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Friday, 26 August 2016

Review: Skud

Skud Skud by Lewis Duncan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Skud- this was my first read of Lewis Duncan. In fact I think it's his debut release, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot. It's action packed for sure with some pretty brutal scenes. But it's more than just a crazy zombie story. It's compassionate, you feel the love that skud has for his sister and everything in you wills them to survive this encounter.
Really good story and I'll be reading more from mr Duncan.

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Monday, 25 July 2016

Review: Scars of the Broken: The Roger Huntington Saga, Book 3

Scars of the Broken: The Roger Huntington Saga, Book 3 Scars of the Broken: The Roger Huntington Saga, Book 3 by Ryan C. Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Ryan C Thomas. The first book in this series "The Summer I Died" is the whole reason I write, myself. That book just blew me away. Then I tried the sequel, "Born to Bleed" and once again, I loved it!
It was done the way a sequel is meant to be done. Not just the same story churned out again with different characters and surroundings. It's a completely unique story following Roger Huntington after the events of the first book.
This third installment does it once again. This in itself is a completely unique story. It's so different to the first two installments, but it doesn't lose any of that stuff that made you love it in the first place.
It's got the gore, it's got the scary and creepy bits, it's got passion, it's got friendship, action, you want it? It's got it.
I can't praise these books enough. Just do yourself a favour. If you haven't read the first two yet. Go and get them and then read this.
If you have already read the first two, then you probably agree with me and most likely already half way through this installment.

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Thursday, 21 July 2016

Review: The Fireman

The Fireman The Fireman by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow this was a big read.
A great story, the whole Dragonscale epidemic was just awesome. It was completely unique and that gave Hill free reign with the different levels of the disease and how some can control it and some can't.
This really is a great read, I love everything by Hill. He is probably my favourite author right now.
The only reason I've given this four stars instead of five, is because, like his father, Hill sometimes has a habit of padding things out and making it drag a bit. There were a few times within this book that I felt a little bit bored because it became slow moving, but then suddenly it would drag you straight back in again.
Overall a very very good book, I just think at perhaps 500 pages rather than 750 it would have been a great book.

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Wednesday, 13 July 2016

Review: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall this was an okay collection. Like many of these, there were some good and some bad.
I was expecting a few more big hitters, but I think that's just because it's Stephen King and you always expect something really special from him.
Overall a decent read, but there are a few stories that could've been left out.

"The introduction to this audio, read by Stephen King, is a prime example of why authors should get narrators to do the full audio for them. This sounds like a ten year old reading his homework out loud in class"

"skipped this first story because I've already read it. It's a good story though, original review is here I liked this one!
King does like his monster cars doesn't he!
This was only a shorty, but it was creepy and fun. I wouldn't say it's scary. You could probably read this to kids aged 10 and up as a scary story. But it is a good story.
I enjoyed it."

"Perfect Harmony - A bit unsure on that story. It was quite sad, but as a stand alone story didn't really do much. I saw the ending coming from a mile off. I think that was supposed to be the little shock at the end, but it didn't really work."

"Batman & Robin have an altercation. I really enjoyed this one. Took a very unexpected turn towards the end. It was both saddening and heart warming throughout. It actually reminded me a lot of a similar story I've written myself, but the end really caught me by surprise."

"Dune - I didn't really like this one. It was quite slow and dull. And I saw where it was going long before it actually got there."

"Bad Little Kid - This story was quite a bit longer than the others. It was really quite good. Again, you could call the end pretty early on, but the journey there was still enjoyable. I think this would make quite a good episode on a Twilight Show sort of series."

"A death - I've read this short before when it was in NYT so I've skipped the audio. original review was..
This was a very short story. It's available to read for free at "The New Yorker" online.
I don't really want to give anything away. It's difficult to say much apart from it's a good story.
Not one of Kings best, but that would be impossible with such a short tale. My only quarm with this is that I guessed the"

"The Bone Church - Don't really know what to say about that. I think it was supposed to come across as a drunken rambling.....but that's all it did. The story wasn't very good, it literally just sounded like a drunk mouthing off."

"Morality - this is another i'd already read so skipped, but it's a good story original review was..
This Shorty was pretty good. It's only about 40 pages but that's all it needs to be. This was just a bonus story in my blockade billy book so I thought id give it a go.
It's very different to other king stories, but just as good! If you have a spare half hour then check it out"

"Afterlife - This story was quite interesting. A little bit depressing as well, but a cool theory of what could be."

"UR - I was surprised by this story. When it started it felt like really bad and blatant advertising for kindle. But as it went on it got a bit more interesting. It did take about 50% of the story to get to that point though. Once it got going it was really good. I was kind of expecting a killer twist at the end, but I suppose it's good to guess them wrong sometimes."

"Herman Wouk is still alive - hmmm I think this story may have been better if the introduction hadn't pretty much told me exactly what was going to happen.
One thing I loved in this story though. This quote -
"The body weakens, but the words never do" that's beautiful."

"under the weather- yeah not much to say. didn't like it"

"Blockade Billy -Firstly, I'm not a baseball fan. Far from it, in fact I think it's one of the most boring sports there is. Luckily you don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this story. It's a very quick read, I did the lot in less than two hours. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it still has that little kiss of horror in there to keep king fans sweet.
Well worth the read!"

"Mr Yummy - Wasn't really into that one. Basically an old dying man with heads keeps seeing death in the form of a man he used to long for. Just depressing really."

"Tommy - Nope, sorry. Just an old little hippy rant. Wasn't even a story, or a poem as it says."

"Drunken Fireworks - I'm going to have to come back to this one in the paperback. I cannot listen to the audio for that short anymore. Then narrators voice is grinding. It's horrible."

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Sunday, 5 June 2016

Review: Levana's Wish

Levana's Wish Levana's Wish by Susi Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a decent short read. It's only a five minute read, but sometimes that's all you want.
People underestimate the difficulty in getting a short story right. You have to make your characters and story grow all within a very short amount of time, but also not make it feel crammed. It was done very well in this short.
It's quite different to what I would normally read. A romantic horror of sorts if I had to categorise it, but the author asked if I would take a look in exchange for an honest review so I thought it worth a go.
I don't want to go into any detail on the story because it is so short and I don't want to ruin it.
I would say if you've got five mins spare or want a quick read, then go and check it out.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Review: The Rain Dancers

The Rain Dancers The Rain Dancers by Greg F. Gifune
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I always enjoy Gifunes writing. He is a very good story teller and even in parts of a story that aren't particularly scary, he has this eerie feel about him. You can almost sense the darkness in the tale.
This was a decent story, but not as good as some of the others I've read from him. Mainly because I guessed the outcome very early on. I won't go into that as I don't want to ruin it.
This is worth a go if you fancy a quick read, but if you want to sample some of Gifunes stronger work then I would highly recommend The Bleeding Season.

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Monday, 23 May 2016

Review: The House That Hell Built

The House That Hell Built The House That Hell Built by Matt Shaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Take THE SHINING, THE BEAST HOUSE CHRONICLES and THE HAUNTING. Put them together and you've got THE HOUSE THAY HELL BUILT.
This was a really fun read. At times it was scary, at times it was gory and violent. It all blended so well together. The idea of the three stories running alongside each other worked really well I thought.
Three writers that we already knew were more than capable of telling a good story have come together and pulled of a cracker in this one.

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