My Review of The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King

I was privileged enough to get an ARC of this, and loved it. It's like Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops meets Matt Helm meets Remo Williams in the coolest possible way. This is brutal, thrilling, action-packed military fantasy at its absolute best. Austin-King’s attention to detail and fast paced snarky style make this book a must read. Not kidding. If you're into military fantasy, or even if you're not, you have to give this a try.

My review of Someone Like Me by M. R. Carey

Gotta watch that Mike Carey. He's a cagey fella. Grabs your attention with some shocking, life threatening domestic ultra-violence, then lulls you into a false sense of security with passages of everyday activities only to blow your mind with one completely insane multiversal time-loop morphing body-snatching doppel-ghost head slam after another until you feel you might be crazy or caught up in the shuddering shadow realm of schizophrenic madness yourself. Yes that. And I loved it.

Nuff said, I think. Oh, except the chapter headings are really cool too. Images instead of titles, each representing one of the character POVS. I liked 'em.

Now nuff said. Thank you, Mr. Carey, for another fascinating thrill ride!

My short but sweet review of Never Die by Rob J. Hayes

I was fortunate enough to get an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Never Die is The Seven Samurai meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in an action-packed story, inspired by both Chinese Wuxia and Japanese Manga. Drawing from Japanese folklore and a variety of East Asian martial arts traditions, this is an exciting tale of honor and redemption you don't want to miss. One of my favorite reads of the year.

My review of Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I just got around to being able to read it. I was not disappointed. In fact, I enjoyed it even more than I expected to.

Eames proved himself an author to watch with Kings of the Wyld. Sharp, hilarious, and wonderfully written, he took the idea of music bands and applied it to adventuring monster killer/mercenaries to create a fresh and exciting twist on fantasy fiction.

With Bloody Rose, he's taken that approach above and beyond, proving without a doubt he can write any damn kind of fantasy he pleases, and at the highest level, deftly wielding his pen to create a truly epic story with spectacular action but also extreme depth and pathos--all without sacrificing the humor that got him to where he is.

As a kind of side note, because it pleases me to no end, I was particularly delighted by the way Eames would occasionally switch from past to present tense for intense action sequences, and the way he handled the ending from a narrative point of view. I'm standing and clapping, Mr. Eames. Standing and clapping. Can't wait to see what's next.

Can't believe it. We won!

Still reeling from the announcement. Paternus: Wrath of Gods has won Best Self-Published Novel 2018 in the BookNest Fantasy Awards! Absolutely amazing and quite a shock, especially when it was up against such an amazing field of books and authors. THANK YOU to all who voted for it. This is an incredible honor.

Massive thanks as well to Petros T. at BookNest for putting this together, and all the bloggers, publishers and agents on the nomination team.

And huge congrats to Nicholas Eames for winning Best Traditionally Published novel with Bloody Rose (I'm reading this now and it's Bloody Brilliant is what it is),

S. A. Chakraborty for taking the prize for Best Debut Novel with City of Brass (high on my TBR now!),

and Harper-Voyager for being awarded Best Imprint--well deserved!

Thank you again everyone. I’m going to go pass out now…