I’ve probably done this in the wrong order. I watched the Apple TV+ adaptation’s first season (and made comment on it here) before starting to read the book. I’ve had the book for a little while though - I bought it before the TV series came out in September, but TBRs are a funny thing like that. All it really means is that this review will have a short section of comparison to the show, seeing as I first gave my views on it without having read the book. Now that I have, I understand the stark contrast between the two from a first-hand perspective, and I have some thoughts that I’ll put together after the review of the book itself. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is held to be one of the greatest science fiction series of all time, it spawned the concept of the Galactic Empire and was highly influential for almost everything that came after it - including Dune. This is a long one, so strap in.

The dark but utterly brilliant second book in the Embers of War trilogy by Gareth L. Powell. Even better than the first, Fleet of Knives is a fantastic sequel that dives right into the action and pulls no punches. Much moreso than in Embers of War, there’s clear inspiration taken from the movie Aliens and, reader, I’m here for it.

Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s classic, millennia-spanning, galactic-scale sci-fi series is a mixed bag. Now, I have to preface this by saying I have come into watching this show (almost) completely blind. I have not yet read the novels, though I do have the first Foundation book sitting on my shelf ready for when I finish my current read…

Launch week for From the Grave of the Gods was incredible. The outpouring of love and support from so many places has been overwhelming in the best possible way. I’ve posted sporadic live reactions to various updates surrounding the launch of the book on my social media channels throughout that week. So I thought I’d gather things together here on the blog and take you through what happened since day one, noting a few observations about the experience and things I wasn’t expecting.

A strange and powerfully imaginative space opera novella from Gareth L. Powell and Peter F. Hamilton. Light Chaser is the result of a collaboration between two masters of space opera: Gareth L. Powell and Peter F. Hamilton. It’s a new novella that was published back in August, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it ever since I saw the preliminary marketing earlier this year…

Launch day! From the Grave of the Gods, the first novel in the Augment Saga is out now. Wow, what an amazing journey this has been. I can’t believe it’s been just over two years since I started writing the book that would become From the Grave of the Gods. From that tentative start faffing around in an excel spreadsheet making a vague timeline one evening while on holiday in August 2019…

For those of you have been following my social media for some time, you’ll already likely be aware of this news, but I have been given the marvelous opportunity to be involved in the Havering Literary Festival this year! I’m so excited to be able to both share about my work with readers and support my local libraries.

I first heard of this book in the Twitter writing community, where I saw it being posted regularly in #writerslift threads and its premise immediately caught my attention. After a while I saw that the author, P.J. Sky, had the Kindle version up on a free promotion and I took the opportunity to claim it for later. And it has taken me quite a long time to get to, to be honest…

When I first started my writing journey two years ago (or ten years ago, depending on how you count it), I thought it was a simple case of coming up with a vague plot and writing down the vivid scenes that popped into my head. Of course, after I actually made a start I realised there was a lot more to it than that, especially when it came to worldbuilding. So here’s five things I’ve learned along the way:

So I… Guess I like spiders now? #TeamPortia. Children of Time is the Arthur C Clarke award-winning science fiction novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. I first heard about Adrian on Twitter and I knew instantly that I had to put his SF work on my TBR. As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, I wasn’t particularly well read in SF when I started writing and I’ve spent the better part of the past year rectifying that, going from some of the classics of the genre to the modern day.

Angela works as a secretary at a solicitor’s firm in London, but her true passion is for poetry. She studied English Literature at university where she was also a member of her campus table-top RPG society…

After having been asked by absolutely no-one, I thought I’d share a list of all the books I’ve got on my TBR. And because I have taken it upon myself to post up a review for every book I read, you can consider this a kind of sneak-peek at the reviews you can look forward to in the future on this blog, plus get an idea of the kind of books that have captured my interest…

Thank you to everyone who took part in my recent giveaway which will see five Advance Reader Copies of my novel, From the Grave of the Gods, in the hands of the winners, who were chosen randomly from those who entered, and have now been notified…

I think The Farthest Shore is my Earthsea book so far. It certainly secures Le Guin’s place in my heart as my favourite author of all time, and I am so glad that I discovered her writing, even if belatedly. The Farthest Shore rounds out the YA trilogy of Earthsea, bringing the story of Ged to a soft close…

Attention friends! I’m really excited about the upcoming release of From the Grave of the Gods on 1st November, and for those of you who have read its companion novella, The Re-Emergence, I’m sure you know how I feel. So as a sort-of countdown to release, I’ve decided to kick things off with an awesome giveaway!

Right, first things first, I know this author personally - she’s a family member. So, feel free to take what I say with a pinch of salt or disregard entirely if you feel it’s inappropriate of me to review it. At the same time, I really want to support what this author is doing and get some more eyes on her work - plus my brain won’t allow me to not review every book I read anymore. I will be giving an honest review, however, and after having read Blanche Amour, I’m pretty confident that I would come to the same conclusions about it even if I didn’t know Charlotte, simply based on the type of reader I am. So let’s get into it.

I’ll be honest: before joining the Twitter writing community, I had not heard of Gareth L. Powell. But as soon as I announced myself as a writer on the platform and started using the hashtags, Gareth was there, following me because he’s awesome and follows all writers. Though my attention was drawn by his humourously titled Ack-Ack Macaque series…

The time has finally come… From the Grave of the Gods, the first full-length novel in The Augment Saga and follow-up to companion novella, The Re-Emergence, is finally being released to the world on 1st November 2021! What’s more, you can use the links to pre-order the novel right now.

A beautifully-written fantasy adventure with steampunk elements from SJ Hull. I have to admit I was very excited when I learned that SJ Hull had released his debut novel. We went to university together, and though that was over ten years ago now, even back then I knew he was very interested in the fantasy genre, and it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that he’d written his own…

As a sci-fi fan, you’d probably expect that I had already read Frank Herbert’s Dune a long time ago. Sadly that’s not the case. It’s yet another of those books I strangely missed. Knowing this, and knowing that Denis Villeneuve’s movie adaptation was on the horizon, it was one of the first books I had in my sights when I decided to get back into reading…