Reviews....we will post as we get them

The aim is to post reviews of the books that we read in advance of events.


However as we are only blogging after nine months of frantic reading and events plus all the wonderful books we have already read, then just take what you get when you get it!


I have a few friends reading to review
(they are reading for  pleasure, they have just been coerced into typing reviews)


I have just finished the stunning new book by Bali Rai, 'Fire City'.

I am a fan anyway, as I rate his ability to write about anything, alongside his power of persuasion as you read to actually believe what is happening as though you were observing it.
He has style, humour, pace and action galore.
There has been a lot of 'Post Apocalyptic' fiction and 'Arcane' stuff too. However this is very different.


Bali raises the stakes in survival with the battle between the 'Hell-Kin' (Demons) and the Unwanted (Rag Tag Revolutionary Humans), add in another layer of politics with the 'Wanted' and you have a seriously sensational mix of 'observed society' fiction with panache.


The ability to take you the reader into this hellhole future and yet make you have feelings for the characters, Martha and Faith, a sort of unlikely mother/daughter relationship although they aren't related and Mace the 'mega man' and Jonah the 'new kid' with rock and roll killing skills. Add in the sleaziest Mayor ever, a mercenary with two masters in Stone and THEN the Demons...Old as creation and ever hungry for flesh, with their own pecking order and no emotions or complusions to care. They have the 'Hunt', We (humans) are the prey and it is relentless and yet there is a sort of 'Brave New World' slant too.


Bali is a true observer of modern life and what 'makes a difference' to 'Teens' (and any reader) and this surely will be the book that takes him up a level to the 'Must Read' category and hey, even a nomination for a prize or two.


A very decent 8/10 from me. Let's see what anyone else says...