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The House of Yeel
For years, adventurers have traveled great distances only to meet their doom at the Far Coast. This distant and isolated place is the legendary home of the mysterious creature named Yeel. Countless souls have fallen before the dangers of the journey and the devious guardians who seek to keep Yeel imprisoned at this point farthest west in all the lands. When the scout Jymoor finally succeeds where so many others have failed, she is allowed to believe that Yeel is a human wizard, powerful in the arts of magic. What she doesn't know is that Yeel is actually a hideous tentacled monster, a garrulous tinkerer and alchemist with a vast collection of wondrous artifacts. Jymoor has enlisted the aid of this odd being to save her nation from becoming overwhelmed by invaders... but what can a single alien do in the face of such odds?
- GenresFantasy
262 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2012
4 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Michael McCloskey
41 books115 followersI am a software engineer in Silicon Valley who dreams of otherworldly creatures, mysterious alien planets, and fantastic adventures. I'm also an indie author with over 150,000 paid sales and another 150,000 free downloads.
Visit http://www.squidlord.us for more information.
You can subscribe to announcements of my new releases here: http://eepurl.com/nExcb
Visit http://www.squidlord.us for more information.
You can subscribe to announcements of my new releases here: http://eepurl.com/nExcb
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 9, 2014
A wonderful eccentric piece of business.
“The House of Yeel” is a straight up quest novel. A scout sent to the legendary Far Coast of her world seeks the reclusive wizard Yeel. The kingdom of Riken is about to be attacked by barbarian hoards and the kingdom is doomed. Jymoor the scout has been sent to beg the wizard Yeel to help save them. She finds him eager to help when she mentions that the kingdom has a very large library that the hoards are likely to burn to the ground.
The House of Yeel hovers in the air off the Far Coast. (The book’s excellent cover gives a lovely image of this). Jymoor calls out to the wizard and low and behold the House comes to the headland allowing the scout to enter the vast fortress/palace.
There Jymoor finally meets the Great Yeel, a tall thin man who natters on continually in a verbose awkward speech pattern.
He is friendly, if bumbling and frequently confused. He is also insatiably, boundlessly curious about the world and collects artifacts and knowledge like a dry sponge soaks up water.
You see. The Great Yeel is really a large green, cone-shaped alien with multiple tentacles and removable eyes. But he is able to present himself as whatever he wants/needs.
For me he is vastly entertaining, the real heart of this book. Reading his dialogue is a great wallow in dithering and curiosity.
Yeel gladly helps Jymoor on her quest.
The biggest thing she acquires is the armor of the mythic Crescent Knight—armor that makes her stronger and gives her confidence, among other things. She trains with a sword master named Kasil, a no nonsense woman who tells her what’s what.
Yeel and Jymoor’s adventures are kind of standard, but still fun. They come across a “garden” of stone-frozen figures of other adventure-seekers who had been transmogrified by some other alien lurking about. The Great Yeel frees them and this crowd eagerly joins in the quest.
Yeel has a companion/female/possibly mate of his species named Vot who lives on another planet reached through a portal Yeel has. She lives in similar circumstances as Yeel, in a large fortress near the sea…though her planet is predominantly green—including the humanoids that live there.
Vot needs help thwarting an invasion on her soil, too. So the two aliens get the humans/humanoids to agree to help their respective worlds defeat their foes.
Lots of great fighting goes on.
All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. I really enjoyed the Great Yeel and Vot.
The only caveat worth mentioning is the novel ends very abruptly. I mean it stops at a decent point, but sort of in the middle of a scene.
April 28, 2012
This book has been forged from pure awesomium.
The premise is simple enough--a scout sent on a quest to beseech an ancient wizard to help her homeland. But the characters are really something else; many times I had to work to not burst out laughing and thus avoid getting strange sideways glances at the office.
Although the overarching story formula (Kingdom in danger from invaders, etc etc) may seem a bit of a Fantasy trope, the individual elements are really pretty interesting and there's a lot to McCloskey's world that will catch you off guard. The focus is a bit more on the characters than anything else, I think, which is just fine by me. I don't think I've seen a character quite as innovative as Yeel before, and a number of other conventions provided a refreshing break from the usual Fantasy tropes. There's still Kings and Knights and Armies and all the associated baggage, but here the characterization and humor step up to provide an original, interesting story all the same.
Moreover, the character development was done quite nicely. And quite unlike, say, Ketty Jay where the author sort of clubs you over the head with it.
It's not terribly long and the author has a way of writing that, at least for me, makes the book hard to put down. And, hey, McCloskey doesn't nuke half the cast at the end of this book, so there's that. :P
Highly recommended.
The premise is simple enough--a scout sent on a quest to beseech an ancient wizard to help her homeland. But the characters are really something else; many times I had to work to not burst out laughing and thus avoid getting strange sideways glances at the office.
Although the overarching story formula (Kingdom in danger from invaders, etc etc) may seem a bit of a Fantasy trope, the individual elements are really pretty interesting and there's a lot to McCloskey's world that will catch you off guard. The focus is a bit more on the characters than anything else, I think, which is just fine by me. I don't think I've seen a character quite as innovative as Yeel before, and a number of other conventions provided a refreshing break from the usual Fantasy tropes. There's still Kings and Knights and Armies and all the associated baggage, but here the characterization and humor step up to provide an original, interesting story all the same.
Moreover, the character development was done quite nicely. And quite unlike, say, Ketty Jay where the author sort of clubs you over the head with it.
It's not terribly long and the author has a way of writing that, at least for me, makes the book hard to put down. And, hey, McCloskey doesn't nuke half the cast at the end of this book, so there's that. :P
Highly recommended.
September 3, 2012
This book was great! It was vastly different from the Insidious series, showing skill with diversity on the author's part. From the description, I thought it would be a sci-fi/fantasy mash up, which I tend to not like. I really didn't get that from this, though. It was more of a very creative fantasy book.
The characters were great, especially Yeel. If anything, I would like to have learned more about Yeel and his species. I loved the comical interactions between Jymoor and Yeel.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy books, or has liked Michael McCloskey's books in the past.
The characters were great, especially Yeel. If anything, I would like to have learned more about Yeel and his species. I loved the comical interactions between Jymoor and Yeel.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy books, or has liked Michael McCloskey's books in the past.
October 13, 2016
Yeel is a extremely fun character, fun read.
December 19, 2016
Lighthearted adventure in a fantasy world but with a serious goal. A young scout is sent to find "The Great Yeel" a perfectly normal human just like us with amazing power and a great mind. After she saves Yeel she talks him into helping her people from a vicious hoard of barbarians. The best part of this book is the character Yeel who thirsts for knowledge and is as witty as he is unusual. I still want to know more about him, he is just so fun. I would love to see more books about Yeel. Perfect story with just the right amount of action and humor.
June 17, 2013
Worth the read for Yeel alone. But the story accelerates a bit to fast and Yeel doesn't get too much room. Also there is to much revealed about his "condition", I wouldn't have minded to be kept guessing a but longer.
But there is a good setup for a sequel, hopefully it will be a bit of a journey story with lots of interesting characters being developed. The actual plot mechanics need not be all that fantastic. Maybe that will be my first McCloskey five star?
But there is a good setup for a sequel, hopefully it will be a bit of a journey story with lots of interesting characters being developed. The actual plot mechanics need not be all that fantastic. Maybe that will be my first McCloskey five star?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews