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Reviews and Discussion

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Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - Fritz Leiber (Review)

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser – Fritz Leiber (Review)

Influential Fafhrd is a huge Northern barbarian with a liking for strong wine and direct action. The Gray Mouser is more subtle, a slight, lightning-quick swordsman with some crude magical knowledge. Together, they adventure all over the place, stealing treasures, killing monsters (plus a whole bunch of normal people) and seeing strange sights. Their travels take them across vast oceans and…

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Ghost Ship (2002) - Review

Ghost Ship (2002) – Review

Ghost Ship (not to be confused with the many, many other works also called this) has a 16% “TomatoMeter” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 28% “MetaScore” on MetaCritic. It’s audience scores are somewhat higher, but it’s generally fair to say that this is not a film that met with much positive critical reception or audience enthusiasm. Despite all that, it’s one of the best-constructed and most…

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Dungeon Born - Dakota Krout (Review)

Dungeon Born – Dakota Krout (Review)

After being brutally murdered by necromancers, Cal returns to consciousness as a dungeon core – a sentient lump of rock with the power to shape its immediate surroundings. Paired with Dani, a will-o’-the-wisp, Cal sets about stocking his dungeon with monsters and traps so that he can consume incautious adventurers and grow his power. If the above paragraph sounds familiar to you, then thank you…

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The Swarm - Arthur Herzog (Review)

The Swarm – Arthur Herzog (Review)

Everyone has heard of killer bees – a mutant strain of honeybees known for their aggression, killing and attacking humans without provocation. This book, and the film it inspired, are part of the reason for that. In reality, although killer bees are aggressive, they kill only a few people a year. In The Swarm, two people are dead by page 6. Not content with this initial assault, the bees embark…

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The Cavern - Alister Hodge

The Cavern – Alister Hodge

When the opal miners heard strange tapping sounds in the tunnels, they thought it was a subterranean creature stalking them. They called it the “miners’ mother” and left offerings of blood to keep it away. Now the mines are closed, the offerings neglected and a long-dormant creature stirs hungrily in the dark. Continue reading

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Subnautica (Review)

I have, for unknown reasons, always been drawn to the deeps. If a film/book/game is set underwater, regardless of other considerations (genre, quality, etc.), I am interested. Something about the bizarre half-lit world down there is endlessly fascinating to me. Subnautica, therefore, is absolutely my kind of thing. (more…)

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The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (Review)

The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (Review)

I picked up this book partly on the recommendation of a friend and partly because I was oddly charmed by all the negative reviews. While overall, reviews of this book are fantastic, there is a constant thread of negative reviews from people who are both astounded and enraged at the very idea that Achilles might have been anything other than a 100% heterosexual all-American hero. I struggle to…

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Dangerous Curves - Larkin Rose (Review)

Dangerous Curves – Larkin Rose (Review)

Lacey is an ex-NASCAR photographer haunted by her memories of a fatal crash. Kip Sellars is a troubled NASCAR driver with a bad reputation and a death wish. The two have almost nothing in common except their mutual contempt, lust, and complimentary backstories (both involving witnessing the brutal death of a loved one in a racing accident). When they are forced to work together to rehabilitate…

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Petit : The Ogre Gods - Hubert Boulard & Bertrand Gatignol (Review)

Petit : The Ogre Gods – Hubert Boulard & Bertrand Gatignol (Review)

The giants are getting smaller. Once, they were titanic near-immortal beings, warriors and philanthropists. Now, each inbred generation is smaller than the last, and as they decline physically, they decline morally as well, becoming more brutish, more cannibalistic, and more obsessed with restoring their diminishing size. They rule swinishly over a half-ruined city where humans are food and…

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The Nest - Gregory Douglas (Review)

The Nest – Gregory Douglas (Review)

The small fishing community on Yarkie Island leads a peaceful, picturesque existence, far from the bustle of the modern world. Simple, honest folk lead the same simple lives as the generations before them

The only part of Yarkie that isn’t picturesque is the local dump. Here, modern pesticides have created something far worse than the squabbling rats. Something organised, and hungry, and…

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Corona Crime - Robert Pimm (Review)

Corona Crime – Robert Pimm (Review)

I’m very proud to announce that this is possibly the first book I have reviewed in the same year that it was released. Normally, here at IP, we prefer to be at least a couple of decades behind the times. Corona Crime is a very new novel – but it is set three centuries into the future. (I don’t like 2020 and I refuse to stay in it, literarily or otherwise.)

Sadly, based on this novel,…

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Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi (Review)

Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi (Review)

If you only looked at Western bestseller lists and film rankings, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Egyptian mummies are the only fantasy storyline which Africa has ever produced. But you’d be wrong – and I was thrilled to see that Children of Blood and Bone has brought a long-neglected mythology into young adult fiction.

We need more African stories. There’s an incredibly rich tradition of…

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Bone Dungeon - Jonathan Smidt (Review)

Bone Dungeon – Jonathan Smidt (Review)

After an unjust execution, Ryan returns to consciousness as a dungeon core – a sentient lump of rock with the power to shape its immediate surroundings. Paired with Erin, a celestial fairy, Ryan’s goddess-given task is to challenge adventurers, stocking his dungeon with monsters so that questing heroes can gain experience.

There are complications to this though; Ryan has a magical affinity to…

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The Wedding Party - Jasmine Guillory (Review)

The Wedding Party – Jasmine Guillory (Review)

Despite hating each other, Maddie and Theo share a best friend. When she gets engaged and enlists them to the bridal party, Maddie and Theo are suddenly faced with having to see each other far more often.

This is further complicated by the knowledge that the last time they spent time together, it ended in an alcohol-fulled hook up that neither of them has stopped thinking about.

With the…

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The Proposal - Jasmine Guillory (Review)

The Proposal – Jasmine Guillory (Review)

When Nik Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her boyfriend, the last thing she expects is for him to suddenly propose to her on the Jumbotron. Not least because he can’t even spell her name right…

Also at the game, Carlos Ibarra and his sister Angela witness her swift refusal, and quickly rescue her from the prying eyes of 45,000 baseball fans and the camera crew that just showed up.

After…

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The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory (Review)

The Wedding Date – Jasmine Guillory (Review)

Alexa Monroe is on the way to meet her sister when she gets stuck in a hotel lift with a handsome stranger.

Drew Nichols is in town for the wedding of two of his best friends, one of whom just happens to be his ex. Dateless and dreading the party, Drew finds himself stuck in a lift with a beautiful woman who inexplicably agrees to be his fake girlfriend for the weekend.

Now, as I have…

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We Just Clicked - Anna Bell (Review)

We Just Clicked – Anna Bell (Review)

Izzy Brown is an aspiring Instagram influencer who makes a deal with the devil, a.k.a. her coworker Luke, to fake a relationship to boost their profiles. Their plan works, but the longer it goes on, Izzy starts to wonder whether this fake life is worth it. When she reconnects with Aidan, a mysterious stranger who looked after her the day her brother died, Izzy’s dilemma comes to a head: does she…

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