White Cat by Holly Black

The Blurb On The Back:

Cassel is cursed.

No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isn’t a magic worker. And now he is being haunted by a white cat ...

Cassel’s family are magic workers. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime. His granddad is a black-fingered death-dealer, his mother is in prison and his brothers detest him as the only one of their family who can’t do magic. But there is a secret at the centre of Cassel’s family and he’s about to inherit it. It’s terrifying and that’s the truth.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The first in a new urban fantasy trilogy set in an alternate world where magic is prohibited, Holly Black’s novel is a dark and compelling story that centres on a teenage boy who discovers that his own personal dark secret isn’t the only one that his family’s been keeping. My only quibble is with the central twist, which for me bordered too much on contrivance, but the ending packs a real emotional punch and I really liked Cassel’s narrative voice. I’ll definitely be reading on.

Thanks to Gollancz for the free copy of this book.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

The Blurb On The Back:

John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news for humanity is that we have finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that there are few planets out there fit to live on – and plenty of alien races willing to compete for them. Therefore we must fight: to defend Earth itself, and to stake our claim to planetary living space. Far from Earth this conflict has been going on for decades, brutal, bloody and unyielding.

Earth itself is now a backwater, with the bulk of humanity’s resources in the hands of Colonial Defense Forces. But you cannot join the CDF until you reach retirement age because they don’t want young people: only those with the knowledge and skills amassed during decades of living. Once you join CDF, you’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. First come two years at the front and, if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own on one of those hard-won colony planets.

When John Perry agrees to this deal, he has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because, light years from home, the actual fight he faces is far harder than he could imagine ... and what he himself will become is far stranger still.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The first in a military SF series, John Scalzi’s created a fast-paced, action filled read with plenty of interesting SF concepts that read plausibly. I was less convinced by the central emotion storyline, mainly because it doesn’t really get developed until late into the book and the female character is under-developed. However it’s an entertaining read and there’s enough to it that I’d like to read more in the series.