Eon, Author at Novel Notions

Book Review: Dawnshard (The Stormlight Archive, #3.5) by Brandon Sanderson

September 21, 2022 Eon Comments 2 comments

Series: The Stormlight Archive (Book 3.5 of 10)

Genre: Epic fantasy, high fantasy

Published: 5 November 2020 by Dragonsteel Entertainment

Dawnshard is another illuminating and beautifully crafted piece in the Cosmere puzzle.

Every time a new Stormlight Archive story gets released my excitement goes through the roof. There is no reading I enjoy more, and I am so thankful that I am lucky enough to be able to regularly read new Cosmere stories. You keep them coming please, Brandon, and we will keep on reading them.

Dawnshard is a novella, and as such shorter than your average SA book, but it’s still longer than Brandon planned and comes in at about 200 pages. Let me tell you though, I read this in the blink of an eye. All my favourite authors have that talent to make time disappear, but none more so than Brandon Sanderson and it’s almost sad (not really), because while Brandon continuously over delivers, I can never seem to get enough. Dawnshard is no different. Slotting into the spot between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, it bridges the gap between those two books with a story that focuses on an expedition to the mythical island of Akinah (Many fans will know that this mysterious place is exciting for a bunch of reasons).
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Book Review: Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy, #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett

July 8, 2022 Eon Comments 4 comments

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Founders Trilogy (Book #1 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Urban High Fantasy, Science Fiction

Pages: 512 pages (Hardcover)

Published: 1st August 2018 by Crown (US) & Jo Fletcher (UK)

Thrillingly fun and highly imaginative, Foundryside is one of the most promising starts to a series I have read.

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Book Review: Call of the Bone Ships (The Tide Child, #2) by R.J. Barker

November 19, 2021 Eon Comments 1 comment

The Bone Ships by by R.J. Barker

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.

Series: The Tide Child (Book 2 of 3)

Genre: High-fantasy

Published: November 24, 2020 by Orbit (UK & US)

A superb sequel that elevates the series.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of RJ Barker’s Wounded Kingdom series, and when I recently reread the first book in the Tide Child trilogy I was once again reminded how much I love his stories and I kept on thinking about the story and the characters long after that reread. So when the time came around for myself, TS and Petrik to resume our buddy read with the Call of the Bone Ships I was more than excited to plunge into this world again and I was overjoyed to find that it was every bit as good as I’d hoped.

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Book Review: Reaper (Cradle, #10) by Will Wight

November 10, 2021 Eon Comments 0 Comment

Reaper

Cover art illustration by: Patrick Foster

Bloodline by Will Wight

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Cradle (Book #10 of 12)

Genre: Fantasy, Progression Fantasy, Xianxia

Pages: 465 pages

Published: 2nd November 2021 by Hidden Gnome Publishing (Indie)

Will Wight keeps on upping his game; Reaper is the best book of this series so far for me and delivers one hell of a payoff!

You would think that the tenth book in a not yet completed series might be prone to losing some steam, and in many cases, you might be right. Regarding Reaper, the book that takes the Cradle series into double digits, you would be wrong. This is of course only my opinion and is greatly influenced by the spotlight being shone on my favourite character throughout, but that is just one aspect of the story. What makes this better than any other for me, is how much the story focuses on teamwork, and just like this plot, Wight has made all the different parts work together to result in what I believe to be the strongest Cradle entry to date and also the most revelatory.

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Book Review: The Bone Ships (The Tide Child, #1) by R.J. Barker

October 29, 2021 Eon Comments 2 comments

The Bone Ships by by R.J. Barker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Series: The Tide Child (Book 1 of 3)

Genre: High-fantasy

Published: September 26th, 2019 by Orbit (UK) & September 24th, 2019 by Orbit (US)

Audacious storytelling, with an original, captivating world.

RJ Barker wrote one of my favourite fantasy series of all time, The Wounded Kingdom trilogy. So, when I heard that he was writing a brand-new series called The Tide Child trilogy, I was excited. And by excited, I mean I might have shouted about it to one or two, or seventy random people. I am a huge fan. That said, on my first read I struggled with the start of this book and that influenced my initial rating quite a bit. I still thought this was a very good book in the end, but felt it took slightly long to get there. On rereading this though, I was pleasantly surprised by having an absolute blast of a time and I am happy to say that I misjudged this book a bit.

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Cover Reveal: Nectar for the God (Mennik Thorn #2) by Patrick Samphire

August 27, 2021 Eon Comments 0 Comment

Hi everyone! Eon from Novel Notions here.

Today we are honoured to be able to do the beautiful cover reveal of Nectar for the God by Patrick Samphire. This book is the sequel to Shadow of a Dead God which was one of my favourite reads of 2020, a delightful page-turner of a story featuring a down-on-his-luck, heart of gold, scrappy mage protagonist. And it’s funny as hell.

The first book in the series intitally had a cover made by Patrick himself, and he did an excellent job of it, but he then decide to update it and asked Ömer Burak Önal to design a new cover which turned out to be a showstopper. It’s no surprise then that he asked Ömer to also design the artwork for the sequel after that magnificent previous effort. So, without further delay, here it is, the cover reveal of Nectar for the God!

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Book review: Spellslinger (Spellslinger, #1) by Sebastien de Castell

July 15, 2021 Eon Comments 0 Comment

Cover art illustrated by: Dale Halvorsen
Interior card art illustrated by Sam Hadley

Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Spellslinger (Book #1 of 6)

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 416 pages (Hardcover edition)

Published: 4th May 2017 by Hot Key Books

Spellslinger is a highly entertaining and engrossing start to this hexalogy.

Normally when I see a promising sounding book and notice that it is YA, I immediately lower my expectations for it as I have not always had the best experience with the genre. That has steadily changed over the last few years though, as more and more YA books have surprised me. When Spellslinger quietly showed up on my radar, though, I had no such reservations. I love Sebastien de Castell’s writing that much and will give him the benefit of the doubt any day of the week, and I am thrilled to say that it did not betray my trust in the least.

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Cover Reveal: Unbound (Songs of Chaos #2) by Michael R. Miller

July 7, 2021 Eon Comments 0 Comment

Hi everyone! Petrik and Eon from Novel Notions here.

We’re honored to once again welcome Michael Miller to our blog. When Michael was last here, it was for the cover reveal of his Dragon’s Blade Trilogy. This time around it’s for the cover reveal of Unbound, the sequel to his best selling Ascendant. If you are unfamiliar with this series, The Songs of Chaos is a dragon rider epic that takes inspiration from such celebrated works as Eragon and Pern. In Michael’s own words “It’s about a serving boy who defies society to save a blind dragon from death and rises to become a dragon rider. A bit of cultivation/progression magic is sprinkled into this one.” Sounds bloody awesome if you ask us!

Right, no more tarrying, behold the cover!

Cover art by Randy Vargas

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Read-a-long for Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness Trilogy (A Little Hatred, Chapters 10-18)

June 28, 2021 Eon Comments 3 comments

Hi everyone,

Petrik and Eon here, we’ll keep this introduction brief. We’re so excited that we get to be the second-in-line to host the read-along event for A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie. It’s truly an honor for both of us to be given this opportunity, especially because Joe Abercrombie’s books are some of our favorite books of all time. Today, we’ll be discussing Chapter 10-18 of A Little Hatred. There will be heavy spoilers for these chapters, so if you haven’t read the book, please go read them first! …

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Book review: The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga #1) by John Gwynne

March 24, 2021 Eon Comments 4 comments

ARC provided by the publisher—Orbit—in exchange for an honest review.

Cover art illustrated by: Marcus Whinney

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Bloodsworn Saga (Book #1 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy

Pages: 496 pages (Hardcover edition)

Published: 6th May 2021 by Orbit (UK) and 4th May 2021 by Orbit (US)

The Shadow of the Gods is the new benchmark in Norse mythology-inspired stories. This is the fantasy I’ve been waiting for.

In all honesty, this book had as good a chance as possible of becoming a favourite of mine, for I am without a doubt an ardent reader and supporter of John Gwynne and his books, having read and loved all of his previous works. Both The Faithful and the Fallen and Of Blood and Bone are masterpieces in my estimation and occupy treasured spaces on my shelf and within my heart. Nevertheless, no book is a certain thing as writers are only human beings, but I could not contain my excitement when I read that this latest venture of Mr Gwynne was another epic fantasy story, this time with Norse ink in its veins. I believe that mythologies always appeal to a wide fan base, with Norse and Greek, in particular, being personal favourites. And while I am nowhere near well-read on the subjects, I squeed like any fan worthy of the title at the idea of a favourite author shaping a story from the fertile ground that is the Norse culture. On such a foundation The Shadow of the Gods had much to live up to and I tried to curtail my hopes a little. There was no need though. At the end of this story, I was once again in awe at witnessing a master completely comfortable in executing an epically captivating and exciting tale.

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