Daughter of the Otherworld by Shauna Lawless

         I have loved the way Shauna Lawless has smashed up Ancient Irish History with Irish Mythology from the very first book in the series,  Children of Gods and Fighting Men.  This book can be either book 4 of the Gael Song series or Gael Song Era 2 BK1. Either way, it was a great read and i was glad to be back in Shauna world.       

       150 years have passed since the event in the Gael Song Trilogy. But since the Fomorians and Tuath De Danann are ancient Irish mythical beings, we have some of the same characters we have met in he first trilogy.  Gromflaith, one of the main POV in the Gael Song, is hiding out in Europe. An actual historical figure who married three Kings, but little is know of Gromflaith in the beside that. Shauna has added to the tale a meticulously crafted character I have not read since George R.R, Martin's Cersei Lannister.         . 

       Structure of this novel has multiple POVs.  Isolde is, at the end of the first trilogy the mere babe of a King and a Tuath De Danann, is now a young lady hidden on an island. Foretold to be the one who will destroy the Fomorians, enemies of the Tuath De Danann,  Isolde thinks the Gods got it all wrong. This strong start to a new trilogy has me excited for book 2.  Shauna will also release novella to add to the tale. 

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree

 

    Love this book to death. It starts with friends having a drink. Or two. Something I am very familiar with, as a lover of Tequila, especially in the Shots form. And sometimes you hit that point in the night, where you just want to crawl away and find somewhere to sleep it off. 

    That is exactly what Fern, a rattkin, in the fabulous world Travis has created in 3 fabulous books.so far, Fern finds a wagon bed to sleep it off only to wake up and fine the wagon on the move. And away the adventure begins, 

     Character driven series, not an Epic Fantasy in any stretch of the imagination, just those little battle we find ourselves fighting within ourselves,  In a way, Travis has a bit of Dostoevsky in him, if Dostoevsky had grown up in sunny Tahiti and not dreary Russia,   

     The Breadknives in the tittle refers to one particular concept character that is simply brilliant, you have to read the book to access it on your own, but a am positive you will agree with me. The character warmed every cell in my body.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

 

   
This book was a pleasant surprise. Who knew working for a Super Villain could be such a tough job. 

Anna Tromedlov, the temp that could, would have been one of the faceless clipboard holders in the background if you’d been taken to a supervillain’s lair while they plotted your demise. But Anna caught the attention of her boss, The Leviathan, with her strong work ethic and a devious plan that brought bad press to her boss' arch enemy. Superglider. 

   it was a great listen if you want to go the audiobook route, The performance of the book by Ales McKenna was a big part of the pleasure I had experience as I travel back and forth this month on the Skytrain , listening to the tale of Anna as she balanced life and work. A sequel is planned to be publish in May of 2026, 

Singularity trap by Dennis E Taylor.

 

        I had this title since 2015 and a funny thing happened. I began to hate the word "Singularity." as certain right wing-nut began to talk about the "Singularity." Like all the time. And had no idea what he meant by that other than it became a word that ended any discussion on any subject. 

       So this book just sat there on the App for nearly a decade. Now I am a bit mad at my  not so sub-conscience mind for the delay in the listen. A great book about a down on his luck family man trying to strike it rich in the field of space mining. But a mistake on an asteroid changed all that. 

      As a member of First Contact genre, this is about as original as they come. And at the time of this review 3/1 Atlas is making a drive by in our system and to read a this book in November of 2025 felt so right.

     I have yet to not love a single Dennis E Taylor book. If you are a fan of Andy Weir or Douglas Adams, you need to add Dennis E Taylor in your reading rotation. Plus his audiobooks are performed by the fabulous Ray Porter, one of the best in the business. Also,  Dennis E Taylor's  books are  incredibly cheap. Take a chance on an author who keeps his ebooks below $7 as a rule. 

Warlord Chronicles : An Arthurian Myth Re-Telling by Bernard Cornwell

    I have decided to spend the last half of 2025 to do a read of all the latest takes of the King Arthur myth. First up is the always reliable Bernard Cornwell, someone who I spend last year reading his Last Kingdom, figuring it would take 4 months to get thru. It took me 2 months to read the  13 books in the series, Mr. Cornwell write in a very readable way, I want to say literary popcorn. 

     So I headed out to Big Bad Wolf  Book Fair here in Bangkok, Thailand,  My main goal was to find some Graphic Novels in the Thai language, I was successful in that, but they also had table upon tables of books in the English language,  And they had all 3 books in Bernard Cornwell Arthurian tale. I took that as a sign. 

     The tale is told thru the eyes of Derfel, In the series Derfel goes from an orphan taken in by Merlin to a Lord in the service of King Arthur. Hey, I am a sucker for the orphan does good trope, Defer is the POV that is used to spend the tale. Mr. Cornwell write in his afterword that he sought out the earliest tales of Arthur to find characters who have drop out of the story with the passage of time. One such character is Nimue, who play a major role in the life of Derfel. More than Merlin.   If your a fan of Lancelot, be forewarned, Lancelot is portrayed as the greatest traitor in English history. 

     Next up in the reading list will be Giles Kristain's take of the Arthurian tale. 

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

    I will put it out there that I am one of Joe Abercrombie's biggest fans, I have read every book published by Joe and have been pre-ordering his books since Half a King, the YAD Viking inspired Shattering Seas series. I have met Joe at a signing and he was a nice as could be, so nice I thought He was going to pitch me a timeshare. 

     The Devils has a simple plot, one of the oldest literary tropes there is, The Quest. Now, the quest plot combined with the collection of a rag tag group of heroes are right in my reading wheelhouse.  Joe turns the trope upside down by inserting a highly unlikely group of questers. This is kind of a hallmark of Joe's books, he take previous character types and turns them on their heads.  

     The Devils  worldbuilding is fairly simple. Troy did not fall, and Rome did not ascend. Hector beat Achilles  and Troy did not fall for the wooden horse trick. And the Messiah was a woman killed on a wheel. The story takes place after a split in the church and the heroes are enlisted to install a Princess on the breakaway empire in a bid to unite. 

    As the series continues you will get more backstory on the the devils. Joe has brought us character most readers are familiar with, a Vampire, Cursed Knight, a mercenary Pirate and friend to the knight, an Elf, Werewolf. Necromancer aka magician and a bookish monk. Each charged with the duty of getting a street urchin to  Troy and install her as princess. Joe writes in his fabulous humorous style, bringing life to the characters.

     If you liked The Devils and wish to find similar authors who write with a humorous style, I recommend Davis Wragg and  J. .Zachary Pike. 

   

Barkskin by Annie Proulx

     This book took me back to my young reading years,  Yes, before I had even graduated High School. For I was a big fan of James A Michener and doorstop sprawling novels  on Alaska, Chesapeake, and Hawaii to name just a few. Fell in love with those stories that spanned centuries and gave you a sketch of how it was and came to be.. I do not know if these books hold up today, but back then those book filled up a lot of my reading time.

     Annie Proulx's Barkskins  take two Frenchman who are one of the first in New France AKA North Atlantic Coast America,  The tale takes you from the first beaver pelt traders to climate change scientists, The tale spans centuries, mostly focused on Forestry and the exploitation of that natural resource, Some time spans are given short shift, but the time periods seem to be tied to innovations or explorations of the Forestry industry, The readers follows the two sides of the family tree, the French side and the Native American side, The two side share in heartbreak and tragedies, but the Native American side gets the worst it, losing both land and culture. While the French side gains wealth with each century, 

    Ms. Proulx's writing style is always first rate. Beautifully written, the reader experiences both the hopelessness and the hope of each character, Both the chapters and the decades quickly passed as I devoured the book dur to readability and story arcs. 

    I first gain interest in reading this book due to the  National Geographics TV series of the same name. So a Shout out to NG for greenlighting a the TV series and alerting me to this fine story,