Blood and Feathers by Lou Morgan

''What's the first thing you think of when I say 'angel'?'' asked Mallory. 

Alice shrugged. ''I don t know... guns?'' 

Alice isn't having the best of days: she got rained on, missed her bus, was late for work. When two angels arrive, claiming her life so far is a lie, it turns epic, grand-scale worse. The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; an age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. the angels must act to restore the balance - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever.

Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem - alice will learn the truth about her own history... and why the angels want to send her to hell. What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding and can she trust either side? Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Uch, I enjoyed Blood and Feathers a lot. It's a debut novel and it reads fast and confident, twisty and turney and I'm so looking forward to seeing what Ms. Morgan comes up with in Book 2.

Alice is an average girl - or she thinks she is.  At the beginning of the novel we meet her at a very bad time.  Enter two odd blokes who stand by and watch when the ceiling in her house opens and hands rip her father into who knows where...and well, you know Alice isn't in Kansas any more.  See what I did there?

Talking from a mythology and angel lore point of view here, Ms. Morgan has really done her research.  I know this because we've touched on it in the past via twitter and I've read some interviews she's done and we've fan-girled about Milton and other esoterica when we happened across one another at an event.  It's easy - for me - to see her influences and to understand the bigger picture she's painting here with Alice's story.  And even though I knew, at the back of my head, what was going on, I totally fell for Alice, for Mallory and the story as a whole.  Here are characters I'd like to spend time getting to know better.

The themes are big - good vs evil but it isn't as easy as that.  It would make for a dull read.  Lines are blurred here and being good doesn't always mean it's a good thing.  Key to the story though is Alice finding out about herself.  Her character development is handled deftly and I felt, after the opening sequence, that I am in safe hands here and really shouldn't worry about this journey I'm undertaking with Alice.

We are introduced to a cast of characters and the concepts of choirs within the angel realm. These aren't the cupid type angels either - they aren't actually nice guys, really.  They are warriors and get the job done, come what may.  But then, they have allegiances, and there are things we don't know yet or understand going on in the background.  It's all rather good fun to figure it out as the story moves along at a very fast pace.

I'm loathe to say more as it will get spoilerific which I refuse to do but genuinely, if you're in the mood for rather grown up urban fantasy, where the author clearly loves and knows what she's doing, then you can't go wrong buying yourself a copy of Blood & Feathers.

Oh, just a note if you think this is yet another "angel" paranormal romance book - it honestly isn't.  This isn't what you'd expect, at all, and it sits so neatly on the shelf next to authors like Mike Carey / Mike Shevdon / Katie Griffin / Ben Aaronovich and Suzanne McLeod.  Blood and Feathers is Supernatural/The Prophecy/Fallen/Priest all rolled into one with added crack and kickassedness and genuine humour.

Find Lou Morgan's website here.  Blood and Feathers is out now with the second book out next year.

Random Bits #2 - 2012

So today has been a crazy day with news in the publishing world. But this one especially has made me grin like a mad person.




International best-selling author Audrey Niffenegger is to pen her first ever story for a commercial trade anthology, after signing to Solaris’ forthcoming short story collection, Magic.

Solaris are proud to announce that Niffenegger, whose novel The Time Traveller's Wife has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide, is to produce a story for the themed anthology of the occult and arcane, due for release in November 2012 in North America and the UK, in both paperback and ebook.

The story marks Audrey’s first ever appearance in any commercial trade anthology and is the third themed collection from Solaris editor-in-chief Jonathan Oliver. The previous critically-acclaimed anthologies include The End of the Line, which featured stories set on the Underground, and House of Fear, which rebooted the haunted house for the 21st Century. The titles garnered ecstatic reviews, with The Times describing End of the Line’s stories as “exceptionally good”.

“I'm delighted to be involved in this project,” said Audrey Niffenegger. “My story is called The Wrong Fairie and is about Charles Altamont Doyle. He was a Victorian artist who was institutionalized for alcoholism. He was also the father of Arthur Conan Doyle, and he believed in fairies.”

Niffenegger became a publishing sensation thanks to The Time Traveller’s Wife, published in 2003 and made into a Hollywood movie in 2009, and her subsequent novel was the subject of intense bidding by publishing houses.

“It's really very exciting to be working with Audrey, whose novels The Time Traveller's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry show an author with a great talent for subverting genre norms and delivering the unexpected,” said Jonathan Oliver. “Audrey's story is sure to make a great addition to Magic.”

The line-up for Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane is set to include other high profile authors, including Richard and Judy Book Club-choice Alison Littlewood, NYT Bestseller Dan Abnett, and celebrated authors such as Christopher Fowler, Storm Constantine, Robert Shearman, Paul Meloy, Sophia McDougall, Will Hill, Gemma Files, along with new writers such as Sarah Lotz, Lou Morgan and Thana Niveau and more.

The Sentinel Mage by Emily Gee

Her magic may be the only thing that can save a prince - and the Seven Kingdoms!

In a distant corner of the Seven Kingdoms, an ancient curse festers and grows, consuming everything in its path. Only one man can break it: Harkeld and Osgaard, a prince with mage's blood in his veins. But Prince Harkeld has a bounty on his head - and assassins at his heels. Innis is a gifted shapeshifter. Now she must do the forbidden: become a man. She must stand at Prince Harkeld's side as his armsman, protecting and deceiving him. But the deserts of Masse are more dangerous than the assassins hunting the prince. The curse has woken deadly creatures, and the magic Prince Harkeld loathes may be the only thing standing between him and death.

I read The Sentinel Mage within a few long luxurious sittings.  It came in and I fell under the sway of the cover and soon I was swept off my feet into the world of The Seven Kingdoms. 

It is traditional fantasy fare - shapeshifters, magic, princes, assassins, plagues, quests, undead things…you know, the usual.  But what lifts it high above the mundane is Ms. Gee's excellent writing.  I can't put my finger on it, but there is something incredibly readable about The Sentinel Mage.  I think may have to do with the author's talent of scene setting and characterisation.  We swoop in to be part of Prince Harkeld's party as they travel ever onwards, first to escape his father's soldiers as they run from the kingdom of Osgaard, then to escape assassins and various other creatures bent on killing the Harkeld before he succeeds in his quest. 

Next we are party to Harkeld's half sister Britta's life in the palace.  Britta is as much as a pawn in her father's game of expanding Osgaard as anyone else in the kingdom.  She is pawned off to Duke Rikard (in charge of the army)as wife and it is not something she has any say over.  Duke Rikard is as nasty a piece of work as Britta's father, the king.  It is only through Britta's bondservant Yasma's clever thinking that Britta sustains her sanity following the short weeks after her marriage as she is basically raped several times a day by her new husband.  I liked Britta, I loved her quiet but clever bondservant Yasma and I thought that Britta's armsman (bodyguard) Karel was wonderfully characterised.  

The three of them form a valuable counter-point to Harkeld's travels with the mages.  Even though Britta, Yasma and Karel are living in quiet opulence and luxury whilst Harkeld and the mages are travelling through some inhospitable terrain and seem to be in constant danger, you realise that it is actually Britta who is in greater danger throughout the novel. 

Back to Harkeld who is in theory the main character.  He is not at all happy with the situation he finds himself in.  Like everyone else in the Seven Kingdoms he dislikes the mages, whom everyone seems to call witches.  He has heard the rumours: they are dirty, animalistic creatures who rut with animals, who have no morals and who are one step away from being complete barbarians.  Much to Harkeld's own horror, it is revealed that there is some mage blood in him - he was engineered to be The One to stop the curse spreading through the land.  I'm not giving anything away as I state this, we learn this very early in the opening pages of The Sentinel Mage. 

The things that Harkeld knows about the mages turn out to be lies, of course.  And the author has a great time bursting the young prince's bubble as he travels with the mages and he comes to see them, not really as friends, there is too much animosity from his side, but as people to be trusted to a certain extent. He remains wary throughout the book and I loved this - there are several points in the novel where you really would like to shake him and tell him to get over himself.  But he remains in character throughout the novel and when the catalyst comes it jars everyone in the small group, but especially Harkeld and we watch how this character who has struggled to hold onto what he knows is completely wrongfooted and his world breaks all around him. 

But it is Innis, the youngest of the Sentinel Mages who is the one to watch.  She does not say much and it is from the reaction of the other mages in the group that we realise how strong she is, how unique her abilities.  She takes on the shape of Harkeld's armsman for most of the book but occasionally she is herself or a hawk, lion or even a dog, a lizard - basically whatever is required at the time.  But the big thing is, Harkeld does not know that his armsman Justen is a mage - Innis and two or three of the other mages, take turns to turn into his armsman, to guard him.  They chose to give him a "normal" bodyguard who sleeps in his tent with him and who is him and be with him at all times as they know how much he dislikes the mages.  They fabricate a whole story about Justen's background and it is a credit to Innis and her mage colleagues who keep this facade up the entire time, especially during times of battle. 

And there are deaths - and its not just the red-shirts that die either which I can commend. There is real menace throughout the novel, both from external threats as well as within Harkeld's group of mages.  Harkeld, although he is literally the only one in their world who can stop this curse, is not universally liked by his guardians and there is a lot of conflict because of this. 

Of course Britta's situation in the palace is awful as she uncovers some awful goings on herself and I rooted for her so much, it was unbelievable.  I have no idea where Ms. Gee will be doing with Britta in books 2 and 3 but I hope she comes out on top, along with her armsman and servant.  They are a great trio and I truly think they are my favourites in The Sentinel Mage.  

There is a lot that goes on in The Sentinel Mage and I genuinely fell for the characters.  I thought the plot and story was strong and the magic made sense.  As the first book of The Cursed Kingdom trilogy it is rock solid and well written.  Emily Gee is a fantastically talented writer that makes writing fantasy look easy. 

The Sentinel Mage is released in February by Solaris Books.  Do find Emily Gee's website here. 

Cover Loving

How beautiful is this? I love it - I can't wait to read it.

Yes, this is me, Liz, writing this blog post. About a military sci-fi novel. Don't faint or anything. But I love James Lovegrove's writing and this is the second book in this sequence of novel's he's writing.

This is the review I did over at SFREVU.COM for Age of Ra. I kept it quite low-key and without all the exclamation marks to drive my point across of HOW! BLOODY! COOL! IT! IS!

James Lovegrove on writing about gods and guns

I am so pleased to have the opportunity to put up this guest blog post. I have become a big fan of James' novel Age of Ra (I review it over here at sfrevu.com) and pestered him endlessly with questions and wore him down into popping by to chat to us about creating Age of Ra, writing, characterisation and how he managed to get a girl (me) who goes into spasms around science fiction books because she "just doesn't get them" to not only READ military sci fi but LOVE IT.


A little over two years ago, George Mann of Solaris Books approached me about doing a novel for them in the alternate-history subgenre. I said, “Of course,” partly because I never turn down an offer of work but also because Solaris was swiftly building a reputation for itself as a classy imprint that could also generate sales. I sent George three story ideas, and the one he – and, happily, I – liked the most was The Age Of Ra (although it went by the working title Hieroglyph at that point). I rustled up a plot summary, contracts flew, and next I knew, I was immersing myself in the bonkers world of ancient Egyptian mythology.

Normally I can’t stand research and will do anything to avoid it, but this time it was pure pleasure acquainting myself better with the weird, convoluted continuity of the Egyptian pantheon and their various backstories, feuds and spheres of influence. I’d decided I would make this the most “Egypt-y” novel conceivable, throwing in everything I could fit in – mummies, scarab beetles, animal-headed deities, the works – and see what resulted.

I’d also been hankering to do something in the military-SF vein, for the perverse-seeming reason that I am not a fan of such books. Too often, it seems to me, military SF is an excuse for jingoistic, manly-man, gung-ho antics that don’t show the downside of conflict except, perhaps, in the most sentimental of lights. I wanted to do it differently (my mantra, and my best and worst characteristic as an author). I’ve greatly enjoyed the World War II spy novels of Alan Furst, and I felt here was a chance to write something in that same fatalistic, melancholy style – without skimping on the action sequences, of course.

The fun part of the plotting was establishing which gods would control which portions of Earth and how they would interact with their worshippers. I had to streamline the mythology to suit my purposes. I also had to create credible characters for the main divine dramatis personae, and here I openly acknowledge the influence of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, a masterclass in showing how to humanise entities who are, essentially, abstract concepts.

I’ll admit I found the “god” chapters of the novel a challenge. All-powerful beings who bicker and connive against one another? You have to tread a fine line between the high-flown and the bathetic in order to get it right. The main trick was to make them believable, sublime yet flawed, and on that front I’m pardonably proud of the scene in which Ra reveals the existential dread at the core of his existence – he is god of the sun, but the sun is just one of billions of stars in the universe, so what value, then, is there in being a sun god? Ra, by the way, was easily my favourite in the pantheon to write. I have a penchant for big, bluff, genial authority figures who can be soft when they want to but stern when required.

As for the humans in the book, the story hinges on the relationship between two brothers, which is something I have no direct personal experience of, being the sibling of two older sisters. I do, however, have two sons, aged three years apart like David and Steven in Ra, so I extrapolated from how my boys are now to how they might be as grownups. Surely the closeness and combativeness of their relationship, that strange mix of mutual love and extreme violence which typifies their daily lives, would persist into adulthood, mutated perhaps but basically intact.

Once Ra was done – and I’d enjoyed writing it immensely – I wanted to do more, and Solaris wanted more from me too. I had already vaguely entertained the idea of writing a trilogy of “pantheon” novels. I also – here we go again – wanted to do it differently. Hence the upcoming The Age Of Zeus and The Age Of Odin are standalone books, not direct sequels. Apart from anything else, Ra is too self-contained to warrant a follow-up.

Zeus takes the whole gods-versus-humans idea down a notch. In it, the Greek gods are flesh-and-blood beings who actually inhabit the material world, though their divinity still separates them from humankind. In fact, they’re kind of superheroes, or supervillains to be precise, which allows me to bring my comic-geek sensibilities to the prose form.

Zeus is nearly written, although it’s turned into a bit of a behemoth. When I get round to Odin, what I’m hoping to do is play on the notion of whether the gods concerned are actually gods at all. Their divinity will be subjective, depending on who you believe and what you believe. So that’s taking the gods-versus-humans idea down a further notch. In that respect the three books describe a descent from faith through doubt to scepticism, a path most of us take in our lives, having been children who’ll believe anything and growing into cynical adults who’ll believe nothing.

But don’t worry, there’ll still be plenty of room for gore and violence, and even love. What fun would fiction be without those?

– James Lovegrove

**Competition Time**

I have a spare copy of Age of Ra which I bought when I first met James at a signing at Forbidden Planet a few months ago. I am giving you guys a chance to win it - which in itself is cool enough - but, James has agreed to personalise my unread copy to the winner of this competition. You may start squeeling.

The rules, as always, are simple. Email us with your name, Random.org will choose the winner and we'll announce it on 14th October.

Biohell, Andy Remic

The City: an entire planet teeming with corruption, guns, sex and designer drugs. Humans are upgraded by the injection of microscopic nanobots, courtesy of new technology from the Nano–Tek corporation, but when this highly desirable technology heads onto the black market, millions of people inject themselves with pirated biomods- and transform into zombies. Now they roam the streets, out for blood, packing shotguns and bombs. The Combat-K squad are dropped into this warzone to uncover what’s turned the planet into a wasteland of murder and mutations, and soon their focus is on the darkness at the Nano-Tek corporation itself.


This was my first foray into the world of Combat K. I fished it off my ‘too many books, too little time’ shelf and, feeling a bit sheepish about the dust I’d allowed to gather –sorry Andy-, I cracked it open immediately. Coming straight off my latest bout of 40K adulation, the first chapter or so was a short, sharp bout of cold turkey.

Once the brain cramps wore off and I let myself go with the flow, the pages just kept turning. I hardly noticed the insanely bumpy flight to Malta; my mind was in zombie country, marvelling at the sheer amount of splatter and general chaos crammed between the two covers. It’s is a pedal-to-the-metal smorgasbord of mutants, zombies, killer androids, explosions, gunfire, tanks, giant cyborgs -and a lot of puss. There’s even a twisted romance grotesque enough to be strangely endearing.

Biohell plays out across The City, a lawless urban jungle that spans an entire planet, a teeming hive where almost a generous slice of its population have succumbed to the lure of Biomods, the gene-manipulating nanobots that carry the promise of a better body and a better life… no surgery required, just a quick injection... Once the Biomods begin their rampage, their world goes straight to hell, without passing go or collecting $200. It's not pretty, but then, when you've got zombies toting RPG's, it was never going to be.

Each of the Combat K squad are drawn into this maelstrom through a combination of vengeance, love and betrayal, forced to put aside their differences in order to survive. They’re certainly not the chisel jawed heroes of classic sci-fi adventures; they’re flawed, immoral, fallible and occasionally demented, but they fit the world they live in.

Biohell was a treat to read, a refreshing blast of unadulterated, violent fun*.
It does what it says on the box! You can read an extract here.

*And I’m not just saying that because it’s got zombies with guns.

Evil Ways by Justin Gustainis

Synopsis (from Amazon.com's site)

In a story that ranges from Baghdad to Los Angeles, EVIL WAYS sees eccentric billionaire Walter Grobius attempt to unleash a devastating magical apocalypse. Quincey Morris and his partner, white witch Libby Chastain, are drawn into their deadliest case yet, but from different directions. In Los Angeles, Quincey is blackmailed by the FBI into investigating a series of ritualistic child murders. In New York, Libby barely escapes an attempt on her life by assassins armed with magical weapons. Both of these threads eventually intertwine, leading the investigators to a conspiracy so vast and diabolical as to defy belief.

The final, bloody confrontation takes place at Grobius’s isolated Idaho estate, on Walpurgis Night -- the night of the Witches’ Sabbath. Quincey and Libby, and their allies, must fight a desperate battle against immensely powerful dark forces that threaten the future of all mankind.

Libby and Quincy are back – against their will, admittedly, but adventure waits for no man...or white witch.

White witches are being killed across America for sinister reasons. And yet again children are going missing with parts cut from them. This time around it’s not “muti” murders as in the previous novel by Mr. Gustainis, it is something even more awful.

I fell under Libby and Quincy’s spell when I first read Black Magic Woman (click for review). The urban fantasy setting felt very real, set in modern times, where few people knew about the occult, wizards, magic or supernatural creatures. The action was raw and mean and people got hurt and there were repercussions. I looked forward to the new novel and am happy to say I was not disappointed.

Evil Ways trots out our occult investigators, setting them up on a ride all around America to figure out who has been killing the witches and abducting children and cutting them up. Quincy is approached, yet again, to work alongside the FBI’s BAU but this time around, he doesn’t have to really spend time quantifying supernatural things happening – the agent in charge, Fenton, has come to realise that there are things in the dark that go bump in the night. Even his superior officer calls cases like this the “woo woo” cases.

The fact that there are “woo woo” things happening and that the authorities were semi-aware of this, changed the perspective of the novel a bit. Especially when it turns out that Fenton’s new partner is a bit more than just a clever gall who can shoot straight.

What made me chuckle is that everyone’s favourite Chicago wizard gets a mention in the novel and a few scenes take place in said wizard’s local pub. The two worlds overlapping was done flawlessly.

The plot twists and turns as we follow the two “couples” investigating various end of the enigma. There is a lot of harsh language, tough descriptions and some things that made me wince and pull a face. Evil Ways is not, in any shape or form, a comfortable urban fantasy read. It describes the other side of the fence, the one that doesn’t really care about werewolves or pretty vampires, but focuses more on the evil that men do – to others and to themselves. It is a lot more gritty than most UF out there and it may put some readers off but for those who like Mike Carey and David Devereux amongst others, should add Justin Gustainis works to your TBR pile.

The rapport between Quincy and Libby is good, as it is between Fenton and his new female colleague. In some instances it is almost Whedonesque and made me grin.

The bad guys in the novel made me scratch my head – I did not like them or what they were doing and how they went about doing it was not pleasant. But, contrary to some readers, I enjoy reading about bad guys. The bad guys in Black Magic Woman rang true and made me cringe, the baddies in Evil Ways were pretty awful BUT I did not feel like they could step off the page and do me damage. They did not push me outside of my comfort zone – maybe I’m just odd? – and I found I enjoyed a new female character which the author brought on as muscle and protection for Libby and Quincy, a lot more. I initially thought she was one of the antagonists and cheered for a truly bad girl. Her motivations are not immediately clear, but I did find her character very interesting. I hope to see more of the “Widowmaker” in future novels. There are depths there that can do with exploring.

All in all, it was a good read – the characters have grown, new characters have been brought on set and it’s good to see how things are fleshing out in the series. Solid groundwork is being cast for several more novels (I’m hoping and thinking) and it’s going to be interesting to see how the author expands his created world.

Find Justin’s website here and I’ve found an online link here to some free excerpts, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading.

The Ten Thousand, Paul Kearney

Official blurb:

On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries now, they have remained within the fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. They have become little more than a rumour.

In the vast world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire, a continent-spanning colossus. The Empire rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield. His word is law across the face of the earth.

But now the Great King’s brother means to take the throne by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire.


When we meet Rictus, he’s made peace with the fact that he’s about to die. What he doesn’t realise is that fate has other plans for him, plans that will see his youth burned away in the forge-heat of battle.

I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going at first; having the hero spitting blood and making peace with his gods isn’t how I expected things to start. The setup is the snowball tipped over the edge of the mountain though. It builds on itself and becomes a thundering behemoth that bullies you into staying up late at night with the promise of ‘one more page’.

Paul paints a wonderfully gritty, solid feel to the legion of the Macht. The Kuf are rendered both exotic and mundane, alien and human.. but it’s what happens when these worlds collide that gives the second half of the book that extra va-va-voom that keeps you turning the page long after you should have turned the lights off. The battles bring the filth, fear and brutality of war to vivid life; the desolation of the aftermath lingers long after the swords are sheathed.

I'm pretty fussy when it comes to action; Liz can attest to the number of books I've binned after losing interest in a character's fate; I'm happy to say that Ten Thousand was never in danger of sharing their ignominious fate.

If you’re looking for intelligent action, look no further. Give those nice people your money and take Ten Thousand home with you.



(I'm still pretty depressed about Jason though. Poor bugger.)

The Last Angel by Natasha Rhodes

From the Solaris site:

An angel is found murdered on the streets of Sunset Boulevard. To the media gossip mongers, it’s the biggest story ever. To the Hunters, an underground monster-fighting hit-squad, it’s just another case of ‘whodunnit’. To Kayla Steele, their youngest and newest member, it means a last, desperate chance to bring her murdered fiance back from the dead, and to others with a far darker purpose it is the means to destroy the human race. If the Hunters are to stop the onset of Armageddon they must join forces with their most hated enemies, the werewolves…

One thing is quite clear from the onset - Natasha Rhodes is here to stay. A "new" author in the paranormal / urban fantasy genre, she cut her teeth working on the movie novelisations and tie ins including Blade: Trinity, Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream.

This has clearly stood her in good stead. The girl knows how to spin a good yarn and she clearly loves Los Angeles, there is even mention of the Viper Room!

In retrospect, I should have read Dante's Girl first, as initially not a lot of the story made sense to me as I started off. But then, gradually on my part (erm, meh?) the light dawned on a few things and I got into the swing of the story as matters were explained (by a very patient author) for nitwits like me. And I loved every jot of it. Some of the storyline and references are still obscure, but that will be remedied once I've read Dante, so to be honest, that is my only gripe.

Natasha has a definite writer's skill - she writes at a tremendous pace and does expect you to keep up. The brutality is real, the characters are strong and punchy and Kayla is quite real in her "innocence" (for a lack of a better word). We get pulled deeper into the world of the Hunters as their animosities, loyalties etc. get played out against a background of a Constantine-like Los Angeles. When the book came to an end I frantically paged right to the back thinking, waitaminute! where's the rest? Sadly, we have to wait a little more for the next instalment. This however, is no hardship because, like all good books, this one can do with a re-reading. And trust me, it will go onto the TBRA pile! Especially once I've got Dante under the belt. Who, by the way, does sound...scrummy!

If you love Blade, Constantine, Van Helsing, Kim Harris, Kat Richardson and Mike Carey, you will like Natasha Rhodes.

She writes vividly and the storyline is just that different to keep your attention, as is Kayla as a main character. There is tremendous scope to grow the character and the general storyline and I really do look forward to seeing what else Natasha has up her sleeve.

She is definitely an author to watch out for!

Black Magic Woman, Justin Gustainis

I have had a bumper weekend of reading and finished this off on Friday evening and now that our electricity is back on - thank the gods - I can upload the review.

Synopsis - Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant", white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself—the very heart of darkness.

The story opens with a bang, at breakneck speed. We meet Texan Quincey Morris (yes, grandson of one of the paramours to Lucy in Dracula, by Bram Stoker) as he goes about kicking some vampire butt, very reminiscent of the Wes Craven movie, Vampires...only better written without the swearing.

I like Quincey as a character as he brings across the Texan toughness with that long slow sense of humour that is so well portrayed in many westerns. Libby Chastain was a surprise. I thought the author was going to turn her into a parody of Wiccan cuteness a-la Charmed and thank the heavens he didn't. Here we had a genuinely well thought out, well rounded female lead who did not need rescuing with her bosoms heaving. It was refreshing and fun.

By far the most disturbing thing about Black Magic Woman is the fact that it deals with a very sore subject, that of Muti murders. Muti is an African word and means magic, black magic, and it is nasty stuff. It is very real and very horrifying belief system in Africa, especially South Africa so I was interested to see how it would be played out in the book. A spate of murders here in the UK had it all over the news not so very long ago and it was quite an eye opener to see it being used in the book as part of the plot. It is well researched and I found myself nodding along as a South African policeman, Van Dreenan who had been called in to help the FBI BAU, helped them sort through fact and fiction.

I enjoyed the book and the characters - each of the people we follow in the novel, towards the climax had a well thought out back story and the author did a lot of show, not tell, which is an amazing feat. I found myself checking impatiently at one stage to see if I had missed out on a previous novel featuring Libby and Quincey, but it turns out I hadn't. As the story unfolded, it gave up its secrets and I was pleasantly surprised and pleased.

I am not one to be swayed by quotes from other popular authors on the covers of books but Jim Butcher has a note on the cover of this and it merely states that it is one of the best manuscripts he's read in a long time. And the thing is, I have to agree. It is a compulsively readable and thrilling book that I will happily recommend to others because it hits all the right buttons - it deals with the supernatural, it has kick butt heroes, a really good plot, which is well told, interesting walk-on characters and a well thought out world. The trouble Quincey and Libby get into is pretty scary and things get ugly in here. The law is real and nasty things happen to nasty people, so in that instance it is a winner.

Having heaped on all this praise I am happy to say that I am looking forward to the author's other work. This is good, and the rest will only be better. The characters are solid and very real so he has several story lines which he can play with for future books. All we have to do now is impatiently wait for the next ones to be published!

The Host, Stephenie Meyer

I am hugely grateful to Chris over at The Book Swede's blog for hosting my review (getit?) of Stephenie Meyer's The Host published by Sphere, an imprint of Little Brown.

The book took the wind out of my sails and I think I might just be converted to becoming a dedicated sci-fi reader...okay, who am I kidding? But like before, I am happy to admit my prejudice was all in the head, and that I genuinely enjoyed this book. And to celebrate, I'm hoping to review Kethani soon, should Solaris decide to send it onto me after I begged and cajoled nicely on Friday.