Book Review: Loki by Muhammad Ghassan Farija

Loki by Mohammed Ghassan Farija puts a new spin on the legends and myths of the Norse pantheon. Myth is a culture’s way of encoding important events, among other things. And, as Tolkien notes, sometimes history becomes myth under the weight of time. This story, centred on one of the Norse pantheon’s rather more misunderstood […]

Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Michael Crichton/ Daniel H Wilson

Decades after the Andromeda Strain wiped out Piedmont, Arizona, people have forgotten the danger. All but Eternal Vigilance, a military operation put in place to monitor for evidence Andromeda has returned. Now the remnants of a crashed ship in the Amazon have triggered alerts. Andromeda is back. A new Wildfire team is selected to investigate […]

Book Review: Cry Pilot by Joel Dane

Cry Pilot by Joel Dane introduces readers to a far future Earth that had nearly succumbed to global environmental destruction. Thanks first to AIs, then to corporatised military, the Earth is now slowly healing. Terrafixing is repairing the planet, but it also repairs biomechanical creations from the last great world war, resurrecting them as Remorts. […]

Book Review: A Wistful Tale of Gods, Men, and Monsters by David Ruggerio

A Wistful Tale of Gods, Men, and Monsters by David Ruggerio is set in the tiny New York village of Brunswick. It’s a postcard perfect autumnal setting, with lovely cider-worthy orchards, fields of giant orange pumpkins, golden rows of corn and wheat, and that close-knit feel that only rural hamlets can offer. Brunswick is also […]

Book Review: Glow of the Fireflies by Lindsey Duga

Duga’s Glow of the Fireflies is a magical tale of nature’s wonder, and the true connectedness underlying all things. When Briony’s Gran breaks her leg, Briony ends up returning to her childhood home in the quaint Firefly Valley to care for her. It is a place Briony doesn’t remember, thanks to retro-grade amnesia after an […]

Book Review: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Inspired by thePopol Vuh, Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow is a dazzling coming of age/ alchemic transformation story steeped in the rich mythology of the ancient Maya.  Casiopea Tun and her ma live in virtual servitude to her grandfather. Unlike her ma, Casiopea bridles against the strict rules, and the disrespect of the family, […]

Book Review: 8 Souls by Rachel Rust

8 Souls by Rachel Rust follows Francesca ‘Chessie’ Carpenter who suffers from recurrent nightmares of a house, sometimes decrepit, sometimes new, but always the same and always beckoning of death. It’s not just any house either. It’s the Villisca Axe Murder House and her grandparents live right across from it. When she ends up being […]