Adam David Collings's Blog, page 18

A Swirl of Purple of Jessica Scoullar

A Swirl of Purple by Jessica Scoullar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Swirl of Purple is a portal fantasy. Three Young children from a small town in Australia step through a magical portal into another world, in search of their brothers, who have been taken by a dark creature.
First off, I have to celebrate how cool it is to have Australia used as the anchor point in our world. Fun as it is to read about Americans and British people travelling to other worlds, it is extra special to see familiar Aussies entering into this kind of adventure.
The role of the children in this story was quite different than in the typical portal fantasy. Rather than the conquering heroes, they spent their time apprenticing, learning and growing. In that regard, they are not so much the heroes of the story. This book felt more like an origin story, for the heroes they will soon become.
Much of the internal conflict in this book took for form of misunderstandings between children and adults. The character points of view were very well written, which resulting in my identifying strongly with the frustrations felt by both parties.
A Swirl of Purple sets up some interesting possibilities, and raises some intriguing questions. Questions not often addressed in secondary world or portal fantasies, such as why do familiar animals like horses exist in the ‘other’ world.
The book delves into multiple societies, keeping you guessing who are the ‘good guys’, and wondering if perhaps there are no ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys, but rather different groups who simply have opposing goals, as if often the case in real life.
This book opens up a series with a lot of potential. I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

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Cover Reveal – A Time To Rise by Nadine Brandes

The day has come. Author Nadine Brandes is revealing the cover to the latest (and final) book in her Out of Time Series: A Time to Rise. And I just happen to be one of the ninja minions helping her do it.

What is this series you ask? This is a YA dystopian trilogy with hope. These books challenge your thinking. The first one, A Time to Die, had a big impact on me.

A Time to Rise releases on 14th of October.

So here it is for your viewing pleasure: The Cover for A Time to Rise.

Isn’t it just awesome? This is the work of the legendary Kirk DouPonce.

What more can you sacrifice than your life?

Parvin Blackwater is dead.

At least…that’s what the Council—and the world—thinks. But her sacrifice tore down part of the Wall long enough to stir up hope and rebellion in the people. Now she will rise again. Strong, free, and fearless.

Parvin and Solomon must uncover the mysterious clues that Jude left behind in order to destroy the projected Wall once and for all. Meanwhile, the Council schemes to new levels of technology in its attempts to keep the people contained. Can a one-handed Radical and a scarred ex-Enforcer really bring shalom to the world?

Add A Time to Rise on GoodReads.

Make sure you catch up with the first two books in the series.

A Time to Die (My Review)

A Time to Speak (My Review)

Congratulations Nadine. Looking forward to reading it.

Nadine is giving away some magnetic bookmarks of characters from the series. They look very cute. Check out her Official Cover Reveal Post to enter.

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The End of All Things by Jill Williamson

The End of All Things by Jill Williamson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The End of All Things brings the first part of this epic saga to a close, and epic it certainly is. The world is literally breaking apart. The people of the five realms must evacuate, but before that can happen there are a lot of human problems to be overcome.

Things come to a head between Willek, his brother Janek, and their father King Echad. You can be sure that things will get worse before they get better. Meanwhile, Willek may have escaped the clutches of Charlen for now, but she’s not letting him go without a fight, but by the time he figures our her plan, it might be too late.

As an ending this book is fantastic, but it’s more than that. Think of this like the season finale of a TV series. It brings resolution, but sets up the next chapter.

Apocalyptic stories often end with a near end-of-the-world event. Those who survive then have the challenge of building a new world. Sadly, so many stories finish there. I often find that the re-building will be the greater story, the bigger challenge. What I like about this series is we’re going to see that story unfold in the next book.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the three novellas that have made up King’s Folly, and consider it amongst my favourite fantasies. Jill Williamson may just have what it takes to become the Brandon Sanderson of Christian fiction. I can think of no higher praise.

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My Books In The Library

Today I donated copies of the books containing my published stories to my church library. Check it out in the video below.

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May Reading Wrap-Up

In my latest monthly reading wap-up video, I talk about all that I’ve read during May 2016.

Book Mentioned:

Medieval Mars: The Anthology. Edited by Travis Perry.
A Time to Die by Nadine Brandes
Goodreads Giveaway
For Us Humans by Steve Rzasa”
Weird Things People Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson
For Honor We Stand by H. Paul Honsinger
Daystar: The Days are Numbered by Anne Hamilton
Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson

The Above lead to Amazon Affiliate links

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Daystar: The Days are Numbered by Anne Hamiltion

Daystar: The Days Are Numbered by Anne Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Daystar is a middle-grade portal fantasy with epic stakes. It follows a cast of several characters, but chief among them are Ansey, a prince from the kingdom of Auberon, and Fern, a girl from our world who stumbles across the dimensions into Ansey’s world.

Something strange is happening in this world. The land is contracting in on itself. Places are closer to each other than they used to be. Frost giants are storming the cities searching for a prophesied king who guards the gate. A band of seven children, some human, some talking animals, are drawn into the conflict.

The world-building in this book was a lot of fun. This is not a typical world. I don’t want to say too much, but it has been affected by an event they refer to as the Englobing.

One of the characters in this book was an autistic boy. I liked this inclusion for a couple of reasons. First it gives autistic kids like my son a character they can relate to, but it can also teach other children about autism, how it affects people, and how to effectively communicate with an autistic person.

While there are battles in this story, the book focuses on non-violent solutions to problems, which is again, a great lesson for kids to learn.

Daystar features some biblical analogy, through more subtle than what you typically find in the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. This was mostly focused on the armour of God from Ephesians 6. I enjoyed this aspect of the book.

Daystar is aimed at primary-school children. I think my grade 5 daughter would struggle with some of the words and concepts, but every child is different. The appeal of this book would, I believe, extend into lower high school, and even to adults who are young at heart.

Daystar is an entertaining and educational read. It provides a thrilling story and enough for the mind to chew on.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Logo and Teaser for New Star Trek Series

CBS has revealed a new logo and teaser trailer for the new Star Trek series. The show will be broadcast early next year on CBS All Access. CBS have said that we’ll get to see the show in other countries, but no word yet as to what form that would take. Let’s take a look.

Looks pretty cool. The text “New Crews. New Villains. New Heroes. New Worlds” seems to confirm the current rumour that this will be an anthology show, meaning that we could see different settings and different characters each season. That could be fascinating, and a great way to give “everyone what they want.” The first season is rumoured to be set just after Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country (which means a return to the TOS Movie red uniforms. Yay). Perhaps in season two we’ll get to see a Dominion War story, or maybe pay a visit back in time to Captain Robert April. The possibilities are endless.

It seems to be an exciting time to be a Star Trek fan.

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Something Special In The Mail

Something special arrived in the mail today. It was two paper copies of Medieval Mars: The Anthology. This book contains my first published work – Lynessa’s Curse. I love eBooks. I love reading them and I love making them, but there is something pretty cool about holding a physical copy of a book you helped create in your hand.

One of these is for me to keep. The other I’ll be donating to my church library.

Medieval Mars

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April Reading Wrap-up

I read some awesome books in April. Here they are.

Transcript

First, I read Wreaths of Empire by Andrew M. Sneddon. This was a military space-opera novel, with a touch of dystopia.

Humanity has been at war with the Gara’nesh for years, but they’re finally sitting down for peace talks. There’s just one problem. Somebody doesn’t want the peace to go ahead. This leads our hero, Jade, on a quest to uncover the truth, and prevent the war from escalating beyond repair.

The thing that sets this story apart from other military sci-fi is that the quest was not for victory, but peace. This was refreshing and a lot of fun.

I loved the protagonist, Jade. She is strong, intelligent and compassionate. She has some personal issues to overcome as the story progresses, but she is likable from day one.

I recommend this book to all lovers of space opera.

Next, I read the Heir War by Jill Williamson. This is an epic fantasy series, where each book has been broken into three novellas. The Heir War is the second episode within book 1, King’s Folly. I love episodic novellas, so this is a great way for me to consume the story, but if you prefer you can wait for each of the print novels to be released.

As with most epic fantasy, there’s a lot going on here, but I’m enjoying all of the various strands. In this second installment, we’re seeing a lot of those strands starting to come together. The central characters are the three sons of the current King, two of them, Wilek and Trevn are great blokes. I’m finding myself particularly drawn to Trevn as a character. Their middle brother is bad news. He’s being set up to be a major villain.

This book has political intrigue, adventure, romance, magic, prophecy, and an impending armageddon. What more could you want from an epic fantasy. Check it out.

The next two are tied together. I read Edge of Oblivion by Joshua A. Johnston, but before that, I checked out the Domes of Aerol. This is a short story set in the same universe, which you can get free by signing up to the author’s website. Domes of Aerol was a fun science fiction story which served as a good introduction to the world. We learn a little about the Aecrons, who are a very important alien species in the series, and we also learn a little about the mysterious Sarconian religeous order, which will also become very important.

So on to Edge of Oblivion.

The story opens with the arrival of Malum, a planet-sized object/entity of unknown origins that consumes planets and ships. It’s on course for an inhabited world, but it’s in no hurry. It will destroy all that lies in its path along the way. This creates huge stakes right off the bat. Malum reminded me of V’ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or Unicron in the animated Transformers: The Movie. Really creepy.

Our hero is the captain of a minor confederacy starship. Rather than joining the battlefleet to fight a hopeless battle again Malum, he is sent in search of the fragments of an ancient alien parchment, belonging to a long-dead religious order. Seems the ink on the parchment is made from the same material as Malum’s hull.

This quest takes the crew to various exotic locations around the galaxy. On their travels, they find this religious order is not so dead as was thought.

This book kept me engaged and entertained all the way through. I’ve been on the search for a book that pushes the same buttons as Star Trek for me. Edge of Oblivion did this nicely. At the same time, it pushes all those Indiana Jones buttons. Wonderful blending of the sci-fi and adventure fiction genres.

The book comes to a big and satisfying conclusion, which still leaves scope for future stories, and plenty of remaining mystery to be uncovered. I’ll be reading the sequel the moment it comes out.

Behind all of this was a fascinating spiritual analogy. What C.S. Lewis did with fantasy in the Chronicles of Narnia, Joshua A. Johnston has done with science fiction. The result was really interesting.

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Edge of Oblivion by Joshua A. Johnston

Edge of Oblivion by Joshua A. Johnston

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Edge of Oblivion has it all – a big looming unstoppable threat, a race against the clock, a grand adventure that would do Indiana Jones proud, a range of developed and unique alien cultures and a great deal of mystery concerning the past.

The story opens with the arrival of Malum, a planet-sized object/entity of unknown origins that consumes planets and ships. It’s on course for an inhabited world, but it’s in no hurry. It will destroy all that lies in its path along the way. This creates huge stakes right off the bat. Malum reminded me of V’ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or Unicron in the animated Transformers: The Movie. Really creepy.

Our hero is the captain of a minor confederacy starship. Rather than joining the battlefleet to fight a hopeless battle again Malum, he is sent in search of the fragments of an ancient alien parchment, belonging to a long-dead religious order. Seems the ink on the parchment is made from the same material as Malum’s hull.

This quest takes the crew to various exotic locations around the galaxy. On their travels, they find this religious order is not so dead as was thought.

This book kept me engaged and entertained all the way through. I’ve been on the search for a book that pushes the same buttons as Star Trek for me. Edge of Oblivion did this nicely. At the same time, it pushes all those Indiana Jones buttons. Wonderful blending of the sci-fi and adventure fiction genres.

The book comes to a big and satisfying conclusion, which still leaves scope for future stories, and plenty of remaining mystery to be uncovered. I’ll be reading the sequel the moment it comes out.

Behind all of this was a fascinating spiritual analogy. What C.S. Lewis did with fantasy in the Chronicles of Narnia, Joshua A. Johnston has done with science fiction. The result was really interesting.

Highly recommended.

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