My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Review: A Sundered Moon

A Sundered Moon A Sundered Moon by Luís Falcão de Magalhães
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Previous Review of A Silvery Moon
Previous Review of Mask of the Eternal Moon

This is the third book of the Legends of Elessia series, with an apparent expectation of another book coming soon. Setting aside the ridiculous conclusion of the prior book, this one starts with the ascendency (or resurrection/release) of the Blood God … one of an apparent trinity of god-like vampires that ruled many eons ago. While it doesn’t really explain why, the sisters ganged up and vanquished their brother his return here … and he is pissed. As his first act, he curses Lucius, a priest for the Daughter of the Pines, linking his existence with his nemesis, the high vampire Memphala … making access to his pure moon magic impossibly painful to both (since they are essentially sharing all the other experiences). Although this was a rather ham-fisted way to connect them, it does begin something of a redemptive arc for the vampire that could have been interesting if there had not been so much prior effort to show how irritably evil she was …. and as part of that shared experience, the priest changes and is pretty much damned (so it is unclear if this really is a redemptive arc).

At any rate … the writing style is the same that is seen in the previous two books, so if you enjoyed them, this is more of the same. I still found it awkward and simple, but somewhat entertaining. For almost the entire book, we see everybody moving back and forth preparing for and evening engaging against the new big bad, aka the Blood God, who have cursed the moon red and ripe out his keep and fly it north to ultimately destroy his sister, the Daughter of Ice (and apparent patron of undead). When all is said and done, this is primarily a mechanical adventure with vampires, necromancers, dwarves and humans and a few other monsters …

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ASunderedMoon #BookSirens #KindleUnlimited

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.