Assemblers of Infinity by Kevin J Anderson and Doug Beason

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Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson

The watchmaker rules over a perfectly ordered society where everyone knows their place and everything happens at exactly the right time. His subjects are for the most part happy to live such a controlled existence secure in the knowledge that the Watchmaker will look after them and everything will work out alight. The hero of this book is a rather accidental rebel who ends up stepping out of his pre-determined groove and embarking on a series of adventures all the while being shadowed by the shadowy arch nemesis of the Watchmaker known as the Anarchist.

Interesting story that has a tie in with an album of the same name by the band Rush.

The Edge of The World by Kevin J. Anderson

This is the opening volume of a new fantasy series by the author of the excellent Seven Suns saga. We have a world split North and South between two blocs  each claiming to hold the only true faith. The war between them is based on a misunderstanding but that is irrelevant now as atrocity leads to atrocity. To Anderson's credit he doesn't paint the sides in black and white although I am pretty sure we are supposed to empathise with the more "European" bloc. The King of this Northern region has a spiritual goal to send an expedition westward to the edge of the world where monsters and maybe even Gods live but the squabbles of the ongoing war interfere.

Being the first book of a new series it spends more time on character development than on plot but the stage is set for some interesting adventures ahead. I am looking forward to reading them.

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.