Friday 15 March 2024

Silo Submerged (The Runner, The Diver, The Watcher) by W.J. Davies









From Goodreads

In the depths of Silo 35, water is pouring in at an unstoppable rate. Ace and a team of Divers are doing the best they can to avert this disaster, but it may not be enough.

When Ace proposes another, more drastic way of saving the silo's population, he is banished for his sin of toxic words. What happens during and after his cleaning is unprecedented and will greatly affect the future of the silos.

Originally published in three parts (The Runner, The Diver, and The Watcher), Silo Submerged is a 75,000 word novel that takes the reader on a very personal journey through the vivid world Hugh Howey created with his Silo Saga (WOOL, SHIFT and DUST). This series was published with the full support of Mr. Howey and has gone on to sell over 15,000 copies.

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this via Kindle Unlimited.  This is a series of three short dystopian stories in a trilogy all in one book.  This trilogy is very similar in ways to the world that Hugh Howey created in his Silo series and was published with the full support of him.

I read this book back in 2023, but my life didn't allow me to write the review of it at the time.  I found this a thought provoking series of stories and it was right up my street as the dystopian genre is one that I do enjoy.  It was a good edition to the dystopian genre set around the world that Hugh Howey created.

Can Ace and his team of Divers save the future of Silo 35 as it is beginning to fill with water and the disaster that this may cause will possibly see the end of the inhabitants of the Silo or will they fail at every turn?  Ace has some ideas that may help, but can he be believed and allowed to do what he proposes.  Not everyone will be behind him and may have other ideas themselves that may put his life at risk.

The End is Now (The Apocalypse Triptych #2) by Various Authors

 

From Goodreads

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.

But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild.

THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.

Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, The Apocalypse Triptych is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME explores life after the apocalypse.

THE END IS NIGH is about the match. THE END HAS COME is about what will rise from the ashes. THE END IS NOW is about the conflagration.
My thoughts
I grabbed a copy of this via Kindle Unlimited.  This is the second in a trilogy of books that are a compilation of short stories all set around a dystopian time.
In this edition of the trilogy it is as the end of the World is happening and what the impact of that occurrence has on the characters and the environment that they live in.  Some of the short stories follow on from stories that appeared in the End is Nigh and others are standalone stories.  ]
I enjoyed this edition of the trilogy as I am quite a fan of stories that are of a dystopian nature.  Like all short stories sometimes you feel that they are not quite long enough to draw you in, but they try their best.  
Grab a copy and see for yourself what your views of them are.




Thursday 14 March 2024

The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey













From Goodreads

The ocean is dying. The sea is growing warmer and is gradually rising. Seashells have become so rare that collecting them is now a national obsession. Flawless specimens sell like priceless works of art. Families hunt the tideline in the dark of night with flashlights. Crowds gather on beaches at the lowest of tides, hoping to get lucky.


Supreme among these collectors is Ness Wilde, CEO of Ocean Oil. Ness owns many of the best beaches, and he keeps them to himself. It's his fault the world turned out this way. And I aim to destroy him.

My name is Maya Walsh. You might be familiar with my shelling column in the Times. I was working on a series of pieces about Mr. Wilde, when out of the blue, he called. He says he wants to talk. But I don't think he's going to like what I have to say. 


My thoughts

I enjoyed the Silo series by Hugh Howey and decided to read some of his other work.  I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  Whilst it has some of his usual dystopian themes, it also has a romantic theme running through it.

I have read some reviews that have slated the romance side of it, saying that it's a little 'predictable' BUT a lot of romances can be classed that way. I enjoyed this read as I do enjoy romances as they help take us away from our everyday lives, I don't mind the predictability of them at all and I am more than glad that I grabbed a copy of this book to read.  I immersed myself in the lives of Maya and Ness, enjoying where Howey took us as he related their story to us.

More like this please.

Wednesday 24 January 2024

The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych #1) by Various Authors










From Goodreads

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.

But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.

Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.

THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.

My thoughts

I have for some time now been a fan of dystopian stories that take us away from our day to day life and into alternative worlds, that are not always make believe but can often be set around our normal life and existence. 

I grabbed a copy of this book from Kindle Unlimited.  This is the first in a trilogy of three themed books of short stories, set around the end of the world and what may happen.  Some of the Authors are well known and others have had work published but not to such great acclaim as the well known authors.    

Excerpt from Wedding Day by Jake Kerr.

'I am filled with more happiness than I knew was possible as the love of my life will be safe and this wonderful amazing person who has filled my life with such joy will not have her light go out due to the cruelty of the heavens or fate or whatever has decreed that life is now nothing more than a lottery she will she will live she will live.'

In my eyes life has always been a lottery, it's the luck of the draw what happens to us on our journey on this Earth.   Some of what happens to us we can plan for and other things happen that we may never have expected to happen to us.  Just keep an eye on that lottery ticket that you get and make the most of life every day as you never know when that lottery ticket may fail.  

I really enjoyed reading this collection of short stories, the subject of the stories varies greatly from gentle romances to horror themes.  Some will remain with me for a while as they made me think about the issues that they were dealing with and how I may have dealt with things if I had been the character that the story was centred on .  

I am looking forward to reading the next in this Apocalypse Triptych series The End is Now.

Saturday 20 January 2024

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

 

From Goodreads

An unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.

Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. Instead, Jack finds a town mired in secrecy and a strange welcome package: an old exorcism kit and a note quoting scripture. "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known."

The more Jack and her daughter Flo get acquainted with the town and its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into their rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo is troubled by strange sightings in the old chapel, it becomes apparent that there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

But uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village where everyone has something to protect, everyone has links with the village's bloody past, and no one trusts an outsider.

My thoughts

My thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.  Sadly, I only got round to reading this towards the end of 2023.  I was prompted into grabbing this as the series based on the book aired on TV last October and I was keen to read it before the series started.

Telling the story of Rev. Jack Brooks and her daughter as they arrive in a village.  Like a lot of us Jack has a past, the village that she is sent to has a past and is surrounded by secrets that many would prefer remained in the past.  As the two collide how will Jack deal  with what is about to happen to her and her daughter Flo?

With a mix of thriller, horror and supernatural themes this book is the sort of read that we have come to expect from this author.   I enjoyed the read and always look forward to seeing where C.J. takes us in her journey through her warped mind as she translates it to the pages of her books.

Keep them coming and long may your mind continue to be warped.

The Memory of You by Samantha Tonge








From Goodreads

A gorgeously uplifting story about memories, storytelling, love and friendship, about the journeys we take and the people we meet, what we remember and how there are some things we can never forget. Alex would like to believe she’s a woman who has it all. Or that’s what she tells everyone, including herself. But this is far from true. Actually she’s on the cusp of losing her home, her dream career as a writer is in tatters, her ex won’t speak to her, and her mother’s gone forever. But then a chance meeting with a stranger named Hope gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, when Hope jokes that perhaps Alex should take over her job in a cafe while she goes travelling. Just at that moment, it sounds like the answer to all her problems. So Alex persuades Hope to let her step into her shoes for a month. She brushes away Hope’s attempts to explain about the café, instead demanding to know more about the owner Tom . But she should have asked to know more. Because the ‘Wrong Order Café’ isn’t like anywhere she’s ever been before. And Alex’s life is about to change forever…

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this from Kindle Unlimited. I have read and enjoyed books by this author before and this was another that I enjoyed.  This is a gentle romance, that you can escape into away from your day to day life.  The author has a way of drawing the reader into the lives of the characters and all their troubles.  

When Alex meets Hope a stranger who unexpectedly offers her a job that will allow her to escape from day to day life, that's causing her lots of issues both emotionally and financially.  It doesn't take too much persuasion from Alex to let Hope allow her to take the job and make the change that might just be the answer to some of her problems.  What Alex doesn't realise, is that this job may not be like any other that she has had before.  It's based in a cafe, but this cafe is unusual and is unlike many cafes, she doesn't let Hope explain about how things work.  What Alex doesn't realise is that things may never be the same again once she has stepped into her new job.

To find out what happens to the customers, Ales and the other staff in the 'Wrong Order Cafe', you will need to grab a copy of this book and settle down somewhere nice and comfy to immerse yourself among the pages.




Wednesday 10 January 2024

So Close (Blacklist #1) by Sylvia Day

 

From Goodreads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire® saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.

You can’t believe all of them, but can you trust any of them?

Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him… until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.

Aliyah, Kane’s mother, deals in science. There are too many questions, too few answers, and too much at stake. “Lily” has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on the throne.

Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by deceit and betrayal, and she’s devolving into murderous rage. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.

Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife. Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way.

Propulsive and sly, So Close is a lushly gothic novel of domestic suspense with the emotional intensity, scorching sensuality, and complex exploration of female trauma that are the hallmarks of multimillion-copy international bestseller Sylvia Day.

My thoughts

I grabbed a copy of this from BorrowBox the digital lending side of my local Library.  

This is the first in the Blacklist series and to be honest I don't think I will be reading any more of the series.  It's not the story as such that I hated, it was the way that it was written from multiple POVs that I didn't like as there were too many of them..  Due to not being able to read it from end to end and picking it up occasionally reading a few pages at a time instead of chunks, that had me a little lost at times.

Having read other reviews online I can see that this is a definite marmite book and as such this reader is on the fence. There were parts of it that I enjoyed and I was keen to find out what was happening, but there were also parts were I really couldn't have cared less what happened to the characters.