Light in the Gloaming by J.B. Simmons

 Light in the Gloaming by J.B. Simmons

Synopsis: “The Gloaming was worse than the grave…”

Or so Tryst believed when he banished the former prince to this secret and brutal exile. Now Tryst sits on the throne of Valemidas. He feasts with nobles and prepares an army to conquer the world.

But things are never as stable as they seem. Old loyalties remain. Tryst’s half-sister wants vengeance for the disappeared prince she loved. What happens if a man survives a place worse than the grave?

Alliances will crumble, battles will rage, and souls will transform in the Gloaming.



 

Review:

The characters were outstanding, they had interesting and diverse personalities. The good characters had flaws. There were also some characters who appeared to be aiding the main character, but with the way the author conveys the heroes thoughts we have doubts along with him whether they are truly helping him or if they will betray him in the end. The author did an excellent job of bringing across believable thoughts and feelings from all of the characters.

It was interesting to see chapters from the point of view of the hero, Andor and his rival Tryst from first person perspective and chapters from the point of view of other characters written in third person perspective. It was an good technique and it certainly made me feel it was a story about these two main characters.

The story was excellent. It was different from your average hero having to overthrow the villain story. Since the hero had to be more subtle about it and was attempting to do it without killing his rival.

The action was fairly light and the fighting scenes tended to be short. That’s not to say there isn’t anything happening or that it is short on excitement. There is plenty of that; it just takes a different form, such as the main characters planning on how they will overthrow Tryst. Probably the biggest disappointment with the action was how the tension could build up, or something appears to being set up for an action filled sequence only to turn out to be fairly small. SPOILER The showdown between Andor and Tryst as well as the big battle were both disappointing given all of the build up to them. [END OF SPOILER]

The descriptions are very well written, every part of the world is more brilliant in the way the author describes it.

The Gloaming was a very interesting place, but sadly only fills up a small section of the book, a couple of chapters at the start and at the end, which was odd giving the title and the synopsis. The memories of the place do effect Andor during the story, but I really would liked to have seen more of it, either by having the prince spend more time there or by having more detailed flashbacks to the place.

Overall I would rate this book four and a half out of five. The lack of action, and results not matching up to the build up were my main reasons for not giving this book the full five out of five. But it is strong enough for me to be on the look out for the next book in the series.

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. 

**** 1/2

Sourcethief (Twinborn Trilogy #3) by J.S. Morin

 Sourcethief (Twinborn Trilogy #3) by J.S. Morin

Synopsis: War ravages Veydrus. Driven back by the magical might of the Kadrin Empire, the Megrenn Alliance is in a shambles.

The war spills into Tellurak. and Twinborn plots spanning the two worlds threaten the course of the war from all sides, including within the empire itself.

Desperate to find a way to counter the unstoppable power of an army led by a demon warlock, Jinzan Fehr seeks an ancient source of power.

Thus begins the Fourth Necromancer War ...

Review: The originality of the concept for this series, having characters live lives in two very different worlds, was what first struck me that this was going to be something very special. The author continues to impress me, not only did he go on with this idea but has developed it as well. The importance of passing information between worlds, having alliances that work on both sides and many other important ideas are all developed in this book.

The descriptions are again of the perfect length, there is enough detail to fully visualize the world, but they are not so lengthy that they take to you away from the story for too long.

The reminders of what has happened in the previous two books was almost always the right length, enough there to remind the reader of an event but not so long that you feel you are rereading the story again. The nature of Iridan’s death was about the only thing that I felt wasn’t detailed enough early on, although later in the story I was given enough to remember how it happened.

The characters are again enjoyable and their personalities continue to develop. I really liked how Brannis and Kyrus have blended together, both becoming stronger as a result. It was interesting to read about Kyrus’s doubts about whether he is doing the right thing and fear he will turn into another Rashan. The thoughts and feelings of all the characters are believable, interesting to read about, and come across clearly.

While it is now clear exactly who is good and who is evil, there is always enough good in evil characters, and evil in good characters to keep them realistic and more interesting. The evil characters often also see themselves as doing the right thing.

The relationships between the characters across both worlds are done well, along with the many plot points that are both in their own world and across both. For the most I was able to follow who was who, and what was going on, only a couple of times did I feel a little lost. Considering just how much is going on and how complex it all is, this was quite a feat.

We get to see even more of the world in this book, and like the characters it is varied and has real depth to it. It is really well done especially considering there are two worlds in this book.

The story is excellent, there are many plot points all being developed through the book, almost all of them are interesting and continue the overall story in some way.

The action sequences for the first three quarters of the book were rare. There was interesting things going on with the story, but I did think it could do with some more excitement at times. Also most of the early action scenes are very one sided and it was pretty obvious who was going to win (Rashan battling against unknown soldiers, Brannis and his friends fighting off some street thugs, and Jinzan with his staff attacking civilians and local militia). Since all of these main characters were so much more powerful than those they were fighting against, it took away from the tension and you never felt they were in any real danger. The battle scenes for the remainder of the book are fantastic, Avalanche really gets to live up to its name, and when the main characters finally get to face each other, the scenes are exciting, varied and you are never sure who is going to win.

Just like the previous two books this is a big one. It has a fairly small print and large page sizes so it is even longer than the 381 pages would suggest. It’s not a problem since so much happens and it is almost all interesting.

The author did an excellent job of tying up the loose ends, but left a few just loose enough that there could be more books in the series, but if there aren’t then you aren’t left feeling something has been missed out.

I have really enjoyed this series and it is easily my favorite read of 2013. It is one of those books where I found myself really hoping that the book and author will be successful in a big way. The story is so fantastic that the author truly deserves to have it be successful, the originality, story, characters, and quality of writing is so much superior to major fantasy novels out there I really want to see this series do well.

If I had to decide I would probably pick book two Aethersmith as my favorite in the series. Almost everything about this book was great, the story, the characters, the worlds, the descriptions, and the many plot points, it was just lacking a little action and fast pacing compared to the Aethersmith.

I am excited about the authors next project “The Mad Tinker Chronicles” which will pair up Tellurak with a completely new world, which seems to be more steampunky, in a new Twinborn series. I had been thinking for some time how cool it would be to have other worlds for the Twinborns to live in and I am glad to see this will be happening. And if it anywhere near as good as this series it is likely to be my favorite read in 2014.

A big thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book.

In full disclosure I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ***** + ♥

 

The Silver Falcon (Das kupferne Zeichen #2) by Katia Fox

 The Silver Falcon (Das kupferne Zeichen #2) by Katia Fox

Synopsis: England, 1184
Young Will, the Marshal’s bastard son, dreams of training falcons but as the son of famous swordsmith Ellenweore, it seems his destiny will be the forge.

One fateful day, the falcon of King Henry II is lost in a chase and Will happens upon the bird. Recognizing this great opportunity, he begs the king to let him become a falconer. With no clear path ahead of him, he decides to take matters into his own hands and following his dreams of one day becoming a falconer to the king.

Love, intrigue and betrayal leave Will more than once only narrowly escaping death and when his talent attracts King John’s attention, a powerful enemy does everything to ruin him.

 Review:
This book was amazing and easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

The level of detail is excellent; the author does a fantastic job of bringing the medieval world to life and fills every sense. The detail is never too long and doesn’t take too much time away from the story. There is no indication that this book has been translated from another language and is better worded and constructed than most of books.

The detailing on many aspects of the characters lives is also very well described, falconry is obviously an important part of the main character’s life and we are told a lot about this, but other things that are important to him are also given plenty of attention. A few times I did find the information lacking, such as the types of horses people are riding and the amount things cost is never given. Very rarely there was a piece of incorrect information, such as referring to the priest who opposed King Henry II as Thomas à Becket, but other than these few small things I found the level of research and detail to be very high but never described to the point it became boring.

Most of the time how the information is presented is not dull, although a few times when the author is describing important events that are happening in the world that don’t directly involve the character, typically real historic events such as the imprisonment of King Richard or the deaths or marriages of monarchs, I found these times to be less well told and it felt more like a history book than an interesting story.

The characters in the book are wonderful; they have strong but realistic personalities. You could always tell which character you were following just by the way they are thinking and acting even if no names or context was provided. They have real emotions and think things that a person would in real life but it is presented so well that it is still interesting to read. The characters have plenty of background and history. The also make mistakes, think bad thoughts, feel guilt and come to the wrong conclusions at times, all making them much more believable and interesting.

The world itself is realistic and very, very brutal, we’re talking Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire brutal at times. Very unpleasant things happen to the main characters.

The amount of action in the book is low compared to other historical fiction books and as our main character is not a warrior when there is action it is generally bad for him. Having said that I never missed the lack of high paced action as the rest of the story is so interesting.

One side effect of having so many unpleasant things happen to the main character was that whenever there was the potential for something bad to happen in was a time of high tension, even if it turned out nothing went wrong, especially as the author did such a great job of making me care for William.

The story details the highs and lows of the characters life. The ebb and flow was always believable and never took impossible leaps. The various highs and lows happened in a realistic and random manner, and you could never tell if something good or bad was about to happen simply because it was time for one.

His rise in rank while it would have been unlikely in the real world it wouldn’t have been impossible, and it was done slowly enough it really was believable.

It was also interesting to see parts of the book detour away from the characters main goal of being a falconer. It reminded me of Pillars of the Earth in that way.

I enjoyed the message that hard work and being good pays off in the end.

The story is spread out over many years, and while the date is given at the start of each chapter I would have liked to have been told how old the character was at each stage.

I loved the internal artwork in this book, it is medieval in style and fits in perfectly with the rest of the novel.

I haven’t read the first book in this series, although after this one I intend to, but I never felt lost or having missed out on anything because I hadn’t read the other book first.

I absolutely loved this book, the characters and story are amazing, the level of detail is high and everything is realistic but remains interesting.

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

 Rating ***** + ♥

A World Apart & Sword of Light (Jake Thomas Trilogy 1-2) by Steven A. Tolle

Synopsis: A World Apart is the exciting first book in the Jake Thomas Trilogy.

Jake Thomas thought he was having a bad day. An after-school encounter with a long-time rival had left him angry and dismayed, but little did he know that before the day was done, his life would be changed forever.

Suddenly and mysteriously transported to another world, he finds himself alone and without a clue how or why he was brought here. Cut off from his familiar surroundings, he has to find a way to survive and return home.

Soon after he begins to explore this new world, he meets an enigmatic warrior and is introduced to magic-wielding clerics. However, Jake finds out quickly that danger lurks all around him as demons exist on this world - and they want him badly!

Review:
The descriptions used to describe the world are of a good length. There is always plenty of information to allow a reader to really see the details of what the characters are seeing and doing, but they are not so lengthy that the pacing of the story suffers.

The author also does a good job of recapping events, for example if a character is asked to describe something that happened to them earlier in the story. In these cases, we as the reader do not need much detail and the author just gives a few lines of reminders.

The only part of the descriptions I found lacking was when the main character is being taught something, we are often told that the other characters tell him how to hold a sword, maintain a furnace or use magic but these details are never given to the reader and it left me feeling I was missing out.

The story, world and characters aren’t original, most of it has been seen before in some form. The basic story is that the main character is from our world, he is at school where he has some troubles, although he’s not quite the outsider seen in most books like this. He is magically transported to a fantasy world; the world itself is your typical European medieval fantasy setting, complete with knights, kings, a beautiful princess and an evil being bent on destroying everything.

Once there the main character turns out to be the chosen one, foretold of by a mysterious prophecy. He then begins his training by a tough warrior, who really has our hero’s best interests at heart, has a softer side underneath that gruff exterior and has the compulsory tragic past. After some training the hero is called upon to defeat a dangerous foe.

The characters are pretty standard as well. There was nothing really dislikeable with any of them, it was just everyone is someone I have seen before, many times in a fantasy novel.

One problem was that just about every good character was too nice, they would always say kind things, insist on being the one that pays for the bill, always offer and try to help everyone, be prepared to sacrifice themselves to save someone else, hug and have tears in their eyes when thanking someone. While it maybe okay to have one ‘perfect’ character in a story, when everyone is like that it just makes it dull. It also makes what they do less special since everyone is prepared to do the same thing.

There are one or two characters that break the perfect mold, although these tend to be very minor characters and their rarity doesn’t alleviate the problem with the rest of the cast.

We are given a glimpse of some of the evil characters, and in a similar problem to the good characters they seem to be wholly evil with nothing good to say about them. This gives them less depth.

There is nothing special about the magic system either. It is just flashy lights to blast enemies or heal friends.

There is a heavy Christian theme throughout the book, while the religion in the world our character enters isn’t actually Christian there are many very strong parallels and it is really Christian in all but name. In fact it is so close it is just another example of the books unoriginality.

For the most part the pacing is good, with a nice balance between action and scenes with more depth to them. There was a bit of a slowdown mid-book when the main character was in training without a great deal of action or major plot development but it didn’t last too long.

I read the Nook version of this book and there was some issue with the presentation that caused the text to be center aligned. The lines were also often broken mid-sentence half way across the page and only continued on the next line. This was sometimes a distraction and would pull me out of the story, the worst part was that it would often make dialogue confusing as it was often unclear who was speaking since you couldn’t tell if the new line of dialogue was on the same paragraph as the last one.

Another issue with the presentation, which may be in the printed book as well, was that the author didn’t use the standard use of punctuation for dialogue. I found this to be distracting and it would often pull me out of the story as I noticed these mistakes.

There was some swearing, violent scenes and references to sexual content, mostly implications or threats of rape (although no details are given), making this book unsuitable for younger readers. It is probably aimed at a young adult audience rather than middle-grade.

Overall I did enjoy the story, and if Goodreads allowed half stars I would have given it a 3 ½ rating. The descriptions were of an excellent quality and the story was enjoyable. The unoriginality of most of the elements is what hurt it the most.

I have read the second book in this series and feel that it was so strong I would recommend this series overall.

In full disclosure I won the second book in this series in a Goodreads giveaway.

 

Synopsis: Sword of Light, Book 2 of the Jake Thomas Trilogy, continues Jake's quest to return home.  Dominic and Jonas lead Hailyn, Marcus and Keria out of the demons’ stronghold, carrying Jake, who collapsed after his dramatic display of power. Jonas is stymied on how to heal Jake, but help arrives when Tomaris unexpectedly shows up in Sanduas.  Tomaris informs them that he believes that he has found a way to return Jake to his world – with the Guardian’s sword, an object of great power. When the demons first appeared a thousand years ago, the Guardian had confronted them, but was defeated and the sword lost. Standing in the way of any effort to recover the sword are two seemingly insurmountable obstacles – it is being defended by the demons and its exact location is unknown.  Following obscure clues, Jake, Dominic, and Hailyn go in search for the sword, trying to approach unnoticed by the demons. Jonas, Marcus and Keria remain in Sanduas and are confronted by a growing darkness that threatens the city itself. Lurking in the shadows, the mysterious figure from Creatos’ lair moves to protect the sword and find Jake

 Review:
The descriptions are very good, there are plenty of details allowing the reader to fully imagine the world and follow the story. The details do not go on for too long, and when short descriptions or summaries of conversations will suffice the author uses them and the pacing of the story never suffers due to too long descriptions.

I felt the characters were stronger in this book. They were more fleshed out and had more interesting personalities. Just like the first book in the series, the good characters did suffer from being too nice. They all almost always say nice things to one another, always are prepared to help someone, risk their lives and sacrifice them for anyone even if they have only just met them. By having everyone act like this makes the characters less diverse and interesting. It also makes anyone who does these things less special since you know that everyone acts in the same way.

Likewise all of the evil characters are completely evil, they all enjoy killing, forcing themselves on women, desire power and have little loyalty to those around them. This makes them less interesting and none of the evil people stand out since they all act in the same way. It was also annoying that (Spoiler ahead, highlight to read)all evil characters had been corrupted by demons. It would be more realistic if some people were just evil by themselves. End of Spoiler.

Characters also had a tendency to ‘just know’ something and their instincts would always be right. This was hard to believe and wasn’t always the best way for characters to solve a problem or know what to do next.

The first half of the book had plenty of story, plot and character development, but there was virtually no action. There were some tense scenes which could have led to action but these never turned out that way. It would have been nice to have seen Dominic’s part of the story at this point as this would have provided some much needed excitement.

The last part of the book was perhaps a little heavy in action. There are still some character and plot scenes but the vast majority of them were action based. Some of them were too similar to each other and I found myself suffering from ‘battle fatigue’ and wanting something a little more diverse and thought provoking.

The religious element is again strong, it is not overpowering but it is usually present.

There was more originality in this book compared to the first one. It is by no means an original story but it didn’t suffer as badly as the first one. We also get to see more of the world and cultures adding more interesting things and originality to the book.

The romance part is nice, it is not a large part of the story allowing a reader to enjoy the book if they are not interested in this sort of thing, but it is believable, people feelings are realistic and it is developed well.

All three main storylines were well written and interesting, and I found myself simultaneously wanting to read the current POV and to switch to one of the others as they were all so good.

Just like the first book the dialogue was incorrectly punctuated, most of the time this was just annoying and distracting, and would pull me out of the story, but sometimes it made it hard to follow who was speaking.

There was some swearing, violent scenes and references to sexual content, mostly implications or threats of rape (although no details are given), making this book unsuitable for younger readers. It is probably aimed at a young adult audience rather than middle-grade.

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Stray Souls (Magicals Anonymous #1) by Kate Griffin

Stray Souls (Magicals Anonymous #1) by Kate Griffin

Synopsis: 'Don’t look back. It wants you to look back.’

London’s soul has gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows – but when Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she’s a shaman, she is immediately called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise.

The problem is, while everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers – from the Midnight Mayor to Sharon’s magically-challenged self-help group – she doesn’t have a clue where to start.

But with London’s soul missing and the Gate open, there are creatures loose that won’t wait for her to catch up before they go hunting.

Stray Souls is the first novel in the Magicals Anonymous series, set in the same fantastical London as the Matthew Swift novels.

Review: In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

It should be pointed out there is a lot of swearing in this book, it is not suitable for younger readers or anyone who is offended by such things.

I must admit, it took me a while to get used to the unusual writing style of this novel and early on I found myself wondering how hard it was going to be to finish this one. I shouldn’t have worried as once I had become used to the writing I really enjoyed this book.

The first unusual thing about the writing was that even though it is written in third person, the way it is written it almost feels like it has been written in first person and the author just changed all the instances of I to he/she. It made it sound like a crazy diva who talks about themselves in third person.

The thought patterns of the characters and how the pauses in action were broken up were written in a very strange way. The thoughts would often stop halfway through if the person became distracted, and if something interrupted some action the sentence would end without any punctuation and carry on in the next paragraph. At first I was very distracted by this, and found myself thinking about the writing style and was taken out of the story. Once I became more familiar with it, I actually found it to work well.

The chapters tended to be very short (about four pages long on average). The point of view often changed with the chapters and this did sometimes lead to a very stop-start style in the story. Quite often there would be a chapter following the main character, then a short chapter where one of the other characters tells you about themselves and then the story returns to the main character and follows her around again. Early on I thought this really slowed down the pacing of the story and I found myself wishing it would just get back to continuing the story. But later on it worked really well as it gave great insights into the many characters, and usually at a time that is appropriate to reveal something about that person.

The characters are fantastic and reminded me a lot of something written by Terry Pratchett. There are some great ideas that are well executed, there’s a germaphobic vampire, a druid with allergies, a werepigeons (yes pigeons, plural), a troll who doesn’t like violence and a shaman who doesn’t know how to be a shaman to name a few. They were very real, humorous in their odd ways, awkward and would act like people in real life. E.g. rather than being heroic and wanting to go on a quest they would be reluctant and only do it because they had to.

They writing style and language is very British, I am originally from England so didn’t have a problem but if you are not familiar with some of the British terms you may have troubles understanding what the characters are saying at times.

<spoiler>The ending reminded me of Bladerunner, in that the main evil character who we have been hating the whole time gives one small speech and I found myself feeling pity and compassion for them. </spoiler>

Overall I would say it took a while to get used to the usual writing style but once I did it turned out to be an excellent story with fantastic characters and well worth reading.

Rating: *****

Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders (Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin #1) by Richard Ellis Preston Jr.

Romulus Buckle & the City of the Founders (Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin #1) by Richard Ellis Preston Jr.

Synopsis: In a postapocalyptic world of endless snow, Captain Romulus Buckle and the stalwart crew of the Pneumatic Zeppelin must embark on a perilous mission to rescue their kidnapped leader, Balthazar Crankshaft, from the impenetrable City of the Founders. Steaming over a territory once known as Southern California — before it was devastated in the alien war — Buckle navigates his massive airship through skies infested with enemy war zeppelins and ravenous alien beasties in this swashbuckling and high-octane steampunk adventure. Life is desperate in the Snow World, and death is quick. Buckle and his ship’s company must brave poisoned wastelands of Noxious Mustard and do battle with forgewalkers, steampipers, and armored locomotives as they plunge from the skies into the underground prison warrens of the fortress city.
Captain Romulus Buckle must lead the Pneumatic Zeppelin and its crew of ne’er-do-wells on a desperate mission where he must risk everything to save Balthazar and attempt to prevent a catastrophic war that could wipe out all that is left of civilization and the entire human race.

Review: This is one of those books that take a while to get going. I can see why some reviewers say they gave up with it after the first 100 pages. But this book is worth sticking with as once you get passed the initial part there is an excellent story and characters.

The descriptions are of a high level. Most of the time this is really good as it gives you clear view of the world and what is happening in it. There were some times I felt that the description went on for too long and it hurt the pacing of the story. I didn’t really need a detailed description of every single part of the ship, its crew, where they sit etc.

The lengthy descriptions are not limited to the sights, sounds and smells of the world, but also in the narrative of the characters. Just about every part of every conversation is included. The parts that slowed down the story the most was the bridge actions. First the commanding officer will give a command (usually a ship maneuver), a crew member will then repeat the command back to the commander, then we get a description of what the crew has to do (turning valves, flicking switches etc.) the maneuver or action being carried out and finally the result of what they did. There would often be several of these commands, confirmation, carryout and maneuvers in one go, making for a couple of pages of uninteresting story which really slowed the pacing down. Although for the most part this became annoying, one nice thing about this style was during times when the crew needed to do something quickly (such as hurry to a destination for a rescue) it really increased the tension as I waited for the slow paced ship/story to get to where they needed to be and I was worried they wouldn’t make it in time.

Initially I thought there was too much world building, and this is true for the first 100 pages or so. It appears in large chucks making it hard to absorb and slowing down the pace of the story. Luckily like so much about this book once you get pass the slow part there is a much better balance.

Similarly the characters suffered at the start of the story, with all the world building going on and some part spent on action, very little background is given to the characters and we don’t really learn very much about them. But just like the story, once you get pass the first part of the book there is plenty in there. We find out a lot about the main characters past, what their thoughts and motives are, and how they develop throughout the story.

As I have already said, the pacing picks up after the first 100 pages or so, and there is a much better balance between, story, world building and characters. The length of the descriptions feels about right and we are not continually interrupted by large chucks of world building.

If you are reading this book and get to page 100 and are thinking about given up then I would urge you to stick with it, at least for another 100 pages as the book really improves after the initial slowness.

Rating: ****

The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick

 The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick

Synopsis (from book) "Edward picks up what he thinks is a rock. He doesn’t know it is a sleeping Time Fetch—and touching it will release its foragers too soon and alter the entire fabric of time and space. Soon the bell rings to end class just as it has begun. Buses race down streets, too far behind schedule to stop for passengers. Buildings and sidewalks begin to disappear as the whole fabric of the universe starts to unravel. To try to stop the foragers, Edward must depend on the help of his classmates Feenix, Danton, and Brigit—whether he likes it or not. They all have touched the Fetch, and it has drawn them together in a strange and thrilling adventure. The boundaries between worlds and dimensions are blurred, and places and creatures on the other side are much like the ones they’ve always known—but slightly twisted, a little darker, and much more dangerous.

A fast-paced tale filled with mythology, danger, friendship, and a shocking centuries-old secret, The Time Fetch is sure to delight fans of fantasy adventure with its tale of ordinary kids who tumble into a magical situation.

For ages 10 and up, grades 5 and up."

Review: The story itself was fairly good with some really interesting concepts that were well written. The big problem I had with this book was the characters.

They were all one-dimensional, lacking any depth or interesting characteristics. They were also almost all unlikeable.

Firstly there was Edward, he is lazy, uncaring, sometimes mean and a loner. He had no qualities to draw me to him and plenty to push me away.


Then there was his friend Danton. He wasn’t too bad; he was a nice guy and encouraging to the others to get stuff done and tried to get them to get along. He was a contrast to Edward and although he wasn’t unlikeable he lacked the exciting personality to make me drawn to him.

Next there was Brigit, who is a selective mute. She was probably the most interesting character and the most sympathetic. I did like her, but I would like to have seen her fleshed out a little more. We are told early on that she is mute because of the death of her infant brother, but other than being told that fact once it never really comes up again or is prominent in her thoughts.

Finally there was Feenix, a girl at Edward’s school who he didn’t get along with. She was mean and a bully. At first I really didn’t like her. Then she was captured by the witches and has a hard time. During this period I did feel a little sorry for her because it was so unpleasant. Then she escapes (with a little help from the other children). My problem then was she was still pretty much the same mean bully she was before (although she is a little nicer.)

All of this made it hard to empathize with the characters or get excited about what they were doing. It also made the situation less tense because I didn’t care what happened to them. And it really hurt the story.

There was very little character development in the book. For the most part they stay the same throughout the story. When they do change it’s normally sudden and doesn’t feel genuine.

Another problem I had was with the lessons the characters have. They go to a class where the teacher gives them some crazy lesson about some obscure fact. The things that they are taught then become relevant to the story a short time late. It felt unnatural and every time it happened it felt like there was a flashing red light and an announcer saying “Pay attention this will be coming up in the story shortly”

There were several plot points that are never really explained, they just happen without giving any satisfactory reason why.

The language the characters sometimes pulled me out of the story, it didn’t seem natural. For example the characters would sometimes literally use the word ‘bleeping’ in place of swearing or other language than you might hear on a children’s TV show but doesn’t seem real enough for a book.

I really wanted to like this book, the concept was fantastic and the plot was good. It was just the awful, one-dimensional, unrealistic, unlikeable characters that made it a chore to get through.

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Rating ** 

Review: Aethersmith (Twinborn Trilogy, #2) by J.S. Morin

 Aethersmith (Twinborn Trilogy, #2) by J.S. Morin

Synopsis (from back of book) War has come to Veydrus.

As Kyrus Hinterdale and Brannis Solaran work to understand the intricacies of their Twinborn connection, they must also analyze and unravel the game Jinzan and Denrick played to get a step ahead of them. While planning a war, and coming to terms with Juliana’s impending wedding to Iridan, Brannis knows that he needs to feed Kyrus more advanced magical knowledge and training if they ever hope to keep the Kadrin empire from destruction.

However, just as plans are starting to come together, a spell of Kyrus’ goes very wrong, and the two find themselves in an even bigger dilemma than ever. With the help of other Twinborn, they struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, and set everything back as it should be.

In full disclosure I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holy crap this book is even more amazing than book one of the series! How is that even possible? The concept is original and just like book one it is perfectly executed.

There are a lot more twinborns in this book. The plot is more complex than the first book, with multiple story threads, points of views and plot. The truly amazing thing about all this it that even though it is complex, with so much going on, it really should make the reader’s head explode, but the author is so talented at explaining what is happening it rarely gets confusing or hard to follow. Not only does the author explain the story in such a way that it is easy to follow, but it is done in a natural way and it doesn’t feel like an explanation.

About the only time it could get confusing, was a result of having so many twinborns I had a hard time remembering who some of the secondary character’s twin was. They were usually named but sometimes I found I would need more detail to help me remember exactly who they were, especially early on. But this really was only a minor problem and for the most part the extra twins made the story even more interesting.

The descriptions are once again perfect, they are of high detail, allowing the reader to visualise the amazing worlds in the story, but not to the extent that it slows down the pacing or becomes boring.

The pacing and balance of the story was better than the first. Because of the nature of the first book, which was primarily focused on the Brannis/Kyrus point-of-view, and only switched when one of them fell asleep, it would occasionally spend too much time on action or too much time on a slower plot point then was natural. But because of all the extra characters in this book, this didn’t happen and the flow was much better.

The characters are once again fantastic, they have amazing but believable personalities. With the strengthening bond between Brannis and Kyrus their personalities begin to merge. But they still manage to remain individuals. The thoughts each character has, and the emotions they have are amongst some of the strongest writing in this amazing book.

Just like the first book, no-one is completely good or evil, they are much more complex than that. The good people have bad traits or sometimes do bad things, and the evil characters have good traits and sometimes do good things. Just like real-life, no-one see’s themselves as evil. Also there are plenty of people who you are left uncertain whether they are good or evil.

There are a couple of love triangles going on (possible better described as a love square), this is made even more complex as some of the characters involved are twinborns and share at least some of the feelings of their twin.

There are many very clever and well thought out ideas, some of them are large pieces of complex plot, but others are small details that help make the story more realistic and its characters more believable.

As well as Brannis and Kyrus personalities merging, their two worlds also are starting to blend. Magic is becoming more prominent in Kyrus’s home and technology is more prevalent in Brannis’s world. The two blended in such a way that there are things that incorporate ideas from both worlds (such as flying ships)

Sometimes it was clear what path a plot point would lead, but it was still exciting to read about as you want to find out exactly what happens once it gets there.

This book is even bigger than it appears, the edition I read had 445 page, but it also has a fairly small print and so much happens in this story it easily feels like a book with twice as many pages, but in a good way.

The book has a more epic feel to it, and you get to see more what is happening in the two worlds.

The book does continue the plot from the last one, and does develop the series wide story leaving some plot open for the final book in the series. But it doesn’t suffer with the normal ‘middle book’ problems, and is a strong story in its own right and doesn’t leave too many threads open.

One of my few real criticisms for this one was that at one point the characters are able to send messages to their twins while awake. This seemed inconsistent with the first book and most of the second and it wasn’t how I had perceived how the two worlds worked.

If you enjoyed the first book then you will love this book as well. It is even better (and I thought book one was close to perfection.) The story is more complex but the author skillfully writes it in such a way that it is never confusing. How he was able to keep up with everything while he was writing without leaving massive plot holes or without his head exploding I will probably never know. The characters expand and continue to impress on every level. The concept is original, something hard to do these days with any fantasy novel. I am eagerly awaiting the final book in the series, but also a little sad, because once I’ve read it this amazing series will be over. I really hope the author has more great ideas, either for the two worlds featured in this series or a new one.

Rating ***** + ♥

Review: Firehurler (Twinborn Trilogy, #1) by J.S. Morin

Review: Firehurler (Twinborn Trilogy, #1) by J.S. Morin

Synopsis (by Richi) Kyrus lives in peaceful world, trade and business are important, they have a sophisticated view of the world, they do not execute criminals, magic is viewed by most as something that doesn’t exist, education and intelligence are highly valued. Kyrus himself is a scribe, somewhat lacking in confidence and likes a peaceful life. Every night he dreams he is another man in a vastly different world, that man is Brannis.

Brannis lives in a war torn empire, with enemies on every border, strength and power are important, it is a harsh and brutal world, where threats and traitors are dealt with in extreme ways, magic is common but controlled by the ruling classes, strength in magic and strength in arms are the most valuable traits a person can have. Brannis is the commander of an army, he is sure of himself and his abilities and does what he needs to do to survive in this world. Every night he dreams he is another man, in another world, that man is Kyrus…

Review: In full disclosure I received a free signed edition of this book from the author.

I absolutely love this book! The concept was amazing and original. There two main characters each one has dreams that he is the other one.

One truly impressive thing was how the author created two different worlds. Whenever I was reading, even without being told which characters were there, I could always tell which world I was in. Most authors struggle to come up with depth in their worlds; this author manages to do it twice in a single book.

The characters were excellent. They had strong personalities and were enjoyable to read about. Their thoughts and feelings come across well and they are both believable and extraordinary.

The characters are well developed during the story and progress in an exciting and believable way.

Most of the characters are not purely good or evil. The good characters have so negative traits and the evil ones have redeeming ones, this makes for more realistic and deep. Also some of the characters you are never certain if they are good or evil overall, this makes it even more interesting.

The story is fantastic. The two main plots are wonderful in themselves and just one of them would have been an enjoyable read. But having the two stories together, that are then entwined together make this book extra special. It is not just limited to two main plots; there are many subplots and parallel storylines as well.

The magic system is well done, allowing the mages to do a lot of things, but limiting them so they are never too powerful, in fact a mage can seriously harm or even kill themselves if they try to do to much magic. I also enjoyed how the system is explained to the reader.

The pacing was excellent. Typically one character would be having exciting action while the other character would be having slower paced scenes. This is perfect as the slower scenes are great for character development and fleshing out the story and prevents the story becoming boring with constant action. Due to the fact the POV only changes when a character goes to sleep, it did mean occasionally we followed a character for longer that would happen typically or seemed natural. Although as this “problem” is because of the original and wonderful concept of “dreaming” of the other world, it is easily forgiven.

The balance of detail is perfect. You are given clear details on what is happening and what everything looks, sounds, smells and feels like to build a very vivid view of the worlds, as well as what the characters thoughts and feelings are. But the descriptions are never too long or boring.

This is a BIG book, 485 pages in the edition I read, and the small print means it is probably closer to twice that if it had a normal sized print. It had  the depth of story, detail of description, scope and other things you would expect of a large fantasy novel, but it never dragged or made me wish it was shorter (in fact I would have been happy if it was longer.)

I only have a couple of criticisms of this book. The first is actually for the synopsis that appears on the back of the book and on Goodreads. I felt it gave too much of the story away, <spoiler> specifically being told that the characters will battle against others who also cross the worlds. I think I would have been surprised when that was revealed in the book, but unfortunately the synopsis spoilt this for me. </spoiler>

While I did enjoy how the author crossed over the two stories and used knowledge learned from one world to use in the other. I was slightly bothered how Kyrus took a lot of information from Brannis and was helped out by him a lot, but Brannis himself didn’t take very much from Kyrus (apart from a couple of things at the end.) Again this was really only a minor problem.

I am really looking forward to the next book in the series and learning more of the worlds, seeing where story goes, what happens to the characters and what exactly this connection is.

Overall this is a masterful piece of work, the descriptions, story, characters, magic system and writing style make this a highly rated book, with the bonus of a truly original idea this is easily a five star book.

A big thank you to the author and his wife/publisher for sending me this wonderful book and giving me the chance to read this book that I really wanted to read. And thank you for signing it as well.

rating: ***** + ♥

 

Review: Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon

Synopsis from back of book:

The year is 1072.

The Normans have captured England. The Turks have captured a Norman knight. And in order to free him, a soldier named Vallon must capture four rare hawks.

On a heart-stopping journey to the far ends of the earth, braving Arctic seas, Viking warlords, and the blood-drenched battlefields, Vallon and his comrades must track down their quarry one by one in a relentless race against time.

The scale is huge. The journey is incredible. The history is real. This is Hawk Quest

Richi's Review:

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

If Ken Follett, George R. R. Martin and John Flanagan had a love child, the result would be this epic book.

Robert Lyndon has an excellent understanding of the medieval world and he brings it to life in this story. Just like in John Flanagan’s Rangers Apprentice and Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, Lyndon brings this knowledge to the reader, and gives clear understanding to the world, but what is clever is that it is blended into the story in such a way that it never feels like a lesson. There were moments that he made something sound so interesting I found myself wanting to find out more about whatever subject he was talking about.

There is a gritty realism to the story, like Follett and Martin, Lyndon doesn’t have a problem with making bad and unpleasant things happen to our characters. This is not to say it is a depressing book, there are plenty of happy moments and the characters have hope even in the darkest of times. But character deaths can be sudden, brutal and without meaning, the normal rules of whom and how you kill off do not apply. Failure is always an option in this story.

I also enjoyed how the author brought in the characters superstitions into the story, and they could sometimes make themselves see more in something that there really is. It is realistic in how people would act and believe back then, it also brings in a supernatural and fantasy element, but because you cannot be certain that something a character is witnessing is simply an overactive imagination it keeps it grounded in the real world.

The details and descriptions in this book are amazing; they describe beautifully the world and action. It is always easy to picture the world with every sense. There are so well written that it never feels like it is taking up too much time or dragging.

The characters are wonderful; they have complex and distinct personalities. None of them are the simple cookie cutter types that we have seen before, and they have many layers to them. The interaction between the characters is amazing; between the good characters is a strong sense of friendship and companionship, with antagonism and aggression directed towards the evil characters. What is especially clever is that much of what goes on between the characters is subtlety done, only a careful reader will catch everything that is going on, but you won’t miss out on too much if you don’t pick up on those little clues. Another clever thing is that people and groups don’t always stay on one side or the other, an enemy can become an ally, or a friend may end up betraying the group, and it is never obvious when or by whom this will happen.

The characters develop nicely throughout the book, they progress in a natural way and become better and more interesting characters. As part of this progression we find out bits and pieces of the characters history spread throughout the book and we learn more about our heroes in this way too. There are many wonderful thoughts and ideas of the characters in this book.

This author does a great job or realistically portraying something’s that could easily be overlooked, such as one characters surprise and confusion of the concept of zero, something that we take for granted now-days but back then is something that most people wouldn’t really think about.

The story is fantastic, it reminded me of epic journeys such as the Odyssey, where the characters are trying to complete a journey but keep facing trials that slow them down or take them away from their path. It was very interesting seeing where the characters would go next or how they would face and overcome the next obstacle.

I really hope to see more fiction works by this author; this book is easily the best book I have read this year, and certainly in the top ten books I have ever read. For possibly the first time ever, I was sad to finish a book, knowing that it will be a long, long time before I read something that I enjoy this much again.

Rating ***** +  ♥♥

Review: Oliver and Harriet and the Dark Forest by P.R. Schoenfeld

Synopsis from back of book. "Oliver and Harriet are a seemingly normal set of twins, living a normal life, in our normal world, with one exception -- they are not normal -- they have the strange ability to read each others' mind -- something they thought was perfectly normal. Oliver and Harriet know nothing about other realms, strange creatures, magic potions, or evil tyrants. That is until they turn thirteen and return to the realm where they were born -- Framington, to stay at their Gam's house for the summer. Oliver and Harriet quickly realize their summer journey would not be like anything they have ever experienced before, and could be and experience they may not survive. Framington is a mythical place full of colorful hobbits, cranky ogres, and fire breathing dragons -- a place where their father once ruled and they are decedents to the throne. Framington is now ruled by an evil tyrant -- Lord Thornas. Thornas has been confined to the Dark Forest for years and the only way out is for him to find "The Book" -- a book which only Harriet has the ability to use. Thornas must find a way to lure Oliver and Harriet to Albazar castle to gain possession of "The Book." If Lord Thornas succeeds Oliver and Harriet will surely not make it out of the Dark Forest alive."
Richi's Review.
In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

This was a very good story, it reminded me a lot of Fablehaven and 100 Cupboards, and if you enjoyed those stories you will like this one as well.

It was one of those books that you could tell it was the authors debut novel, not to say it was badly written but it didn’t quite have the polish that normally only comes with experience.

I enjoyed the way the author wrote as if talking to the reader, it made it seem as if someone is telling a story and perfect for an adult to read to a child.

Early on I thought some of the descriptions were overly simplified, but as the story went on I thought they became good for a middle-grade novel, enough to follow what is happening and to visualise the world but short enough to keep the pacing fast.

I thought the author did a good job with building the world while still progressing the story, the pacing was always kept up and I never felt that the world building went on for too long.

There were Scooby-Doo clues in the book, meaning that whenever there was a clue the author and characters would make it very clear that it was a clue, I guess this is okay for a middle-grade novel but as an adult it made it very obvious.

It seemed a bit unrealistic that the children’s grandmother would bring them to the world and then immediately leave them alone for several days. I also thought the children did too much on their own, rather than ask for adult help. They also go into the woods after being told how dangerous it is. These sorts of things really bother me and seem to happen a lot in middle-grade books.

The characters were good, there was nothing particularly original about them but they were still very interesting. The interaction between the characters was excellent. I loved the concept of telepathy between twins but felt more could have been done with this and the ability used more often.

I felt that characters would be able to work things out too easily or predict what others were doing far too easily. I also thought that the children overpowered and outwitted the bad guys too easily; this seemed both unrealistic and took away the peril making it less exciting.

Overall I thought this was a very good book and lovers of Fablehaven and 100 Cupboard will enjoy this story as well. You could tell this was the author’s debut novel as it wasn’t quite as neat as more experienced novels and the few problems I had with the book extend from that, I will be looking forward for more books in this series.

rating: 4 stars 

Review: Nexus (Nexus, #1) by Ramez Naam

Nexus (Nexus, #1) by Ramez Naam 
 
Synopsis:
Kade has been experimenting with a new illegal drug called Nexus, it allows users to have direct brain to brain connections, experiencing each others thoughts and feelings. He has been developing it to have stronger connections and include computer programs to allow users to have instantly gain skills.
Sam is an ERD agent, where she is tasked with arresting users of illegal drugs such as Nexus, especially when they are trying to make it stronger.
Sam soon arrests Kade, and he is offered a deal, if he agrees to go undercover to bring in a more powerful Nexus developer then he and his friends will go free. Sam and Kade are forced to work together, but Nexus is much bigger than they both realize and the conspiracies go even deeper.

Review:
In full disclosure I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

This book is only suitable for adults; there is a LOT of swearing in it. I don’t mind swearing in book, but to me it was a little excessive. There were also a couple of scenes of a sexual nature.

The story is tech heavy, I really enjoyed it, the technology was well developed and the author has a great understanding of what he is writing about. The author does an excellent job of explaining how it all works in a clear way without getting too bogged down in excessive details.

Having said that there were some times where the story dragged, either by over explaining something, by reiterating already discussed points, retelling a part of the story from a different point of view, or simply taking too long on a less interesting point in the story.

I was pleased to see that the chapters had titles, for some reason this is rare for adult books. There were also occasional “Briefing” chapters; these were used to give world building information, usually something relevant to the upcoming chapters. Normally this would be a clunky way to do this, but somehow it seemed to work for the technology orientated story.

There first few chapters had time stamps for when the story is happening, although after a few chapters this stopped. I really don’t mind if time stamps are included or not, but feel they should be consistent, either always having them or not including them at all.

One problem was that there weren’t any visual markings to differentiate between what a character was thinking, when they were having a general thought or memory, when they were having a telepathic conversation or when the author was describing what was happening. At times this made what was happening confusing, this could have been solved by having italics for thoughts and bold text for telepathic communication for example.

For most of the book there is no clear good side, this is both realistic and also increases the dramatic tension and excitement.

The characters were good without being exceptional. Sam’s past was particularly interesting. The main characters morals, thoughts and feelings were also interesting.

There was some Hollywood style action. The heroes did have a tendency to come out of situations relatively unscathed even when all around was in total chaos, they also would recover from injuries quickly or be saved just in the nick of time.
The bad guys also had Star Wars Stormtrooper shooting abilities, they would be deadly accurate against everybody, but as soon as they started shooting at the main characters they would either miss or only be able to slightly wound them.

I was a little annoyed of how the governments were portrayed in the book, they seemed to just act evil without any reason and carry out actions just for an exciting story rather than any logical reason
SPOILER The worst example was they planned an attack where they would have to ensure that they could not be traced back to the government, and if they were any civilians in the way or risk of detection they should immediately withdraw. This attack was carried out by a pair of American helicopters full of Navy Seals, so much for staying anonymous, then when one of the monks takes a photo of the attack instead of withdrawing they decide to begin attacking the monks “since it didn’t matter then” which makes no sense.
END OF SPOILER

Overall this was a fairly good story with some interesting technology and ethical discussions, but was let down by a slightly slow pacing, and plot points that seemed illogical and were only there to make it “exciting”. The writing style was also confusing at times.

rating: ***1/2 Stars