Category: Book Reviews Page 1 of 7

Sisters of Sorcery

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Untold book Sisters of Sorcery by Marsheila Rockwell and published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

Also, I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock.

This particular book focus on the character Clea, a character who was introduced to the Marvel universe in 1964, and is the Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension, and the wife of Doctor Strange.

She was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the post credits scenes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and played by Charlize Theron.

The Story

The book does a lot to explain the background of the characters, so I would say that you don’t need to know that much about the characters in advance, especially as they are mostly, side characters in many ways.

In this story, the Dark Dimension is currently ruled by the vile tyrant, Umar the Unrelenting, who just happens to be the mother of Clea, and she has kidnapped the cosmic being, Ardina, who as the female analog of the Silver Surfer is able to access the Power Cosmic.

Planning to use Ardina as a source of energy, Umar has made plans to conquer all of the splinter realms, but Clea becomes aware of her plans and gathers a team of powerful sorceresses, to travel to the Dark Dimension, join with Cleas rebels and stop Umar in her tracks.

Working with a ghostly Agatha Harkness, Clea recruits Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, the Talisman, Margali Szardos, the Sorcererses Supreme of The Winding Way and Agatha’s student and ward Holly LaDonna, but the quartet find themselves unable to travel directly to the Dark Dimension due to Umars use of the Power Cosmic to cast a spell to prevent teleportation to her realm.

So the team is forced to travel across various dimensions, facing family and rivals as they attempt to save all dimensions from the tyrant.

Conclusion

This book was fairly fast, it started fast and did not slow down or allow you any time to recover, which was good.

I am struggling to read at the minute due to headaches from my brain injury stopping me concentrating on text, but when I was able to read, I couldn’t put this book down.

We have four major characters here, although Clea is the clear focus, but they all got a good look in and were given a chance to shine, I wasn’t that familiar with some of them, the magical side of Marvel has never been my favourite, but I have come away and gone to Marvel Unlimited and downloaded a few issues featuring Margali and Talisman in particular to read a bit more of their stories.

I really enjoyed this book, I am not sure what else to say, but I really want to see more of Holly, she was very much my favourite character in the book, and she hasn’t featured much in the comics, but this version of her, was really cool.

This book gets a solid 4 out of 5 stars from me, and I strongly recommend you go buy it!


Sisters of Sorcery is out now as an eBook and paperback!

In the Coils of the Labyrinth

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Arkham Horror book In the Coils of the Labyrinth by David Annadale, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Arkham Horror

Anyway that put to one side, let’s look at this book, by first looking at the game Arkham Horror which is a cooperative game, originally designed by Richard Launius, and is now in its third edition which was released in 2019.

It’s published by Fantasy Flight Games, a subsidiary of Asmodee, and is set in 1926 in the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. Each player takes on the role of an investigator, who are working to stop the Ancient Ones, eldritch horrors which lurk in the void beyond space and time.

It’s a 1-6 player game and you work together to gather clues and defeat the evil of the Ancient Ones and save the world.

As I said I haven’t actually played Arkham Horror but I do own its spin off Elder Sign the cooperative dice game.

The Story

In this story we find Professor Miranda Ventham, seriously ill with TB as she books herself into the Stroud Institute, a new sanatorium with a new modern way to treat the disease and heal the patients of Arkham.

But dreams, bad dreams plague Miranda, and she cannot quite shake the feeling that something is wrong, deeply wrong with the Stroud Institute, especially with its mysterious director, Donovan Stroud.

With help from her friend, the parapsycholist Agatha Crane, they work to unravel the mystery of the Stroud Institute, in an investigation that takes them from Arkham, to Scotland and into the heart of the mysterious labyrinth, and the sinister secrets it holds, that is longing to be set free.

Conclusion

This is a subtle book, there aren’t many cultists or monsters as with most Arkham Horror books, but a look at the blurring between dreams and reality with a smattering of Romantic poetry and a look at 1920s health care.

I have been very critical in the past of David Annadales books, but I must admit his Arkham Horror stuff is very good, in fact its probably his strongest stuff and this shows off what he does well, brilliantly. Its a subtle type of horror, almost insidious and it feels like its getting under your skin.

For me this book feels like an idea way to get into the Arkham Horror series, its not too in depth, but touches on and introduces key concepts in the series and the wider Lovecraft mythos is a way that is very apporachable.

The protagonists are really rather good, and I hope to see their further adventures in the future.

One negative, that very nearly had me give up right at the beginning, the prologue is set in Scotland and the local priest is involved, and the locals refer to him as a Vicar, and that annoyed me, because there is not a chance in hell a Scotsman in any day or age will use that word for a priest, and it did destroy any chance of immersion in that prologue and made me feel like the book was going to have been very poorly researched. It just felt lazy, so please rectify that for the next printing, that needs changing to minister, or rector.

But the thing is, the book is incredible well researched, I found myself checking things about the treatment of TB and yeah, they really did stuff like that, so gah, why do I let myself get obsessed over little things like that!

Regardless of that tiny issue, I really loved this book, incredibly good story and its so well written and flows really well.

4 out of 5 stars!


In the Coils of the Labyrinth is out now as a paperback, eBook or audiobook!

Squirrel Girl: Universe

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Heroines book Squirrel Girl: Universe by Tristan Palmgren and published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

Also, I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Marvel Heroines series focuses on the female hero’s of the Marvel universe, the other books in the series so far have all be very very good!

The Story

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl aka Doreen Green, the heroine with the powers of a squirrel AND a girl, is one of Marvels most beloved modern characters, she is quirky, bubbly and fun, something which Tristan captures so well.

And above all else, she is a selfless hero who puts others before herself, and that’s where this story begins, as the Mad Thinker tries to relocate her adopted home of New York to the other side of the universe!

Taking action to prevent the entire city being moved, she takes action, but this ends up moving herself along with her trusty side squirrel Tippy Toe, fellow heroes Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy and Brain Drain, along with friends Nancy and Mary to a strange new world along with the Mad Thinker!

Hitching a ride on a passing Space Whale, turns out Koi Boy can communicate with stellar aquatic lifeforms too, and head to an alien space station, where they find themselves taken hostage on the frontline of a looming interstellar war that could claim the lives of trillions!

So just a perfectly normal week for THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL!!!!

Conclusion

This book took me ages to read, but that’s largely down to my brain injury giving me issues, but over the past couple of days I utterly devoured it, its an amazing book and captures the spirit of Squirrel Girl just right, as she sets out to prevent the war that to most seems inevitable.

That Squirrel Girl will stop this war against all odds, is never in question, its what she does, but how she gets there is fun!

The book is boisterous, fun and chaotic as well as super wholesome, and part of me wonders if this would be better targeted at young adults, but its juts as awesome for humans and squirrels of all ages!

There is literally nothing wrong with this book, its perfect, it has captured the spirit of the character perfectly and is a great example of what prose can do that comics can’t, especially in its beautiful descriptions of black holes and other stellar phenomena!

Also the Warhammer 40,000 and other sci-fi references are just *chefs kiss*!

I already bought the eBook to read again and Megan has gotten the paperback!

5 out of 5


Squirrel Girl: Universe is available now as an eBook and paperback.

The Raiders of Bloodwood

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Descent: Journeys in the Dark book The Raiders of Bloodwood by Davide Mana, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What’s is Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Simply put Descent: Journeys in the Dark is good old fashioned dungeon crawler whose linage goes all the way back to Heroquest.

Based very much on the Doom board game published by Fantasy Flight Games, you can see influences from across the gaming hobby, with bits from Space Hulk and Lord of the Rings being identifiable.

It’s set in the world of Terrinoth, a setting shared with Runewars, Runeage and a few other games and RPGs published by Fantasty Flight Games.

It’s a high fantasy universe and you will recognise many of the tropes and races seen in other similar fantasy style settings. It’s not particularly unique, but it is fairly well developed and interesting.

Descent is the dungeon crawler game in that universe, with one player being the evil overlord of the dungeon and the others taking in the roles of the hero’s.

For a dungeon crawler, let’s be honest it’s one of the best out there, and the only reason it’s not in my collection is that Lindsay and Megan aren’t as enthusiastic about high fantasy as I am!

The Story

In this epic tale, the Uthuk Y’llan are sweeping across the realms of Terrinoth, killing, burning and destroying all in their path.

This demonic powered horde of killers is lead by a murderous Beastmaster, who has a plan, a plan to take the forest of Bloodwood and control the mysterious source of power at its heart, so that he can destroy Terrinoth and bring all the world under his control.

But fleeing the destruction of their home city, a pair of humans, an orc and a catfolk, band together, and with the aid of an elven hunter, are thrust into an adventure to save the Bloodwood and by extension the world.

Traveling from the world they know, into the realms of the elves, this misfit band, will see wonders and horrors, and have to dig deep into themselves and fight the monsters that are the Uthuk Y’llan.

Conculsuion

This is a classic, adventure story, the kind of adventure you no doubt have played around a table with D20s with bottles of Pepsi and bowls of Wotsits as a nipper!

And that is why this story is so good, because it just hits that sweet spot of nostalgia and with fantastic writing, it really brings to life the words on the page. I really did feel pulled into the story and found myself putting off sleep to just read another chapter!

The characters, get quite a bit of padding out, with perhaps not the deepest of backstories, but enough so that you get a real feel for them.

Whilst the synopsis talks about them having to overcome their differences, I found that they seemed to become friends rather quickly, helping each other and being comrades to people they met when thrown in the mud together.

They only briefly feel safe, and the story moves along at a brisk pace, just like your RPG sessions.

The characters are all really interesting, but I did finds myself enjoying the elderly teacher Emery most, his almost childlike wonder, as for the first time in his life he finds himself travelling in the wild and seeing things he had only read about in books was really cool.

I really hope we get to meet these characters again.

This is a wonderful book and I am gonna give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

I do worry that some people will see my reviews for Aconyte as overly positive, but to be honest, apart from one stinker, all their books have been amazing!


The Raiders of Bloodwood is out now as a paperback, ebook and audiobook!

The Magus Conspiracy

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Assassins Creed book The Magus Conspiracy by the wonderful Kate Heartfield, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Assassin Creed

Assassins Creed is an adventure game franchise published by Ubisoft (One of my Edge of Empire Co-hosts used to work there as well I should probably mention), and depicts a millennia-old conflict between the Assassins, who fight to preserve free will, and the Templars who desire to bring around peace by controlling people.

The games take place throughout various historical periods, the original 2007 game being set in the era of the 3rd Crusades, and the latest game Assassins Creed Valhalla, set in the Viking Invasion of Britain, and the next game Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be set in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age.

The Story

This book takes place over about a decade before Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, starting in 1851 with the passing of Ada Lovelace, the genius daughter of Lord Byron. Confessing to her friend, the 19 year old acrobat Pierrette Arnaud, her concerns over technology and ideas she may have passed onto a shadowy mysterious correspondent, known only as the Magus.

Meanwhile, Adas childhood friend Simeon Price, is shipwreaked when the troopship, HMS Birkenhead, carrying him and his regiment to the Cape Colony runs aground. After being saved by a mysterious cloaked stranger, he decides to take the strangers advice, and desert from the army, and seek out a new brotherhood in Vienna.

When Ada finally passes away, she leaves Pierrette with instructions to seek out Simeon, having received word that he survived, believing that he may be able to undo what she has done and stop the Magus.

And thus our characters are thrown into a decade spanning adventure, as they encounter the Assassin’s and learn that Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted.

Conclusion

Look, I am always gonna look on an Assassin’s Creed book with a fairly high opinion as its one of my favourite video game IPs, I am currently replaying Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, so I may be a bit biased in that regard.

The Magus Conspiracy weaves through a period of history that in the UK, we kind of look back on as being fairly stable and an era of massive industrial revolution, but on the continent it was an age of upheaval, revolution and brutal repression.

This particular story, as with many Assassin’s Creed games, takes us through historic events, such as the 1853 attempted assassination of Emperor Franz Joseph and the Orsini Affair and has us encounter historic characters, such as Julius Jacob von Haynau, the Habsburg Tiger, John Ruskin and Lizzie Siddal.

This book feels like a love letter to the period and gives us a fantastic trip through parts of Europe as events such as the unification of Italy are in full swing, the Crimean war is underway and Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself as Napoleon III.

Crack is this book, stands on its own quite well, knowing a bit about the games, will help ease you in, but its easy enough to grasp the key concepts.

The characters are nicely well rounded and feel like whole people, and I am very much looking forward to the publication of the rest of the trilogy, to encounter them some more.

Now the Magus, well, I clocked who he was pretty quickly, which was a bit of a shame, but sometimes that’s just the way things need to work, after all, I was holding more facts than the characters were.

There is plenty of action here, and I loved the little decision that Pierrette made that meshes up with the real history and is an obvious place for a sequel!

I came away from this book, kinda hoping that Ubisoft do something with the characters and put them in a game, oh and meeting Ethan Frye and Jayadeep Mir again was a nice little treat!

Easy 5 out of 5 Stars!


The Magus Conspiracy is out now as a paperback, ebook and audiobook!

Daybreak Legacy

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Watch Dogs novel, Daybreak Legacy by Stewart Hotston, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game franchise, published by Ubisoft, and there have been three games published since 2014, the most recent being Watch Dogs Legion, published in late 2020.

Watch Dogs feature protagonists who are hackers working against criminal underworlds, corrupt companies and rival hackers.

The Story

Daybreak brings the story back to London and picks up in the aftermath of Watch Dogs Legion, and sees Olly and Ro from Day Zero doing work in London to protect people from the predations of criminal gangs, con men and the newly restored Metropolitan Police.

But their activities bring them to the attention of a new group, and they end up on the run after having their IDs changed, setting the authorities on to them and those they love.

Their friendly AI, Bagley, soon discovers that this new group may have an AI of their own, who is interfering in the business of the city. Changing hospital appointments, bumping people up the housing lists, little nudges that could have knock on effects for others who are in need.

Teaming up with Nowt and the hacktivist collective 404, Olly and Ro need to discover the aims of the new AI, and discover is Project Daybreak, truly is dead.

Conclusion

Ok, I am gonna start with the negatives, a couple of little things, that just bugged me, because its set in London, but these little inconsistencies, really spoiled the immersion.

When a characters weight is discussed, they give it only in lb, which isn’t something a British person would really do, they would give it in either kg or st, and it really was quite jarring.

And on a couple of occasions, the Tube is called the Metro, again, just not something that any Brit and especially a Londoner would do.

Sorry to start with the negatives, but they were only a couple of instances, but they really did, immediately stop my immersion in the story and I tried to figure out what the characters would refer to those in that way.

Anyway on to the good stuff, this isn’t a super high octane story filled with action, now you might think that’s not great for video game tie-in fiction, but actually, I think it worked rather well.

There is a fair bit of great action, but its in appropriate places, and works really well.

This book is a great examination of the moral and philosophical questions around the development of AI, and how they would impact on our society. Not AI as in machine learning and large language models such as ChatGPT we have today, but rather true AI that can think, imagine and make decisions all on its own.

The novel feels very appropriate as we moved into an era in which machine learning is accelerating and we will see it start to replace some roles in our society as we are forced once more to adapt to new technology.

The discussions had between the characters about the nature of life, and at what point can or should be accept the decisions of AI, and whether or not AI could become a master, if we give it too much power and control.

The conclusion felt more Star Trek than a video game, with the characters all seeking a peaceful outcome, rather than choosing violence.

The story is very interesting, very though provoking, very much so considering its source material, its deeper than it has any business being!

I have to award this book 4 out of 5 stars, and I very highly recommend it.


Daybreak Legacy is out now as a Paperback, eBook and Audiobook

The Flower Path

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Legend of the Five Rings book The Flower Path by Josh Reynolds, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Legend of the Five Rings

L5R as it’s often known is a fantasy setting for a series of card games and RPGs originally published by AEG, but now taken care of by Fantasy Flight.

It’s set in the empire of Rokugan which is heavily feudal Japan influenced, with a bit of other East Asian influences, like China and Korea thrown in as well.

It’s a fantasy setting with the usual fantasy tropes of goblins and rat men, but also oni and kitsune too.

The Story

This is the third of the Daidoji Shin mysteries and returns to the City of the Rich Frog as the theatre troupe Shin became patron of in the first book, face their opening night at the brand new Firefox Theatre, built to be the finest theatre outside of the Imperial Capital to Shin’s exacting specifications.

In his efforts to ensure success, Shin has recruited the most famous actress in all of Rokugan, Noma Etsuko, to lead the troupe since its original lead actress has left after the events of the first book.

But she doesn’t make fast friends, rather she makes many enemies amongst the cast and crew of the troupe, many of whom curse the day she joined them.

But as the curtain rises, and she walks the Flower Path of the Firefox Theatre for the first time, she collapses on stage, and subsequently dies backstage.

Knowing the killer must still be in the theatre, Shin seeks to uncover the mystery of her death as it soon becomes clear, that she had enemeies beyond the cast.

The clock is ticking and can Shin find the killer, before the show ends!

Conclusion

This is a bit of a slow start, there is a huge cast, and there is a big need to establish exactly how hated the victim is, so there is a lot of exposition as the great and good of The City of The Rich Frog descend upon the theatre for the first performance.

Yeah the initial start is a bit slow, but its overall well paced and very entertaining.

Daidoji Shin is a wonderful character, a Rokugan Sherlock Holmes but with his own distinctive qualities.

I would really recommend reading the first two books first, but thats not a bad thing because both Poison River and Death’s Kiss are excellent books!

It might not appeal to all readers, this is a book that I think would struggle to stand on its own as so much of the cast made appearances in the first two books and this story kind of expects you to have a lot of background knowledge already.

Anyway I loved this book and cannot wait for Three Oaths, the next in the series!

5 out of 5 Stars


The Flower Path is out now as a paperback, eBook and audiobook!

The Veiled Masters

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Twilight Imperium book The Veiled Masters by Tim Pratt, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Twilight Imperium

Twilight Imperium is a much beloved strategy board game published by Fantasy Flight Games that’s currently in its 4th Edition.

First thing to know, it’s very long, my pal Drew, one of the owners of the amazing Meeple Perk, tells me it’s an 8 hour game as a minimum!

Secondly it’s an epic space opera, set in the power vacuum left behind by the decline and collapse of the Lazax Empire, as various races and factions vie for dominance and to become the new galactic superpower.

The Story

In this story we return to much of the recurring cast that Tim has developed over his previous two books, The Fractured Void, and Necropolis Empire, starting with Federation of Sol agent Amina Azad as she rescues a Hacan diplomat being held on suspicion of the murder of a close friend of his.

Very quickly other factions are drawn into the investigation specifically Captain Dampierre of the Barony of Letnev and Felix Duval of the Mentak Coalition.

Soon a vast galaxy wide conspiracy is unveiled, with secret unknown forces seeking to destabilise the major factions and plunge them into war.

Conclusion

I was really looking forward to this book and it did not disapoint, Tim Pratt writes a wonderful space opera and makes the world feel so full and alive, taking snippets from the game and building them into deep and meaningful lore that feels so fantastically well estabalished.

This book isn’t dependent on reading the previous two entries, but you are missing out if you haven’t.

This story is really good and the story is extremely intriguing a real page turner and the morally ambiguous characters add so much realism to the story, with there being no straight up good guys, with everyone having their own agenda.

This book is one I would highly recommend for sci-fi fans, and is so much more than simple tie-in fiction, but is really the kind of thing, I could see nominated for a Hugo award.

To be honest, if Aconyte don’t win a Hugo in the next decade, I would be very surprised!

I have to give this amazing book, 5 out of 5 stars!


The Veiled Masters is out now as a paperback, eBook and audiobook!

Age of the Undead

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Zombicide: Black Plague book, Age of the Undead by C.L. Werner, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am also friend with Mr Werner on Facebook, however I am sure for him that’s more about connecting with fans rather than being one of my best buds, that said he is actually a really nice guy.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Zombicide

Zombicide is a co-op adventure game set in a post zombie apocalyptic world, created by Guillotine Games and published by CMON.

Its someone of a Kickstarter success story and Black Plague is the standalone fantasy/medieval spinoff, but alas I do not own this version of the game.

The Story

The story sees a plague of the undead sweep over the land, and survivor of a battle against the horde, Alaric von Mertz, returns home to find its fallen to the ravenous zombies.

Swearing revenge on the necromancer responsible for his families deaths, he joins up with a rogueish thief, a witch hunter, a wizard, an Orc, a master dualist and a dwarven demolitions expert, as they make their way to a city, where they hope to find answers.

Unfortunately, the city has also fallen, and they find themselves drawn into a quest to maintain the protections for a refuge of survivors, by raiding the vault of the fortress of the cities branch of witch hunters.

But the undead lurk in every corner of the city!

Conclusion

The first thing that drew me into this book was the cover, its absolutely amazing, with World of Warcraft/Pathfinder vibes that just made me so keen to read it.

This story reads very much like a D&D campaign, and its just works so well, a group of misfits, forced to work together, despite mistrust and some bad history, as they kick down doors, kill the undead and loot the treasure.

Sounds daft, but it does read like that, but its not a bad thing, its so enjoyable to read, because it reminds me of so many nights as a 14 year old, drinking Virgin Cola and eating Wotsits in my pals bedroom as me and my friends delve into dungeons to complete an epic quest!

My only criticism, is that at times, the witch hunter, felt very much like the same character type from Warhammer books, and perhaps thats just me being more familiar with those books and the authors long history of writing in that IP that makes me associate his style with it.

Look, just go buy this book, its just such a kick arse read and I was super happy to get the opportunity to read it.

5 out of 5 Stars!


Age of the Undead is out now as a paperback, ebook and audiobook!

Stars & Stripes

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Watch Dogs novel Stars & Stripes by Sean Grigsby and Stewart Hotston, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game franchise, published by Ubisoft, and there have been three games published since 2014, the most recent being Watch Dogs Legion, published in late 2020.

Watch Dogs feature protagonists who are hackers working against criminal underworlds, corrupt companies and rival hackers.

The Story

Stars & Strips follows the protagonist of the original game and is set between the events of that game and Watch Dogs Legion.

Whilst completing a job in Baltimore, Adrian Pierce is forcibly recruited by a shadowy government agent to investigate the hijacking of a transport full of transhuman augmentations!

Forced to work with Jordi Chin, he quickly finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy, that reaches all the way to the White House, as the mysterious Stripes, a white supremacist group look to seize power and enforce their racist xenophobic and backwards agenda on the country.

Conclusion

Well, what can I say the book has lots of character, and the character development of Pierce, is way more than was in the original game!

The book has a very uncomfortable plot as it is basically very much an examination of the culture wars and racism that has seized US politics, as the villains are a group that’s very familiar, they are “patriots” with more in common with groups like the Proud Boys, KKK, Britain First, and the Oath Keepers.

So yeah lots of examination of racism and hatred as a form of patriotism, and I am not gonna lie, it was delightful to see them get what they deserved.

This is a great book, its pacing was just right, I mean its one of the best paced books I have read in a long time, and I really couldn’t put it down and read it very quickly!

I am gonna have to give this wild of a book, an easy 5 out of 5 stars!


Stars & Stripes is available now as a paperback, eBook and audiobook!

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