Gods And Warriors logo unveiled...

Things are about to kick into gear people!! Oh yes! August sees the publication of the first book in Michelle Paver's long and eagerly anticipated new series, 'Gods and Warriors'. Well now the logo for the series has been unveiled! Looks good! Cannot wait for what is to come!!

Hollow Pike by James Dawson [Review]

Written by: James Dawson.

Published by: Indigo/Orion.

Format: Paperback.

Released: 2nd February 2012.

Rating: 5/5.

Official synopsis: "Something wicked this way comes... She thought she'd be safe in the country, but you can't escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she's being paranoid - after all who would want to murder her? She doesn't believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn't believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you're alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps... Hollow Pike - where witchcraft never sleeps."

Early last Summer, word started to spread through Twitter and the Bloggoverse about a new book being published in February 2012 by Orion's new YA imprint, Indigo, intrigue began to build as we were given the first tantalising glimpse of Hollow Pike by one James Dawson. All we knew at the time. Witchcraft.

The cover was released a few weeks later closely followed by the official synopsis and since then the anticipation has been steadily growing with a large selection of my fellow bloggers and readers alike all getting pretty excited about this book right here. And finally last week, I got a copy! I'll admit I did a little squee dance and was so excited. Started to read it pretty much straight away and couldn't of been more surprised than I was.

Hollow Pike was NOTHING like I'd expected it to be. I had images of haggard old women around cauldrons, steaming with potions. I expected there to be spells. But there was none of that. And you know what? It doesn't need it. Hollow Pike is so much more than I expected it to be in more ways than one. 

Lis has been suffering debilitating nightmares for weeks. She's scared, and puts it down to what is going on at home and hopes that the move to Hollow Pike will help them to come to an end... How wrong could she be? The dreams are vivid, dark and downright terrifying. They hold you captivated - breathless - until Lis wakes up.

Bullying and social perception plays a large roll in the book. Lis has been forced to move to Hollow Pike to escape her life back in Wales where she is looked down upon by all of her school mates. Bullied, and outcast she chooses to live with her sister in this sleepy little Yorkshire village (it is made up I should add... so don't be too scared by what happens there...). Things start of well at her new school, and her sister Sarah (her partner Max and son - Lis's nephew) love having her there and she actually seems to have been taken under the wing of the in-clique.

But then things start to go wrong as she is more and more intrigued by the outcasts of Hollow Pike. Three young teenagers. Kitty. Delilah. And Jack. Looked down upon by their peers, they show no fear and in fact, it's the people who make fun of them that show fear. For there are rumours that a long gone history of witchcraft is about to resurface.

I don't really think I can say much more without spoiling it... So all I'll say is: there are creepy old ladies, birds and lots of them, twists, turns, and a murder (which again is something I was not expecting...).

Hollow Pike has it all. Blood. Magic. Murder. Friendship. Love. Sacrifice. And a beautiful house which Lis's sister lives in (seriously, I want that house when I am older... blueprints, James?!).

It's a haunting, captivating and moving read, set at a perfect pace with beautiful writing. Watch out people because James Dawson is about to take you on one hell of a ride you will most definitely not forget. I cannot wait to see what he writes next!

My thanks have to go, again, to the ever amazing Nina at Orion for this. I have been pestering that poor woman for ages about this book, so glad it was all worth it! :D

Buy from Amazon UK

The Long Earth Cover Art

Discworld creator, and general genius Terry Pratchett is releasing two books this year, neither Discworld releated but that doesn't seem to be a bad this. Later in the year we're getting Happy Families, set in the Victorian era, but before that we get The Long Earth. It's due for publication on 21st June and is a collaboration piece between Terry and a gentleman called Stephen Baxter. It is an adult book (I think...) but it looks and sounds awesome and Terry is just so good that it'll be a crime to miss it, I believe.

It sounds a little like this:

   

The possibilities are endless (just be careful what you wish for...)1916: the Western Front, France. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landcape of No man's Land gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop MonicaJansson has returned to the burned-out home of one Willis Linsay, a reclusive and some said mad, others dangerous, scientist. It was arson but, as is often the way, the firemen seem to have caused more damage than the fire itself. Stepping through the wreck of a house, there's no sign of any human remains but on the mantelpiece Monica finds a curious gadget - a box, containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a...potato. It is the prototype of an invention that Linsay called a 'stepper'. An invention he put up on the web for all the world to see, and use, an invention that would to change the way mankind viewed his world Earth for ever. And that's an understatement if ever there was one...

...because the stepper allowed the person using it to step sideways into another America, another Earth, and if you kept on stepping, you kept on entering even more Earths...this is the Long Earth. It's our our Earth but one of chain of parallel worlds, lying side by side each differing from its neighbour by really very little (or actually quite a lot). It's an infinite chain, offering 'steppers' an infinite landscape of infinite possibilities. And the further away you travel, the stranger - and sometimes more dangerous - the Earths get. The sun and moon always shine, the basic laws of physics are the same. However, the chance events which have shaped our particular Earth, such as the dinosaur-killer asteroid impact, might not have happened and things may well have turned out rather differently.

But, until Willis Linsay invented his stepper, only our Earth hosted mankind...or so we thought. Because it turns out there are some people who are natural 'steppers', who don't need his invention and now the great migration has begun...

Ooh. Sounds good. And it looks a little like this:

Alex Rider gets new look...

Scorpia Rising, the ninth and final Alex Rider book by the incredible Anthony Horowitz was released last March and sported a completely different look for our favourite teen spy. Closing the series with a colossal bang, part of me was a bit annoyed that I would never have a complete set as they'd changed the look a few times over the series, then switch to hardback, then back to paperback... And I did wonder if this new look that we saw with Scorpia Rising would seep into the rest of the series. And finally it has... Below are the covers for the first eight books, ranging from Stormbreaker to Crocodile Tears. 

I for one really like this direction. It's clean and uniform. And some of the covers are quite striking. I am in love with the Eagle Strike cover. Bravo Walker. Bravo!

Waiting On Wednesday: Chronicles of Egg Book 1

Later this year, Puffin are set to publish the first book in the Chronicles of Egg by Geoff Rodkey. It's called Deadweather and Sunrise and looks a little like this...

Looks awesome huh? And it sounds a little like this...

DEADWEATHER, a sweaty little pirate-infested island, is home to EGG, thirteen years old and prey to a pair of cruel and stupid older siblings. But when Egg’s family disappears in a freak accident, he finds himself living on SUNRISE island with the glamorous Pembroke family and their feisty daughter Millicent. Finally, life seems perfect. Until someone tries to throw him off a cliff. Suddenly, Egg is lost in a world of cutthroat pirates and powerful villains. Only Millicent - and a one-handed, possibly deranged cabin boy – can help him as he hurtles into the deadliest adventure of his life...

Well  I for one cannot wait to read it! It's out 7th June and definitely sounds like one to watch!

Advent by James Treadwell [Review]

Written by: James Treadwell.

Published by: Hodder UK.

Format: Hardback.

Released: 2nd February 2012.

Rating: 4/5.

Official synopsis: "For centuries it has been locked away 

Lost beneath the sea. Warded from earth, air, water, fire, spirits, thought and sight. But now magic is rising to the world once more. And a boy called Gavin, who thinks only that he is a city kid with parents who hate him, and knows only that he sees things no one else will believe, is boarding a train, alone, to Cornwall. No one will be there to meet him."

I'm going to be perfectly honest from the start, I found this a weird book to read, almost difficult in places. And again, being honest, I'm not entirely sure why.

When the proof/arc landed through my letterbox last September, I was intrigued. It was stunning. A white paperback with a black wrap-around cover. And the premise was fantastic. Magic returning to a world that has no clue it exists. Brilliant. Again, like with The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker, I felt it was too early to read it for a Feb 2012 publication, so I put it aside. Last week, I received a finished copy, and thought great, now my proof can stay in perfect condition. I picked it up, started to read and I'll admit I was hooked.

But there's something off about the book and still now, a week after finishing it, I'm not sure what it is. It's brilliantly written, the prose is rich and enticing, and the premise is still there but it isn't entirely what I was expecting at all. The book flips from present day Cornwall to a time when magic was still feared in the 1500's. Sometimes I felt like the flips in time came at the wrong place - when something exciting was about to happen, and it'd be a chapter before you could jump back - kind of breaking up the flow of the story. I suppose it's a good thing because it certainly made me want to read on to see what would happen next, but at times I felt myself sigh. Not again...

Anyway, the premise itself is very strong in the book and with Treadwell's prose it's haunting and terrifying in equal measure. 

Gavin as an actual character is great. I think Treadwell gets the teenage voice spot on, before flipping to the speech style of the sixteenth century. Gavin is lost really. His parents have packed him off to Cornwall but when he gets there, his expected welcome from his aunt isn't there... No one is there to greet him.

The book has a certain gothic feel that chilled me to the bone and has left me eager to see how the story continues in the second book of the planned trilogy. Hopefully it can draw me in even deeper than Advent did. Whilst I didn't love it, it is a good book and looks set to be a massive success!