This definitely raised the stakes by a few notches. The book starts with two disparate events that end up changing the game completely. Firstly a girl overdoses and dies in somewhat mysterious circumstances. The second is that Reynard gets in touch with Peter Grant to tell him he has a diary that could point towards …
Author Archives: bthespearman
A Time of Blood by John Gwynne
The Empire strikes back, can’t wait to see how this is going to play out. We start off immediately where we left off at the end of the first book. Drem is fleeing with his new companions from the mine to get back to Dun Seren, while Riv and Bleda are nursing their wounds and …
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Different than I imagined but honestly not sure what that was! Ged grows up on a small island but he soon shows signs of magic and gets sent off to train at an academy of magic. While there, through a show of pride, he accidentally unleashes a shadow onto the world that could have major …
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A Time of Dread by John Gwynne
Great opening to the series, it’s nice to back in the Banished Lands! It’s been over a hundred years since the events of the Faithful and the Fallen. Countries and borders have changed, and the Ben-Elim and Kadoshim are both now abroad in the land. The Ben-Elim have made it their purpose to eradicate all …
The Girl and the Moon by Mark Lawrence
For some reason this series just did not work for me. After the cliffhanger ending (again) of the second book, we start right back into the action. For people who’ve read The Book of the Ancestor series, the settings of this will be much more familiar, as Yaz and Co are in the Greenlands and …
Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Another kind of standalone procedural in the series but I’m really enjoying these books. We start when Nightingale suggests to Peter that he should go and assist in the case of two girls who have gone missing in Herefordshire, just in case there are any unregistered wizards involved or other supernatural creatures. When he gets …
The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence
Better than the first book but I have some similar issues with it as well. We plunge right back into the action here after the cliffhanger ending of the first book. Yaz is back on the Ice, and has to deal with the priests and figure out what they are really doing. Her friends obviously …
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The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence
Took me a while to get into it but I ended up enjoying it. We start with Yaz living on the ice with her family and tribe. There is a ritual that all kids have to go through twice, where they are tested by a priest and if they are not deemed strong enough they …
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
A very Cosmere heavy book, but a good conclusion to this series. A few years have passed since the events of the previous book. Wax is now in politics and Maresi and Wayne are both still working for the police. The threat of civil war is getting bigger, along with potential conflict with the southern …
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
Still good on a re-read though still lacks some of the epicness of his other series. There is the threat of civil war in the air as the cities outside of Elendil resent the taxes and controls that are imposed on them. Wax is on a mission to track down his uncle and bring down …
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Barry's Bloody Books 