Cody C. Engdahl's Blog, page 2

Review of Dynasty Killers, by Baptiste Pinson Wu

Great moments of humanity in a harsh world of violence and distrust.

I just finished Dynasty Killers, which is Book Three of Baptiste Pinson Wu’s The Three Kingdoms Chronicles. Great work, great series, it’s illuminating and entertaining, which is all I ask for in a book. I loved the moments of humanity interspersed throughout the violence and villainy. Honor among enemies is my favorite trope, and Dynasty Killers serves it up in abundance. 

Liao Chun is now a full-grown man in the twilight of the Han Dynasty. He’s the captain of the Scorpions, an elite troop of warriors doing the bidding of legendary warlord Cao Cao. But as Chun does his mentor’s dirty work in the ongoing Chinese civil wars, he must reconcile his own conscience with his master’s ruthless ambitions.

Pinson Wu is doing us a great service, bringing such a rich history and culture to Western eyes with real historical characters and depictions of actual events like the Battles of Wancheng, Xiapi, and Guandu. Consider me among his legions of fans. Five stars from me. I was not emotionally prepared for what happened in this book. It was beautiful, heartbreaking, and unexpected. Bravo, Mr. Pinson-Wu. 

Get a FREE novella from me: The Underground Railroad Ball.

Check out Dynasty Killers here:

Check out my latest novel here:

My FREE Novella Is Now Available, and Why I’m Giving It Away.

You can get it here immediately: The Underground Railroad Ball.

Click the link, type in your email address, and you’ll be taken to a page where you can download it for multiple readers, such as Kindle, Nook, Apple, or as an ePub file or a PDF, which you can print out and read that way if you prefer. You can even read it online. 

I like using the free Kindle app to read books on my iPhone. It’s easier because I always have it with me and I can read it in the dark while my girlfriend sleeps. If you need help downloading or finding a way to read it, let me know. I’m happy to help.

This is a 21,500-word novella. It’s an immediate prequel to my first book, Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10.

It’s about Chester E. Newman, who is a sheriff’s deputy in Detroit at the onset of the American Civil War. He wants nothing more than to gain his captaincy in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. To do so, he must recruit a company of men, but all his plans are thrown into chaos when runaway slaves and slave catchers come to town. With the Fugitive Slave Act still in force, Newman must walk the fine line between his oath to the law and what’s right in his heart. 

I’m giving it away to build my email subscriber list. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to inform your readers of new releases, specials, and appearances. Sure, I have a decent following on social media, but those platforms don’t show all my followers every post I put out unless I’m paying for ads, which I do, but they’re expensive! Plus, you can lose your social media account, but no one can take away your email subscribers.

Marketing experts say that writing and giving away a “reader magnet” is a good way to entice people to subscribe to your list. It also gives them a sample of what to expect from you as a writer. It’s best to write something that’s connected to your series, but not essential reading. Usually, a prequel or a side story about one of your characters will do.

I knew I wanted to write one when I started my email subscriber list, but I wasn’t sure what it’d be about. I wanted something that would lead into my first book, Rampage on the River. In Rampage, Carl fights a duel with Klaus over an incident that happened at a ball the night before the novel started. I wanted to explain that in more detail, but didn’t feel I had enough for a story until one day it hit me.

I was in the shower when the idea came. Carl’s captain is a sheriff’s deputy at the beginning of Rampage on the River. What if he was involved in a caper with runaway slaves, slave catchers, the Fugitive Slave Act, and the Underground Railroad? Even better, there’s a real historical story of a daring rescue of a fugitive slave in Detroit that I could use as an inspiration for my story.

I loved it! I immediately texted my girlfriend and told her the idea, then copied and pasted that text into my notes so that I wouldn’t forget by the time I got to writing it.

I was still writing The French Fiasco at the time. I resolved that The Underground Railroad Ball would be the very next thing I wrote. Furthermore, even though it would be a novella (short novel) and free, I would pour my heart into it. It had to be as good or even better than my six previous novels.

I gave myself six months to write, edit, and distribute it to my subscribers. Fueled by passion, I did it in two and a half. I’m extremely proud of the result. I get excited every time I see a new download has occurred. I may be giving it away for free, but I think this was an investment that will pay dividends for years to come.

I currently have 107 subscribers on my fledgling list. I hope to have at least two hundred when I announce the pre-order for my next novel, Black James, which will probably come out sometime over a year from now. I’m running my list through MailerLite, which is free up to your first thousand subscribers. I figure by the time I get to a thousand, it’ll be well worth it.

So join my email subscriber list, download The Underground Railroad Ball, and tell me what you think! I’d love to hear from you! You can even review it here.

Review of Fletcher and the Mutineers by John Drake

Fletcher comes full circle.

This is Book III of the Fletcher Series, of which there are currently eight. It picks up where the last one ended and wraps up several threads from from the series so far. Fletcher and the Mutineers is almost like two novellas in one book. The first half takes place in Jamaica, where Fletcher is trying to build his fortune while hiding from the Royal Navy on the eve of the Second Maroon War. The second part takes place in Boston, where a standoff between the British, the French, and a ship full of mutineers in the harbor threatens to pull the US and Britain into war again.

Like the first two books, there are plenty of action sequences and intrigue, including naval battles and even a submarine. The book follows the same “found manuscript” trope, in which the writer claims to have won Jacob Fletcher’s memoir in an auction and then fills in the blanks with information from articles and other sources from Fletcher’s life. What we get is a story that shifts between the first-person narrative of Fletcher and a third-person narrative from his adversary’s point of view. This happens from chapter to chapter.

Fletcher’s voice is convincing and delightful, in which you can hear the old sea dog in him. His old enemy is back and more willful than ever. There are plenty of “oh sh%t” moments when I truly didn’t know how Fletcher was going to get out of a tight spot. It’s a fun and thrilling read and a great addition to the Fletcher Naval Adventures series.

Check it out here:

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My Review of Andor: A Star Wars Story

Several sets of space women brood and talk about their feelings. Much of this happens near 1970s architecture. 

There’s some shooting every few episodes. Then they all get new settings and the process starts again. 

I found the constant switching between ongoing conversations made their concerns seem more fast-paced. 

The unhappily-married space senator helped me appreciate the empire the most. I was relieved to finally see the Death Star. I hope its giant space cannon will help dry some of their tears. 

The show reminded me of the times I watched the IV drip during my chemotherapy. 

Diego Luna is in it at times. He does a good job of being non-threatening. He kind of looks like a Funko-Pop doll, which I think makes the toys seem more realistic. Bravo.

Check out my latest novel, although the pacing might be a little too fast:

Not Racist Enough? My reaction to a 3-Star Review

Blood for Blood Review Response

This reviewer gave Blood for Blood at Nashville only three stars because they say it didn’t depict racism in the South enough during the American Civil War.

This same person gave me a 5-star review for The Perils of Perryville, for which I am grateful. I’m also grateful for this feedback and the 3 stars, although I wish they would have given me at least one more star to help my average.

I’ll start off by saying that Blood for Blood at Nashville features a historical, racially motivated massacre, a historical race riot in Detroit, as well as people being called the odious “n-word” throughout the entire book, so what more do you want? Even the Yankees are guilty of overt racist behavior in this novel because many of them were.

The personal experience of this reviewer is awful, and it makes me sick to my stomach reading it. So I am sympathetic and understand their feelings. However, they are talking about the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. 

It would seem logical that things were worse a hundred years prior, especially at the end of the Civil War, when people were still legally enslaved in states that were still loyal to the Union and in Confederate-occupied lands. However, this novel predominantly takes place in Union-occupied Tennessee after the Emancipation Proclamation and on the eve of complete Union victory. This would have been when Federal troops were enforcing the newly won freedoms and civil rights for blacks, perhaps even out of spite, if not for the obvious moral reasons. In fact, black people had more rights and equality in the immediate aftermath of the war and through the following ten years during Reconstruction. They could vote, hold office, intermix with whites in society, and basically have rights that they would not see again until after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

So, what happened? 

Out of fear of rekindling the war, the Federal Government cowardly abandoned them. They turned their backs, withdrew occupation, and allowed ex-Confederate States to pass “Jim Crow” laws which would strip blacks of their rights and drive them into social and economic destitution for the next hundred years. We are still feeling the effects of that today.

Was there plenty of racism then? Yes. Did I portray that racism in my book adequately? I like to think so, but perhaps not up to everyone’s standard. 

In the end, I strive to portray history as accurately and objectively as possible. At the same time, I’m writing swashbuckling adventures in that history, and I tend to be a bit of a romantic. Trust me, though I am sensitive to our struggle with racism, then and now. I’m also excited about portraying heroism in my books, including with the black soldiers I feature in Blood and Blood at Nashville and the black characters in all my books. 

I hope the person who wrote this review sticks with me. They called it an “Excellent Series” in their review of The Perils of Perryville. Perhaps I’ll be redeemed when they read Mexico, My Love. We’ll see. 

In the meantime, if you’ve read any of my books, please give me some stars on Amazon and Goodreads, as many or as few as you feel I deserve, and perhaps write a few lines about what you liked or didn’t like. It helps level out the averages in the algorithm. By the way, I blotted out this person’s name to protect their identity. I would do the same for you, especially if you gave me a bad review.

Haven’t read any of my books yet? What if I gave you one for FREE? 

I’ve written a novella just for that purpose. It’s to grow my email subscriber list. Click here to join:  https://subscribepage.io/EngdahlHouse. 

You plug in your email address, and you’ll get a copy of The Underground Railroad Ball in about a month when it’s ready. It’s already written. We’re just editing it now. It’s a 21,000-word novella that’s an immediate prequel to Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10.

Also, I promise not to spam you or give your email address to anybody else. It’s just a way I can update you when I have new releases, specials, or public appearances. 

Check out a preview of Blood for Blood at Nashville here:

Blurb Reveal for my FREE novella, The Underground Railroad Ball

A sheriff’s deputy is caught in the crossfire of duty, morality, and law when fugitives and slave catchers come to 1861 Detroit.

Chester E. Newman is a sheriff’s deputy in Detroit at the onset of the American Civil War. He wants nothing more than to gain his captaincy in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. To do so, he must recruit a company of men, but all his plans are thrown into chaos when runaway slaves and slave catchers come to town. With the Fugitive Slave Act still in force, Newman must walk the fine line between his oath to the law and what’s right in his heart.

This novella is an immediate prequel to Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10. You don’t have to have read any of my books to enjoy this one. In fact, it’s a good place to start. 

What do you think?

This is a 21,000 word novella that I’m giving away to my email subscribers. It’s finished, we’re just working on the editing. We’re looking at releasing it in about a month. Want a copy? Subscribe to my email list and you’ll get one. Here’s the link: https://subscribepage.io/EngdahlHouse

In the meantime, check out my latest novel here:

Review of Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman pulls no punches…. 

…and is not for the faint of heart! By his own admission, Harry Flashman, the main character in this first-person narration, is a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel, a bully, a coward, and a rapist, and if you don’t take him at his word, he certainly demonstrates this in his deeds throughout the story. You can add racist and imperialist to the list as well, which may also scare off many of the overly sensitive. 

But Flashman is not a hero and is never presented as such. Even the character in his narration will tell you that. Rather, this is meant to be the memoir or perhaps confession of an octogenarian who no longer worries about the consequences of his deeds or the opinions of the people he’ll soon leave behind. What the reader gets is a riveting story of a deliciously scandalous cad that’ll have you snickering in delight, then hoping no one caught you laughing. Flashman is a parody, and all good parodies are a mirror to the society they reflect, and certainly Flashman bears all the bullheaded hypocrisy of the Victorian Age and the British Empire. Oh, what fun!

The concept of this novel is brilliant. Flashman first appeared in the 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes. In it, he is a bully at Rugby School who’s eventually expelled for drunkenness. Author George MacDonald Fraser then picked up the character and published this novel, Flashman, in 1969. Fraser went on to write eleven more in the series using the “found manuscript” trope in which he pretends to have found Flashman’s memoir, which he claims was written somewhere between 1900 and 1905.

“Hughes got it wrong” are the first words we hear from Flashman. He goes on to admit that he had been kicked out of Rugby for drunkenness, but he didn’t mix drinking gin with beer, which he knew better than to do, “even at seventeen.” The rest of the novel is what he does after his expulsion, which is joining the East India Company Army and fighting in the First Anglo-Afghan War.  

Like all good historical Fiction, the novel has a cast of historical characters and stays true to real history, making Flashman a participant and a witness to events like the disastrous retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak, and the Siege of Jalalabad. The book also has a profound understanding of human nature, especially our dark side, which we can see in the words and actions of Flashman and perhaps in our own reflection in the mirror. 

Flashman is a witty, swashbuckling adventure full of thrills, laughs, and historical accuracy. I’m definitely in for more!

Check it out here:

Check out my latest here:

Book Review of Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells by Sarina Dorie

A love letter to every bit of adolescent fantasy that has ever made us dream as children. 

I should start by saying this book was not written for me. I’m a middle-aged man who mostly reads and writes military historical novels. I’m not even a Harry Potter fan. I was too old when it came out to appreciate the book or the movie. I only read and saw the first one. 

That said, I LOVED Tardy Bells and Witches Spells! It is young adult urban fantasy at its finest. I identified so much with the main character. I remembered what it was like to feel different, the embarrassment and angst I experienced in school. I remember wanting to believe that I was special, that I belonged to a different world that was full of adventure and excitement waiting to claim me.  This book filled me with nostalgia with all its references to the Lord of the Rings series, Dungeon & Dragons, The Witch in the Wardrobe, and so many other forms of escape I had from the cruel, mundane world.

I don’t know how I discovered author Sarina Dorie. It might have been on Instagram. I admired her marketing. I liked the cartoonish, clunky,  cute, and sassy art style of the covers.  I wanted to try one of her books for a while. So I leaped at the opportunity when the books 1-5 box set was on special. I bought it and threw it onto my to-be-read queue. I finally got around to it, and boy was surprised how much I liked it! It was better than I had imagined.

The story is the first-person narrative of Clarissa Lawrence. She’s an awkward kid with red hair and freckles who’s obsessed with the make-believe worlds of Tolkien, Rowling, and the like. But Clarissa’s owl bearing her admission to a wizard school never comes. Her parents tell her that magic doesn’t exist and she must face the challenges of the ordinary world, like the transition between jr. high and high school. But the magical world won’t be denied as it pries its way into her teenage angst of bullies and boyfriends. 

Tardy Bells and Witches Spells is a sweet coming-of-age story with ripples of magic running through it. Sarina Dorie constantly teases us with whether magic really exists as it manifests under the surface of the story. The foreshadowing is excellent, drawing you deeper into the narrative. It was full of surprises, mysteries, twists, and turns. Buy it for your teenager, or better yet, read it yourself. It’s great fun!

Check it out here:

Check out my latest here:

Book Review of Fletcher’s Glorious 1st of June, by John Drake

A head spinning whirlwind of an adventure

Book II of the Fletcher series has a lot going on. It picks up where Book I left off. Jacob Fletcher has left the Royal Navy and instead of claiming the enormous wealth left to him by a father he never knew, he’s determined to make it on his own. He buys into a merchant ship and sails off as second mate to make his fortune in the West Indies.  

But things never go as planned

Fletcher’s adventures will cause him to battle the Americans, his fellow Brits, and ultimately fight the French at the Fourth Battle of Ushant, better known as the Glorious First of June for which the book is named and of which Drake gives a riveting account for those of us who like a good bit of real history in our historical fiction.

But the foes Fletcher faces at sea are nothing compared to the enemies waiting for him in England. 

His stepmother, Lady Sarah Coignwood and her maniacal son Victor were knocked down at the end of Book I, but they’re from out. Together, along with her new henchman lover, they plot to clear their names, seize Fletcher’s inheritance, and send him to the gallows.

Like the first book, Fletcher’s Glorious 1st of June has two storylines: Fletcher’s adventures at sea, which is narrated by Fletcher in first person, and his stepmother story in third. The author claims, fictitiously I believe, that he had won Fletcher’s memoirs in an auction along with enough historical documents to flesh out his stepmother’s story. This switch in narrative voice and story swings back and forth, chapter by chapter, even into the third act where the two storylines combine for a spectacular showdown of a climax.

I have to say, the darkest-hour-of-the-soul part was truly dreadful. I really had no clue how Fletcher would get out of it. However, the resolution was heroic and imaginative. 

I really enjoy Drakes writing. The first-person narrative of the old salty sea-dog Fletcher is delicious. Drake’s depiction of historical events and even the mundane ins and outs of navel and maritime culture of the time are easily understandable for a landlubber like me. I feel like  I learn a lot with each of these novels as well as enjoy a great high-seas adventure. I’m excited about reading the next one in this series!

Check it out here:

Check out my lates novel here:

Review of Sworn to God by Steven A. McKay

A tidy little thriller that’ll keep you turning pages to the end. 

A religious sect seems friendly enough, but when two members kill themselves after leaving their fortunes to its charismatic leader, Bailiff Little John, Friar Tuck, and Will Scarlet investigate. 

If the names seem familiar, it’s because they’re part of the Robin Hood legend so many of us grew up with. But unlike most depictions, which take place during King Richard the Lionheart’s absence during the Third Crusade, Steven A. McKay’s version follows the earliest mentions of Robin Hood in ballads, which place him in the fourteenth century during the reigns of Edward II and III. But Robin isn’t even in this story! 

Sworn to God takes place years after Robin’s “apparent death.” His band of outlaws have been pardoned. Now, Little John works as a bailiff for the sheriff. While out collecting fines, he learns of the strange deaths, and enlists his old buddies to help unravel the clues behind Lady Alice de Staynton and her “Disciples of God.” 

What ensues is a fun little mystery, which I did not know how it would play out until the very end. McKay brings depth to the well-known characters, making them flesh and blood: the irascible Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck’s struggles with self-doubt, and the jolly giant Little John. Together, they make an unlikely team of sleuths who strangely work well in these new roles and share great chemistry.

McKay has written a four-book set of novels about Robin Hood as well as several novellas that take place in and around those four books. Sworn to God is one of a few post-Robin stories in which Little John and Friar Tuck team up to solve mysteries. However, Sworn to God’s fifty-thousand-plus word count puts it more in the range of a short novel than a novella. 

However you want to classify it, it’s a tight and enjoyable read, which took me about a week to read but you could certainly burn through it in a weekend. Either way, it’s a fun story with plenty of action and suspense, which will keep you guessing.

Check out Sworn to God here:

Check out my latest novel here: