Whoa, April went by fast, I guess all of that stressing made time fly by or something, lol. It wasn’t a boring month that’s for sure, and I had a lot of supposed-to-be-relaxing time too. On the other hand I’ve got an awesome signed copy of Priest of Bones so I really can’t complain.
Book Reviews
In case you missed any of our reviews in April you can read them by clicking on the title! 🙂 Personally, once again I’ve read more than I reviewed, but I’m hoping to catch up to myself in May. Maybe.
Breaking Chaos by Ben Galley – 4.5/5
I’ve read the third book of the Chasing Graves trilogy back in March, but it only got posted on GdM in April.
“If you already came this far, then don’t hesitate to make the final steps to find out who will sit on the throne of Araxes. Nilith? Sisine? Widow Horix? Boran Temsa? Maybe Farazar as the first shade Emperor or someone else who fits into the games played by the Cult of Shesh? Will Caltro win his desired freedom? The table is set, events are in motion. All you have to do is enjoy this dark, bloody, hell of a ride.”
A Kingdom Under Siege by Jeffrey L. Kohanek – 4.5/5
Jen read the last book of the Wardens of Issalia series, the one we did a cover reveal for before 🙂
“This series has grown a lot over the last four books, from the scale of the story to the quality of the writing and ends with strong finish to a series that was a lot of fun all the way through.”
Fate Lashed by Josh Erikson – 4.5/5
I’ve taken Filip Magnus’ buddy read virginity by reading Fate Lashed with him. Rest assured, he enjoyed it 😉
” Fate Lashed has everything we loved before and then some more: action, intrigue, sarcasm, blood and death. Sprinkled with tiny bit of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and other references for good measure. The Ethereal Earth series is something every urban fantasy lover should read.”
A Flight of Broken Wings by Nupur Chowdhury – 3.75/5
Jen read the first book of the Aerial Chronicles, and quite liked it.
“The characters were awesome, a neat and easy to digest world, and I will be looking for the next in this series because it was an enjoyable story all around.“
Ghosts of Gotham by Craig Schaefer – 4.5/5
I’ve become a hug fan of Craig these past few years since I discovered his Daniel Faust series, so of course I jumped at his latest book.
“Considering everything, I think Ghosts of Gotham is my favorite novel from Craig Scheafer so far, and definitely not the last I’ve read. Ghosts of Gotham is fast paced, magical and one that is hard to put down. I don’t think I’m far from the truth if I say that this was only the beginning of a series that would rival his Daniel Faust one. I urge you to give it a chance if you like: Greek mythological figures in a modern setting, protagonists with mysterious and dark past, magic, characters you can enjoy hating and wondering about (Regina), and a mystery which means leaving bodies all over the place. In short: it has everything you might wish for!”
Sweetblade by Carol A. Park – 4.5/5
Jen read the prequel to the SPFBO4 entrant, Banebringer and it made it pretty excited for the sequel too!
“If you enjoyed Ivanna in Banebringer and want to know more about her past, Sweetblade is going to be right up your alley. If you liked the world and magic and are looking for more of that then you’ll need to wait for Banebringer’s sequel. If none of that matters then this is just a good solid read and has me even more excited for the sequel to Banebringer.”
Author Spotlight
Interviews
We are reeeeeeally close to the end of SPFBO4, so soon we’ll have a winner. I only have a few interviews left, and I had 2 of them up in April. Everything SPFBO related, you can find on my SPFBO 4 page!
J. Zachary Pike was once a basement-dwelling fantasy gamer, but over time he metamorphosed into a basement-dwelling fantasy writer. His debut novel, Orconomics: A Satire, won a National Indie Excellence Award for Humor and was a finalist for Fantasy.
He has written and directed several award-winning shorts, including Zelig Award winner “The Toll” and “Endurance Challenge: Mordred’s Isle” starring Billy West.
A New Englander by birth and by temperament, Zack writes strangely funny fiction on the seacoast of New Hampshire.
Read my SPFBO interview with Zachary!
Craig Schaefer writes about witches, outlaws, and outsiders. Whether he’s weaving tales of an occult-shrouded New York in Ghosts of Gotham or the gritty streets of Boston in the Charlie McCabe series, his protagonists are damaged survivors searching for answers, redemption, or maybe just that one big score.
Read my SPFBO interview with Craig!
Other Posts
Introducing Budapest
In an attempt to make myself go out more, I decided to do a new series showing you all the awesome places of Budapest. So fair I’ve failed, but at least I had a start with showing off the neighbourhood of the office I’m working at.
Get to know the National Theatre and the Palace of Arts!
The Questioning
My anniversary celebration event was pretty fun and people seemed to like it, so I decided to make into a monthly feature, just in a smaller scale: 1 blogger and author a month.
Blogger Edition: Holly (The Grimdragon)
Live chat with Ben Galley and Alex Khlopenko
Alex from Three Crows Magazine back in March contacted me about his idea of doing a panel-like thing via skype and asked me if I wanted to be moderator. I was flattered and terrified at the same time. I would have liked to do it, but at the same time I had a lot of doubts – starting with my voice, which is horrible, continuing with my spoken English. Why the hell would anyone in their right mind listen to me babbling about?? In the end I jumped in, because despite everything I would have been an idiot to pass up this opportunity. Besides, I do need to practice speaking anyway.
We invited Ben Galley along, and we had a fun 1 hour of chatting about social media, self-publishing a whole lot of other thingks. You can watch the video below or you listen to it on Three Crows Magazine’s soundcloud channel, here!
My weekend getaway
The weekend after Easter I headed out of town to spend a relaxing weekend not far from the city. I planned to rest and go for a walk to the nearby tourist attractions, to read, write, etc. Well, it didn’t really turn out that way. It was relaxing, kind of, though there were a lot of small annoyances which just ruined it. It was still nice to be away a bit. It definitely didn’t help much with my coming burnout so the next few months will be interesting…
Music Musings
Music Monday
If you missed any of them, give them a listen and read my personal notes/thoughts/ramblings regarding them 🙂
- April 1st: Royal Bliss: It Haunts Me
- April 8th: Rag’n’Bone Man: Human
- April 15th: Missio: Middle Fingers
- April 22nd: Poets of the Fall: Carnival of Rust
- April 29th: Green Day: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Music Diggin’ Friday
I loved this feature, but it required a lot of time and energy I didn’t have, especially on Friday. But at the beginning of the year I decided I’ll try to have more music related content. And I happened to have a day in the week where I usually don’t post, so with a twist I brought back Music Diggin’ Friday. I’m going to post all kind of stuff within this, be it lists, concert reviews, new releases or anything that I happen to fancy.
Books Featuring Music
To kick the renewed Music Diggin’ Friday off, I decided to get together 10 books I liked and music had a prominent role in. I still owe the second part of this, and I promise it’ll come in May.
Read my recommendation of books featuring music!
Poets of the Fall concert review
After more than a decade of waiting, Poets of the Fall finally came to Budapest! I was hoping to be able to make an interview, but in the end that didn’t happen. I don’t have a reason to be sad though, as I had a VIP ticket and they played some of my most favourite songs.
Read all about my experiences and look at a few pictures here!
That’s it from me now. Hope to see you all in May! 🙂
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