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A Review - Carls Doomsday Scenario - Matt Dinniman

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Well, I’m tearing through these (audio) books faster than Carl and Donut could tear through a circus full of evil lemurs. This was an interesting direction to take the story on the back of the first book. Rather than continuing the grim, Dungeon Crawling style to the adventure Carl and Donut find themselves in an open world RPG style setting with a much more quest based approach to progression. I still really enjoyed it, I just didn’t enjoy the setting as much as the first book, hence the four stars. I think it was a necessary change to take the story into themed levels, and doing it before the novelty of traditional Dungeon Crawling wore off will probably prove to be the best approach as I read more of this. The story still focuses primarily on the buddy species duo of Carl and Donut with some really interesting character development as we go. It’s nice to see the human aspect to both characters as Carl starts to become Jaded with the game and the system, and as Donut shows she’s far ...
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A Review - Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinniman

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This book was the literal definition of a hype read for me. I didn’t know what I was going into, only that it had a silly name, a silly cover and people are going crazy for this series. I get it. F*ck me do I get it. For a bit of context as to how my experience was Dungeon Crawler Carl has gone, last week I was listening to Words of Radiance so I could keep pace with my Stormlight Archive reading while I travelled for work. I ran out of free hours on that and decided to finally start Dungeon Crawler Carl with the intention of reading it alongside my physical read, mainly for something to have in the car. I haven’t turned a page of Words of Radiance between starting and finishing this book. I was hooked, I was enthralled, I was thoroughly entertained. Yes, it’s silly, yes it’s unconventional but it isn’t one dimensional and it doesn’t rely on the novelty of it’s setting to carry the story, I care about Carl and Princess Donuts progression and stats, I care about the items they loot, I c...
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An Edition Review - My First Experience with Grim Oak Press

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When Grim Oak Press announced they’d be producing a limited edition of Malice I went through a roller coaster of emotions. Joy at the fact I would finally be able to replace my long lost Goldsboro copy that was sacrificed to become brake discs, sorrow at the financial ruin that was about to sweep across my bank account, fear that my partner would find out how much I paid for “another f*cking book”, before finally arriving back at Joy. I will state my biases early for anyone who doesn’t know me. Malice is my favourite book, ever. If I didn’t pick this book up in an airport back in 2012, I wouldn’t read books now. If I hadn’t fallen in love with the story and bought a copy of the limited Hardcover from Goldsboro, I wouldn’t collect books now. In fact as I write this, John Gwynne has a lot to answer for…anyway. My point is, sentimentally I have a lot more into this book than most but Grim Oak Press are known for their quality so luckily I feel like I can give this a fair review (if not, w...
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A Review - Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson

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I hadn’t really planned to read Warbreaker, in fact I was as stubbornly resisting the idea of getting sucked into the wider Cosmere. I read Way of Kings and changed my mind because I was told it would be essential reading to understand Stormlight properly and now here we are. Where to start? I wanted this book to be better. That isn’t to say it’s bad, it’s objectively very good and I did ultimately end up enjoying it as a whole but it was such a slow start and I started to find it tedious, it doesn’t keep you engaged through the lulls the way some of Sandersons other work does. I also didn’t particularly care for the characters. Vasher and Lightsong have fantastic conclusions to their development but again it just took so long to lift the curtain get there. Other characters, particularly Blushweaver were a bit cringeworthy in the way they’re written. Maybe I’m missing something really poignant but having your breasts and sexual promiscuity be your superpower doesn’t really make for goo...
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I spent £600 on one book. Was it worth it? - My experience with The Folio Societies Limited Edition of The Hobbit

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The day has arrived. My precious is here. The magpie within me has won its battle for shiny books and my copy of The Hobbit from The Folio Society has arrived. When I started collecting books back in 2012 the thought of spending more than £50 on a book seemed alien to me, but I’ve bought and sold bits and pieces of my collection over the years to the point where yes, I have decided to spend £600 on a single fine press book, and today I’m going to talk about it. So the book itself is the very definition of fine press. I’ll list the specs below for anyone interested. Limited to 1,000 copies​ Quarter-bound in Spaccato Di Montone leather with art silk sides. Front board has an inset label printed with an illustration by Alan Lee Limitation label is printed letterpress and signed by the illustrator​ Typeset in Dante with display set in Testament​ 344 pages print in 2 colours​ Numerous black & white line integrated illustrations​ 28 colour illustrations, hand tipped as plates within bord...
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An Indie Review - The Thirteenth Prince - Joel Glover

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Firstly I’d like to thank Joel for sending me a copy of The Thirteenth Prince on the vague promise that I would get to reading it ‘this year at some point’ and for waiting patiently while I took until November to read it.  The Thirteenth Prince has a lot going on within what feels like a relatively simple plot. In short it’s a bit of a buddy cop novel, but the cops are accountants working in a fantasy setting, and one of the accountants, our protagonist Gene also seems to have some form of Synesthesia that causes him to see patterns in numbers. While working as said fantasy accountant they uncover a nefarious plot and set on their way to stopping it, and all of this is happening in a world where males are seen as the weaker sex, and where an entire collection of cities thinks they’re the next chosen one. Like I say, there’s a whole bunch going on and it feels a bit mental written down in one place but it does work, just trust me.  The first thing I noticed about this book...
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Indie Edition Review - Gunmetal Gods - The Ultimate Collectors Edition - Ft. Zamil Akhtar

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 I was recently lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of the Ultimate Collectors Edition of Gunmetal Gods, Zamil Akhtar's first foray into self published luxury books. I say I was lucky, I was lucky in the sense that I backed the Kickstarter, bought an additional slipcase paid for international shipping but my partner wasn't home when it arrived to give me that withering look and ask me if i'd bought "another REDACTED book".  This book particularly is the reason I started a blog. Zamil was bold with his mission statement, but it was simple. 'I am determined to deliver an edition that surpasses the wildest expectations'. It set my juices flowing and I thought it would be fun to write about whether I think Indie Fine Press will ever be a thing, or even if it's already a thing. So that what we'll do, strap in and be ready to pick apart my thoughts as they fall out of my brain onto this laptop. I was also lucky enough to chat with Zamil himself about ...
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