What I’ve been reading…

Things have been mad over the last few days (what with one thing and another) and reading time has been limited to spare moments here and there. My time has also been very limited in terms of what I’ve been able to do as far as reviews go. Things will hopefully return to normal very soon with the kind of reviews that I normally post but, in the meantime, here’s a quick snapshot of what I’ve been reading over the last week…



‘The Dragon Factory’ (St. Martin’s Press) – Jonathan Maberry

‘Patient Zero’ was a great read and I was hoping for similar things here. I got everything I was after and a little more. The clock is ticking and if the Nazis don’t get Joe Ledger and his team it will be a ruthless pair of geneticists intent on selling mythical beasts to the highest bidder. Either way, the world will be ending in a week’s time…

‘The Dragon Factory’ is a fast and furious read that delights in sending its readers down blind alleys when they least expect it. Having said that, the fact that you can see the ending coming from a mile away makes things a little too obvious to be a really gripping read. The bottom line is though, Maberry is onto a winning formula and I’ll be around to see how his next book pans out. 9/10



‘White Wolf’ (Corgi) – David Gemmell

David Gemmell’s work is becoming a bit of a comfort read for those times when I’ve got loads on and don’t want to have to think too much about what I’m reading. ‘White Wolf’ certainly delivers here with all the usual lessons on heroism that you would expect from any work of Gemmel’s, especially as Druss features quite strongly. What saves this work from veering into too familiar territory is the character of Skilgannon the Damned, a beautifully drawn character who adds a nice shade of grey to the ‘black and white’ view that Druss has of the world. If this first chapter is anything to go by then I’ll be picking up 'The Swords of Night and Day' sooner rather than later. 8/10



‘Iron Man: Virus’ (Del Rey) – Alex Irvine

I enjoyed the last Iron Man book that Del Rey published so thought I’d be onto a winner here. How wrong was I…? Whereas the last book was a decent mixture of espionage and action, ‘Virus’ was all about the slow build up of evil machinations to a grand finale. The only problem was that things took far too long to build up and this meant that there was no time for the conclusion to be as hard hitting as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t so keen on the patent details that began every other chapter; I didn’t get the point of it and felt that it disrupted the natural flow of the story. Not what I needed. I’d probably pick another ‘Iron Man’ novel up but not by this author… 5/10