Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: Moojag and the Auticode Secret, by N.E, MacMorran

Format: 288 pages, Paperback
Published: November 9, 2020 by Spondylux Press
ISBN: 9781838097806

Book description

When Nema and her friends discover a hidden sugar-hooked society holding lost kids, they find their perfect world in danger. The strange, sticky place hides the truth about Nema’s missing brother, and a plot to destroy the free world she knows. But only they can reverse a code to prevent a rock candy robot invasion and rescue the captives. Fail and they might never make it back home…

This dystopian, cli-fi mystery is a quirky adventure featuring a neurodivergent cast and autistic/dyslexic/adhd main characters, for readers 10 years and up. Highly recommended as a family read due to the thought-provoking concepts and subject matter introduced.

Set in the utopian world of post-catastrophe ‘Surrey Isles’, Britain 2054, where neurodivergents live in harmony with nature and technology, and the hidden dystopian ‘Gajoomdom’.

Anyone who has ever felt different or had trouble fitting in will identify with this story about finding the strength to be your true self. A fun, Alice-esque adventure revealing what it means to be neurodivergent, in a way that’s relatable to all.

Blog tour review: Daughters of Nicnevin, by Shona Kinsella

Price: £20.00
Fiction: FICTION / Fantasy / Historical
Product format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-80552-020-7
Pages: 336
Imprint: FLAME TREE PRESS

Blurb

Mairead and Constance, two powerful witches, meet in the early days of
the 1745 Jacobite uprising. While the men of the village are away fighting,
the villagers face threats from both the Black Watch and raiders, and the
women are confronted with their vulnerability. They enlist the help of
Nicnevin, fae queen of witches, to bring men made of earth to life to help
protect their village. But just who do they need protection from? And what
will happen when the village men return?

Books delivered this week

I’ve had some good post this week.

This morning I received an ARC of The Girl With A Thousand Faces from Sunyi Dean, that came with a letter about the book, a ghost talisman and a flyer about the official book launch in May.

Earlier in the week I received a book I ordered after seeing it on a Good Reads list and liking the sound of it, Dead Silence, by S.A. Barnes. I think I had to get it from the Netherlands.

And I’ve also received two of the books I’m reviewing in January for Random Things Tours.

The Girl In The Tower, by Harrison Murphy, 13th January 2026 – stand alone novel
The Hope, by Paul E. Hardest, 26th January 2026 – final book in a trilogy

And of course, BFS Horizons #18 has arrived from the BFS!

I can’t wait to read them all!

Review: Silence of the Dead, by Marks Ewington

Publisher Independently published
Publication date 5 Aug. 2025
Language ‎English
Print length 284 pages
ISBN-13 979-8284534489

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Murder has come to the city of Tronte…

Holtar didn’t become a necromancer for the prestige—he did it because talking to the dead is marginally easier than dealing with the living. Unfortunately, his latest case has given him a fresh problem: the corpses aren’t talking.

Maria and the Star-Dragons: Epilogue

Epilogue – A month (I.G.A.S.S. Standard) later, on Ascend

Maria flopped on to xyr settee, drained from spending all day on a video call giving evidence in the trial of the former human governor of Aurox. For a week xe’d been giving depositions against the regime on Aurox and their crimes, including the harassment Maria and Sahrai had received from Josh Dalton, the senior security officer. It had upset xyr when evidence of the abuse of the bovids had been presented and the testimony of human prisoners forced to labour on Rocky Horror.

Maria and the Star Dragons: Chapter 20

Chapter 20 – Maria still among the Auroxians

Maria listened to the conversation around xyr. Xe laughed quietly (for xyr) when Dr Suah Painen repeated the Auroxian saying about the jungle.

“That’s one way of describing the vegetation around here.”

Maria and the Star-Dragons Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Dr Suah Painen’s adventures on Aurox

Although a geologist by trade, Suah had been on enough new planets to have picked up basic skills in cultural analysis. Observing the Auroxians had been a distraction from the horror of events since arriving on Aurox. She shuddered, remembering the day the research party had been attacked.

Maria and the Star-Dragons: Chapter 18

Chapter 18 – Maria in the PFMs den

Maria watched the frantic activity as Lah-Shah and his honour guard arrived at the den.

“Come on Mrrh-waa, we’d better go and rescue him from your family.” Xe waited while the tablet translated for Mrrh-waa.

British Fantasy Awards – Best Collection Reviews

As I’m typing this (Tuesday 2nd September 2025) the Jury for the Best Collection Award for the 2025 British Fantasy Awards is deciding our winner. I can’t post these reviews until after the awards, so I’ve scheduled this post for Monday 3rd November 2025, after both the British Fantasy Awards and the World Fantasy Awards. I’m attending both this year, and you’ll probably find a list of winners popping up around the same time as this post.

The nominated books for the Best Collection Award this year were:

Elephants In Bloom, by Cecile Cristofari
Limelight and other stories, by Lynsey Croal
Preaching to the Perverted, by James Bennett
Dirt Upon My Skin, by Steve Toase
Mood Swings, by Dave Jeffery

They were all really good, but I found Limelight and Elephants in Bloom the most enjoyable. There’s something joyous about them as collections, the writing was good, and I enjoyed the variety of stories in each. I really couldn’t decide between them.

I get what Bennett was trying to do with Preaching to the Perverted, and individually the stories are impactful, but as a collection they’re really depressing. There’s not hope in them for a better future just present and past pain. It was a very challenging read, centring the experience of gay men, which is unusual in horror, or so I’m told (I don’t read much horror).

For Dirt Upon My Skin, the theme of archaeology appealed to me. It’s different and the way the author incorporates aspects of archaeological practice into each story in different ways was imaginative.

Mood Swings had some stories I liked but overall left little impression.

I already had a copy of Limelight (signed!) that I picked up at Fantasycon 2024, but I received a copy to read as part of the Jury. This means I have a pristine, unread (unsigned) copy of Limelight and other stories, by Lyndsey Croal to give away.

To enter, comment below.

Closing date 30th November 2025

UK only

I’ll put names in a hat and contact the winner by 1st December 2025 for a postal address.

Despatches From WFC 2025: Day 4 Sunday 2nd November 2025

Today is a wash.

I’m sick.

My throat is raw from coughing all night and I want to vomit.

I’m miffed. I made a dress for the Banquet and Awards. I was going to a panel about Discworld.

I’m not going to be able to see my friends before we all leave Brighton.

I want to vomit. Have I mentioned that?

I’m going to watch the World Fantasy Awards on the internet and hope the technology is working.

Now I’ve finished writing up my despatches I’m going back to bed to sulk.

Update:

I had a nap then woke up in time to watch the World Fantasy Awards on the stream.

Best Novel – The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)

Best Novella – Yoke of Stars, by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)

Best Short Fiction – “Raptor”, Maura McHugh (Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology)

Best Anthology – Heartwood, Dan Coxon, ed. (Drugstore Indian)

Best Collection – A Sunny Place for Shady People, by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Hogarth US; Granta)

Best Artist – Liv Rainey-Smith

Special Award – Professional – Sydney Paige Guerrero, Gabriela Lee & Anna Felicia Sanchez, for Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction (The University of the Philippines Press)

Special Award – Non-Professional – Steve J Shaw, for Black Shuck Books

And now I’m going back to bed.