Ring of Dragons
(Age of the Sorcerers 4)
Morgan Rice (2020)
Battles; Princesses; Battles; Beheadings; Dragons,
A special sword, magic and mayhem. Everything comes together in this middle section of the story.
Thankfully the author keeps the reader surprised with the plot.
Born of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #3
Morgan Rice (2020)
The siege of the City gets into full force. Keeps up the tension and interest throughout.
Throne of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #2
Morgan Rice (2020)
In the second book, the forces from the south make their move. And it looks like nothing can stop them. There are probably too many plot threads here, but a massive battle in the middle of the story effectively binds them together.
Now that the characters have been established, this makes the story better than the first.
Realm of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #1
Morgan Rice (2019)
This series tells the story of the coming of age of one very special 16 year old boy.
It tells the story of a 17 year old princess on the eve of her wedding, and of her younger sister, rejected by her family and dying of plague.
It tells the tale of their three brothers vying for power.
All the tropes of Epic Fantasy are there. But unlike the previous 17 Novel series (The Sorcerers Ring) this is only eight books long.
It’s all very familiar. But from previous experience with this author, it should be an interesting story.
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi (2022)
Behold the Ape
James Morrow (2023)
When Sonya Orlova, a successful 1930s horror-film actress, crosses paths with a gorilla whose brain has been swapped for the frozen cerebrum of the late Charles Darwin, the two are inspired to write and produce evolution-themed monster movies-with Sonya in her greatest role, Korgora the Ape Woman!
A very strange story of improbable brain surgery and Hollywood. Charles Darwin appears, about a century after his time as an Ape.
It’s not clear if it’s intended as a satire of evolution or creationism. It’s certainly fanciful and barrels along, ploughing through movie references (some must be real) and characters from Hollywood’s golden age.
Robopocalypse
Daniel H. Wilson (2011)
A techno-thriller written as a series of observations. Once the world is defined by a soldier in the war, the story is told through a series of recollections. Some first person, some second person. There are articles and court proceedings.
This enables tension to be set and increased in each story. This is what keeps you reading. However it does result in a rather dis-jointed narrative. And it’s not easy to follow main characters through to book. So by the end, there is no change in the tone or anticipation. The ending falls a bit flat.
So enjoyable at times, but not a technique I would recommend.
StoryGraph is a more modern alternative to Goodreads.
Goodreads can be finicky and difficult at times, especially when they installed the ‘find the thing’ security ‘feature’.
StoryGraph is obviously (as many reviews point out a more modern interface and subsequently easier to use. Plus it has a nice dark mode.
It’s easy to import all the Goodreads books. However some time will be required to fix titles. They can be mis-aligned to non-english editions.
And like Goodreads it’s not that good for short stories or novelettes. Unless it has an ISBN (or similar) there will be problems with length and a suitable cover.
Where Goodreads was just one big list, with StoryGraph Stats you can filter and focus on categories ( Owned, Read, To-Read, Not Finished) and list the books in each category.
This makes it easier to deal with my large list (1,828 books 451,667 Pages)
It could even be used to catalogue the paperback and hardcover books on your shelves.
Given that Goodreads has been owned by Amazon for some years, it’s surprising there has been little development. StoryGraph was founded by Nadia Odunayo with a team of only three.
Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn
Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2014)
In England, far from his desert home, Ali bin-Massoud serves as apprentice to the famed Charles Babbage. One night a mysterious box is delivered by a clockwork falcon and Ali’s world is never the same again.
A mix of steampunk and eastern mythology. There is clear reference to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Reading the Wiki entry, most of the plot comes from the folk tale. But as I was not familiar with the detail of the story, it was an interesting story as the only part I recalled was the incident with the thief filled vases.
It all comes to a satisfying ending as any fairy tale should.
Space Cowboy
Justin Stanchfield (2008)
Travis is a boy living on the remote planet of Aletha Three. A genetically engineered creature has begun stalking the struggling population. Armed only with his dad’s old rifle, cowboy Travis must find out where the predator came from and how he can stop it.
Science Fiction in a western style. This was an easy read that kept me engrossed for 70,000 words. Well written with a few twists. that sometimes lag behind the readers attention.
Purchased as part of the “To The Stars Adventure SF’ bundle
