REVIEW: THE REVENANT EXPRESS, by George Mann

I’ve long enjoyed George Mann’s ongoing Newbury & Hobbes series, but I don’t know what the heck happened here. With a six-year gap between the previous title (THE EXECUTIONER’S HEART) and this book being ridiculously priced when it finally did come out ($35CDN for a slim 220-page hardcover) I ended up sleeping on THE REVENANT EXPRESS until now. I probably could’ve done with hitting the snooze button another time or three before cracking into it.

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REVIEW: SEDITION, by E.M. Wright

Taryn understood the plight of the biomaton. They were slaves, humans who needed clockwork parts in order to survive. Their modified bodies somehow made them less than human, and that was the part she did not understand. Why weren’t they human? What did losing a limb and having it replaced have to do with one’s humanity?

Taryn Roft lives with a secret she doesn’t even fully understand herself. After barely surviving a fire as a child, her arm was replaced with a clockwork prosthesis. She is a biomaton. She is also missing six years’ worth of memories between the fire and finding herself on the streets of London. What she can’t remember could change the world.

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REVIEW: END OF THE LOOP, by Brent Nichols

“Wait a minute! Is that all there is? I watch TV and eat? While the seasons go by?”

David doesn’t remember anything. Where he is, how he ended up there, or even his own last name. The drugs make sure of that. But when his meds are changed and the orderlies fail to notice he’s no longer swallowing the pills, flashes of memory start to slip through the cracks in the fuzz. Slowly pushing aside the prescription-induced cobwebs, David begins to piece things together. One fact becomes very clear—if he doesn’t want to lose what little he has regained of himself, he needs to escape.

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REVIEW: THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK, by Craig DiLouie

Leisure reading time is rather hard for me to come by right now, so whenever I start a new book I want to be sure it’s one I’ll like. Well, as sure as one can be about such things, anyway. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Craig DiLouie’s earlier books ONE OF US and OUR WAR, his latest novel THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK was among my most anticipated releases of 2020. Classified as Horror, this is a book that defies genre tropes and explores the darker aspects of human nature, both in groups and in individuals.

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