Some reviewers have been comparing The Raw Shark Texts to the movie Memento. It’s a largely uninspired comparison based solely on the fact that both protagonists share some form of memory loss. But it’s a …
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Review of your favorite books. From bestsellers to the next hidden gem, from novels to short stories we review it all here. For more books reviews check out Nekoplz.
The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston Review
Over the course of his brief career Huston has very quickly become one of the top crime fiction writers. One of the things that is the most impressive about Huston’s career so far is that …
Continue readingBest Books of 2007 – Summer Edition
With the first half of 2007 behind us we wanted to gather the BSC think-tank and stop to smell the pages. To look in the rear-view mirror and take stock of the books that we …
Continue readingThe Best Books of 2006
This article was supposed to have been posted a couple of weeks ago and I take full responsibility. As has been said before one of the great things about Bookspotcentral is the diversity of the …
Continue readingCrooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis Review
Michael McGill is a burned-out private detective and self-described “shit magnet” who is enlisted by the White House Chief of Staff to retrieve the Constitution of the United States, not the one taught about in …
Continue readingNeal Asher Interview and The Skinner Review
Combining large-scale space opera, intense, visceral action, and occasional elements of horror, Neal Asher is one of the most exciting authors to come out of the United Kingdom in recent years. Born in England in …
Continue readingNapoleon’s Pyramids by William Dietrich Review
The initial appearance of the pulp hero in the newspapers, radio shows and cinema of 1920s America was a reassuring affirmation of rugged American individualism in a world that, in the wake of World War …
Continue readingAcadem’s Fury by Jim Butcher – Review
There are a few sentences in the Prologue of Jim Butcher’s Academ’s Fury that in some ways reveal all that you need to know about the book: The steady, smoldering throb from his left knee …
Continue readingWarrior and Witch by Marie Brennan – Review
From its cover one might suspect Marie Brennan’s Warrior and Witch to be a fantasy-romance hybrid, but there is actually very little romance in this tale of magic, politics and cultural change. Also misleading about …
Continue readingTo the Power of Three by Laura Lippman Review
Laura Lippman, author of the popular Tess Monaghan series, takes a break to explore a stand alone novel. In To the Power of Three she takes an old mystery novel concept, the locked room mystery …
Continue readingThe Girl in the Glass by Jeffrey Ford Review
For 2005, THE GIRL IN THE GLASS won the Edgar award for Best Paperback Original from the Mystery Writers of America. You might think a crime-writing award a strange one for Jeffrey Ford to receive …
Continue readingThe Book of Ballads by Charles Vess Review
With textual help from some well-known names, but primarily from the inspiration of classic Anglo-Saxon storysongs, Charles Vess has created a unique form of graphic novel. Recently reprinted in softcover, THE BOOK OF BALLADS is …
Continue readingCaught Stealing by Charlie Huston – Review
I always think a good hard-boiled crime novel ought to read like I’m sliding into a warm bath with slit wrists, so smooth I’m grinning through the bleed-out. Charlie Huston’s CAUGHT STEALING reads like that. …
Continue readingWitness To Myself by Seymour Shubin Review
Seymour Shubin’s WITNESS TO MYSELF is not the typical fare usually found beneath the lurid cover of a Hard Case Crime paperback. For one thing, the protagonist is a decent fellow, unlike the usual noir …
Continue readingThe Wizard Lord by Lawrence Watt-Evans Review
Lawrence Watt-Evans begins his latest sword and sorcery series with THE WIZARD LORD, Volume One of The Annals of the Chosen. In the land of Barokan, magic is everpresent. The ler are the spirits within …
Continue readingTitus Groan by Mervyn Peake Review
If you haven’t yet read Titus Groan, then for all your life, the infant heir to castle Gormenghast has waited for you. Certainly for most of your life anyway, since Book One in Mervyn Peake’s …
Continue readingTemeraire, Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon Charms – Review
If you have become as jaded as I have become regarding fantastic fiction, even certain title choices causes you to avoid or at the very least postpone when you get to a novel, a blasé …
Continue readingPatricia McKillip’s Od Magic Review
The genre that today is labeled “fantasy” on the shelves of your local bookseller and library (or the links of your favored e-tailer) is made up of many different literary traditions. There are the mythological …
Continue readingTolkien and the Great War Review
Innumerable commentators, critics, fans and, lately, even film-makers have suggested that Tolkien’s oeuvre was deeply affected by his experiences in the Great War (1914-18) and particularly at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (when …
Continue readingSynergy! Sharing Favorite Scary Stories with Carrie Vaughn, Charlie Huston, Jimmy Palmiotti & More!
Synergy is back! If you haven’t seen this column before, the basic idea is that we put the same question to a variety of professionals (and sometimes amateurs) who interest us to create a plateful of …
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