Today's post is on 'Princess of the Sword' by Lynn Kurland. It is 360 pages long all story (which I love) and it is published by The Berkley Publishing Group an imprint of Penguin Group Inc. This is the wonderful conclusion to the Nine Kingdoms trilogy. It is the first trilogy and Ms. Kurland is writing the second one at the moment. I will be reading it too because I really enjoyed this setting. The intended reader is anyone who likes fantasy with a little romance on the side. I am still getting used to my new review style but by that I mean I feel my reviews are full of spoilers so SPOILER WARNING.
Morgan and Miach are getting desperate to close the well of evil that Gair opened 20 years ago. The evil is not only still leaking out but Lothar the black mage of the north is using the power to make horrible creatures who only have two jobs. One kill anyone with the magic to stop him and to find any descendants of Gair. As Morgan is Gair's only daughter the monsters have been following her for months now. At the start of the story Miach and Morgan are sneaking into the wizards university to search for a spell to close the well. It is not there but they do discover that some of Morgan's brothers survived the opening of the well. So the orphan Morgan is not totally alone. In fact her two eldest brothers are still alive but broken in ways that she cannot imagine. Their father in the opening of the well took their magic for himself but it was not enough to save him when the tide of evil poured over him. Then they have to choose which way they are going to attack both the well and Lothar when Lothar has Miach's king and older brother abducted.
With time running out Maich and Morgan not only have to close the well of evil, stop Lothar's ambitions and rescue the King of Neroche Maich's older brother. It all does end well and happy with Maich and Morgan getting married at the end. There are some funny moments in this one just like the first two. Morgan's grandfather is a delight and the other side characters just make the scenes pop to the reader. I hope to see them again in the second trilogy which is about one of Morgan's brothers. The magic system in the series is interesting because it is a mix of bloodright and natural ability. But it is never really explained that so many classic fantasy magic systems, it just works.
My rating for this is four and half stars.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
The Naming
Today's post is on 'The Naming' by Alison Croggon. It is 466 pages long and is published byCandlewick Press. This is a lush high fantasy novel in a richly imagined world and I just loved this book. In fact I went out and bought the whole series all in hardback. It is four volumes long, with beautiful covers. This series has been out for a little while but I read things as they come into my life no matter how old. The intended reader is YA but anyone with a love of high fantasy will enjoy this piece. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
Maerad is a slave. That is all she has ever known and after her mother died when she about seven she has been alone in Gilman's Cot. The only thing that saves her the rapes and other brutalities is that she is seen as a witch by the other's 'living' there. All animals she cares for do better, get sick less and give more meat, milk or wool. Maerad also has a great gift of music. She is only one in the Cot who can play the harp that her mother left her. One bitterly cold morning when Maerad has had just an hour of sleep because she was playing for the men all night she is tending the cows when she sees a man walk by. The man is bloody, stumbling and shocked that she could see him. Within a day Maerad is fleeing the Cot with Cadvan the man she saw. He is fleeing some great evil from the mountains to the north. He also tells her that she is a bard and so is he.
Bards the people in this world who have the magic. They help the sick, make harvests better and teach everyone how to read and write. But there is a sickness in the barding, some old evil is making its way into the world again. With the Dark chasing them Maerad and Cadvan have more mystries to solve than where Maered came from. Her history is dark and at the heart of the troubles in this first book. Along the way she meets people who change the way she looks at the world, the way she reacts to it and she does grow some over the course of the book but not much. Her growth is more like a flower coming into bud not just all at once. It is a little annoying but understandable for Maerad. The pacing is very fast, the writing is wonderful and the characters are memorable.
My personal rating is four and half stars and I read it in eight hours. Not because it is short but because I just could not put it down.
Maerad is a slave. That is all she has ever known and after her mother died when she about seven she has been alone in Gilman's Cot. The only thing that saves her the rapes and other brutalities is that she is seen as a witch by the other's 'living' there. All animals she cares for do better, get sick less and give more meat, milk or wool. Maerad also has a great gift of music. She is only one in the Cot who can play the harp that her mother left her. One bitterly cold morning when Maerad has had just an hour of sleep because she was playing for the men all night she is tending the cows when she sees a man walk by. The man is bloody, stumbling and shocked that she could see him. Within a day Maerad is fleeing the Cot with Cadvan the man she saw. He is fleeing some great evil from the mountains to the north. He also tells her that she is a bard and so is he.
Bards the people in this world who have the magic. They help the sick, make harvests better and teach everyone how to read and write. But there is a sickness in the barding, some old evil is making its way into the world again. With the Dark chasing them Maerad and Cadvan have more mystries to solve than where Maered came from. Her history is dark and at the heart of the troubles in this first book. Along the way she meets people who change the way she looks at the world, the way she reacts to it and she does grow some over the course of the book but not much. Her growth is more like a flower coming into bud not just all at once. It is a little annoying but understandable for Maerad. The pacing is very fast, the writing is wonderful and the characters are memorable.
My personal rating is four and half stars and I read it in eight hours. Not because it is short but because I just could not put it down.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Invasion
Today's post is on 'Invasion Book One of the Secret World Chronicle' By Mercedes Lackey with Steve Libbey, Cody Martin and Dennis Lee. It is published by Baen and is 567 pages long excluding a sample of book two. The cover has an iron eagle screaming with flames behind it. The story is told in two parts in 15 chapters. The intended reader is anyone who likes superheros, good writing and saving the world. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
First line is- The blue-skinned, blue-haired woman known by the callsign "Belladonna Blue" leaned into the oval hatch of the captain's cubby.
In World War 2 metahumans were the ones who really won the war. Metahumans are humans with something extra, like being able to fly or throw flames. Well the world is mostly at peace in 2011. Metahumans are the real police force of the world and most countries are happy to just not have another war like WW2. But something strange is going on. At the headquarters of the metahumans called Echo when a soldier from WW2 walks up and demands to see the head of Echo Alex Tesla. He is a famous meta from Germany and he says that he has very important information about a coming attack. Of course no one listens to him until it is too late. All around the world at once all the metahumans are attacked; by gaint mechas with a swastikas on their arms. Everywhere there is an Echo station or in Russia where they house their metas. The battles are short but brutal. In about three hours over twice-thirds of the worlds metas are dead and that is not counting the normal humans. Soon metas from all sides are having to choose which side they want to be on fighting for the nazis or for humanity.
I really enjoyed this book. I grew up watching the X-Men so metahumans and mutants are so my thing. That said before I go on about how much I loved this book and series, I will discuss my problems with it. It is only 15 chapters long and it is almost 600 pages. The chapters are really dense with so much happening that you really need to read it about once a day like I did, or you will forget things. Some of the characters are Russian and sometimes they speak Russian without being translated. Now on to the things I loved about this book. I love that it is based from real characters that the authors played on City of Heros, a pretty good MMO (btw it is free to play so try it I have.). The characters are really heroes, I love heroes. One of characters Red Djinni is both good and bad, he is a great anti-hero, he is an interesting ass. The first part is broken into different character perspectives so the reader goes from Belladonna to Vikky to Djinni. There are angels and there is a great big save the world story. All in all I really enjoyed this book. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second volume.
I give this one a five out of five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought my copy from my local bookstore.
First line is- The blue-skinned, blue-haired woman known by the callsign "Belladonna Blue" leaned into the oval hatch of the captain's cubby.
In World War 2 metahumans were the ones who really won the war. Metahumans are humans with something extra, like being able to fly or throw flames. Well the world is mostly at peace in 2011. Metahumans are the real police force of the world and most countries are happy to just not have another war like WW2. But something strange is going on. At the headquarters of the metahumans called Echo when a soldier from WW2 walks up and demands to see the head of Echo Alex Tesla. He is a famous meta from Germany and he says that he has very important information about a coming attack. Of course no one listens to him until it is too late. All around the world at once all the metahumans are attacked; by gaint mechas with a swastikas on their arms. Everywhere there is an Echo station or in Russia where they house their metas. The battles are short but brutal. In about three hours over twice-thirds of the worlds metas are dead and that is not counting the normal humans. Soon metas from all sides are having to choose which side they want to be on fighting for the nazis or for humanity.
I really enjoyed this book. I grew up watching the X-Men so metahumans and mutants are so my thing. That said before I go on about how much I loved this book and series, I will discuss my problems with it. It is only 15 chapters long and it is almost 600 pages. The chapters are really dense with so much happening that you really need to read it about once a day like I did, or you will forget things. Some of the characters are Russian and sometimes they speak Russian without being translated. Now on to the things I loved about this book. I love that it is based from real characters that the authors played on City of Heros, a pretty good MMO (btw it is free to play so try it I have.). The characters are really heroes, I love heroes. One of characters Red Djinni is both good and bad, he is a great anti-hero, he is an interesting ass. The first part is broken into different character perspectives so the reader goes from Belladonna to Vikky to Djinni. There are angels and there is a great big save the world story. All in all I really enjoyed this book. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second volume.
I give this one a five out of five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought my copy from my local bookstore.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
The Return of Santiago
Today's post is 'The Return of Santiago' by Mike Resnick. It is 464 pages long and published by TOR. This is a sequel to Santiago also by Mike Resnick. If you have not read either Mike Resnick before or Santiago stop reading this right now and get to your library. Go get some of his stuff, read it and thank me later. I am going to be putting in some changes to my reviewing because I got a professional to read one of my reviews and give me some help. A very big thanks to Angela Leonard from http://darkfaerietales.com/ for taking the time to read and critique my review. So on to the review.
Santiago is a myth of the Far Future. In the year 3407 the democracy is as greedy as ever. More and more of people's rights are being taken in the name of safety. Danny Briggs is just a thief with a forgettable face. But he is on the run from the law. He takes refuge in an abandoned house. In the attic there a treasure just waiting for the universe to remember it. The poem by Black Orpheus the poet who wrote about everyone who was anyone in the Inner Frontier. Briggs grew up on his tales and legends and the biggest one of all was Santiago. As Briggs reads all of the poem he realizes that Santiago was more than just an outlaw he was a revolutionary, out in the darkness to make the democracy remember that it was to help people not just take from them. So Danny decides that it is time for Santiago to return to the Inner Frontier, time to give the people someone to believe in, someone to fear and more than anything something to hope for again.
Resnick's style is as always wonderful to read. He is a poet not just with the four lines that start each chapter but with the characters in the story. They all come alive as you read them. I loved watching Briggs become Alighieri then into more than he ever dreamed. He is the only one who really changes over the course of the story but he is main character so he is the only one who really needs to change. That said other characters do appear to change but as you read the story you will understand that they are not changing but just revealing parts of their personalities that we did not see before.
Rating five of five stars, ten out of ten, this is another wonderful story from Resnick. Please feel free to tell me what you think about the new review style, what you like, don't like and everything else.
Santiago is a myth of the Far Future. In the year 3407 the democracy is as greedy as ever. More and more of people's rights are being taken in the name of safety. Danny Briggs is just a thief with a forgettable face. But he is on the run from the law. He takes refuge in an abandoned house. In the attic there a treasure just waiting for the universe to remember it. The poem by Black Orpheus the poet who wrote about everyone who was anyone in the Inner Frontier. Briggs grew up on his tales and legends and the biggest one of all was Santiago. As Briggs reads all of the poem he realizes that Santiago was more than just an outlaw he was a revolutionary, out in the darkness to make the democracy remember that it was to help people not just take from them. So Danny decides that it is time for Santiago to return to the Inner Frontier, time to give the people someone to believe in, someone to fear and more than anything something to hope for again.
Resnick's style is as always wonderful to read. He is a poet not just with the four lines that start each chapter but with the characters in the story. They all come alive as you read them. I loved watching Briggs become Alighieri then into more than he ever dreamed. He is the only one who really changes over the course of the story but he is main character so he is the only one who really needs to change. That said other characters do appear to change but as you read the story you will understand that they are not changing but just revealing parts of their personalities that we did not see before.
Rating five of five stars, ten out of ten, this is another wonderful story from Resnick. Please feel free to tell me what you think about the new review style, what you like, don't like and everything else.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Mage's Daughter
Today's post is on The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland. It is 378 pages and it is published by Berkley Sensation. Ms Kurland is normally a romance author, to warn any real romance readers this is not a romance there is a love story and it is important to the main story but the main characters just share kisses in this book and only hand holding in the first one that is all, but this is the second in her fantasy series. The first one is 'Star of the Morning' by the same publisher. There will be spoilers in this review because it is the second in a series. If you have not read the first one please do so because it is an excellent series.
The characters are the same as this one is a direct continuation of the story. Morgan and Miach are separated by miles and my heart. Morgan is recovering from the poison that Lothar give her at the end of the first book. Miach gave her to her uncle to care for while he continued to try and discover what is source of evil magic that is destroying the kingdom. Morgan is weakened by more than just the poison but by the revelation of who her parents were. Her dreams drive her to go back to a magic sink by Weger, who trained her in the sword arts, so Miach loses his sense of her. Fearing that she has died he flies to her uncle Nicholas' home. There he is told that Morgan is fine but she is running from all magic and is enraged with Miach( because of the events of the first book). Miach follows her to Weger's island. And that is all in the first three chapters. The evil is really evil, the bad guys are not going to let Morgan and Miach have an easy time of it neither are Morgan's relatives. The ending has a great sense of hope that is very nice with all the darkness that the characters and the reader go through.
I cannot do this wonderful book justice. The writing is fun, the characters all have unique voices and the world is just so easy to see in your mind. I cannot wait to read the last one in the series which is out but I have a reading cycle and other books must come first. The only thing, and I am not sure if this is a bad things, is that I believe that everything will turn out for the good. I just believe that Morgan and Miach will be able to defeat the evil, get married and have a good life from there. Like I said I am sure that is a bad thing and that is just the way I felt was I was reading this book.
Rating is 4 and 1/2 stars.
See you next week.
The characters are the same as this one is a direct continuation of the story. Morgan and Miach are separated by miles and my heart. Morgan is recovering from the poison that Lothar give her at the end of the first book. Miach gave her to her uncle to care for while he continued to try and discover what is source of evil magic that is destroying the kingdom. Morgan is weakened by more than just the poison but by the revelation of who her parents were. Her dreams drive her to go back to a magic sink by Weger, who trained her in the sword arts, so Miach loses his sense of her. Fearing that she has died he flies to her uncle Nicholas' home. There he is told that Morgan is fine but she is running from all magic and is enraged with Miach( because of the events of the first book). Miach follows her to Weger's island. And that is all in the first three chapters. The evil is really evil, the bad guys are not going to let Morgan and Miach have an easy time of it neither are Morgan's relatives. The ending has a great sense of hope that is very nice with all the darkness that the characters and the reader go through.
I cannot do this wonderful book justice. The writing is fun, the characters all have unique voices and the world is just so easy to see in your mind. I cannot wait to read the last one in the series which is out but I have a reading cycle and other books must come first. The only thing, and I am not sure if this is a bad things, is that I believe that everything will turn out for the good. I just believe that Morgan and Miach will be able to defeat the evil, get married and have a good life from there. Like I said I am sure that is a bad thing and that is just the way I felt was I was reading this book.
Rating is 4 and 1/2 stars.
See you next week.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Grave Robbers' Chronicles- Angry Sea, Hidden Sands
Today's post is The Grave Robbers' Chronicles Volume 2 Angry Sea, Hidden Sands by Xu Lei and translated by Kathy Mok. It is published by ThingsAsian Press and it 237 pages long excluding author's info and preview of the next book at the end. In my post about volume one I had some problems with that I thought was the translation style but now I think differently. Volume one was the first novel that Xu had written and the second volume is much better. It is easier to read, the action is more exciting and in general all in all just better. The language is still coarse but not as bad as in the first one.
The plot of volume starts right where one left off with Wu opening the box he found in the tomb of dead warriors. Inside there is a fish with eyebrows that are shaped like fish. His uncle Three pulls another one out of his pocket that looks just like the one Wu has. His uncle takes off without telling Wu anything> At first Wu is not concerned but when a week goes by without hearing anything from his uncle he is starting to get worried when he is called by a rental company. Uncle Three rented a boat with a full crew to find an underwater tomb which is a story that Wu has heard about all his life. Over the course of the story Wu ends up with two of his companions from the first Fats and Poker-face whose name we learn is Zhang Qilin The plot twists in this volume are more unpredictable then in the first one. I am looking forward to the next one because of the way he ends this one. Once again if ancient Chinese lore is your thing then definitely is a story for you. The third book is still being translated in English but I hope so see it soon.
My rating is 4 stars.
The plot of volume starts right where one left off with Wu opening the box he found in the tomb of dead warriors. Inside there is a fish with eyebrows that are shaped like fish. His uncle Three pulls another one out of his pocket that looks just like the one Wu has. His uncle takes off without telling Wu anything> At first Wu is not concerned but when a week goes by without hearing anything from his uncle he is starting to get worried when he is called by a rental company. Uncle Three rented a boat with a full crew to find an underwater tomb which is a story that Wu has heard about all his life. Over the course of the story Wu ends up with two of his companions from the first Fats and Poker-face whose name we learn is Zhang Qilin The plot twists in this volume are more unpredictable then in the first one. I am looking forward to the next one because of the way he ends this one. Once again if ancient Chinese lore is your thing then definitely is a story for you. The third book is still being translated in English but I hope so see it soon.
My rating is 4 stars.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Bitterblue
Today's post is on 'Bitterblue' by Kristin Cashore. It is published by Dial an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. It is 547 pages long not including the maps at the end of the book. The story is told in five parts and over six months. This is the third in a series to really enjoy this book you need to read Graceling the first novel but the second is not necessary to understand what happens in the book. The intended reader is YA but an adult can enjoy this series as well.
The main character is Bitterblue the queen of Monsea and is 18 years old. When she was 10 her father was killed in front of her but that was a good thing because he was insane and powerful. In this fantasy world there are people born with special abilities called graces. Graces can be anything from never losing your balance to telling lies that will be believed as the truth no matter how bad the lie. That was the grace that Bitterblue's father Leck had. He was destroying the kingdom with his lies and manipulation. Now he had been dead for 10 years and Bitterblue's people are not healing. She is allowed to leave her castle so she sneaks out to see her city for herself. I don't want to ruin the plot because it kept me guessing but Bitterblue is surrounded by lies, lairs, thieves and traitors. Who she can trust changes with each chapter expect for the characters that we have met in Graceling. I must warn you if you read this series it is for older YA and adults. There is talk about torture, both to animals and people, rape and murder. In addition to there things that I do not want to tell because they are major plot points but you are warned. All in all it is an excellent series, book, and I am looking forward to the next ones because Cashore set up for the next in the series very well in this one.
The main character is Bitterblue the queen of Monsea and is 18 years old. When she was 10 her father was killed in front of her but that was a good thing because he was insane and powerful. In this fantasy world there are people born with special abilities called graces. Graces can be anything from never losing your balance to telling lies that will be believed as the truth no matter how bad the lie. That was the grace that Bitterblue's father Leck had. He was destroying the kingdom with his lies and manipulation. Now he had been dead for 10 years and Bitterblue's people are not healing. She is allowed to leave her castle so she sneaks out to see her city for herself. I don't want to ruin the plot because it kept me guessing but Bitterblue is surrounded by lies, lairs, thieves and traitors. Who she can trust changes with each chapter expect for the characters that we have met in Graceling. I must warn you if you read this series it is for older YA and adults. There is talk about torture, both to animals and people, rape and murder. In addition to there things that I do not want to tell because they are major plot points but you are warned. All in all it is an excellent series, book, and I am looking forward to the next ones because Cashore set up for the next in the series very well in this one.
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