Smorgasbord Fantasia

With  Blake Crouch , there are a few things guaranteed. The staples or elements we have come to 'expect' as normal : Surefire thrill rides, high-tech science-fictional concepts and a very humane central character stuck in the middle of all this. He excels in taking mind-bending premises and setting it within believable circumstances, crafting out bleeding edge thrillers with enough heart and he is always questioning, questioning the choices our society can take. Or will take, rather.  With  Upgrade  his latest novel, he trains his guns on the rather esoteric topic of gene-mapping and how this concept can be twisted enough in the wrong hands to lead to a catastrophe for the human race. He claims it is his love-letter to our species, even quotes Yuval Noah on his views for Homo Deus, the next gen evolution of human beings, aka Homo sapiens.  As always - Blake strikes the perfect balance with exposition of "sciency" stuff - and there's a lot to unpack here, what with

Ordinary Monsters by J M Miro has frequently flitted in and out of my attention scape as soon as it released but now that I have read it fully, I frankly believe, that this book deserves a lot more love! It's a mammoth book with a daunting page-count but the lyrical writing, the cinematic action-thrills and the clever juxtaposition of familiar tropes like gifted children and a magical school in a well-detailed Victorian era England, makes the pages fly and helps us make short work of the book.  It's a complex, twisted tale that moves across the Wild West of America, the plague ridden streets of Tokyo, finally ending up in the cold windy northlands above Edinburgh in the early 1890's, tracing the lives of two kids - namely Charlie Ovid at Sixteen, a half black kid from Missouri and Marlowe, a young eight year old orphan, found in a moving boxcar next to his dead nursemaid and then brought up in a circus.  Because both these boys are gifted with unique 'Talents', the

 I am honoured to be part of the online book-tour for the upcoming epic fantasy novel The Last Blade Priest by W P Wiles , from the Angry Robot Books .  The book releases on July 12th and is available for pre-order .  The Last Blade Priest is a featured top ten TBR for this quarter for me and for good solid reason! Here's the blurb that should get you all hot and excited, for what I am hoping is an absolutely wonderful epic fantasy romp, with some stunning worldbuilding and brilliantly realised characters, caught up in a maelstrom completely out of their control.  Inar is Master Builder for the Kingdom of Mishig-Tenh. Life is hard after the Kingdom lost the war against the League of Free Cities. Doubly so since his father betrayed the King and paid the ultimate price. And now the King’s terrifying chancellor and torturer in chief has arrived and instructed Inar to go and work for the League. And to spy for him. And any builder knows you don’t put yourself between a rock and a har