Release Date: 15/09/11
SYNOPSIS:
Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that's exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him.
Steven is no stranger to death - Mr. D's his boss after all - but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family.
Mr. D's gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse - unless Steven can shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out what happened to his boss - that is, Death himself.
THE BUSINESS OF DEATH includes the first two volumes of the Death Works trilogy, Death Most Definite and Managing Death, as well as the third volume.
REVIEW:
I love a compendium and this cracking series by Trent Jamieson has been something not only novel but pretty unique in the Urban Fantasy world. It’s witty, it’s clever and the author has a twisted streak worthy of Mr D himself as his deviousness and clever twists keep this series moves at a cracking pace.
Back that up with witty banter, great prose as well as a unique storytelling voice and it’s something very special indeed, but when you add the fact that it’s cheaper than the cost of two titles it’s a special three for two deal. Magical in its own right.
Release Date: 01/09/11
SYNOPSIS:
Shale is in trouble - the creature-filled darkness known as the Roil is expanding, consuming the land, swallowing cities whole. Where once there were 12 metropolises, now only 4 remain. It's up to a drug addict, an old man and a woman bent on revenge to try to save their city - and the world.
REVIEW:
To be honest with you I had a hard time getting into this title. Yes I liked the concept, yes I liked the cover (OK at times I can be lulled by pretty things) and the fact that it was the first of a new series also grabbed me. That said however the few chapters took quite a while to get into and I think many readers would have given up after that, but because I knew Trent from his Steven De Selby series I persevered with this book and found that it soon righted itself after getting some clunky building out of the way.
Overall the book definitely improves and I feel that subsequent releases will benefit from the clunkier section at the beginning purely as a lot of the world building is out of the way. The characters grow and as such generate that caring ability as their misfit ways are forced to come together for the greater good which makes this a title about what the few can do to benefit the many. Finally add to this a pace that starts slow and picks up to full throttle blended with a combination of solid prose and rounded characterisation and it was a title that I had a lot of fun with. Just be prepared to slog through a bit to get to the good stuff.
Release Date: 20/01/11
BOOK BLURB:
Steven has a new job, with an important-sounding job title: Australia's Regional Death. On a good day he thinks it has quite a ring to it, but on a bad day (that's most of them) it's more of a toll. He's recently averted a Regional Apocalypse, but a huge national death count - instead of a normal, manageable death count - is still a big risk. And with barely a month to go until his first Death Moot, where the world's thirteen Deaths get together to talk, er, death, Steven feels a crisis is imminent. People are dying in the unusually brutal summer heat. Monstrous Stirrers are on the rise as their dark god draws near. Someone is trying to kill him. And he has a conference to organise. Steven must start managing Death, before it starts managing him, or this time the Apocalypse will be more than Regional.
REVIEW:
Having loved Trent’s original tale of the business of death I really looked forward to this one to see what other new challenges would present themselves for Steve De Selby and whilst he survived the previous title by the skin of his teeth, our hero is to learn that its not easy at the top and that everyone’s out to get you. Its wickedly good fun, it has great characters and above all else it’s a plotline that you really can’t put down.
Add to this a deliciously dark sense of humour that pokes fun at death as well as giving the reader some great prose and you really can’t afford to miss this title. Finally add a magical sense of timing, some great prose alongside great pace and you know that it’s a title that will keep you glued to the last page. It will be interesting to see what Steve’s next book will do as after all, any author who has no qualms about grabbing the reaper and playing his ribs like a xylophone, pretty much has no limits. Great stuff.
Release Date: 05/08/10
BOOK BLURB:
Steve knew something was wrong as soon as he saw the dead girl in the Wintergarden food court. Nothing new - he saw dead people all the time - but this one was about to save his life ...Steve is a necromancer in the family firm, tasked with easing spirits from this dimension to the next after death. And he's kind of OK with that, until someone high up the corporate hierarchy makes a bid to be Australia's new Regional Death. This means killing all of the current Death's staff. After his parents, relatives and pretty much every other necromancer he ever knew has been killed, Steve is left to make a reluctant stand. But to do this he must stay alive. Threatened at every turn, Steve and the perilously attractive (and dead) Lissa go on the run to save what's left of their world.
REVIEW:
OK, I wasn’t quite sold this title from the book blurb, but I thought that it sounded interesting and since I was at a lose end I gave it a go. What unfurls is something that’s never really been done before with Death and you can see touches of influence from others within this authors writing. There’s a bit of Piers Anthony, a touch of Neil Gaiman and I suspect a good dollop of Terry Pratchett which made this novel fast paced, action packed and above all else hard to put down. The principle character is not only intriguing but fascinating as he’s forced into something he never really wanted. Add to the mix appropriate dialogue backed up with solid lulls and peaks within the writing style and its made this author one I’m definitely going to keep an eye on. A great first novel.
Release Date: 15/09/11
