"Steelheart" by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Steelheart

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Gollanz

Book 1 of 'Reckoners'

Blurb:

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Synopsis:

David as a young boy see's his father killed by the Epic Steelheart. After ten years he has been watching and waiting for the Reckoners to make a hit on one of Steelheart's subordinates. He spots their mission going wrong and decides to help, to become one of the Reckoners. David and one of the Recokners kill an Epic and the Reckoners take him into custody to see if he is a problem. He convices them otherwise and soon a second Epic is dead.

David convinces the Reckoners that nothing will change unless they kill Steelhart. The leader agrees and a plan is hatched....

Verdict:

I was recommended this book, but was unsure about it to begin with. Shortly into the book, my mind was changed and I found it hard to put down. The idea that if people got super powers they would use them for their own goals is great, leaving the normal people to become the heroes. At 400 pages, it took me a while to read, but well worth it. Sanderson throws you straight in at the deep-end and keeps the action hot. This would make a superb movie.

Rating: 5/5

"The Long Earth" by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Title: The Long Earth

Author: Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Publisher: Corgi

Book 1 of 'The Long Earth'

Blurb:

1916: the Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No Man's Land gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive (some said mad, others dangerous) scientist when she finds a curious gadget - a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a...potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world for ever.

And that is an understatement if ever there was one...

Synopsis:

The 'Long Earth' is a series of parallel worlds that are similar to Earth, which can be reached by using an inexpensive device called a "Stepper". The "close" worlds are almost identical to 'our' Earth (referred to as "Datum Earth"), others differ in greater and greater details, but all share one similarity: on none are there, or have there ever been, Homo sapiens - although the same cannot be said for earlier hominid species, especially Homo habilis. The book explores the theme of how humanity might develop when freed from resource constraints: one example Pratchett has cited is that wars result from lack of land – what would happen if no shortage of land (or gold or oil or food) existed?

The book deals primarily with the journeys of Joshua Valienté (a natural 'Stepper') and Lobsang, who claims to be a Tibetan motorcycle repairman reincarnated as an Artificial intelligence. The two chart a course to learn as much as possible about the parallel worlds, travelling millions of steps away from the original Earth. They encounter evidence of other humanoid species (referred to as trolls and elves); of human settlers who learned their gifts early, and of an extinct race of bipedal dinosaur descendants. They also encounter warning signs of a great danger, millions of worlds away from 'our' Earth, causing catastrophe as it moves. The book also deals with the effects of the explosion of available space on the people of Datum Earth and the new colonies and political movements that are spreading in the wake of Step Day.

Verdict:

Terry Pratchett is a favourite author of mine, and I was a little skeptical what this book would be like. I was pleasantly surprised and have really enjoyed this departure from Pratchett's normal writing

Rating: 5/5


"Siege" by Rhiannon Frater

Title: Siege

Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor Books

Book 3 of 'As the World Dies'

Blurb:

As the survivors continue to seek stability in their lives, forces both inside and outside the fort walls move them toward a final, climactic conflict between the living and the dead. Jenni, Katie and the others discover that they are not alone, that there is another enclave of survivors whose leaders plan to take over the fort.

Faced with a series of difficult decisions, each choice they make could lead to the deaths of those they love or, if not careful, their own demise.

Meanwhile, an army of the dead is descending on the fort. Soon, the living will face their ultimate fear...

...a siege by the dead.

But they will fight to the end to survive...

As the world dies.

Synopsis:

The fort comes under scrutiny of the remnants of government. On a raid to a hospital for medical supplies, members of the fort are kidnapped by the military, so the Senator of Texas can further her politica career in the new world. Things go badly wrong for the Senator and those in the Mall that has been set up as a rescue center.

The fort has to cope with thousands of undead heading their way, a siege by the undead. The ghosts of the dead come to their aid inthe fight for humanities survival....

Verdict:

Loved the book, although I could really get stuck into book 4 as the story is not truly finished. The body count is high, and all I can say is don't get too hooked on your favourite characters. Anyone is game for death in this third book.

Overall this is a good trilogy that is enjoyable to read.

Rating: 5/5

"Fighting To Survive" by Rhiannon Frater

Title: Fighting To Survive

Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor Books

Book 2 of 'As the World Dies'

Blurb:

It’s time to clear the hotel.

The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls. Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters. The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.

A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof. As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival. Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner.

The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women. The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.

And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.

Synopsis:

The population of the fort finally deice to take the hotel. After losing several  people, the hotel is added to the fort and the population returns to something akin to a normal existence. But then the bandits turn up, taking out several of the out lying people that the fort talk to. Nerit decides it is time to bring the outlying groups into the protection of the fort, provoking a confrontation with the bandits.

Verdict:

Again, a really good read. This was 448 pages of pure zombie pleasure that I could not put down and jumped straight into book 3.

Rating: 5/5

"The First Days" by Rhiannon Frater

Title: The First Days

Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor Books

Book 1 of 'As the World Dies'

Blurb:

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.

Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni’s stepson, Jason, from an infected campground.

They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town. There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form.

Synopsis:

Katie sees her wife eat the postman and is saved from zombies by a Reverend. Jenni screams as her husband eats her children. Katie saves Jenni and a friendship is born. They escape the city, find fuel for the Reverend's truck and make it to a small town where they meet Nerit and Ralph holed up in a gun store. They help Nerit and Ralph clear the town of zombies and then go find Jenni's step son.

At the camp where Jason is, Jenni and Katie get there just in time as the zombie infection was brought there by another family. they escape the camp but due to a zombie horde cannot get back to Nerit and Ralph. Instead they find sanctuary at a fortified Texas town where they become part of the community and help secure the center of town and expand the fort.

Verdict:

A really good read. This was 336 pages of pure zombie pleasure that I could not put down and jumped straight into book 2.

Rating: 5/5

"A Beautiful Friendship" by David Weber

Title: A Beautiful Friendship

Author: David Weber
Publisher: Baen

This is the full length novel of the short story previously published in the anthology "More than Honor".

Book One of the Star Kingdom saga.

Blurb:

Weber delivers the first entry in an original young adult science fiction adventure series, the Star Kingdom saga! Young teen Stephanie Harrington forms a telepathic bond with an intelligent alien treecat on a pioneer planet—and must fight for the freedom of her new friend and his species against highly-placed enemies determined to claim the world for humans only.

Stephanie Harrington always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl . . . until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home --- a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie’s explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision!

Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened . . . as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx’s most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.

But her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie’s find --- and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly --- land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species.

Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington’s life. She owes them . . . and Stephanie is a young woman who stands by her friends.

Which means things are about to get very interesting on Sphinx.

Synopsis:

The story takes place in the year 1518 PD (Post Diaspora) or 3620 AD, approximately 382 years before the events of "On Basilisk Station". The story centers around the first treecat/human interaction on the planet sphinx.

Climbs Quickly, a young treecat scout of the Bright Water clan, ventures to a human settlement intrigued by the plant known to the treecats as "cluster stalk", a plant unlike any known to the 'cats, with a delicious taste.

Stephanie Harrington, an eleven-year-old girl whose family has recently migrated to Sphinx from the planet Meyerdahl is determined to find out who keeps stealing celery from greenhouses and gardens all over Sphinx.

In the middle of a nightime thunderstorm, Stephanie finally catches Climbs Quickly sneaking out of the greenhouse. The two young beings experience a moment of deep psychic connection, the first bonding between a human and a treecat has just occurred.

Wanting to know more about the treecat, Stephanie sets out to track them, with consequences she could not of thought could happen....Stephanie crashes her glider during a storm, and Climbs Quickly comes to her rescue, unfortunately a six legged beast sees Stephanie as a meal and between her and the treecat they battle for their lives.

Once this new species is public knowledge the rest of the Star Kingdom wants to know more about them, but it is not just the scientific community who are interested. Trade in obscure pets is lucrative, and the treecats are definitely obscure. What follows is how Stephanie and the scientists must protect the species.

Verdict:
At 384 pages this took me about 6 - 8 hours to read. The story flows easily and the short story that I previously read takes up about the first third of the novel. It is not just a reprint, but the author embelishes the short story and really does set the scene for the rest of the novel.

I enjoyed the story, however, the ending seemed a bit abrupt, almost as tho the deadline was looming and it had to be finished quickly. I'm hoping the second book will not dissapoint.

Rating: 4/5

"I am legend" by Richard Matheson

Title: I Am Legend

Author: Richard Matheson
Publisher: Orion Books Ltd

Blurb:

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

Synopsis:

Robert Neville has survived the plague that has turned the rest of humanity into vampires. Initially at the loss of his wife and daughter, Robert turns to the bottle. He hunts down vampires during the day and cowers in his house at night. As time progresses, he hunts to find a cure rather than simply trying to survive in this new world. By the end of the book, we find he is the last known human, "a legend", in the new vampire world.

Verdict:

Nothing like the film staring Will Smith, but really helps to explain things. In the film I thought they were types of Zombie, silly me. At about 160 pages, this was an enjoyable read, but a little monotonous in places. Honestly the film is a better story.

Rating: 4/5