Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 9

Review | Conqueror’s Blood – Zamil Akhtar

About the Book

The Kingdom of Alanya is home to mystic warriors and mischievous djinn, vulgar poets and vain philosophers, soaring simurghs and scheming shahs.

Little do the people know that a power struggle between an ancient sorceress and an upstart sultana threatens to bathe the sands in bile and bones. A bloody cauldron boils, and primeval gods laugh whilst they stir it.

As warhorses charge, arrows shower, and cannon shots brighten the night, all must choose a side.

550 pages (ebook)
Published on June 20, 2021
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This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved Gunmetal Gods. Akhtar���s world and the characters that populated it gripped me, and I was anxious to read more. When the author contacted me to see if I���d be interested in reading the second book in his series, I jumped on the offer. While I expected Conqueror���s Blood to perhaps pick up where Gunmetal Gods left off, it was really its own thing. Set in the same world, this was truly a unique story, and I loved it for that. 

Where Gunmetal Gods gave the reader dueling first-person narratives from opposing sides of a conflict that was reminiscent of the Crusades, Conqueror���s Blood tells the story of two women who are friends, set in the midst of a mystery. Yet it keeps all the fantastic elements of the world that was established in the first book of the series, and even expands upon them. 

There are some crafty things Akhtar does in regards of narrative. There are inherent limitations to not only his world, but to the perspectives of the two women telling their sides of the story and Akhtar does a great job circumnavigating these limitations in the most natural way, cutting through the distance (both emotionally and physically) and bringing the reader directly into the center of the conflict. This makes the book feel a bit more personal than Gunmetal Gods did, and a bit more immediate, while keeping some emotional nuance and depth that I, quite frankly, did not expect. 

The book itself builds upon all of the things I loved in Gunmetal Gods. Here we get this gorgeously wrought Middle Eastern setting with sand palaces and bazaars, food that is described so beautifully it made me seriously hungry. There are also djinn and spirits, gods that manipulate events through human counterparts, and sprawling landscapes steeped in magic, and full of mystery. In fact, I would say Akhtar���s care with how he constructed his secondary world is one of my favorite elements of this book as a whole. I was constantly swept away by the majesty and detail of the world he���s created. Nothing was overlooked, and due to that care, this secondary world was one of the most real I���ve come across, exotic, and yet fully grounded. 

Conqueror���s Blood is a bit of a mystery and told from the perspectives of two women, friends, who are more than they know. These perspectives allows the reader to get a bit of a nuanced view of the tale being told, but also gives this particular mystery a bit of depth and layers that it otherwise wouldn���t have had. It���s not all comfortable, either. There are some parts of this book that are distinctly uncomfortable, but I think sometimes being uncomfortable while you read is not just okay, but important.

Zedra and Cyra are the two women at the core of this book. Friends, and yet they fill very different roles and have distinct personalities. As one would expect in an epic fantasy story, the fate of themselves, and those they love hang in the balance, and both characters are pushed past what they thought they were capable of in the course of this book. With their connection to the throne, the book is both a mystery and full of politics as well. There���s a lot here that is both fantastic, and much like the world the author has created, steeped in reality as well. I did occasionally wonder if Akhtar drew upon real-world historical influences to write this book, because I felt like I could sense some bits of history speckled throughout the narrative.

The characters are raw and real, and I truly felt for them. Wherein most books I find myself preferring one character over the other, I felt like these two were equally balanced, and I liked them both. They each brought something to the story that was truly unique to them and made the book work as well as it did, and they each had limitations that needed to be worked with. Their personalities and voices remained individual, and their arcs were surprising, and incredibly gripping. They did not stay stagnate, as characters, they evolved along with the story.

Conqueror���s Blood is one of those books that will demand your full attention. You can���t read this while your attention wanders. There���s a lot that happens in this book, and a lot of it is below the surface. You have to pay attention, or you���ll probably end up re-reading passages to pick up things you missed. This isn���t to say it���s a difficult book to read, because it���s not. It���s beautifully written, but there is a lot that happens here, and the plot moves so quick, if you aren���t paying attention, you���ll miss details you needed to feel the full impact of the story. 

The mystery at the core of the book isn���t unraveled fully until the final pages of this story, and while I expected the ending, at least in some form, I was still surprised enough by so many other aspects of the book, I didn���t mind that small nugget of predictability. In fact, it allowed me to really enjoy how the author drew together all these narrative threads. 

Conqueror���s Blood��was one of those books I was overjoyed to have read. It���s a furious story full of tragic lows and emotional highs, where people are pushed past their breaking points in a world that was so finely wrought and exotic, it fairly leapt off the pages.��

Zamil Akhtar is one of those authors who is a credit to the genre. He writes the kind of epic fantasy I love. Its raw and real, full of layers and depth, absolutely gorgeous prose, and characters that leap off the page and breathe right along with me. Conqueror���s Blood is an amazing addition to this series, and a must-read. 

5/5 stars

Review | The Sword in the Street – C.M. Caplan

About the Book

Hired blades ought to be better at making ends meet. John Chronicle bleeds his patron���s foes in savage duels. While he’s disgusted by the petty grievances and corporate laws he champions, even the promise of security is better than nothing at all. But how long can he depend on a wage that barely pays enough to cover his rent?

His boyfriend Edwin is familiar with dependency. Reliant on his parents’ goodwill to supply the drugs that keep the spirals of his mind in check, he wants nothing more than to get out from under their thumb. A solution comes when he finds a document full of knowledge that was, impossibly, forgotten. But while he could use those secrets to rewrite the gentry���s unjust laws, it might cost him his relationship – or John���s life.

The two find themselves entangled in the web of intrigue surrounding the laws, the swordsmen, and their sponsors. They���re forced to question how bloody they���re willing to get for a shred of agency. But will they survive this tangle of deceit together?

340 pages (kindle)
Published on March 3, 2021
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Okay, first of all, can we take a moment to admire the name John Chronicle? Because seriously, that is a great name. I���m almost mad at the author for thinking of it first. 

The Sword in the Street��is a different book than I anticipated. I expected, going into this one, it would be a blood and guts killfest. Grimdark fantasy done darkest. Don���t get me wrong, there are dark elements at play here, but the story isn���t really about that. It���s not some grimy, blood-laden journey into the depths of despair. I���d call this more a ���day in the life��� story than anything else.��

In truth, I loved that aspect of this book. It���s not some grand, sweeping epic, but an intimate story of two people surviving in a world that seems hellbent to keep them down. 

Keeping that in mind when you read will keep you from being too surprised when you find the book more character-heavy and plot-light. Again, I tend to prefer this style of writing (gestures at all of my books). I love getting really into a character���s psyche and really understanding them and their motivations. Experiencing a new world with new eyes often ends up immersing me more than a raging plot ever will. 

And characterization is really where Caplan excels. John Chronicle and his boyfriend Edwin are so real, and three-dimensional, they practically fly off the page. John is basically sworn to a lifetime of servitude to his patron, Lordess Triumph. Edwin was born into wealth and is a student at the university. Both men are pinned down and held in place by their lot in life, and that���s part of the beauty of this book. Caplan, in the writing of��The Sword in the Street, has built into his world some fundamental, ingrained problems that both hamper the plot, but also make it so much more interesting. Reading about how these characters survive when the rich and influential are an almost smothering presence is captivating, especially considering both men have found solace in each other, and yet are themselves restricted by the society they live in, despite their difference in class. In a lot of respects, I could relate to John and Edwin and their trials, feeling caged without actually being caged is a certain kind of torture.

John and Edwin themselves were characters that might be, perhaps, some of my favorite I���ve ever run across. They were so nuanced, so detailed, so cleverly crafted and positively human, I felt like I became personal friends with them while I was reading this book. More, both characters were written with a deep and abiding empathy, and such care, they positively made the book sing. John likely has some form of PTSD (ware, people who say “that’s too modern a phrase”… it’s not actually called that in the book), and Edwin���s autism was brilliantly represented. I profoundly related to both characters, and I absolutely loved the representation they brought to the story, never a plot device or some gimmick, but just one part of who these characters were. Reader, this book made me want to shout from the rooftops, ���THIS IS HOW REPRESENTATION IS DONE.��� It was that good.��

Caplan���s prose was another bonus. Easy to read, easy to fall into, there were turns of phrase that caught my attention. Mostly what captivated me was Caplan���s ability to tell a story in a way that was not only beautifully vivid and emotionally poignant, but so brilliantly done as well. I didn���t have to work for the story. I didn���t have to wait for the book to unfold and show itself to me.��The Sword in the Street��is one of those tales you can just sink into, and the story will unfold around you in the easiest manner. I was absolutely engrossed before I even realized it, and positively blazed through the book.��

Perhaps if there was one drawback, I wish the scenery had been described a bit more. I didn���t feel quite as visually immersed in the world as I wanted to be. However, this is small potatoes, and in the end, I didn���t actually end up minding too much. The characters are what steal the limelight here, and Caplan���s unflinching ability to take complex dynamics and address them in a unique way is really what made this book shine. It isn���t often that I read a book that has me sit back and look at fantasy differently.

Reader, this book did just that.��

The Sword in the Street is a brilliant character-driven fantasy tale, written by a new talent everyone should be paying attention to. I cannot believe I did not read this book sooner, and now that I have, I���m going to be telling everyone looking for recommendations to pick this one up. 

You won���t regret it.

4.5/5 stars

Review | A Touch of Darkness – Scarlett St. Clair

About the Book

A Modern Hades and Persephone Retelling

Persephone is the Goddess of Spring by title only. The truth is, since she was a little girl, flowers have shriveled at her touch. After moving to New Athens, she hopes to lead an unassuming life disguised as a mortal journalist.

Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible.

After a chance encounter with Hades, Persephone finds herself in a contract with the God of the Dead and the terms are impossible: Persephone must create life in the Underworld or lose her freedom forever.

The bet does more than expose Persephone���s failure as a goddess, however. As she struggles to sow the seeds of her freedom, love for the God of the Dead grows���and it���s forbidden.

299 pages (kindle)
Published in April, 2020
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I���m going to admit right off the bat, this is not my typical read. This isn���t the kind of book I usually gravitate toward. I���m not big into stories with lots of graphic sex, and you do get that here. Consider this a ���sexy��� urban fantasy. It���s a huge, wildly popular genre, it���s just not my typical genre.��

So, if this isn���t my typical read, why did I read it? 

I���m working on two different books right now which both feature gods alive and well in the world. I���ve been sort of wanting to see how other authors have tackled the idea of gods not just as remote figures, but characters who are very present in a story. One of the books I���m writing is set in a 1920���s-style city, and I really wanted to see how someone would write gods in a modern sense, with modern life around them, and modern problems.��I have gotten this in some of the fantasy books I’ve read, but I was more interested in exploring an urban fantasy look at things. Sometimes there is value in stepping out of your typical genre.

I was having a bit of a hard time finding such stories until I ran across this Hades X Persephone series on Kindle Unlimited. The book had a lot of ratings, looked like a lot of devoted fans, and the cover art was gorgeous. I figured, why not. 

I found the worldbuilding aspect of this book to be the most interesting part of it, truthfully. Set in a modern world in a city called New Athens, the world itself was like a reimaging of all things Ancient Greek, but set with modern amenities. The gods exist, and so do humans. There are nightclubs and coffee shops, universities and newspapers, cell phones and the like. I really enjoyed how the author visualized a more modern version of the Ancient Greek world that so many will associate with these gods, and the stories of them. 

There is also the Underworld, which was absolutely fantastic. Like New Athens, the Underworld is given a fresh spin, and Persephone���s job down there, her challenge, as it were, is an interesting one. She sort of has to figure out what she���s supposed to be doing, and the readers figure it out along with her. You���ll meet some figures you may or may not expect to meet, like Hekate (whom I loved). While Persephone���s time down there is mostly relegated to a few specific areas, you do get a sense of the wider landscape, and the things contained in it, as well as Hades role there.��

The story kind of fell apart after that. Persephone was a character I couldn���t really relate to at all. She was a pretty terrible reporter, and she had a pesky penchant for assuming the worst about everyone. Her relationship with her mother was probably given a bit more weight than it deserved. I didn���t like how she always seemed to see Hades in the worst possible light.��

So, as you can see, Persephone was a character that just missed the mark for me. For whatever reason, the two of us did not get along.��

Hades, on the other hand, seemed to fit the role of the brooding alpha male steeped in mystery quite well. The obsession between Hades and Persephone is pretty obvious from the get-go, but the author was quite clever with how she mastered Hades story within the context of everything that happens. He���s a dark figure, and he���s larger than life, a rather tortured soul, but as the reader slowly gets to know him, it becomes obvious that he���s not quite as dark as one would think, and a whole lot about him is misunderstood.��I really enjoyed the secondary characters that circulated around him. Some were better crafted than others, but they were all unique spins on the people and creatures I’ve read in mythology and I enjoyed seeing more modern versions of them in this unique world.

There is romance, because of course there is. It���s Hades and Persephone, so what else would you really expect from these two? That being said, I didn���t quite expect the romance to be as graphic as it ended up being. Mind you, I edit erotica on the side, so this wasn���t really a dealbreaker for me. It���s just something to note. You might see this gorgeous cover, and go into the book expecting one thing and exit it having gotten another. 

A Touch of Darkness��is the first book in a trilogy, and it���s wildly popular if the ratings on Amazon and Goodreads are any indication. I doubt I will continue with it, but that���s more because of me, and less because the story displeased me in any major way. I loved the fresh take on worldbuilding. I loved the Underworld, and I loved the author���s interpretation of gods being present in the world. Those were all things I read this book to explore, and they were done really well.��

The story itself left a bit to be desired, but I think this is less the author���s problem and more the fact this just really isn���t what I gravitate toward when I read. I���m glad I read it, because it did illuminate me in ways I didn���t quite anticipate. I think, for readers of urban fantasy who enjoy heavy, heavy romantic notes, this series should be a must-read. The writing is great, the story is gripping, and the world is really well crafted. 

Sometimes you just need popcorn, and this is the literary form of that. It���s popcorn. You get comfortable, you sit back, and you just devour it. And, let���s be real, there���s value in popcorn. Especially��good��popcorn. Who doesn���t like really good popcorn?��

So.

For a fresh take on Persephone and Hades, A Touch of Darkness might be exactly what you���re looking for.

4/5 stars

Review | Olde Robin Hood – Kate Danley

About the Book

Rebel. 
Outlaw. 
Hero. 

Exiled for an unjust crime and forced to use whatever means necessary to survive, a figure of hope emerges from Sherwood Forest. 

But what most people know about Robin Hood (the enemy of Prince John and nobleman loyal to King Richard) was an invention of a playwright nearly three hundred years after Robin Hood died. 

However, there are older stories about the real Robin Hood. 

USA Today bestselling author Kate Danley weaves the original 13th century ballads, Robin Hood traditions passed down through ancient pagan rites, and historical evidence together into a swashbuckling epic fantasy. Enter a world of adventure and chivalry as you discover the man behind the myth, as you meet the Olde Robin Hood.

313 pages (kindle)
Published on September 19, 2018
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If I���ve said it once, I���ve said it a thousand times: I love me some good Celtic lore. Now, Robin Hood doesn���t fit under that banner. Not really. But I sort of lump him and King Arthur into that category because, you know, geographical location and all that. The thing is, Robin Hood, like King Arthur, has been done before, right? Done and done. So when a book appears that professes to tell a different version of the story, I���m there with bells on. 

Enter: Olde Robin Hood.

Olde Robin Hood��tells the origin story of the infamous Robin Hood character. The author professes to use old ballads and minstrel tales for the basis of this Robin Hood, which is intriguing, and gives the reader a different, more grounded look at this person who has become so large in lore. Furthermore, her extensive research is obvious as the story unfolds. The world this Robin lives in, is not the least bit glamorous. It���s dirty and painful, where people, if they are lucky, hack a life out of their surrounds and somehow make it work. There are details thrown in here and there about life, like the exhaustion of working a farm, the dangerous of injury and the like that really made this book sing in the worldbuilding��

There isn���t a whole lot of magic here, though there are some there is a bit of interweaving with pagan tradition, and some old ways vs. Christian tension as well. The book, instead of being completely rooted in fantasy, seems to weave it into the book in the most subtle of all ways, so it is present if you know where to look. You get more a hint of the fantasy, rather than an overwhelming dose of it.��

As an origin story, this was cleverly done. The book opens with a view of Robin���s typical (to the times and place) life. He works hard, loves his family, seems to be just your average kid in the world. When the sheriff murders his father and burns down their farm, sending Robin into exile, he meets up with John Little, a man trying to escape being pressed into soldiery. There, they develop an honorable code wherein it���s decided they will only steal from thieves and liars, and the like. 

Most of the characters in this book are ones you���ll expect to see from the stories you know. John Little (you���ll know him as Little John), Maid Marion, and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. Instead, however, of being set during King John���s reign, which most will expect, the author has set this story against Henry III time as king, which was an interesting choice.��There are other twists on the tale that show up here or there as well.

Olde Robin Hood tells an interesting coming of age story about a man who is pitted against forces that are beyond his control, and trying to do the best he can despite all odds. This Robin is a bit broodier than most of the Robin Hoods I���ve read before. He spends a lot of time in his own head. He feels profoundly. He is very sad. This isn���t to say there aren���t times when he is happy, but I did feel like this Robin was perhaps a bit darker emotionally than I���ve read in other stories. That���s fine. Actually, I really liked that about the book. The author���s willingness to not only show how these situations would physically impact a kid growing up in the world, but how they would emotionally mark him as well is something I seriously admired. 

The other thing I appreciated about this book was how young Robin actually was. We tend to think of Robin Hood as a grown man who is roughing up the forest and causing trouble, but here we have not only an origin story, but a young man growing into adulthood as well. It made me see the pressures of this character, the strains and situations he had to endure, a bit differently. However, this did make the book one of those weird ones where I can���t really tell if its young adult or new adult. Maybe a bit of both. There���s violence and bloodshed which is distinctly PG-13, but the prose and the style itself felt more YA to me. Honestly, the fact I couldn���t pin it down felt true to the story itself. This particular Robin Hood seems to defy convention in numerous ways.��

The book started a bit slow, but once the ball got rolling, the story was gripping, and moved at a fast pace. I felt the ending was a bit too simple, and the book itself felt predictable, but it was an incredibly enjoyable yarn. While I don���t think this was the completely groundbreaking origin story I was looking for, I did really enjoy it for what it was: a damn good book.��

4/5 stars

Review | Horns of the Hunter – Frank Dorrian

About the Book

An age of myth. A bitter feud. A storm of legend.

It is the closing days of the Enkindled King���s wars for Earthblood, when a cycle of violence and hatred sparks a bitter feud in his shadow.

N��ith, the Warrior. Luw, the Hunter. Cast aside and burned by their lover���s betrayal, the two find themselves trapped in a bloody struggle for the affections of S��le, the Maid of Mael Tulla.

Cherished as a healer and bringer of verdant life to barren lands, S��le stands as a mystery unto all ��� even those who would claim her heart. For one so gentle and kind, secrets and bloodshed swarm about her like flies upon a corpse.

Consumed by hatred and heartache, both N��ith and Luw will take the darkest of trials and challenge death itself, unaware of the true game being played.

A storm beyond imagining waits for the Warrior and the Hunter. One that will decide the fate of Luah F��il.

204 pages (kindle)
Publishing on July 27, 2021
Pre-order here

Horns of the Hunter was a book I knew I wanted to edit the second I saw it. It���s based on Celtic mythology, and written with lyrical prose. The two things put together basically just make this one of those books I���m sure to love. I���m a huge, huge sucker for mythology retold, and beautiful prose is icing on the cake. 

Most of this story is focused on Cu N��ith the Warrior and Luw the Hunter. Cu N��ith and Luw are the biggest focal points of this story, and they couldn���t be more opposite. Cu N��ith is arrogant and swaggering. He knows he���s the best, and he usually is. He has a supernatural affinity for all things that require physical strength, and his ego basically makes up the biggest part of his personality. Luw the Hunter, on the other hand, is much more quiet and reserved. He���s thoughtful, and while he is focused on his end goals, he is motivated largely by preserving the forests, and doing what needs to be done to ensure that end. 

The other main character in this book is��S��le. S��le��is a romantic interest for both of these men. What starts out as a squabble between two spurned lovers turns into something a bit more serious as S��le starts poking fingers in the conflict between the men. As the book unfolds, it becomes clear that S��le is not who she appears to be, and she is using both of these men for her own ends, and these men seem to be dancing to her tune, and oblivious to her end goals, no matter how obvious they become to the reader. This, in fact, is part of why this book was so compelling. The characters are so absorbed in their own experiences, that what slowly becomes clear to the reader isn���t that clear to the characters themselves, and that draws out emotions from the reader that are just��� powerful. I mean, it���s like watching a train wreck. You can���t look away. You know what���s going to happen, at least in a vague way, and you can see it barreling toward the event horizon, but you just cannot stop watching.��

It���s that dynamic, that incredible ability for Dorrian to not only play on his readers emotions that skillfully, but his characters as well that, quite honestly, make him a master of the craft. 

I will say, reader, the genius of this book is how the characters work against each other, and how that forces their development in some unexpected ways. 

In fact, the character development over the course of this novel had me so enchanted, so absolutely absorbed and obsessed, I read this book numerous times before I returned it to the author. I just couldn���t get enough of it. I couldn���t stop looking at how Luw and Cu N��ith changed so dramatically over the course of the book, and how, while they often did come to physical blows (and some of the battles were just��� I mean, surreal with how well they were written), it was really obsession driven by S��le��that was the true weapon here.��

I don���t know if I can underscore this enough. The characters you get to know at the start of the book are not the ones you know at the end of the book, and the journey, that transformation is one of the most engrossing, absorbing, well-crafted character arcs I���ve ever read in all my time reading. It blew my freaking socks off.��

Dorrian made a few worldbuilding decisions in this book that I think ultimately worked in his favor. First, he kept the world contained, relegated to one island, and populated by a fair number of people, though most of them stay offscreen. He doesn���t take a lot of time to explain terminology to readers. You either figure it out as you go, or you don���t. This immersive style of worldbuilding really worked for me. It allowed me to get sucked into the story, and I trusted Dorian to give me the information I needed as the story progressed. Furthermore, the complex, layered magic system was really the cherry on top of this worldbuilding sundae.��

The story of Luw and Cu N��ith was truly heartbreaking. These two men are on a crash course to destruction, and both seem incapable of pulling away from it. Because you���ll likely recognize these figures from their mythological influences (if you���re familiar with Celtic lore at all) you���ll probably connect with them right away. Despite all their fantastic, divine aspects, their magic, their more-than-human qualities, they are, in the end, shockingly human and as their arcs begin to unfold, and you see which direction they are both traveling, you realize this really isn���t the story you were expecting. This is a story about obsession and self-destruction. It���s about two men who have these superhuman abilities, coming together in a clash that transforms both them, and their world. 

This book, reader, is a glorious, unforgettable tragedy.��

And oh, I loved it. I loved it so much, it hurt. I loved it so much, I read it about four or five times before I managed to send the edited manuscript back to the author. 

There have been a few times in my editorial life when I���ve felt the need to stand on a mountaintop and pontificate to readers everywhere about this book or that book. I will say, Horns of the Hunter was one of those books that made me want to do just that. I���ve never read anything like this before, and that���s part of its charm. The truth is, what I found here was a story I didn���t expect, told with prose that were just beyond gorgeous. This book is a superb study in character evolution that you won���t get anywhere else.

Horns of the Hunter is, hands down, one of the best books I���ve read in a very, very long time. 

It���s one of those books that made me think, ���I really wish I could read this book for the first time all over again.��� 

It���s that good. 

Trust me.

5/5 stars

Review | Aching God – Mike Shel

About the Book

���Closer, mortal. You are here, finally, to feed the Aching God������

The days of adventure are passed for Auric Manteo. Retired to the countryside with his scars and riches, he no longer delves into forbidden ruins seeking dark wisdom and treasure. That is, until old nightmares begin plaguing his sleep, heralding an urgent summons back to that old life.

To save his only daughter, Auric must return to the place of his greatest trauma: the haunted Barrowlands. With only a few inexperienced companions and an old soldier, he must confront the dangers of the ancient and wicked Djao civilization. Auric has survived fell beasts, insidious traps, and deadly hazards before. But can he contend with the malice of a bloodthirsty living god?

602 pages (paperback)
Published on April 9, 2018
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Reader, I tend to shy away from books everyone raves about because I feel this weird pressure to rave about them too. What if I don���t want to rave about them? What if I pick up a book everyone seems to love and I -gasp- don���t love it? And also, with my focus on this website right now being toward indie/self-published SFF books with fewer than 100 ratings on Amazon, this particular book only fits half of that. It is indie. It does not have fewer than 100 ratings. 

That being said, I was in the mood for some epic fantasy recently. Something different. Something I thought I might be able to sink into and just forget the world. I wandered around Kindle Unlimited for a while and this book kept finding itself in my sights. Finally, the sixth time I randomly came across it on Amazon, I decided this was fate telling me I needed to read it already, and here we are.

(Confession: I did not realize this was a LitRPG until I was copying the back cover text of this book off Goodreads after writing this review.)

This is a story told from the perspective of one Auric Manteo. Auric has retired from relic-hunting a while ago, but something is stirring. He���s plagued by nightmares, and seems a bit��� uneasy��� though he can���t put a finger on why. Then he gets a missive. He���s needed. So he rides away to go confront something terrible. Auric is basically given a suicide mission. A strange plague is sweeping the land, and his own daughter is one of the afflicted. With a ragtag team of people, he heads off to the Barrowlands, a place that triggers all sorts of trauma for Auric, to return a cursed item to a dungeon, which will, he is told, end this plague. 

If you want a story about one man out to save humanity from everlasting destruction, this is absolutely it. Auric���s race is one against time. If this plague continues on the path it is going, humanity itself will cease to exist. And while this might sound a bit campy, or maybe overdone, I really loved the way Shel breathed new life into this trope by taking it and making it extremely personal. This isn���t just humanity for humanity���s sake, this is Auric���s own daughter, and while they might be estranged, the emotional impact that particular plot thread gave the story was profound. It kept this from being about some vague save-the-world ideal, and about saving his daughter, and that mattered to me. 

There are a few things I want to mention about Auric. First, it���s really rare I read an epic fantasy book about a father. Even if he���s estranged from his children, it just doesn���t happen often. It seems they either aren���t usually old enough to have grown children, or they are too jaded/burnt out/restless to have them or some mix of the two. But Auric had kids. More, he was old enough to retire from his profession AND have grown children. I don���t get the sense the guy was terribly old, but he was obviously older and more rooted than most fantasy protagonists I read about, and I really liked that. It set him apart from others. Life does not stop at forty, and I loved how the author embraced that, not just giving Auric a whole backstory and a life already lived, but certain aspects of his current life that a lot of readers will be able to relate to (like having kids) and empathize with (like being retired from a profession). 

Secondly, Auric is a tortured man, which obviously means I loved him. This book is written mostly from Auric���s point of view, which isn���t terribly common with epic fantasy but I think it was the right move here. Most epic fantasy seems to have multiple perspectives and readers head hop a lot, but Shel lets you get real comfortable with Auric. This allows the reader to sink into the protagonist���s mind, and sort of get comfortable there. That���s what this book needed. The interesting thing, I found, was this is an epic fantasy book, and without some of the decisions Shel made about story execution (like POV) it would have just been another epic fantasy book, but Shel is pretty much a genius. He decided to take this story, which was already really good, and make it as personal as he could and that, dear reader, is why I loved Aching God. All these small details, from the age and background of Auric, to the perspective used to tell Auric���s story, to the world itself (I mean, seriously, his entire job description is like fantasy Indiana Jones and DO I REALLY NEED TO SELL THAT TO YOU?) just made��Aching God��sing.

That being said, Aching God isn’t all about Auric and his daughter and personal trauma. Again, Shel shows what a craftsman he is by deftly balancing these elements of personal and worldly. Sometimes we really steep ourselves in external conflict, and sometimes internal narrative, but Shel never really spends too much time in any one place. He’s also pretty subtle, weaving in just enough of each part of this story into every scene to make them feel perfectly balanced. By the time the book was over, I was honestly pretty amazed by how well I knew Auric, and how much I cared about the world he lives in. It’s not really something I expected.

The book itself is relentless and unforgiving. There is always something happening somewhere, and Auric, at times, seems impossibly behind the curve. It looks hopeless, it feels hopeless, and since it���s personal, that mattered to me. I genuinely wanted Auric to succeed and thrive. The book does sort of take time to warm up. Some readers might find the start a bit slow, but from the midpoint on, it���s like a boulder rolling down a mountain: unstoppable. 

I believe the entire series is out now, or at least, the third book in it was recently released, and this is good because once you read this book you won���t want to wait to read the second one. 

Aching God��snuck up on me. I honestly went into this expecting to read another epic fantasy that was entertaining but nothing that really stuck to my ribs. I was pleasantly surprised. There were so many things here that I didn’t expect, from some unusual spins on typical tropes, to an obvious passion for the story being told, to Auric himself. Furthermore, the writer/editor side of my brain was obsessed with��HOW��Shel chose to tell his story, and how those decisions impacted the whole.��

In summary, reader, I should not have waited so long to read this book. 

5/5 stars

Excerpt | First Chapter of Glass Rhapsody

Well, Glass Rhapsody is ready to drop on June 30, and I figured… why not post an excerpt from the book. I will say, if you have not read Of Honey and Wildfires yet, this excerpt will have spoilers regarding the ending of that book, so maybe don’t read this yet.

If you’d like to pre-order the book, you can for just $.99 here.

Of Honey and Wildfires
Oh, That Shotgun Sky

Remember, spoilers ahead. I’ll throw the cover art down here so you have time to back away if you need to.

Cassandra
Five Years Ago

Oh, this grief. 

Night comes along with a gasp, dragging her veil of stars behind her. 

Cold is a wolf nipping at my heels; her icy teeth touch every part of me. But she cannot reach my sorrow, which is still burning hot and low in the forge of my heart. 

If I could but light the world with my pain, it would be a glorious fire indeed.

I study Arlen. He���s staring at the wagon. It is still cradling our father���s body. I unhooked the horse a while ago, and tethered it to a tree. It���s munching, unimpressed with the goings on. The counterpoint of its shifting weight does something to keep me rooted to the here and now. 

There is a horse. There are trees. I can feel the air brushing against my skin. I am here. This is real. 

Maybe if I tell myself that often enough, I���ll start believing it.

Arlen looks at me, and our eyes lock. 

I cannot get over him, this man who suddenly appeared in my life, a stranger to me, and yet not at the same time. I look at him and see traces of our father. My blood croons in me, a song of home and belonging. I know this man. Our souls are cut from the same cloth. 

Kindred, my heart sings. 

Family, my soul echoes. 

But I am still so empty.

I see myself in him. In the slope of his cheekbones and the sharp point of his nose. Mostly, I see myself in his heavy, sorrow-laden eyes. 

���It���s time, Cassandra.��� 

Fate, this hurts. 

The world spins. Time grows dark, and darker still. A wolf���s call pierces this veil of obsidian. 

I���ve never felt so alone. 

We���re already sweaty from digging the grave. Arlen wipes his brow and motions to the wagon. The body is starting to stink. Da stopped being a person a few days ago. Now it���s time to put him in the ground. To transform him from man to memory. An act of magic, a certain undoing that requires the purging of myself to accomplish.

Arlen climbs into the wagon, lifts the top half of our father���s body while I grab the feet. 

It is horrible, carrying him. Horrible to feel the heavy weight of death, to struggle with it. To know that in this empty husk rested the sun that lit my days, and the moon that guided my nights. He was a giant, and now, he is a shell. 

I had no idea emptiness would weigh so much. 

Finally, we lay him in the ground. 

The moon bathes this small glade in silver. An owl calls overhead. We stand, silent and still, looking down at the body of the man who, in one way or another, shaped us both. 

He is wrapped in a sheet. I will never look in his eyes again. I see the shape of him, but not the man himself, and somehow that feels both right, and terribly wrong. 

Arlen gestures at a shovel. ���We should������

I shake my head. 

���We���re in the mountains, Cassandra. There are animals up here. We should cover him up.��� 

I shake my head again. He reaches over, rests a hand on my shoulder, and I crumple. Fall to my knees. Become undone. 

���I don���t know how to do this,��� I say. I wrap my arms around my knees and shake back and forth, my eyes pinned on my father���s corpse, broken and gone. Just days ago, we���d been staring at each other through the bars of his jail cell. ���I love you!��� he���d shouted at me, the last words I���d ever hear him speak. A moment ago, he���d been a man. Pumping heart, throbbing soul, all that pain��� but he was alive and he was mine. 

Now, he���s empty. 

Now I���m empty. 

I do not know how to live in a world without him in it. 

No more surprise visits. No more stories. No more laughing, violet eyes. No more calm, steady voice. 

Just��� no more. 

It seems wrong that life can end so suddenly. I picture Annie in her herb garden. Jasper studying the moon. Harriet and all her angst. Jack, and his teasing barbs. Imogen and her worry. 

Ianthe.

So much can change in a blink. In a breath.

Now, I am alone, and surrounded by nothing but darkness and shadows. Cold moonlight, and a brother I don���t know.

I���m supposed to cover him with dirt. I���m supposed to unmake the man who made me.��

Don���t think I���ve ever been stabbed this deep. Don���t think I knew what it was to be cut right in half, but unable to bleed. 

���I don���t know how to do this.��� I���m saying it over and over again, like the words aren���t settling in my body. Like they need to come out, or they���ll rot alongside my heart. ���I don���t know how to do this.���

I don���t know how long I repeat that mantra. Don���t know how long Arlen watches me shake and tremble, watches me watch our father laying in that grave we dug. That white cloth. All that dirt. Finally, he kneels down beside me, wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close. 

���You don���t have to know how to do this, Cassandra,��� he says. ���I���m not asking you to.��� 

And somehow, the permission in those words, the leave to be broken, alone, lost, is enough. 

I cling to him. To this brother who is both mine and not mine, this last gift given to me from our shared father. I dig my fingers into the meat of his shoulders and sob into the curve of his neck while my fists beat at his back. I know I must be bruising him. This moment, this pain, demands a sign of its passing. 

Finally, I steady myself against the wind buffeting my life, and Arlen pulls away. He inhales deep, shakes his head, and starts filling the grave. After watching him a bit, I take the other shovel and do the same. He should not be the only one who buries our father. This is not his burden alone to carry. 

It feels final, to cover his body. Final in a way I���ve never experienced before. I have buried fragments of myself in the meadow where I spent my childhood. I buried my soul with Ianthe. Now, I am giving over the last of me to that cold, dark earth. 

That sheet slowly disappears under a mound of earth, one shovelful at a time. I feel like I am erasing history. I am committing a crime that cannot be undone. Any moment now, he���ll sit up, breathe deep, and ask us what the hell we���re doing. His rough voice will fill the glade, and we���ll all laugh about this horrible joke. 

All I see is one corner of the sheet left, a few small, wrinkled inches up around his head. 

I wait. 

Please. Please breathe. Please sit up and show us how alive you are. 

But he doesn���t. Of course he doesn���t. Another piece of me, whatever is left in this cavern where my soul used to live, breaks off and slips into that grave right along with him. 

I am sobbing. With each shovelful of earth, I sob harder, until I cannot see through my tears. Until Arlen stops me with a steady hand. ���It���s done, Cass,��� he says, voice low and rough. ���It���s done. We did it. He���s resting now.��� 

���What of us?��� I ask. The shovel falls from my hand, clangs hollowly on the ground. Before me is a mound of dirt holding the world in it. ���Are we to rest as well?��� 

���Is that what you want? Do you want to rest?��� 

I wrap my arms around myself. I don���t need to speak the words for them to sit between us. I will never rest again. Not truly. 

I wonder if Arlen knows he just buried the last of his sister. 

I am a cracked vessel. I am hemorrhaging the last of myself. I did not know it was possible to live and die in the same breath. 

Oh, this agony. This sweet suffering. This tormented devotion. 

I breathe deep. Air stabs my lungs. My heart squeezes. Squeezes. 

���I am afraid,��� I whisper. 

���Of what?��� Arlen asks. I feel his eyes on me. I wonder what he sees, his sister or a ghost?

I think of Da���s broken neck. I think of this aching in my heart. ���What if love is violence?��� 

Arlen stays silent. It seems he has no words. Nothing to fill this haunting dark that lives both within and without.

My thoughts spiral. 

I have nowhere to go now. Behind me are ghosts. Before me are ghosts. 

���How did he find you?��� I ask. I wipe my nose on a kerchief and sit down. It feels right, to talk about these things here, beside his grave, where his soul might linger and still hear us. 

Arlen sits beside me. ���He stopped a train. Kidnapped me, I guess.��� There���s a low chuckle, and before I can stop myself, I laugh as well. 

It sounds so like him. So like Christopher Hobson. No theft of a son in the dark of night from an easily-invaded hotel room. No, that is far too simple for our father. He had to stop a train. Had to make a show of it. 

���And you went with him?��� 

���I was terrified,��� Arlen admits. He picks at a wild mint leaf. Its perfume sits in the air, filling it with the scent of summer. Of home. Of Annie���s herb garden. 

Another sob wells up in me, sticks in my throat like a stone. I feel the hand of Fate wrapped around my neck, stealing all my air. 

They are all gone, all of them.

Gone and gone and gone. 

Bodies in graves. Dreams along with them. Hopes and futures. 

They meant something to me, every one of them. All of them took up space inside of me. Now I am full of holes. I look at the sky and its cascade of stars. I���ve never felt so celestial. Shine a light on me, and I���ll look just like that. All that glitter. All that pretty. 

No one will think to ask how much it hurts. 

���He took me up here. Wanted to show me where I was from. Wanted me to know my story,��� Arlen continues. ���He was a good man. I wish I got to know him better. I wish we���d had more time.��� 

His voice trails off, and I realize, for the first time in days, Arlen has lost as well. Not just Christopher, but Matthew, an entire life. I haven���t asked, but I���ve seen sorrow in his dark eyes. 

I know what pain looks like. 

���Will you go back to the Union?��� I ask. 

For a moment, he doesn���t answer. I watch out of the corner of my eye as he shifts and then leans back on his elbows to look up at the sky. Finally, ���No, I don���t think so. There���s nothing there for me anymore. Being here��� it���s changed me.��� 

I let that sit between us. What are we supposed to do with each other? Seems right that we stick together. It���s what Da wanted. Two lost souls, and all that, but I don���t know how to be alone, much less be with someone else right now. 

���Tell me about him?��� Arlen asks. The words crack right through the middle. I can hear the earthquake surging through him as he speaks. He makes a sound like a strangled gasp, like he���s swallowed down all his emotion, and it���s stuck in his throat. Food gone down wrong, only this time, the food is pain, and there���s no fixing this kind of choking. 

���What do you want to know?��� 

���Anything.��� It���s less a word, and more a shape in the air, a hint, but it hits me like an arrow to the heart. One more wound. One more agony in a world of them. 

He is mourning a man he does not know. 

Fate, this anguish. None of this is fair. Not a bit of it, and yet here we are. Fate never gave a shit about fair. 

���I was only with him till I was five,��� I admit. ���After that, he���d stop by when he thought he could get away with it. We were always watched. The Company������ I flinch. I don���t know what to say to Arlen. He was set to inherit the empire. With Matthew dead, maybe he already has. I���ve been scared my whole life, and now I���m a kind of tired that won���t abide fear, so I let it all spill out. ���Da was a wanted man, always running and hiding. Only saw him a few times a year. Sometimes we���d leave messages to each other at a tree. I���d sneak out there every full moon and see what trinket he left me.��� 

���What else?��� Arlen asks, and there���s a hunger in his voice. It���s dark, and just as wounded as I feel. ���Was he a good father? Did he love you well?��� 

I hear what he���s not asking. What kind of life would I have had if I hadn���t been captured? 

How much have we both lost? We are mourning things we can���t understand. We���ll be picking pieces of soul from between our teeth for years to come. The ramifications of all that transpired will create ripples and waves that will bandy me about forever.��

���He was a good man, Arlen. He��� he did his best to do right by me. Mayhap he wasn���t the best father. I did feel a great anger with him for giving me up, but now I am older, and I think I understand.��� Silence sits between us, awkward and still. ���He would disappear for a long time, and I never knew if he was alive or not. I���d spend half my days mourning him as though he were dead, and the other half praying he was alive. I understand, he did the only thing he knew how to do. He gave me a family, after a fashion, but it was not a kindness, that worry.�����

���I can���t imagine it,��� Arlen whispers. ���And Annie and������ his voice trails off. 

I can���t cry anymore. There is nothing left in me, so I just nod and stare straight ahead. ���They were good people. They were the best sort. Honest and hardworking. They would have gone on plowing that field forever, if the Company let them.��� 

���Jasper was a gun runner.��� It���s not an accusation. There is no anger in Arlen���s voice. Out there, he may be the man who inherits Shine Company and the Esco empire, but right here and now, he is my brother, and he is just as lost and desperate as I am. 

I grab his hand, weave our fingers together. The contact, somehow, helps. 

���He was. I didn���t know it for a long time, but I got sick once, and Da came. Jasper gave him a gun. I knew��� I knew he had them hidden about. It doesn���t surprise me, when the Company came against them, they stood their ground. He wasn���t a bad man, Arlen. Shine Company took everything from us. Jasper just wanted some land call his own.���

Arlen is quiet, and I wonder what he���s thinking. What must it be like for him, out here for only a few weeks? He doesn���t know the land any more than he knows himself, I���d wager. He���s lost two fathers, an entire life, everything he���s ever known. 

���Matthew Esco,��� he grumbles. He rubs his free hand over his face and groans. ���I can���t believe I didn���t see it sooner. I can���t believe I was complicit. All of this��� every bit of it. I never asked questions. I never doubted, probed, or tried to understand. All this time, my family was out here suffering, and I was living under the thumb of a ghost. What is wrong with me? What have I done? Cassandra,��� His dark eyes are haunted, horrible things. ���What the fuck have I done?��� 

Then, it is my brother���s turn to come apart. His is a slow unmaking, a tremble that starts in his fingertips and works its way up his arms until it pierces his heart. His tears start flowing, and he curls in on himself. I wrap my arms around him, and hold him tight. His sorrow soaks through the fabric of my shirt, through my skin, right into my bones. 

He is part of me now. We are connected, the two of us, by blood and pain.

Review | Hall of Bones – Tim Hardie

About the Book

In the remote land of Laskar the seven ruling clans have vied with each other for power for over a century. The son of the Reavesburg Clan Chief, Rothgar, has been groomed all his life for a role supporting his elder brother, Jorik, in leading their kingdom when their father’s time finally comes to an end.

However, the rulers of their greatest rivals, the Vorund Clan, are in the grip of something older and far darker. They have been conquered by evil, a remnant from the time when the gods warred with one another and the world of Amuran collapsed into the Fallen Age.

Everything is about to change …

426 pages (kindle)
Published on November 25, 2020
Buy the book

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times recently: Norse-inspired fantasy is seriously in right now. I’ve been editing an absolute ton of the stuff, and I’m even swayed from where I was before (“Norse? Meh.”) to really being into it. I mean, yeah, a lot of this change in my perspective has to do with the incredible authors I edit for, and how well they visualize their worlds and tell their stories, but it’s also because the more I read of Norse-inspired fantasy, the more I realize the vast swath of diversity in this specific subset of the genre. It interests my writer brain, and entertains my reader brain. 

So when someone said, “Hey, you should read Hall of Bones” my first thought was, “Okay, well that title has me. I want to know about this hall filled with bones” and my next was “Ah, more Norse fantasy. I’m in.” 

Hall of Bones is Hardie’s debut epic fantasy, and while it is unique in many ways, I enjoyed the way Hardie leaned on tried and true fantasy elements while weaving in his own, unique aspects as the book progressed. While this book truly is its own animal, in a lot of ways it felt like a homage to epic fantasy, a love letter to the genre the author is obviously very passionate about. 

The book itself is told from the first-person perspective of Rothgar. In the prologue, he’s imprisoned for something, but you don’t really learn more than that. Then, in the first chapter, the reader experiences the story through Rothgar’s point of view, from his childhood on. Honestly, you don’t see much of either of those things in epic fantasy. “Those things” being first person POV, and coming of age type stories. The entire thing isn’t a coming of age story, but I think giving some of Rothgar’s history, his background, helped build a solid foundation for his adulthood, and what eventually ended up happening to him. 

This division between Rothgar’s childhood and his adulthood served to form a really well-rounded character who started out pretty normal. Subverting the charmed child, or the chosen one trope, we see Rothgar as a boy, who was just a boy. Perhaps he had a bit more pressure and expectation on his shoulders than others his age, but it wasn’t some divine will that thrust him into the situations he later finds himself in. He’s just shockingly human. Furthermore, I enjoyed seeing the flip between who Rothgar was, and who he ended up being. This deep character study isn’t something I run across in epic fantasy very often, and I truly enjoyed it. I am a sucker for stories that show how people came to be who they ended up being. 

The world itself is complex and layered. There’s plenty of personal and political intrigue, and plenty of pain. As in all epic fantasy, a lot of dark things happen to a lot of people. There’s manipulation and bloodshed, pain and heartbreak, and, of course, death. Don’t go into this expecting some happy, fluffy tale. That’s not what this is, but I think the title should give that away. There are a lot of clans, relations, and the like in this book and sometimes it can be confusing, however. 

The characters are all well-crafted. It’s obvious Hardie has spent a lot of time and care to bring them to life, and they do shine. Even secondary characters never felt cookie-cutter for two-dimensional to me. They were all people who acted, and existed, despite how moderate their roles in the book might be. That being said, I did find myself a little disappointed in the gender roles in this book, where women typically keep themselves to their “traditional” roles of homemaker, lover, etc. If they have power, they weld it more subtly, and men are the strong ones who go get things done. I do hope the series explores a bit more diversity in future books. 

The plot itself is gripping, and moves along at a good clip. The first half is more about moving the pieces around the board: the arranged marriages, loyalties, alliances and the like. The second half is more about action, bloodshed, and brutality. The perspective of Rothgar as a child and as an adult really helps both of these parts of the book matter to me as a reader. As he changes and evolves as a character, so too does the world around him. Not everything is expected, and still we have those comfortable elements of epic fantasy there, mixed in with fantasy that is all Hardie’s own, creating a book that is both comfortable and entirely new all at once. 

Was this a perfect book? No. But it doesn’t really need to be (perfect books are boring). It’s a solid start to a new epic fantasy series that I think deserves more attention than it has received. It is sure to appeal to epic fantasy fans, drawing them in with familiar elements that make the genre so compelling, and then deftly weaving in aspects that are entirely Hardie’s own. 

Hall of Bones is a strong debut by an author who should absolutely be on your radar. I can’t wait to see where he takes me next.

4/5 stars

Review | The Fall – Ryan Cahill

About the Book

The Order have watched over the continent of Epheria for thousands of years. But there are those who believe The Order has had its day. That it is corrupt, indulgent, and deceitful – that it is ready to fall.


The City of Ilnaen is on fire.
Dragons fill the skies.
Traitors fill the streets.

The Fall is a prequel novella that takes place four hundred years before the events in Of Blood and Fire – book one in The Bound and The Broken series.

Currently this novella is free if you sign up for his mailing list here.

I edited this novella. 

This novella was my introduction to Ryan Cahill’s work. I’ve seen his novel, Of Blood and Fire, around, but it’s been on Mount TBR, which is a precarious place to be these days due to all my editing and writing research things I’ve got going on. When he asked if I’d be willing to edit this novella for him, I was overjoyed at the chance to do just that. He’s an author who has done quite well for himself, and has a name that a lot of people know. He’s, in essence, someone I’d like to support, but more, he’s someone with a lot of talent. I know this, because a lot of the bloggers and authors I trust have raved about his work. 

So, he sent me his novella and I will admit, I was pretty blown away by it. 

Cahill takes a few risks here, and I appreciated all of them and the finesse by which he took them quite a bit. First, he dumps readers right into the action. There is no lag time. There’s no gradual buildup. There’s action right away, and you either sink or you swim. There’s a bit of trust on the author’s side in this particular reader-author relationship. He’s trusting you to figure it out. To go where he’s leading you, and understand the situation he’s thrusting you into as it unfolds, and it doesn’t take long for you to realize this is no small thing. This is empire-sized, and you’re right in the heart of it. In this pitched battle between good and evil, where everything important hangs in the balance. 

However, Cahill has a deft way with leading readers along. He could have made this incredibly complicated and layered, and while there are layers and complications here, they are presented in such a way they aren’t overwhelming. Cahill doesn’t hold your hand and lead you along, but he does know just how to bring you through his story with enough breadcrumbs you never feel lost. The heart of this novella is always beating, and always just within sight. 

Secondly, Cahill has The Fall split into four sections, each one told by a different character, from a different perspective of this core conflict. 

When you think of novellas, and how short they tend to be, you’ll realize how brave this is for Cahill to do. There’s only so much time, and so many words to use, and somehow Cahill managed to not just set up a conflict that is quite awe-inspiring for how all-encompassing it is, but he’s managed to bring four character POVs to blazing life for readers, and show this conflict from numerous points of view. Not only do the characters matter to me, but they help me see the core of this novella in different, unique ways. 

And, if that’s not enough, Cahill manages to make you like enough of these characters deep enough so when things happen to them, you genuinely feel for them. Surprise, anger, grief… you feel it. 

Honestly, I think novellas are an underrated art. I really enjoy editing them almost more than anything else, and the reason is because I find them fascinating. I love to see how and author takes fewer pages, fewer words, and makes a rich, layered story out of them. We tend to believe that for fantasy to be epic, the book needs to be a doorstopper. A Brandon Sanderson-sized tome. There is a time and place for that, but sometimes a novella comes along that proves that sentiment very wrong. Epic fantasy isn’t about page count, it’s about story. When an author manages to take fewer pages, fewer words, and writes a story that’s every bit as epic as George R. R. Martin, I’m interested. My brain perks up, I start studying how the author managed to pack so much epic into so few pages. There’s an artistry here, and it fascinates me. Epic fantasy is not about page count. It just isn’t. 

Epic fantasy is about story. 

What you have in The Fall is an epic fantasy in every sense of the word. It’s a setup for the first book in Cahill’s The Bound and the Broken series, which I’m absolutely chomping at the bit to read now. It is every bit as epic as any other epic fantasy out there, despite its shorter size. Pitched battles, dragons, characters you love and love to hate, tension, complexities, and carnage, this book has it all. It truly shows what novellas are capable of. Cahill is an author to watch. 

5/5 stars

Cover Art Reveal | The Necessity of Rain

Well, you may or may not have seen it on Facebook and Twitter already, but just in case, I figured I’d put up the cover art on my website, and then talk a little bit about this book, what it’s about, where the idea came from, where it’s going, etc.

So, here’s the cover.

ETA: November/December 2021

The god-ruled city of Meadowsweet has been at peace for a millennia. 

Divided between deities Aether and Oceana, Meadowsweet thrives in harmony. In a place where prayers are currency and worship is obligation, life is prescribed and comfortable for most. However, when Father Luna, interloper god, arrives with a strange girl in tow, the balance of power shifts. Suddenly, everything is in peril.

Gambled away by a father she hardly knows, Rosemary finds sanctuary in Father Luna. Soon, she is thrust into the center of a divine conflict. When everything she loves hangs by a thread, Rosemary realizes she has the power to change the game, but at the cost of her soul. To survive, she must reveal who she truly is. 

When gods go to war, the world trembles.

When the gods move, nothing is sacred. 

Basically this book came out of a love of gardening mixed with my need to sort of purge Shine Territory from my system while I let ideas for An Elegy for Hope gestate in my hindbrain.

I’m a person who always has a project I’m working on, and it helps me to write something completely different between books. It cleans out my mental processes, but it also forces me to flex different muscles and prepares me to work on whatever comes next. The Necessity of Rain is very different than my other stuff, and I think that’s exactly what I need… a midpoint between the secondary Wild West of Shine Territory, and the Eastern European flavored Bloodlands series.

I needed to work on something a bit more lyrical, dealing with issues of divinity, and more about the evolution of the soul. All of those elements put me in the mindset for my Bloodlands series, and it’s not really present in the way I need it to be in my Shine Territory novels. I needed a halfway point to switch with my gears from the Wild West, to something a bit more… fantasy, religious, divine, and poetic, so I felt less like I was taking a hard right turn, and more like I was gradually moving along a sloping path.

Creative whiplash is a thing.

The Necessity of Rain takes place in a secondary world with pockets of life, each one ruled over by landlocked gods (they cannot leave the area they rule over) and connected by these land bridges that are sort of there but not there at the same time. Meadowsweet, the city featured in this novel, has a 1920’s flavor and is ruled over by brother and sister gods Aether and Oceana. The currency is prayers stamped on coins (I particularly love this). Each time you spend a coin, your prayer basically feeds the gods (two prayers to ride the trolly, one prayer to enter the local nightclub, etc.). There’s jazz music, and gramophones, electric lights, trollies and all that.

And, of course, power struggles. Turns out, when gods get bored they sort of… poke at each other.

There is a flower-based magic system, which is where my love of gardening comes in. This has been so fun to develop.

As with all my stuff, there is LGBTQIA+ and disabled protagonists.

Currently I’m looking at this as a standalone. If people like it enough, I could easily see it turning into a series of standalone novels, each one featuring a different bit of god-ruled land. We’ll see.

I didn’t really expect this book to take off the way it has, but it’s flowing very naturally. I’m having a lot of fun with it, but it is also giving An Elegy for Hope time to really take form and shape, and when I do write it (I’ve got about 25k written) it flows so much easier than I thought it would.

Right now I think The Necessity of Rain should appear somewhere toward the end of the year. I don’t have any pre-order links or anything yet, but when they arrive I will announce them. At this moment, I guess I’m just trying to get used to talking about this book, which is so very different than my other stuff and, for whatever reason, that has me incredibly nervous.

As for the rest of my stuff, Glass Rhapsody is just about ready to send to reviewers. I should have ARCs ready by the first week of June, so if you want one, let me know. An Elegy for Hope is right on schedule for a March release, and after that, I’ll take my Sefate books from Shine Territory to Union City. The Reason for Stars is my first Union City book. It’s basically prohibition and Gaslamp fantasy, with shine. You’ll be able to read the Union City books without having read the Shine Territory books first. Both series interweave, but they are entirely their own beasts.

So that’s about it.

Expect to see more about this, and my other projects, soon.