Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Rebel of the Sands first caught my attention because of its gorgeous cover. I think I added it to my list pretty quickly. Then it was nominated in the Goodreads Book of the Year 2016, and I voted for it
Daemon has been hanging around near the top of my TBR for years. Poor Doug Dandridge has had to wait over 5 years for me to review his book, and I bet I got it in an offer of some
The Company of Eight was a book I requested on Net-Galley, so I thank them and the publishers for allowing me a review copy. As usual, my review is my honest opinion of the book. The Company of Eight Harriet
Equus was a book I received from LibraryThing, as part of their first reads initiative. It is nothing to do with Equus the play. But it is Latin for ‘horse’. Equus Ed. by Rhonda Parrish There’s always something magical about
We Never Heard Them Coming is a type of Random Title or Must Include flash fiction offering. Chuck Wendig has been collecting titles, first sentences and last sentences from his readers, ten of each. Now’s the time to select from
MG or not MG – a question that came up recently for two books intended for tweens and young teens. Okay, the older end of MG, but still. We often discuss what makes a book suitable for ‘middle grade’ readers
The Camelot Kids is Ben Zackheim’s second series, or at least I think so. He started publishing it after the Shirley Link series, and I’ve already reviewed a few of those. I read Part 1 of the Camelot Kids without realising
Oy Yew is a book I got as a result of the Read 4 Review programme on Goodreads groups. Ana is a member of the Good Middle Grade Reads Group; I took up the offer of a free ebook March last
Sea by Sarah Driver, is the first in a new series, to be published on April 7th. Apart from the magnificent cover, I also liked the blurb, and jumped at the chance of an ARC from Net-Galley. In retrospect, I think
“A monster that has never been seen or imagined by anyone before.” I doubt whether such a one exists, in truth, but that was the gist of Chuck Wendig’s challenge this week. And last week I left our hapless colour-blind
The Ranger’s Tale emerges from last week’s flash fiction coupled with the original story Too Much of a Good Thing. Chuck Wendig gave us a prompt to choose one of two well-known sayings (well, one was well-known, the other its cause and effect opposite).
The Road to Erebor from David Colombo Photography is a random Flickr photo that I picked in response to this week’s Chuck Wendig prompt. I’m grateful to the photographer for such a moody, intense subject! Today’s flash fiction is just over 1100 words; it
The Time Travellers Resort and Museum was an early reviewers book that I got via Library Thing, and as such I believe it to be a published version, not an ARC. If I’m wrong, I apologise to the author and the
Pair Alleles is book 4 in the wonderfully mind-bending Derivatives of Displacement series by Jennifer Ellis. We follow twins Abbey and Caleb, who are both ‘gifted’ – Abbey starts the series at around age 12 studying with the 16-18 year old
I raced through a few books at the end of the year (well, I didn’t race through all of them) that I didn’t get time to review, and which for various reasons I don’t feel like giving a full review
This went on my TBR list as soon as I heard of it, and I picked up a library copy the same day I picked up the Screaming Staircase (which I’m reviewing first Saturday in January). I wasn’t disappointed! The
This is the second in the Zoe & Zak series, which I have as a box set of the first three books, having read the third one first Zoe and Zak and the Tiger Temple, and the first one a
The Blurb Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can “read” fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service. Characters from books literally
I won this book during the Realms-Faire last year, and read it in the summer. Sorry to have taken so long to get around to the review, but here it is now. The Vanished Knight (The War of Six Crowns
A double review today, two Middle Grade books, very different in style, which is an interesting thought about the difference between current expectations and those of the 1960s, which are, after all, fifty years ago. The Phantom Tollbooth By Norton
Welcome, everybody, to my Challenge for the Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon 2016. First off, I’m going to explain about my series, then I’ll set you a Challenge, and then there’s the giveaway. The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett
These were Great Middle Grade Reads books of the month for June, and July/August. The first was nominated as a potential ‘future classic’, and which it may be, but I’m not sure, and the second was nominated as a series read… and
It seems to be a long time since I last wrote a Sir Woebegone story. In fact the last one was in February. He’s another who started as a minor character, this time The Empress and the Peanut, and then
These were two middle grade books I read during my Clean Sweep Challenge in May, and they couldn’t be more different. Up, Up, and Away: Advice and Adventures from the Future Authors and Astronauts of Farnsworth Aerospace The lengthy title
Windemere: A place of magic, of dragons, of evil beasts that live under the earth and rise up to snare the unwary, of desolate wastelands, and green fields and forests. A good place for my W post in my world-building