My Upcoming Reads & Listens

I am just going into the busy period at my day job, so having any kind of goals in a reading or listening kind of sense is a bit ambitious, but I might as well set some anyway otherwise I’ll have nothing to keep me going. I remember last time I got super-busy at work I stopped blogging/reading/listening to audio books for a couple of months. Can’t be having that again.

They appear below in no particular order.

 

Reads:

 

Cell by Stephen King (Currently reading):

I picked a copy of this up ages ago and have only just gotten around to starting it. I’m halfway through and it has one of the strongest openings I’ve read in a long time. Loving it so far.

‘Civilization slipped into its second dark age on an unsurprising track of blood but with a speed that could not have been foreseen by even the most pessimistic futurist. By Halloween, every major city from New York to Moscow stank to the empty heavens and the world as it had been was a memory.’

The event became known as The Pulse. The virus was carried by every cell phone operating within the entire world. Within hours, those receiving calls would be infected.

A young artist Clayton Riddell realises what is happening. He flees the devastation of explosive, burning Boston, desperate to reach his son before his son switches on his little red mobile phone . . .

 

The Owlmen by Sarah England:

The Father of Lies Trilogy was perhaps my favourite horror series that I have read. So getting more of Sarah’s work was never really going to be much of a tough decision. This is a stand alone, but it can be enjoyed as a follow on to the original trilogy (Tanners Dell being quite an important place in the series).

Ellie Blake is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Deciding to move back to her northern roots, she and her psychiatrist husband buy Tanners Dell at auction – an old water mill in the moorland village of Bridesmoor. 
However, there is disquiet in the village. Tanners Dell has a terrible secret, one so well guarded no one speaks its name. But in her search for meaning and very much alone, Ellie is drawn to traditional witchcraft and determined to pursue it. All her life she has been cowed. All her life she has apologised for her very existence. And witchcraft has opened a door she could never have imagined. Imbued with power and overawed with its magick, for the first time she feels she has come home, truly knows who she is. 
Tanners Dell though, with its centuries old demonic history…well, it’s a dangerous place for a novice…

 

The Resurrectionists by Michael Patrick Hicks (Review due to be posted on/around June 4th):

I was looking for a bit of cosmic horror and stumbled across this little gem of a novella on Netgalley. With a cover like that I could hardly say no.

Having won his emancipation after fighting on the side of the colonies during the American Revolution, Salem Hawley is a free man. Only a handful of years after the end of British rule, Hawley finds himself drawn into a new war unlike anything he has ever seen.

New York City is on the cusp of a new revolution as the science of medicine advances, but procuring bodies for study is still illegal. Bands of resurrectionists are stealing corpses from New York cemeteries, and women of the night are disappearing from the streets, only to meet grisly ends elsewhere.

After a friend’s family is robbed from their graves, Hawley is compelled to fight back against the wave of exhumations plaguing the Black cemetery. Little does he know, the theft of bodies is key to far darker arts being performed by the resurrectionists. If successful, the work of these occultists could spell the end of the fledgling American Experiment… and the world itself.

 

Desert Oath by Oliver Bowden:

I am currently addicted to the Assassin’s Creed Origins video game and want more of the assassiny goodness when I’m not glued to the PS4. So reading the prequel to the game seems like a wise choice.

Before Assassin’s Creed Origins, there was an Oath.

Egypt, 70BC, a merciless killer stalks the land. His mission: to find and destroy the last members of an ancient order, the Medjay – to eradicate the bloodline.

In peaceful Siwa, the town’s protector abruptly departs, leaving his teenage son, Bayek, with questions about his own future and a sense of purpose he knows he must fulfill. Bayek sets off in search of answers, his journey taking him along the Nile and through an Egypt in turmoil, facing the dangers and the mysteries of the Medjay’s path.

 

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab:

This just sounds utterly fantastic and I can’t believe I haven’t already read this.

Most people only know one London; but what if there were several? Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons. There’s Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to the mad king George III. There’s Red London, where life and magic are revered. Then, White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. But once upon a time, there was Black London…

 

Angron – Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin (Review due to go up on/around June 13th):

The World Eaters are one of my favourite chaos legions. As a player, I just love their ‘I want to get up close and tear you apart’ mentality. So I was happy to get the chance to get an early review copy of their Primarch’s backstory.

Placed in command of a Legion he does not want, in service to a father he cannot forgive, Angron gives an ultimatum to his children, one that will set them down a path from which they can never return…

As the Emperor travels the galaxy at the head of his Great Crusade, few events are as important as rediscovering his scattered sons, the Primarchs, and bestowing them as the masters of their Legions. United, a Legion becomes a reflection of its Primarch, both in his strengths and his flaws. For the Twelfth Legion, once the War Hounds and now the World Eaters, the line between strength and flaw is almost impossible to separate. Desperate for his acknowledgement, will the World Eaters follow their father and cast themselves in his broken image or will they resist? And will any of them ever learn who their father was truly meant to be?

 

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth by Grant Morrison:

I do love Batman and I haven’t read a Graphic Novel in a while. So why not?

In this groundbreaking, painted graphic novel, the inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over Gotham’s detention center for the criminally insane on April Fools Day, demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages. Accepting their demented challenge, Batman is forced to live and endure the personal hells of the Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents and retake the prison. During his run through this absurd gauntlet, the Dark Knight’s own sanity is placed in jeopardy.

Listens

 

Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton (Currently listening to):

I am finding that when I read Sci-fi at the moment I am struggling to get too interested in it, but I love listening to science fiction audio books. I guess I’m an odd one. Anyway, I really wanted another epic after really getting lost in, and enjoying far more than I expected, the Black Ocean books. Pandora’s Star is a bit of a slow-going beast, but it is enjoyable so far.

In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across.

When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant – and then a neighbouring one – vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light star ship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each ‘vanished’ star encased in a giant force field — and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.

 

Necronomicon by H. P. Lovecraft:

As a fan of horror, I really should have read or listened to this by now. I need that big tentacled beast in my life. So I’ll finally get around to it. I have already listened to a couple stories in this collection, so that’s some of the work done. Despite it claiming to be complete, it doesn’t appear to have certain ones such as ‘Shadow over Innsmouth’ or ‘Beyond the Mountains of Madness’ according to some reviewers.

Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and ’30s, H. P. Lovecraft’s astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome brings together all of Lovecraft’s harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were when first released. It will introduce a whole new generation of readers to Lovecraft’s fiction, as well as attract those fans who want all his work in a single, definitive volume.

 

Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence:

I loved the first two audio books and turned down the chance to grab an early kindle copy of this as I wanted the whole set on Audible. Looking forward to it. 

They came against her as a child. Now they face the woman.

The ice is advancing, the Corridor narrowing, and the empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat.

Nona faces the final challenges that must be overcome if she is to become a full sister in the order of her choice. But it seems unlikely that Nona and her friends will have time to earn a nun’s habit before war is on their doorstep.

Even a warrior like Nona cannot hope to turn the tide of war. The shiphearts offer strength that she might use to protect those she loves, but it’s a power that corrupts. A final battle is coming in which she will be torn between friends, unable to save them all. A battle in which her own demons will try to unmake her. A battle in which hearts will be broken, lovers lost, thrones burned.

 

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff:

I very nearly kicked the idea of listening to or reading Nevernight. It just struck me as another ‘kid goes to learn to be the best at some dark academy drivel’. I’m so glad I listened to it. Easily one of my favourites and I have high hopes for the sequel.

Conquer your fear, conquer the world.

Mia Corvere, destroyer of empires, has found her place among the Blades of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, but many in the Red Church ministry do not believe she has earned it.

Her position is precarious, and she’s still no closer to exacting revenge for the brutal death of her family. But after a deadly confrontation with an old enemy, Mia begins to suspect the motives of the Red Church itself.

When it is announced that Consul Scaeva and Cardinal Duomo will be making a rare public appearance at the conclusion of the grand games in Godsgrave, Mia defies the Church and sells herself into slavery for a chance to fulfil the promise she made on the day she lost everything.

Upon the sands of the arena, Mia finds new allies, bitter rivals, and more questions about her strange affinity for the shadows. But as conspiracies unfold, secrets are revealed and the body count rises within the collegium walls, Mia will be forced to choose between her loyalties and her revenge.