Book Review: Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol (ASP) August 27th 2018/Leighton Dean Some Mild Spoilers… Cold Skin is the first person account of a young weather official, running from his horrid memories of a war. Unfortunately, he runs to the ass end of the world where he replaces his inner demons with real ones. In a battle for his life and his sanity, he finds refuge in the island’s lighthouse where he meets the lighthouse keeper, Gruner, who has long since lost the p

Review: Home World by Bonnie Milani A wonderful imagining of our future. I read Monkey’s Luck a couple of months back and one of the things that disappointed me was the lack of world building (I mentioned in that review, it is a short story based in Bonnie Milani’s Home World universe). Home World is the original idea and filled in all the blanks – I will be reading Monkey’s luck again having learnt more of Milani’s universe. The book suffers from ‘too much of a good thing’,

Review: Amazing Grace, Book Three of The Grace Lord Series This is the first line of the book: “The first instant Damian Lamont realized his squad was in a shit storm was when the severed head of Private Manuel Kawaguchi crashed into his faceplate.” I’ve been pondering on how to review Amazing Grace over the past couple of days. You may ask why? I have clearly added the first line above because I want to share it with you. Well, get ready for some ramblings… The first scene h

I purchased this book in haste and discovered very quickly that it is a novella, so my biggest criticism of Monkey’s Luck is that it is too short... This is my first outing in Bonnie Milani’s Home World series, and it is a well crafted piece which starts at a sprint and refuses to slow down until ‘the end’. Was I confused, maybe a little. It is a novella within a larger series of stories and that in mind, some of its story is taken out of context as I had no basis for it. I a

So I'm a very happy bunny. My first review on Amazon came in and its all I could have hoped for... Leland wrote: The aptly-named Save Our Souls follows pilot and Captain’s son, Ford, and his family, the crew of the freighter Jian Seng, as they fight to survive in the face of an unholy trinity of catastrophes. The seemingly lifeless ship that barreled into their craft is only the first salvo of a universe that seems intent on eliminating the crew of the Jian Seng in the most u

Sea Change by Bryan Pentelow Sea Change moves fast and the story is told rather than shown which is a bit of an oxymoron I can’t get my head around. Other than to add that Bryan’s passion for this book is literally in every sentence. He is the one who wants to see this change. And by the end of it, I wanted to see it too. I didn’t feel connected with the characters as much as I would have liked to, but as I mentioned this is a short book and the story itself kept me more than

It’s often done so wrong, when you have two characters who don’t appreciate each other’s company – but Melonie plunges her young thief with a higher calling and a reluctant older (but not old) sage into a fantastic tale with grace and good humour. Young Krea is a lovely addition to the patchwork quilt of high fantasy – she is a great tilt on the scrappy archetype and blesses her with a far more interesting curse that I first took it for. As the main character I found her a pl

Abendau's Heir is the first of Jo Zebedee's Inheritance Trilogy. I finished Abendau's Heir a week ago and I'm still unsure on how to pronounce it. Why did I leave it week before reviewing it? It's because I needed it to settle, Jo Zebedee's first outing into this universe got under my skin. While there are no appendices for planets, ships, weapons, foods, drinks, stars, dust mites... there is an enormous focus on character. And at the end of it I felt like I had made a group