I am behind with writing and posting book reviews, so I am posting three together today. All are excellent in their different ways. I have two more poetry book reviews to go and then I’m caught up for this month.
The Cielonaut: Lost in a poetry of stars (Picture poetry) by Frank Prem
This is an extraordinary collection of poetry. I have read many of this poet’s collections and they are all thoughtful and unusual, but this one had a powerful effect of me as a reader. It contemplates the intense and unsolvable loneliness of life alone in a spaceship lost among the unimaginable beauty and grandeur of the stars and galaxies. It entwines the awe and amazement of the voyage with the despair and isolation of the sole survivor’s situation in a profound and emotion filled way.
The poems are accompanied by gorgeous images taken from the NASA Image and Video Library. The combination is an incredibly visual poetic adventure.
The poet engages all of the senses in this collection to pull the reader into the survivor’s world. This extract from ‘the sound’ demonstrates the engagement of the sense of hearing:
“silence
is not an absence
of sound
silence is noise
a static
pushing through the background
nothing”
‘knight move’ engages, inter alia, the sense of sight:
“a pattern of squares
in three dimensions
on a wall
indicates
a knight move”
The sense of smell in the survivor’s travelling coffin as highlighted in ‘a song: an epilogue’:
“why breathe
the acrid sharpness
of unfiltered air”
There is no gravity in space as demonstrated in this extract from ‘gravity’:
“no light
but starlight
no weight
at all”
I highly recommend this fascinating poetic journey through time and space.
Amazon US purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Cielonaut-poetry-stars-Picture-Poetry-ebook/dp/B0D9NBS4TD
You can find Frank Prem on his blog here: https://frankprem.wordpress.com/2026/01/27/feeling-the-new-feeling-the-old/
Vengeance of a Slave (A Family Through The Ages Book 1) by V.M. Sang
My review
As a young boy, Adelbehrt, later renamed Ailbert, and his even younger sister, Avelina, later renamed Awena, are forced to watch their father crucified by the Roman soldiers. Adelbehrt knows his father was not a party to the uprising for which his village, and his father, were being punished. As a further punishment, Adelbehrt and Avelina, both very blonde and attractive children, are taken from their mother and forced into slavery. While waiting to be sold, Adelbehrt is witness to the sexual exploitation of several young girls taken from his village. His young heart hardens against the Romans and he nurtures a deep grudge against them. He and his sister are sold to a Roman trader living in Londinium. The Roman is not unkind to them but he treats them like an acquisition. Avelina is given to his young daughter as her personal slave and Adelbehrt is given to his wife, a Briton who has betrayed her own people and converted to Roman citizenship, and who treats him like a pet puppy.
This is a fascinating coming-of-age story which follows the stories of both Avelina and Adelbehrt and how they transition from their loving home to a life of slavery albeit living in luxurious circumstances, and then to escaped slaves on the run. In many ways, Adelbehrt’s hatred of the Roman’s is justified and his views are not softened until late in the story when he discovers that no nation of people is all bad, there are always good and bad people, those who treat others with compassion and those who succumb to propaganda and beliefs of superiority to other cultures. It was interesting to watch Adelbehrt’s journey alongside his sister’s and to see how motherhood softens women much quicker than any other situation or circumstance.
This story has an interesting ending which reminded me a bit of the original ending of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations where everything doesn’t turn out perfectly with a young couple in love riding off into the sunset. The ending was satisfactory and realistic.
I have some knowledge of the Roman Empire and have visited Bath and other historical Roman places in the United Kingdom. I’ve read and seen enough to know this book is well researched and a good reflection of life for Romans, slaves, and Britons during this period of history.
I enjoyed this story a great deal and recommend it to people who enjoy character driven stories in a fascinating historical setting.
Amazon US purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YMTHL69
You can find V.M. Sang on her blog here: https://aspholessaria.co.uk/2026/01/27/surviving-the-horror-the-woods-familys-final-stand/
Resonant Blue and other stories by Mary Vensel White
My review of this book was posted on Rosie Amber’s blog:
Today’s team review is from Robbie.
Robbie blogs here https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/
Robbie has been reading Resonant Blue and Other Stories by Mary Vensel White.
Every now and then, I like to read a collection of well crafted short stories and this book fitted the bill. Each story is beautifully written about a thought provoking topic that will make you think.
Below is a short overview of my favourite stories in the collection.
1. Griffin: This short story starts off fairly innocuously, with an older couple anticipating a visit from their married daughter who they haven’t seen for a year. As the couple converse, a sense of anxiety develops and the reader gets the sense that the couple’s relationship with their daughter is a little tense. The husband, Alan, is trying a bit to hard to make everything perfect for the visit and it feels a little desperate.
Their daughter arrives and as the story unfolds the reason for the earlier tension is slowly revealed culminating in a rather startling event. This was an interesting tale about family relationships and secrets and just how much a wife is prepared to tolerate from her spouse.
roberta-writes.com 