Top Ten Tuesday – My Favourite Books with Dragons on the Cover

On April 26, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, List10 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday participants are tasked with listing their top books that have covers with a specific design element chosen by the blogger, for example books with certain colours, items or animals on their cover. I thought that this was a pretty clever idea for a topic and I decided to go big with it and choose book covers that have the ultimate animal for my list, dragons.

Let’s face it, we all love dragons! They are some of the coolest creatures in mythology, with multiple cultures having their own version or alteration of the dragon in their storytelling traditions. Due to how iconic there are, the use of dragons in storytelling naturally transferred itself across to the world of fantasy fiction, becoming one of the most classic and well utilised monsters or companion creatures in books and movies, such as The Hobbit and the A Song of Ice and Fire series. As such there are multiple book covers out there that feature dragons to some degree and I was curious to see which ones amongst them were my favourite.

To pull this list together, I had a think about all the best books that featured cool dragon-related cover art. There were quite a few of these awesome, dragon-covered novels so I decided to limit myself to only using books that I have actually read. In addition, because dragon-centric series tend to use images of the creatures across multiple entries, I will limit myself to one novel from each franchise, just to create a bit of variety. This still leaves me with a pretty impressive collection of novels to choose from and I had to do some severe cutting to get it down to a top ten list with my typical honourable mentions section. I think the list turned out pretty well as there are some great novels below with awesome dragon imagery on their covers.

I will quickly note that I did have a couple of issues finding good quality pictures of some of the relevant covers I wanted to feature here, particularly for some of the older novels, but I have still tried to feature them as best I can. Apologies in advance if some of them don’t turn out perfect.

Honourable Mentions

The Voyage of the Forgotten by Nick Martell

The Voyage of the Forgotten Cover 2

I love the cover but chose to only feature this as an honourable mention as the book hasn’t come out yet.

A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist

A Darkness at Sethanon Cover

A couple of the alternate covers for this great book feature dragons on them, but this was the best looking one of them.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker Chan

She Who Became the Sun Cover

Usagi Yojimbo: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy

A great use of a dragon in the cover, even if the dragon in the title is more of a metaphor for firearms.

Top Ten List:

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

The Shadow of the Gods Cover

An incredible novel with an incredible cover. Easily one of the best uses of dragons in cover art that you are likely to ever see.

Dragonslayer by William King

Dragonslayer Cover Combined

This fantastic Warhammer tie-in novel is spoiled for choice when it comes to dragons on its various covers.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards! Cover 2

One of the best Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, I love how well the dragon is used, both in this original cover, and in the novel’s exceedingly clever mystery.

Black Leviathan by Bern Perplies

Black Leviathan Cover

An extremely epic and distinctive cover for a fun action fantasy novel. Black Leviathan, which is the English edition of Perplies’s original, German novel, The Dragon Hunter, actually has two fantastic cover variants with dragons on them, although I think the one the English version shown above is a lot more visually impressive.

Black Leviathan alternate cover

The Bone Ships by R. J. Barker

The Bone Ships Cover

All three books in Barker’s The Tide Child trilogy featured iconography of the series’ water-dragons, but I think the first entry, The Bone Ships, looks the best.

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Eldest Cover

You can’t have a dragon-based list without featuring an entry from Paoloini’s Inheritance Cycle. All four novels in this series featured dragons on their cover, although I think that this cover from Eldest was the most striking.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Priory of the Orange Tree Cover

A very beautiful cover for this complex and intricate fantasy novel.

Warcraft: Day of the Dragons by Richard A. Knaak

Warcraft - Day of the Dragon Cover

Several great Warcraft and World of Warcraft tie-in novels feature dragons on their covers, but my favourite of these is Day of the Dragons by Richard A. Knaak, which was an awesome story.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Cover

Was there ever a chance I wasn’t going to feature this classic cover on this list? Of course not.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Cover 2

Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth

Dragonclaw Cover

The original cover of the first entry in Australian author Kate Forsyth’s The Witches of Eileanan series, Dragonclaw, had a great dragon picture on it, and it serves as an excellent first impression of an amazing fantasy book.

Well, that’s my list. As you can see there are some incredible books out there that make great uses of dragons on their covers. All the above novels are really good, and you will have an incredible time reading them, while also appreciating their stunning, dragon-filled covers. I had a lot of fun coming up with this list, and I will have to think about replicating it with another creature, item or colour in the future. In the meantime, let me know what your favourite books with dragons on the cover are in the comments below.

Top Ten Tuesday – Titles or Covers that Made Me Want to Read/Buy a Book

On August 3, 2021 By The Unseen LibraryIn List2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants are tasked with listing the top titles or covers that made them want to read or buy a book. This is a pretty cool topic and it gives me an excuse to highlight some of my favourite covers and titles.

I have a somewhat eclectic method of choosing what books I want to read. While I mostly tend to read novels due to the author, plot description, recommendations from other reviewers, or because it is an entry in a series or franchise I like, quite a few first catch my eye due to colourful or crazy covers, or titles that really stand out (or a combination of the two). I have a lot of love for authors who invest in beautiful covers to highlight their novel’s style or plot features, and I also really enjoy cool and catchy titles. It honestly did not take me long to come up with a list of fun covers and titles, and I was eventually able to whittle it down into a Top Ten List. I tried to avoid using any novel where something else drove me to check the novel out, although there are a couple of cool Star Wars examples I had to include. I really enjoyed all the cool covers/titles below, especially as there are usually some great stories contained within them.

Honourable Mentions:

Star Wars: Vader – Dark Visions by Dennis Hallum

It has Darth Vader decked out as a black knight, how could I possibly resist this comic?

Child of a Mad God by R. A. Salvatore

A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising by Raymond A. Villareal

Black Leviathan by Bend Perplies

Top Ten Tuesday:

Mecha Samurai Empire by Peter Tieryas

Let us start with an extremely cool cover and a very fun name, Mecha Samurai Empire. I still remember the first time that I saw this book, as I was instantly drawn to the samurai mecha standing in front of a Japanese flag. I also was very intrigued by the name, Mecha Samurai Empire, and I had to know more about it. While the plot details did sway my decision, I already knew I was going to buy this book the moment I saw it. It really did not disappoint either, with an exciting and clever story about mechas in an alternate United States that lost World War II. This is such a great book, and the sequel, Cyber Shogun Revolution, follows the trend by having a fantastic cover a catchy title.

The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston

With a sleek, compelling name and a very well-crafted cover, The Traitor God quickly drew my attention before I even read the plot synopsis. This cover perfectly captures the dark feel of the novel, and the mysterious title is a fantastic part of the plot. This was a fantastic book, and led to a great sequel, God of Broken Things, which also featured an outstanding cover.

#Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil

I don’t know what drew me to #Murdertrending more, the unique, twitter-handled title, or the fun cover where a group of stick figures are in danger. It probably was the title, and I liked the way in which McNeil was building up the novels critique of the social media obsessed world. Overall, this cover/title combo really grabbed my attention and forced me to buy this book.

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

I have mentioned a few times that one of the reasons I checked out The Shadow of the Gods was because of positive reviews from other fantasy fans. However, long before I heard about how good the story was, I found myself rather drawn to The Shadow of the Gods’ incredible cover. The giant dragon facing off against a lone hero is exceptionally drawn, and I loved how the artist brings this scene to life in its own distinctive and unique way. Suffice to say, this cool cover had The Shadow of the Gods well on my radar before it came out, and I probably would have read this novel, even if I had heard nothing from other reviewers.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth was another book where the cover dragged me in, although in all fairness, it is a pretty damn impressive cover. The beautifully drawn artwork features a red-haired swordswoman with skull-themed face paint walking through a mass of exploding skeletons. I mean, if that does not draw your interest and attention, nothing will. In addition, when I received the book, it was a fantastic hardcover with black edging to the pages, which really gave of a mysterious and powerful theme to it. I was so hooked even before I found out it was a novel about lesbian, space-faring necromancers, and seeing the plot only convinced me to read it quicker. This was an outstanding novel, which Muir followed up last year with Harrow the Ninth, another novel with an extremely epic cover.

Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

Strange Practice features a great cover with a doctor standing above a vampire filled coffin. That outstanding cover contained so much detail, and I loved the combination of classic vampire aesthetics with a modern London backdrop to it. The combination of black and white walls and characters against blood red floors, coverings and cityscape works surprisingly well, and it helps to deliver a very striking cover. This awesome art really dragged me towards this book, and I had a wonderful time reading this and its fun sequel, Dreadful Company, which also featured an amazing cover.

City of Bastards by Andrew Shvarts

Ok, for this one, it was all about the name. City of Bastards is such an evocative title, and it definitely caught my attention when I first saw it as it opens up so many different story and tonal possibilities. Couple that with the pretty neat cover, which makes amazing use of colour (the purple and the blood red really work well together), and I was rather hooked on this book before I even picked it up and read what it was about.

Star Wars: Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber

A few years ago, while randomly skimming online, I saw the cover for Star Wars: Death Troopers, which really had me hooked (hah). Something about that visual of a bloodied Storm Trooper helmet suspended by a meat hook really struck me, and it drove me to grab an audiobook version of that book that very night. Thank goodness I did, as this was a really fun novel, that features zombies on a Star Destroyer attempting to eat Han and Chewie. An outstanding book that is one of my favourite horror novels, thank goodness I saw this cover.

The Bone Ships by R. J. Barker

Now, I must admit that I probably would have read this book even without seeing the name or cover. I had already enjoyed Barker’s excellent Wounded Kingdom series (made up of Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins and King of Assassins), so I would have been curious about his next series. However, the moment I saw the cover for The Bone Ships, I knew that this book would be something special that I would need to read. The incredible cover featuring a beautifully rendered dragon, is just amazing, and the title The Bone Ships, really fires up the imagination. The combination of these features made The Bone Ships a must read from me well before I’d seen the plot, and it fully convinced me to get The Bone Ships, which ended up being one of the best books (and audiobooks of 2019).

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. J. Parker

When I first saw Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, I initially wasn’t to impressed by the cover. However, there was something about the unique name that got me curious enough to check out some more details and that’s when I found out that this was a fun sounding fantasy novel. I had an absolute blast reading this novel, which was one of the best books of 2019, and it also led me to the sequel, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It, one of the most hilarious books I read last year. I honestly might have missed this series if that catchy name and cover didn’t grab my attention, which would have been a real shame.

Well that brings another Top Ten Tuesday to a close. As you can see from the above, there are some truly awesome and fun covers and titles in my reading history. Each of these featured novels come highly recommended, and I hope you also like the titles and cover art. I hope you enjoyed my latest list and let me know what covers or titles drew you to a book in the comments below.

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with Colours in the Title

On August 4, 2020 By The Unseen LibraryIn List15 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants need to list their top ten favourite books that feature a colour in their title. This proved to be a particularly interesting topic to do, and I was rather curious to see just how many of the books that I have read had a colour in the title.

While I had a few titles in the top of my mind when I first saw what this topic was, I had to dive through the bibliographies of some of my favourite authors and through my blog archives to see what I could find. This worked out well, and I was able to come up with a final list that I am rather happy with. This list is filled with a great range of different books which includes a combination of recent novels I have read and reviewed, as well as some old favourites. I managed to eventually cull this down to my absolute favourites, as well as including a few special honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions:

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

When I first heard about this week’s topic this was the book that I initially thought of, even though technically it does not have a true colour in the title. Because of this technicality, I decided to include it as an honourable mention, rather than on the main list, but there was no way I could not mention this amazing first entry in Pratchett’s iconic Discworld series.

Gray Man books by Mark Greaney

This is another one that is technically ineligible for this list, as it is the series name which has the colour in it rather than the individual book titles. However, I have really enjoyed the two Gray Man novels that I have read (Mission Critical and One Minute Out), so I thought I would include it as an honourable mention.

The Red Ribbon by H. B. Lyle

Greenlight by Benjamin Stevenson

Top Ten List (no particular order):

Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio

The first book that I am featuring in this list is the Demon in White, which I only just finished reading today. This was a fantastic and epic read which serves as the third book in Ruocchio’s amazing Sun Eater series of science fiction novels. This book has a couple of different cover designs, but I decided to go with the one above, as not only is it really striking but it features so much of the titular colour in it.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

There was no way that I could create a list about books with colours in their title without featuring this incredible book. I absolutely loved Red Seas Under Red Skies, which is the second book in Lynch’s iconic Gentleman Bastards fantasy series, especially as, in some ways, it is a better novel than the incredible first entry in the series, The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Red Metal by Mark Greaney and Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV

Talon of the Silver Hawk by Raymond E. Feist

I had to include at least one book from one of my favourite authors, Raymond E. Feist, and I actually found a couple of good options here. While I was tempted to use Feist’s second book, Silverthorn, I ended up going with Talon of the Silver Hawk. This is mainly because Talon of the Silver Hawk was the first of Feist’s books that I ever read and it started my life-long love for the author’s novels, as I immediately went back and checked out the rest of the books in the epic Riftwar Cycle after I finished reading it.

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies

Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 24: Return of the Black Soul by Stan Sakai

Readers of this blog will know that I am a major fan of the Usagi Yojimbo series of comics, so when I started working out what to include in this list I made sure to check out which collected edition had colours in their titles. I ended up being spoiled for choice here as three full volumes had titles that could be featured on this list, and while I could have included Grey Shadows or Red Scorpion, both of which are truly outstanding comics, I decided to use the 24^th volume of the series, Return of the Black Soul, for this list. Return of the Black Soul contains an amazing story that reveals the origins of the compelling and terrifying antagonists, Jei, and it is a major and impressive volume in the Usagi Yojimbo saga.

Star Wars: Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson

Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore

R. A. Salvatore has written a phenomenal number of fantasy novels in his 30+ year career but only one of them has had a colour in the title, his second novel, Streams of Silver. This was a particularly good book from Salvatore, which served as a really strong sequel to his awesome first novel, The Crystal Shard, and it is a wonderful example of classic fantasy fiction.

Red War by Kyle Mills (based on the series by Vince Flynn)

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Well that’s my Top Ten List for this week. I think it turned out rather well, and I liked the intriguing collection of different novels that I ended up featuring. Not only are all the above books really amazing reads, but each of them have impressive covers and there are some great colour centric titles in there. It looks like the colour red is very popular for book titles, although black and silver are both also used a lot. Make sure to let me know which of the above books you enjoyed, as well as which are your favourite books with colours in their titles.

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies

On March 9, 2020August 20, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn English Translation, Fantasy3 Comments

Black Leviathan Cover

Publisher: Tor (Trade Paperback – 25 February 2020)

English Edition Translated by Lucy Van Cleef

Length: 331 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out 5 stars

Amazon Book Depository

Get ready for an exciting fantasy adventure from acclaimed German author, Bernd Perplies, with Black Leviathan, an extremely fun and inventive novel that is essentially Moby Dick with dragons.

Bernd Perplies is a best-selling German fantasy and science fiction writer who debuted in 2008 with his first book, Son of the Curse Bringer. He has since authored several different series, including the Star Trek Prometheus trilogy, which he co-wrote with Christian Humberg and which were the first Star Trek books licensed to be written outside of the United States. Black Leviathan was initially released back in 2017 in Germany under the title The Dragon Hunter, and it is the first book in his Sea of Clouds series. This is the first one of Perplies’s solo books to be released in English (his Star Trek books got an English releases), and it was translated by Lucy Van Cleef.

Welcome to the Cloudmere, a floating expanse of thick cloud, mists, floating islands and mountain tops high above the ground. Thanks to the magical kyrillian crystals, which allow anything holding them to float in the air, airships now also fly through the Cloudmere attempting to harvest the useful resources available in this harsh landscape. The most valuable of resources come from the dragons, the ferocious beasts that soar amongst the clouds and mountains. Various species of dragons exist, each with their own special talents and defences, and each of which are valuable in their own way. However, hunting dragons is a dangerous occupation, and only the bravest, the most skilled or the extremely desperate set out into the Cloudmere as a drachenjäger, a dragon hunter.

Lian is a young man living in the floating city of Skargakar. The city’s entire economy revolves around the hunting and processing of dragons, and Lian himself makes a small earning carving kyrillian crystals. Lian also looks after his father, Lonjar Draksmasher, a famed drachenjäger of yesteryear whose injuries have driven him to drink. But when Lonjar is murdered in front of him, Lian instinctively gets revenge on the criminal who killed him, and now needs to get out of town quickly or face the wrath of his victim’s father, the most dangerous crime lord in the city. Taking up his father’s magical hunting spear and accompanied by his best friend, Canzo, Lian seeks work aboard one of the many drachenjäger ships leaving the city. The only one willing to take them on is the infamous Carryola.

Boarding the Carryola they find themselves working with an eclectic and effective crew of drachenjägers, and Lian believes that he has reached relative safety. However, the captain of the Carryola, Adaron, has an obsession that may prove to be the doom of Lian and the rest of the crew. Adaron is determined to hunt down and kill the Firstborn Gargantuan, a rare Black Leviathan dragon, a creature out of legends and one of the most destructive beings lurking in the Cloudmere. Now caught between a powerful dragon and a crazed captain, Lian must find a way to survive, but he quickly learns that death is always lying just around the corner in the Cloudmere.

This turned out to be a fantastic and deeply enjoyable fantasy adventure novel which I had an absolute blast reading. Black Leviathan features a fast-paced and action-packed story of a group of dragon hunters flying around in the sky chasing after a mythical and gigantic dragon, and what’s not to love about that? Perplies introduces a ship full of distinctive and compelling characters (most of whom you shouldn’t get too attached to), including an obsessive and ruthless captain, and sets them up against a powerful foe. This results in quite a fun and exciting novel, and I enjoyed some of the intriguing directions that Perplies took the story. While some elements of the story are a little bit typical of action adventure novels, such as characters whose death is a foregone conclusion the moment you meet them, this was an excellent story that is extremely easy to enjoy, and very hard to put down.

One of the best parts of Black Leviathan is the clever and inventive new world that Perplies has created as a backdrop for his fun story. The author did an outstanding job producing a unique fantasy world up in the clouds, filled with all manner of sentient races, exotic locations and intriguing magical technologies, all of which prove to be really fascinating to explore throughout the course of the story. The Cloudmere is an amazing location for a fantasy novel, and I really enjoyed seeing an entire book spent up in the clouds, either in floating cities or aboard magically powered airships. However, the highlight of this new world has to be the various species of dragons that roam the Cloudmere and dragon hunters that chase after them. Black Leviathan features a world where dragon hunting is a vast and profitable industry, and it is really quite interesting to see the various aspects of dragon hunting and its subsequent applications within this novel. There are some obvious similarities between this fictional dragon hunting industry and the real-life historical whale hunting industry and was really cool to see Perplies reinvent this iconic historical trade with fantasy creatures, floating ships and a sea of clouds.

The dragon hunting aspect of the book also results in some pretty incredible action sequences. There are some really exciting and fun dragon hunting scenes featured throughout Black Leviathan and watching the crew of an airship attempt to take down a dragon in mid-air was easily some of my favourite parts of the entire book. Perplies came up with some very clever hunting techniques for his drachenjäger, and it was very cool to see all of them unfold, especially as many require the protagonist to jump onto the back of the targeted dragon and kill them while riding on their back. This fantasy world also has many different types of dragon with a variety of different abilities (some breath fire, some have sword-like tails), each of which results a different sort of hunt with its own range of difficulties. Of course, the biggest hunt of all is when they catch up with Gargantuan, the titular Black Leviathan, the largest and most powerful dragon in the Cloudmere. That hunt goes about as well as expected, and it was extremely exciting to see the crew attempt to use their tried-and-tested techniques against this beast.

I mentioned at the start of this review that Black Leviathan was a bit like Moby Dick. That is because it features a captain who is obsessed with killing a specific rare beast who wronged him years ago, in this case a black dragon rather than a white whale. The entirety of this feud is actually shown in this book, as the first two chapters deal with Adaron’s first ship getting destroyed by Gargantuan, with nearly all his friends dying, including his fiancé, whose hand he was holding when she was eaten (with Adaron left holding her severed arm). As a result, the Adaron we see in the present is a much harder man who bears a great hatred for all dragons and is determined to find and kill Gargantuan no matter the cost. This results in a great story of obsession and hatred as Adaron scours the Cloudmere for his prey, while also attempting to kill any other dragon he comes across. The author has done a great job showing Adaron as an eccentric and damaged character from the first time the protagonist meets him. Not only does he order his own whipping every time a member of his crew gets killed by a dragon but he also keeps the skeletal hand of his fiancé in his cabin as a constant reminder of his mission to kill his prey. However, as the book progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that his obsession with finding Gargantuan has driven him insane. Not only does Adaron sacrifice his crew’s safety to locate the dragon but he ignores the concerns of the people serving under them and he even utilises dark practices to find his prey. This all results in a great final showdown with Gargantuan at the end of the book, and I think that the author did an amazing job concluding this captivating story arc.

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies is an excellent and deeply enjoyable fantasy adventure that combines a great central story with an extremely creative fantasy world to create a compelling and fun read. This book is filled to the brim with action and adventure and is guaranteed to get any fantasy lover’s pulse racing. I really loved this book, and I look forward to any future English releases of Perplies work. I do note that Perplies released a second book in this series in 2018, The World Finder, and hopefully we’ll get to see that in English in the next year or so.

u1_978-3-596-29671-2

Amazon Book Depository

WWW Wednesday – 4 March 2020

On March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 By The Unseen LibraryIn WWW Wednesday1 Comment

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that they’ve recently finished, what they are currently reading and what books they are planning to read next. Essentially you have to answer three questions (the Three Ws):

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

So, let’s get to it.

What are you currently reading?

A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill (Trade Paperback)

I started reading this one today, and I am really enjoying it so far. This is the 10th book in the Rowland Sinclair historical murder mystery series, and it takes the book’s Australian protagonists to America in the 1930’s to investigate a suspicious death. I am looking forward to seeing how this one turns out and this should prove to be a fantastic read.

One Minute Out by Mark Greaney (Audiobook)

I’m around halfway through this book at the moment and it is pretty incredible. Containing a rather dark and heavy story about human trafficking, this new book from Greaney is an excellent and captivating thriller.

What did you recently finish reading?

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch (Trade Paperback)

Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack (Audiobook)

The Holdout by Graham Moore (Audiobook)

Amnesty by Aravind Adiga (Trade Paperback)

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies (Trade Paperback)

What do you think you’ll read next?

Where Fortune Lies by Mary-Anne O’Connor (Trade Paperback)

That’s it for this week, check back in next Wednesday to see what progress I’ve made on my reading and what books I’ll be looking at next.

Book Haul – 3 March 2020

On March 3, 2020 By The Unseen LibraryIn Book HaulLeave a comment

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done a Book Haul post, and in that time I’ve gotten a few amazing novels that I am looking forward to reading. As I have already read one of the books on this list and I am planning to start getting through another one tomorrow, I thought that this would be a good time to highlight them in a Book Haul post. So sit back and check out the awesome swag I’ve been lucky enough to receive.

A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill

A Testament of Character Cover

This first book in this post is A Testament of Character by Sulari Gentill, the tenth book in the long-running Rowland Sinclair series. Now I am definitely not putting this book first because it quotes one of my old reviews from The Canberra Times on the back cover (see below), but because it is part of a really enjoyable series of Australian historical crime fiction books. The Rowland Sinclair series has been a real highlight of my reading calendar each year and I am going to start reading this book next.

A Testament of Character Back Cover

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies

Black Leviathan Cover

This is an awesome fantasy novel that is essentially Moby Dick with dragons. I have actually just finished this one off in the last couple of hours and I will hopefully get a review written up for it soon. It was really good though, and I had a fantastic time reading it.

The Deceptions by Suzanne Leal

The Deceptions

An Australian historical fiction novel partially set in the Jewish ghetto of Theresienstadt. This will no doubt be a heavy and compelling novel and I am curious to see what sort of story Leal writes.

Red Dirt Country by Fleur McDonald

Red Dirt Country Cover

This is a rural crime novel set in outback Australia. I have heard good things about McDonald’s books in the past and I am looking forward to reading this unique piece of fiction.

A User’s Guide to Make-Believe by Jane Alexander

A User's Guide to Make Believe Cover

A captivating thriller that appears to follow someone stuck in a virtual reality. There have been some great technology based thrillers out lately and I am looking forward to seeing what happens in this one.

Hitler’s Secret by Rory Clements

Hitler's Secret Cover

This is the fourth book in Clements’ Tom Wilde series of historical thrillers. I have really enjoyed these books over the last couple of years and have read and reviewed all three prior novels, including Nucleus and Nemesis. Hitler’s Secret sounds like it is going to be the most exciting one yet, and I am hoping to read it very soon.

Well that concludes my latest book haul post. Let me know which of the above books sounds the most interesting to you and I will try to read and review them as soon as possible.