Steven Brust is an author I’d never encountered before, but I received his latest as a gift, and reading the blurb I thought it would be something I would enjoy, as it explores magic in the modern era with a trio of working class heroes. We are introduced to Donovan, Susan and Marci, a trio…
Category: The Book Shelf
A Winter Haunting (2002) – Dan Simmons
I wanted to return to the town of Elm Haven, having enjoyed my experience there in Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night, so I picked up the sequel he penned to it, and dove into a but of a spooky tale. We join Dale Stewart, from the original novel, but he’s older now, in his fifties,…
Lego Star Wars: Visual Dictionary – New Edition (2019) – Simon Beecroft, Jason Fry, Simon Hugo
I’ve raved about Lego, and Star Wars on this blog a number of times over the course of this blog, and digging into DK Canada’s new edition of its brilliant Lego Star Wars: Visual Dictionary just fires up the imagination again. The new version has added material, and talks about the twenty year relationship between…
Marvel Studios Character Encyclopedia (2019) – Adam Bray
With Avengers: Endgame just around the corner, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will expand to include twenty two feature films. That’s a lot of storytelling, and a lot of characters. Can you name them all? Do you remember who Agent 13 is? What about Ross? Dr. Palmer? Sure we all know who Iron Man is, we…
Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead (2009) – Steve Perry
Haiti 1943. Steve Perry pens the last (to date) canon novel in the Indiana Jones series, that is set five years after The Last Crusade, and takes place in the midst of the Second World War. Indy is older now, in his forties, he is working for the OSS, and he is joined by his…
Summer of Night (1991) – Dan Simmons
This week, I dig into another Dan Simmons horror novel, and decided on Summer of Night. While not necessarily derivative of Stephen King’s It, there are striking similarities, although both prove to be very entertaining. Set in 1960, Simmons novel doesn’t quite mine the nostalgia factor as King did (It made me long for a…
Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx (1999) – Max McCoy
1934. The final Indiana Jones adventure set before the first trio of films is on the book shelf this week. It is also the shortest adventure in the series, not even breaking 200 pages, and the macguffin this time around is one created by the author, the Omega Book, though bases on things hinted at…
NOS4A2 (2013) – Joe Hill
So I wanted something spooky and creepy, but needed a quick respite from revisting King’s work. I kept it in the family and dug into his son’s novel, NOS4A2. This one feels almost epic in size as we follow the horrors committed by Charlie Talent Manx and the life of a woman, Victoria McQueen who…
DC Ultimate Character Guide: New Edition (2019) – Melanie Scott
As I worked my way through DK Canada’s latest release, the DC Ultimate Character Guide: New Edition, i was put in mind of something from my childhood, something dear, and something I miss terribly (though once revealed you can make the argument that they are still available. My response will be it’s not the same,…
Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth (1997) – Max McCoy
1934 This week’s book shelf sees me continuing to seek out adventure with one of my favorite heroes, Indiana Jones, in the third novel by Max McCoy. Having previously enjoyed McCoy’s two previous forays into action with the globe-trotting archaeologist, I was quite looking forward to some Nazi punching and delving into hollow Earth theories…
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark & More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981 & 1984) – Alvin Schwartz
Scary stories are always a delight to take part in, wrapped oneself in darkness and trying to laugh the chill that the scares gives us, while enjoying the fright and perceived danger of it, like whistling past a graveyard, seems to be ingrained in our DNA. I never read these young adult collections when they…
Unsolved Murders: True Crime Cases Uncovered (2019) – Amber Hunt & Emily G. Thompson
DK Canada’s latest release invites you to investigate the darker corners of the human psyche, as authors Hunt and Thompson take you through twenty of the most gruesome unsolved murders that have haunted society since their occurrence. I think all of us, to some degree or another, are fascinated by the darkness within the human…
