kevin
Recommendations

A brilliantly modern take on the werewolf slayer trope where a growing, changing character discovers that the real predators are usually the men in her life.

There's much more to this book than how Elkie kills werewolves and works out where they're coming from. Her relationships change, she finds out what she's capable of, not just killing 'furred-up' beasts, but farming, rescuing, growing.

I proofread this book for the author, thinking it wouldn't be my kind of thing, but I LOVED IT! Loads of fun, really creepy in parts and full of magic and danger.

Set in Leeds, it includes references to actual magical practices and Yorkshire's thriving magic sub-culture.

A great, fast-paced story with a strong 'Do It Herself' female lead. Can't wait to proof read the sequel.

A Duet for Invisible Strings is a romance novella filled with music, mystery, and love, with a paranormal twist, and is my perfect romance story.

The writing is often haunting, and at other times, sweetly hilarious. Which, in all, paints the most wonderful picture.

A beautiful romance that I just couldn't put down. A must read for anyone looking for deep characters in a short book.

The beauty of the prose is only matched by the imagination behind the world-building. This novella, while short, breaks my heart, reforms it, and breaks it once more.

While the writing itself might not be to everyone's tastes, you cannot deny its beauty. Each sentence is carved and crafted, each paragraph moulded into art.

Reading Kai Ashante Wilson's work is an experience not to be missed.

A fantastic collection of gut-wrenching tales.

The imagery will stay with you, as will the depth to which Shane Hawk is willing and able to explore his indigenous Cheyenne and Arapaho heritage. Crafting tales that provide a refreshing point-of-view and unique imagery that get into your brain and writhe behind your eyes.

Can't wait to read a longer work by the author. Need more!

Arachne is an unique entry in the cyberpunk genre. It steps between the dystopia of William Gibson and the otherworldliness of Phillip K. Dick.

Full of 'almost' body-horror, corporations so mega that they transact court cases in nanoseconds, and AI characters with more spiritualism in their circuits than the humans that inhabit this post Big-One San Francisco.

A must-read for cyberpunk fans!

This isn't your propaganda-and-trope filled flag-waver. B-Mecha is fully aware of its place in Mech vs. Kaiju lore, and up-ends it in glorious West Yorkshire fashion.

We're given a concise yet comprehensive view of the lay-of-the-land, and the personal toll when Michael receives very little thanks for the dangerous work he does.

Love it!

Gaie Sebold has created such a rich universe of worlds and characters in her Babylon Steel novels, that you can't help finding something to enjoy.

For me the two books have been a complete blast and I can't wait for the third... when it arrives.

They are FUN! That's not to say there's no emotion, pathos, danger and risk in them. Not at all.

An absolute riot of multi-world fantasy fiction.

Fans of urban fantasy looking for a protagonist who is a little more... mature, will love Becoming Crone.

Claire has seen it all, or so she thinks. Her world-weariness, her highly-developed lack of trust, and her not-unexpected ability to expect things to go wrong make her the perfect character to introduce us to a world of witches, gargoyles, werewolves, and witches, plenty of witches.

I love a good zine! And Between the Scanlines hits the sweet spot for me; not too long that it stretches each issue, yet filled with plenty of retro gaming info.

Sasha and Kit are doing amazing work here. Buy as many issues as you can, and fill your eyes with gaming goodness with a lovely helping of personality and passion!

Absolutely loved this occult murder mystery novella!

It's so much fun! It's fast-paced, has tonnes of likeable characters, some f/f smoochieness, magic, demons, and vampires. And while it's the start of a series, it has a complete story of its own - ensuring you get a nice neat-ish ending at the same time as teasing more adventures to come.

Will definitely read this series!

Filled with flawed characters, a corrupt police force, bought and manipulated by a wealthy local family; it's a rich background to the main tale of redemption, coming to terms and moving on.

Slow in parts, it is however, a worthwhile read in itself, serving as an insight into the mining communities of the region and their demise as a local industry and employer.

Crime fiction is a genre I rarely venture into, but Ruth Sutton's Cumbria-set series may be my gateway.

The story nips along at a nice pace, providing plenty of information while avoiding info-dumps. The characters are likeable in their own ways and the late 60s setting is nicely done, especially the insight into the Cumbrian coastal region of that period.

I can't wait to start the sequel.

Europe in Autumn, Europe at Midnight and Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson, combine a believable and prescient view of a soon-to-be Europe with a strange, almost fantastical twist.

It reminds me in part of China Miéville's The City and the City, while also showing flashes of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, with its "technocultural future-present" setting.

All three are great reads!

If you haven't read any of Cat Hellisen's books before, read this first.

A beautifully crafted tale. Otherwordly, sinister, near-horror, it has sides and edges I couldn't grasp, as my eyes slid off them, unable to focus while it slowly insinuated its pages, paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters into my brain.

A MUST READ, and it will only be the beginning of your journey!

This book got me hooked!

It delivers hard science fiction, pathos, beautifully dark comedy, a dig at every lazy sci-fi trope in existence, plenty of laughs, and is simply a must-read.

You know what you're getting into from the clever book titles. The humour is Jonathan Swift meets Red Dwarf. And the science is terrifyingly accurate...

...unfortunately!

The Phone Job continues the journey we're all on together, and concludes it in the most space opera way possible. Not only with a bang, but with hope.

Fermi's Progress is a collection of novellas that read like Red Dwarf meets DS9, crashes into Blake's Seven, by way of every single Gerry Anderson series, and a whole lot of Space 1999.

This is great science fiction you'll love.

The Fermi crew is a mess, but in Planet of the Apiaries, they're starting to come together. Starting to discover their roles, and what each of them means to the others... even if they can't remember them all.

The sci-fi references come thick and fast, but are never exclusionary. This fantastic third instalment ups the ante and drops a bombshell in its final line!

Must read sci-fi!

I was expecting to be impressed. But instead I was STUNNED!

FIYAH Literary Magazine is an essential work. While the included stories can all be considered speculative fiction, the breadth of ideas is astounding.

It's all finished off with a nice sample of a self-published work. A great idea.

If the subsequent issues are half as good as this first one, you should definitely subscribe.

A beautiful, heart-breaking, and hopeful book.

The cycle of it, the 'world outside'. And an enduring message of simply being.