Sins of a Sovereignty (Amernia Fallen #1) by Plague Jack
2 January 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: (Amernia Fallen #1), Plague Jack, Sins of a Sovereignty, SPFBO
Sins of a Sovereignty is one of my SPFBO books and a book that I’ve struggled to write a review for. In one respect this is a very interesting story and I think well written but in another I found myself lacking any really strong feelings towards it. Of course this means I didn’t hate it but on the other hand I didn’t love it either. What I will say before I start the review is that I did find this quite a fascinating world and I will continue on with the second book to see how the story develops.
I think the story got off to a good start and I found myself intrigued. It soon becomes clear that Amernia is poised on the brink of war. In fact war has already hit the land, a large portion of which has been badly affected and is now uninhabitable following the use of chemical warfare. At the start we are introduced to a Knight of the land, Pendragon. It fairly soon becomes clear that Pendragon is a knight with very clear values but also a man who lives with burdens from his past. He is liked by the humans who see him as a hero but equally despised by the elves who see him as a brutal murderer. Although you get a sense that Pendragon has served his time and given his best he is once again summoned by the Queen and given a seemingly impossible task. The Blood Queen is hated and feared in equal measure. She rules with an iron fist and inequality is rife throughout the land. The elves and other non humans are treated as second class citizens. They live in squalor and are used brutally for work and sex purposes. Little wonder that the Queen is now struggling to keep a hold on everything and war sits brooding on the horizon.
The main characters of the story are the knight Pendragon, the Blood Queen, Calcifer a powerful sorcerer and a monster hunter/mercenary and Shrike, a spymaster who has been framed and is now on the run from the Queen and desperate to find out who set him up. On top of this we have the interference of the Gods who seem to become involved in the lives of certain characters. It seems like some of these characters are being used like pieces on a board game – I like the interfering god element of the story and also the way that they hand out magic.
In fact I quite liked the way that magic is simply a part of the story. There is no real explanation or system. Magic is as much a part of this world as elves and dwarves and just like their existence isn’t given any reasoning neither is the ability to wield magic.
What I liked about this book.
There are no simple lines between good and bad and I think that’s a very relevant point because mostly there is a little bit of both mixed up in most people. History is written by the victors and that is another element that stands out here. The victors have definitely committed crimes of which they are not proud. The previous wars have left parts of the landscape shrouded in a deadly green fog that renders the land uninhabitable and huge numbers of people were slaughtered through chemical warfare.
The author isn’t afraid to take risks or include touchy subjects, for example incest, and he certainly isn’t gentle with his characters. We also have a strange mash up of mediaeval and more modern technology – I think the author, on the whole makes a good effort of combining the old and the new here although I couldn’t help thinking two men walk into a fight, one with a gun, one with a sword – what happens next. Well, the whole ‘dodge this’ scenario from The Matrix springs to mind. Basically I’m not too sure how well the two sit together in some respects and no matter how well written there’s always an element at the back of your mind that is going to niggle about that fact.
In terms of my other niggles or criticisms. Well, some of the things I really liked also were some of the things that I really didn’t like! Strange I know – and undoubtedly my mood at the time of reading could have played a part. The world is very dark and brutal – not a nice place to live at all. The problem with this is that the author does such an excellent job of portraying just how awful it is it also becomes a bit, well, awful to read. I wanted a little bit of something good, just anything, a scrap – but it wasn’t forthcoming. The only really light parts of the book were the occasional pieces of humour thrown into the piece by Shrike’s sarcasm, usually whilst he was being tortured, and it just didn’t feel enough to lighten the mood.
Also, and simply put, I found it difficult to really like anybody, which is probably just as well because as I said above the author is fairly ruthless with his characters. Even so, I wanted somebody to like and it felt difficult, particularly after a number of deaths towards the end.
The other aspect. Well, this is grimdark, a word that gets thrown around a lot at the moment. I can’t help feeling that there is a general sense that unless you’re shocking your reader into dumb speechlessness then they won’t love your book. Frankly, that’s not the case for me personally. I think there’s a very fine line that can easily be crossed where you give your readers this gritty realism but you go so far with it that they’re reading but not with as much enjoyment as they would do if there was some light mixed in with the dark. Of course, again, this is prone to mood I think at the time of reading.
I hope that doesn’t sound too critical. I really like what the author has achieved with certain elements of this book. I would have appreciated a little more light but I am keen to see where this goes next. On finishing, I don’t really have a clear view on who I like or want to win the day and maybe this is a good thing – perhaps the author is doing something a little groundbreaking here – there are no clear cut lines and it will be interesting to see what happens next.
A Soul for Trouble by Crista McHugh #SPFBO
A Soul for Trouble is one of my review books for the SPFBO event. We’re now into the second stage and this was one of the ten remaining books. I confess I’ve struggled with this review because I want to be fair to the author and in terms of the writing and concept this was really promising, however, and I admit it quite openly, I’m not a romance reader. Now, clearly, sometimes a fantasy book will have elements of romance in it and that’s fine but this felt like a romance book with elements of fantasy so it simply wasn’t for me.
Basically, I think the author has a good writing style. I have no criticisms at all in that respect. In fact it was an incredibly easy book to read – again, it’s more of a ‘content’ issue for me.
In terms of the world, we have a magical world where men, elves, gods and necromancers exist (and probably so much more). The world of men (Ranello) still seems a little in the dark ages. Religion is closely watched and magic has been banned outright. The people of Ranello are deeply suspicious of anyone who steps outside their perception of ‘normal’ treating them with fear and distrust and as such the female of the piece, being very different from the rest of the population, is ignored at best and disliked at worst. The elves (of Gravaria) are more enlightened and accepting of difference and change although (from the few snatches we got of their background) seem to be overburdened with politics and power struggles.
The premise. The story revolves around the disembodied God of Chaos, Loku, who must now take up residence in a human vessel. There is a history to this but I won’t go into it. Bascially Loku now resides within a human and when that human body expires he must jump to his next host. Now, whilst most people would object to being used in this manner (not to mention that they would probably find the constant stream of banter running inside their head incredibly irritating) there are those who would seek to wield Loku’s magic – and clearly the only way to do so would be to become the host. So, we have the ‘baddy’ of the piece. An evil necromancer, named Sulaino, who seeks even more powerful magic and is therefore chasing the host. Fortunately the role of host comes resplendent with it’s own bodyguard in the guise of Ser Devarian Tell’brien of Gravaria – an elf with responsibility for protecting the current host and preventing said evil necromancer from getting his grabby hands on even more magic.
Characters. We really have three central figures – the others pale a little by comparison. Arden (or Trouble as she is frequently known). The central female of the piece. Arden has been orphaned and left in the care of a local village inn keeper. Being different from the rest of the population, in terms of looks, and living in Ranello, well we know how that’s going to pan out, but on top of this Arden seems to be hiding the fact that she can wield magic. Arden is about to unwittingly become the next host to Loku. The elf, Dev for short, is the protector of the piece. He has a companion in the form of a fire wolf called Cinder. Dev also is able to wield magic but travels through Ranello under the protection of his own kind and therefore free of any risk of being burnt at the stake! The other main character is Prince Kell. The third prince of the realm but clearly the favourite of the King. Kell seems to be one of those characters who is dashing and handsome, he bravely goes to fight the good fight and women seem to want to throw themselves willingly at his feet.
Now, the characters are probably my main criticism.
Arden is the Cinderella character of the piece. Raised in oblivion she seems very put upon indeed until her untimely possession and rescue at the hands of Dev. Of course she falls a little in love with her rescuer. Arden really did get on my nerves to be honest. She’s a teenage-girl’s-dream-come-true type character. Plucked from obscurity it turns out that not only is she more powerfully magical than anybody ever expected (and now even more so with Loku in situ) but she’s also quite stunning when you take off her apron. She’s a quick study, becoming adept with a sword after literally a few weeks and pirouetting around with a sword with gay aplomb (and managing to not poke out an eye in the process). The male characters of the piece are totally beguiled by her (although she is a witch so perhaps she’s practising her nefarious arts!). Dev and Kell from this point in the story seem to spend the rest of their time either being within a hair’s breadth of ravishing her or taking time out to readjust the uncomfortable front of their pants. Yes, despite the fact that we have an evil necromancer and an army of undead storming around the countryside the two most proficient characters of the piece spend the majority of the book either beating their manly chests and butting heads together or trying to become more comfortable with the over full front on their trousers! On top of this, Arden is a bit of a child in terms of temperament. She has a very sulky type nature, she’s stubborn and takes any form of rejection (even if it’s not really a rejection) as a reason to rush straight into somebody else’s arms, even if they’re not the arms she’s thinking of.
Dev – I didn’t mind this character although considering how long he has served as a protector his abilities leave a little bit to be desired. In fairness most of the blood in his body was usually rushing to one particular area so his ability to do anything else was probably a little impaired.
Prince Kell – well, he’s your basic womaniser (his little head definitely rules his big head). He’s not used to refusals and he has all the trusty tricks in his bag. Walks in the rose arbour in the moonlight, private dinner engagements, little gifts, you name it! Until, having been resisted and kept at arm’s length by Arden, he finds himself totally in love. And I’m sure he will remain in love right up to the moment that he bed’s his current obsession. I know he’s overall supposed to be a good character but I didn’t really like him. He came across as smug,
And so the despicable love triangle enters the scene, (Although in fairness I think the eventual outcome of this is as plain as the nose on your face).
For the avoidance of doubt, I didn’t hate this book. It was very easy to read and clearly I’m not the target audience. Also, whilst I don’t really read romance I’m not totally averse to it, My main issue really was niggles with a couple of the main characters and the fact that this felt predominantly romance with fantasy more as a second thought.
To my rating. Well, again, I kind of hummed and ahhed with this. I recognise that this book may not be for me but I think that it would definitely appeal to a YA market. I thought it was easy to read and well written. I would say 6/10
The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung #SPFBO
15 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Mark Lawrence, SPFBO, The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids
Just finished reading The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung which I really enjoyed. Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:
“They butchered Corbin right out in the street. That’s how it really started. He was a rogue and a thief, of course. But then, so am I. So when he got himself hacked up in front of his house off Silk Street, I decided somebody had to be made to pay. They thought that they could just sweep him away like rubbish. They were wrong.”
Amra Thetys is a thief with morals: She won’t steal from anybody poorer than she is. Fortunately, anybody that poor generally doesn’t have much worth stealing! But when a fellow thief and good friend is killed in a deal gone wrong, Amra turns her back on burglary and goes after something far more precious: Revenge.
This was a good read and very enjoyable.
The main character is Amra. At the start of the story her friend and fellow thief is murdered and Amra is hellbent on revenge. Corbin is the friend and fellow thief in question. He came to Amra the night before he died asking for help. He’d carried out a theft and been double-crossed. Amra now needs to backtrack to find the killer. Of course, things are not as easy as all that. Other people are searching for the stolen goods that Corbain hid and so whilst Amra is looking for people – people are looking for her! And there are some nasty critters out there.
What did I like about this.
Firstly, I liked Amra. She’s far from your typical female protagnoist. She’s certainly not as pretty as a picture, she probably has more scars than you can count on all your digits, she has no enticing curves, she prefers daggers to friends and has something of a filthy mouth but she’s likable nonetheless. People tend to want to help her (more often than not because she’s probably helped them way back when) but she really isn’t a damsel in distress.
Secondly, there is some great imagination here. I loved certain elements to the story where we seem to go down a horror route – we have a combination of house of horrors and the funerals from spookydom! I loved the funeral scenes – they give me the creeps.
Thirdly, it’s a fast moving story. There’s no messing about, just bam, straight into the story with plenty of action and it’s well described.
Okay, cards on the table here. I don’t suppose this brings anything really new to the scene. It’s not perfect. For example, we’re told that Amra is a brilliant thief but we don’t really get much evidence in that respect to be honest. At the start there is a certain sense of repetitiveness – Amra sort of tells you the reason why she’s doing things usually followed by ‘you have to do ‘a’, ‘b’ or ‘c’ if you want to survive’ and yet in spite of things like this the pages flew by and I found myself fairly racing towards the end.
The other thing that I liked, in fact it’s something I really appreciate when reading, is the author feels like he enjoyed writing the story and I think this came across more and more as the story progressed. The dialogue just became better, the action more colourful. Just basically the novel goes from strength to strength. I mean, the world building could have used a little more depth but, again, it didn’t feel like it seriously hampered the story.
On top of this we have another really pretty good character in Holgren – he’s a mage, a powerful mage and whilst Amra is fairly self sufficient I don’t think she would have survived some of her scrapes without his help. I liked him and between the two of them there was some very intriguing reading and amusing scenes to lighten the mood.
This is definitely a series that I would continue to read, in fact this finishes on what I would say is a perfect note and one that makes me want to pick up the next book.
SPFBO – Finalist
19 August 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Mark Lawrence, Self Published Fantasy Blog Off, SPFBO
For the past few months I’ve been taking part in the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off. This idea was hit upon by Mark Lawrence and brings together 10 bloggers, each undertaking to read 25-27 books submitted by self published authors with a view to putting forward one book from their pile. The 10 books that are then put forward will then be read by each blogger and scored and eventually an overall winner will be hit upon. The full details are here.
In today’s post I’m announcing my overall winner. I’m probably doing things a little back to front here because I haven’t reviewed the book yet (or a number of the other books that I actually completed). This is simply because I focused on completing the task in front of me and in particular on finding my ‘one’ book.
I can say that this has been a very difficult challenge for me for a number of reasons. I hate being critical – I really do! And yet I have a list of books and only one to take forward. This certainly acted as a motivation in making me focus. Also, I think writing a book and putting your labour of love forward for an event such as this must be really tough and I appreciate that and don’t want to discourage anybody.
What I can say about the books submitted on my list – I had some enjoyable reads here – in fact probably more than I expected (which was something of an eye opener and a revelation) Maybe I wasn’t as open minded about self published books as I thought and in that respect I think this challenge has been a learning curve.
In terms of the reading I didn’t complete all the books and this wasn’t necessarily because I didn’t enjoy them but more because I already knew that they would not be the book I put forward for one reason or another. In total I completed 10 books – I’ve already written a short review for a couple of those plus a full review for one of the others. The others I intend to write reviews for over the next few days starting with my finalist. I think I gave all the books submitted a very fair chance but at the end of the day the book I chose just stood out for me as up until that point I was undecided about which book I had enjoyed the most.
I would like to thank all the authors who submitted books for this challenge and hope that none of you are discouraged at all, at the end of the day I had to be fairly hard in terms of elimination. Put simply, some of the books were not my style, or maybe felt aimed at a younger target audience and some I had issues with the writing style that didn’t particularly work for me.
My finalist for this round:
The Weight of a Crown by Tavish Kaeden – review to follow.
The other books that I read fully but have not yet reviewed:
- Iduna by Maya Michaels
- The Duchess of the Shallows by Neil McGarry & Daniel Ravipinto
- Forging Divinity by Andrew Rowe
- In the Dark by Melody Taylor
- Thief of Hope by Cindy Young-Turner
- Blade of the Broken by Jake Scholl
The following three books I’ve already either reviewed or given a short write up of.
- Naming the Bane by Kal S Davian
- Klondaeg the Monster Hunter by Steve Thomas
- His Own Good Sword by Amanda McCrina review here
SPFBO Update
This is my latest update on the SPFBO. A quick recap.
The next six on my list are as follows:
- Andrew Rowe – Forging Divinity – checked out the first few chapters and intend to read further
- Janice McKonly – Welcome to Mystery Interior – an interesting idea, I read about 15% of this but decided ultimately it wasn’t for me.
- Scott Decker – Gemstone Wyverns – checked out the first few chapters and intend to read further
- Cindy Young-Turner – Thief of Hope – checked out the first few chapters and intend to read further
- Jake Scholl – Blade of the Broken, read about 30% of this book and was quite intrigued and may return to it.
- Ruairi Cinead Ducantlin – Verum – Exercitum ex Nihilo- I couldn’t get into this one unfortunately, I gave it a good shot at around 21% but was unable to really get into the story.
To the authors of Welcome to Mystery Interior, Blade of the Broken and Verum. Thank you so much for submitting your books for review. Like I’ve previously said it’s difficult to eliminate certain books off the list and it’s not necessarily because I disliked them but at the end of the day there’s only one book going forward and so I have to narrow down the choices along the way. The three I will continue to read and review are below with descriptions from Amazon:
Forging Divinity by Andrew Rowe:
Some say that in the city of Orlyn, godhood is on sale to the highest bidder. Thousands flock to the city each year, hoping for a chance at immortality.
Lydia Hastings is a knowledge sorcerer, capable of extracting information from anything she touches. When she travels to Orlyn to validate the claims of the local faith, she discovers a conspiracy that could lead to a war between the world’s three greatest powers. At the focal point is a prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to the long-missing leader of the pantheon she worships.
Rescuing the prisoner would require risking her carefully cultivated cover – but his execution could mean the end of everything Lydia holds dear.
Gemstone Wyverns by Scott Decker
Under Guardian William’s rule, people huddle in castles, dreading the next attack of the Gemstone Wyverns. As Josh Wyrmherd admires a large uncut diamond, which awaits the next king to claim it, a wyvern crashes through the window and steals it from the castle. Accused of assisting the wyvern, Josh is exiled from the kingdom and begins a journey that will change his life.
Thief of Hope by Cindy Young-Turner
Sydney, a street urchin and pickpocket in the town of Last Hope, has managed to evade the oppressive Guild for years, but there is no escaping fate when she’s sentenced to death for associating with the resistance.
After she’s rescued by a wizard, Sydney is forced to accept that magic—long outlawed throughout the Kingdom of Thanumor—still exists, and the Tuatha, a powerful faery folk, are much more than ancient myth and legend. When the wizard offers a chance to fight the Guild and bring Willem, bastard prince and champion of the Tuatha, to the throne, Sydney embraces the cause as a way to find her own redemption.
But Sydney’s fear of the Guild, distrust of authority, and surprising connection to the Tuatha threaten Willem’s success. Can she untangle the strange threads that entwine her life not only to the fate of the kingdom, but also to Willem himself?
Out of 12 books so far I’ve eliminated 8, reviewed one and chosen 3 more to continue reading (and which I will definitely review). From the number overall I have a further 13 (or 15 if I have time to include the two extra books).
Books and travelling with Lynn 