Kathryn Troy's Blog, page 15

Dreams of Ice and Shadow Blog Tour!

To celebrate the May 18th release of the second volume in the Frostbite Series, Dreams of Ice and Shadow , I will be doing a bit of blog-hopping the next few days. Here's where you'll find me:


Monday May 14 – Guest Post: An Undying Romance: Vampires in Fiction @ Thoughts on Fantasy 
Tuesday May 15 – Author Interview: Speed Round @ Author's Secrets
Wednesday May 16 – Interview @ My Life My Books My Escape
See you there! If you need to catch up, the first Frostbite book, A Vision in Crimson , will be FREE on Amazon starting on Tuesday May 15.

The Naturalist: An Enlightened Thriller

Regular readers of this blog know that I review thrillers very rarely. That's mainly because I am very choosy, and always on the prowl for something uniquely dark rather than something overly formulaic. I may watch Law and Order religiously, but I like a lot more variety in my reading.

The Naturalist  delivered. The story focuses on Dr. Theo Cray, a scientist who studies ecological systems and biological patterns. When a previous student of his is supposedly killed by a bear attack, his mind, wired for hard science rather than human relationships, sees patterns that others don't, and thus begins an investigation that takes one disturbing, pulse-pounding turn after another.

I won't go into the details of Cray's investigation, because that would spoil the fun, but I can talk about the myriad things that made this book stand out among its peers.

The first is Dr. Cray himself. At no point in the book was he anything other than a scientist. His analytical mind and broad knowledge allowed him to make logical connections that no other character could, and in that way the "uniqueness" of Theo Cray, and the common trope of "only I can solve this problem," felt very authentic and organic. It also lent a unique quality to the writing style itself. There was a wit in it, as well as lots of actual technical detail that gave insight into the way Theo Cray thinks - specifically, the kinds of scientific hops that his mind makes that, while seeming random at first glance, pull the story together in a way that is more cohesive than most police procedurals or legal thrillers, which also emphasize the "investigation" as the cornerstone of the plot. Cray doesn't have the resources that we're accustomed to amateur sleuths having, and so the turns in the plot are so refreshingly original as Cray moves from one data point to the next. It made for a fresh story, where it could have been very tropish.

Second, the conclusion that Cray comes to early on, that not only was his student killed by a man, but by a serial killer, is laid out expertly. The scale and methodology of the killer as developed in Theo's mind is chilling. And unfortunately, all too easy to imagine being right on the nose. He does this by pulling together very real data about the drug crisis of rural America, older theories about big cats and were-beasts, and the criminal careers of some of the most prominent serial killers.

As if that wasn't enough, Mayne toys with the idea of an urban legend, in this case, Cougar Man. Nice touch. Bringing in a touch of something weird and doing it right doesn't come around all that often. When it does, my mouth waters for more. This is definitely true for the second installment of this series, which hints and the use of another urban legend. I can't wait.

The book did have one fault. Cray's aloof/awkward posturing towards other humans works when he encounters obstacles with law enforcement and reluctant witnesses, but when he did try to make positive connections to people, those characters fell a little flat, and felt like hollow character types, rather than compelling people. This didn't necessary hold back my enjoyment of the book, but it is perhaps an area for potential growth.

K. Rating: 5/5
Eeesh!! That's scary enough, without someone pretending to be a bear.

Think I Had it Right the First Time: The Dark Monk

As I moved away from my reading of The Hangman's Daughter  and found historical fiction I liked even less, I considered very seriously the possibility that I may have judged the first book too harshly. So I dove headlong into the second book in the Hangman series, The Dark Monk . This time, a priest is murdered in a hunt for Templar treasure. I thought I had every reason to be optimistic.

Nope. I had it pegged on the first go-around.

There's stuff to like about Potzsch's writing - he gets the atmosphere, the historical environment just right, and I like his characters. Not love, but like. But regardless of that, something very serious is lacking.

It's the dialogue: it's repetitive. It's redundant. And it's forced. It's like watching an extending commercial trying to sell senior citizens life insurance. There is something so inorganic about reading people rehash the same scenes and the same factoids over and over again, using the exact same language. The end result is a mystery that doesn't feel like a mystery, or, maybe, a mystery for dummies, because there's not a chance in hell you're gonna miss the important bit. It will be repeated at least half a dozen times. And that really takes something away from the tension and the tone of these works.  It also keeps his characters flat. Stops them from becoming loveable, rather than merely likeable.

It's a shame this isn't more like Name of the Rose in quality. Then I would be head-over-heels for this series. Unfortunately, life is unfair and we all have to live with it. And more of The Hangman's Daughter is a frustration I'd sooner live without.

K Rating: 2/5

Long-Form Slashers: Who Knew? Slasher: Guilty Party

I've long been a fan of the slasher sub-genre of horror films: so much, in fact, that I've researched this academically under-appreciated tradition in conjunction with related post-war cinematic trends from Germany and Italy. Perhaps, in my next lifetime, that research will turn itself into a book.

For now, it's enough to say that I know a whole lot about slashers - especially regarding their patterns in terms of plotting, visual storytelling, and characterization both of the killers and their victims. Under normal circumstances, the best I can hope for in watching a slasher I haven't seen before (and trust me, that number is dwindling) is to see a little something new nestled comfortably in the old. Good execution is key - both in terms of cinematic production, and in the literal sense. The nature of the deaths in a slasher is one of the prime areas for directors to be innovative and add something new to the genre.


But what I have never seen before is the slasher concept translated into long-form: that is, into a television series. Netlix's show Slasher really blew my mind. The change did some unexpectedly wonderful things. The writers utilized all those extra hours by offering a greater level of complexity and depth, and really made the plot more immersive, and less a simple premise that puts the potential victims in the right place at the right time.

In the second season, entitled "Guilty Party" (which I watched first b/c that's how it showed up in my feed), the tried and true setting of a children's summer camp becomes much more interesting, because the writers have the ability to dive deeper into the story, delving into each of the counselor's backgrounds, and, more especially, their interactions with each other. When they were just teenagers, things went horribly wrong one night: Tallvinder, a fellow counselor who'd gotten on everyone's shit-list, ends up dead. Years later, when the sale and bulldozing of the campgrounds is imminent, the other counselors return to the scene of their worst childhood mistakes before they can be discovered. Things don't go as planned, of course, and as they become stranded at the camp, now turned into a commune for wellness, even the people who live there year-round suffer horrible deaths.

And I do mean horrible. The gore in the show was spot-on, and I saw some stuff I ain't never seen before in a slasher - a sign of great care and thoughtfulness which was very much appreciated. The styling of the killer- a bright orange winter coat with the darkened ski mask- was really nice. But more than that, the killings meant something more here than they might in other films because we knew so much more about each character before they met their fate. This show takes the long-standing idea that the victims are not exactly innocent much further, showing their own faults and sins in the multiple backflashes that plumed the nature of these characters, their behaviors and loyalties to their friends, and how each one of the now-grown counselors remember Tallvinder, and the part they all played in her death. This splicing of the past with the present really added a lot to the tale, and we learned more and more about that fateful night as the season wore on, which gave the tale a mystery-like quality that elevated above some of the more formulaic iterations of the genre.

Also, there were essentially two camps (excuse the pun) of potential victims, and amongst them, a killer. This added yet another layer of tension as there is a sort of tribal distrust between the counselors and the members of the commune, but those groups also turn to each other, and the question of how well anyone really knows anyone else becomes a major factor in the decision-making of the characters.

There were lots of good red herrings along the way, as well as subtle clues that lead you to the truth. So subtle in fact, that I missed a pretty important one, and was blindsided by it as my husband put the pieces together as we neared the very end of the series. I cannot say that I was disappointed- it was quite the reveal. So I won't spoil it. But know this, gentle readers: if you have a taste for the gory, the sadistic, or the atmospheric in your entertainment, you simply must try Slasher.

K Rating: 5/5

A Story Adrift - The Demonologist

Thrillers, as a genre, only pique my interest if they touch upon one of my other interests: magic, the supernatural, or anything horror-related. So it makes perfect sense that I would pick up The Demonologist , a book about a man who must test his faith in the demonic if he is to have any chance at rescuing his spirited-away daughter.
Even as I write this, I close my eyes and try to focus in on exactly what the problem was with this book. The writing was okay. It wasn't terrible - I remember liking the way that Venice as a city is described, saturated with art, beauty, and death - that is generally how I think of Venice. And I liked the bit about turquoise being the color of grief, connecting it to different memories. There was definitely a literary quality to the book's sensibility, despite the jarring, frequent fragmenting of sentences for dramatic effect that felt clunky and artificial, almost pretentious, you might say. (See how long that sentence was? I'm damn proud of things like that). Though that wasn't what really nagged at me as I read.
What confused me is that I don't really know what kind of a book The Demonologist is supposed to be. That is, I don't know who its target audience is. It wasn't "thrilling:" road-trips through Bumblefuck, America seldom are, and the protagonist is a rather dull, weak figure. Not that weak can't be interesting, but it just wasn't here. The Milton scholar David Ullman could have been galvanized into being a man of action-so many professors become that in literature, but none of his decisions made a whole lot of sense. They were just necessary to move the plot along, and so in that way the story felt forced, rather than compelling. Also, the recording Ullman makes of a possession at the beginning of the film is made out to be this end-all-be-all proof of demons, and thus becomes a crux of the story, but in such tales, nothing ever works like that. Suggesting that such a document would function as a world-altering proof stretched my imagination too far, so its influence over characters and their decisions felt inauthentic and misplaced.
If the book was written as horror, then it was too safe to be good. I have seen/read a damn good share of what is out there in terms of the demonic/satanic/possession sub-genre, and none of the "horrific" things Ullman encounters along his journey were new to me. They weren't even close to being new. Which, at least for me, is a hallmark of good horror: innovation. A twisting of tropes, a push to extremes-that to me is what moves the genre forward. The scenes presented all felt rather neat and tidy, even predictable. I wasn't disturbed even a fraction of what I suppose I was intended to be. Which begs the question: who was this written for? Hard-core horror fans are not going to find anything here to salivate over, but the completely un-initiated would probably dismiss a book like this as "not their cup of tea." Perhaps there's an in-between group, people who might potentially be interested in dark fiction, but don't know any better?  
It is troubling. Most troubling of all was the happy ending that came out of absolute nowhere. It made no sense plotwise, it certainly wasn't earned, it most definitely was unnecessary, and it goes against the grain of the genre in a stupid, rather lame "none of this really matters because it's all going to be okay" sort of way. It's the kind of "safe" story that makes me want to puke. 
Now, back to Season 2 of Netflix's Slasher, to get my head back on straight. 
K Rating: 1/5

A Shell of a Story: Hiddensee

I'm a big fan of The Nutcracker , and thoroughly enjoyed seeing Wicked when it first debuted on Broadway, so I came eager to Gregory Maguire's novel Hiddensee , supposedly a retelling of the classic tale. Supposedly.

The sample that I read on Kindle before committing to the book was tantalizing-full of mystery and magic, and everything that the rest of the book sorely lacked. I honestly don't know what the book's ultimate purpose was. It focuses on Dirk Drosselmeier throughout his ho-hum life. The only interesting thing that happens to him is a transcendental experience when he is a boy lost in a forest. For the whole rest of the book, I was waiting to see how that would play out, what other magical visions or adventures Dirk was to have. Sadly, Dirk's life was so passive that he was practically invisible to the people with whom he interacts, and nothing significant comes of his encounter in the woods.

Likewise, the rest of the characters, and even the places that take up the bulk of this book, are not brought to life for me in any meaningful way.  They are all so very wooden, and none very interesting, so that as Dirk moves from one boring chapter of his life to the next, I didn't really care as people entered and left the story, and was left with nothing but a stoic character wandering through an aimless plot that pretended it was about a lost forest and classical gods, but in fact really wasn't about that, or about anything much at all. All references to anything remotely interesting-gods or nutcrackers-were so derivative that I angrily pondered the purpose for this book's existence as the story drew to an unsurprisingly useless close.

K. Rating 0/5. A zero is reserved for those special books that I never should have finished, but for whatever stupid reason, did


Next Christmas, I will simply go to see the ballet instead

Not What I Anticipated - Successor's Promise

Frequent visitors to Bathory's Closet should know by now that I am a huge fan of Trudi Canavan's fantasy books, an obsession begun with Thief's Magic , Book 1 of the Millenium's Rule Series. After having read that and its oh-so-satisfying sequel, Angel of Storms (my review here), and then her Black Magician series, I finally gave myself time to savor Book Three of Millenium's Rule,  Successor's Promise . And I have to honestly say,: this was not her best work.

Successor's Promise begins five cycles after the end of Angel of Storms, where Valhan, the ruler of worlds (referred to as the Raen), has executed a risky move to maintain his power - he has destroyed himself with the expectation that Rielle, a powerful sorcerer who has grown so much since the first book, will resurrect him. She refuses to do just that at the very end of Angel of Storms, after living in Valhan's palace, learning how to use her magic, and eventually realizing that the Raen does more evil than good. She rescues the boy whose memories had been sacrificed to make way for the resurrected Valhan, and this third book chronicles what Rielle does once the boy she saved, Qall, becomes an adult, and she becomes responsible for protecting him and educating him in magic. Tyen, on the other hand, who split his allegiances between the Raen and the Raen's enemies (the Restorers) in the last book for the sake of saving Vella, the woman trapped in magical-book form, continues to play both sides as he tracks Dahli. He is shown to be even more villainous as the Raen as he resorts to abominable violence to restore him. And all the while, the Restorers, led by Baluka, are doing their damndest to stop the Raen from returning.

All that might sound exciting, but I felt that this book in particular lacked the urgency and heart-pounding pace that I've so enjoyed in Canavan's other works. Much of the book was spent in "telling," rather than "showing," as they say in the writing biz. So many people analyzing and over-analyzing all the possible moves that all people could make. Instead of feeling like thrilling action, it was almost a play-by-play of the mindset of someone playing chess. So even if someone did something risky, all the action in the book felt rational and methodical, and quite frankly, sometimes a bit boring. I hate to admit that, but it is sadly the truth. Most of the book felt redundant in this idea of constantly weighing the decision to fight or flee, or determining the enemy's ten next possible moves.


My other major issue in this work was the sense of morality that features strongly in both protagonists, Tyen and Rielle. It's clear that Canavan is trying very hard to show these two reflecting upon their actions, and trying to make the best of bad choices, and even then with some terrible consequences. For Tyen, it's about issues of spying-who is he spying on, for whom, why...and for Rielle it's questions of how best to keep Qall safe. Move to another world? How many worlds away? When is safe enough safe?  These things were so transparent and redundant that they overwhelmed the plot, and kept the character growth of this pair feeling stalled. Essentially, the glut of possible choices, all with bad outcomes, stopped these characters from having a strong amount of agency, and that just didn't resonate all that well with me. How Dahli is dealt with at the end of this book felt like a huge misstep, even though I'm sure it was deliberate. It's clear Canavan is trying to show that all people have redemptive qualities, but in the context of this storytelling, it just felt like one of the strongest instances of inaction on the part of the main characters, and I did not appreciate it.

I also did not like how the romance between Tyen and Rielle was handled - I don't want to give away details, so let's just say I don't understand why Canavan made the choices she did. It seemed out of character for her as a writer, when I've seen her write great romantic tension (see my review of The High Lord ), and I didn't understand how the relationship she crafted complemented either the plot or the characters involved. If anything, it felt out of place, not truly serving a purpose. It felt like a disservice to characters I've grown to love, and a disappointment from an author that I know can do much, much better.

K Rating: 2.5/5

They're Everywhere! Monsters

Though sci-fi is not quite my jam, monster flicks are, and if you can throw in some sci-fi elements to other genres I love and do them really really well (District 9 comes to mind), then I am game. So I tried Monsters (2010), the film directed by Gareth Edwards before he went on to do Rogue One.

Monsters reminded me a lot of District 9 and The Ruins , in fact, dealing with important contemporary issues like Americans' strange, xenophobic relationship with Mexico, and questions about the nature of borders, both real and artificial. I like that in my genre movies - something that makes you think about the current state of affairs without hitting you over the head with it. That's exactly what happens in this story, where a journalistic photographer, trying to catch the million-dollar shot of the alien creatures that have "infected" Mexico and parts of Central America, has to put that on hold to bring the boss's daughter safely back of over the border.

Along the way, there are dangers from opportunistic humans as well as gigantic extra-terrestrials that decimate whole towns without thinking twice about it. The simple premise of the film, that this is an ongoing state of affairs, is actually quite frightening. It's a simple concept used to maximum effect. Then it's a question of how exactly to get back to America quickly, and whether or not they'll need to pass through the infected zone to do it. As always, money is a factor. If you can't pay, well, then you go the hard way. And just because you paid today doesn't mean your money is good tomorrow. Or that the border official will remember that you already paid him.

Such scenes had great tension without the mention of aliens, and I found the parallels to the current dangers of immigration very intelligent and timely. Those moments were, in fact, my favorite part of the film for that very reason.

That's not to say, however, that the monsters weren't awesome. Because they were. The design was really streamlined and visually appealing, I think the scale was just right to elicit the "holy shit how is this not on lock-down already" reaction, and I especially liked that along with the big creatures, we also see them on a smaller scale, as a form of illuminated, reactive fungus. I thought that made real organic sense to what might be believably extra-terrestrial, and how such things would interact with established environments in the real world.

There were lots of powerful moments in the film, both with the aliens and without, that showcased the directorial skill at work- scenes that, if shown another way, would not have had as strong an impact. I think specifically about two phone calls that were spliced together to contrast the backgrounds of the characters who have been thrown together, and how these events are simultaneously changing their lives in different ways. There was something direct and straightforward about the film-making that was immensely appealing, showing me what I needed to see, how I needed to see it, in order to best appreciate it. It's a thoughtfulness that is all too rare these days, and it was refreshing.

My only regret in this film was the ending - I wish it had pushed a little further, shown a little further into the story. I suppose that says something about the storytelling, doesn't it?

K. Rating: 4/5

DREAMS OF ICE AND SHADOW - AVAILABLE NOW!!

I'm so happy to be sharing Frostbite Book Two: Dreams of Ice and Shadow. The cover is another phenomenal image by TS95Studios, and the perfect introduction to the next title in my romantic fantasy series.
Here's the blurb: (warning: spoilers for A Vision in Crimson!)
Luca has discovered his father’s hideout. He hunts the legendary vampire alone, pushing Katelyn away to safety. But Dracula is not so easily bested. He evades Luca so he can tap into Katelyn’s power—the magic that lies at the heart of Icarya. Luca’s heart sinks as his father draws him further and further from his eternal love.
Across the Great Sea, Katelyn is summoned to the slave city Likhan. After the death of Seht Reza, Likhan teeters toward revolution as her nephew Darien seeks the throne. To help him, Kate must work alongside Alaric, the assassin who will stop at nothing to win her back in Luca’s absence. The dark forces mounting against Darien leave Kate vulnerable to the destructive pull of her elemental nature.
Dreams of Ice and Shadow is the heart-stopping second volume of the Frostbite series, where gothic terrors invade epic fantasy. Unspeakable horrors are unleashed, and Katelyn and Luca’s passions burn brighter than ever as the dangers facing Icarya threaten to separate them forever. 
*Dreams of Ice and Shadow is available now on Amazon! And don't forget to grab your copy of its prequel A Vision in Crimson to help you catch up!*

COVER REVEAL - DREAMS OF ICE AND SHADOW - PRE ORDER NOW!!

I'm so happy to be sharing the cover for Frostbite Book Two: Dreams of Ice and Shadow. This is another phenomenal image by TS95Studios, and the perfect introduction to the next title in my romantic fantasy series.
Here's the blurb: (warning: spoilers for A Vision in Crimson!)
Luca has discovered his father’s hideout. He hunts the legendary vampire alone, pushing Katelyn away to safety. But Dracula is not so easily bested. He evades Luca so he can tap into Katelyn’s power—the magic that lies at the heart of Icarya. Luca’s heart sinks as his father draws him further and further from his eternal love.
Across the Great Sea, Katelyn is summoned to the slave city Likhan. After the death of Seht Reza, Likhan teeters toward revolution as her nephew Darien seeks the throne. To help him, Kate must work alongside Alaric, the assassin who will stop at nothing to win her back in Luca’s absence. The dark forces mounting against Darien leave Kate vulnerable to the destructive pull of her elemental nature.
Dreams of Ice and Shadow is the heart-stopping second volume of the Frostbite series, where gothic terrors invade epic fantasy. Unspeakable horrors are unleashed, and Katelyn and Luca’s passions burn brighter than ever as the dangers facing Icarya threaten to separate them forever. 
*Dreams of Ice and Shadow is available for Pre-Order now on Amazon! Stay Tuned for a promotion for its prequel A Vision in Crimson to help you catch up!*
**To my followers, fellow bloggers, and readers far and wide: If you're interested in a complimentary ARC copy, or participating in the blog tour for Dreams of Ice and Shadow, reach out to josnarffle@gmail.com**