The Yorkshire Book Collector - The Vault

I loved this book. It's everything I want from a coming of age epic fantasy story, and Cameron proves a world can be build without a book being 800 pages. This was an exciting read that was comfortably familiar without feeling like a rehash of another authors work. If you like authors like John Gwynne and Ryan Cahill then you'll like this.

  I picked up Lost Souls for two reasons. I like Halo, and Ryan Skeffington seems like a very nice man. This isn't a book that was on my radar until Ryan reached out to me and offered to send me a copy. I said no because I'm awkward and had never had someone try to give me a book before, but it planted a seed of intrigue and I bought a copy last week. Now for the book. - "I am the messiah of this world, and your reign ends here." - The setting for Lost Souls, I'm sure Ryan won't mind me saying is very heavily influenced by the Halo video games. It's set on a ring in space, there are gravity weapons, Cortana style sentient holograms, ranked matches, spartan (titan) armour, plenty of great stuff for a cool Sci Fi book. That is where the Halo comparisons end and the story comes into its own. The book follows a few different characters but Maximus, Ratchet and Kana are the main three, with Maximus being the ultimate protagonist. The story is essentially your c...

So what would happen if you took Gentleman Bastards, Assassins Creed, Indiana Jones and Cluedo and mixed them all up in a big old book pot. The Silverblood Promise is what happens. You'll interpret that in your own way based on your personal tastes but I personally really enjoyed this book. The plot is interesting with very little in the way of filler or lulls. The world, or at least the city Logan writes within is well imagined and full of life, mystery and as yet unrevealed lore. Yes, as people have mentioned already this book is tropey, Lukan relies heavily on plot armour to escape his many certain death situations and a lot of his good fortune is handed to him in unrealistic ways, if you're the kind of reader who requires your magic and monsters books to be realistic then this isn't for you. If you can accept this book for what it is, which is a fun, well executed story in an interesting world then pick this up and give it a go. A big, big strength for this book is its ...

I want to start this by explaining that I feel like I'm one of the few people reading this book who wasn't aware of Philip Chase or his online presence prior to hearing about is book, and that I picked this book up on the strength of recommendations alone. On doing my research and understanding Chase's prominence in the fantasy community I will admit I was dubious about wether the book would be worth the hype, and almost expected to be let down by the book. Was I let down by the book? Strap in for some more of my incoherent nonsense where I tell you all (a little bit) about it. Two things immediately stood out for me in this book, those being strong characters and a carefully developed world. Each member of the main party has a distinct voice and interesting story, at no point did I find myself disliking a characters ARC or finding bits of story that I thought were filler. The world is vast, well developed and portrayed in a very cinematic way through Chase's writing. A...

4.5/5 - Gunmetal Gods is a very good saga opener that comes with the promise of more to offer. Akhtar does a fantastic job of keeping the reader engaged through an overarching atmosphere of mystery and intrigue, giving just enough away to keep you coming back, but not too much that you can see his plot twists coming. This book based loosely on the religious crusades follows the viewpoints of Kevah, a warrior slave trying to escape his former glory and battlefame and Micah, a religious zealot, famous commander and all round ruthless nutcase as they manoeuvre against each other and their allies to take control of a holy city. Both characters are well written and developed as the story progresses, there's an obvious good and bad going on but both characters could be classed and flawed and morally grey. The supporting cast are also enjoyable and while I didn't invest in them in the same way I did Kevah and Micah, I didn't feel anyone was just written in for the sake of it. The ...

  I'm going to start this by saying the same thing I usually say, I'm not a book reviewer and I'm not here to talk to you about the intricacies and technical aspects of writing a book. What I am is a huge fan of fantasy novels who was lucky enough to be given an ARC of The Ice by Ryan. With that in mind this review will be somewhat 'unconventional' I want to start with a word to Ryan's work as a whole to this stage, I am a huge fan of the world he has created and the stories he has been able to tell within it. I'm loathed to compare Ryan to other authors anymore as he has done more than enough to stand on his own two feet as a powerhouse of the genre but I will say that if The Faithful and The Fallen is your childhood sweetheart, The Bound and The Broken is the person you have an affair with later in life. Now, onto The Ice. The Ice picks up events around three months before we first meet Aeson, Erik and Dahlen in Of Blood and Fire and follows everyone's...

Firstly I would like to thank John Gwynne, The Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for allowing me access to this book so far in advance. I will start by stating my biases. I am an enormous John Gwynne fan, he’s my favourite author of all time and the reason I read and collect books today. That said I do not feel this affects my review of this book in any way. For context, it’s currently 01:45am, I have been reading this book for the past 5 hours and haven’t taken a break between finishing it and writing this review to process anything. I’m just going to talk and see what happens. Big, sweeping declarations out of the way early. This is the best book John Gwynne has ever written, and the best book I have ever read. Malice will always be my favourite book, but this is objectively the best. It is John Gwynne at his finest, there isn’t a single aspect of this book that doesn’t land for me. It’s difficult to talk too much about this book without spoilers but there are a couple of key poi...