Smorgasbord Fantasia

Having read the Vampire Empire stories by Clay and Susan Griffith and immensely enjoyed them, this new series, Crown and Key was something I was eagerly waiting to get started on. Set in a steampunk-ish early Victorian London and featuring some mind-bending magic mixed with alchemy taking on fearsome monsters, the first instalment in this series kicks some serious ass and then some. The story plays out non-stop - like a full-throated nitro-fuelled jet ride straight into an action-junkie’s nightmare even as we fall in love with the new lead pair of characters the author-duo paint up effortlessly. For those pining for Adele and Gareth from their earlier books, now you got the dashing Simon and beautiful Kate to cheer for! The realm’s last defence are an unlikely pair of magicians – a roguish womanizer who’s actually the last of the “scribes” left in England matched up against a self-possessed earnest alchemist.  Samuel Archer apprentices to the enigmatic and reluct...

Shame on me that I've never read one of the greatest masters of speculative fiction - Robert McCammon . The Swan Song is perhaps his best known work - apparently rivaling The Stand (Stephen King - will always be the greatest storyteller ever for me!) as one of the best written post-apocalyptic literary works but The Wolf's Hour recounting the pulse-pounding harrowing adventures of a master-spy behind enemy lines during WW-II - who is also a werewolf - is so much pure pulp fun that it's irresistible and should count right up there on the top of the shelf! Robert's portrayal of Michael Gallatine - super-spy enlisted with the British Secret Service and also Werewolf - as a powerful Captain America pitted against the demented power-crazed absolutely evil Nazis - reads like an epic. Nail-biting action, heady adventure, underplayed romance, lots of sex and hell, brilliant behind-the-lines espionage. It's got it all and Robert brings it all together in a book set ...