Category Archives: book reviews

Books of the year 2022 edition

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Mark Hayes

As with last year this may be slightly early, as there is a fair chance I’ll read a couple more before the end of the year. (in fact I know I will as there are a couple I am reading … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, fiction, goodreads, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, opinion, publication, reads, sci-fi | Tagged amreading, books, books of the year, fiction, newbooks, newreads, reads, sciencefiction, speculative fiction, steampunk, writerslife | Leave a comment

Rune Rat Rune…

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Mark Hayes

whats a littler mass murder between friends Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, fantasy, fiction, goodreads, humour, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, reads | Tagged amreading, bookblog, bookreview, books, fantasy, reading, reads, sciencefiction, urbanfantasy, writing | 1 Comment

A special kind of purgatory…

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Mark Hayes

I bought a copy of Barbara Avon’s novella Owl Eyes Motel in a fit of rage spite and with an urge to dress the balance of the universe a little because cretinous arseholes leaving shitty one-star reviews for another human being’s labours of love offends me… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, fiction, goodreads, horror, humour, indie writers, indiewriter, novels, opinion, Passing Place, rant, reads, Uncategorized, writes, writing | Tagged bookblog, bookreview, books, horror, reads, writer, writers, writerslife, writing | 2 Comments

The Guest Runes…

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Mark Hayes

Somehow I have ended up hosting a discussion panel on Runes, there relevance to dark age culture, what the Victorians did with them and the difference between New Age pseudo-mythology and actual historical facts and ancient cultures… This is fascinating stuff. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, book reviews, books, fantasy, fiction, indie, indie writers, opinion, pagan, reads, rites, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, magic, reads, ritual, runes, spirituality, steampunk, supernatural, writer, writerslife | 1 Comment

Return of the Revenge of the creature from the Friday Reviews

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Mark Hayes

Ardent followers of this fine ongoing series of ever more obscure ramblings of the paranoid conglomerate of emotional baggage that collectively refers to itself as Mark Hayes, will be aware I have a regular feature on a Friday where I do a few quick reviews of several books all in one go. If your definition of regular is once in a blue moon, probably twice a year at best, and frankly not always on a Friday Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, fantasy, fiction, grathic novels, indie, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, novels, reads, steampunk, supernatural | Tagged amreading, bookblog, bookreview, books, goodreads, graphic novels, reading, reads, steampunk, writers | Leave a comment

Wyrd particles and Spooky Runes

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Mark Hayes

A Book review of Wyrd by Kieth Healing. A book on the the concept of the Wyrd and the ancient Anglo Saxon Runic alphabet, its use in divination, as well as the runes connections to the Wyrd. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, big questions, book reviews, books, druidry, goodreads, indie, indie writers, mental-health, pagan, publication, reads, rites | Tagged books, druidry, druids, magic, new-age, pagan, reads, runes, writing | 6 Comments

The Complete Misadventures of Hannibal Smyth

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Mark Hayes

No one who ever dreamed of being a writer dreamed of the day their book was available on Kindle..
When you have the writers dream, you dream of writing and then holding your work in hardback, and any writer who tells you different is a liar. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, book reviews, books, fantasy, goodreads, Hannibal Smyth, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, novels, opinion, Passing Place, pointless things of wonderfulness, publication, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, books, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk, writer, writers, writerslife, writing | 1 Comment

A bit of genealogy and the Dutch

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Mark Hayes

I don’t know what my paternal Granddad did for a living. I’ve never known. It never occurred to me to ask my dad what his dad did for a crust. Genealogy has never really been much of a thing for … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, big questions, book reviews, books, fantasy, fiction, goodreads, indie, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, novels, pirates, reads, steampunk, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, amreadingscifi, books, newbooks, newfiction, newreads, reads, steampunk, writers, writerslife, writing | 1 Comment

Numerology and Gargoyles

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Mark Hayes

In the dim distant past, in a more innocent time, before the great pandemic, I was invited to write a story for a new anthology. This was in the Autumn of 2018, before the final draft of the first Hannibal … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, book reviews, books, cthulhu, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, horror, indie, IndieApril, indiewriter, novels, Passing Place, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, writes, writing | Tagged amreading, books, fantasy, newbooks, newfiction, newreads, reads, sciencefiction, scifi, steampunk, steampunk fantasy, writer, writers, writerslife, writing | 2 Comments

The one in five

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Mark Hayes

This is slightly disingenuous, slightly, but on average one word in every five I write makes it to the printed page. It disingenuous because that figure is probably higher in the case of my novels, and maybe a tad lower … Continue reading →