Book Review: Dungeon Runners: Fang Attack

Dungeon Runners by Kieran Larwood

Dungeon Runners: Fang Attack (Volume 4)
by  Kieran Larwood (Goodreads Author), Joe Todd-Stanton (Illustrator)

4 out of 5 stars

Kit is a half-gnome and half-dwarf, who has entered the Dungeon Runners league. His teammates are a sea hag and a vegan vampire. Kit is supposed to be the fighter in their group, but he keeps dropping his magic sword in training. Everyone laughs, thinking that this team is too small and too young to survive the dangerous competition. In this fourth book of the series, they travel to the vampire’s home island, where Kit’s friend Thorn is terrified that the other vampires will find out that he is vegan. Can they survive the puzzles and monsters of the dungeon, and avoid being eaten by a crowd of vampires?

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Book Review: Dungeon Runners: Ocean Chase

Dungeon Runners by Kieran Larwood

Dungeon Runners: Ocean Chase (Volume 3)
by Kieran Larwood (Goodreads Author), Joe Todd-Stanton (illustrator)

4 out of 5 stars

Kit is a half-gnome and half-dwarf, who has entered the Dungeon Runners league. His teammates are a sea hag and a vegan vampire. Kit is supposed to be the fighter in their group, but he keeps dropping his magic sword in training. Everyone laughs, thinking that this team is too small and too young to survive the dangerous competition. In this third book of the series, they go into an underwater dungeon, and Kit is very nervous because he can’t swim! But they find that some of the other dungeon runner teams are friendly, and they might have some unexpected allies.

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Book Review: Dungeon Runners: Sky Battles

Dungeon Runners by Kieran Larwood

Dungeon Runners: Sky Battles (Dungeon Runners, #2)
by Kieran Larwood (Goodreads Author), Joe Todd-Stanton (Illustrator)

4 out of 5 stars

Kit is a half-gnome and half-dwarf, who has entered the Dungeon Runners league. His teammates are a sea hag who can only do one spell, and a vegan vampire. Kit is supposed to be the fighter in their group, but he only has a useless wooden sword. Everyone laughs, thinking that this team is too small and too young to survive the dangerous competition, but Kit and his trusty friends discover that the Dungeon hides more surprises than anyone bargained for. In this second book of the series, they compete in their first real dungeon located high in the mountains, and they have to use some wily cleverness to make it through alive.

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Three Book Reviews from Nosy Crow

Princess Minna by Kirsty Applebaum

Princess Minna: The Giant Beanstalk
by Kirsty Applebaum (Goodreads Author),Sahar Haghgoo (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

Princess Minna is called to defend the town from a giant who keeps stealing noisy animals. Princess Minna follows the giant up the beanstalk and brings the animals back, but the giant just keeps stealing more noisy animals, looking for an animal that can sing beautifully. Princess Minna will have to be very clever and kind if she can find a solution and help the giant!

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Picture Book Review: The Book Machine

The Book Machine by Laurie  Duersch

The Book Machine: A Story About the Magic of Books
by Laurie Duersch (Goodreads Author), Susanna Covelli

5 out of 5 stars

A little boy doesn’t have enough books, even though he has whole stacks of books to read. So he builds a Book Machine to create new books. He puts together all kinds of doodads and thingamabobs into a big elaborate machine and waits for it to spit out some books. But the machine doesn’t work! He will have to rely on a very different kind of machine to have the imagination to create new stories!

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Book Review: Dear Jane Austen

Dear Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon

Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine’s Guide to Life and Love
by Patrice Hannon

1 out of 5 stars

The author gives advice through Jane Austen’s voice in a “Dear Abbey” style, answering letters from modern women who want to have a happy ending like the heroines in Austen’s books. Jane Austen is sitting at home and receives letters from the future. She sits down at her little writing desk to answer the letters, but is sometimes interrupted by her family and nieces visiting and commenting on the letters as well.

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Book Review: City of Dreaming Books

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

The City of Dreaming Books (Zamonien, #4)
by Walter Moers, J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Translator)

Optimus Yarnspinner is a dinosaur who has inherited a mysterious manuscript of surpassing genius, but he can’t find the author! He travels to Bookholm, the center of all literature and publishing, hoping to solve the mystery and find the author. Everyone in Bookholm is completely obsessed with books, and the dangerous Book Hunters explore the catacombs beneath the city, looking for rare books that have been lost for centuries. Optimus meets many different types of creatures, including an Uggly hag who can tell the future and a Nocturnomath with three brains. The mystery leads Optimus into the deadly catacombs where he runs from Harpyrs, Sphinxxxxes, massive spider creatures, cyclopean Booklings, and ferocious sentient books, in addition to the Book Hunters, who will murder anyone who gets in their way. But the most dangerous of all is the Shadow King, who rules over the dark catacombs.

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Book Review: A Crystal of Time

School For Good And Evil #5 - A Crystal Of Time by Soman Chainani

School For Good And Evil #5 – A Crystal Of Time
by Soman Chainani

Agatha and Tedros are on the run. A false king has seized the throne of Camelot, lying to the people and claiming to be King Arthur’s true son. Sophie is caught between them, trying to find out the truth and balance her loyalty to her friends and to her new love. Agatha uses Dovey’s crystal ball to investigate the past and find who the false king really is.

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Book Review: The Worm Ouroboros

The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

The Worm Ouroboros (Dover Literature: Science Fiction/Fantasy)
by E.R. Eddison

2.5 out of 5 stars


The lords of Demonland go to war against the necromancer King of Witchland. The Witch King uses dark magic to carry off one of the Demon lords, Goldry Bluszco, and his brothers vow to find him. Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha travel past the inhospitable Impland to the dangerous mountains, searching for Goldry, while Lord Spitfire continues the war against Witchland at home. They fight manticores, search for a hippogriff egg, and face ghostly apparitions and enchantments in their search through the mountains to find Goldry. Several magical ladies and queens assist them in their quest, but the war is not going well for Lord Spitfire back in Demonland.
Lord Gro is a traitor from Goblinland who has joined the Witchland court and is counselling the Witch King and other Witch generals in the war. He plays against both sides, always with his own agenda to latch onto any high official and play puppet master.

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Book Review: Beowulf

Beowulf by Talbot E. Donaldson

Beowulf: A Prose Translation
by Talbot E. Donaldson

4 out of 5 stars

Beowulf hears of a murderous monster that is attacking Hrothgar’s kingdom, so he journeys across the sea to aid the mighty king. Beowulf refuses to use a sword against the terrible monster Grendel, choosing instead to trust in his own great strength in hand-to-hand combat. He beats Grendel and tears off the monster’s arm. Grendel flees, but bleeds to death elsewhere. Grendel’s mother swears revenge against them, and attacks the next night, killing Hrothgar’s best counselor. Beowulf pursues Grendel’s mother to her underwater lair, and finds an ancient giant’s sword in the caves beneath the lake. He uses the sword to kill her, but the sword melts from the heat of her monster blood. Beowulf cuts off Grendel’s head and returns with it to Hrothgar’s court to show the proof of the monster’s death. After receiving many beautiful and costly gifts in recognition of his great deeds, Beowulf returns to his own land across the sea.

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