Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Age of Swords is a great sequel in developing the characters that I’ve grown to love in Age of Myth.
I could appreciate why the author named this as his favourite book of the series, even at this early stage. Every author should be fond of the characters that they have created, and writing that one book that brought most growth had to be the most fulfilling.
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The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
The Rage of Dragons is a blazing African-inspired epic fantasy debut that was so possessive of my attention, it simply wouldn’t allow me to read anything else until I finished it.
This book was originally self-published and released in September 2017. Honestly speaking, I have seen and known about this book since then but the book wasn’t able to move up the monstrosity that is my TBR tower for some reason. However, its acquisition by Orbit, which resulted in a brand new gorgeous cover art done by the ingenious Karla Ortiz, is a total cover seller—look at the Zulu shield and the intricately apt mural in the cover!—that practically screamed “Buy and read me now” to me, and so that’s what I did.
“I’d rather live with a thing done poorly than do nothing and always wonder how things could have been.”
ARC provided by the publisher—Ace—in exchange for an honest review.
Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Holy Sister is an incredibly powerful and satisfying conclusion to one of the best trilogy I’ve ever read.
I won’t lie, a week ago I started rereading Red Sister mostly for the purpose of satisfying my completionist nature and eventually putting Book of the Ancestor into my “completed series I’ve read” list. However, the incredible of rereading Red Sister made me incoherently excited to continue with the series and here I am now. I have binged read and reviewed the entire series within a week, and I can say with confidence that this series has become one of my favorite coming-of-age fantasy series of all time. …
14 by Peter Clines
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
A fascinating and engaging genre-bending novel with excellent characterisation, elevated by the narrator’s superb voice-acting.
14. Firstly, the number, when spoken in Chinese sounds like “will/must die”. Due to this superstition, there are numerous buildings in my part of the world which do not use this number. You will instead get Level 13a or Unit 13a in place of 14, and sometimes even a jump from 13 to 15. I started the book with this notion at the back of my head. And all I knew about the story then was that the building was strange and mysterious. A potent and thrilling combination, and yet I was still pleasantly surprised with the direction the story took.
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Ghostwater by Will Wight
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Ghostwater is a worthy winner of the Reddit r/Fantasy 2018 Stabby Awards for Best Independent Book; I am now a huge fan of the Cradle series.
The author kept on surprising me with his inexhaustible imagination and the ever-increasing, mind-blowing, magnitude of magical and martial power in this series. All without ever making me think that it was ridiculous. Well, okay, it was – just ridiculously fun and exciting, that is.
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Carrie by Stephen King
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
In a sense, Carrie is the book that launched a thousand nightmares. This was King’s first ever novel and, while not his scariest, we would have never been exposed to the tales that have terrified millions without it. I feel that Carrie deserves respect for that reason alone, but I confess that I was hesitant to pick it up. Often, when you find an author you love later in their career, going back to their first published forays into their craft can be a bit disappointing as their writing abilities have improved or at least changed over the course of that career. I needn’t have worried. Every page completely entranced me, and I was engaged through the very last page. …
Skysworn by Will Wight
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Holy moly, this series was seriously fun and addictive!
I was initially planning to read an ARC for a soon-to-be-released book, but temptation drew me to start Skysworn instead, which I duly finished in just over a day. Verdict: Will Wight has a new fan.
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A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
A Clash of Kings was a brilliant sequel that brought the spotlight of the series to one of the most well-written characters in fantasy: Tyrion Lannister.
A Clash of Kings is the second book in A Song of Ice and Fire saga by George R. R. Martin. The main story in this sequel mainly revolves around the multiple kings of Westeros battling in full force for the right to sit in the Iron Throne. This, however, is just scratching the surface of the story. Martin built upon everything he has established in the first wonderfully and with that, the scale of the story has become much bigger than before that I found it quite a difficult task to review this tome without spoiling anything, but spoiler-free review as always it is. Just like my review on A Game of Thrones, I’ll be doing some qualities comparison between the book and its TV series (Season 2) adaptation.
Picture: A Clash of Kings by Marc Simonetti
ARC provided by the publisher, Orbit, in exchange for an honest review.
The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
A truly extraordinary debut, The Gutter Prayer strikes an intense chord with its powerful worldbuilding, vivid imagery and evocative prose.
Two things about this book caught my attention. Firstly, the blurb which indicated that the main characters were three thieves (I have such a weakness for stories with thieves). And then, my co-blogger’s review which raved about the dark worldbuilding. Alright! I’ll admit that the gorgeous cover also played some part in this.
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ARC received from the publisher, Gollancz, in exchange for an honest review.
Master of Sorrows by Justin Call
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Master of Sorrows was a remarkable debut which I simply cannot put down.
This book recalled so much about what I loved about classic epic fantasy and yet felt modern. The author has quoted David Eddings as his earliest favourite. Having read and loved Eddings’ works myself, I can definitely see the influences from The Belgariad in this book; a prophecy, Gods and a coming-of-age tale of a young man destined for greatness. Except, in this case, that greatness may lie in the path of darkness instead of light.
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