Call of Destiny: Infinite Realms Book One by P R Adams

This book is a bit like a film that you don't want to end, in that you don't want the story to end, yet you need to know what happens next. 

Riyun is the leader of a team of military and technological mercenaries. Openings in the team mean that he has new recruits join them, just as they take on a new job. 

Find a missing daughter - it sounds easy enough. But as with anything that seems really easy, there is always a catch. 

And the catch caught me! I really enjoyed the different slant on military sci-fi that this book introduced. Combining my love of fantasy and sci-fi in a really good engaging read by P R Adams. I cannot wait to read the next book and the ones after that too. 

Definitely a favourite series for my book shelf (on my kindle of course). I am really grateful that the author took this new angle on his writing 

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Yet another brilliant novel from Alastair Reynolds, but one that for me held a tinge of sad bleakness. Why? Because it's the endgame for the universe (possibly), most of life is gone, wiped out, with just pockets of humanity surviving in hollowed out worlds or similar.

Until danger comes their way in the form of a ship, exposing them to the dangers of discovery by the inhibitors and annihilation. One man goes to ensure that the ship never reaches their world, but things never go as they are planned and his actions have consequences that reach far into his future and beyond.

There is much depth to this story, but I think I may have read the authors mind at some point, because I had such Deja vu with one section of the story, that I was sure I had already read the book. And really I hadn't because I had no idea how the book was going to proceed after that section ended!

The characters are many and varied, some we stay with for a long while, others whom even though we grow to like them as we learn more about them, don't stay so long. But they make an impression and are remembered as the story keeps moving on.

The world building has been going on for years with this series of books and there is so much that readers new to it will want to go back to read, but it won't detract from this story to read it as it stands, if that is what the reader wants. Myself, I think I preferred to have read them all so that I know what went before and can appreciate how far the universe has fallen since the great heights of the previous centuries. And that is where the sadness creeps in, as the darkness of eternity looms cold and empty.

But the book is ace! So go read it, it's extremely well written and very clever.

I hope that there is a next one!

" ‘They’re here,’ she said, taking a step back from her work. ‘They’re here and they want to break in.’ Her tone became quietly accusatory. ‘It means you failed, Miguel. It means you failed and everything here is going to end.’ 

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley. I am delighted to provide a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.

5/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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Miguel de Ruyter is a man with a past. Fleeing the 'wolves' - the xenocidal alien machines known as Inhibitors - he has protected his family and community from attack for forty years, sheltering in the caves of an airless, battered world called Michaelmas. The slightest hint of human activity could draw the wolves to their home, to destroy everything ... utterly. Which is how Miguel finds himself on a one-way mission with his own destructive mandate: to eliminate a passing ship, before it can bring unwanted attention down on them. Only something goes wrong. There's a lone survivor. And she knows far more about Miguel than she's letting on . . . Ranging from the depths of space to the deeps of Pattern Juggler waters, from nervous, isolated communities to the ruins of empire, this is a stealthy space opera from an author at the top of his game.  

 

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I buy my glasses online now, I was dubious at first. Now I'll keep on buying them from Glasses Direct, it you do too, you can get a discount off your first order over £49:  

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The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani

Rae is a cripple in everyone's eyes, nothing will ever become of her. At least that is Rae's outlook on everyone else's thoughts. Rae's lifelong goal is to grow old with her sister in their parents home, each looking after the other. Because although Rae's difference is evident, her sister's is not and no-one can know what it is. 

Although she doesn't know it, Rae's life changes that day she goes to the market with her family and that of her very best friend. The day her best friend's sister is snatched. And no-one can find her.

Shortly after, Rae goes to the capital at her cousins request to be her companion. Cousin Melly is a member of the court and needs someone from her family with her. After arriving at the court, Rae is asked to work for a member of the Royal family and though reluctant at first, she seems to grow to like her new employer.

There is danger all around from the infighting within the court and from outside the Palace walls. Rae falls prey to that and is kidnapped. That is when her real adventure begins.

Intisar has put a lot of depth and detail into her book. The characters are realistic and the reader will most likely warm to them (depending on the nature of the character of course - you wouldn't warm to an evil baddy, would you now?). 

I haven't covered half of what goes on in the book, I really don't want to spoil it for anyone. It is an extremely engaging read and although she says that she didn't want to run it over into another book, Intisar has actually written the right amount to make the story work, which means that she is going to have to continue the story in another book. And I will be very happy to read the second in the series when it is published.

Regarding quotes from books, they are a little snippet from within the core, they are not the story. They cannot convey the depth of what is within.

"Back home, everyone calls me Rae.” Her smile is brighter, truer, as she says, “Rae, then. Thank you.”"

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley. I am delighted to provide a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.

5/5 Stars (What this means... Star ratings)

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Perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and Sorcery of Thorns, this exhilarating, page-turning fantasy will pull readers into a lush and stunning world where nothing—and no one—can be trusted.

They do not believe this evil is real. They may not care. But I do.

Children have been disappearing from Menaiya for longer than Amraeya ni Ansarim can remember. Snatched from the streets, never to be seen again—or returned with unspeakable trauma. When her friend’s sister is snatched, Rae knows she can’t look away any longer - even if that means seeking answers from the royal court, where her country upbringing and clubfoot will only invite ridicule.

Yet the court holds its share of surprises. There she discovers an ally in the foreign princess, who recruits her as an attendant. Armed with the princess’s support, Rae seeks answers in the dark city streets, finding unexpected help in a rough-around-the-edges street thief with secrets of his own.

But treachery runs deep, and the more Rae uncovers, the more she endangers herself, and even the kingdom itself.

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I buy my glasses online now, I was dubious at first. Now I'll keep on buying them from Glasses Direct, it you do too, you can get a discount off your first order over £49:

 

https://glassesdirect.mention-me.com/m/ol/vm1jh-0d9e9eda68 

 

The Stranger Times by C.K.McDonnell

 

Hannah needs a job but hasn't held one down in years and has no experience. Having lost her marriage and her home (which she burned down) she has very little left, so is desperate for employment. Circumstances mean that she ends up working at 'The Stranger Times' for an obnoxious drunk alongside a bunch of random misfits.

Just, as it seems the divide between the world as we see it bumps up against the other world that exists alongside it. Manchester is the busiest place for the dark deeds that The Stranger Times reports on and the staff are just starting to realise that the stories they thought were a load of imaginations gone wild, are in fact true.

Some of the characters might be considered a bit unrealistic, but I did find that the editor reminded me of someone I have worked with in the past (just a little), so it did give the story more chance of being believable character-wise.

I haven't read any works by this author before and I would read his books again, but only the fantasy ones, I'm not interested in comedy. There were places where the author lost me a little, so I carried on reading and filled in the gaps as best I could.

"‘So, whatever your name is, couple of things you need to know about me. One – my sense of smell is perfectly fine, and two – I really dislike being lied to. Oh, and three – I’m, y’know . . . Magical'."

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam Press for approving me to read this book.

3/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but more often the weird) of modern life, it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable . . . At least that’s their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little (and believes less) of the publication he edits, while his staff are a ragtag group of wastrels and misfits, each with their own secrets to hide and axes to grind. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door – and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got her own set of problems. It’s when tragedy strikes in Hannah’s first week on the job that The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious, proper, actual investigative journalism. What they discover leads them to a shocking realisation: that some of the stories they’d previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly, gruesomely real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker foes than they could ever have imagined. It’s one thing reporting on the unexplained and paranormal but it’s quite another being dragged into the battle between the forces of Good and Evil . . .  

 

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