Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters (Book Review)

Author and artist team of Tim Marquitz and J. M. Martin got together last year to form their own publishing company, the small press known as Ragnarok Publications. As one of their first projects, they launched a kickstarter for an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories with a very common theme: kaiju. The man with the idea here was Nickolas Sharps, a fellow blogger and writer who had recently seen the movie Pacific Rim and after enjoying the hell out of it, he got the idea to do an anthology about kaiju since it seemed as if the genre was rather sparse in terms of original fiction.

Needless to say, the kickstarter was mightily successful and just yesterday I finished reading the anthology in its entirety. As someone who had a tiny hand in bringing the project together (I suggested some of the authors who were accepted for the anthology), I’m really pleased with the final product. The anthology has exceeded my expectations and I’m quite happy to say that it is one of my most fun readings of the year so far, and we are only like 36 days in! Tim and Nick assembled some great talent for this anthology and their hardwork and that of J. M. has definitely paid off I think.

June Reading List Poll

In January and February, I ran two highly successful polls where I asked all the readers of the blog to help me pick my reading list for the following months. The first one was for novels, the second one for comics. I managed to meet the reading goals for the first of those polls, but am still progressing through the second one, mostly because I’ve been traveling a bit too much of late, and reading time has generally been at a premium due to work and more time devoted to my writing.

However, I should be done with it by the end of this month, so keep an eye out for updates on that.

In the meantime, here’s my next reading poll, and this one is for novels once again. Hit the break to find out more.

Best of the Best Part 2

I last did something like this in July for the six months from January 1st all the way to June 30th. This list is for July 1st and all the way through to December 30th (the last day doesn’t count!). As I mentioned at the end of that list, this isn’t going to be regurgitation of my “Reading Awards” page, but something more varied. The list takes into account everything I’ve read in the last six months.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Another Milestone, Holy Crap!

So yeah, this was a bit lowkey all of yesterday and today, but I just realised how much of a big deal this really is for me: my first ever interview is live at “A Fantastical Librarian”, run by my friend Mieneke van der Salm, one of the most voracious readers and on-point bloggers I know. I mean, seriously, I never thought that anybody would ever want to interview ME! Know what I mean? It’s a bit surreal at the moment. Hope you all enjoy the interview, where I talk about my inspiration behind blogging, my thoughts on negative reviews and the developing SFF scene in the Middle East.

Thanks once again to Mieneke for hosting me for her Blogger Query series, which has been a blast to read all through recent months. She also hosted a guest review by me today, Dreddline by James Swallow, which is a Judge Dredd audio drama from Big Finish.

*Rocking it out*

Horus Heresy: Thoughts Part 1

The Horus Heresy is the bestselling multi-author series from Black Library, contributed to by some of the most talented authors in tie-in fiction. We have had 21 novels so far in the series, along with several audio dramas and two limited edition novellas. The way things are going, it is a given that there will be at least as many publications in the future for the series. The question that arises is, which author should get to writing which book/legion/faction/character etc. It is a fascinating topic as each author who has contributed to the series so far has had his strengths and weaknesses in equal measure and there is an abundance of talent just waiting to be tapped into. So for this blogpost, I’m going to talk a little about that.

Best of the Best Part 1

Twitter has been buzzing lately with “best of the year so far” and “most anticipated lists”. Looks like everybody and their fictional cat is on the bandwagon. So I thought I’d do one too, a “best of the half-year” list that is. I mean why not, I’ve read so much good stuff this year that it all deserves recognition anyway. I already do a top-of-the-month list anyway, as you can see on the Reading Awards page, so this should be good fun either way.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!

Hammer & Anvil (Advance Review)

‘She had faith,’ Miriya told Verity. ‘As do we. And that will always be enough.’

– Hammer & Anvil, a Sisters of Battle novel by James Swallow

Note: I would like to point out that this is an advanced review since the novel itself will not be available to the general public until November this year, and was available only to the people who were at Games Day UK a couple weeks ago.

Hammer & Anvil continues the adventures of two of the most faithful daughters of the Emperor, the Sister of Battle Miriya and the Sister Hospitaller Verity. First seen in Faith & Fire by the same author, this time the two unlikely heroines are thrust into the mystery of Sanctuary 101, an Ecclesiarchy outpost under command of a small force of Sisters of Battle. With the outpost’s inhabitants slaughtered by the merciless Necrons, Miriya and Verity are part of a mission to reconsecrate the outpost and find out what happened.

New and Fun

So, lots of good stuff coming out of cyberspace today. Especially lots of good news from the universe of Warhammer 40,000.

The Black Library today reached 20,000 likes on its Facebook page. As a reward, they have given us something very very exciting to go crazy over! Head over there to check it out. Its an awesome preview of star-author Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s upcoming limited edition novella about Lorgar.

And its April now so don’t forget to pick up your copies of the Fall of Damnos [Ultramarines Second Captain under Sicarius and Tigurius against Necrons], the Victories of the Space Marines anthology, the Garro: Legion of One audio drama [seriously, the audio extract alone is worth every cent], or Knights of Bretonnia. The reviews for the first two books have been great and Nick Kyme is especially being praised for his work with the Necrons, including a refreshing take on how the Lords and their minions interact.

Games Workshop has launched the Grey Knights today! Strike Squads, Interceptor Squads, Purifier Squads, Paladins, Nemesis Dreadknights, Grand Master Draigo all await to begin a holy crusade against the filthy and gibbering Daemons of Chaos.