The Inferior by Peadar O Guilin: Instant Book Review

Stopmouth and his tribe live at at the edge of existence in a kill or be killed world where every species preys on every other and cannibalism is vital element of the food chain. What then are those strange shimmering globes that float over this barbarian world? Brilliant stuff. It is targeted at young adults so there are no naughty words and you can detect a hint of moralising but the story is easily meaty enough (pun) for mature readers. Peadar's protrayal of the motivations and behaviour of those living in this ativistic world is superb and he gives us a rollicking adventure story to boot. First of a series. Strongly reccommended.

Centurion: By Simon Scarrow, Instant Book Review

Sword and Toga historical fiction set in Eastern Roman Empire. Fairly lightweight but entertaining. I will probably read more from the series.

Older Instant Book Reviews

• Conn Iggulden, Lords of the Bow: Second book in Iggulden's "Conqueror" saga about Ghengis Khan. This is probably a great read but I struggled to get over how utterly dislikeable Ghengisk and his Mongol horde are.
• Gary Gibson: Stealing Light: Start of clever space opera series by a new to the scene Scottish SF writer. The central theme of the novel revolves around a simple premise that has profound implications. Good Stuff.
• J V Jones, The Bakers Boy: Volume 1 of series. Plot is pretty standard fasntasy fare involving lowly kitchen boy's lonely journey to become (no doubt) saviour of the universe. Nevertheless entertaining escapism.
• Kevin J. Anderson: The ashes of the Worlds: Book 7 in the extraordinarily good Seven Suns Saga. Sadly weak but at least it ties up all loose ends albeit sometimes unconvincingly. Made essential by the quality of the first six books.
• George R. R. Martin Dream Songs (bk 1): A Retrospective from the creator of Ice and Fire. Stories range from so so to excellent. Authors commentary though is first rate.
• Demon of the Air by Simon Levack: Detective Story set in Montezuma's Mexico. So so.
• Figure of Hate: Bernard Knight. Medieval Detective Story. Entertaining.
• Blood River by Tim Butcher: True Story of Journalists Journey down the Congo. Gripping but depressing.
• Metal Swarm by Kevin Anderson: Latest in series. Great.
• The Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton: New Sequence from creator of Night's Daw. SLow to get started but picks up towards the end.