Harper Voyager

I have to say that Naomi Novik can do no wrong by me - her Temeraire series is fabulous. Each book takes in a different country with all it's politics, culture and colour as well, all overlaid the Napleonic Wars and the British seafaring traditions with added extras.

Here we are not only given the above but a seriously strong typhon, a sea serpent that was hell bent on trying to kill them for food as well as Chinese British relationships that were less to be desired!

Naomi Novik just keeps on getting better with each book she writes in the historical fantasy with dragons. I guess you could say that in modern warfare as opposed to the Napoleonic Wars, helicopters and fighter planes would be doing the work of the dragons, with Temeraire being the lead dragon character.

This time Naomi Novik has taken us to Europe, especially Turkey where they take the dragon eggs and fly home via Prussia - but it is a hard journey with several crew losses.

I took Temeraire to hospital when I had to go in for some surgery - afterwards this book took me on a journey like no other fantasy book I have read. It is full of well researched historical information being set during the Napoleonic Wars, but you are not overwhelmed in anyway whatsoever. ..read more

What a disappointment! Started well enough picking up on the characters in the previous two very good books and the Loethar and Elka storyline developing in a believable fashion, but halfway through I felt it descended into a rush to untangle all the ends at once. Yes it was good that all was sorted out but at a high cost to the characterisation and the storylines.

What happened to Leo? Complete change in character. Loved the completely unnecessary Tourettes doctor, but the Vested went by the wayside and Evie and Ravan lines could have been so much better.

Again we follow Chess Putnam as she tries to banish ghosts and uncover false hauntings, whist keeping her personal life out of work.

As her cases become more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to keep on top of her Church work whilst acting as go between for drug dealers Bump and Slobag, without either of them finding out she's working for the other, and without the Church finding out about her drug habit.

In the third in instalment of the Downside Ghosts trilogy things go from bad to worse for Chess. The church puts her on a case she cant talk about, with a member of the elite Blacksquad - a do-good, abide by the rules woman who just happens to be the Grand Elders daughter, so Chess has to be on her best behaviour - not her favourite pastime. To make matters worse, it seems like the Lamaru are back and stronger than ever, and Chess is their next target.

A new threat of doom is looming against the world of Midkemia, while within a war is starting between established enemies. While on another world a child learns quickly to fend for herself and make her way.

A new generation of characters is brought in to balance the (now) older characters from earlier novels.

This seems to be following the pattern of the previous pair of novels, where the old external enemy turns out to be escaping from another greater threat.

The first in a trilogy by a new writer, I didn't really know what to expect from this book. latching on to the current craze for stories of supernatural beings, Kane has chosen to focus on witches and ghosts rather than werewolves and vampires.

By setting the book in modern america, she has avoided it becoming too fantastical, and Chess, the lead character, is certainly not your stereotypical fairytale witch, rather a modern day 20-something woman who just happens to cast spells and kill ghosts for a living.

Like a lot of people recently - I came to 'A Game of Thrones' via the TV series, which I watched back to back over a weekend. I had to read the book to see how faithful the TV series had been. I wasn't disappointed - infact I was positively stunned to find that whole scenes and dialogues had been lifted directly from the book!

This is the first book in new series by Raymond E. Feist set in his Midkemia world. A new danger is emerges as a lost race of elves, the taredhel, have found a way to reach Midkemia (thought to be their ancestral ‘Home'. They need a refuge from the demons that have reduced their former empire to part of one world. But are they, or the demon horde pursuing them the greater threat to Midkemia?