Guest Blog: Spinning A Good Yarn Again, by Damaris Browne

Back in 2019 I was lucky enough to be involved in the publishing of Distaff, which went where no woman had gone before by being not only among the first SF anthology featuring all new stories by women and women alone – indeed, perhaps the very first of this elite band – but which was moreover wholly devised, organised, written, edited and produced by women.  From concept and cover, through editing and formatting, to the launch eats and promotional designs, it was women all the way.

Which was where the title came in, since a distaff is the rod on which raw fibres were traditionally wound prior to spinning, a task invariably carried out by women, and as a result “distaff” came to signify women’s work and their sphere of influence.  And in our view, SF – both the reading and writing of it – was also women’s work as much as it was men’s, and despite decades of female-written SF, it still needed to be further influenced by women and their ideas, concepts and concerns.

But Distaff wasn’t simply trailblazing, it was also award-nominated, with five of its stories, as well as its cover, being longlisted in the British Science Fiction Association Awards, and one story went on to win a coveted place in the 2019 Best of British SF anthology.

Crowned with that success, in early 2020 we decided to spin a few yarns again.  

 

At any time, putting together an anthology with several participants is frustrating and rewarding in equal measure, but with the myriad complications arising from the Covid Years, the many-skeined frustrations multiplied.  Yet the power of women lies in our endurance, and we’ve threaded our way past all the hitches with our material finished at last.

 

The stories we’ve woven this time are fantasy, not SF, but Femmes Fae-Tales is again a work wholly devised and created by women and non-binary writers and artists.

As our punning title suggests, the main characters of our stories are also women, but it is we who are the femmes fatales, spinning stories alive with allure and danger.  The warp and weft knitting together the full cloth of the anthology are strands of peril and enchantment – of magic, of power and of the fascinating, bewitching fae themselves.

Entwined among the tales of glamour, charm, temptation and seduction are stories of loss – lost children, lost minds, lost hope, lost integrity, lost pasts – and also of discovery, not least of ancient magicians and ensorcelled amphibians!

But above all we’ve been weaving stories of love and atonement and redemption – of regaining what was lost, of learning from past mistakes, of redemptive sacrifice, of finding one’s true self, of returning to truth and rejecting false promises.  The very fabric of women’s lives throughout the ages.

The Distaff women are spinning tales once again with Femmes Fae-Tales.  But as before, although they’re written by women, they’re not only for women – they’re for anyone who loves a good yarn!

Femmes Fae-Tales – by women, about women, for everyone

Link to buy on Amazon

Review: Chronicles of the Black Company, by Glen Cook

 

Chronicles of the Black Company is an anthology of the first three books in the series (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose).

While Croaker, the Annalist and physician of the Company, is the first person POV we also have a handful of other significant POV characters that work well to flesh out the world and creative narrative intrigue (in one book the main POVs are separate but then converge, for example).

The Black Company is a notorious/renowned group of mercenaries who find themselves in a contract with the Lady, a resurrected tyrant aided by powerful sorcerers known as the Taken. While there are rebels, seeking the reborn White Rose (who first put down the Lady and her still slumbering husband), there’s a clear sense they’re not especially virtuous. More a case of two dark grey factions rather than black and white.

Although it took me a while to finally get around to the third book (I own the first two as individual copies too) I’m glad I did. The first book is grim without being explicit, and the second has one of the finest characters arcs I’ve ever read with Marrow Shed. The third is full of a looming sense of dread, heightened by the fact I had no idea if the ‘good guys’ would win, and whether the later books followed the Black Company in the past.

Lots of fantasy focuses on magic, and while this is present in the world it takes a back seat to the importance of pragmatism and the sometimes unpleasant truth that the smartest move can also be the bloodiest. Plenty of factional infighting adds an extra layer to the battle between the Lady and the rebels, and an extra threat to the Company as they get caught in the middle of squabbling Taken.

I’m being deliberately vague on plot matters due to the three-book nature of this review, but suffice to say each book rises to a fitting crescendo. The writing style is concise and doesn’t bother with excess embellishment, flim-flam, or falling into the trap of endlessly describing a fantasy world instead of getting on with the plot and character development. I’m already 74 pages into the next book.

 

Thaddeus

 

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, by Tad Williams

 

Just finished re-reading, for the first time in about two decades, the whole four volumes of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, which comes in at over 3,000 pages.

It’s a classic old school fantasy and, while a little annoying because I was looking to clear shelf space and am definitely not throwing this out, it was just as good as I remember.

The author does takes his time, particularly early on, but for the most part this works perfectly well and can heighten the drama when the pace picks up. The world and history is interesting and interesting twists and characters, as well as original ideas, make this a highly engaging and enjoyable series.

NB at the time of writing, Amazon has a Kindle discount for the whole thing for just £2.99.

Thaddeus

Review: Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive book 4), by Brandon Sanderson.

This one took me a while to read because it’s quite hefty at over 1,200 pages. Returning to the world of Roshar, there are spoilers aplenty for preceding books in this review. So, beyond the cover below this paragraph, be aware of that.

 

We find war ongoing between the coalition of countries/leaders, led by Dalinar (master of the ancient tower of Urithiru), and the immortal (but also partly insane) Fused, led by the domineering god Odium.

The enemy is no fool, and has a number of intelligent leaders who aim to use a combination of treachery and sly, bold manoeuvres to rob the Urithiru alliance of their single greatest asset.

Advancing technology in a fictional world, particularly one with a developed magic system, is an interesting part of the story, and from the flying ship to certain other innovations, they add to the plot in a credible way, mingling magic and science.

There’s quite a lot in the way of mental health as a major theme, with addiction (Teft), being ground down (Kaladin), and what feels to me like the dulled, almost drug-like state of functional existence of Moash (we spend a lot less time with him). Perhaps most of all, the multiple personalities of Shallan. By and large it does fit in with the world and story, although there are parts where it feels Kaladin’s situation gets too much word count, which slows the pace.

However, I should stress this is very much not a problem in the last couple of hundred pages where there’s an excellent sense of crescendo building as the various plot points come to a head and leave them very nicely poised for the next instalment.

I also very much enjoyed (again) Taravangian, the elderly man who can vary from Machiavellian ruthless genius to eminently likeable yet pathetically ineffectual. In addition, portraying the enemy not as uniformly evil or mindless villains helps to make both the storylines more complicated and the world/plot more credible.

The Stormlight Archive is one of a few fantasy series I have on the go, and I’m looking forward to the next part.

Thaddeus

Deadly Games (Emperor’s Edge Book 3), by Lindsay Buroker

The previous entries in this series have been reviewed here for book 1, and here for book 2. There may well be spoilers for earlier instalments within this review.

Amaranthe and the assorted members of the Emperor’s Edge (think steampunk A-Team) return just as the fictional equivalent of the Olympics are being held. But athletes are going missing, and nobody knows why. The Emperor’s Edge sets about investigating, only for a couple of their most capable warriors to captured, leaving Amaranthe and the rest to try and work out where they are and how to save them.

The side-plot is trying to get a newspaper editor on-side to get some good PR to counteract the widely held but false perception of the group as terrorist, violent nutcases.

One thing I like about this series is the character development, which falls into neither the trap of becoming stale nor into overly rapid/inconsistent changes. The people do change in a natural, credible way, and while each individual adventure is largely self-contained, the underlying group dynamics evolve along the way (reminds me a little of Tales of the Ketty Jay, by Chris Wooding, in that regard).

Similarly, the tone remains as before, adventurous and occasionally a little serious without straying into grimdark. It’s a really easy read, a rollicking tale of good versus evil, with occasional moral ambiguity and genuine tensions between mercenaries. And the ending is very good as well.

In short, if you liked the first two entries in the series, the third book will also be right up your street. 

Thaddeus

Review: Dark Currents (Emperor’s Edge Book 2), by Lindsay Buroker

It’s been quite a while since I read the first Emperor’s Edge book, an engaging read in a more technologically advanced setting than I usually go for (think steampunk). Naturally, spoilers for that are contained in this review so if you want to avoid those, stop reading now. My review of the previous entry in this series is here.

At the start of the book Amaranthe, a former cop, has assembled what amounts to a steampunk A-Team, and is intent on clearing their names (including that of Sicarius, the taciturn assassin). Aided by a preening peacock, a learned bookworm, a foreign mute, and a delinquent novice mage, Amaranthe and her assorted ne’er-do-wells have been attempting to find problems to solve to get into the Emperor’s good books (hence their collective name, the Emperor’s Edge). When a corpse gets washed up the trail leads the Edge into an alarming conspiracy regarding the city’s water sources and magical constructs. Tensions continue to rise between the misfits as Amaranthe does her best to balance a group whose primary unifying characteristic is having bounties on their heads.

The characterization is excellent and fun, and the pace is handled very nicely, never feeling sluggish without straying into over-the-top needy constant action. It had been a while since I read the first book so it did take me a little while to recall who was who beyond Amaranthe and Sicarius, but this was a fun and engaging read and I’m looking forward to part three.

Incidentally, you can get the Emperor’s Edge Collection, which is the first three e-books, and is very good value.

Thaddeus

Review: NPCs, by Drew Hayes

Turns out reading multiple books at once can lead to a brief glut of reviews.

NPCs is a fun and engaging fantasy with an emphasis on light-hearted adventure and a wry look at tabletop gaming. For the most part it’s a traditional fantasy set in an RPG type world, and you don’t need to be an aficionado of D&D or Pathfinder or Critter to easily get the references.

We follow our not-so-heroic quartet of adventurers Grumph the half-orc, Gabrielle the human, Thistle the gnome, and Eric (also human). Together, to protect their hometown, they pick up the mantle of an unfinished quest when four foolish fellows accidentally combine forest foraging and booze and manage to kill themselves with ignorance.  Unfortunately, this entails highly probable death, and trying to get to grips (as NPCs) with how this adventuring business actually works.

Along the way they encounter a variety of foes and challenges, and the pace manages to tick along nicely without becoming frantic and breathless. There’s a nice sense of irony and amusement, and it’s a relaxing read. I often found myself reading more than intended, and given my reading speed can be somewhat glacial now this was a very good thing.

The beginning was interesting, the middle was fun, and while I won’t spoil anything of the ending I did like that as well.

It’s also worth noting this is the first in a series. I do plan on reading the rest later, but as the Deathgate Cycle will attest (minimum of 16 year gap between first and second instalments) it may take me a while with my current reading list.

NPCs gets a recommendation from me.

Thaddeus

Guest Blog: Anthologising – Not Just Spinning A Line, by Damaris Browne

I’m getting excited. On 15^th August the SF anthology Distaff is released – which makes it sound like a long-term prisoner finally getting out of jail, but I’m pretty sure that’s just coincidence. (Though do insert here your own puns about both being penned, and the price of the anthology making it a complete steal.) Then on 23^rd August there’s the formal launch. And that makes it sound like an ocean-going liner which needs to be sped on its way with a magnum of champagne, though since the launch is taking place at Titancon in Belfast, it’s perhaps more likely to be floated on a sea of Bushmills and Guinness.

Why the excitement? It’s not simply because my story The Colour of Silence is included, though if you want to read about a ship being launched – albeit without champagne or Guinness – there it is. It’s because the anthology is something of a rarity. An all-new (no reprints) all-SF (no fantasy) all-female (yep, no stories from men) anthology, and – which surely makes it unique – wholly devised, organised, written, edited and produced by women. From concept to cover, through beta-reading, formatting, and beyond to the launch eats and promotional give-aways, it’s women all the way.

Which is where the title comes in. For a distaff is the rod on which raw fibres are wound prior to spinning, a task which was invariably carried out by women, and women were often buried with their distaffs in the same way a man might be buried with the tools of his trade or his sword. As a result “distaff” also came to signify women’s work and their sphere of influence. And if in the past it also carried the weight of male condescension and a whiff of insult – when the church was drumming up support for the Third Crusade, those men who didn’t take up the cross were given distaffs and wool, the implication being they might as well be women and sit at home spinning – well, SF hasn’t exactly been free of that scorn for women, their worth and their writing, so we’re taking back control of that narrative, too.

With our Distaff, we’re spinning tales rather than wool or flax. And those tales cover the full cloth of Science Fiction, for we might be women but we haven’t written just for women – the stories are for everyone who likes a good yarn. (See what I did there?)

Past mistakes, present concerns, future prospects – these are the threads which wind through the anthology, making one whole from nine very different tales. Stories set on Earth, on spaceships, on orbitals and on alien planets. And if you want alien creatures we have friendly aliens, curious aliens, rocky aliens and mutant-humans more alien than all the others.

In this nine-ply skein there are twists of all kinds, with aspects of comedy, horror, romance, tragedy and everything in between. We have Nordic police and Nordic myth, environmental messages and examinations of grief, icy inventors, lovelorn ships, planet-saving AIs, rainbow ponies, staring chickens, plagues and immortality, guilt and nowhere-near-enough guilt, clever children and dead children, art and actors, a degraded Earth and an Earth being reborn.

Above all we’ve spun stories full of hope, determination, resilience and love. What more could any SF lover – male, female, both, neither, Earthling or otherwise – want?

Come on. Pick up a Distaff and take a spin with us!

Links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK 

Distaff website

Damaris

Review: Blood of Elves, by Andrzej Sapkowski

I really need to stop buying these books. I just don’t have any shelf space.

Which is a shame, because I enjoyed The Last Wish, and Sword of Destiny, but Blood of Elves felt quite a bit better.

We return to Sapkowski’s grim fantasy land, full of monsters and scheming, witchers and wizards. Once again the approach is of short stories with differing focal characters, but this time there’s a more central theme, revolving around a certain young girl.

The variety of stories is really interesting, ranging from lords contemplating ‘affairs of state’ and grand wars, to a bard who finds himself in a spot of bother. And, of course, we encounter everyone’s favourite witcher. All of the tales, however, hang together to tell a larger underlying story which is more than the sum of its parts. The differing styles also helps to make the world feel fleshed out and immersive, adding depth to the plot and characters alike.

I really enjoyed it. To be honest, I read a lot more slowly than I used to. Limited time and that sort of thing. But I rattled through Blood of Elves far faster than expected. If you liked The Last Wish/Sword of Destiny, you’ll like Blood of Elves even more.

Thaddeus

Review: Flight From The Dark (Lone Wolf book 1), by Joe Dever and Gary Chalk

Disclaimer: I played these books as a child, so my reviews will likely be laced with nostalgia.

Flight From The Dark is the first of dozens of gamebooks that Joe Dever (initially with Gary Chalk, later solo) wrote. For those unaware, a gamebook is approximately halfway between a videogame or tabletop RPG and a book. The reader/player makes decisions to determine how they try and solve problems, win fights, and so on. It’s eminently possible to end up dead and have to restart.

Flight From The Dark is a thinnish volume but has 350 sections. The premise is simple: you are Lone Wolf, a lowly member of the Order of the Kai, hero-warriors who protect the good from the evil of the nearby Darklords. Unfortunately, you’re a slacker and have to miss a celebratory feast to go gather firewood as punishment. This saves your life as the Darklords roll up and kill everyone who attends, wiping out the entire order.

Except for you.

You must flee to Holmgard, the capital, to warn and help the king, evading or fighting the Drakkarim, giaks, kraan, and other monstrous servants of the Darklords.

Character creation is mostly about picking the Kai disciplines you have, everything from healing to animal kinship, psychic defence (or attack) to hunting. Choosing wisely is critical, and getting lucky when you ‘roll’ (you could use a d10 but there’s also a sort of random number generator by way of a grid of numbers at the back, from which you can pick blindly) for combat skill and endurance.

Smart choices also matter. Being heroic sounds good, but I only survived one entirely voluntary encounter by fluking a couple of great combat results. By rights I should’ve been killed. At other times my cunning strategy helped me evade fights that would’ve occurred, if I didn’t have the right skills.

It’s a fun introduction to Lone Wolf, Magnamund (the wider LW world), and gamebooks, and only takes an hour or two after you’ve created your own Lone Wolf.

I discovered shortly after writing the above review that Joe Dever died a few years ago. RIP. His Lone Wolf books were (along with books written by Bernard Cornwell) what I read the most in my early teens. Sad to hear of his passing.

For those interested, there are plenty of second hand paperbacks floating around, and I know he gave his blessing for Project Aon, a website which enables you to play the books for free. There’s also (though I’m unsure of availability) some hardback reprints from a decade or so ago, if you prefer physical books.

Thaddeus

Review: The Hundred Years War, by Alan Lloyd

Written in the 1970s, this book is about 170 pages and covers the entirety of the war. Naturally, that means it has to skimp on detail in places (although the battles are well-described and I did learn some interesting facts I didn’t know previously, such as France’s population at the time being roughly three or four times that of England).

There’s plenty of medieval artwork (although the Henry IV portrait actually isn’t him, according to a much more recent biography of said monarch by Ian Mortimer) and maps, which are clear and helpful, are peppered throughout the pages.

The general ebb and flow of this prolonged contest, which was as much down to who happened to be king of either side as anything that happened on the battlefield, is well-described, and I’m glad the relatively low number of battles was gotten across, as was the development of siege weaponry and varying martial habits (from brutalising the peasantry to trying to win them over through restrained behaviour).

I liked reading the book, though it should be stressed this isn’t an exhaustive account (or, indeed, an attempt at one) so it’s perhaps best as an overview or introduction. Other general books of that nature, with more detail, include Philippe Contamine’s War in the Middle Ages (reviewed here), and Christopher Allmand’s The Hundred Years War (reviewed here).

There’s also Ian Mortimer’s excellent biography of Edward III (The Perfect King, reviewed here), which covers about half the conflict.

Thaddeus

Review: After the Ice, by Steven Mithen

After the Ice covers human prehistory from 20,000 BC to 5,000 BC. This extends from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covers the initial warming after the end of the Ice Age, the cold spike of the Younger Dryas, and the return of the warming trend.

Beyond the obvious warming and a vague fuzzy awareness of hunter-gathering giving way to farming, my knowledge of this sort of period was minimal at best.

It’s a global book, looking at every continent on Earth and charting, in some cases, the arrival of mankind (in the Americas), and the development of man, which varied quite a lot. It’s intriguing to see the differing advance of technology and the earliest establishment of towns (in the Middle East/Mesopotamia), and the intermediate phase between hunter-gathering and Neolithic farming that happened in Europe and elsewhere (the Mesolithic).

As interesting were common features, particularly cave art and the use of stone (mostly flint and obsidian).

The author’s approach was to combine a straightforward archaeological summary with the practical implications, telling these through plausible vignettes of an unseen time traveller, John Lubbock (named after a Victorian who wrote a related book), as he visits various places and times to see how people lived.

The book is quite large, just over 500 pages (beyond which lies the index etc), and later on some of the less distinctive places/locations do blend into one another somewhat.

The epilogue was very interesting, and I liked the credible alternative perspectives on GM crops (essentially, it could bugger biodiversity and cause extinctions, or cure world hunger) and other matters. Throughout the book there’s a general open-minded approach that avoids imposing a single view when there are plausible options or a lack of evidence.

Thaddeus

Review: The Blue Book of the War, edited by Herbert Strang

The edition I read was reprinted in 1917, and I think originally came out late 1916 (preceding the revolution in Russia and collapse of the Eastern Front). I believe this book was aimed at older children (it’s a little similar in style to The Wonder Book of Aircraft). The mindset is fascinating and the writing engaging.

Most books about The Great War nowadays tend to conjure images of terrible grind, both in terms of trench warfare not moving very much, and in terms of immense grimness. And those things are not wrong. But they’re also not the complete story.

In the Middle East and Africa, things moved with greater pace, and the middle of the book is dedicated to stories of naval exploits, many of which I had no idea about (British submarines getting up to mischief in the Bosphorus, for example).

The mentality of the book is of another age, with the start of a battle described as an adventure beginning. There’s both a recognition of how terrible war is (quoted below) and a celebration of the human spirit that can arise in conflict.

Early on, the book is poignant (a letter home from a soldier the day before he got killed in one of the many large battles standing out in the memory). But the overriding sense is of a quite alien attitude to both Britain and war, the latter perhaps closer to Livy’s Romanesque glory than today’s immense reluctance. I was wondering if it would be a parochial book, yet one of the examples of heroism cited was of a priest who gave the last rites to an enemy soldier, and whilst there is some German-bashing there’s also praise for Turkish manoeuvres around Suez, Von Mackensen’s Eastern shenanigans, and the final chapter is dedicated to heroism from British allies (Frenchmen, Russians, and Italians singled out, with kudos also given to the Sikhs, Maoris, and others).

Must admit, I found the book to have a lively writing style, and yet was perhaps even more interesting from a psychological perspective. The differing topics of the various aspects of the naval conflict and doings further afield ensured that, whilst the focus is on Britain and her Empire, there is plenty about other arenas where our involvement was either minimal or non-existent.

I shall end this review with a few excerpts that I made note of as I read:

“War is a terrible, hideous thing.” [A short time later in the same paragraph]. “Yet there is something even more terrible than war, and that is the weak and cowardly acceptance of what we believe to be evil for the sake of saving our skins.”

“We shall not, therefore, be surprised when we learn that by far the greater part of British naval strength and resources has in the Great War been devoted to the efficient maintenance of its patrol services: and we may well wonder at the weakness of human nature which impels us to esteem a dashing exploit, carried through in, perhaps, a few minutes, more highly than we regard the faithful endurance of hardship and the vigilant discharge of duty continued for long, weary months amid the stress and perils of the northern seas.”

“Their brigade was lying in front of Gorizia and was much inconvenienced by the enemy’s fire from a particular hill that dominated their position – a hill so craggy, in fact, as to seem quite inaccessible.”

Thaddeus

Review: Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive book 3), by Brandon Sanderson

This has been out a little while but I only recently got my hands on it (literally, unlike the first two entries which I read as e-books).

Like its predecessors, this book is enormous, a little over 1,200 pages, and is just part 3 of a planned 10 or so in the series. (I know some are wary of taking on unfinished mega-series, but Brandon Sanderson does write pretty quickly).

The story resumes shortly after the events of Words of Radiance, and, though it may be obvious, I have to warn of spoilers from this point forth (major for previous entries, any spoilers for Oathbringer will be kept to the minimal possible level, focusing on premise).

The Everstorm, a new phenomenon heading in the opposite direction to the expected highstorm, batters the world, wrecking ships, destroying buildings, and catching most people off-guard. Just as the kingdoms are struggling to recover, some of them are in for a military confrontation.

The forces of Odium are gathering, but things are more complicated than they first seem. It’s nice to see ‘the enemy’ portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light, rather than purely as fodder. Likewise, we learn some more background, to plot-twisting effect, of the old Knights Radiant and the Heralds, which alters things quite significantly.

Dalinar’s storyline (the central plot) is the attempt to create a grand coalition to fight back against the forces of Odium, a task made quite tricky when his nation (Alethkar) is renowned for its conquering tendencies, and he’s best known as a talented general. There’s a good portrayal of the varying national outlooks (bureaucratic Azish types, the moneyed naval Thaylen people etc) which both makes the world feel more real, and slots in nicely with the challenge Dalinar and those around him face when it comes to forging an alliance.

Shallan’s story arc is intriguing, and I liked the way her splitting personality was portrayed. I can’t go into much more detail than that without spoilers, but it suited the story and herself.

Adolin has plenty of action, but less character development than other major protagonists. Kaladin is miles away from the others at the book’s opening, trying to find his family.

Besides the big names we have occasional smaller POVs, sometimes as interludes, and these work nicely as little breaks in the enormo-book as well as fleshing out the world even more.

An interesting difference, for me, was having an actual physical copy. It made the artwork better, particularly the map early on, which I referred back to several times during the story. Otherwise, it’s just nice to have a tangible book, although it does take up infinitely more space than an e-book, so swings and roundabouts.

Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot. I like the author’s world-building style and lore, and there’s a number of significant plot twists. Pace later on is faster, perhaps a little could’ve been cut from the first half, but maybe I’m just nitpicking. I have no idea when the fourth entry in the Stormlight Archive will be out, but I’m looking forward to reading it.

Thaddeus

Crown of Blood – out 6 April

Good news!

Crown of Blood, the final part of the cunningly entitled The Bloody Crown Trilogy, is coming out on 6 April (paperback to follow).

The fate of the crown will be determined, as the rival Houses of Penmere and Esden find themselves faced with a dilemma: unite to fight off the King of Felaria’s sudden invasion, or risk losing the entire kingdom to the invader.

It’s the fifth book I’ve written that takes part in the Bane of Souls world (the others being stand-alones Bane of Souls and Journey to Altmortis, and earlier trilogy entries Kingdom Asunder and Traitor’s Prize).

As well as the splendid cover, by Autumn Sky, there’s a map, by me.

For the pre-order period and first fortnight of release, Crown of Blood will be just $2.99, after which the price will go up a bit. So, buy it, and tell your friends to buy it too.

You can pre-order it on Amazon or Smashwords, and it’ll shortly be up on other retailer sites too.

Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-Blood-Bloody-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B07PLFC2PB/

Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PLFC2PB/

Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/928094

Thaddeus

Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day, by Philip Matyszak

This is a short book, about 140 pages, set in 200 AD and covering what a visitor to Rome might see and do. Beginning with arrival nearby and travelling into the city itself, there’s a wealth of practical advice, from where to stay to how dinner parties work, as well as religion and shopping.

It’s an engaging book, with interesting snippets of information and the sort of approach to history that makes it very easy to imagine what it would’ve been like to visit Rome, climbing its hills and descending into its valleys. Details such as how much wine might cost, or the widespread dislike of the Praetorian Guard, add to the immersion.

The writing style is light-hearted, occasionally humorous, and easy to read.

I’ve read quite a lot of Thames and Hudson books of this nature, but all my previous ones were hardback. I must say I prefer those to the paperback. However, if your shelf space is limited the thickness is about halved by going for the paperback.

Weirdly, there’s a page numbering error, for maybe a dozen pages preceding the first set of plates. The standard numbering is fine, but the Latin numbering (which is correct both earlier and later) starts showing the incorrect numbers. Not a huge thing, but clearly wrong.

The plates are entirely CGI. A spot of real world photography for still extant architecture would’ve been nice (the Egyptian edition in this series had some creative modern drawings, but also ancient Egyptian artwork too). The map at the back is a double page spread, with some detail swallowed by the spine (bit of a pet hate).

Overall, a good book, with one or two minor things that could’ve been done a bit better, none of which relate to the actual text itself.

Thaddeus

Snapshots – pick of the bunch

Blogging’s been a little light lately, due to me being busy with other stuff (Crown of Blood should be out later March/April, incidentally).

Time for a look back at the best samples of the last four Snapshot reviews, in which I single out the books I might actually end up buying. Links at the end of the post lead to the sample reviews (I’ve picked at least one from each post. The first snapshots post was written separately, some time earlier).

I’ll start with the mega-sampled The Chronicles of the Black Gate (books 1-3), by Phil Tucker, from the most recent post. To be honest, the only reasons I didn’t immediately buy this (I read the whole circa 40,000 word sample and really enjoyed it) was because I already have a comically large to-read pile, and I use my Kindle for proofreading (which I did immediately after finishing the sample). Highly likely I’ll buy this book.

Perhaps the most unexpected delight was Storm Glass (Harbinger book 1), by Jeff Wheeler. I selected books without reading descriptions and this one has plenty of stuff I wouldn’t normally consider. Child protagonist, ghost story, orphan. Not my cup of tea. Usually. But it’s very well-written and genuinely intriguing.

The Copper Promise (Copper Cat Trilogy), by Jen Williams, is a lot more my usual cup of tea. Fantastical doings, a spot of torture, multiple POV characters on a quest for treasure. The sample was entertaining and piqued my interest.

One of the samples I liked the most was Kingshold (Wildfire Cycle book 1), by DP Woolliscroft, (at the time of writing, this is an #SPFBO finalist, with the ultimate winner of the current contest undecided). Multiple engaging POVs, an intriguing world, and a major city about to make the transition from monarchy to democracy. Another one I’m very likely to end up buying.

I liked the daft comedy of Space Team (Volume 1), by Barry J Hutchison, (with the caveat that bodily fluid stuff generally isn’t my thing). Otherwise, fun, fast-paced, and amusing (which is helpful, for a comedy).

And so we move to the weird collection of excellence I accidentally threw together for the earliest (of the most recent batch) snapshot review. By chance, this included two #SPFBO winners and practically every damned sample was excellent. So, I’ve set myself the challenge of picking only two. Which I already know is going to be difficult because I can remember three off the top of my head, and want all of them.

In the end, I went for The Thief Who Pulled On Trouble’s Braids (Amra Thetys Series book 1), by Michael McClung, and Dangerous to Know (Chronicles of Breed, book 1), by KT Davies, both of which feature thief-type protagonists. Both have engaging lead characters and interesting worlds, and both set up intriguing premises within the scope of the sample.

Anyway, that’ll be the last bit of sample reviewing for a little while. I think there are some real gems in there, as well as some books I never would’ve checked out if it weren’t for the slightly random approach I took. Hope you found something interesting to read too.

Sample review links:

Snapshots 2 - Review Harder

Snapshots 3 - the Reviewening

Snapshots 4 - A New Review

Snapshots 5 - the Reviewer Strikes Back

Thaddeus