368 pages Genre Fiction/Holidays Intending to visit Italy, I bought a copy of Lonely Planet’s ‘Italy’. Along with other recommendations resulting from that purchase, Sue Moorcroft’s ‘One Summer in Italy’ came up. I thought it might be fun to read this as I lay sunbathing by the pool at the latter end of our visit. …
Continue reading One Summer in Italy, by Sue Moorcroft: #BookReview.
Do you read? Love books? I love readers; you’re my raison d’etre as a writer, the reason I write stories. So, I want more. One of the best ways of helping other readers is through reviews. So, here’s the deal: I’ll send you a copy of any of my books in exchange for an honest …
Continue reading #Readers, #BookReviews, #Bookbloggers.
106 pages Poetry This is a mix of the intensely personal, regarding love and its outcomes; the general as it relates to writers a group; and life in many of its guises. Poetry, and the reader’s response to it, is always personal. So, my review here can reflect only my experience of reading the collection …
Continue reading Cocktails with a Dead Man, by Joe Albanese: #BookReview.
242 Pages Thriller/Mystery I picked up a copy of this book, as I’d enjoyed Lauren B. Grossman’s first in the series, The Golden Peacock. That dealt with a mystery surrounding the holocaust. This book deals with a kidnapping by the Italian Red Brigade. Although this is essentially a thriller, great attention has been given to …
Continue reading The Verona Exchange, by Lauren B. Grossman and Bernard Jaroslow: #BookReview.
Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Horror 299 pages As far as I can recall, I’ve never read a book in the post-apocalypse genre before, so it’s probable there are recognisable conventions of which I’m unaware. That said, any book should generally be accessible to all readers if possible. This one took some getting into for me. Once I …
Continue reading Game Changers of the Apocalypse, by Mark Kirkbride: #BookReview.
This brilliant trailer was produced by Ramon Marrett for Adiq, via my fabulous publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing. Enjoy. BLOOD RED DUST: As Earth plunges into total climate chaos, will new bases on Mars rescue humanity from extinction when religious extremists threaten to destroy them? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1909163635/?tag=stuartaken-21 WAR OVER DUST: Who will win on Mars when violence …
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Fantasy serial It’s difficult to know whether this book is experimental or just badly written. The sentence structure sometimes seems borrowed from the 19th century and there are many errors that should have been spotted in editing. The opening is a strange mix of intriguing detail and oddly expressed action. We’re given no clues as …
Continue reading The Darkness Abides, by L. Harcroft: #BookReview.
109 pages Science Fiction When science fiction is written by an established physicist the reader can expect the science at least to be plausible. That’s the case here, even though we’re in the world of quantum physics, which is an area full of speculation and dispute, and much misunderstood by so many. The story here …
Continue reading Where Did the Hills Go?, by Lali Gupta Chatterjee : #BookReview.
Science fiction is a broad genre, as is fantasy. Sometimes the two are mixed, as in this piece of imaginative narrative. The book deals with a scenario only too likely should we continue to abuse nature and the environment in the ways we have for the past couple of centuries. However, I have some concerns …
Continue reading Water Entanglement, by Claudiu Murgan: #BookReview.
388 Pages Horror/Action Adventure. Imagination is a crucial element in any work of fiction, and here it reaches new heights, especially in terms of human ambition and the lengths some will travel to fulfil it. This novel is a mix of horror, fantasy, science fiction, adventure and thriller. But, in merging the genres and developing …
Continue reading Pandora, by Joshua Grant: #BookReview.
Struggle to find the ‘right’ word when writing? Sometimes, so do I. In trying to improve, maybe I can help other writers. Today’s words: Laborious/Easy, Look ahead to the future, Last hurrah, Leader. Antonyms: words that express the opposite of other words can be hard to find, because thesauruses usually give no examples. When lost …
Continue reading The #Write #Word? Post 45
287 pages Historical Fiction/Mystery, Thriller and Suspense A ‘thriller’ that actually concentrates on the characters, bringing them to life so the reader is eager to invest emotion and concern for them. In fact, this doesn’t read like an ordinary thriller at all. This thoughtful, evocative and moving book is a very good read. I read …
Continue reading The Golden Peacock, by Lauren B. Grossman: #BookReview.
Struggling to find the ‘right’ word when you’re writing? I sometimes have the same problem. In trying to improve my own work, maybe I can help you. Today’s words: Kaleidoscope, Ka-ching, Kuebiko, Knight Synonyms are alternative words that have the power to convey exactly what you’re trying to say. Kaleidoscope: Roget lists the following sub-headings; …
Continue reading The #Write #Word? Post 44
Do you struggle to find the ‘right’ word when you’re writing? Sometimes, I do, too. Maybe, in working to improve my own work, I can help you. Today’s words: Habitat, Heavily, Has a requirement for, Hollow tube, Honour. Synonyms are alternative words that have the power to convey exactly what you’re trying to say. Habitat: …
Continue reading The #Write #Word? Post 41
Poetry is such a subjective literary genre that it’s often difficult to reach a conclusion about whether a collection is very good, difficult, obscure, or any of a mixture of reactions. This assortment is by a poet whose first language is Romanian: whether English is his second language is unclear, but the standard of its …
Continue reading Invitation to Poetry, by Mihai Brinas: #BookReview.
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Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 