Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 34

In Search of Leo – Anitha Krishnan

About the Book

This is the story of a girl named Heidi who thinks her golden retriever Leo has run off into the woods, and she sets out in search of him. She meets a bunch of fantastic characters who seem intent on keeping Leo’s whereabouts a mystery but, at the same time, reveal to Heidi more about herself than about Leo. Where will her journey lead her? To Leo? Or to some other unexpected destination?

102 pages (kindle)

Publication date: January 18, 2018

Author’s website

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I edited this novel, and I am honestly discussing my impressions from that experience.

—

When I was in high school, I had a creative writing teacher who made me carry around a notebook. In this notebook, I was supposed to write three notable quotes from whatever book I was reading that day. This is a habit that has stuck with me through time. I jot down quotes from the books I’m reading constantly, little bits here and there that just stick to me. I collected these quotes the same way some people collect oil paintings. It’s art, and it’s beautiful, and I enjoy surrounding myself with beauty.

I consider it a rare treat when I read a book that is absolutely full of passages I want to hold close to me forever. I knew that In Search of Leo was one of those books as soon as I got my hands on it. In fact, in the respect of quotable passages, the sheer volume of them, I compared this novella to Catherynne M. Valente’s work. While their subject matter is different, the ability both of these authors have to make me sit back and think, “good hell that’s stunningly written” is very similar.

I edited this novella, and it was both a joy and a learning experience. This is one of those books that is deep. There are a lot of things happening beneath the surface, and keeping track of where all these threads were leading and where they came from worked out my cognitive space. That’s also what I loved about it. I love books that make me work for it. I enjoy the ones that that take me on a journey, where I feel like I’m a seeker. I like the books that are all about the journey.

Friends, In Search of Leo is exactly that.

Heidi, our intrepid protagonist, thinks her beloved dog Leo got lost in the woods, so she goes after him. Her journey into the woods sort of spirals into this journey that is as dreamy, ethereal, and imaginative as Alice in Wonderland. Not only is this a journey to find her lost god, but you quickly discover that this is a journey for Heidi to come to terms with her own emotions, and things that have powerfully shaped her life. This is a book all about love and loyalty, and personal development and exploration set in this incredibly imaginative dreamscape that had me frequently emailing Anitha with things like, “this is INCREDIBLE.”

It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I love novellas. When they are done right, they are small, easy to digest in a sitting or two, and they can pack a powerful punch, and In Search of Leo does all that.

As a reviewer, I’ve read a metric ton of books in the genre. I think this is my eighth year running this website, and while I’ve had my ups and downs like anyone else, I think I’ve become pretty good at spotting a person who was born to write. It’s a treat when I read a book and sit back and think, “This world is a better place because this author is writing books and sharing them with us.”

I tend to do the editing process different from others (if authors want me to, and most of them do). I usually break down the manuscripts chapter by chapter, and I email each edited chapter to the author in its own file as I go. Usually, they get a daily/a few times a week dump of a few chapters at a time. This way they can edit their book as I do, and both of us are in roughly the same spot. This can lead to some interesting back-and-forth discussions between the author and myself, and I’ve learned that the authors get kind of jazzed when I’m coming on a plot twist, and they are right there ready to edit that plot twist right along with me, and enjoy my HOLY CRAP WTFBBQ feeling in real time. It’s sort of an interactive way to edit, and while some of my clients don’t like doing it that way, the ones that do seem to really enjoy it.

Anyway, I was emailing Anitha a chunk of chapters at one point, and I said in my letter to her, “You’d be doing a disservice to the world if you didn’t share this book with it.” I firmly believe that. It was a labor of love for her to write, I could feel it in every page, and it was an absolute joy and delightful challenge to edit. When she decided to self-publish this thing, I told her to hit up Pen Astrige for cover art, which is how she landed this absolutely stunning cover. Seeing this whole thing come together like this has made me unbelievably proud of Anitha, and I’m so excited for this book to enter the marketplace on January 18.

Guys, buy this book and read it. It’s incredible and Anitha is a formidable talent to keep your eyes on. She’s an author that is going places.

Congratulations, Anitha. I’m so very glad you let me be part of this process.

#SPFBO | And the Winner Is….

You guys, I’m going to level with you.

I freaking hate this contest right now. I hate it because all of these books were so good, and every single one impressed me in different ways. I will, hands down, say that I have never, ever, ever struggled this much in picking a winner. Narrowing it down to five finalists was one thing, but then taking those five books and picking one….

Talk about torture.

Initially, my choice was between three books. Then I sort of hemmed and hawed a bit, and narrowed it down to two. I figured that at this point with things narrowed down to two books, I’m pretty set. Now all I’ve got to do is pick the winner. Easy.

THIS WAS NOT EASY.

NO PART OF THIS WAS EASY.

I HAVE NEVER HATED PICKING A WINNER MORE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

I had to create a freaking chart, people. I had to make a pro and con list in a notebook. I had to weigh these books against each other, WITH A FREAKING LIST. I’ve never had to create a list before.

Ultimately, the results were very close, and I really do wish I could give both books that finalist spot, but I can’t.

It was close. Picking a winner this time around was all about splitting hairs.

You guys, it was so incredibly, painfully, terribly close. I don’t know if that will make either author feel good about the results or not, but that’s the truth. These books were damn near equal in my estimation, and they both deserve all your love.

Hats off to everyone who entered the contest. This year had some of the highest quality books, and most passionate authors I’ve ever had in my batch. It’s made me glad I routinely put myself in the position of judging this contest. It’s really incredible to be surrounded by such passionate, talented authors.

Never stop creating.

So, let’s get on with the winner….

First place and the book moving on to the final round is… 

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Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.

He never returned.

Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.

The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.

The runner-up is…

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For hundreds of years, the flame-wielding Embers have been the last line of defense against the nightmare creatures from the World Apart, but the attacks are getting worse. Kole Reyna guards Last Lake from the terrors of the night, but he fears for his people’s future.

When Kole is wounded by a demon unlike any they have seen before, the Emberfolk believe it is a sign of an ancient enemy returned, a powerful Sage known as the Eastern Dark.

Kole has never trusted in prophecy, but with his people hanging on the precipice, he reluctantly agrees to lead the Valley’s greatest warriors in a last desperate bid for survival. Together, they will risk everything in search of a former ally long-thought dead, and whether Kole trusts him or not, he may be the only one capable of saving them.

Choosing between these two books nearly lit my brain on fire.

Congratulations to Andrew Rowe and Steven Kelliher, and thanks to everyone who entered!

#SPFBO | Once Lost Lords – Stephan Morse

About the Book

Humanity hasn’t been alone for almost two thousand years. Elves, wolves, vampires, all joined together with mankind to eradicate the ‘darker’ races and maintained a tentative peace until modern times. Society adapted, everyone has rules that help keep the peace in this modern era. Yet, absolute genocide is impossible when talking about creatures beyond the pale. Some hid, some buried, other were re-purposed.

Some, like Jay Fields, pass for human with a little bit extra. His abilities didn’t belong to one of the major races, but any information was buried along with the long dead boogie men. All Jay cared about was those closest to him and a job that let him hit people. He used to be a bouncer at a bar, a part-time enforcer for a loan shark, and even a fight club champion. That was four years ago, before betrayal by someone close sent him packing.

Now he’s back and trying to recover a life he left behind. Questions of origin aren’t his only problems. His ex-girlfriend is a vampire. His part-time boss doesn’t think he’s up to snuff anymore. There’s a missing elf who might have some answers, and Jay’s best friend is caught up in something dangerous…

260 pages (kindle)

Published in July 2017

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book is a round finalist for the SPFBO.

—

I enjoy the paranormal, probably more than I admit. Urban fantasy, when done well, really rings my bell. I like to see what authors can do with the world we are living in. Sometimes these books underwhelm me, sometimes they overwhelm me. Occasionally they fall into that sweet spot where I can sit back, get comfortable, and just enjoy the story being told.

Once Lost Lords falls into that category. It’s one of those urban fantasy books that just worked for me for numerous reasons. At first, I was a little dubious, I’ll admit. Not really because of the author or the description, but because I’m kind of sick of fantasy tropes, vampires, elves, etc. It just about takes an act of god to make me interested in a book when the word “elf” or “vampire” is used anywhere near it.

Once Lost Lords does have all of those tropey character types that generally put me off, but its written in such a way where that doesn’t bug me. Another example of what I’m getting at is the book Generation V by M.L. Brennan. That’s an urban fantasy book, featuring vampires, and I can’t even begin to describe how much I love that entire series. It is possible to break my vampire barrier, and when that happens, it usually is because the book is really, really good.

Enter Jay Fields, a man with a gift for finding things, and the muscle to pound people when needed. He works as a finder for his boss, who sends him out on missions to get money or find people for her. Jay’s past is kind of shadowed and mysterious. There are hints of what happened, what made him the way he is, that is dropped into the novel throughout, but I get the sense that a lot of Jay’s story is going to unfold as the series gets going.

Along with Jay are some secondary characters, his vampire ex-girlfriend who is a little obsessive, a woman who works at the bar, Julia, who comes from a wolf pack but hasn’t shifted into a wolf yet. Lots of sarcastic and dark humor woven in, and plenty of personal mysteries and situational tension to keep things going.

So Jay lands himself in the middle of all of this pressure. He’s been betrayed. He’s looking for a missing elf. He’s working for his boss, but that situation is strained, and his friend is into something dark and dangerous. A lot happens in this novel. It’s interesting to see how Jay evolves to deal with all of the stuff surrounding him, and how relationships form, and/or strengthen as things progress.

The world building was really interesting to me. I enjoyed the idea of humans having always known that these supernatural creatures always lived alongside them and the system of checks and balances that keeps everything flowing somewhat easily. There are laws and restrictions, and society has largely been formed with all of this in mind. Sometimes things get a little out of control, there are always fringes and darkness in every social construct, and Morse doesn’t avoid that. In fact, this book sort of strays to the darker side of things, and that is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.

Once Lost Lords was a really good book. Maybe it could have used a little more polish and some editing shine in places, but it was a lot of fun, and a different, darker twist on tropes. I really enjoyed Jay as a character, and I look forward to reading more in this series.

 

4/5 stars

#SPFBO | Ascend Online – Luke Chmilenko

About the Book

Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into remote village under attack by a horde of goblins.

Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the survivors desperately turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village.

Realizing that this game is nothing like he’s ever played before, Marcus is swept up into a whirlwind of adventure as he struggles to defend his new home, quickly finding that marauding goblins are the least of his problems.

Published on October 3, 2016

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This is a round finalist for the SPFBO.

—

Ascend Online is one of those books that I went into expecting to hate. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. I am not a gamer. I do not play games. I do not like games. I do not care about games. I don’t understand the LitRPG fascination (sorry, I don’t). However, my husband is a gamer. He beta tests games. He has every gaming system known to man. He livestreams the gaming conventions. Hell, we made a special trip to Las Vegas one year so he could go to the very first Playstation convention (It wasn’t really a special trip. My family lives down there, so it worked.)

So, while I am not a gamer, my husband is. I may not understand the thrill, but I get the passion. His passion for gaming is equal to my passion for reading and writing. That being said, I go into books like this, and Ready Player One with the knowledge that I don’t understand the thrill, but I sure as hell respect it. There’s an art to this stuff, and a depth to it that usually pleasantly surprises me.

Ascend Online looks like it’s quite a hit. On Goodreads it has 1,374 ratings. It has 2,948 ratings on Audible, clocking in at an average 4.7 out of five stars. That’s damn impressive for a self-published book. Hell, that’s damn impressive for a book that isn’t self-published. That’s just damn impressive. Period. Part of the draw on audible is Luke Daniels narrating. Now, I have yet to listen to this audiobook, but Luke Daniels is one of my absolute favorite narrators, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that his narration takes this book and brings it to another level.

But I haven’t listened to it. (Yet. I plan on changing that eventually because Luke Daniels is my jam.) I’ve read it, so all I can really do is talk about the reading of it and leave Luke Daniels and his vocal magics to another time and place.

Ascend Online is a LitRPG, as I’ve already established. Set in a near-future world, a lot of the technology is pretty believably advanced. The gaming industry is still around and thriving. A game comes out, and a group of friends decides to play. It’s full immersion, and things get interesting.

Now, some reviews I’ve read quibble about the level-based gaming system and how gaming should have advanced along with technology. Others mention things like bosses and stuff like that. Folks, I am not a gamer, so I’m not going to weigh in on any of those details. I have no opinion about the finer points of full immersion gaming. Sorry.

I will say that I loved the characters. They can be crass and swear a lot, but that’s never bothered me (it might bother someone else, though, so I’ll mention it). I loved some characters more than others. Essentially this is Marcus’s story. He has a group of people he plays with, but they are very much back-burner characters. Marcus was a good character to follow. He’s your average guy, with an above average knack for gaming. For those of us who might be n00bs with this kind of thing (ehem…) he was not only a personable character that made the book interesting, but one who sort of took these situations, and boiled them down to a level I could understand.

If I have one complaint, it was that the book felt almost too full of characters. There were a lot of people coming and going, names to keep track of, casts and all this stuff. I’m not sure if maybe I had a harder time with it due to my n00bishness, or if there were genuinely just a whole lot of characters in this book, but there it is. Now, I can see where a lot of these characters, introduced here and sort of fading out after a time, can come back further in the series. The author could easily use this book as foundational blocks for a lot of these people/creatures/things.

Along with that, occasionally I felt like there was almost too much going on at times, too much action packed into scenes that weren’t long enough to handle them all. This kind of made my head spin. It’s easy enough to keep track of what is going on where, but it did feel a little log jammed at times, and then things would ease up, and the plot/pacing/action would even out again.

The world building is wonderful. Chmilenko paid attention to detail and really crafted a game that is (probably) realistic to gamers, but also easy for me to understand, visualize and appreciate. I also loved how this (essentially) secondary fantasy world and all of its fantasy creatures were juxtaposed with this near-future advanced technology world that is first introduced to readers. I thought both sides of Chmilenko’s world building were fantastically well done, and really hats off to him for that.

I appreciate this book, and I really enjoyed it, but I do think that it is audience specific. Readers who are a bit less tolerant of gaming than I am might be a bit put off by it.

Well, this review has dragged on long enough. The TL:DR version of this is, this book really surprised me. It’s a whole lot of fun. Fantastic world building, characters that are easy to love, and plenty of action to keep you going. The plot does get bogged down at times, and there are a lot of characters to follow, but those are small potatoes in the face of how much fun this book ended up being.

 

4/5 stars

#SPFBO | Anaerfell – Joshua Robertson & J.C. Boyd

About the Book

Drast and Tyran might be considered a bit black-hearted, or even immoral. Drast is cunning but reckless, hunting for admiration. Tyran is calculating but tactless, searching for affection. When the two brothers set aside their ambitions to fulfill their father’s desire for immortality, they readily discover many opportunities for redemption. Now, while wielding a powerful magic that drains their life, Drast and Tyran will embark on a maddening quest, facing skin-switchers, dragons, and the God of the Dead.

Published in January 2017

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book was a round finalist for the SPFBO.

—

I don’t know, folks.

Let me just say that the first time I read Prince of Thorns I rated it three stars, and I didn’t like it much. I poo-poo’d all sorts of stuff about it. Then I re-read the book and I loved it, to the point where now it’s on my list of top ten books. I often re-read books, and just about 97% of the time, after I reread it I come out of the experience feeling something totally different than I felt on that first read through.

I reserve the right to change my mind in all things. This is the hill I am prepared to die on.

So, with that ominous statement thrown out into the ether, here we uncomfortably go….

Anaerfell is one of those books that I’m not sure about. I mean, it made it to a finalist spot, and it got four stars and there are reasons for that, but I struggled more on my re-read of it than I did on my first read. Maybe I was being pickier because it’s a finalist? I’m not sure.

I enjoy antiheroes. I love books that flirt with that dark gray moral area. Characters that are crafted from this fabric interest me. In fact, just about every book that is in my Top Books of All Time OMG Read These Now list is full of antiheroes, or gray morality. It’s just how I roll. Lawful good is boring. Give me chaotic neutral, baby, and really lay it on thick.

So, in that respect, Anaerfell really hits it out of the park. This book is crafted out of the stuff that I love so much, and that’s one reason why it appealed to me so much. The plot gets cracking, and things seem to move at a good clip, but…

I really did struggle with this reread, which surprised me. I had a hard time staying interested. Sometimes the scenes were too full of details, which bogged down the scene, which impacted the pacing, which…. You get the idea. It’s a domino effect. The magic system was interesting and well thought out, but that was balanced out by characters that sort of blurred together to the point where I had a hard time keeping them apart. Furthermore, there were editing issues, and I spent a good chunk of the book trying hard to not notice errors.

One of my biggest pet peeves in this read was the unnatural dialogue. I need to believe that this conversation is taking place, but if it’s not written in a way where it feels real to me, then I’m instantly divorced from the book. It creates some sort of interest barrier that I had a hard time cracking at some points. This also impacts the character development. It made the characters kind of merge together, and occasionally it made them seem pretty flat. I didn’t really notice this on my first read of the book, but I did on this second read.

I enjoy dark, but I did feel like occasionally this book pushed its way from believably dark into gratuitous territory, and while I don’t really feel like that’s a mark for or against it, I do think it should be mentioned. One of the best aspects of antiheroes isn’t just the darkness, but how they often provoke thought in me (think C.S. Friedman), the reader, and I just didn’t feel much of that here. Also, the dark, sort of hangman’s humor is often what keeps these characters balanced in books written by the likes of Lawrence, or Abercrombie, dark, but tolerable. I didn’t really see much of that in Anaerfell. It was just dark, and the gratuitous moments seemed a bit much in the face of everything else. It kind of felt oppressive at times.

Now, Anaerfell has good points. I loved the magic system, and I thought the way that it was described, how every action has a price, and that price is high, is very clever. The fighting and action scenes were incredibly vivid, and the premise was fascinating. Furthermore, I could tell that the authors were passionate about what they wrote, and I love when that passion transcends the page.

This book has a lot of four-star ratings, myself amongst them (though if I’m honest, I’d probably rate it three stars this read through). It’s not a bad book, but it is a flawed book. Interesting premise, lots of passion, but the execution was a little messy.

 

3/5 stars

#SPFBO | Sufficiently Advanced Magic – Andrew Rowe

About the Book

Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.

He never returned.

Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.

The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.

621 pages (kindle)

Published on February 26, 2017

Author’s webpage

Buy the book

This book is a round finalist for the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off.

—

“It was the day of my judgment, and I was prepared in a thousand ways that didn’t matter.”

Sometimes a first line just hooks me, and this is absolutely one of those first lines that just works for me on some level. This is the kind of first line that I not only relate to, but it makes me want to know more. Who is this person, and why is he being judged? I get this. That’s the sort of feeling I had every time I was facing a finals week in college.

I get it. I relate.

That’s the strength of this novel, I have to say. It’s relatable. There are a lot of situations, magic, things of that nature that don’t fit into our world, but at the heart of it all, the characters are so very human. They have flaws, and they have strengths. They have areas where they shine, and areas where they are a little rusty.

Corin, our protagonist, was a character that I really, really enjoyed despite my rocky start with him. He has some traits that make me think that he might be on the spectrum, and I just adored him for that. He has some ticks, some things that set him off, some awkward tendencies, but he’s a character that I didn’t expect to see, and the sort of character that my brother (if he could still read) would absolutely love, and I really need to point that out. There really is something cool about seeing a character that manages to be such a powerful, shining force, and even a leader despite some of the things that might make him a bit awkward, or misunderstood.

This book fits in the literary RPG genre, which is something I’m not familiar with at all. I don’t play games, RPG or otherwise, so saying it’s in that genre means next to nothing to me. However, it is, and I can see it. There are a bunch of challenges, and our intrepid protagonist Corin must pass them for the end goal of getting his brother back, who disappeared in this very same tower years before. He won’t stop until he wins his end goal, and in the face of long odds he goes in headfirst, prepared or not, and pushes himself to his limit.

This is the kind of book that is a lot more than what it seems to be on its surface. This is a book about relationships, loyalty, and personal growth all told in the framework of this sort of supernatural, incredibly difficult test. People get pushed and pulled, forced to figure out who they are and what they are capable of in the face of these long odds, and in the end of it, that one goal of Corin getting his brother back is the thing that all of this hinges on. This aspect of the book, the sheer humanity, relationships, emotions behind it all was what really enchanted me.

For me, a person who does not play games, I really need to read a book where the plot and personal developments overwhelm the game-playing aspects of things, and this book managed that wonderfully. However, some aspects of the plot were predictable. Corin was a character that had to grow on me a bit, but by the end of the book I loved him, and I loved everything that made him who he was. People need to see more characters like Corin in the books they read. The secondary characters were loveable, and I absolutely loved how Rowe took a game-like situation, and made it three-dimensional and interesting to me, despite the “game” aspect of things.

This is a human story, told in a secondary world, with characters you’ll love, or hate, but regardless, you’ll root for. There is some predictability, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this one more than I thought I would.

 

4/5 stars

Guest Post | Sunniva Reviews The Hidden Face – S.C. Flynn

About the Author

S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in South West Western Australia. He has lived in Europe for a long time; first the United Kingdom, then Italy and currently Ireland, the home of his ancestors. He still speaks English with an Australian accent, and fluent Italian.

He reads everything, revises his writing obsessively and plays jazz. His wife Claudia shares his passions and always encourages him.

S.C. Flynn has written for as long as he can remember and has worked seriously towards becoming a writer for many years.

The Hidden Face is his second novel and the first book in the Fifth Unmasking series.

S.C. Flynn blogs at www.scflynn.com. He is on Twitter @scyflynn and on Facebook.

Join his email list to receive exclusive advance notice of new releases and offers.

The Hidden Face is set to publish on November 25. Check out the following links to purchase, or pre-order the book: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iTunes.

—

Today’s post is written by Sunniva, a female Faustian warrior and the daughter of a well-known scholar. Here is Sunniva as a child:

She often sat on a rug dreaming of battles and acting them out with her wooden soldiers. The Faustian foot soldier was her oldest toy; the point of his spear was broken and his armour was battered. Her favourite was the Magian warrior. His clothes and weapons were strange, and she used to lie awake at night thinking of the distant lands where he came from, imagining herself there having adventures.

She got on well enough with her brothers and sisters and the children of the servants, but the best games were those on her own with the soldiers. The girls soon became bored of battles and tried to involve her in embroidery and such things, while the boys became rowdy and stupid and tried to boss her around just because she was a girl. She and the wooden soldiers had a wonderful time on their own; they were always brave and generous, whether they won or lost. Her father would watch her playing sometimes and smile.

This novel contains lots of nice flashbacks and character touches like that; the one above captures exactly what I was like as a little girl and indicates the woman I became. I like to think that my father would have been proud of me.

It is good to see a story that includes strong female characters like me and Malombra. My situation as a female warrior disguised as a man is unusual and I am pleased that the author has given plenty of space to my fighting ability. My knowledge is shown as important to the solving of the mysteries at the heart of the story. The use of some of my childhood fears is scary – but I do not want to spoil your enjoyment of the story by revealing too much!

I have to say that I am a little annoyed with the author about one thing. He evidently cannot stop thinking about Malombra and her legendary beauty that no one ever sees; I expect he fantasises about seeing beyond her veil and sharing her couch. In that way, he falls into her trap, as have so many other men.

There is too much sex and nudity (both male and female) for my taste, although I am not ashamed of being shown like that. Overall, I cannot really complain about how the novel represents me, and it was fun accompanying Dayraven on this adventure!

Valley of Embers – Steven Kelliher

About the Book

For hundreds of years, the flame-wielding Embers have been the last line of defense against the nightmare creatures from the World Apart, but the attacks are getting worse. Kole Reyna guards Last Lake from the terrors of the night, but he fears for his people’s future.

When Kole is wounded by a demon unlike any they have seen before, the Emberfolk believe it is a sign of an ancient enemy returned, a powerful Sage known as the Eastern Dark.

Kole has never trusted in prophecy, but with his people hanging on the precipice, he reluctantly agrees to lead the Valley’s greatest warriors in a last desperate bid for survival. Together, they will risk everything in search of a former ally long-thought dead, and whether Kole trusts him or not, he may be the only one capable of saving them.

434 pages (paperback)

Published on August 16, 2016

SPFBO mini review

Buy the book

This book is one of my round finalists for the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off.  

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Valley of Embers starts out with a bang, getting the reader right into the thick of the action. That wham-bam ending did its job, sucking me in, making me want to cut through the tensions and see the why and how behind everything that was going on. Slowly things open up a bit, and readers are introduced to the protagonists Kole and Lin.

One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the history involved. It’s given in bits and pieces, but it becomes clear that this threat, these monsters that come out at night, weren’t always the norm. There are people in the village who remember times before this happened, and trying to understand why it’s happening now. Slowly Kelliher weaves in details about the wider world, the culture, the other important things that give this whole book a sense of time and place. I loved how he wove in these important details and world building in a rather effortless way.

The premise of this book is unique. The Dark Kind are very well written, and haunting in their quality. The action is well done, and I enjoyed the whole mystery behind it all, that whole nut that Kelliher cracks open: why is this happening, and what can be done to stop it? That, mixed with the world he built made this book really gripping.

Now, Kelliher obviously cares about the look of his book (ha, that rhymes). The cover is gorgeous, the formatting is spot on, and the design rocks. I hate to say it, but this matters in books. It’s hard to take a book seriously when the formatting is awkward enough to make reading a battle. This book is pretty. That’s weird for me to put into a review, but it was. Very professionally put together, with a cover that stands out, so bravo on that front.

Now, it isn’t all peaches and cream. There were pacing issues regarding the plot. Some scenes could have been cut out with no detriment to the book. Some of the dialogue seemed to confuse matters rather than clear them up. Due to the awkward pacing, some of the scenes that should have been really pivotal to the narrative as a whole felt kind of lackluster.

None of this made me want to stop reading the book, but the issues were there, and they did impact my enjoyment. Mostly I just chalked these up to first book issues. However, I should also add that the characters never really leapt off the page in the way I wanted them to. They were vibrant and well written, but somehow they just fell a little….flat. Perhaps I was wanting more emotion, reaction, personal tension than I actually got in the book. I’m not sure what it was, probably a mixture of all of this, but in the end, it did impact how much I enjoyed the characters.

In the end, I chalked this up to the pacing and dialogue issues I mentioned above. It wasn’t that they were uninteresting, but they didn’t shine as bright as the world or the story being told and that was unfortunate.

This is the first book in a series, and the setup for what comes next is there, and well done. While this book did have its own set of problems, they didn’t ever really overwhelm the book to the point where I had to stop reading. In fact, I found myself reading through those parts that stuck out to me and not minding much because the book itself was so interesting.

It’s epic, and grand, and completely unique. The world is vibrant, the action is well written. This is a book full of darkness and mystery, where people pay high prices just to live, and not everyone survives to the end. Did it have problems? Yes, but in the end, my enjoyment of the book stood out more than any of the problems I noticed.

 

4/5 stars

The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden

About the book

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

322 pages (hardcover)

Published on January 10, 2017

Published by Del Rey Books

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Well, I’m playing the better-late-than-never game here. Apologies, but life gets in the way and I figure that a review SOMETIME is better than no review at all. This book was released in January of 2017, and it’s stuck with me all this time, so that should tell you enough about the quality of the work right there. I forget everything as a side-effect of all of my cancer treatments, and I didn’t forget this book.

At all.

I have a confession: I love books that are fairytale retellings. I love books that have that flowing, evocative way about them, where everything is so poetic and beautiful, despite the inevitable grimness of the plot. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned this year, it’s that nothing much happens in Russian based literature, Russian literature, or Russian history that is overly happy. I mean, happy things do happen, but if you’re looking for something a bit gothic, go see what Russia has to offer.

So here we are, with The Bear and the Nightingale, which is a fairytale-esque book, with some absolutely stunning prose, set in grimdark Russia and, oh, my darlings, this book is everything I never knew I always wanted.

The attention to detail in this book is stunning, and I’m a huge sucker for detail. The prose is evocative and flowing, poetic. Arden uses words to paint a tapestry for her readers. If you want to read a book that is a good example of the old, “show, don’t tell” rule, you really need to pick this one up. She doesn’t just tell a story, she writes in such a way where half of my mind was thinking, “holy hell this is incredible writing” while the other half actually felt like I was in Russia, living out this story. I felt the cold of the winter. I felt the family dynamics. I felt the determination of Vasya. I lived in these Russian cities, these homes, and while I read this book, I genuinely cared about these people like they were my own.

That takes some serious skill, folks.

The Bear and the Nightingale was a story that weaves together some folklore, mythology, and Russian history. It’s a story about the tug-of-war between changing times, religious influences, loyalty, love and the like. Throughout all of this is a subtle note of magic and fantasy. It’s there, but it’s woven into the story Arden is telling so well that it just feels real to the world she’s created. It’s nothing in your face, and it’s not so subtle you’d overlook it. This book has magic in every page, to be frank with you, due to how ingeniously written this book is, but the magic in the plot is woven in there with cunning fingers and a mind that understand nuance.

The characters are equally well crafted, while some gleamed a bit brighter than others. Vasya, for example, was one of the strongest characters in the book, with the most well-rounded crafting. While all of the characters were well crafted, hers was the one that really pulled me in the most. She just about leapt off the page with her brilliance, and she was the one who really made me feel like I was living the story that was being told, rather than just reading about it.

The pacing is a little slow. Now this didn’t bother me in the least. This is a book meant to be savored, not devoured, however, if you aren’t a person who enjoys books that take their time, then the pacing here might frustrate you. In my opinion, slow worked better because it allowed the reader and the author to fully realize the book being told. It should be noted, however, for those who might be bothered by that sort of thing.

All in all, The Bear and the Nightingale was one of the strongest books I’ve read this year. A lot of books are good. This one is art.

 

5/5 stars

The Soul of the World – David Mealing

About the Book

It is a time of revolution. in the cities, food shortages stir citizens to riots against the crown. In the wilds, new magic threatens the dominance of the tribes. and on the battlefields, even the most brilliant commanders struggle in the shadow of total war. Three lines of magic must be mastered in order to usher in a new age, and three heroes must emerge.

Sarine is an artist on the streets of New Sarresant whose secret familiar helps her uncover bloodlust and madness where she expected only revolutionary fervor.

Arak’Jur wields the power of beasts to keep his people safe, but his strength cannot protect them from war amongst themselves.



Erris is a brilliant cavalry officer trying to defend New Sarresant from an enemy general armed with magic she barely understands.

Each must learn the secrets of their power in time to guide their people through ruin. But a greater evil may be trying to stop them.

656 pages

Published by Orbit

Published on June 27, 2017

Author’s webpage

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This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

—

You guys, I finished this book about a hundred years ago (not really. It’s only been out for a few months), but I totally lost track of myself in my freelance editing gig, and then my writing-a-book gig and forgot to review it, or say a word about it on Goodreads. I’m trying hard to learn how to balance the three poles of my life right now (editing, writing, reviewing) so we shall see how this all plays out.

Hopefully I won’t spend months silent while I’m lost with my head who-knows-where anymore. Regardless, I’m trying to catch up where I left off, and write some reviews for books I read a while ago and then forgot to say anything about.

This, being one of them.

The Soul of the World is a book after my own heart. First of all, the world is dark, dark, dark, and the plot is epic, epic, epic (be still, my heart). There are elements here that are reminiscent of our own world. The book takes place on a sort of new world type continent. The peoples are on the edge of rebellion, and in outright war in some aspects. There are huge population control issues – the higher class live fantastic lives while the average person has a hell of a time finding enough food to eat each day.

So you take all these elements, throw in a few characters that make you sit up and take notice, a dash of magic just to make things interesting. Give it all a good stir and cook it until the atmosphere is tense enough to make your spine crack.

Then you have The Soul of the World.

I’m pretty reluctant to trust hype about debut novels, not because they aren’t deserving, but because sometimes I read them, and I don’t feel the hype that I think I’m supposed to feel and all this weird guilt sets in. This isn’t one of those books. It was hyped up, and recommended to me by a bunch of reviewer friends, and I absolutely felt every inch of the hype that was promised.

There’s a lot of high-stakes action and intrigue. Sometimes I felt like there was a little too much magic. Some of the characters fell into their typical roles a bit too readily – the villain(s) sometimes felt a little too villain-ish, for example. However, despite those minor issues, the book carried itself really nicely. Readers are automatically introduced to some important elements, like class issues and some of the magic, while others take time to really unfold. A lot of the military action took some time for me to come to grips with, but that military action was often an important machine for helping me understand the wider world, the laws of the land (so to speak), and larger scoping problems that are less intimate than the ones that are faced when the book takes place in the city.

Some of the POV characters will appeal to readers more than others, which is typical for any book. Some of them took me a while to really enjoy the way I was probably supposed to, but once enough time passed and I felt comfortable with the world and the unfolding story, I really started to relax and enjoy everyone I was presented with. I enjoyed how Mealing kept the book both intimate and grand in scope. A lot of the issues faced are hugely important, but are only really realized on a personal level, while some of the important catalysts for events are these huge events that have grand, sweeping plot arcs. Mealing did both modes of storytelling justice, and made both the small details and the grand sweeping arcs feel just as important as each other. I don’t run across that in books very often, and I really appreciated it here. I respect authors who respect details, as well as sweeping gestures.

The world is dark. The action is both intimate and grand, and this is the first book in a series and serves as a setup for whatever happens next. As a setup, it’s one that I really, really enjoyed. A full story takes place in a book, but there are so many plot threads left open, and the ending is done in such a way that I can hardly wait to read the next book. I love dark fantasy, and I love epic fantasy, and if you ask my humble opinion, this book is just about a perfect mashup of the two.

This is one hell of a debut novel, and one I highly recommend.

4/5 stars