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Pre-order your copy here (Release date 01 May 2021.)


Great news friends, followers and readers, 'Demon Child,' the first book of my 'Hell's Children' trilogy, is now available for pre-order from Amazon. The final release date is the 1st of May. I've had this one under my belt for a long time so it's great to finally have it out there.

It's a dark fantasy read with moments of humour and characters you will fall in love with. Here's a sneak peak:

Shuya shuddered as she watched sparkling razor-sharp glass-sand blow by outside her portal. Hell was a hard place to grow up but the alternative was a lot worse, the idea of living outside and being exposed was horrifying. Could life even survive outside? It was doubtful.
She’d once endured hours hanging out this very same portal by nothing but the tips of her claws while four of Banya Baba’s Fire Hounds hunted her inside. Shuddering at the unwanted memory of wind churned sands whipping her while grit built up around her burning eyes, she pulled herself away. It was her habit to stand here often peering at the gloomy, swirling horror outside. Fears must be faced after all, anything else was weakness.
Banya Egan’s maze represented marginal safety and she was grateful for her place here but she would never take it for granted. That incident had left her nearly blind. She still remembered the day like it was yesterday and she was still paying off her debt for the rare healing magic she’d required to save her vision. Egan may be her master but that didn’t earn her anything for free, even in his maze. The debt had been a massive burden for most of her short life but today she had a chance to finally call it paid.
She could feel the other Banya, Banya Baba, on the other side of the Maze’s outer boundary wall. He was trying to breach it again. Like all Banya, he was overflowing with power. Shuya was finely attuned to the field of magic and so his potency revealed his location to her. Her mouth watered, she craved that wealth of energy so much. If she could have it all she would be free from debt forever. That wasn’t possible though. The standard contract in Egan’s crew gave him half of everything she could kill. Due to her debt, he took half again of her cut. What was left was her’s but she didn’t have the power to hunt today’s pray alone so she’d offered Missa the Skrae an equal share in return for help. If all went as planned Shuya would get just a fraction of Banya Baba’s power. It would still be far more than she’d ever held before... But not nearly enough for true freedom.
“Missa, I can feel him. It will be soon.”
The giant Spider had been working hard. This corridor was part of Shuya and Missa’s shared personal territory, a dead-end section near the boundary of Egan’s maze and Baba’s territory. Shuya knew this territory as well as anyone could know the ever-changing labyrinth. She’d lived here ever since Egan accepted her, newly hatched and rescued from Baba’s hounds, into his crew.
Shuya had no idea why her egg had been discarded but for whatever reason, it was her bad luck to hatch right in the middle of Baba’s territory, the swamp, as it was known. Only Egan’s intervention saved her.
Egan’s crew included a diverse range of demon species but they were almost all spell casters or ambush hunters. The maze was an ideal hunting ground for ambush predators and spell casters could manipulate its magical nature to draw prey ever deeper into the waiting traps. Baba’s crew, on the other hand, were mostly Elementals, he prized Fire Hounds above all else.
Shuya rubbed the ring of small white scars on her left shoulder, a nervous habit she was trying to break. They were from the burning teeth of the first Fire Hound to grab her after she hatched. It got her before her armoured jewel carapace hardened. As an infant, Shuya would have been no match for a pack of hungry hounds but even as they were circling in for the kill Egan was raiding Baba’s territory and in the chaos that followed Shuya claimed her own first kill, sinking razor-sharp baby teeth into the throat of one of Baba’s Imps and then fleeing with Egan’s raiders back to the maze.
Shuya would hardly have the motivation to get up in the morning now for the feeble amount of power that came from killing Imps but that was her first-ever taste of power. That first rush of sweet life flowing into her was intoxicating. Magic flooded her veins and with it, a will to live, to stay alive in the chaos of battle and the effort was noticed. Egan took her in but not without conditions. Banya need followers and so Shuya was given a choice, sign his contract and become part of his crew or go it alone as prey to be hunted and consumed.
Somewhere that fat old monster still had a piece of his own skin with her infant handprint surrounded in enchantment runes. She’d handed over half the magic for every kill since and more again after his magic saved her from blindness but the sacrifice bought his protection during the vulnerable first years of her life and her right to reside in the relative safety of the maze. It was a bargain well made. Any who couldn’t protect themselves were food. It was a fundamental law of Hell.
“Are you ready Missa?”
The Skrae, was not offended by Shuya’s question; the risk they were about to take was immense.
“The traps are set, child and if your spell is strong enough we will remain hidden. If not we will die.”
The first time Baba had breached the maze it took Shuya by surprise. This time though, she knew what to expect. He would breach the wall and his hounds would sweep through to strike as deep as they could into the maze and drag back out whatever unfortunates they’d managed to capture. Baba himself would not venture far into the maze. The risk was too great, but he was greedy. He would come in far enough to be able to tally the kill as his hounds dragged out their victims. He would not want to miss any of his dues. Unprepared last time, Shuya had only survived by taking the desperate step of hanging herself out the portal to hide. Today would be different, they were well prepared.
Missa had used every bit of her power setting traps. Their whole territory was a mass of sticky web, enchanted with the Skrae’s unique power to be fire-resistant. They would capture many hounds today and those that made it through her territory into the rest of the maze would know that they could not return back the way they’d entered. They would be trapped and become prey for the various other predators that dwelt under Egan’s protection.
Here in the corridor closest to where Baba would breach the outside wall Shuya and Missa waited, obscured from view by Shuya’s magic and holding the most powerful web that Missa could enchant, the ‘Magic Nullifying Web’. The value of this web alone was as much as all the rest she’d spun combined. If today’s plan failed Missa would be in serious danger until she could replenish her magic. It was an astronomical gamble but one they both agreed was worth the risk. Shuya was a gifted strategist and her instincts were something that Missa had come to trust.
Shuya could feel it when Baba’s magic started working on the wall. Banya were not strong spell casters despite their massive reserves of power. Their strength came from controlling the distribution of that power strategically amongst their underlings to build crews into small armies but Baba had no gifted spell casters in his crew, preferring the fast breeding of an Elemental army instead. The work of breaching the wall, therefore, fell solely to him. Shuya could feel the power wasted in his clumsy weaves, it was disgraceful. She nodded to Missa and the pair of them climbed the wall to the ceiling above, Missa with her eight barbed legs and Shuya with her diamond hard claws easily finding purchase in the soft stone.
She drew in a deep breath and reached inside herself to find the cool core of power she would need to cast her spell. The world dulled down as her spirit plunged into the well, her personal reservoir of power. As always it was an ecstatic experience. Here, she could feel the potential of what she may become if she could just survive long enough to gather the power. There were those that thought her beautiful now but what she would become... that was something else altogether.
There was no time for vanity though. Any time she spent immersed in her well burnt away at her precious reserves. She carefully teased out a tendril of raw power and exited the well. With her mind, she began weaving. She cast ‘Hide,’ a simple illusion and imbued it with as much power as she could sustain.
“This will obscure us Missa but we must stay silent. I can’t hide sound. Make sure all the hounds have passed before you spring the trap on Baba. I don’t think I could fight off a Fire Hound.”
Missa nodded her understanding and the wait began. This was the worst part. Shuya kept an eye on her spell. Every now and then the weave would start to loosen and she would shore it up with more power, filling in the gaps, it was a costly process but necessary. Magic outside a demon’s well didn’t last for long unless it was tied to an object with enchantment. Enchantment was the most advanced form of spell weaving and Shuya hadn’t the power to even attempt it yet.
The wall below began to glow red. Baba was using simple heat to melt through the stone. What a waste, Shuya felt her lip curl in disgust. The power he was wasting today was more than she could collect in a year... But that was all about to change.

Mr. Nice by Howard Marks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well, this was a fascinating read. It wasn't a 'book I can't put down' kind of read but it was a 'find myself thinking about it at odd moments' kind of read. I've given it four stars and it deserves them all.

Howard Marks is a man whose story is definitely bigger than the man... by that I mean, he has attracted a lot of media attention throughout the years and his story has been sensationalized beyond belief. A fact that he has at times used to his advantage as he was (according to his own accounts) just a little in love with the fame (or infamy depending on your perspective), and at other times his notoriety has worked against him for example when he was on trial and the prosecution was able to paint a picture of him that blew the scale of his crimes out of proportions but the jury still bought it.

This is Howard's own account of his life and exploits as a hash smuggler. He has by his own admission used lies to journalists and authors, in the past, to help spread the myths that suited him and hide the truths that didn't, so I read this account with just a little skepticism. There is clearly a lot in this book that despite being almost unbelievable may just be true... there is also likely a lot that is fabricated and even more that has been omitted. Never the less it was revealing and thought provoking.

A good read.

Adam :)



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Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 stars

Rating this book has been hard. I was tempted to give it five stars but in the end, settled on four and a half. It was a very good book but it just didn't quite grip me enough for a perfect score. Still a read I would highly recommend with nothing negative to report.

This is a story set in a world with both magic and guns... In fact, our main character, Feild Marshall Tamas, is the leader of a cabal of mages called 'powder mages' who specialise in a type of magic fueled by gun powder that primarily affects their ability to shoot. Tamas leads a very bloody military coup that overthrows a corrupt king, ending a dynasty that had lasted near 1500 years. He then has to hold his country together through the turmoil that follows but his task is made harder by the fact that his actions have awoken some very ancient powers.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this book, I'd heard of the trilogy (The powder mage trilogy) before but it hadn't really seemed like my thing. I was wrong. This is great.

I mentioned how close this book came to being a five star read for me already and I mentioned my reason why it didn't quite make it (Not quite gripping enough)... well here's the thing, the ending was very gripping and quite a cliff hanger and this is just book one of the trilogy. I have high hopes for books two and three and this trilogy may get a five star out of me yet.

Happy reading.

Adam:)



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The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The words that first come to my mind are 'Charming' and 'Enchanting'. This is not really a fairy tale but it has that feel. I've given it five stars because I really haven't got any negative impressions to report. It's not my normal type of five-star read but it was a pleasure.

Our main character is the irrepressible January Scaller. A girl who has grown up in a gilded cage and not known it because never having tasted freedom, she didn't know she lacked it... but given just the smallest taste was all that was required. The plot follows her as she unlocks her father's story and in the process creates her own.

The author has written this story with a nice pace and an interesting (Sometimes wryly humorous) narrative style. She switches smoothly between first and third-person narrative and has developed her characters well, both heroes and villains.

I would recommend this story to anyone who likes fantasies or fairy tales and especially to anyone who likes strong young female main characters who beat the odds.

Adam:)



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Empress of the Fall by David Hair

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first book of the second quartet of books, that I have read, by David Hair. This Quartet (The Sun Surge Quartet) Begins where the story in the first (The Moon Tide Quartet) finishes but with new main characters (although there are a few familiar faces).

At first, I found this book a little hard to get into but it was for the same reason that I found the first book of the last quartet a little hard to get into so I knew it would be worth persevering. This author doesn't write on a small scale. He's built a huge world with a complex political situation and has multiple well fleshed out main characters as well as a multitude of lesser characters that are still well developed... and that requires a fair bit of introduction, which is why you have to wade a bit into these quartets before the real action can begin. It's worth it.

I think reading this book straight away after finishing the Moon Tide quartet detracted a little from my first impressions as well. It took a little getting used to this world which I was now so familiar with, without the main characters I had come to care about in the previous story but the new main characters grow on you quickly enough. With a little time spent between the two quartets, this wouldn't even be a factor.

I noticed another thing going straight from one series to the next as well. This is a minor point but worth mentioning. The author has had to dial back the power of his mages a little for this series. By the end of the previous, a few of the main characters had become quite overpowered almost godlike... That's a good way to finish a book but not a good place to start from so the power of the Gnosis (The main magic system in this world) has been dialled back just a bit, or so it seems to me.
The author has also added some new elements to the magic system that didn't exist (Or at least, were not a factor) in the first series. I like the changes.

As with the first series, I can't really give you a synopsis- this world is far too big, with far too many characters and far too complex a plot. It's just too much to cover in a review and still do it justice. I will talk about one thing about the author's world that I really love though. All the races, cultures and religions in this world are very obviously based on real races, cultures and religions and the author has done a great job of it.

I had one criticism of every book in the first series and that was that they were rife with typos and while it doesn't seem to be quite as bad in this second quartet, there are still rather a lot... not enough to have me knock off a star though although other readers who are less tolerant may find them more of a factor.

Solid start to another quartet. Four and a half well-earned stars.

Adam:)





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Mage's Blood by David Hair

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is an author I haven't come across before. This book, 'Mages Blood,' is the first of a quartet (Moontide quartet) and they are big books so this is a story on an epic scale. In fantasy, this often involves a lot of world-building but this author has done something very clever, he has based all his cultures and religions on real-world cultures and religions. While this detracts a little from the alienness of the world he has created (Which might mater to some fantasy readers who value the imagination required to invent fantasy worlds), he has more than made up for it by inventing a good back story and a magic system that puts this book firmly into the realm of fantasy.

Another positive side effect of borrowing from the real world for cultures and religions is he doesn't have to spend pages and pages explaining his world- so this aforementioned 'epic scale' story is all plot. I haven't yet said what I thought of it...

I've given it three and a half stars so that's a good book in my system, not great- but worth the time to read. I've marked it down a little for the number of typos I came across (But bear in mind its a huge book so the editing would have been a marathon) and also because I felt like there were just a few too many main plot lines so each time I was just starting to get into a bit of the story we were jumping off somewhere else. I marked it back up a bit because of the scale of this story, the number of characters (not just minor characters but well fleshed out major players) is an impressive feat on the authors part and also for the basic storytelling...

This story had that elusive something, it gripped me.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

Adam:)



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Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Really good read! I started reading this without looking at who the author was and I was thinking to myself, "This is fantastic, Who is the author?" Then I checked... Mark Lawrence. Right, that explains it. Yup, another excellent book by this excellent author.

In 'Red Sister' we meet Nona Grey, an angry wee lass of perhaps 10 years. Counting the years you have lived is not really a priority in the harsh poverty-stricken land she comes from but we meet her in a prison yard far from where she was raised just before she is due to be hanged for murder. She isn't actually guilty of murder but not for want of trying. Her victim survived only because his family had enough wealth to pay wizards to keep him alive.

He (The victim) was a pit fighter, a full-grown man and even larger than average due to his magical lineage and Nona, well, Nona was a half-starved waif. But she too has a bit of magic to call on and if that's not enough she has her rage. Bucket loads of it. Maybe just enough, in fact, to deal with the powerful enemies who come after her when she is saved from the gibbet by Abbess Glass of the Convent of Sweet Mercy. But before you start to wonder what the Abbess might be thinking, taking in a convicted murderer to be a novice at her convent there is something you should know...

Sweet Mercy is a convent where the nuns are trained killers and learn to wield powerful magic. In a cold dying world, strangled by ice and in a constant war, angry little Nona has found her place. If she can just survive her enemies long enough to become a 'Red Sister,' a magic-wielding warrior nun.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. I loved the world the author created where the moon is a giant mirror focusing the dim rays of a dying sun onto the equator and that is the only thing keeping the polar ice at bay. I loved the characters, the nuns, the novices and the bad guys but most of all the main character.

4 stars.

Adam:)



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Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a 3.5 / 5-star read. It's not bad but it's not Trudi Canavan's best work either. If you read this having read nothing from her before, you will be impressed because she is an excellent author... if you read this after reading something awesome like the black magician trilogy, you may be a little disappointed.

There was a lot I did like about this story. I enjoyed having two main characters, Tyen (Male) and Rielle (Female), who have almost completely unrelated stories. I enjoyed aspects of both their story lines as well but I just didn't find this story as riveting as other works from the same author. It's good enough that I did continue to read the series and I did feel like there was a bit more in the second book than this first one. I'll have more about the rest of the series in my reviews of those books.

Adam:)



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Angel of Storms by Trudi Canavan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the second book of this series and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first. I was a little disappointed with the first book because I didn't feel it was up to the same standard as other books I have read from Trudi Canavan but I feel like 'Angel of Storms' made up for that. This book was a solid 4/5 star book.

In this book, we are reunited with our same two main characters from the book one, Tyen and Reille. But where, in book one, they were on completely different worlds and never had any interaction with each other in this book they have both found their way into the broader universe of worlds and while they are still not directly interacting there are other characters in each of their stories that are beginning to tie the two together.

I won't give too much away about the plot as I don't like to risk spoiling the story for anyone but I will say that if, like me, you were not satisfied with the tension or pace of the first book you will probably find, as I did, that book two makes up for the slow start.

Happy reading.

Adam:)





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Successor's Promise by Trudi Canavan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm dissapointed. I wasn't particularly impressed by the first book in this series but I persevered and read the second... which was great! I really enjoyed it... but with this third book in the series, I feel like we have taken a step back to the tension levels of the first. I'm only giving it 3 stars and I'm really not even sure if I will read book four.

I'm just not being gripped by this tale. I'm not being carried away into this universe that the author has created and I'm not really feeling for (or with) the characters. I know Truddi Canavan can write amazing books because I'm a huge fan of the Black Magician trilogy but this series is just not hitting the high notes.

Adam:)



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I have reviewed 'The Painted Man,' (Also called 'The Warded Man.) in the past but rather than do a review for each book in the series I wanted to do one review for the whole series. This review, therefore, is for the 'Demon Cycle' (All five books) by Peter V. Brett.

This is without a doubt one of the best fantasy series I have ever read. I would recommend it to anyone. Peter V. Brett is a masterful storyteller who has woven a rich story, set in a well thought out world, with believable characters into a complex tale. It does have a few of the standard fantasy tropes but he has managed to come up with what I consider one of the most unique stories in the fantasy genre that I've ever come across.

In terms of ratings, I would give the first three books in the series 5/5 stars each and the last two would each be solid 4/5 star books. I will talk a little more about why I dropped the rating a little for the final two near the end of this review after the brief synopsis.

The story occurs in a part of a world containing two nations, Thesia and Krasia. The people are relatively primitive but there are signs that humans were once much more advanced and had lost their technology. Remnants remain and some technologies are on the border of being rediscovered but humanity itself is in dire straights...

Each night magical mists rise from the ground coalescing and solidifying into a range of horrible demons that spend the entire night hunting humans before vanishing again with dawn. Humans cower at night behind walls, barely protected by painted symbols, wards, that seem to keep the demons at bay... sometimes.

Well, that's how it is in Thesia where our main character comes from. In Krasia humanity is equally as threatened by the demons but they have formed a rigid societal structure with warriors at the top and every night those warriors are tested as they protect their city against the demons that rise in the night, luring the creatures into traps outside the city walls. It is a battle they have been fighting, nightly, for millennia and one they are slowly losing.

That is the situation at the start of the series. The story follows many characters but has five or six main characters. It documents the rise of humanity from their desperate state as one man lights a fire in them and gives those in Thesia back the spirit to fight then in Krasia he finds the means... Combat wards. Ancient magics that give humans a fighting chance against the demons.

What follows though is not the glorious uprising he hoped for, instead, the world shatters as people grow powerful on stollen demon magic and turn on each other even as the demons get stronger and stronger as well as much more savage.

Peter V. Brett has written a story truelly his own. As mentioned above it has a few tropes common to other fantasy series but I can honestly say I have never read a similar series. He has managed to make both good guys and bad guys who are believable, fallible and loveable. His characters develop and change through the series as you would expect but where he shows his mastery as a writer is that he develops not just his many main characters but an astounding range of lesser characters as well.

Every book was a pleasure to read and as I started before the series was finished the waits in between releases were hard to take. Fortunately, the series is now complete and a reader beginning the books today could binge for weeks. I envy you.

As mentioned above I rated the last two books in the series a little lower than the first three. They are still great reads and the story finishes well with no loose ends.

The reason I rated book four (The Skull Throne) a little lower is that it is not quite as action-packed as some of the earlier books and it is kind of obvious that the author is using that book to prepare for the final book that will follow. It feels like pieces being moved into position for the final act but it is still a good book and it finishes with a great plot development.

The final book, as well, gets a slightly lower rating. It could have been perfect but it moves along a little too slowly with the main plotline being revealed in little bits as the author jumps about the world finishing off the plots of the various lesser characters. While this means everything gets tied up nicely and we are not left wondering about anyone it did, for me, detract a little from the tension of the final battles etc.

If I had to give the series an overall Rating I would say 4.75/5. It really is one of the best.

Enjoy!

Adam;)

Hello Friends, Readers and Followers. :)

I apologise for the long wait with no updates but as mentioned in a previous post we moved from the Cook Islands to New Zealand in October and things have been busy.

I have had time to do a bit of reading over the last couple of weeks though and should have some new reviews for you all soon. I've been reading a bit of Fantasy, one of my favourite genres, and have recently (finally) finished reading Peter. V. Brett's 'Demon Cycle'. I've been waiting for ages for the chance to get my teeth into the last book in the series, 'The Core,' and it was in the local library when I got back to N.Z. Expect reviews soon.

It feels fantastic to be on my own land (We purchased land in NZ and planted it out in fruit trees before we moved to the Cook Islands) and great to see all our baby trees all grown up. It has been a beautiful spring here to welcome us home and there will be a bounty on the trees at the end of summer.

Here are a few pictures from the garden, I will get those reviews up shortly.

Adam :)