The Stone of Arveqtuit

Title: The Stone of Arveqtuit
Author: Thomas Albert

Ratings

Score: 7/10
Chart Entry Point: 12

Review


The Stone of Arveqtuit (pronounced Ar-vek-too-it) does not feel like your standard fantasy book. Indeed, when I first began reading the book I compared it in my mind as being somewhere between Indiana Jones and the Da Vinci Code. Although I could use those comparisons for almost the whole story, when I finished reading the book I couldn't compare it to anything I've read before...

The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain (Book One)

Title: The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain
Author: Oldman Brook

Series:The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain (Book One)
Succeeded By: ???

Ratings

Score: 5/10
Chart Entry Point: 29
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I'd like to see where this goes...

Review

I was a little confused when I first opened this book and saw how it was written. Instead of the normal past-tense narrative of most fantasy books, this was written in the present tense. As a well-practiced reader of this first-style, it took some getting used to, but after a while I found it almost as natural to read for the most part.

What was immediately clear when I was reading this book is the theme of brotherhood. The three dwarves are brothers, the two shapeshifters are brothers, the two elves are brothers - although they all seem to have a different relationship with their siblings.

The Hunting of the Bubblenuff

Title: The Hunting of the Bubblenuff
Author: Joshua Goldfond

Ratings
Score: 6/10
Chart Entry Point: 32


Review

The Hunting of the Bubblenuff was possibly the most inventive book that I've reviewed. It has a certain feel to it that lingers from reading the title to the final chapter, and one that suits it well. It's got a fairly frivolous plot, but some of the ideas in it are truly unique, and still remain interesting. I almost surprised creatures such as the Somnabulent Sheep don't exist in reality.

Life Descending (Cry of Havoc Book One)

Title: Life Descending
Author: John Hennessey
Series: Cry of Havoc (Book 1)


Ratings

Score: 4/10
Chart Entry Point: 43
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Unlikely

Review

    I was looking forwards to reading this book when it was first given to me. The things that the blurb mentioned were all very interesting: the familiar idea of war in a different world, a man reborn into a new one, and a search for the unique sounding artifact known as the "Impermeable Suit". The blend of common and new aspects of the genre looked like the perfect read for a fantasy reader. I did however, have some problems with it. Beginning with the fact that all the interesting things I was looking forwards to finding out about were barely hinted at in the first half of the book...

Conviction (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Book Seven)

Title: Conviction
Author: Aaron Allston
Score: 4/10
Chart Movement: 22 → 21 (Down 1)


Review

This series seems to have it's ups and downs, and if I'm honest this is one of the downs. Not a lot happens, and the stuff that does is either completely new, unrelated, or almost contradictory to the previous books. Because the plot is what I'll be commenting on mainly, there are some quite major spoilers in this review, so if you hate that kind of thing, look away now!

Vortex (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Book Six)

Title: Vortex
Author: Troy Denning
Superseries Star Wars
Series: Fate of the Jedi
Preceded By: Allies (Christie Golden)
Succeeded By: Conviction (Aaron Allston)

Ratings

Score: 8/10
Chart Movement: 22 -> 21
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite.

Review

I had no idea where this book was going to start. The last book, Allies, pretty much finished off every storyline except for the Trial of Tahiri Veila. With four more books to go, I began this one a little apprehensively. But that problem is quickly resolved. We found out pretty much straight away that Abeloth has a little trick up her sleeve that means that she could indeed be the main antagonist for the rest of the series, and we also see that the conflict between the Jedi and Admiral Daala is still going strong.

In short, there's plenty to read about in this book. But there was another reason that I was apprehensive. For me, Denning's contributions to the Legacy era books have been going downhill since his spectacular first entry in the legacy of the force series. But fortunately, while not matching the level of writing he had with Tempest, was considerably more engaging than in Abyss. He still used one or two awkward metaphors every now and again, but overall the writing was smooth, enjoyable, and most importantly, easy to read.

Code Lightfall and the Robot King

Title: Code Lightfall and the Robot King
Author: Daniel H.Wilson

Ratings

Score: 5/10
Chart Entry Point:


Review

I often say that books aimed primarily at younger readers can also be enjoyed by adults. Having read this one, I'm not so sure. The reason is simply because the story is childish. It's not a particularly simple story, and it does have an interesting twist at the end, but the plot has a lot of things that a child might find exciting, or realistic, that an Adult probably wouldn't. Of course, it's aimed at children - so if you're looking for a book for your kids, then this could be a good one for you.

Death Star (Star Wars)

Title: Death Star
Author: Michael Reaves & Steve Perry
Superseries: Star Wars
Preceded By: The Force Unleashed II
Succeeded By: A New Hope

Ratings

Score: 8/10
Chart Entry Point: 9

Review

This is unusual for a Star Wars book, or any book really, in that all of the characters are on the bad guys side. This is a book about people who work for the empire, and it gives us a unique insight into "the other side of the story".

For a start, nearly all of the main characters are pretty good guys. One or two do a couple of illegal things, but then so did Han Solo. But apart from Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader, all of the viewpoint characters are likeable. None of them really want to kill anyone either. Even the one who pulled the trigger on the big gun. It does give a new perspective to the Star Wars films. Many of the people on board the Death Star when the Rebels destroyed it were actually Civilians - running the cantinas and shops on the station. Which was designed in order to end all war...

Nightwatch (Discworld Book Twenty Eight)

Title: Nightwatch
Author: Terry Pratchett
Superseries: Discworld
Series: The Watch Books
Preceded By: Thief of Tme
Succeeded By: Monstrous Regiment

Ratings

Score: 10/10
Chart Entry Point: 1
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Bought them on Pre-Order

Review

A friend of mine was looking at my blog for the first time this week, and the first thing she said about it was "How come there's nothing by Terry Pratchett?". My first response was along the lines of "Surely everyone knows how good a writer he is..." but then I remembered a conversation a month or two ago with several people who hadn't heard of him. Hence this review. Nightwatch is not necessary my favourite of his books, but it's the one I know best. And it is a fantastic book...

Renaissance (Assasin's Creed Book One)

Title: Renaissance
Author: Oliver Bowden
Superseries: Assassin's Creed
Series: Ezio Trilogy (Book One)
Preceded By: The Secret Crusade
Succeeded By: Brotherhood

Ratings

Score: 1/10
Chart Entry Point: 40/40
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Not at all

Review

In these days of computer gaming, more and more books are being based on the computer games we can buy. I even saw an animated cartoon of Pacman the other day, in full HD on a 3DTV. Some of these books are quite good (See Force Unleashed II), and some of them are poor. Unfortunately, This is one of the latter.

Outbound Flight (Star Wars)

Title: Outbound Flight
Author: Timothy Zahn
Superseries: Star Wars

Ratings

Score: 10/10
Chart Entry Point: 7

Review

Outbound Flight is a mission to explore the galaxies beyond the one Star wars is set in. It's the first book in the Star Wars chronology to include Thrawn - one of the most famous characters in the Extended Universe, and it's for this reason that I chose to read it. And it was a good decision...

Soul Born (Soul Born - Book One)

Title: Soul Born
Author: Kevin James Breaux
Series: Soul Born Saga

Succeeded By: Blood Divided

Ratings

Score: 3/10
Chart Entry Point: 37
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I won't be.

Review

I was drawn into this book by the cover art. I found it to be quite stunning. In fact, it's one of the few books that have made me go to the artist's online Gallery. Or even glance at the name of the artist on the copyright page. I know there are some people who do this with every book, but I'm not one of them, so it means quite a lot. After half an hour looking at Dan Dos Santos' Gallery, I remembered I had a book to read.

And I was disappointed. Especially for the first hundred and fifty pages or so. There are three major problems, which I will discuss separately below, but had I not being reviewing the book, I don't expect I would have finished it. I just couldn't see it going anywhere interesting. Which is where the first problem comes in...

The Last of the Sky Pirates (Edge Chronicles: Rook Trilogy - Book One)

Title: The Last of the Sky Pirates
Author: Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Superseries: Edge Chronicles (Book Seven)
Series: Rook Trilogy (Book One)

Succeeded By: Vox

Ratings

Score: 10/10
Chart Entry Point: 5
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite

Review

I've been a little busy this weekend, so rather than rush through a book and not give it a fair chance I decided to write a review of a book I'd already read. This is one that I particularly like, so I thought I'd share it. It's not the first in the Edge Chronicles, but is the first of the books following Rook Barkwater, and the first one I read.

One of the main reasons that I like it so much is the complexity of the world it's set in - particularly with the breadth of life forms. Many fantasy books have two or three species other than humans, but this series has many more than that. From Waifs, little psychic elves, to Shyrkes and Banderbears. There are tens of different sentient species, and all of them are quite distinct. There are few other fantasy series that boast a culture as varied as this one. Not to mention the unique technology that they use - much of it based on flight. It's imaginitive and exciting...

Backlash (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Book Four)

Title: Backlash
Author: Aaron Allston
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Fate of the Jedi
Preceded By: Abyss
Succeeded By: Allies

Ratings

Score: 8/10
Chart Movement: 19 -> 17
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Definite

Review

Finally! Something happens! The first three books of this series were really quite slow, but in this we finally see it going somewhere. This time, while still plenty of political manoeuvring, we get too see some action.

This book follows quite nicely from the previous one - where the Sith Apprentice Vestara escapes from Luke and Ben Skywalker on Sinkhole Station. It actually starts with a Vestara viewpoint scene of her leaving. It's one of the few of these in the book - I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see more from her point of view, as she was with a more major character for most of the book. But she is a good character nonetheless, and brings some interesting aspects to the story.

Painted Doll

Title: Painted Doll
Author: M. Christian

Ratings

Score: 6/10
Chart Entry Point: 31
How likely I am to read the next in the Series:If there was one, I'd be interested.

Review

I quite liked this story - but it's nothing like what I was expecting.

The basic premise is that Domino is an "Erotist", someone that arouses clients not using their body, but using special "paints" to simulate them sexually and in other ways. You'll see when you read it. It's an interesting idea, I will say - and something I can see why people might want to try. The other main storyline is of why Claire and Flower are apart - which comes to a rather unexpected conclusion for those two - although I'm not really sure what happened to the antagonist (possibility for sequel?).

Running Black (Eshu International Book One)

Title: Running Black
Author: Patrick Todoroff
Series: Eshu International


Ratings

Score: 4/10
Chart Entry Point: 35
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: Unlikely

Review

The story started promisingly. I liked chapter one quite a lot. But it turns out that it's not representative of the rest of the story. In fact, It's more of a prologue. Which is unfortunate.

While I liked the story, and the idea of clones - if not the names of the first three - I found that the narrative was extremely difficult to read. And I'm not really sure why, if I'm honest. There is one thing that contributed I'll discuss in a moment, but other than that... I don't know. Maybe it was too jargon-y or something. I just found myself not actually understanding what was going on quite often.

Trapped on Draconica

Title: Trapped on Draconica
Author: Dan Wright
Illustrator: Alexis M. Centeno

Ratings

Score: 7/10
Chart Entry Point: 24
Similar To: Prophecy of Zephyrus

Review

If you're looking for an easy to read story - you've found it. It's light-hearted, not too complex, yet still manages to stir emotion in the reader. There's not a lot I can say about it, because I enjoyed it - there's not a lot to complain about.

The characters reflect the spirit of the story, and while they aren't incredibly complex, they are quite enjoyable to read about. Except that I don't understand why Kalak wasn't just left behind as soon as the other characters met him. He stands for pretty much everything the other main characters are against. But he does become a more likeable character in time.

Nights of Villjamur (Legends of the Red Sun Book One)

Title: Nights of Villjamur
Author: Mark Charan Newton
Series: Legends of the Setting Sun
Succeeded By: City of Ruin

Ratings

Score: 6/10
Chart Entry Point: 8
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I look forwards to it.

Review

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I began this book, but it' the first book I've read in a while that's ended in a truly satisfactory way. Considering that it's the first in a series, and plenty of plot-lines are left to explore in the next book, I'd say that's quite impressive. And it's not the only good thing that I can say about this book either. I found it to be a very nice read.

Finders Keepers

Title: Finders Keepers
Author: Russ Colchamiro

Ratings

Score: 2/10

Review

For me, unfortunately, Finders Keepers was not an easy book to read. If I hadn't been given it as a review copy, I probably wouldn't have read past the first couple of chapters. Which would have been a shame, because it got a bit better towards the end - although I felt that the actual conclusion was a bit disappointing.

But I'll discuss the good things first. I really liked a lot of the characters in the book. Some of them not at first, and two of them not at all - Donald and Danielle. But I really liked Jason, one of the main characters, and Lilly, one of the lesser characters. I felt that both of them were really well written and characterized, and I simply enjoyed reading their scenes - especially the ones where they were together. I spent the majority of the book (after they met) hoping they would end up living happily ever after together...

Abyss (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi - Book Three)

Title: Abyss
Author: Troy Denning
Superseries: Star Wars
Series: Fate of the Jedi
Preceeded By: Omen (Christie Golden)
Succeeded By: Backlash (Aaron Allston)

Ratings

Score: 5/10
How likely I am to read the next in the Series: I will read the series, but only out of stubbornness. Still, things are looking up.

Review

Finally this series has something beginning to resemble a storyline. I thought it would never happen. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the writing as much as I did with the previous two books, or even Denning's own books in the previous series. So I'm not sure whether to be elated that something is finally happening, or disappointed in the writing. It didn't stop me from reading until I'd finished though.


While I enjoyed the previous books, they didn't really have a driving force behind them. But now we're finally starting to see groups have objectives. And some questions with a bit more substance than "What's Going On?". There are two women and a force presence, who seem to be important, but for what? What's going to happen with the lost tribe of the sith? What's going to happen between Daala and the Jedi now that (Sarcastic Spoiler) something has happened.