Review: Blue Descent

Blue Descent by David Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

All the elements were there for a casual summer read that was entertaining, but not particularly deep. The narration made it easy to just let the story develop from a simple mystery to some more … paranormal. Not exactly believable, but still interesting and fun way to pass the time with a little treasure hunting mixed in with a few legends (rumors of the fountain of youth and monster sea creatures play a significant role here) and conspiracies (standard missing persons) that sort of magically all work out (almost predictably). That also makes it easy to come and go pretty much at will and not really miss much. As an intro to the series, it was okay … a little choppy, but a good introduction to the characters and story telling style that might be hit or miss for some folks.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Librarian Gladiator: Book One of the Tallindran Trilogy

The Librarian Gladiator: Book One of the Tallindran Trilogy by Dustin Bilyk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A slightly different twist on a classic trope

Despite the somewhat provocative title, it was the dark world building premise that I found interesting enough to pick up the story … of course, high stakes, tourney style combat has been done before; but I had not yet encountered one where the penalty for the loser was the sacrifice of the entire family line and I was interested in how the author would implement this. Over all, this was a pretty entertaining story, first introducing our “librarian” hero as one of the selected four (4) before cramming a ton of action, adventure, mystery and surprises into the few days before the combat. 

The characters were well developed, if prone to some of the typical navel gazing that drives me to distraction (oh no I don’t want anything at all to do with that mysterious power that guarantees I can not die today cause it is just too scary or evil or what ever). The story does throw in a few good monsters that actually become an important part of the plot and a solid resolution at the end … with an obvious lead in to the next book (but this story is reasonably complete). All in all, the story would be a good 3.5 and the solid narration makes it easy to round up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Elodia's Knife: Book One of the Visigoth Saga

Elodia's Knife: Book One of the Visigoth Saga by Robert S. Phillips
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Book: *
Performance: ***

There Is So Much Wrong Here

To start … it is poorly written in passive voice with way too much descriptive text making it nearly impossible to actually put yourself into the story. Instead, the reader remains on the outside looking in, reading/listening to the third person narrative describing what happened, broken up by extremely awkward/unnatural dialog.
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There are zero sympathetic characters in this story. I uniformly disliked them all, not finding any of them to be even remotely believable. I don’t think there was a single relationships that was not extremely dysfunctional

There is way too much detail that doesn’t advance the plot … probably because the plot is MIA making this something of a rape fantasy that for some reason over uses the euphemism “bumping” as if that makes it all okay. This is even more aggravating because most of the historical details are just wrong … the roman military didn’t work like that, roman river patrol boats didn’t work like that, roman weapons and armor didn’t work like that, roman disciple and law didn’t work like that, roman christianity didn’t work like that … and all of these weird anachronisms might be hidden for most readers because the overarching history (the conflict between Rome and the Goths on the Danube) is at least correct in broad strokes. I found the poor research so ubiquitous that it was hard to ignore and I almost DNF.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Unseen Blade

The Unseen Blade by Ambrose Z. Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: **

A Derivative YA Fantasy w/ poor narration

This is a YA coming of age story complete with a school of magic and a “chosen one.” Kids are “sorted” into specialities and placed into small “combat” teams that was ridiculously like a magical fight club (and the required bully). There is a parallel story about a conflict between werewolves and vampires that was highly predictable and not very interesting … at least until it intersects with the main plot late in the last half of the book. Of course … getting there requires a few time jumps punctuated by child combat to grievous injury et al. Despite all that, there is some character development (as might be expected with the coming of age genre). Bottomline, it was not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be given the premise from the jacket blurb. This was aggravated by the poor narration performance where the performance came across extremely awkward and wooden. It might help if playback speed is bumped up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Bleeding Stone

The Bleeding Stone by Joseph John Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Slow Fantasy with a Colonizer Trope

The story is told from the perspective of a native tribal culture in retreat from a more technologically advance colonizing civilizations that is an obvious nod how the European powers colonized the Americas. In this case, the “natives” are of course more attuned to nature (Sun Tribe, Wood Tribe, Stone Tribe, et al), with some minor supernatural gifts that are awarded by a special ceremony when they become adults. The invaders primarily use firearms (flintlocks) which apparently are too advance for the natives to figure out a counter So yeah … there despite the very interesting premise, there are parts of the world-building that are overly simplistic and tropey. That makes the main driving force behind the story the characters … with the the bad guy a typical arrogant fool and the FMC an emotional wreck … because she was born under the eclipse and should have been “exposed” as a cursed born child.

The bulk of the story focused on developing the extremely dysfunction relationships between the FMC and various members of her tribe (allies and enemies) while highlighting her self-destructive behavior that made her much less appealing over all. There are slowly revealed mysteries that remained largely unexplored (although there is a hint at the end that is really only there to pull you into the sequel). Still, the bones of a pretty good story are there. It loses points for the time jumping across three (3) separate timelines (not a fan) and the really slow (almost nonexistent) and the unsatisfactory (and rushed) ending. It gets credit for a solid narration though making it a decent piece of entertainment.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Thirteenth Koyote

The Thirteenth Koyote by Kristopher Triana
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Book: *
Performance: ***

NSFW-DNF-TW Graphic Torture, Sex and Violence

I don’t know what I was thinking; I was obviously not familiar enough with the splatter sub-genres. First, I should say that if you are even remotely triggered about anything, this book is definitely not for you. Second, the graphic descriptions also make this audible not-safe-for-work (or any place public really). This was an 11 of 10 score for gratuitous, and mostly gross, depictions of torture, sex and violence that I really … Really … REALLY did NOT care for. I am sure there was a stock plot in there somewhere, something to do with outlaw werewolves, but it was hard for me to find amid all the blood and gore. I get it … they are some really bad dudes … I don’t need to be hit over the head with that in virtually every paragraph. I made it about 50% before I quit … and that is saying something for an audiobook (I can count on one hand the number I was not able to gut it out to the end). Now … if you will excuse me … I need a shower.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Spawn

Spawn by Donald F. Glut
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ***

Pocahontas in Space … With Dinos

This is the third book in the Don Glut’s Pulp series; I have not read the first two of the series, but this installment does stand well on its own. That said, the story feels like is a nod to the 1960’s pulp sub-genre of SciFi (which should come as no surprise) … most especially with its overtly man’s man hero coming to the rescue of the helpless, and very beautiful, woman. From an art perspective I can appreciate the effort even as I have a hard time truly enjoying the cringe here. The basic idea is that, in a world where nobody ever watched any of the Jurassic Park movies, the people of earth want a Dinosaur park, and rather than just cloning DinoDNA, send a spaceship to a planet that has what they are looking for. While there, they rescue a sexy native woman from the jaws of death on two feet and hitch her to the expedition captain for a little play on the side.

So with a little bit of egg napping, the people get what they want … and more. There is actually a pretty interesting twist woven into he plot line that was fun to think about and probably would have worked better with a different first contact story, but it was still entertaining. At times there was a little too much focus on details (so if you are a dino loving geek add back a star).

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Nanoverse

Nanoverse by Theophilus Monroe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Story: ***
Performance: ***

Fantasy with a SciFi Facade ...

This is a collection of four(4) quick (3+ hours ea) fantasy stories set in a fantasy world wearing the skin of a cyberpunk genre … because it’s all about uses the new buzzword nano as much as possible without any real knowledge of what they are are how they would actually work. Maybe that is just my inner geek chanting that is not how that works in my head for almost the entire book (IOW I know too much about the tech and had a hard time letting go). Regardless … while the story doesn’t work well within the generally accepted norms of SciFi, it was a fairly typical Fantasy that is build to leverage a virtual (fantasy) world concept along the lines of the matrix, upload or free guy where the bad guy mysteriously works toward the total destruction of the real world. It’s not a bad plot … however, it has been done much better else where.

The story begins with an example of unintended consequences despite good intentions when a vaccine is developed to introduce nanites into the human body that would be tasked with healing wounds and preventing disease. Patient Zero is a badly wounded soldier who would probably have died otherwise, so with that success story behind the program, the government mandates nanovax for everybody … and hidden within those nanites is the ability to network into the public cloud to spy on the host AND take over the human conscious … a la mind control (maybe I am reading the tealeaves wrong here, but this part of the story starts to read like covid antivax conspiracies that didn’t help with the whole suspension of disbelief needed to fully enjoy the story).

That is where the algorithm comes in … which works sorta like minority report in that it predicts aberrant behavior ahead of time and reports it to the authorities who controls the nanites which can then control the host. Of course, in this paranoid fantasy, our hero is a threat to the system because his PTSD has change his mind enough that he can’t be controlled and that makes him a terrorist … only before the government can take him out back and shoot him, he is rescued by the resistance so that he can eventually defeat the algorithm.

Of course that is not the end … in part 2 the nanites can now swarm (in say 500 in each cloud) externally and possess others in the physical world … and apparently host an uploaded consciousness and associated memories all in readable code with individual global network addresses … so the resistance moves from minority report into the matrix here … again with a lot less finesse. We also begin to see the hero’s daughter make her debut as the bad guys cats paw … something that didn’t really work for me. This actually becomes a central theme in Post Human as the action moves almost entirely into the virtual world and a race to avoid an apocalypse in the real world. This part of the story calls to mind elements of the bobiverse with all the consciousness cloning. It all wraps up with a redemption arc in the final installment, which for better or for worse can actually stand on its own with no significant inspiration from other stories, but which does get a little preachy with a hint of Judeo-Christian theology … for me, this was actually the best of the four (4)

Book 1: Algorithm (3:56)
Book 2: Nanoswarm (3:43)
Book 3: Posthuman (3:15)
Book 4: Nanowar (2:32)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Irish History & Mythology: Exploring The History, Celtic Myths, Folklore, Sagas, Traditions of Ireland

Irish History & Mythology: Exploring The History, Celtic Myths, Folklore, Sagas, Traditions of Ireland by History Brought Alive
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book: ***
Performance: **

A Quick Summary of Irish Myth

This is a very short survey of the history and mythology of the Irish, starting in the mesolithic era (stone age) up through the middle ages to current day. The legend of the four migrations to Ireland ( Muintir Nemid -> Fir Bolg -> Tuatha Dé Danann -> Milesians) which most scholars believe was a convenient fiction invented by Irish Christians (who wrote about such legend … much like the christian skalds of Iceland) to link them to stories in the Old Testament (specially Noah). As such, it really doesn’t belong as “history” but it is still entertaining. I supposed this can be expected since there are no written records prior to the these storytellers of the middle ages. Once we do get such written records, the history provided is on firmer ground, if quite brief. The next two chapters quickly march up to modern times before returning to myths and legends that is presented in the form of a bestiary followed by a compendium of heroes (and some of the stories attached to each figure). For the most part this was interesting and fun … and brief (which pretty much describes most of the book) although it hardly qualifies as quality scholarship. Unfortunately the rather average narration does suffer from from an awkward pacing, but overall was still pretty decent.

The narration was decent for this genre.

The chapters and sections in this work are:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Prehistory Ireland
Chapter 2: Gaelic Ireland
Chapter 3: Ireland During the Middle Ages
Chapter 4: Ireland from the Rule of Henry VIII
Chapter 5: Irish Paganism
Chapter 6: Mythological Creatures
Chapter 7: Mythological Figures
Conclusion

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Amulet of Alamin

The Amulet of Alamin by Felix Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

An Interesting Historical Fantasy

This book will be way better if you have at least a little Mesopotamian history under your belt (and can remember a good portion of it). In short, it was a fascinating fantasy that combines elements of ancient Hebrew stories with middle eastern myths and legends set in context of a war of aggressive expansion by the evil Zagesi. As the story unfolds, you get a veritable who’s who of famous names, Sargon, Enki, Abram et al with angles, demons, immortals (aka shape changers), nephilim, etc. In fact … it is the huge cast of main and supporting characters that is this story’s weakest link. There are so many that it is difficult to keep track of everything and main plot gets buried under extraneous side stories in a failed attempt to overcome the lack of character differentiation and/or character growth. It’s just too busy and it didn’t pull me into the story at all. This is more like an extended version of a short story than a novel … and this doesn’t work very well for me the reader. Add to that a tendency to add details that just take up space and don’t really add much to the story or advance the plot as far as I can tell.

This issue is compounded by an average audio performance where the narrator struggles to differentiate voices, especially when the story changes the PoV in the middle of the chapter (the prisoner escape and chase being a perfect example of swapping back and forth between the escapees and the pursuers several times in the chapter where it almost seemed like there were all in the same party). Other than that, the pacing and enunciation was good for what was happening within the story. Overall it was a fun distraction, but not a favorite.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: City Of Light

City Of Light by Darren Deegan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Performance: **

Loosely based on Irish Myth and Legend, the City of Light tells a story from two PoV; a young girl on the wrong side of the tracks and a government stooge that allows the reader to “check-in” with the rulers of the city.  The narration/performance was fair if somewhat choppy.  The narrator struggled a lot with male character voices and the fits and starts tempo highlighted an odd emphasis now and again.  Still, she managed to avoid the breathy wonder voice and up tick lilt at the end of each sentence that drives me nuts … so over all I could still enjoy the experience.  The story itself was mostly teen drama … taking nearly half the book before it actually got interesting with some action (it took that long to get to the main plot hook of a heist gone wrong).  There is an undercurrent of kidnapped children that was barely explained in the second half encounters and of course there are several anticipated reveals with few surprises.  Over all that makes it an average fantasy for me with a sub-par narration.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Shikaree

Shikaree by M.J. Oelkers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second of the Arnstead series; and the first that I have actually read. Although the MC of the first reappears here, he is primarily a support character in this work that is focused on a new MC PoV that actually seemed to be a more sympathetic protagonist just struggling to survive (as such, it can easily stand on its own, but I enjoyed the world enough to go back and read the first if I still had Kindle Unlimited). Here we also get a standard fantasy trope of a long vanished “magical” civilization now only known for their surviving artifacts and powerful relics (which drive the treasure hunter plot). 

I am sure I missed out on some of the world-building that was probably presented in the first book (likely covering much of the various races that inhabit the world and possibly more about the Ones Who Came Before aka demons), there was still quite a lot still happening here, as the MC and friends spend a fair amount of time in the World Below, leaving enough of a mystery to make it very interesting, along with the accelerating action in the back half of the book that made the book hard to put down until you get to a fairly satisfying ending. It all fit together quite well within the solid storytelling craft to make this a stand out achievement. Maybe the next installment will pick up the story of Chandra’s “blind” acolyte buddy for a peek at yet another aspect of the world.

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

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Review: Knee-Deep in Cinders

Knee-Deep in Cinders by Ashley Capes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A quick, dark fantasy where the protagonist with a burning hatred and desire for revenge against his jailers who committed a genocide against his people in attempt to steal their magical power (with some very limited success). As such, despite the tease of a redemption arc, it took a bit before I started to like the main character (and his weird sense of honor that demanded only he could be allowed to extract vengeance on his enemies. The supporting characters were also well done and easier to love, but the story seemed too short to develop them much in this fast moving story. What carried the book here was solid world building, some slight-of-hand with the antagonists, and the slow reveal of the MC backstory that made for an interesting mystery … and a stunner of an ending … all told by an author who is very good at his craft (so keep a eye out for future works by Ashley Capes).

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

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Review: The Sigils of the Moor

The Sigils of the Moor by Brendan Corbett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book just did not work for me. Part of that Might be because I was starting with the second book, so there was a fair amount that I had to pick up for what little context there was (so if you are interested at all in the series, I would highly recommend starting with book one). That said, I was also able to get a good feel for how the story was told … and the author’s style doesn’t work for me either. This part of the story was a basic travelogue … which is common enough for world building but not a smoothly executed here as I had hoped. So we have the MC and her mentor searching for clues to a mystery that is not clearly articulated, but is an existential threat to the “historian” order … who apparently keeps all history via runetrees that they can “commune” with … and which heavily depends on the good behavior of their various hosts presumably because they get something from this arrangement (although that is not well explained either). The world building itself was mostly interesting with a strong current of weirdness for weirdness sake and the main characters themselves where stiff and not very sympathetic (with a constant and very irritating theme as the ward asking to do stuff and the mentor pushing back with you really don’t want to do that so I forbid it … I mean … isn’t that what a mentor is supposed to be doing? At any rate … the story didn’t really capture my attention until the destination in the last half of the story where we finally get a few hints and the dark machinations going on … and we get a relatively small, and unexpected, resolution to some of the conflict … which obviously continues in book three.

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

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Review: A Diplomat of Mars: War in space

A Diplomat of Mars: War in space by Stephan Bellesini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Simple [Christian] Space Opera

It’s a space opera, so the normal science rules do not apply (except where convenient). The story really revolves around a few [earth] warships out by Titan and a mysterious girl at the center of a conspiracy that strains credulity … but it’s an opera, so that is ok. In fact, this is really a mash-up with the Christian fantasy genre, and it you judge it strictly on that, it was actually a pretty good story. The good guys are really good and the bad guys are really bad and there are a handful of traitors just in it for the 30 silver. While there is a little preaching here, it is generally not forced and logically fits in the storyline … so kudos for that; however, like many in the genre, there really isn’t a lot of constancy here (or if there was, I missed it). The warships are armed with cannons … which seem to actually be mass projectors (eg. canon balls?) with segregated gun decks (one side for women and one side for men … and not patty fingers if you please, at least without a chaperone. Acceleration and maneuver are done via magic hand waving and comms are instantaneous using EM tech.

Basically think "Master and Commander" in space and you get the feel. Of course the whole watch bells was way off with a bell system that was totally incomprehensible even after it was explained. For the record, in naval terms a watch would generally be 4 hrs with one bell each 30 mins (so 8 bells is the change of watch). A dog watch is designed to sift the watch rotation … and is half a normal watch (you could also go the other way a lengthen the watch (sometimes know as a Swedish watch rotation). Of course the is a limited cast of characters driving these capital ships, so when one character is assigned as the cook for the entire crew, she whips up burgers and fries in a fry pan all by herself … learning how to do this from scratch in a little less than 2 hrs. Refer to rule 1 … it’s a space opera … learn to let go (still working on that myself).

The audio production is actually pretty good … with sound effects and good voice differential. In fact, it is the narration that pulls this book up from a slightly subpar feel good story filled with mary sues into the realm of being a fun, if fairly silly, listen. The background music can get a little over dramatic and annoying at times, but it does help take you mind of the speechifying and moralizing goin’ on (sure … I have a quirky sense of humor and this just tickled it all the time … no sure if that was intentional so YMMV). It was really only a problem during the long stretch where the hero catches up on family emails that droned on so long I almost started skipping sections until it got better. Over all, I enjoyed it enough to round up a star.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Gaze of the Burning Eye: Covenant of Three Keys, Book One

Gaze of the Burning Eye: Covenant of Three Keys, Book One by JD McKelvin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This review was a long time coming … and I wish I could blame it on the size; at just over 600 pages, it is a fairly big book; which was only significant because it was also a wick slow and somewhat boring for most of that. It started with a good premise … a little fantasy power struggle between European Rus and what appears to be an arabian empire (where Djinn play a prominent role), but all of the characters were simply horrible and unlikable with a significant amount of unnecessarily course and graphic violence (including rape and other physical abuse). In fact, a good portion of the first part of the book simply follows the capture and slavery of a Rus princess that really adds little to the over all plot … which I am still not clear on, but seems to involve magic Djinn and a mysterious burning eye in the sky that also appears to add nothing to the story except the title track. 

There are a few places where we see a little action, but that all seems to be resolved and over way to soon and way too easily, giving the impression that this is just a long lead up to a totally different story in the next book. I am sure it all makes sense in the author’s head, but he seems to struggle here to get it all down on paper (so to speak), and that makes it easy for the reader to lose focus (and take 6 times longer to actually finish the story that it should have).

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

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Review: Blood Ties

Blood Ties by L. Waithman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Great YA Fantasy with Abrupt TBC Ending

Book: ****
Performance: ****

A young boy with a mysterious past is taken in by fighting monks after his father is murdered. This is the first of the series that introduces us to Lucas, the blacksmith’s son with unique abilities that may play a role in a prophecy about two warring kingdoms. Not content to stay in the monastery, young Lucas leaves to join a traveling circus, where his special abilities start to reveal themselves … and he draws the attention of the King. Tragically, the jealousy of another young boy sends Lucas into hiding until a mysterious group of toughs/assassins flushes him out into the open and he is finally accepted into a group of young soldiers known as The Chosen (no spoiler here … the series is called The Kings Chosen so you had to be expecting that right). What follows is another typical YA trope where the leader of the Elite Born takes an instance dislike to Lucas and uses his authority over all the Chosen to make his life difficult … but Lucas manages to survive and gain a solid reputation despite all of that. The writing here is surprisingly tight and well done that, with the aid of a solid narration for each of the characters, makes this one of the better audiobooks in the fantasy genre that I have encountered.

The only reason it failed to get top marks is the abrupt ending … obviously this is a setup for the series; however, it is still a stand alone book and it should have resolved at least one of the plot conflicts … if it does I missed it as it seems to be to simply drop off after a new character states that it is time for Lucas to know who he really is … so tune in at the same bat time on the same bat channel to see the exciting conclusion to who the heck is Lucas. It should say something that regardless of my displeasure at the ending … I will probably pick up the next installment

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Sword Unbound

The Sword Unbound by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book in the Lands of the Firstborn series
Previous Review of The Sword Defiant

It has been long enough that some of the details from the first book were starting to fade, so I checked out an audiobook to refresh my memory before starting this one (it came back quickly). The performance was fantastic, so add a star if you are considering the audible version (I have already added this to my wishlist). At just over 600 pages each, there is quite a lot of story in each to be enjoyed … and the length provides an opportunity to engage in fantastic character and world-building with a wonderfully complex plot … except most of the former happened in the first book … making the sequel drag a bit for the first half of this book. That is not to say that there is nothing new in the world, just that the story has moved to refining what is already known instead … with a few welcome surprise revelations to keep it interesting (not all of which were welcomed … with one nearly enough to abandon the book … although it was eventually resolved to my satisfaction). 

As for the characters, we return with to the reluctant hero Alf and his black sword (spell-breaker) and his sister and nephew (which provide the two primary PoV) trying to thread the needle between former allies who were only united when Lord Bone was the big bad (proving the unity of “The Nine” more a convenience than functional) despite Alf’s efforts to preserve that particular illusion … in that respect, we see a chaotic and very believable (and extremely frustrating) political environment that starts out interesting but quickly becomes tedious. In fact … there is more than enough navel gazing and generally questionable decisions by the main characters to be very distracting (with little to no character growth for the MC). This includes a side bar with the merc/bandit Bor that I didn’t really care for, but eventually realized that it had its place with all the other moving pieces setting up the strong climax. We do see a lot more of Olva (and her “son” Derwyn) and that left me wishing this was more of the story. While not quite as good as the first in the series … by the end it was all worth it and I am looking forward to the conclusion.

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

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Review: In the Shadow of the Fall

In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So my biggest complaint here is that it all ended too soon. I mean, it is a novella, but there was so much goodness here that I was totally unprepared for the end. That makes it all the more impressive that I throughly enjoyed the world-building and MC character development (something that is usually a lot more limited is shorter stories). The basic story follows that struggle of a temple acolyte who is struggling to succeed as her peers all advance and eventually leave. We pick up the story as she desperately tries to remedy the situation with an ill-conceived plan that doesn’t quite work out as expected. The underlying mythology was also well done, with just enough detail to peak interest and hint at a much greater depth that [hopefully] comes soon … and The “bad-guy” was interesting, if only sparsely described … but there is enough there to get a good feel for the danger he poses. And we get a brief introduction to a nomadic people that could have used a lot more space to explore … because I just love the concept there. Finally there is a pretty significant reveal at the end that caught be by surprise … so well done there. Over all … it didn’t feel like a novella until the abrupt ending … all in all it was an incredible teaser that could easily anchor a solid fantasy series … so I will very likely pick up next installment eventually (which unfortunately loos to be just a little longer on page count).

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

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Review: The Fireborne Blade

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This novella didn’t quite work for me. To begin with, each of the nearly two dozen chapters of 170 some odd pages means that each was painfully short and the PoV changes fairly rapid. Not a fan. Add to that the six (6) info dump chapters presented as parts of a reference called “The Demise and Demesne of Dragons” that was used to wedge in most of the world-building and the four (4) flashback chapters that are needed to give the plot twist its punch, and you are left with a short story that simply tries to do too much in very little space … which is a shame, because what world building there was I found interesting for the most part. To be fair … a lot of readers might actually see this as a plus. At any rate, what is left is not enough to actually develop the characters, especially given that my initial reaction to all them was fairly strong dislike … so we are left with trope based caricatures that make the whole work feel like RPGLit (Not my favorite genre). I can’t help but wonder if this would have been better as a full length novel … the pieces are all there, just left undeveloped.

The basic story is a knight on a quest to retrieve a magic sword from a dragon (killing said dragon in the process). From the interwoven encyclopedia the reader is left with the impression that this is a fairly common pastime for knights, if quite dangerous. In this particular case, the knight is a woman who apparently disgraced herself over some imagined slight and thinks this legendary sword will return her into the good graces of the king … not exactly sure how that is supposed to work, but then again, I don’t really understand the whole motivation of the knight here to begin with … it comes across and a super contrived and poorly constructed plot device. Of course … every knight has a squire, even disgraced knights … but this squire is a tad off from the beginning, so it should come as no surprise this because an important factor at the end … which frankly seemed a bit rushed and deus ex machina to be honest (might have avoided that with more room to build up the final conflict, but then again, maybe not). There are some stylistic choices that didn’t seem consistent to me as well, and that detracted from the over all quality of the book, making seem like a debut story …

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

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