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Book review: All Against All by Alex Paknadel & Caspar Wijngaard

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Book links : Amazon , Goodreads ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Alex Paknadel is a writer and academic from London, England. His first comics work, the dark sci-fi thriller ARCADIA from Boom! Studios, met with critical acclaim and led to additional projects with a range of publishers including VAULT COMICS (GIGA), Marvel Entertainment, Valiant Entertainment, Lion Forge, and Titan Comics. He is also a founding member of White Noise Studio alongside fellow writers Dan Watters, Ram V, and Ryan O'Sullivan. Publisher: Image Comics ( July 11, 2023 )  Page count: 144 p According to the author, All Against All tries to answer the following question -  “what if Tarzan were the Xenomorph from Alien?”  The answer entails savage violence, exoskeletons vs flesh, stellar art, and strong writing. The story takes place in a distant future ravaged by continuous war. The Operators, parasitic and body-snatching aliens, recreated the most violent earth animals in an artificial jungle. Among them i...

Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Reviewed by Shazzie)

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 Book Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi Buy  Starter Villain here  -   U.S.  |  U.K. Official Author Website OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO:   JOHN SCALZI is one of the most popular SF authors of his generation. His debut  Old Man's Wa r won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His  New York Times  bestsellers include  The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, and  Redshirts  (which won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel), and 2020's  The Last Emperox . Material from his blog, Whatever, has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter. OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB:   Inheriting his late uncle’s business proves complicated. It’s also way more dangerous than Charlie could ever have imagined. Because his uncle had kept his supervillain status a secret – until now. Divorced and emotionally dependent on his cat, Charlie wasn’t loving life. Although they weren’t close, news of his Uncle Jack’...

SPFBO 9: Third Batch & Semi-finalist Update (reviewed by Chels)

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  Here's a video post on Chels' mini-batch of six books and a semi-finalist update. Enjoy! Chels books were: A Donkey, A Stablehand & An Empire  by D. Heyman Crucible of Lies  by Mitchell Hogan Curse of the Fallen  by H.C. Newell Red Mage by H.D. Woolf That Which The Deep Heart Knows  by R.J. Wheldrake Volcano City  by Grace Bridges

Book review: Barnaby The Wanderer by Raymond St. Elmo

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  Book links: Amazon , Goodreads ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Raymond St. Elmo is a programmer of artificial intelligence and virtual realities, who has no time for literary fabrications of fictitious characters and world-building. And yes, that was meant to be ironic.  A degree in Spanish Literature gave him a love of Magic Realism. Programming gave him a job. The job introduced him to artificial intelligence and virtual realities; as close to magic as reality is likely to get outside the covers of a book. And yes, that was meant to be cynical. The author of several first-person comic accounts of strange quests for mysterious manuscripts, mysterious girls in cloaks whose face appears SUDDENLY IN THE FLASH OF LIGHTNING. And yes, that was meant to be dramatic. Publisher : St. Elmo Literary Labs (July 15, 2023)  Page count: 801 pages Formats: ebook, paperback I’m a huge fan of Raymond St. Elmo’s writing. I love his unique stories that blend fantasy and magical realism with wi...

Book review: The Shattered Sphere (Sol's Harvest #4) by M.D. Presley

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  Book links: Amazon , Goodreads Series ( Sol's Harvest ) links:  THE WOVEN RING -  FBC REVIEW THE IMBUED LOCKBLADE -  FBC REVIEW THE GLASS DAGGER -  FBC REVIEW ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Never passing up the opportunity to speak about himself in the third person, M.D. Presley is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. Born and raised in Texas, he spent several years on the East Coast and now waits for the West Coast to shake him loose. His favorite words include defenestrate, callipygian, and Algonquin. The fact that monosyllabic is such a long word keeps him up at night. Publisher:  M.D. Presley (August 15, 2023)  Length : 455  Formats: ebook All things come to an end, even the endless flow. "The Shattered Sphere" provides a satisfying and genuinely surprising conclusion to Sol's Harvest series. The previous books laid the foundation, delving into the lives and backgrounds of the main characters, their circumstances, and the world divided by ci...

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (Reviewed by Daniel P. Haeusser)

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Book Review: Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski Order Blood of Elves as part of the new paperback edition Witcher Boxed Set HERE OFFICIAL AUTHOR INFORMATION:  Andrzej Sapkowski was born in 1948 in Poland. He studied economy and business, but the success of his fantasy cycle about the Witcher Geralt of Rivia turned him into a bestselling writer. His work has received Poland’s Janusz A. Zajdel prize five times, as well as Great Britain’s David Gemmell Award for Fantasy, in 2009. In 2016, he received the World Fantasy Award—Life Achievement. The Witcher has been adapted to a successful video-game franchise, and is now a series on Netflix. OFFICIAL TRANSLATOR INFORMATION:  Danusia Stok is a professional translator who was born and educated in England. After marrying in 1976, she spent five years in Poland and now lives in London. She is the editor of Kieslowski on Kieslowski. Her translated works include The Trilogy by K. Kieslowski and K. Piesiewicz, I Remember Nothing More by ...

Book Review: The Glass Dagger by M.D. Presley (Sol's Harvest #3)

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Book links:   Amazon ,  Goodreads ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Never passing up the opportunity to speak about himself in the third person, M.D. Presley is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. Born and raised in Texas, he spent several years on the East Coast and now waits for the West Coast to shake him loose. His favorite words include defenestrate, callipygian, and Algonquin. The fact that monosyllabic is such a long word keeps him up at night. Publisher:  M.D. Presley (July 13, 2022)  Page count : 435  Formats:  ebook, paperback Solace Graff , Render extraordinaire, is a creep. A huge, clumsy bloke with a glass eye, insane powers, and a total lack of interest in personal hygiene or well-being. His lifelong obsession to become the greatest living Render living on Ayr made him stark raving mad. Obviously, there’s much more to it than we suspected and Graff’s dark past hides many surprises. In The Glass Dagger , MD Presley brings important plot and characte...