Behind Blue Eyes

Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review posted at Grimdark Magazine : https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/revi... I read One Word Kill a few weeks ago and was thrilled to get hold of an eARC of the sequel, Limited Wish . If you liked book one, prepare to be just as entertained an engrossed with book two. The good news is that this book doesn’t suffer at all from “middle book syndrome” where the bridge from beginning to end of a trilogy often becomes the weakest link. Indeed, this is just as good if not better than the first book. Limited Wish picks up a few months after the events of One Word Kill , as our party of adventurers settles back into their daily lives. Our narrator, Nick, has turned 16 and worked his way into admission at Trinity College in Cambridge, working as a protégé to a Professor in Mathematics. They’re working together on ideas with bending time, as Nick is convinced by his experiences in book one that he event...

Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music by John Corbett My rating: 3 of 5 stars I received an eARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Sometimes I like to just throw a music memoir into the mix as they give great perspective of the journey of life with great music as a backdrop. I did get that here, though to be honest I had to skip some sections. I was reading it all for the first quarter but found myself mired when the author was covering artists I wasn't familiar with. Ideally, the writing would make me want to go out and find the material and give it a listen. But that didn't always work here. Sometimes I think the author just got too heavy handed with the descriptive words and cultural references that I didn't often get. That said, there were some great moments here, especially in the areas where an artist I listen to was covered. These would take me back to a time when it was all new to me, much like it was ...

One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence My rating: 4 of 5 stars Review posted at Grimdark Magazine : https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/revi... Though I often read more than one book at a time, I generally keep to a rule that I have for myself which prevents me from reading multiple books by the same author. With One Word Kill , I made an exception. My current audiobook is Holy Sister , also by Mark Lawrence, but since it is such a different genre and setting, I didn’t think it would be a problem. I was correct, as the only thing that carried over into this book was Lawrence’s great storytelling. Nick is a teenager that just wants to get through school and get to the weekends when he can enjoy the D&D ( Dungeons and Dragons ) sessions he has with a small group of friends. He might even be interested in kissing a girl, but that comes later. At the beginning of our story, Nick has learned that he has leukemia, and the prognosis isn’t that great. Talk about a...

Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence My rating: 5 of 5 stars It seems that unsatisfying endings are common in series these days (if they end at all), so this was a breath of fresh air. Not only did this trilogy end well, but it did so while bringing the heartache and devastation right along with the smiles and "fuck yeah!"fist raising moments. These characters will break and/or melt your heart. View all my reviews

The Lees of Laughter's End by Steven Erikson My rating: 3 of 5 stars I can't help but think this is like Terry Pratchett writing Grimdark... View all my reviews

Beyond The Shadows: Volume One: A Grimdark Anthology by Stefan M. Nardi My rating: 3 of 5 stars Full review now posted at Grimdark Magazine It’s always an exciting thing to see a new anthology of grimdark stories when it’s released. Great artwork typically pulls me in along with a list of stories promising lots of grit, swords, and dismemberment. View all my reviews

Gia by Kristi Belcamino My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nice intro story to get acquainted with Gia Santella. Self contained but serves as a great teaser to the main series. View all my reviews