Tag: Dystopian

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Book Review – Irradiated by S. Elliot Brandis.

Irradiated (The Tunnel Trilogy, #1)Irradiated by S. Elliot Brandis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Irradiated is about Jade and Pearl. Two sisters fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Pearl is different, she has a mutation. When Jade comes home to find Pearl missing one day, she sets out to find her.

The Cover: The cover has a good clean font, but I’m not overly fond of the image. While it may give some readers the idea of a post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel, It doesn’t really work for me other than to provoke a feeling of the tone of the book.

The Good Stuff: The book is well written and has some great characters. The world is dark and gritty and S.Elliot Brandis sure knows how to create a mean antagonist! I thought the story had an original element to it that I personally haven’t seen in post apocalyptic stories before.

The Bad Stuff: This is a dark world with some mean characters and yet for some reason I felt it was more suited to a YA audience.

This is an original story with some great characters. The author has created a savage world and he has a way with words that makes it a thoroughly enjoyable read. Some readers will absolutely love this book, but as it felt like it was for a younger audience and Post-apocalyptic Dystopian stories are not my favourite Genre, I’m giving it a sun-scorched 3 out of 5 Golden bookmarks.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.

Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1)

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve is a story about love, courage and survival amid Mobile cities, ravaging each other for resources in a barren world.

The Cover: A nice cover, depicting a scene from the book and conveying the genre and tone of the story well.

The Good Stuff: While the style is unusual and dated, I enjoyed this book. There are some great characters and concepts, a few unexpected turns and a well established, albeit barren, wasteland of a world.

The Bad Stuff: This is an old YA novel and the authors style is a little dated. There are multiple points of view and author interjections in parenthesis throughout the story.

Overall, this is a good YA novel. You’ll come to love the main characters and want to see them succeed. There are a few twists you won’t see coming, that start very close to the beginning of the story. For entertainment value and creativity, I’m giving this one 3 out of 5 Golden Bookmarks.

Get it on Amazon.com
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Get it on Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Book Review – The Vagrant by Peter Newman.

The Vagrant (The Vagrant, #1)

The Vagrant by Peter Newman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Vagrant by Peter Newman is a dystopian novel with sci fi and fantasy elements. It follows the story of a mute protagonist as he journeys across the wastelands with a goat and a baby (at least for the duration of my read).

The Cover: I love the cover to this book. It has great artwork and it tells me straight away that this is a fantasy novel. I even get the feeling it is set in a dystopian world and picture is a great representation of the main character.

The Good Stuff: The story was interesting, I would like to know how it unfolds – just not enough to push me through author’s prose. I liked the wasteland, the author has built a believable world, ravished by ‘demons’, where life fights to survive among the new hosts. The protagonist, while he did not talk up to the point where I stopped reading, is interesting. I find I want to know more of his story, where he came from and why he is there. I have some ideas based on the story so far, but nothing was given away by the author to the point I read up to, merely hinted at.

The bad stuff: I really didn’t like the author’s style of writing. There were lots of short sentences, to the point where the story was confusing or didn’t make sense to me in places. I didn’t manage to finish this book, I loaned it from my local library, struggled through to page 169 and when the 3rd renewal came up, figured if I haven’t gotten into the book by now, it was not worth the trouble renewing again.

I think that if you are okay with the author’s writing style, you will enjoy this book. The story is interesting, the world is believable and there is variety in the characters. Personally, I couldn’t get past the author’s style. I don’t think this was a bad book, just not a book for me. I’m only giving it 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

amazon.com
amazon.com.au
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

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Mortal Engines the Movie – Who’s been waiting for this?

 

 

Hello Readers (and movie fans),

I’ve been waiting for this to come out ever since I heard Peter Jackson was involved in the project. Here is the trailer for your viewing pleasure. If you haven’t read the book, it is an old one, but a good one.

Enjoy!

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in some libraries.

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