Category Archives: Books

A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett

The thirty-second novel in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, A Hat Full of Sky is the second to feature the young witch Tiffany Aching after the delight that was The Wee Free Men. Set eighteen months further on, it sees Tiffany leaving the Chalk for the first time and setting off on a sort of witches’ equivalent of an apprenticeship. Away from home for the first time she has to adjust to becoming part of the wider community of witches, all the while being pursued by something with no body or mind, just a great fear and hunger.

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Demon Road – Derek Landy

After nine novels in the successful Skullduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy’s latest book – Demon Road – sees the start of a brand new series. Swapping wizards and talking skeletons for demons, vampires and a surprising amount of gore, it sees Landy retain much of his usual style while adding in an extra edge that will appeal to slightly older readers than his original series. We follow sixteen year-old Amber, an average American teenager (well, at first anyway) whose life turns upside down when her parents start trying to kill her. With demons on her trail she’s forced to accept help from unexpected quarters, and finds herself on the run through the dark roads of America.

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Tracer – Rob Boffard

In the world of Rob Boffard’s Tracer, mankind has long since abandoned the Earth, leaving behind a ruined planet and taking up residence in an orbiting space station called Outer Earth. Set 100 years into its lifespan we find Outer Earth overcrowded, rusting and faded, its government barely in control and many of its population only just scraping a living. The book follows Riley Hale, a young woman working as a tracer – a sort of courier/gang member – who finds herself and her friends in very real danger after a tricky delivery sees her on the wrong side of some very dangerous people as a crisis erupts which threatens the entire station.

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The Shipping News – Annie Proulx

Despite boasting a Pulitzer Prize and a big-name Hollywood adaptation, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is an unhurried and unconventional novel, a simple story which nonetheless requires a fair amount of thought to get the best out of. It follows the life of a man referred to only as Quoyle, one of life’s permanent losers, burdened with crippling self doubt and never quite able to succeed at anything he does. When his painful marriage comes to a harrowing end, he takes his daughters and joins his aunt in returning to the home of his ancestors in the wilderness of Newfoundland, where he tries to start his life over again.

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Cybernetica – Rob Sanders

[This review was originally written after the release of the Limited Edition version of Cybernetica, although it’s now available in standard formats as well.]

While most recent Horus Heresy releases have moved the story forward chronologically, for the latest Limited Edition novella, Rob Sanders’ Cybernetica, Black Library have taken us back to an earlier point in the timeline. Set on Mars just as the Heresy begins, we follow a Raven Guard known as The Carrion, sent to train as a Techmarine after he was grievously wounded and left unable to follow his legion’s way of war. Alongside brothers from other legions he finds himself fighting to survive against the might of the Mechanicum, while on Terra, Rogal Dorn looks for a way to deal with the escalating situation on Mars.

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The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith

Once again published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm is JK Rowling’s second crime novel featuring the private detective Cormoran Strike, and picks up several months after the events of The Cuckoo’s Calling. After an unwanted moment in the spotlight for his work on the Lula Landry case, Strike finds things getting back to normal when he takes on a case from Leonora Quine, whose husband Owen, an author of dubious taste and talent, has gone missing. As he begins his investigation it quickly becomes clear that there is more to Owen’s story than a man hiding away from his wife, with the inflammatory manuscript for his latest book having been circulated amongst his publishers and peers just before his disappearance.

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The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow – Katherine Woodfine

Tapping into a rich history of mystery and adventure stories, Katherine Woodfine’s debut novel – The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow – is a fast paced, exciting children’s book with plenty to capture the imagination of both younger and older readers. Set in Edwardian London, the story takes place in and around Sinclair’s department store, a sort of cross between Selfridges and Willy Wonka’s factory, full of wonders and intrigue, cubby holes and grand staircases, and as exotic to its customers as to the book’s readers. Into this steps Sophie Taylor, 14 and recently orphaned, trying to adjust to a new world and determined to stand on her own two feet.

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar : The Gates of Azyr – Chris Wraight

Warhammer is dead, long live Warhammer! That’s right, the old Warhammer is gone and in its place is Age of Sigmar, and Black Library have got straight in on the action with Chris Wraight’s latest novella, The Gates of Azyr. This is a whole new chapter for Warhammer, set thousands of years after the events of the End Times, with endless scope for brand new storytelling. Running to the usual 120-ish pages, the book introduces the new Stormcast Eternals led by Vandus Hammerhand and the Khorne forces of Khorgos Khul, as Sigmar’s forces make their first strike into the Realm of Fire and finally strike back against the armies of Chaos.

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The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith

What do you do if you’re one of the most famous authors on the planet, but want to try something different, and for people to judge your writing purely on its merits? You write under a pseudonym, that’s what – and that’s exactly what JK Rowling did when she quietly released her first crime novel under the name of Robert Galbraith. It didn’t take long for the secret to be revealed, at which point sales went through the roof as expected, but the question remains – can Rowling come out from under Harry Potter’s shadow and cut it in the crime genre? The answer is that yes, she certainly can. Keep reading…

The Gospel of Loki – Joanne M. Harris

While best known for ‘literary fiction’, Joanne Harris has written across a range of genres, and The Gospel of Loki is her third book to heavily feature Norse mythology. Previous novels Runemarks and Runelight are straight-up fantasy with a Norse flavour, while here she sets out to retell the sagas of the Norse gods from the perspective of Loki, the trickster, offering a reversal of the usual viewpoint. Covering the whole story, from the Nine Worlds’ creation through to Ragnarok, Loki tells his own version of events, showing Odin and the rest of the gods in a totally different light.

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