The Moonlight War by SKS Perry
The Moonlight War was one of the SPFBO finalist books and I must admit that I found it a very enjoyable read, there were a couple of areas where I thought there was room for improvement but overall I had no problem at all in making steady headway through the story and was keen to see how things panned out.
As the story begins we learn of problems being experienced on the Cowcheanne Way where entire caravans and platoons of soldiers have gone missing. Nobody seems to know what to believe amongst the rumours of bandits and uprisings but one theory that seems to grow in strength is the rise of the Horde and the return of the Ukhami as a result. Many years ago the Horde were the enemy of the nation. In a desperate bid to survive them magic was used to create fearsome and beast like warriors known as the Ukhami. Unfortunately that magic has long since been lost to the ages and if the Ukhami have indeed returned then controlling them is going to be critical to survival.
Now we have a caravan of merchants needing to travel, they seek to join Lord Myobi who is also travelling with his entourage and a team of elite soldiers. Added to this, following a petition to the King, is an escort including the King’s niece, Princess Setanna. The main plot is fairly simple in that it becomes a quest for survival. There are of course underlying motives for some of the leading characters and these will become clear along the way and the outcome is a fairly gripping journey with a number of desperate battles.
What I particularly enjoyed about The Moonlight War was the characters. I thought the author did a great job with them – and there are actually quite a few to focus on – but they’re all very distinct with their own back stories and personalities. The place portrayed, well, I wouldn’t say that I found anything particularly distinctive about it. It seems to be the home to two very distinct people in the Kel-tii and the Ashai who are currently enjoying a tentative peace of sorts, although this doesn’t actually extend to the two really liking each other, in fact ignorance of each other’s way and prejudice are fairly rife between the two groups.
In terms of the main characters I’ll give a brief overview of the main ones.
We firstly make the introduction of Tasha O’Brienne. Tasha is a man of mystery, something of a rogue character or outcast known as Hasa-Ni-Do – which, roughly means he stands alone (or something along those lines – apologies I can’t remember the exact meaning). One thing that is abundantly clear about Tasha from fairly early on is that people fear him. He’s an outstanding swordsman and fighter but is also greatly feared as people believe he has made a pact with demons. Tasha becomes a key part of the caravan and indeed is accompanied by a young man of the Ashai people who owes Tasha a debt of honour.
Roclyn MacNaramara, Roc, was formerly a member of the nobility. Fallen from grace he now uses his ability and charm to moonlight as a highway robber where his sophistication has earned him the nickname the Dark Gent. He is constantly accompanied by two soldiers who have fought with him on many campaigns and the three of them provide the type of fun and banter that helps to inject humour into the story.
Lady Malaki is a seer and her skills are prized on such a journey. She’s only a young woman and I would say out of all the characters is the one who I don’t really feel I know too much about at this stage but hopefully her part is set to become more important as her magical abilities increase.
Kieran is something of a surprise. A young farm boy who joins the caravan as something of a rookie but takes everyone by storm with his sword skills.
Princess Setanna is in control of the whole motley crew and she runs a fairly tight ship, she certainly isn’t about to take any sexist nonsense about her leadership abilities.
To be honest, there are plenty more characters that I enjoyed spending time with but I won’t go into them all here.
As I said the characterisation is what made this such an enjoyable read for me. The plot is a little bit thin on the ground and the set up takes a while, probably reaching about the first 50% of the book before any action really starts to kick in. I didn’t mind the slow build, the author makes good use of the time to flesh out the characters and this attention to detail really helps you to form attachments which in turn increases the tension when it becomes clear that the caravan is being stalked.
I think my main niggle with the book was that certain elements were too obviously set up. The most obvious being the relationships – don’t get me wrong because I quite enjoyed these in a way but they did feel a bit contrived, perhaps they needed a bit more time to develop – as it is these couples felt a little bit, not exactly unnatural – because the couples did go together well, just more that they felt like they were being used to move the plot along.
As it is this is a very enjoyable read and sets up the story perfectly for the next instalment which I would definitely pick up.
Weekly Wrap Up : 7/5/17
I don’t know about everyone else but my week has been exhausting lots going on at work and on top of that lots going on at home, plus hard work and other chores means I actually had very little time for reading. In fact I’ve even been going to bed early – this is unheard of! What next. Anyway, the only book I’ve managed to read is:
- Owl and the Electric Samurai by Kristi Charish
Next week I’m hoping my life will move into the quiet lane and I can spend some time chilling (and reading). I’m hoping to pick up:
- The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist & the Psychic Thief (The Curious Affair Of #1) by Lisa Tuttle
- Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
And, finally, my cover compare this week:
I have to go with the more striking cover this week.
How was your week? What you currently reading?
‘Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!’
5 May 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, The wonderful wizard of Oz
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below. This week’s theme:
Lion “If you place your head in a lion’s mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off”
This week I’ve again gone for a classic – to be honest, I had two choices for this one that immediately sprang to mind. The first was The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Then I considered an Ilona Andrews book that I have that has a lion in the background. Then it came to me – in a rush of singing and dancing, broomsticks and flying houses – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. It was obvious really. ‘Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road’ (and, I was singing that in a proper Munchkin voice). (TBH I think I’ve had this book before – I recognise the covers – but, hey ho!)
I’ve gone for mainly lion covers and my favourite is:
Which is your favourite?
Next week – Phone
Future themes:
12/05/2017 – Phone “Don’t use the phone. People are never ready to answer it”
19/05/2017 – Plane “When everything seem to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it ….”
26/05/2017 – Mice “Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, ‘it might have been’…”
02/06/2017 – Moon “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”
09/06/2017 – Mummy “It shuffles through the dry, dusty darkness”
16/06/2017 – Guitar “You couldn’t not like someone who liked the guitar”
23/06/2017 – Cat “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this”
30/06/2017 – Hat “It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself “
07/07/2017 – Gold “All that is gold does not glitter”
14/07/2017 – Boats “The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea, in a beautiful pea green boat…”
21/07/2017 – Planet “Any planet is ‘Earth’ to those who live on it”
Friday Firsts : Owl and the Electric Samurai (The Adventures of Owl #3) by Kristi Charish
5 May 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Friday Firsts, Kristi Charish, Owl and the Japanese Circus, tenacious reader
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading : Owl and the Electric Samurai (The Adventures of Owl #3) by Kristi Charish
Have you ever had a deep-seated feeling that the world is out to get you?
And I don’t mean for doing something where you might actually deserve it: I mean the kind that happens despite your best intentions to be a good person, turn over a new leaf, and potentially make up for a possible – though clearly not intentional – slight you may have done others…
And even though you may be doing your damnedest to fix things, including crossing the globe twice in the last month, you could feel that the universe still decided it was going to tell you that you could royally fuck off?
You know, that kind of “out to get you” feeling?
Because from this side of the backpacker hostel picnic table, sitting across from my Nepal contact, Dev, that was pretty much the vibe I was getting. To be honest, it was the vibe I’d been getting all month, like gum getting tangled in your hair.
My First Impressions
I think that beginning is a perfect start for the book and a great reflection of the series as well. You can tell already, even from those first few lines, that things are going to go horribly wrong.
What you reading this Friday?? What are your first impressions??
*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.
Avengers of the Moon by Allen Steele
To be honest, I don’t really know if I’ve read a lot of pulp fiction or not – although I think maybe Edgar Rice-Burroughs and even Ray Bradbury qualify? It sounds a little like a derogatory term doesn’t it but basically, pulp fiction was a cheap way of mass producing highly entertaining, fast paced adventure stories and in doing so bringing reading to the masses and allowing them to escape into any number of fantasy worlds – even delving into deepest space and beyond.
In Avengers of the Moon Allen Steele has managed to resurrect an action hero from the 1940s/50s, to give him a new injection of life with a new and original beginning and also coupled this with a slightly more modern feel. What Steele also manages to do is evoke a wonderfully nostalgic feeling when reading the book that makes you cast back into your mind to past television series. You know the ones I mean, the old tv sci fi series that always started with a voice over at the beginning. Yes, as I started Avengers of the Moon I couldn’t help reading the introduction with ‘that voice’ in my head and it simultaneously made me smile and hooked me. I’m not going to suggest that this is a great literary work but it is an entertaining story that made for a very easy and slightly, at times, crazy read. A popcorn book. A book of pulp fiction.
The story does have a little bit of setting up to do. We learn of Curt Newton, an orphan raised by a robot, an android and a disembodied brain (that of a renowned scientist). It may have been a somewhat lonely existence until this point and maybe Curt lacks a few social graces but nobody can deny that it has been interesting. Curt’s parents were murdered when he was still a baby. Their murderer has never been brought to justice and in fact has become a powerful figure in society. You could say that Curt has been almost in training for the moment when he would be able to go after his parents’ murderer (even if he wasn’t aware that was the case until this point). He’s had the benefit of much attention, education and training during his early life and all of these aspects are about to be brought into sharp focus as he embarks on a mission of revenge – or justice. Of course, things don’t go completely to plan and before Curt can say ‘reverse the particle flow of he flux capacitor and beam me up’ he’s tangled up in a plot of assassination and Captain Future is born.
If you want a fairly fast paced adventure story from deepest space, a bunch of laughs that arise from the strangest situations involving robots, androids and disembodied brains and all the awkward moments and odd conversations that they bring to the story, plus gadgets galore and updated sci fi then look no further. I guess the first half of the story had something of a set up feel but I think that’s to be expected. We’re pretty soon thrown into chaos as Captain Future gets to work. There are some very comical situations courtesy of his companions – not least Joan Randall of the Interplanetary Police Force – who it seems Curt has something of a crush on – if only he knew what a crush was! I think this aspect was well handled. Pulp fiction of old did tend to portray women as pure mind candy (not to mention the women were usually draped, very scantily clad across the covers). In this potential situation for romance, Joan is certainly very easy on the eye (as is Curt for that matter), but I didn’t find Joan’s portrayal dismissive at all or purely ornamental – she had a real role to play, she is a respected member of the IPF and on top of that she makes Curt nervous and embarassed (not to mention saving his ass on occasion). That being said this is the Captain Future’s story and so you would expect Curt to shine through more strongly.
In terms of criticisms. Not much to write about really. I think there was an element of cheesiness going on – but I actually liked it and thought it added to the story to be honest. I think there was definitely a set up type feel, I think the story lulled a little bit towards the middle and then in contrary fashion had a very speedy ending and I would have liked the ‘baddies’ to be a bit more down right bad.
Other than that, this was a fun read. Easy to engage with and even though I’d never heard of Captain Future before I would definitely read more of his adventures if those were in the offing.
I received a copy through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
