Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) – Gail Carriger
Grand Central Publishing Hachette, 2010
374 pages
RRP: AU$14.99
ISBN: 978-031-605663-2

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Soulless by Gail Carriger is simply too much fun!  With all the potential for disaster in the storyline, this novel of vampires and werewolves (and parasols) avoids all the stereotyping of current vampire novels and entertains in a most wonderful and amusing way.  Carriger employs a turn of phrase at just the correct moment, eliciting smiles and even giggles at times.  I so thoroughly enjoyed this story that I am currently hunting down the next, Changeless.

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Angels’ Blood (Guild Hunter #1)- Nalini Singh
Hachette Livre Gollancz, 2010
340 pages
RRP: AU$22.95
ISBN: 978-057-509572-4

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Angels’ Blood is the first in the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh. She already has quite a following for her sexy paranormal Psy-Changeling series (the first title in that series, Slave to Sensation is also reviewed on Ticon4.com) and by the looks of it, Guild Hunter will be snapping at its heels. The Guild Hunter in question here is Elena Devereaux, a vampire tracker and bounty hunter whose new job doesn’t just involve vampires. She is now working for the drop-dead gorgeous Archangel Raphael, ruthless and terrifyingly inhuman, yet caring and overwhelmingly attractive. Working with angels isn’t like you’d imagine — in this world they are immensely powerful and beautiful, yet they are also the Makers of vampires. This first instalment of the series is packed with drama, intrigue and attraction, and provides a nice balance between the action and the… er… action.

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An Echo in the Bone (Outlander #7) – Diana Gabaldon
Hachette Livre Orion, 2009
810 pages
RRP: AU$35
ISBN: 978-075-289848-3

Reviewed by Debbie Wilson

An Echo in the Bone is Diana Gabaldon’s 125^th 7^th Outlander novel. The year is 1777 and the American rebellion is gathering momentum. Jamie and Claire are in danger (again), travel from America to Scotland (again), and Claire flits between the 1700s and the 1900s (again).

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Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) – Nalini Singh
Hachette Livre Gollancz, 2010
334 pages
RRP: AU$22.99
ISBN: 978-057-509566-3

Reviewed by Kate Smith

I initially bypassed this novel as not a story that I would be interested in reading, however I am pleased that I took the time to read Slave to Sensation.  This does not mean that the story is a classic, but it is a good example of its genre.  Not having read the two further novels in the psy-changeling series, I am a little apprehensive that there will be repetition of ideas or premises with different names inserted, but hopefully Singh will be able to integrate three different stories smoothly, each supported by the others without being the same.

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Death Most Definite (Death Works #1) – Trent Jamieson
Orbit Hachette Livre, 2010
374 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-073-362483-4

Review by Liz Grzyb

Brisbane has certainly been producing some awesome SF writers, and Trent Jamieson is most definitely one of them. Ticon4.com has published short fiction from Jamieson before, so we were eagerly awaiting his first novel. Death Most Definite does not disappoint. It’s a pacy, gritty chase through our world and the underworld.

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