up.
The trouble is, Camilla doesn’t know what secret Jane is talking about even when Jane implies that it is something from Camilla’s husband’s past. The next day, Camilla and Lena go to try to get more information from Jane so they can figure out what has the woman so upset. However, when they arrive, they discover that Jane has been murdered. What was this secret from the past, and did it get Jane killed?
As much as I enjoyed the first three books in this series, it was nice to see the plot move away from Lena’s boyfriend and focus on another character. This change also allowed the book to have even more of a gothic feel to it than the first three. While I’m not super familiar with that genre, I was definitely able to recognize elements of it as the book unfolded, and I enjoyed seeing how it was combined seamlessly with elements of a cozy mystery. The result works and we get a story that drew me in each time I picked up the book and made it hard to put down. The usual cast of characters are still here, and it was great to see them. The suspects didn’t get much page time, but they work perfectly for the story as it is told here since the main drive was to figure out what secret from the past upset Jane so much. This is a fun twist on the cozy mystery, and if you are looking for something slightly different, be sure to pick it up.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
Book
Author and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin tackles the problems of twenty-first century information...
William Faulkner in Hollywood: Screenwriting for the Studios
R. Barton Palmer, Stefan Solomon and Matthew Bernstein
Book
During more than two decades (1932-1954), William Faulkner worked on approximately fifty screenplays...
BookInspector (124 KP) rated Purgatory Road in Books
Sep 24, 2020
From the first pages I had creeps running down my spine. This story is a nerve - racking, blood – curdling, fearsome piece of art. It started like every second horror movie, couple’s car broke in the middle of nowhere and they need to survive but eventually they will meet someone who wants to kill them. Heard that before, right? But this novel is something different. There is something else lurking around, where it is very hard to explain what it is, and author kept it for your own imagination till the very last page. Was it real or was it just a fruit of imagination, I honestly don’t know. The plot of this book is really disturbing and filled with lots of violence and disturbed characters so if u have weak nerves and fear of violence save yourself from nightmares. I know I had few even though I like these kind of books.
I really enjoyed what author did with the characters, they are very mysterious and all of them have their own secrets which author helps to untangle slowly, torturing with every chapter. There are amazing insights of couple’s relationship problems and hidden feelings towards each other and helps discover their own most secret realisations which they tried to suppress for some time. Characters manipulate with these feelings magnificently. The book is really fast paced and these chapters are so short, that it grips you so bad that all I could think was “OK, just one more…” and I couldn’t put it down. It is really easy to read this book, because the language used is not difficult so it just flies through. There are a lot of things going on in the book with a lot of turns and twists which made it even more interesting and gripping. The ending was really enjoyable as well not like the ones you see in horror movies. To conclude, I would strongly recommend this book to all out there who got strong nerves and would like some spine – chilling story to read.
I really enjoyed what author did with the characters, they are very mysterious and all of them have their own secrets which author helps to untangle slowly, torturing with every chapter. There are amazing insights of couple’s relationship problems and hidden feelings towards each other and helps discover their own most secret realisations which they tried to suppress for some time. Characters manipulate with these feelings magnificently. The book is really fast paced and these chapters are so short, that it grips you so bad that all I could think was “OK, just one more…” and I couldn’t put it down. It is really easy to read this book, because the language used is not difficult so it just flies through. There are a lot of things going on in the book with a lot of turns and twists which made it even more interesting and gripping. The ending was really enjoyable as well not like the ones you see in horror movies. To conclude, I would strongly recommend this book to all out there who got strong nerves and would like some spine – chilling story to read.
Becs (244 KP) rated What a Wicked Web We Weave in Books
Oct 2, 2019
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, New-Adult
Type: Stand-alone
Audience/ Reading Level: 18+
Interests: Murder, Fraud, Law Enforcement, Sexual Assault, Family.
Point of View: Honestly, I’m not sure because the views changed all the time.
Promise: What a Wicked Web We Weave is a novel full of mystery, intrigue, murder, revenge, fraud and betrayal amongst many other things. It has several twists and turns as you get enthralled into each chapter and it will leave the reader in suspense and at the edge of their seat, right up to the end.
Insights: I really was hoping to love this little book. But I just couldn’t get over how much the author blew over certain controversial topics and how he wrote this novel. The story was there, there was background on not only the characters but also the story. But I won’t be reading this book again because it wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be. There was also a massive amount of grammatical errors that took away from the surrounding story. Finally, the plot was not the greatest. Two out of five stars.
Can we talk about how the author thought writing a sexual assault scene and then blowing it off like it meant nothing was okay? Also, can we talk about the fact that the victims brother and his lover thought it was alright to go back to the assailant’s room and assualt him in return? I do not take lightly to sexual assualt and this just really put me off on the rest of the story.
Favorite Quotes: “Tony Lodge eat your heart out.”
“‘It’s going to be a long night,’ Tony thoight. ‘Come to Tony you asshole.'”
What will you gain?: An interesting story that is not the greatest read.
Aesthetics: I was intrigued by the synopsis when I first requested this. But I’m majorly disappointed with the way the author set up this novel.
Type: Stand-alone
Audience/ Reading Level: 18+
Interests: Murder, Fraud, Law Enforcement, Sexual Assault, Family.
Point of View: Honestly, I’m not sure because the views changed all the time.
Promise: What a Wicked Web We Weave is a novel full of mystery, intrigue, murder, revenge, fraud and betrayal amongst many other things. It has several twists and turns as you get enthralled into each chapter and it will leave the reader in suspense and at the edge of their seat, right up to the end.
Insights: I really was hoping to love this little book. But I just couldn’t get over how much the author blew over certain controversial topics and how he wrote this novel. The story was there, there was background on not only the characters but also the story. But I won’t be reading this book again because it wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be. There was also a massive amount of grammatical errors that took away from the surrounding story. Finally, the plot was not the greatest. Two out of five stars.
Can we talk about how the author thought writing a sexual assault scene and then blowing it off like it meant nothing was okay? Also, can we talk about the fact that the victims brother and his lover thought it was alright to go back to the assailant’s room and assualt him in return? I do not take lightly to sexual assualt and this just really put me off on the rest of the story.
Favorite Quotes: “Tony Lodge eat your heart out.”
“‘It’s going to be a long night,’ Tony thoight. ‘Come to Tony you asshole.'”
What will you gain?: An interesting story that is not the greatest read.
Aesthetics: I was intrigued by the synopsis when I first requested this. But I’m majorly disappointed with the way the author set up this novel.
With Paulus at Stalingrad
Book
Colonel Wilhelm Adam, senior ADC to General Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad,...
M: The True Story of Maxwell Knight: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster
Book
Maxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is the author of the...