Flower's Fang

Flower's Fang #1

by Madison Keller, Marlon McAllister (Editor)

Can an unlikely friendship save the day? In a world of flower elves and telepathic furry hunters where magic is as common as sunlight, Prince Sels of the elves feels like an outcast. He has no magic. A hunter, Arara is a runt and considered worthless by her pack. Despite the animosity between their two races, Sels and Arara bond over their shared misery. But as racial tensions grow the pair's unlikely friendship comes under fire. When the teenagers learn of assassins plotting to kill the royal family, no one believes them. Turns out the stakes are bigger than they knew. With the lives of the entire city at risk, could their friendship be the key to saving everyone?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Anthropomorphic

410 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2014

About the author

Ian Madison Keller is a fantasy writer currently living in Oregon. Originally from Utah, he moved up to the Pacific Northwest on a whim a decade ago and never plans on leaving. Ian has been writing since 2013 with nine novels and more than a dozen published short stories out so far. Ian has also written under the name Madison Keller before transitioning in 2019 to Ian.

He loves sewing plush animals and tabletop gaming with his writing buddies.

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another story with an interesting premise that failed in the execution. The pace of the story was a little too stop and start for me, and I felt that the dialogue was stiff and childish. The characters did not seem real to me at all, I felt like they came straight out of a middle grade novel. The ending left a sour taste in my mouth as well, I can appreciate what the author was trying to do but for me the moral became twisted and erroneous.

There were some creative and original concepts in this book (particularly the races) but overall I just could not connect to this story.

Buy, Borrow or Bin Verdict: Bin


Note: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Bill Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great tale! Dogs and flowers as intelligent talking beings, what a riot. Going to sleep each night in potting soil! Come on is that not inspired? Gotta read it.

[Altivo Overo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowers meet flesh and win

Enchanting tale of the Kin, a race of sentient plant people, and the Jegera, their canid partners in a dyadic monarchy. Arara, a young Jegera, is more than she was aware of, enmeshed in an old prophecy. Without knowing what she is doing she must save and restore a crucial balance in their world. Suspenseful and fast moving.

[Davon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells a wonderful story of two misfits trying to be recognized as useful members of society. I loved the characteristics of the Kin race, a race of flower people with magic and how they have a symbiotic relationship with Jegera wolf race. I like the concept of this relationship and how the characters are fighting to make it equal.

Nothing comes easy for Arara and Sel's as they fight to understand their place in the various plots and schemes. They use their quick wit and cunning to survive in a world that seems to be against them at every turn. With this unlikely of them hiding a dark secret, they try to navigate the twists and turns uncovering other secrets that could bring their world to its knees.

The author does a great job of keeping you engaged and guessing. She weaves a magical world around you and when it ends you can't wait to see what happens next.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a young adult book but, though I am long past the young adult category, I liked it. It's fantasy with a plot that is appealing to all ages, I think. It's a very good first effort by an up-and-coming author. I'm looking forward to her branching out to adult fiction.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story though much of it needed, imo, another pass by an editor. The mains were the opposite of Mary Sues - they kept doing it all wrong and never learned from their mistakes. They didn't take into account obvious clues and their continual cringing and refusing to stand up for themselves made me not want to 'champion' them. In fact, they pretty much ended up ............spoiler alert.........




on top purely by accident, coincidence and luck. I still read all the way through. Even though three of the secondary characters were evil with no purpose or motive and switched to no longer being evil after the end. It just felt that it could have used a bit of smoothing out of the rough edges. I finished it with no outside compulsion so I've given it 3 stars.

[Susan Aceto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining

I always fight for the underdog and Snowflower proved she was up to the task. Enjoyed the plot. Recommend highly.

[Thistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a frustrating book. It's easy to hate a badly written book or love a good one, but this book was close to being one I could love, it just fell short in a couple big areas.

The story was set on an alien/fantasy/something world where the dominant species were a plant-based humanish(?) one and a dog-human one.

Big issue #1: In a 353 page book, we never once got a description of what the plant-based race looked like. We learned that their hair(?) has flowers in it. Their feet(?) either have roots or are roots. Very late in the book we learned that they have a different color blood (sap?). What color was their skin? Did they even have two legs? Two eyes? I learned more while googling for a picture of the cover to include in this review than I did in the entire book. (The author made this plush toy of the plant-based main character. So... green skinned.) (Edit: After making this post, I see you can tell skin color and number of limbs from the cover image, but my Kindle is black and white, and the cover images are about an inch big, so you can't really see much at all. You shouldn't have to rely on the cover to know what a main character looks like.)

So, back to the plot. The dog species (basically dogs who could walk on two legs or four; furry, tails, ears, all that) was all about size and strength. The main dog character was literally half the size of everyone else, white furred when everyone else was brown or black, had a curly tail when everyone else had a straight one, and floppy ears when everyone else had pricked up ones.

The plant species was smaller and weaker. They were all magic users -- magic was natural to them. The main plant character was: 1) A prince of his species. 2) Couldn't do any magic.

Big Issue #2: While it makes sense that both of these characters would be outcasts, it was way, way over the top. Even the prince's mother didn't believe in him (in one scene, the prince was clearly in very bad pain and fainted -- his mother said he was faking it). And the dog girl? A male character who was basically the alpha of his generation bullied her endlessly (makes sense), but then suddenly decided he wanted to (have her as his mate? have sex with her? rape her?) even to the point of using a date rape drug on her. (Nevermind there had been no indication at all before this that the world had drugs at all -- every member of the plant species other than the prince could do healing magic, so no need for drugs.) Every Single Person in the whole entire world* hated and bullied these two characters. (*Other than the dog girl's parents.) It was just so over the top 'everyone must crap on these two'. The mother not believing her son was really in pain/really fainted was the last straw for me.

Through the first 60% of the book, I loved it. Was it perfect? No, but the world was interesting and I liked the two races. By 80%, my enjoyment of it quickly cooled, and I started reading faster/skimming. By 90% I had lost all interest in it. I haven't actually finished it yet, but I think I'm going to move on to the next book instead of continuing with Flower's Fang.

I'm frustrated, because I think this author is close to being really good. I did enjoy much of the book (which is why I gave it an 'okay' rating even though I'm not going to finish it). I'm not sure how her editors/beta readers didn't point out the lack of a description of the plant species. (She wasn't lacking in other sorts of descriptions, settings and objects and such.)

Dialing back the "everyone HATES these two!!!!" would have made all the difference for me. I'm 100% fine with outcast characters, and it makes sense that at least the dog character was. (The plant character was both a prince and a nice guy, so I less buy that everyone in the world hated him. True he couldn't do magic, but that was hidden and the general population didn't know about it.)

Sadly, I won't be reading the next book in this series, but if she keeps publishing, I'd be perfectly willing to give some future book a chance.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This review also published at Flayrah.com)

Arara is the smallest Jegera of her year, constantly bullied for her appearance and desperate to leave her village as soon as the coming of age ceremony is complete.

Sels of the flower Kin is a prince without his race's magic powers, travelling towards his last opportunity to choose a sedyu-bonded companion from the newly adult Jegera.

It's no surprise that these two outcasts find each other, and their magic bond, nor that the lowly runt turns out to have a vital part to play in the future of both races. But watching the drama play out, and the underdogs have their day, is hugely enjoyable. Some tropes are tropes for a reason.

The two protagonists form an instant friendship, but their different background and outlook means it's not all plain sailing. The sometimes uneasy relationship between Sels and Arara as they get to know each other makes Flower's Fang stand out among furry fantasy literature.

Many books about Chosen Ones overplay their horrible past and perfect heroism. When that happens, I can't muster a scrap of sympathy for the protagonist, and in extreme cases I hope they'll be run over by a train and die. Arara and Prince Sels, however, are likeable characters, with flaws to round them out.

Arara is slow to offer trust, and doesn't think before she acts, often with dangerous consequences. Sels can be childlike and selfish. (It's because of his hothoused upbringing. But his friendship with Arara helps him bloom. I was rooting for him. And that's all the plant puns out of the way, I promise.)

This shades of grey attitude pervades the book, so that nobody is irredeemably bad or flawlessly good, and it makes the experience richer.

The world of Flower's Fang is also a big part of the book's appeal. Keller paints the scene with a broad brush and fills in a few key details, so we're not bogged down in description.

The two races, the wolflike Jegera and the plant Kin, have delightfully alien physiologies and cultures. The Jegera drop to all fours when they want to move quickly, with clothes and bags designed to accommodate this. They measure time in scratchmarks and space in tails. The Kin need sunlight to give them energy, and root themselves at night.

The stakes of the novel are soon raised. From the initial coming of age story, the scene moves to the nation's capital city and a plot against the royal family. But what is Arara's role in it all, and why is she so important? Will she save the day, or destroy it?

This book is particularly suitable for older children and younger teens, but can be enjoyed at any age.

[Rachel Barnard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arara of the Jegera is bullied by her own people because she’s different. She’s a runt and has longer fur and better mind talking abilities. She plans on heading North after the ceremonial hunt with her year’s kin but when the Prince of the flower kin – Se’ls – comes to watch the hunt, things start to go awry for Arara. Prince Se’ls just wants to find a Jegera to form a Sedyu-bond with but hasn’t felt any connection to any of the candidates until he sees Arara. Sel’s and Arara are tied together by more than a potential Sedyu-bond when something is threatening the Empire and they must fight together to survive and help everyone else.

The world building in this story was amazing and different, but not too complicated. You can easily imagine the world, although the flower-Kin and Jegera may be a bit harder to visualize than a human. I really enjoyed the different types of characters in this world and their names and details. The Kwaso and Yaka were neat and unusual. The Jegera were the furred creatures with the unqiue ability to talk in each other’s heads using a ‘gefir.’ I really liked the concept of a gefir and the fact that some Jegera were better at it than others. The Kin were flower-like people with sap for blood and petals for good looks and vines that they wrapped up much like long hair.

The main characters in this story, however, left me quite wanting. Se’ls and Arara are both emerging ‘adults’ in their cultures, but they are amazingly childish. They both easily display every emotion they are feeling and whine and cry at the drop of a hat. They act like children, think like children, and cry like children. This book’s characters were more appropriate to a middle grade novel in the way they acted.

Arara’s main reason to leave her home town was tied into her apparent musical skill, however, after the first couple of chapters she leaves this behind and apparently doesn’t care any more about music or her wish to write music. The author forgets all about Arara’s musical ability in light of her other adventures and never comes back to this trait.

Kerka’s character baffled me. He wasn’t bad enough to be a bad guy and he never quite redeemed himself either. He wasn’t enough of a character to be bad or good or to have a turnaround moment.

I loved the fantasy elements in this book and absolutely adore the cover art but felt like there was a lot lacking in the characters.

[Esme Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madison Keller introduces us to a unique fantasy world in her debut novel Flower's Fang. The Kin-Jegera Empire is an alliance between the Kin, an ambulatory plant race, and the Jegera, a warrior feline race. At the highest level, Kin and Jegera are bonded together in a telepathic, almost symbiotic, relationship.

I won't spoil more details, but I enjoyed my time in this world. While the two races can be stereotyped, don't assume you know it all - especially by the end. Ms. Keller's Kin and Jegera are not the typical alliance of brains and brawn, nor even mages and warriors.

Even better, the core of the tale revolves around two individuals who are counter-typical for their races. Arara the runt Jegera. Se'ls the inept magician Kin. The bulk of the book is character driven, with plot conflicts mainly serving to heat up the crucibles in which the characters are being forged. This includes some very well-written action sequences. Fans of a good twist, however, will not finish the book disappointed.

The book isn't perfect. Many of the side characters are uninteresting or one-dimensional. Despite alien biological designs, the two races fail to be terribly alien in the consciousness. But I ended the book not only having enjoyed it, but wanting to read the next book as soon as it comes out.

[Lee French · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming-of-age action story, this book takes a good look at bullying and oppression and the parallels between the two. This is very much a tale of the underdogs (no pun intended) meeting challenges that ought to be handled by those stronger and wiser. At the same time, the action centers around a political intrigue plot which blooms (pun totally intended) over the course of the book.
The two main characters are well rounded and the explorations of their relationship is interesting. As for the rest of the named characters, most are somewhat thin in terms of characterization. A few surprised me by either being or not being the bad guy. The resolution of the relationships with some of the secondary characters left me a little unsatisfied as too simple.

Also of note, Arara always seems to be exhausted by everything she does, which I found a bit repetitive as the story went on.

Even with my quibbles, I still enjoyed the story quite a bit, as it's told well and never lost my attention. I recommend this for ages 12+ who like fantasy told through nonhuman eyes.

[Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fully-fledged and highly original world pairs with characters you are deeply invested in to make Flower's Fang, an exciting and emotional journey you won't regret. The pacing is perfect, the conflict is high, and Arara is the sort of heroine that gets into your heart fast and stays there. The plot of Flower's Fang twists delightfully into unexpected corners, and all the characters have something up their sleeve. No one is one hundred percent right, and therefore everyone is relatable and very real.
For me this book was a pure delight to read, and I absolutely could not put it down. I will most definitely be looking for the next installment as soon as possible.

[Aran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Flower's Fang. I found the world to be interesting and the characters to be engaging and intriguing. I especially like the descriptions of body language and movement of the Jegera and could see that a lot of work went into studying the habits and demeanor of wolves and other canine. The story line quickly caught me up, and though not the most complicated book I've read, there were many surprises and new ideas introduced throughout. All in all, I'm looking forward to reading the second one!

[Maquel A Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming to age story of a female protagonist who is trying to survive a life of bullying while making a make in the world. I was not sure about the Furry Genre but this makes me want to investigate and read more. The characters were believable and many times I forgot the entire cast was not human. Definitely a great read for young adults and those of us older "kids" who like to relive our wonder years.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting. It was wonderfully written. Masterfully described. I could feel the emotions of the characters and found myself caring deeply for the central characters in the story. It was a great story and a really wonderful read. I'll be looking forward to book two. I definitely recommend this book.

[Mary Lowd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flower's Fang is an excellent, thoroughly enjoyable piece of fiction. The characters and story are compelling, and the world is completely delightful. It's a fantasy world, primarily inhabited by canine Jegera and plant-like Kin. The details and different cultures of these two races and their interaction with each other are fascinating. I very much look forward to reading the next book.

[Cheryl Montgomery-Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming coming-of-age story set in a different world, the Kin-Jegera Empire. It revolves around Arara (a picked-on runt) and Se'ls (the future ruler of the Empire). They meet, they learn from each other and they conquer their fears together.

[Terrie Stamey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowers Fang

Great read. Kept my attention the whole way. Using animals and living plants like people was fascinating. Everyone would enjoy this story!

[David Lyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! The scenes are incredibly well crafted. I could smell the flowers and feel the magic!