Let's Drown Out on 'The Eye of Argon'

One of my friends has just introduced me to a fantasy novel called The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis. Surprisingly, this isn't because the book is a fantastic must-read and the recommendation was actually because the novella was so bad! While I genuinely don't like criticising an author's work, The Eye of Argon is widely considered to be the worst novella ever written and (quite simply), is hilarious to read. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every word the author has used is an adjective and he's basically strung a story together using a theasaurus and terrible fantasy names.

I doubt I'll ever read the actual book per se, but Let's Drown Out have a hilarious video on YouTube where they try to read Theis' work without laughing! It's much funnier than it sounds and is definitely worth checking out!

The True Cleverness of Harry Potter

Some authors are cleverer than others and although people often notice this, with it being evident in works like Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings, some series seem to be overlooked. One such series is Harry Potter and I recently read an article online that outlined 21 cases where J. K. Rowling had been exceedingly clever. She had made clear predictions about events that would happen later in the series and even revealed things about certain characters.

The article (which can be read here) is extremely interesting and is definitely worth a read by all of the Harry Potter fans out there!

Read an excerpt from The Skull Throne

We still have a long wait before The Skull Throne, the next instalment of Peter V. Brett's epic Demon Cycle, is released (on the 24th March 2015). The months until then are bound to go slowly and I am extremely eager to continue reading about Arlen's adventures in what is one of the best fantasy series that's being written at the moment.

Brett has recently published his latest intermediary novella in the series called Mudboy (which can be read in Unfettered, by Shaun Speakman), but the months before March are certainly going to go very slowly. Luckily, Brett has taken pity on us and has decided to sate our appetites by releasing the first chapter of the The Skull Throne as an excerpt on his website!

It's not as good as the whole book, but, hey, it'll do for now and I guess we'd all better visit Brett's site in case he decides to take it down!

Christopher Paolini releases a deleted scene from the Inheritance Cycle

Anyone who's a fan of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle might be interested to learn that he's just released a deleted scene from Inheritance, the final book in the series! The clipping (which can be read here) is called The Swordsman and adds an interesting facet to Eragon's character, despite its short length - it's definitely worth checking out if you grew up on these books like I did!

Broken Dark - Science fiction/crime space opera

Hi all,

I've finally taken the plunge and become a fully fledged 'indie author'! I've just published the first episode of what will be a long running space opera about a second Prohibition in space after humans have colonised the galaxy.

The series is called Broken Dark and each novella is written as if it is an episode of a television series. He Who Fights and Runs Away (Season One, Episode One) is available for download from Amazon (UK; US) and Smashwords now! It will be available from all other major ebook retailers soon!

To celebrate its release, Episode One can be downloaded for FREE from Smashwords, in most major e-reader formats! Please redeem the coupon code WB86S when purchasing your copy (the offer is available until 06/07/2014)!

600 years from now, mankind has left Earth behind. The Milky Way is filled with seed colonies and teems with human life. Yet despite all our advances in science, we have yet to surpass our most primal natures. We carried all of our greed, wars and decadences with us into the stars and our far flung worlds are every bit as dangerous as Earth is now.

Lord Alasdair Donaghue, Duke of the British Stellar Dalcross Systems, has tried to remedy this with a second war on alcohol. But just as bootleggers emerged in the United States of America in the 1920’s, Prohibition has opened the door for criminals to grow rich once again. Famed for her resourceful and ruthless nature, Lisa Tant is one such smuggler. She has grown bold and confident with her ever growing infamy and it is on Calgany Space Station that she faces her reckoning. Betrayed by someone in her own crime syndicate, Tant finds herself the focus of the Alcohol Enforcement Agency and must flee the space station with her crew, cut off from her ship with seemingly nowhere to run. 

Read an interview with Travis Simmons

Hi all,

I've actually been meaning to put a post about this up for a while now, but I never seemed to get round to doing it. I recently stumbled across an interview with Travis Simmons on My Book Addiction (another reviewing site) and thought that I'd post a link to it here.

As you may already know, Simmons is an independent fantasy, science fiction and horror writer who is most notable for his Revenant Wyrd Saga and Infernal Designs series'. Simmons writes with great flares of imagination and I have reviewed a number of his books in the past - check out his tag in the FEATURED AUTHORS section if you want to read them!

Chronological reading list for A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons

WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS POST SHOULD ONLY BE READ BY THOSE WHO ARE UP TO DATE WITH A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Just to be absolutely clear, I'm going to warn you all again - this post contains spoilers for ASoIaF so only read it if you're up to date with the series and have read A Dance with Dragons.

Okay, so that's my disclaimers over and done with now and I can get on with the rest of this post! I hope I don't to sound too angry in them, by the way, but I know how annoyed I'd have been if someone foretold ASoIaF for me and I don't want to see anybody leaving comments beneath this post moaning that I've given stuff away! So I'm going to assume that everyone reading to this point has now read A Dance with Dragons...

As you have, will have undoubtedly noticed that its chronology is weird and actually overlaps with A Feast for Crows. As I understand it, this is largely due to problems that George R. R. Martin had while he was writing the series. Following A Storm of Swords, Martin had originally wanted the series to jump ahead by a few years and had actually started writing Feast as if it had. He had only gotten a short way into the book, however, before he realised that this idea wasn't going to work and had to start again (which was a factor in the length of time it took to complete the novel). So Martin re-planned his concept for Feast,  but found that while the time jump didn't work for some characters, it did for others. Furthermore, he found that he had too many characters to write about simultaneously and, hey-presto, we've ended up with two chronologically overlapping books.

Obviously this has led to certain PoV characters being completely absent in one of the two books, which some fans think has 'staled' their storylines somewhat. Many have also suggested that this takes some of the power away from certain revelations because the initial shock has worn off and we've had time to become accustomed to the plot twist. A good example of this is Tyrion Lannister's descent into alcoholism after he murders his father and flees Westeros. By the time we get to read of his fate, we're all long accustomed to his exile!

In response to this, many fans of the series have begun to develop ways of reading Feast and Dance together as one book - we do, afterall, have both of them available now. There have been many problems with this though, which is largely due to the complexity of the story - let's face it, aside from Martin himself, I think we all struggle to comprehend everything that's going on to some degree!

Sean T Collins, however, is one such fan and seems to have had some success with this idea - managing to restructure both of the books into one so that the entire story flows chronologically (at least roughly). And while I'm not really a fan of this idea and will always reread the books exactly as Martin wrote them, I think that the idea sounds fun and has merit. So, if you are interested in this and would like to reread the series in a custom, chronological order, please see below for the chapter list (as it appears on Sean's website). Enjoy!

1. Prologue (Varamyr): ADWD 1
2. Prologue (Pate): AFFC 1
3. The Prophet (Aeron I): AFFC 2
4. The Captain of Guards (Areo I): AFFC 3
5. Cersei I: AFFC 4
6. Tyrion I: ADWD 2
7. Daenerys I: ADWD 3
8. Brienne I: AFFC 5
9. Jon I: ADWD 4
10. Bran I: ADWD 5
11. Tyrion II: ADWD 6
12. The Merchant’s Man (Quentyn I): ADWD 7 ^
13. Samwell I: AFFC 6
14. Jon II: ADWD 8
15. Arya I: AFFC 7
16. Cersei II: AFFC 8
17. Jaime I: AFFC 9
18. Brienne II: AFFC 10
19. Sansa I: AFFC 11
20. The Kraken’s Daughter (Asha I): AFFC 12
21. Tyrion III: ADWD 9
22. Davos I: ADWD 10
23. Jon III: ADWD 11
24. Daenerys II: ADWD 12
25. Reek I (Theon I): ADWD 13
26. Cersei III: AFFC 13
27. The Soiled Knight (Arys): AFFC 14
28. Bran II: ADWD 14
29. Tyrion IV: ADWD 15
30. Davos II: ADWD 16
31. Brienne III: AFFC 15
32. Samwell II: AFFC 16
33. Daenerys III: ADWD 17
34. Jon IV: ADWD 18
35. Jaime II: AFFC 17
36. Tyrion V: ADWD 19
37. Cersei IV: AFFC 18
38. Davos III: ADWD 20
39. The Iron Captain (Victarion I): AFFC 19
40. The Drowned Man (Aeron II): AFFC 20
41. Brienne IV: AFFC 21
42. The Queenmaker (Arianne I): AFFC 22
43. Arya II: AFFC 23
44. Alayne I (Sansa II): AFFC 24
45. Cersei V: AFFC 25
46. Reek II (Theon II): ADWD 21
47. Jon V: ADWD 22
48. Tyrion VI: ADWD 23
49. Daenerys IV: ADWD 24
50. The Lost Lord (Jon Connington I): ADWD 25
51. The Windblown (Quentyn II): ADWD 26
52. The Wayward Bride (Asha II): ADWD 27
53. Brienne V: AFFC 26
54. Samwell III: AFFC 27
55. Jaime III: AFFC 28
56. Tyrion VII: ADWD 28
57. Jon VI: ADWD 29
58. Davos IV: ADWD 30
59. Cersei VI: AFFC 29
60. The Reaver (Victarion II): AFFC 30
61. Daenerys V: ADWD 31
62. Melisandre I: ADWD 32
63. Jaime IV: AFFC 31
64. Brienne VI: AFFC 32
65. Reek III (Theon III): ADWD 33
66. Tyrion VIII: ADWD 34
67. Cersei VII: AFFC 33
68. Jaime V: AFFC 34
69. Cat of the Canals (Arya III): AFFC 35
70. Samwell IV: AFFC 36
71. Cersei VIII: AFFC 37
72. Brienne VII: AFFC 38
73. Jaime VI: AFFC 39
74. Cersei IX: AFFC 40
75. The Princess in the Tower (Arianne II): AFFC 41 ^
76. Bran III: ADWD 35
77. Jon VII: ADWD 36
78. Daenerys VI: ADWD 37
79. The Prince of Winterfell (Theon IV): ADWD 38
80. The Watcher (Areo II): ADWD 39
81. Jon VIII: ADWD 40
82. Tyrion IX: ADWD 41
83. The Turncloak (Theon V): ADWD 42
84. The King’s Prize (Asha III): ADWD 43
85. Daenerys VII: ADWD 44
86. Alayne II (Sansa III): AFFC 42
87. Jon IX: ADWD 45
88. Brienne VIII: AFFC 43
89. Cersei X: AFFC 44
90. Jaime VII: AFFC 45
91. Samwell V: AFFC 46
92. The Blind Girl (Arya IV): ADWD 46
93. A Ghost in Winterfell (Theon VI): ADWD 47
94. Tyrion X: ADWD 48
95. Jaime VIII: ADWD 49
96. Jon X: ADWD 50
97. Daenerys VIII: ADWD 51
98. Theon VII: ADWD 52
99. Daenerys IX: ADWD 53
100. Jon XI: ADWD 54
101. Cersei XI: ADWD 55
102. The Queensguard (Barristan I): ADWD 56
103. The Iron Suitor (Victarion III): ADWD 57
104. Tyrion XI: ADWD 58
105. Jon XII: ADWD 59
106. The Discarded Knight (Barristan II): ADWD 60
107. The Spurned Suitor (Quentyn III): ADWD 61
108. The Griffin Reborn (Jon Connington II): ADWD 62
109. The Sacrifice (Asha IV): ADWD 63
110. Victarion IV: ADWD 64
111. The Ugly Little Girl (Arya V): ADWD 65
112. Cersei XII: ADWD 66
113. Tyrion XII: ADWD 67
114. The Kingbreaker (Barristan III): ADWD 68
115. The Dragontamer (Quentyn IV): ADWD 69
116. Jon XIII: ADWD 70
117. The Queen’s Hand (Barristan IV): ADWD 71
118. Daenerys X: ADWD 72
119. Epilogue (Kevan): ADWD 73

Watch an interview with Patrick Rothfuss

Earlier today, I was lucky enough to have stumbled across an interview with the master word-smith Patrick Rothfuss. The interview - which is available at: http://twit.tv/tri/99 - is fascinating (albeit rather long) and sees Rothfuss get probed about his inspiration for The Kingkiller Chronicle, his motivation for writing it and how he has managed to develop such real and distinctive names (among other things of course).

It's definitely something to check out if you are a fan of the series!

Read an interview with Richard L. Sanders

As regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware, I frequently post reviews on Richard L. Sanders' work here and have to say that he is one of my favourite indie authors. Due to this, I was excited to find an interview with him on Indie Author Land and thought I'd share the link with you (click here)!

About this blog

Hi all!

As I make this blog and type this post, I'm well aware that there are probably thousands of similar sites already out there, littering the internet with each author's views and opinions on what was good or bad with their latest read and why therefore, you should lovingly delve into its pages or give it a miss. And let's face it, does the internet really need another one?

Well, if I'm honest, no... but, as the Google Chrome advert so wisely says: "the internet is what we make of it". A nice little quote that brings me here - writing fantasy bookshelf review's introductory post. So what does this blog offer you that's different from all of the others out there?

Well, nothing actually. All is does is provide you with news on recently published books and, you guessed it, my own opinions on the many novels and stories I've read. All I can promise is that these opinions will be honest and all of the books reviewed on this site will get the praise they deserve - I am writing these reviews for you after all!

Obviously, there are many different genres of books out there and, as the blog's title suggests, the reviews posted here will predominantly deal with works of fantasy (and primarily high fantasy at that), since this is my main area of interest. But saying that, I'm also a huge lover of science fiction and such books will often be featured here as well, along with whatever else happens to catch my fancy really.

And so the basis of this blog is covered, meaning that this post is nearly over. But before I finish up, I just want to tell you a little about myself. Well, I'm a biologist graduating from the University of Manchester; an avid lover of the natural world; and, rather importantly, am a huge fan of books (which is fairly obvious really). Also, it's important to me that I tell about my passion for penning the written word as well as for reading it and, due to this, I have another blog I post on called this world we live in, which I hope you will check out after reading this!

David Taylor

P.S. Feel free to contact me via fantasybookshelfreview@gmail.com or Twitter.