Book Review: The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

The old songs, the laments for dead heroes. We drink and fight and kill and die. I like to try and give a brief, spoiler free synopsis at the start of my reviews; to give you potential readers an idea if this is the kind of story you'd like. But I don't think I'm capable…

Book Review: The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

In The Ninth Rain, first in The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, Jen Williams brings a fresh and unique story to the fantasy genre; a book that strides across epic fantasy and probes the boundaries into sci-fi. The Eboran Empire was Sarn's first line of defense against their ancient foe, the Jure'lia. Over centuries, they would send…

The Liebster Award

I've been nominated for a blogging award! Thank you so much Chaz from Life of Chaz for nominating me; I think. We'll see if I'm still thanking you by the end when I'm trying to come up with only ten tags D: Firstly, what is The Liebster Award? So it's an actual award thing with…

Book Review: The Silver Tide by Jen Williams

Grazing your arm from palm to elbow, you slide around the corner and take shelter behind the wall. You shake the shower of dust and detritus from your hair and dodge the half a brick that topples from the crumbling top of your refuge. All around you is utter chaos; the city is transformed by…

Tough Travelling: Shapeshifters

Welcome to this month's Tough Travelling! Every month, we travel through fantasy with The Fantasy Hive, looking at a different fantasy trope as outlined by Diana Wynne Jones in her Tough Guide to Fantasyland. This month, it's shapeshifters... “Shapeshifting is frequent among both WERES and MAGIC USERS. The usual form taken is that of a wolf,…

Book Review: The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams

You've been trudging through the slush and cold for days. You're shaking with exhaustion, your extremities tingling in a sensation akin to burning. Stumbling into base-camp, you're grateful you made it before nightfall. The flames of the camp fire are a welcome sight after endless days of blinding snow, of mountains looming over you, of…

The Subjective Chaos (Kind Of) Awards

19|01|18 Update The Bloggers Seven have met with their first challenge since announcing their quest; lo and behold a book had been placed in the wrong category! After a brief period of wailing into the void, our brave heroes searched within themselves for the truth; they would have to move the book to a new…

Book Review: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a…

Book Review: The Copper Promise by Jen Williams

It's the kind of bar where they keep the lights down low so you can't see how murky the beer is. The air is thick and the wine thin. You stumble down the steps, make your way through the clusters of clientele, wondering why it had to be this particular establishment; when a chair is…

Tough Travelling: Elves

Welcome to another month's Tough Travelling, this time with Elves! Tough Travelling is a monthly feature, which has a new home over at the (very swish) Fantasy Hive (hence the new graphic...) Shall we see what The Tough Guide to Fantasyland has to say on the subject? “Elves claim to have been the first people in Fantasyland.…