Sunday, May 20, 2018

Melanie's Week in Review - May 20, 2018




Hello! I am writing this while watching highlights of the royal wedding. I am not really a royalist and but I decided to tune in anyway. Partly it was a good excuse to eat orange scones....which I have to say are delicious. It also meant I could use the antique tea set that I barely have an opportunity to take out of my china cabinet. Did you watch?

This wasn't one of my more prolific weeks reading. It was Wednesday when I realised I wasn't even halfway through a single book. In my defense it was the release of the season finale of both Lucifer and of Dynasty so I had to watch those.  So what did I read?


I read The Master, the 3rd Gameshouse Novella, by Claire North. I had reviewed the two previous books months ago and loved them. The final instalment does not disappoint. Silver decides to make a stand and challenge the Gamesmaster to the ultimate game - for control of the Gameshouse. The Gameshouse has sustained him for centuries along with the other elite players but he has decided he has had enough.  This is the ultimate game. The largest and most deadly game of chess ever played where not just the pawns are sacrificed.

This is a fantastic novella. Your head will be positively spin at the number of locations that Silver finds himself. North has a real gift of describing her characters and their environment without a lot of prose which means that she is able to send Silver on a manic journey from one country to the next and next and next in just novella. In this series North creates characters who you can't help but like even though they are pretty uncaring and rather evil. I was really cheering on Silver from the sidelines and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. If you want a great series of novellas that are both standalone but interconnected then look no further! These are must reads.


I was determined to finish The World Awakening by Dan Koboldt so that I could tell you all about it. So now I have a confession. I just couldn't finish it. I had planned to cheat as I got over halfway through and was going to skip to the end but I just couldn't. I discussed my inability to finish this book with the hubinator. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that meant I couldn't face reading it. As I mentioned book two was pretty dull and not much happened whereas in book 3 it was almost non stop action. The closest reason that the hubs and I could agree on was that it was just too juvenile and the hero wasn't very heroic. Its a shame as I really liked the first book. Sorry!


Well that is it for me for this week. I am planning to have more to tell you about next week. Promise! Until next week Happy Reading!





The Master
Gameshouse Novella 3
Redhook, November 3rd 2015
eBook, 100 pages

The Gameshouse is an unusual institution.

Many know it as the place where fortunes can be made and lost though games of chess, backgammon – every game under the sun.

But a select few, who are picked to compete in the higher league, know that some games are played for higher stakes – those of politics and empires, of economics and kings . . .

And now, the ultimate player is about to step forward.





The World Awakening
Gateways to Alissia 3
Harper Voyager Impulse, February 13, 2018
   eBook, 448 pages
Harper Voyager Impulse, April 3, 2018
   Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages

"The World Awakening is a great conclusion to what is a very readable and highly enjoyable series. Characters that are more than the sum of their parts, a world that has so much to offer, and a story that races along apace – the Gateways to Alissia books have it all." -- SFFworld

Quinn Bradley has learned to use the magic of another world. And that world is in danger.

Having decided to betray CASE Global, he can finally reveal his origins to the Enclave and warn them about the company’s imminent invasion. Even if it means alienating Jillaine…and allying with someone he’s always considered his adversary.

But war makes for strange bedfellows, and uniting Alissians against such a powerful enemy will require ancient enmities—as well as more recent antagonisms—to be set aside. The future of their pristine world depends on it.

As Quinn searches for a way to turn the tide, his former CASE Global squad-mates face difficult decisions of their own. For some, it’s a matter of what they’re willing to do to get home. For others, it’s deciding whether they want to go home at all.

Continuing the exciting adventures from The Rogue Retrieval and The Island Deception, The World Awakening is the spellbinding conclusion to the Gateways to Alissia fantasy series from Dan Koboldt.

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