'Offline' - Kealan Patrick Burke (Free Reading!)

Internet trolls are disgusting creatures but they still have their uses from time to time, seriously.

While waiting for Hope to go back to sleep, I like to have a peek on Twitter and see what one particular troll is up to (no names here, the fun lies in watching him get taken down, not having him appear here). Kealan Burke's name was mentioned, in one conversation,and this led to me finding 'Offline' as a free read on Smashwords (via Honey BoomSlang, best blog name ever...)

Welcome to the digital age.

Cell phones and text messaging allows us to keep in touch with each other no matter where we are...

Instant messaging has brought us closer together...

Social networking allows anyone not only to contact you whenever they want, but to learn everything they need to know about you too.

When it's the right person, it can be wonderful.

When it isn't, it can be murder.

'Offline' is only 19 pages long which makes it very difficult to say anything meaningful without totally spoiling it. What I will say is that it is an incredibly creepy read that had me wanting Mandy to just turn her computer off and stop talking to the strange guy at the other end. She doesn't though and I had a sick feeling in my stomach as the almost palpable sense of horror compelled me to keep reading. And just when I thought that I had a handle on what was going on, Burke threw in a really nasty surprise that I never saw coming and even had time to offer up a little social commentary as well. All in nineteen pages.

'Offline' is a nasty little slice of horror that wants you to read it and say, 'Oh god... no!' right at the end. And you will.

Not sure how long 'Offline' is a free read so I would click on that link now if I were you.

Free Reading From Abaddon...

More reviews are on the way and will arrive just as soon as I can get them posted. The last couple of days have been busy, to say the least, and I just want to get my breath back a little :o)
What have I got for you in the meantime? Even more free reading? I reckon so... Abaddon think you should be reading their books (they'd be pretty rubbish publishers if they didn't...) and have made a couple available for free. The plan is that you will fork out for the rest of the series but, given the series, I'd recommend you do that anyway. Jonathan Green's 'Unnatural History' kicks off an awesome steampunk series (a favourite of mine) while Simon Spurrier's 'The Culled' is a fine way to open the post-apocalyptic 'Afterblight Chronicles'. Okay, I would have gone with 'Death Got No Mercy' (an excellent read and standalone) but 'The Culled' is still worth the read.

Both books are free on the Abaddon site and most other places too. I don't know how long the offer lasts (I don't think Abaddon know either...) so I'd get in there quick if I were you ;o)

Some Free Reading For Halloween.

If you're after some short, scary reading this Halloween then you should head over to Smashwords where Messrs Keene, Smith, Nicholson and Maberry have all donated short stories, forming a free collection, as part of the 'Spooky Stacks' signed book giveaway. I've downloaded, and read, the collection already; here's a quick summing up of what I thought...

'Fast Zombies Suck' (Brian Keene) - Not scary at all but this story does come with a killer twist that made me chuckle.

'Pizza Face' (Bryan Smith) - A really tense read that features the immortal line, 'Which one of you stupid meth heads thought it would be a good idea to order a pizza right smack in the middle of a home invasion?'

'A Farewell to Arms' (Scott Nicholson) - A sombre tale of the zombie apocalypse and just what one man will do to survive it.

'Cooked' (Jonathan Maberry) - Not the zombie tale I was expecting from Maberry but powerful nonetheless. Sometimes it's just about revenge, no matter what you promise.

Apparently, this collection will only be available for a short time so I'd make the most of it if I were you ;o)

'The Penitent Damned' - Django Wexler.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about Django Wexler's 'The Thousand Names' and while rooting around for more information came across this free e-book written by the man himself. Have a click Here if you want to download it yourself; I'm a sucker for free reading  so downloaded it straight away. It's only twenty pages long so was just the right size for reading on my phone.

This relative brevity works against 'The Penitent Damned' if you're after a book that sheds more light on the world Wexler has created. There simply isn't enough room for that although some of the hints that Wexler drops have got me eager to be reading 'The Thousand Names' soon (and I now have a copy). No, what 'The Penitent Damned' is all about is delivering a sharp burst of 'Sword and Sorcery' (given the setting, maybe 'Pistol and Sorcery'?) that promises good things from Wexler's longer work.

Alex is a master thief who may just have bitten off more than she can chew with her latest job. Stealing from the headquarters of the Concordat was never going to be easy but it will be practically impossible given that they already know she is coming. Luckily, Alex has a few tricks up her sleeve but so do the agents of the mysterious Black Priests...

'The Penitent Damned' makes for a great way to spend half an hours reading time and has got me fired up for tackling 'The Thousand Names'. It has everything you would expect from a tale of midnight thievery (humour, action and a killer twist right at the end) and it is all delivered very neatly albeit perhaps a little too abruptly. This is where the length of the book really works against itself with Wexler showing off what he can do but not really able to really run with it. Instead, the humour is quickly packed away so the action can be wheeled out, then the action is quickly packed away so Wexler can deliver the twist. Don't get me wrong, I loved that ending; it's just that the speed of the plot felt a little artificial and not in keeping with what was actually happening.

You know what though? I can't really knock a book that shows you what Spiderman would have been like if he lived in a fantasy world and could kill people with his webbing :o) I wonder if we will see Alex again? I hope so as I want to find out what happens to this cocky young thief (it doesn't look good for her, at all). I guess I'll have to make 'The Thousand Names' a priority read. Has anyone here read it?

Another Excerpt From 'The Dark Defiles'

A short and sweet one for you guys today; it's lovely outside you see... :o)

If you're a fan of Richard Morgan's fantasy (like me) then the odds are that you are already following his blog and have read his latest excerpt from 'The Dark Defiles'. If, for some reason, you aren't following his blog then have a little click Here and treat yourself to another hard edged, atmospheric, scene setting read. My appetite has been whetted once again, how about yours?

Now, me and my copy of 'Bleak Seasons' are going to go and sit in the sunshine for a while...

Friday Free Reading!

A bit of a 'cheats post' this morning as I'm actually trying my hardest to come up with sensible sounding questions for an interview that I have this afternoon. Any good luck wishes will be greatly appreciated as I have a horrible feeling that it's going to be a bit of a fight to get into my suit...

In the meantime, Free Reading! I found this link on Facebook (can't remember who posted it but thanks anyway!) and it's an amazing resource if, like me, you haven't read a lot of science fiction written by women. Looking back at my reading, this is something that I really need to address. One of the perils, I think, of not reading an awful lot of sic-fi anyway and (recently) letting my reading be decided by a book's cover art... I'll have to see what I can do about that.

Anyway, enjoy some free reading!

Free Reading Friday!

I've spent the last couple of days on a course where you are told how to go out and find a job (turns out I was doing most of this already...) so haven't had time to write the reviews that I wanted to. In the spirit of this new (slightly more relaxed in terms of posting reviews) blog that's not a huge deal though. Everything gets pushed back a couple of days and will turn up a little later ;o)

So what do you get in the meantime? Does a little bit of free reading sound good? Are you a fan of Mark Lawrence's 'Broken Empire' books? If you answered 'yes' to both questions then you might want to click Here to read his free short story 'Sleeping Beauty'. If you want to read Mark's thoughts on finishing the 'Broken Empire' trilogy (the last book will be published next month I think) then have a click Here.

In slightly related news I'm going to have another crack at reading 'Prince of Thorns' with the aim of being all caught up by the time the last book comes out. Last year wasn't the right time for me and that book but I think it could well be now. Keep an eye out here and I'll let you know how it goes...