Beth Tabler's Blog, page 214
September 15, 2021
Review – Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar
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LEGACY OF THE BRIGHTWASH by KRYSTLE MATAR September 15, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress “…you never really recovered, so much as you learnt to go on living even though you were falling apart.”—Krystle Matar, Legacy of the Brightwash
When I opened Legacy of the Brightwash, I wasn’t expecting Krystle to rip out my Mom-heart and show me my parenting pains. And I’m not just talking about the horror of a child’s body washing up on shore, which is a nightmare to anyone. I’m talking about the exquisite pain and pleasure of holding a baby, fresh and young, snuggled into your shoulder when your own children are too big to be cuddled that way. Krystle brings the small moments of being human to emotional light, and you as the reader toil along with her characters.
As a reader, you explore all the range of human emotion in Tashué, Stella, Illea, Jason and Lorne. With these characters you get to rage against the injustices of your world and fret over your feelings of inadequacy in what exactly you can’t do about it. Then you get to see how the fire is lit in each individual as they strive to preserve who and what they hold dearest, weighing what they are willing to do, willing to give up for love. I judge a book by how many feelings it can stir in my heart. Krystle’s characters bring the hurt, the anger and the betrayal, but they also bring the joy in small moments and the sorrow once you realize those moments have passed you by.
Brightwash has a magic system with little explanation so far except that it is part of who you are and most simply do not have it. The cost for wielding magic becomes clear, both the physical and social cost. This book explores the darkness and looks back on how individuals contribute to the nightmare unknowingly. Do not come to this book looking for all out gore. There is violence, however, and characters that revel in it because that makes sense for who they are. There is sex and drugs and addiction, but there are also consequences; they sting deliciously. There is love, of course, but there is no happily ever after yet. Do come for the love, though, and to answer the question What are you willing to do for it?
Legacy of the Brightwash is a character-driven slow-burn centered on raw, imperfect people struggling in a grim, dark world. It is high fantasy with low magic and elements of romance. This is the first book in a trilogy, so it’s just getting started. Aren’t you lucky? 5 out 5 stars
Brianna Note: I consider Krystle a friend however that did not play in the validity of this review.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review – Gild by Raven Kennedy
Brianna Sinder
I’m a homeschooling milspouse mom that likes to end the night in a made-up world so that I can forget my responsibilities for a little while. I also try to make up my own worlds and convince others that they’re not that bad. Currently located in Utah with two kiddos, my soldier and a rescued great dane mix. I enjoy dad jokes, kayaking, eating all the baked goods and sometimes making artsy things.
Find Her Here You can find her on Twitter at @BriannaSinder.
September 13, 2021
SPFBO7 – Review and Cut of The Girl Who Talks to Ashes by Rachel Rener
By Beth Tabler 
An immersive fantasy book with a touch of horror The Girl Who Talks to Ashes by Rachel Rener 
The girl who talks to ashes by rachel rener Buy A Copy Here What is it about? Fifteen-year-old Willow is terrified of her new baby, Lilah, who has a peculiar form of epilepsy. Every time Lilah’s eyes glaze over, terrible things happen: flowers shrivel, food goes to rot – even Willow’s long, auburn hair turns stark white. But it’s the death of the family cat that becomes the last straw; in the middle of the night, Willow and her mother dump the infant at the fire station two towns over – and are never heard from again.
The next morning, Chief Stanley Quinn takes Lilah home and cares for the toddler as best as he can. With medication, her epilepsy remains under control… For the most part.
But as a teenager, Lilah isn’t always keen on taking her pills, and when she sneaks away to a rock concert with the cutest boy in school, something terrible happens, landing both of them in the hospital. After Stanley breaks down and confesses everything to his adopted daughter, she decides to track down the young girl who gave her up sixteen years ago; the young girl who never made it home that night… The young girl who is now presumed to be dead. Soon, Lilah’s quest to find her birth mother becomes a quest to solve a sixteen-year-old missing persons case. She has everything she needs to find her – she just needs to learn how to control her peculiar ‘gift’ before she kills someone.
Again.
The Girl Who Talks to Ashes is an intriguing book and one that I could not put down for the first 100 pages or so. I loved the idea of Lilah’s gift and what it wrought for those around her. The prose had a dark gothic feel while still retaining a sense of modernity.
The story follows a baby, Lilah, born to a young woman out of wedlock named Willow. Eventually, the baby develops a weird form of epilepsy. Every time Young Lilah shakes or stiffens from a seizure, people and things around her experience time in very quickly. “flowers shrivel, food goes to rot – even Willow’s long, auburn hair turns stark white. But it’s the death of the family cat that becomes the last straw; in the middle of the night, Willow and her mother dump the infant at the fire station two towns over – and are never heard from again.” Lilah has no power of control when she is locked in this agitated state. Thus she is abandoned by Willow.
Lilah is rescued and taken in by a young family. Her new mother and father witness a terrifying seizure but instead of running, they get Lilah some help through medication. When taken, the medicine will keep the episodes away. There is a stark difference in the reaction between Lilah’s birth family and the adopted one.
As Lilah ages and becomes a teenager, she wants to test her boundaries as many teenagers do. But unlike any other teenager, Lilah’s boundaries are ones whose repercussions will affect those closest to her.
If I say anything else, we are running into spoiler territory, and this is a solidly entertaining book, and I hope readers go out and check it out. I enjoyed it; I liked the characters quite a bit and loved the visuals of Lilah’s seizures. They have a genuinely creepy vibe to them. However, I decided to cut this book because I could not get engaged with the dialog. It felt stilted and did not flow as much as I would have liked as a reader.
I recognize that this might be entirely on me as a reviewer, which is why I wholly recommend this great story to folks in general. I was very torn on cutting this, as it is a great book. But in the end, the dialog was the deciding factor. Please go check it out!
Check Out SOME OF OUR OTHER REVIEWS#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Deathless One by Niranjan K.
#SPFBO Review and Cut – The Hand of Fire by Roland O’Leary
SPFBO7 Review and Cut – Unstoppable Shadow by Alex Mead
If You Liked This - Please Share the Love Beth Tabler
Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is a site lead at Grimdark Magazine. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Las Vegas, Nevada, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy was on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5, and now runs a team for SPFBO7. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
September 11, 2021
5 SFF Books Featuring Middle-Aged or Elderly Heroines Who Still Kick Ass
—Jessica Valenti, Why Have Kids?
Never underestimate the power of a scorned or royally pissed woman. Whether she small mouse of a girl who grows up to take a kingdom in her thirties. Or, a woman who has had to love and watch die her child over many lifetimes.
They left impressions on us. Maybe they helped the hero get on the way. Or maybe their character was so good they stole the show. But there is a lot to be said for the mothers, middle-aged women, and the elderly having an adventure or two. They are just as full of wisdom as Gandalf, and they should have their own books. I collated a very small list of books below that have interesting scene-stealing characters or ones that are the main protagonist. If you have more I would love to read them.
Middle-Aged and Elderly Heroines who Kick Ass The mother of a thousand lives
Polgara the Sorcerous
Many of us readers grew up reading Edding’s books. We came to know them like the back of our hand. But Polgara was always a bit of a mystery. You don’t find out much about her until you read her own story, and then you will understand why she has sacrificed so much and the true queen she is.
The Bitch Queen
Queen Talyien
You never know how much you will give and what kingdoms you will set on fire and burn to the ground to save your child.
Check Out Our Review Here The Doctor Who Will Stop At Nothing
Dr. Alder
Quote is taken from Bookriot. Please check out their fabulous article on this very subject. Fabricator, Engineer, Politician, and Queen
Navani Kholin
A woman who protects those she loves while pursuing dominace for her countries future.
Lady, Mother, Concubine, Bene Gesserit
Lady Jessica of the Atreides
Dune is a complicated tome. The length of breadth of story it covers can be overwhelming. But I find one of the more interesting characters for me was that of Lady Jessica. So much so that I felt she stole many of the scenes she was in. I am looking forward to seeing what the movie does with her character and how it is portrayed on the big screen because of just this. Lady Jessica is a woman of power in so many ways.
Check Out Our Review Here. All Team.Read our latest article.
Read More.September 10, 2021
Review – Behind Blue Eyes Fallen Angels by Anna Mocikat
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behind blue eyes - Fallen Angels by anna mocikatREVIEW BY C.T. PHIPPS
September 10, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPressI was a huge fan of BEHIND BLUE EYES by Anna Mocikat, which was a breath of fresh air in the cyberpunk genre. The cyberpunk genre has had a recent revival with the successful Netflix adaptation of the Altered Carbon books by Richard K. Morgan as well as the semi-successful release of Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red.
So I was in the mood for something full of action, twists, turns, and world-building that Behind Blue Eyes provided in spades. A warning before I proceed that this review will contain spoilers for the ending of the book as its otherwise hard to talk about the sequel. Right? You have been warned.
FALLEN ANGELS picks up after the events of the first book with Nephilim having been captured, brainwashed, and restored to “factory default.” Metatron, her master, has also promoted her as well as made her his lover as a way of displaying the full length of his control over her. As an Archangel, leader of the cyborg Guardian Angel death squad, Nephilim is seemingly content with the very life that repelled her in the previous book. Indeed, she’s actually helping Metatron plot against the corrupt Olympias board of directors that rules rules all of the Western Hemisphere.
These plans hit a snag, though, when someone starts murdering Guardian Angels. They are found spread throughout the city, gutted like fish, and it becomes an equivalent of Seven. The actual lives lost are immaterial to Metatron, though, because he’s not concerned about his brainwashed slaves. No, it’s the fact that it is exposing the Guardian Angels as vulnerable to being killed. Without the illusion of invulnerability, the Guardian Angels do not have nearly the power they need to mount his coup that Metatron is planning.
This book does a great job of fleshing out the world that was previously mostly seen through Nephilim’s propgaanda-influenced eyes. We get to see Eastern Europe under the control of the Robsum Corporation where romantic interest Jake has been forced to retreat despite his love of Nephilim. We also get a sense of how Brazil has been changed under megacorporation control. I always like these kind of details and the discussion of the various methods that the populace is being kept in line.
The best part of this book is definitely the introduction of police officers, Shiro and Spider. These two are “ordinary” citizens of Olympias City and provide another perspective on the Guardian Angels as well as Olympias Corporation. I really enjoyed watching them play off one another and think they would make a pretty good pair of protagonists for a cyberpunk police procedural series. Too bad they’re in a series where a bunch of Weapon X supersoldiers are capable of slashing through small armies.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book. It is full of action, twists, turns, and psychological examinations of the main character. I feel bad that Nephilim remains brainwashed for much of the book, especially since Metatron pretends he’s in love with her. However, I think that is part of the story to Nephilim finally turning on and getting her revenge on him. This is a great book and available to all Kindle Unlimited users for free.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – Psycho Killers In Love by C.T. Phipps
C.T. Phipps
C.T Phipps is a lifelong student of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. An avid tabletop gamer, he discovered this passion led him to write and turned him into a lifelong geek. He is a regular reviewer on Booknest.EU and for Grimdark Magazine.
He’s written the Agent G series, Cthulhu Armageddon, the Red Room Trilogy, I Was A Teenaged Weredeer, Lucifer’s Star, Psycho Killers in Love, Straight Outta Fangton, The Supervillainy Saga, and Wraith Knight.
September 9, 2021
Review – The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty
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THE City of brass by s.a. chakraborty 8/10
September 9, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress “Greatness takes time, Banu Nahida. Often the mightiest things have the humblest beginnings.”
Hello dear reader !!
Today I come to you with a review for a book filled with djinn, a mesmerizing setting, and court/societal intrigue !!
For truly just like the protagonist Nahri is whisked away into a world full of magic she never believed possible, by a mysterious djinn warrior of old, so is the reader drawn into this new setting steeped in Arabic and other eastern traditions and mythologies.
I had been looking for another djinn themed series for ages because I always enjoy that mythology and it had been some time since I last had the pleasure of reading one! I was not disappointed, and in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the world that Chakraborty created, and her prose is evocative as it is flowing.
You could say I fell in love with Daevabad as a place. As a society maybe not so much, with its prejudices and conflicts but details ahaha.
Plus I have a soft spot for immortals or even supernatural longevity in general, and the way that the author tackled how that impacted the djinn society was really interesting and fascinating. I also especially enjoyed the stark differences between characters that, like Dara, come from waaaay before the events of the main story, and how that impacted his attitudes and beliefs in contrast to the younger characters.
Chakraborty also masterfully navigates a world were you can never tell whose narrative is the truthful one (history is written by the victors after all) and there’s a constant air of mistrust and doubt that permeates any fact spreading or story sharing, that I found fit oh so well into the overall plot, and made me speed through reading this first installment in search of more clarity and answers !
Granted I had some grievances but those mostly fall to personal tastes and my seeing some of the narrative devices for what they where rather than feel them as an organic part of the story. To clarify in the least spoilery way possible, there were several instances of tensions and arguments that occurred purely for the purpose of propelling the heroine towards one outcome rather than the other, when up to that choice plot twist, things were clearly headed into a previous direction. With more than one instance of things happening purely because characters didn’t take a second to talk. It irked me, not gonna to lie, mainly because it was out of character for them occasionally, but I understand why it all had to happen so that’s something I suppose.
This is mainly the reason why I won’t be jumping into the sequel right away but I do however look forward to continuing the series because I need to make sure my favorite character makes it out in one piece by the end ! I’ve grown very attached to them and all the magic after all!
So then dear reader, if you like a gutsy and wicked smart female protagonist, badass action, a who is telling the truth and how many people are actually lying kind of narrative, sprinkled with lots of showing not telling, occasional snark, and beautiful magic, this is the book for you!!
Until next time,
Eleni A.E.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Eleni A.E.
Eleni is a Greek student who grew up in Italy, and is currently working on getting her BA Honours degree in Literature from a Scottish university! When not typing away for her disseration, she can be found reading all the SFF she can get her hands on, and reviewing it for fun when inspiration strikes and she just needs to share her passion for reading. Alternatively, she will definitely be with a needy Westie in her arms watching series or movies. You can find her writing on her shared blog with her course mate at https://latenightbookscom.wordpress.com/ where there are also posts about other literary genres, or follow her day to day ramblings on Twitter @eleni_argyro or Instagram @the_words_we_read .
September 8, 2021
Review – Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
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survivor song by paul tremblay September 8, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPress “He jokes about this being a different and ridiculous timeline. Because why? Crazy awful stuff happening. Horrific shit has always happened, is always happening, and everywhere. And will happen, it won't stop. There aren't any other timelines and this one has always been a horror.”― Paul Tremblay, Survivor SongSurvivor Song by Paul Tremblay is a whip-cracklingly quick story that immediately pulls you into the nightmare and drowns you in emotions of fear, despair, and a little bit of hope.
Tremblay drops us into Massachusetts amidst an area slowly boiling over with a pandemic-like virus akin to Rabies. The pandemic spreads by saliva, and the inhabitants of that area are getting quite bitey. Paul, the hapless husband, runs out to the grocery store to help his very pregnant wife. This errand would be an everyday type of thing. Not noteworthy in the slightest. Paul, our loving husband, almost makes it but gets taken out brutally. His straightforward errand ended his life.
There is no build-up to brutal moments. They can come from anything. Which I think is one of Tremblay’s talents as a writer. His books tend to be small snippets of moments expanded into stories—a whole book in an hour or an afternoon. Books don’t always have to be giant lengthy tomes to be scary; they can be a small slice of the terrifying moments of someone’s life.
“the final tally of what will be considered the end of the epidemic [but not, to be clear, the end of the virus; it will burrow, digging in like a nasty tick; it will migrate; and it will return all but encouraged and welcomed in a country where science and forethought are allowed to be dirty words, where humanity’s greatest invention—the vaccine—is smeared and vilified by narcissistic, purposeful fools [the most dangerous kind, where fear is harvested for fame, profit, and self-esteem], almost ten thousand people will have died. *”
And while we feel pretty bad for Paul, this story isn’t about him. It is about the other protagonist we meet in the second chapter. Dr. Ramola Sharma. She is a pediatrician who is helping keep her patients calm during all this turmoil. She gets a call from her very pregnant friend Natalie begging for help. Natalie needs to get to the hospital asap so that she can deliver her baby safely. This idea of delivery in the center of an epidemic where everyone is trying to destroy each other is a scary juxtaposition in itself.
This is where the real meat of the Survivor Song happens: the struggle of these two women battling and struggling to get to the hospital to help Natalie. It is a fascinating story that leaves you breathless because it is not more profound than that. You root for these two women because they are trying so hard to survive, and we, as the readers, have connected with them a bit. Even if it is just superficially, you want these two ladies to live.
“Humanity’s greatest invention—the vaccine—is smeared and vilified by narcissistic, purposeful fools [the most dangerous kind, where fear is harvested for fame, profit, and self-esteem],”
Survivor Song is a well-done story by a master horror writer. There is some character development, but honestly, the speed at which events take place does not lend characters time to eternalize events that are happening to them. And grow from them as characters. It is kill or run. Do not get bit. Breathe. Do it again. The pacing is frenetic; the words practically vibrate off of the page.
If you are a fan of Tremblay, you will enjoy this book. I’d read this story for the pacing alone. Tremblay made me feel like I was running through the woods with branches whipping me in the face. Also, not surprising that it is a quick read as well. Even at 320 pages, it goes by fast. So come check out the struggle of these two ladies as they try to outrun a pandemic and try to save the life of an unborn child. You won’t be let down by it.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Interview With Author Paul Tremblay
Beth Tabler Elizabeth Tabler runs Beforewegoblog and is constantly immersed in fantasy stories. She was at one time an architect but divides her time now between her family in Portland, Oregon, and as many book worlds as she can get her hands on. She is also a huge fan of Self Published fantasy and is on Team Qwillery as a judge for SPFBO5. You will find her with a coffee in one hand and her iPad in the other. Find her on: Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
September 7, 2021
Review – Gild by Raven Kennedy
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GILD by RAVEN KENNEDY 3/5 September 7, 2021 10:00 am One Comment Facebook Twitter WordPress “A cage is a cage, no matter how gilded.”I can’t say I loved this book, but, neither can I say I hated it. If I were asked to describe Gild by Raven Kennedy in ten words or less, I would say “BDSM Billionaire Romance wrapped loosely in fantasy.” Let me start by focusing on what I thoroughly enjoyed about this book.
Kennedy does an excellent job building the world of Orea and introducing readers to the power structures within. She delivers magic abilities, fantastic beasts, snow pirates, pulse-racing plot twists, taut tensions, heart-breaking humanity, and wretched villains. Her prose is often breathtakingly beautiful.
Auren is the favored “saddle,” (concubine for those with gentler constitutions) of King Midas, the ruler of Sixth Kingdom. He rescued her from poverty, and she became his lover before he married Sixth Kingdom’s magic-less princess and ascended to the throne by dint of his magical golden touch. Only those with power can rule. She is the only person he has ever “gold-touched,” and he keeps her locked away in a gilded cage. She is precious and safe and bored out of her mind. Midas may have loved her once, but his love has twisted into a love of novelty.
King Midas is as duplicitous as the Greek mythologies suggest. King Fulke of Fifth Kingdom is his gullible ally in a plot to attack Fourth Kingdom, the domain of King Rot. Midas sends orders for his harem of “saddles”, including Auren, to join him in Fifth Kingdom. Their journey is the first time Auren has been outside in more than ten years. She takes every opportunity to escape the confines of her gilded carriage and breathe freely, befriending one of her guards along the way. When the party is hijacked by the Red Raids, Auren realizes and regrets the danger her status as “Midas’ Favored” has placed upon the others in the caravan. Her despair deepens as she discovers there may have been a spy in the entourage; a spy willing to sell the lot of them to King Rot’s fae warrior, Commander Rip. So far, so good!
Now, for what surprised me most about this book. Perhaps I should have read the synopsis more closely, taken it more seriously, something. I love a good sex scene. While there is a lot of sex in Gild, not much of it is very good. I did not anticipate a full-on, graphically described orgy within the first ten pages. I still wonder why this was entirely necessary. I don’t mind coarse language (full disclosure: my own language is often very coarse). However, in a work of fantasy, I was unprepared for modern speech patterns and shock-factor slurs. They almost seem gratuitous and unnecessary.
I kept waiting for Auren to NOT be the damsel-in-distress. I kept wanting her to claim her own agency. I kept wanting her to be more than the plaything of a childish king. I wanted her to recognize her own value. I needed her to not acquiesce so readily. I kept waiting for Midas to redeem himself. I needed him to not be an ass. I don’t regret reading Gild, but I probably won’t be reading further into this series. I didn’t care about the characters enough.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review The Lost Queen by Signe Pike
Whitney Reinhart
Whitney Reinhart is a reader, writer, sometimes editor/coach currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing because she believes every one has at least one story to tell. She lives (for now) in eastern Arkansas with the world’s smartest man and two Siberian Huskies posing as study buddies. Her work can be found on PocketFiction.co.uk and Fleas on the Dog. .
WHERE TO FIND HERVisit her website, meanderyme.com, for links, book reviews, writing tips, and sign up for her monthly newsletter, Wanderings
If You Liked This - Please Share the LoveFirst Chapter, First Paragraph – Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson
Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They’re part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken.
Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit’s strange workings to Waterhouse. “When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first… Of course, to observe is not its real duty—we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed… Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious.”
All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes—inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe—team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers.
To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.
Why it is important?If you are looking for deep philosophical science fiction that taps into crypto, patterns, history and so much more. You should read Neil Stephenson.
First Chapter, First Paragraph of CryptonomiconCheck Out Our Other First Chapter, First Paragraph
Two tires fly.
Two wail.
A bamboo grove, all chopped down From it, warring songs. . . .
IS THE BEST THAT CORPORAL BOBBY SHAFTOE CAN do on short notice—he’s standing on the running board, gripping his Springfield with one hand and the rearview mirror with the other, so counting the syllables on his fingers is out of the question. Is “tires” one syllable or two? How about “wail?” The truck finally makes up its mind not to tip over, and thuds back onto four wheels.
The wail—and the moment—are lost. Bobby can still hear the coolies singing, though, and now too there’s the gunlike snicking of the truck’s clutch linkage as Private Wiley down- shifts. Could Wiley be losing his nerve? And, in the back, under the tarps, a ton and a half of file cabinets clanking, code books slaloming, fuel spanking the tanks of Station Alpha’s electrical generator. The modern world’s hell on haiku writers: “Electrical generator” is, what, eight syllables? You couldn’t even fit that onto the second line!
First Chapter, First Paragraph – The White-Throated Transmigrant by E. Lily Yu
First Chapter, First Paragraph – Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
September 6, 2021
Review – We Men of Ash and Shadow by H.L.Tinsley
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we Men of Ash and Shadow by HL Tinsley September 6, 2021 10:00 am No Comments Facebook Twitter WordPressThe opening sentence of a story is important, we all know that. Coming up with a really good one is the test. Holly Tinsley manages it with the skill and originality that pervades the entire novel.
‘It was the most highly recommended venue the city had to offer. It was called The Ring O’ Bastards and it had the lowest patron-to-murder-victim rate in a five mile radius.’
It smacks you around the face as a declaration of its grimdark nature. And oh boy, is it grim and dark! The promise of sunshine is actually a motivating factor for one character, it is that rare! The city of D’Orsee is a status-controlling social construct where people are kept in their places by ruthless authorities and the licensing of criminals to maintain the status quo.
For me, the best elements of grimdark centres around its characters. That is true here. John Vanguard, our anti-hero, is a soldier-turned-mercenary-turned-assassin. He carries with him a heavy burden of grief which defines everything he does. He murders people, with skill and efficiency, never worrying about the ethics. They are people who deserve it.
Qualifying his character and motives as grimdark certainly. Set against him is one of two antagonists, Tarryn Leersac. He is a wonderful invention of pure villainy. He has no redeeming features, he is pure evil. Easy to define and bloody difficult to turn into a realistic character. The fact that Tinsley does this so successfully is an indication of the talent she possesses. Captain Sanquain, the vicious and ruthless controller of the city, is our other baddie. His heartlessness, his single-mindedness and readiness to kill anyone who gets in his way is usually enough to sustain the bad guy role but Tarryn upstages him.
The ability for Vanguard and Tarryn to appear almost invisible to other people, so they are rarely noticed, is a wonderful plot device. I liked how there is little referencing of this ability, at one point Vanguard questions whether it is magic or supernatural in nature but that’s it. It’s not important. It’s this mutual ability which will bring their rivalry to a head at the end.
Secondary roles are equally as vivid and crucial to the plot as well as defining the main characters. Carmen is my favourite, the tiny girl who grows in personality and determination as the story evolves. “I’m not a whore… I haven’t decided what I am yet.”
My only grouch is the constant shifting of POV. It threw me out of the narrative at times in its sudden shifts. But that is it. This is a truly awesome debut novel. I can’t wait to see what happens next in this series.
Check Out some of our other reviewsReview – The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Review Comfort me With Apples by Catherynne Valente
phil parker
It all started when his parents bought him a typewriter as a teenager, Phil hasn’t stopped writing since. That is a long time ago. (Think fossils). It’s led to the publishing of books for Drama teachers (he used to be one) and journalistic articles on education. Now Phil writes fantasy stories along with a recent adventure into contemporary fiction, a challenge from his wife. She’s read it twice!
Phil is an avid reader of speculative fiction. (Is there anything else?) He reviews for his blog at the Speculative Faction and for Before We Go. He’s been a judge for SPFBO.
Phil consumes pizza in vast quantities and plans on being reborn as an Italian in the next life.
WHERE TO FIND HIMTwitter: https://twitter.com/PhilSpeculates
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philparkerfantasywriter
Blog: https://www.philparker-fantasywriter.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/philparker-fantasywriter If You Liked This - Please Share the Love#MusicMonday: Jetta – I’d Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix)
If you have never watched Sense8 on Netflix it is a worthy watch and this is one of the songs from the soundtrack. Fabulous, powerful imagery.
Check Out Some of Our Other #MusicMondays#musicmonday Earned it by The Weeknd from Fifty Shades of Gray
Lyrics - I'd Love To Change The World Everywhere is freaks and hairiesDykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
‘Till there are no rich no more I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, Monopoly I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you But I don’t know what to do
But I don’t know what to do
But I don’t know what to do
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you
And I don’t know what to do
