Book Review: Three Swords

While helping some rebels overthrow their tyrannical king, the Warriors Three meet an old mystic who claims to have been waiting for them. He describes to them the threat posed to Asgard by three sorcerous brothers, the Enchanters, who are each working to create an army to conquer Asgard. But the Enchanter’s towers are scattered across time and space, and the Warriors Three will have to risk life and limb to stop these sorcerers before they can overthrow Odin’s rule. But things are not quite as they seem, for in the shadows, someone is plotting against these heroes.

Book Review: Reign of the Devourer

Victor von Doom saw his future for an instant, and now he cannot rest. His obsession with regaining those memories leads him into the arcane science of geomancy. As he delves into the ancient memories that lie beneath his land, Doom discovers a tremendous concentration of power... one that should never be explored. Doom's excavations and necromancy fracture the prison of something awful: the Devourer of Souls. Now free to roam Latveria, the Devourer spreads a plague of soul-hungry vampires. Doom must choose between seizing this power for himself or destroying it, before his realm is no more.

Coming in January of 2022 is the latest in the series of Marvel Untold novels. I was given the opportunity to review an early galley for Reign of the Devourer, written by David Annandale.

Book Review: The Violin Conspiracy

Coming in February of 2022 is The Violin Conspiracy, the debut novel by Brendan Slocumb. I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of the galley in exchange for an honest review.

Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a job and earn more than minimum wage. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his family nor the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually so much more, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat competition, the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars in its place. Ray doesn’t know who he can trust—or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.

Book Review: The Insecure Mind of Sergei Kraev

The year is 2100. The lack of trust that characterized the early Internet era is long behind us. Mathematical proof ensures neural implants can't be hacked, and the Board of Reality Overseers blocks false information from spreading.

When undergraduate Sergei Kraev, who dreams of becoming a professor, is accepted into the Technion's computer science graduate program, he throws himself into his research project: making it possible for neural implants to transmit information directly to the brain. If he succeeds, he'll earn a full professorship. But Sergei falls under the influence of Sunny Kim, the beautiful and charismatic leader of a K-pop dance cult. Sergei believes in Sunny's good intentions and wants to protect her from critics, leading him to perform a feat of engineering that leaves billions of brains vulnerable to attack.

With the clock ticking towards catastrophe, can Sergei see the truth about Sunny and undo what he's done?

Book Review: The Harrowing of Doom

Every year Victor von Doom fights to rescue the soul of his mother from Hell. Every year he fails, but now plans to turn the tables. Blending super-science and sorcery, Victor focuses on creating a singular device, the Harrower, which will rip souls from the netherworld. With the obsessive genius distracted, the underground resistance seizes a chance to liberate Latveria. But they attack at the worst possible time, damaging the machine and inadvertently tearing a gateway into Hell. As demonic creatures and rebels besiege his castle, Doctor Doom must make an impossible choice – free his mother or save his people.

The Harrowing of Doom is a novel by David Annandale, part of the Marvel Untold line by Aconyte Books.

Book Review: School of X

Coming in December 2021 is School of X, a Xavier's Institute anthology in the Marvel line from Aconyte Books. I was given the opportunity for an advanced look in exchange for an honest review.

The New Charles Xavier Institute isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: the food is so-so, it’s cold eleven out of twelve months, not to mention the creepy bunker vibes with mysterious tech popping up all over the place. But for the next generation of X-Men, it’s home. Under the stewardship of Emma Frost, Cyclops, and Magneto, these new recruits learn to control their powers and defeat villainy. Yet, danger lurks within the academy and it isn’t just monsters or evil geniuses. Now, these fresh X-Men must understand what it means to fight not just yourself, but alternative shades of who they might have become in the past, present, and future.

Book Review: The Rebels of Vanaheim

The dead have returned.

Odin, All-Father of Asgard, dispatches the heroic warrior Heimdall and the Valkyrie Uschi to eliminate a mysterious infestation of draugr – the living dead – in the proud realm of Vanaheim. Yet his home is not as Heimdall remembers it. Anti- Asgardian sentiment is rife, and the arrival of just two warriors from Asgard to deal with the draugr threat only incenses its people further. With rebellion growing in Vanaheim, Heimdall must investigate this conspiracy and the undead, even if it pits him against his own kin, to preserve the peace of the Realm Eternal.