science fiction

Monster Hunter International

Our heroes are much abused as they go about there business. Government overview and Government competition cause them more hurt than the monsters. As our hero to be throws his boss out of the thirteenth floor window we know something is wrong here. If you enjoy a tale that is mindlessly entertaining, a heavily action based urban fantasy, with an accountant who is built like an outhouse and talented fighter and shootist then this is the book for you.

Two Welcomes, One to China and one to Gail Z Martin

All our metrics show that we are most popular in China. Wow. I hope we can improve and be worthy of their interest. The other welcome is to Gail Z Martin whose books I have long admired. Her latest books are already available on the Amazon Kindle and by the time you read this they will be available in print.

The Sworn has a typical Martin dark opening as plague and famine scourge the Winter Kingdoms, a vast invasion force is mustering from beyond the Northern Sea.

At its heart, a dark spirit mage wields the blood magic of ancient, vanquished gods. Summoner-King Martris Drayke must attempt to meet this threat. Neighbouring countrys reel toward anarchy while plague decimates their leaders.

Drayke must seek new allies from among the living – and the dead – as an untested generation of rulers face their first battle. All fine so far but then someone disturbs the legendary Dread as they rest in a millennia-long slumber beneath sacred barrows.

Their warrior guardians, the Sworn, know the Dread could be pivotal as a force for great good or evil. But if it’s the latter, could even the Summoner-King’s sorcery prevail?

Well I’m about half way thru at the moment and things look definately difficult dark dank and dodgy to me!

The Sworn

The Dread
To finish of this Fallen Kings duology ( an exuberant adventure of swordsmanship, sorcery and a new terror threatening a kingdom in crisis). Our Hero King Tris Drayke takes what remains of the Margolan army north to fight a war Margolan is ill-prepared to fight.

As spies confirm Tris’ worst fear a new threat rises across the sea: a dark summoner who intends to make the most of the Winter Kingdoms’ weakness.

In Isencroft, King Donelan is assassinated and Tris’s wife, Kiara, his daughter, will now have no choice except to return and claim the crown. The rogue mage’s agents will go to any length to prevent her from reaching her goal.

Despite all this Kiara and Tris must discover the truth behind the dark summoner, the mysterious power surrounding their infant son, and face the awesome power of the Dread as they rise from their barrows for the first time in over a millennium.

The Dread

Last Argument of Kings – Joe Abercrombie

Last Argument of Kings

” Last Argument Of Kings: The First Law: Book Three:” as Amazon refers to it is not the end of our journey with Joe Abercrombie I’m already halfway thru Best Served Cold but more of that at a later date.

Last Argument Of Kings is difficult to review without giving away too much of what could be described as an apocalyptic ending.

An author should always end with the best and with Last Argument of Kings this theory is put into practice. The last of Joe Abercrombie’s debut fantasy collection, The First Law, demonstrates everything a finale should: gives some answers, and ties together the loose ends from a variety of plots. This series was always a swords and some small sorcerytale that used a wry dialogue with interleafed plotlines. Its not a comedy there is a large amount of tounge in cheek humour.

Its probably worthwile plagarising a paragraph from Colin P Linsey who puts it rather well:

“I’d hazard a guess though that there will be some readers who may not like how this series ended…because it isn’t necessarily pretty and it certainly isn’t a fairy tale ending. Unlike those tidier fantasy stories, Abercrombie doesn’t forget that battlefield corpses don’t just magically disappear and besieged cities aren’t magically made whole at the end of the day. His is a dirty, gritty world every bit as nasty as medieval Europe and the story and the endings reflect this adherence to realism. As Logen Nine-Fingers often says, you have to be realistic. Abercrombie definitely is realistic and the story reflects it. Wounds come at the price of disfigurement and death, people will do awful things to accomplish their goals, and people aren’t charitably motivated. The weak get squashed, soldiers get maimed, the powerful do horrendous evil to hang onto their power and the more things change, the more they stay the same. You have to be realistic about these things dear reader, and that realism is what sets this trilogy apart and makes it such a great read. ”

So last its over. The dead are dead and most of the living seem so. The rich are rich and the poor are er… poor. It remind me of tales of medieval England during the times of the 100yr war. My verdict thirteen out of ten. Not at all what I expected and after all my years this takes some doing. Well done Joe Abercrombie long may you entertain me!

Philip

Harry Potter scavenger hunt?

kfriedlander3 asked:

I am doing a Harry Potter party thing with my library the day before and the day of Harry Potter 7 comes out. I just completed a scavenger hunt required for it and I’m at the final word which must be unscrambled using letters from other words I “scavenged”. The scavenged words are all correct. The word (two words, rather) that must be unscrambled are “CAPUT DRACONIS”. It is obvious something pertaining to Harry Potter, and I must assume all the letters can be moved around to anywhere. I would appreciate SERIOUS answers. Avid Potter fans, I need you now! (Ok that was corny but oh well)
Yes it’s a two letter phrase.
The first word is 5 letters, second is 8 letters

Harry Potter Clues?

lillie!! asked:

in the last harry potter book, the deathly hallows, does harry or voldemrt die? i know one of them does…

David Farland – Brotherhood of the Wolf (Volume Two of the Runelords)

David Farland’s “Runelords” fantasy sequence began in 1998 with The Sum of All Men, a career-relaunch novel whose sales far outstripped earlier SF published under his real name Dave Wolverton. Runelords are supermen whose strength, stamina, vision, etc. are multiplied by magical “endowments” transferred from unfortunate donors who are crippled by their loss: the arch-villain is virtually invincible thanks to tens of thousands of endowments. This second book avoids middle-volume doldrums by introducing a vast onslaught of still tougher and memorably unpleasant non-humans which even the villains must oppose. Meanwhile various characters skirmish in different parts of the map, and the hero struggles with unreliable powers conferred on him when he was chosen as Earth King to save the land and humanity–or maybe only a tiny part of each.

Farland maintains a steady flow of new situations, reversals, gambits and surprises…it’s a real shock when one chap who has incurred a dreadful penalty for virtuous reasons is not spared (as expected in the normal chivalry of fantasyland) but pays the full, eye-watering price. One small criticism: the writing contains occasional sloppiness and repetition that a copyeditor should have removed. It’s still a rousing, painfully gripping story. –David Langford

David Farland Brotherhood of the Wolf (Runelords)

science fiction

Monster Hunter International

Two Welcomes, One to China and one to Gail Z Martin

Related Reading:

Last Argument of Kings – Joe Abercrombie

Last Argument of Kings

Related Reading:

Harry Potter scavenger hunt?

Related Reading:

Harry Potter Clues?

Related Reading:

David Farland – Brotherhood of the Wolf (Volume Two of the Runelords)

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