Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Bad Ink Press Publication Date: October 31, 2019 Pages: 276 Format: Mobi Add to GoodReads Buy on Amazon, AbeBooks, Indigo
Synopsis
Ladies and Gentlemen, last orders, please.
Seriously, this could be your last ever order…
Have you ever fancied running a pub?
What about two pubs?
And what if they were in different dimensions?
Enter Mark Adams who is in serious need of a pint.
Now the fabled landlord of Peacebattle, he’s the only person who can stop the world from screaming for the rest of time.
But why chose a loser to save the world? What is the truth at the heart of the Binding Brothers’ dark religion and the monsters who thrive in its heart? And will Mark survive long enough to remember the most important advice of his entire career:
Don’t scream.
Whatever you do.
Don’t scream.
Review
I received a copy of this book from the Publisher for free. My review is entirely voluntary.
I found this to be a slow burn but that didn't take away from the unique storyline. It was a good book.
The story is mainly told from the perspective of the main character Mark Adams but there is a fair amount of introspection from other characters as well.
This is definitely one of the classic "good versus evil" storylines. But there is a heavy-handed dash of religious zealots in it as well. I also enjoyed that the parallel world to ours was a Middle-Earth feeling place. It definitely made the pub more interesting considering it straddled a portal to another dimension, even if half of the people in it were completely bonkers.
Star Rating
3.85 Stars
About the Author
Paul Phipps-Williams trained to be a film producer, wandering around student films shouting ‘Time is Money’ at people before stealing their cake. Having figured out that wasn’t the most successful way to get hired, he went on to sell pencils and pints for a living because people always seemed to need one or the other.
For the last eighteen years, Paul has told people he works for the Government in the hope they’ll think him a super-spy. He isn’t, but that’s what you’d expect a super-spy to say. He’s passed at least a couple of new laws, convinced one government minister to quote the Spice Girls in the House of Commons and spent London 2012 in an underground bunker. On at least one occasion he’s had tens of thousands of people march through central London protesting against what he’s doing with his life. Whether this was work related or not, we’ll leave to your imagination.
When he’s not Making The World A Better Place/Contributing To The Fall of Society (delete according to your political affiliations) Paul is also a photographer and can be regularly found at cult TV events telling people to smile as they stand nervously next to their childhood heroes. His motto is ‘What happens in Paul’s photo studio, stays in Paul’s photo studio.’ At least, that’s what Paul’s been told by his lawyers. His photographs have been published in an eclectic range of magazines, from The Amorist to Scottish Field and Doctor Who Magazine.
Paul writes audio books for Big Finish Productions’ gothic horror series Dark Shadows. 2020 sees the release of Windcliff, a terrifying 13-part full-cast audio horror serial set in an asylum and performed in real-time. Other audiobooks for Big Finish include Doctor Who: A Small Semblance of Home. He was also a contributor to 1001 TV Series You Must Watch Before You Die where, amongst other things, he was paid to watch The Real Housewives of Orange County and a programme about a cowboy cop in New York City. He’s not quite got over it yet.
The Axe & Grindstone is Paul’s first novel, and he’s had to convince his mother that its main character isn’t really based on him. She’s not entirely convinced. He lives on a roundabout in Lewisham with his husband, Gareth, and their two cats, Billy and Hartnell. His favourite pizza is an abomination of hot and spicy things with BBQ sauce and his favourite colour is TARDIS Blue (1987-1989).
Connect with Paul