Behind Blue Eyes

Scorch by Jesse Teller My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review now live at Grimdark Magazine A fresh new series by Jesse Teller, Scorch tells a story from two distinct perspectives. While we see shadows of his great epic The Madness Wars , this story is much smaller in scale and scope, but no less entertaining. Our story takes place after The Madness Wars , but one doesn’t need to have read that series to fully enjoy this tale. It occurs in a separate part of the continent, and the references back to the larger series are subtle enough to serve as Easter eggs for the returning reader. Tack is a young man that hasn’t found his place in the world, though he seems to be moving constantly in its pursuit. He’s an expert with the bow, or so he thinks until he starts training with the Ramblers, a small group of mercenaries that have taken on the duty of protecting the Queen of Syphere from all dangers, including the King. The training program he’s put through by th...

Spirits of Vengeance by Rob J. Hayes My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review now live at Grimdark Magazine Spirits of Vengeance is the third standalone novel in the Mortal Techniques series by Rob Hayes, following the excellent Never Die and Pawn’s Gambit . Though independent of the first two, this one does build on the intriguing Japanese based mythology and worldbuilding that Hayes set up in those. ”’Sorry then, about stabbing you. But why can’t you die?’ She thought everyone could die given enough prodding with sharp things.” Haruto is on a quest, a lifelong quest. No, make that a many-lifetime quest. He is an onmyoji, trained in the spiritual arts of tracking down yokai, which are spirits trapped in the world. He confronts them, and upon defeating them, sends them on to the other side, freeing their souls. He’s actually a character of legend, though he tries to keep a fairly low profile. He’s assisted by Guang, a poet of (his own) renown who also has a...

A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was an odd duck. That is, it read more like a series of short stories, or episodes, than a novel. For that it worked as it lost me sometimes and when it did it would only be for the rest of the chapter rather than the whole work. Enjoyable enough and the writing was fantastic. The characters had potential. It just didn't grab me as much as I'd hoped it would. I can take a degree of weird, and the humor thrown in was a nice flavoring. View all my reviews