Lady-Protector by L.E. Modesitt Jr

Lady-Protector is the last (so far) book in L.E. Modesitt’s COREAN CHRONICLES and a direct sequel to The Lord-Protector’s Daughter. You can read this duology without having read the first six COREAN CHRONICLES books, but you do need to read The Lord-Protector’s Daughter before picking up Lady-Protector. This review will necessarily spoil some of the plot for that earlier novel.

In The Lord-Protector’s Daughter, Mykella (the titular character) discovered that her father’s brother was stealing money from the treasury and planning a coup. Thanks to the magical powers that Mykella recently acquired, she was able to kill him and her scheming ... Read More

The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green

John Taylor has been hired by The Unnatural Inquirer, the gossip magazine of the Nightside, to find a stolen DVD that allegedly contains a recording of a transmission from the afterlife. His investigation will take him all over the Nightside where we’ll encounter old and new friends (and enemies).

The Unnatural Inquirer is the eighth book in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series. If you’ve read all the previous books, you know what to expect here and, depending on your tastes, that’s either a good or a bad thing. If you just want to hang out with John Taylor and his friends in the Nightside, The Unnatural Inquirer will probably please you. It’s got everything we expect from a NIGHTSIDE book — a fast-moving romp through a decadent parallel world with some of the strangest people and creatures you’ll ever meet.

Unfortunately, as I�... Read More

The Wyrm King by Holly Black

The third and final part of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's collaborative effort is called The Wyrm King, following on from The Nixie's Song and A Giant Problem, part of the Beyond the Spiderwick trilogy which in turn is a sequel to the original The Spiderwick Chronicles series (why are fantasy titles so convoluted?) and which wraps up the trilogy in a satisfying, action-picked finale.

Centred on the plump eleven-year old Nick Vargas, his older brother Jules and their unwanted stepsister Laurie, the three siblings spent the better part of the last book trying to remove giants from Mr Vargas's housing development, only to find that their successful attempt to lead... Read More