Tag Archives: Fantasy Review

Debut Review – The Manual of Detection

Posted on by
11


The Manual of Detection
by Jedediah Berry (blog)
Penguin
Hardcover and Trade Paperback

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berrywill probably end up in my year end “Best Of” list. It was just about perfectly conceived, perfectly executed, perfectly written, and perfectly charming. I’m hard pressed to think of any critiques. It’s that good.

With that said, it’s not for everyone. This review copy originally went to Raven, who thought it was good but perhaps she wasn’t the right reviewer for it. So she sent it to me. And by sheer luck, I read it just shy of a month after the paperback release date.

The Manual of Detection is a very quirky, well-mannered steampunk fantasy mystery. It is somewhat literary, but never boring. It’s the story of Charles Unwin, clerk of a huge detective agency, who is unexpectedly promoted to Detective shortly after the disappearance of the most famous Agency detective, Travis Sivart.

Mr. Unwin is a man who knows his limitations. He knows that he has no business being a detective. After all, he wears a green trilby hat rather than a fedora, and his shoes always squeak. So his goal is to find Detective Sivart so he can get his old job back.

Permit me to rave about the presentation of the hardcover edition. It’s designed to look like a manual. It has a government-issue green cover, with black embellishments, within which alarm clocks, fingerprints, keys and footprints can be found. It also has a prominent eye. The eye is on the back as well, along with the motto, “Never Sleeping”. It’s a treat, mostly because everything on the cover becomes significant as the story unfolds.

The chapters are each accompanied by a quote from the fictional Manual of Detection. Each quote applies to something that’s going to happen in that chapter. One of these chapters becomes part of the story, and when I read that chapter number, I had to laugh out loud.

The Manual of Detection is a novel of typewriters, if immense filing cabinets, of umbrellas, of alarm clocks, of dumbwaiters, of bicycles, of telephones and of record players. It’s also a novel of steam trucks, of dream recording engines, of ever-winding watches, of traveling carnivals that travel no more, and of unofficial trips for unofficial reasons. No year is given, but I’d guess it takes place in the thirties or forties. There are telephones, electricity, radios, and cars, but no hint of anything like computers, which might have existed in a huge detective agency by the fifties.

Although the novel is told strictly from Charles Unwin’s point-of-view, you never know exactly what he is thinking until he speaks, or what he’s going to do until he’s already doing it. He’s both fussy and bold. When he sneaks into the archives, he gets caught, but then manages to get the archivists to trust him. All three of them. And he’s completely sincere when he is doing it–he takes advantage of no one. He’s an expert clerk, bicyclist, and umbrella wielder. And, he’s a meticulous dreamer.

The only thing I would have wished for was more of the detective agency in its “before” state. Because once it goes “after”, there’s no going back. However, I understand that to include any more might have bogged down the story.

If you read this novel, my advice is to pay attention. Try to read it over a short timespan and pay particular attention to characters who seem to talk about irrelevant things. All is relevant. This will be a wonderful book to reread.

Mr. Barry has achieved critical acclaim with The Manual of Detection, and it is well-deserved. I can’t wait to read his next book.

Review: The Swordbearer by Glen Cook

Posted on by
5


The Swordbearer
by Glen Cook (Wiki)
Night Shade Books
Trade Paperback – $14.95

Genre: High Fantasy

Publisher’s Blurb:
A young man’s dreams of warfare and glory turn into a bitter nightmare when an invading army, led by the Dark Champion Nevenka Nieroda and his twelve Dead Captains, the Toal, besieges his father’s feudal fortress. Nieroda and the Toal demand the surrender of an ancient artifact long-believed to be a myth. With the walls breached and his family slaughtered–or worse–Gathrid flees into the wilderness beyond his familiar castle walls.

Lost and alone in the woods, hounded by the Dead Captains, Gathrid takes refuge in a vast cavern. There he discovers an ancient sword–Daubendiek, the Great Sword of Suchara, the fabled weapon once wielded by the legendary tragic hero of an ancient age, Tureck Aarant. Daubendiek, a restless and thirsty blade, promises Gathrid the ability to claim his vengeance. But as he begins to take that vengeance, Gathrid starts to understand the terrible price that the sword will exact of him. Enemies soon become allies and strange bedfellows abound as the prophesies of an age swirl into chaos.

Reviewed by Superwench83

Afflicted by polio at a young age, Gathrid has never been allowed to play the hero. While his brothers train with weapons and prepare for the glories their prowess will bring, Gathrid watches, and dreams of things that can never be. But when tragedy strikes, destiny calls…in the form of a sentient sword which makes Gathrid its Swordbearer.

Glen Cook’s novel The Swordbearer doesn’t break new ground. It features a magic sword, a dark lord, and a boy thirsty for adventure. But to be fair, these now-cliché elements weren’t so overused when The Sowrdbearer was first published in 1982. Though re-released just last year, this is an early novel from a very respected author known for his gritty high fantasy books. And anyhow, the familiar territory alone shouldn’t deter you. In the hands of a master storyteller, such a tale can be gripping no matter how many times you’ve seen those tropes.

However…

I’ve been a Glen Cook fan ever since my husband introduced me to his Black Company books. And I’ll admit to feeling a bit of déjà vu while reading The Swordbearer. Some of the concepts and twists have strong glimmerings of the Black Company books. Especially regarding the super-magical bad guys and their bickering. It was like meeting the Lady, the Limper, and Soulcatcher all over again. The characterization, though, was very different. The characters in the Black Company books were vivid. The ones in The Swordbearer were flat. Cook writes action and battle and adventure that make you breathless, but what does that matter when you’re not passionate about the characters? It’s mystifying because in his other novels, his characters are deep and living. I think he hadn’t really come into his own as an author yet when he wrote this one. The makings of a great author were there, but he hadn’t developed that skill with creating unforgettable characters yet.

But the signs of what a master storyteller Glen Cook would become are apparent in this novel. Yes, the characterization issues make the book forgettable in the end, but it’s hard to put down nonetheless. You’re in the moment as you read. The action and magic—some of which was explained inadequately, I admit—propel you through the book, compel you to keep reading. Gathrid, while not vivid, is still sympathetic, and you want to see him find a measure of peace.

Ultimately, I felt like this book had great potential, potential which is fulfilled in the Black Company books. (Though I wouldn’t mind seeing The Swordbearer rewritten with more attention to characterization.) If you want to read a Glen Cook novel for the first time, I’d definitely recommend The Black Company. But unless you’re already a Glen Cook fan who’s curious about his other works, I would leave The Swordbearer be.

Review – Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

Posted on by
2


Spider’s Bite
by Jennifer Estep
Pocket Books – $7.99
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Jennifer Estep was one of the first authors I reviewed, and she has been a longterm reader of this blog ever since. This is quite flattering, but it makes me a less-than-partial reviewer. However, I do have my usual mix of things to say about Spider’s Bite.

Ms. Estep knows that I’m not a big fan of Urban Fantasy. She also knows — and has discussed on her blog often — that fans of her previous novels might not appreciate going from campy and silly to dark and gritty. I have mixed feelings about Spider’s Bite. It was certainly an easier read than many of the urban fantasies I’ve tried to read over the past year (a lot arrive in the mail), but I also probably gave it more of a chance than the authors I don’t know. And I think that’s not a bad thing. After all, I never read a cyberpunk novel before I read Otherland, and the only reason I picked it up was because the author was Tad Williams.

However, this novel is just about one of the darkest and grittiest that I ever managed to finish. The pages are laced with foul language (especially the f-bomb) and every battle is drenched in blood. Most of the villains are the worst kind of scum. Gin gets away with being the heroine of the novel only because she isn’t as bad as everyone else. She lost her family in a fire and survived on the streets by being tough until Fletcher, who would become her handler, took her in. Now she’s Ashland’s top assassin.

Ashland is a fictional southern metropolis in the Appalachian mountains. It makes Gotham City looks like a paradise. The cops are so corrupt that assassins like Gin have a thriving business taking care of some illegal justice. Gin is usually careful about the clients she takes on. She wants to be sure the would-be victim really deserves to die. However, she gets greedy and doesn’t check out this next (and highly profitable) job quite as thoroughly as she should have. As added incentive, if she takes this job, she can retire. When she’s double-crossed, she ends up leaving her victim alive and barely escaping from an honest cop named Donavan Caine. Who has good — and personal — reasons to want to put Gin in jail.

Some dings. I felt that Ms. Estep could have done a bit more research in several areas. Erasing files on a desktop computer is rarely good enough, especially a networked computer where files are backed up nightly. Also most charitable missions do not demand repentance in exchange for charity. They’re looking to touch hearts and minds, not to forcibly convert.  Other details were glossed over, such as tricky escapes. Some of this I expect — let’s not get bogged down in detail — but we also don’t want to make things too easy on the character.

For the most part, Gin’s foul-mouthed bark is worse than her bite. She talks tough about torturing those who cross her, but clever plotting spares the reader. Gin grows as a character, ending up with a softer heart than when she started. She allows Caine to believe terrible things about her because she doesn’t want to disillusion him. She is willing to throw herself into harm’s way to spare her friends.

The nonhuman races in Spider’s Bite includes vampires, but don’t expect your usual vampire mythologies. They don’t seem to be undead at all, and can go out day and night. They are no more difficult to kill than humans. They often seem rather weak. There are also giants, dwarves, and elementals, who can command the elements of earth, fire, air and ice. Ms. Estep once explained on her blog that she chose these because they are opposites — fire and ice, earth and air.

Like Ms. Estep’s previous comic-book novels, Spider’s Bite is meant to be pure entertainment. For me, it was more readable than Maria Lima’s Blood Lines, but not quite at the level of Kelly Gay’s The Better Part of Darkness. For it to achieve that level, I’d want to see more interpersonal relationships, which I understand are coming in future volumes. It also stayed away from my red flags. The plot devices she used in Bigtime are gone completely: no more will you be able to guess secret identities (yes, there are a few) the first time you hear a character’s name. Fans of Ms. Estep’s previous novels should know to expect something completely different by the cover alone. Fans of urban fantasy should enjoy the dark tone, the tough heroine and the inventive mythologies.

Review: Tuck

Posted on by
13

Reviewed by Superwench83.

Blurb:

The story of Rhi Bran y Hud concludes as Abbot Hugo and the Norman invaders attempt to wipe out King Raven and his flock once and for all. Their merciless attack, the first of many to come, heralds a dark and desperate day for the realm of Elfael. Bran and his few stalwarts desperately need encouragement and reinforcement if they are to survive. Bran and Friar Tuck, a most unconventional priest, ride north to rally the tribes of Wales to the fight, making new friends, and even more powerful enemies along the way. . . .

A Welsh Robin Hood? It sounds so strange after all that talk of Nottingham. Yet this is where Stephen R. Lawhead places his King Raven Trilogy, and a number of historical facts point to this being a possibility.

Hood and Scarlet were worthy tales, but this review is not for them (though in the past I discussed them briefly on my blog). Tuck, the final book in the King Raven Trilogy, sees us to the end of Rhi Bran y Hud’s quest to win his kingdom and his crown, and even goes as far as to speculate how the legend came to Nottingham.

Stephen R. Lawhead is a master of poetic prose. He also knows how to write chapter endings that hook you into diving right into the next page. Unfortunately…there’s something missing in this book. I can’t say I disliked it; indeed there were moments I really loved. But all in all, despite a lot of great things going on, I felt apathetic through about half of the book.

I think it was mostly a matter of characterization. Tuck, who is the main character of Tuck (surprise!) doesn’t seem to have any personal stakes. I mean, yes, if Bran’s quest fails, Tuck’s life could well be forfeit. But Tuck doesn’t seem troubled by this fact. He doesn’t dwell on it in dread, doesn’t have to force himself to push the thought away, doesn’t seem to have any dreams that will be shattered if he fails. Nor does he seem overly concerned about the people under oppressive rule. Not that he doesn’t care, but there’s no passion. He just seems to float along with the breeze, rarely proactive.

Another complaint I have is about the dialogue in the argument scenes—especially among the antagonists. It’s petty, silly dialogue…which might work if this were a different kind of novel, one that pokes fun of the villains and paints them as bumbling fools. But this is a serious novel, and the villains pose a serious threat. Their “He said this!” and “He started that!” dialogue seemed quite out of place.

As I said, though, there were moments I really enjoyed. The time Bran spent disguising himself before a pompous noble, as well as his flight away from that errand, were both playful and intense. More than any other scenes in the books, these captured the spirit of Robin Hood legends best, and I wish there had been more like them. I was also happy to see one of the series’ many villains show a few signs of redemption. And the ending was satisfactory, for both the book and the series. Not what I had expected, but a fitting end.

The appeal of this book—of the trilogy, in fact—lies in its unusual placement of the Robin Hood legend in a land and time it has never seen…or at least not for a thousand years. It’s a neat historical spin. I really liked Scarlet, the previous novel in the series, and wish Tuck had captured more of that spirit. All in all, Tuck wasn’t a bad book, but neither was it as strong as I had hoped it would be.

Preview chapter and purchase links

Debut Review: Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor

Posted on by
5


Dreamdark: Blackbringer
by Laini Taylor
Firebird Books
Paperback – 9.99
Genre: YA Fantasy

Blackbringer is a Young Adult fantasy that both takes place in our world . . . and in a hidden land within it. It is about a young fairy and a band of crows who fight devils. Cool, huh? It seems that the stupid humans keep coming across the devils in the bottle prisons, and they keep opening the bottles and setting them free. Kind of as if they were genies. The heroine, Magpie, has an idol who she is trying to live up to: the legendary Bellatrix, who vanished without dying thousands of years before.

It took me a while to get into the story, mostly because of the dialog. Ms. Taylor makes uses of idiosyncracies and invented slang that took me a while to get the rhythm of. Also, I had a hard time connecting to the crows. I kept wanting other fairies to come into the story, which took a while. Eventually I did grow to like the crows, but mostly they blended together.

But once Magpie decides to go to Dreamdark, the faerie forest, things really pick up. The plot absolutely had me guessing from one scene to the next. I never expected most of the events, which is a quality that I love in a book, especially when they all make sense in a sort of “aah!” moment.

Several other faeries become important to the story. Talon is a faerie with stunted wings. He’s also a prince of one of the only warrior-like clans in all of Dreamdark. His inability to fly makes him frustrated, especially when his clan’s territory turns out to be the center of the Blackbringer’s operations. This is definitely a handicap in a society that takes flying for granted. Talon kicks ass. The next book features him on the cover, which makes me think he will have a much larger role. He is a fierce warrior with an interesting talent for a male — knitting. Except, he doesn’t just knit any old sock.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned the Blackbringer. He was one of those pesky devils released by a witless human early in the story. Except he isn’t a devil. Most devils are only slightly more malevolent than a rat, and are called snags. The Blackbringer is a djinn who had a hand in all of creation. Which, of course, makes him able to uncreate as well.

Poppy is another important faery, and she has a unique power as well. She also has unusually wide and beautiful faery wings.

Poppy and Talon are both illustrated, as is Magpie and a few other characters. As with many young adult stories, correspondence is depicted in handwriting. Each chapter heading has a pen-and-ink design.

This was a fun and different read. Other than my difficulty adjusting to the pacing and the dialog in the beginning, I can’t think of any critiques! I definitely recommend it. In upcoming books, I would love to see more interaction between human and faery. I’d also like to see Magpie leave Dreamdark again, especially if she brings her faery friends along with her. The publisher sent along the second book in the series as well as the first, so I expect to be reading it soon. Both are now available.

Review: Year of the Horse by Justin Allen

Posted on by
8


Year of the Horse
Amazon USA – UK – Canada
by Justin Allen
Overlook Press
Hardcover – 18.95 (12.82 at Amazon)

First, a disclaimer. The author, Justin Allen, got in touch with me during the summer, and we have been in contact off-and-on ever since. He recently participated in an exceptionally lively Writer Wednesday. After I read and reviewed Slaves of the Shinar, his publisher sent me his second novel, Year of the Horse. Therefore, I have had more contact than usual with this author, and I can’t claim a completely impartial review. However, I can claim that I will be honest.

The Year of the Horse begins as Tzu-lu is procrastinating over a homework assignment. Right away, you know this is something different, eh? How many epic fantasies have you read where the character has homework? A visitor arrives at his parent’s shop, providing even more incentive for goofing off — especially when Tzu-lu realizes that the visitor is the famed gunfighter Jack Straw, who has come to visit Tzu-lu’s grandfather.

Naturally, Tzu-Lu must spy. A convenient keyhole makes this possible. There, he discovers that Jack has quite a history with both Tzu-lu’s grandfather and his dead father, plus he has some abilities that can only be described as magical.

The next day, Tzu-lu’s grandfather sends him off with Jack and a gang of men to help John MacLemore recover his stolen gold. With them are Henry, a black marksman, Chino, a Californio refugee, and Sadie, John’s teenage daughter.

In many ways, The Year of the Horse follows the same formula as The Hobbit. Like Bilbo, Tzu-Lu goes off on an adventure as an “expert” in something with which he only has limited experience. A Gandalf-like character goes with them. Their mission is to recover stolen gold. Tzu-lu becomes separated from his companions. The Gandalf-like character leaves them on their own after a time, and so on.

However, the story takes its own distinct direction while all of this is played out against an Old West backdrop. Vast tracts of unexplored territory. Indians. Mormons. Prejudice against everyone who doesn’t look or believe as you do.

And best of all, magic bullets!

All of the named places are fictional, but roughly coincide with an actual place. St. Francis is probably a fictional St. Louis. Hell Mouth might be the Grand Canyon, except it runs north and south. There’s something like the salt flats of New Mexico between Hell Mouth and the Mormon lands beyond — or it could be Death Valley. I looked up one county name and discovered that it was a fictional county invented by Faulkner.

Also, there’s an Easter Egg from Slaves of the Shinar that made me smile.

There is good and evil evenly distributed among all the groups that the gang encounters — kind of like in real life. The central characters all get along very well — almost too well. There is no troublemaker among the group to stir things up, unless it’s Sadie. The lack of conflict among the characters might have bogged down the plot if they all weren’t in conflict with the land itself. Unexpected things happen at every turn, such as a bolt of lightning sending their entire baggage train plunging over a cliff, separating Tzu-lu from the rest of his group. And who would ever have expected a pool of acid?

It’s hard to think of an “if you enjoyed” comparison, except if I were to compare it to Mark Twain. Tzu-lu is more like Huck than Tom, minus the abusive dad. Like Huck, he’s almost passive, and is seen as harmless to his enemies — an assumption they later regret.

You can probably tell that I really enjoyed Year of the Horse. I’d recommend it for any age, although very young children might find the typeface a bit small, and it’s not really packaged for Middle Grade readers, which the age of the protagonist would normally be perfect for. Oh, and since there is no legal drinking and smoking age when this takes place, the underage characters do both. However, I certainly don’t think they glorify such activities.

Year of the House is a delightfully different novel, as familiar as an epic fantasy, but with a distinctly American twist. I hope Mr. Allen finds a way to return us to these characters one day. I recommend it highly.

Debut Review – Slaves of the Shinar

Posted on by
11

SlavesOfTheShinar
Slaves of the Shinar (Amazon USA – UK – Canada)
by Justin Allen
Overlook Press
Hardcover – 25.95

Review copy provided by the author

Justin Allen’s second novel, Year of the Horse, just came out in October.

I remember hearing about Slaves of the Shinar back when I first started Fantasy Debut, and although I saw fine reviews for it everywhere, I did not read it at the time. Over the summer, the Justin Allen contacted me with a question and after an email conversation, he offered to send me a copy.

Slaves of the Shinar is billed as an epic fantasy of the ancient world. It’s hard to find a better blend of ingredients that are sure to hook me. It takes place in an unspecified location somewhere in Africa. There are two main characters, a black man named Urik  and a white man named Ander. Urik is trying to escape his destiny — literally. He is on the run from a prophesy, one that makes him a tragic and engaging character right from the start. And no, no, no, this is not the sort of prophesy you are thinking about. It’s a very personal prophesy — not one in which Urik fights a dark god or saves the world.

Ander is a slave of the Niphilim who is determined not only to escape, but to get revenge on his cruel captors. And he’s willing to use anyone to achieve this goal.

Both Ander and Urik are grown men. Stick a pin in me, why don’t you? A fantasy novel about grown men! It’s almost eek-worthy! (For those of you who are new here, I have long lamented about the over-abundance of young boys in fantasy novels.)

Anyway.

On his flight from destiny, Urik encounters a dog, which becomes his most faithful companion. He pulls off a daring theft early on in the story that reminded me me of Conan the Barbarian. The jewel he steals enables him to trade for a special sword — one made of iron rather than bronze.

For the Bronze Age is rapidly coming to an end. The Niphilim have the secret of steel (again, a Conan moment, but I want to be clear, it was for me, not Mr. Allen. He NEVER referred to it that way, and it was actually  iron, not steel) and they are using it to conquer the  Shinar. They are white, but are also referred to as giant-like. One of the reasons Urik stands out is because is is as big as a Niphilim. Those of you who are conversant in The Bible will recognize the term niphilim. The Nephilim were descendants of fallen angels. There is no indication in Slaves of the Shinar of any angelic origin. The resemble the Biblical Nephilim in their name, their stature and their superhuman strength. The religion in this novel are gods and goddesses — some of them with recognizable names, like Baal — and they don’t have any direct influence on the characters’ lives.

The Niphilim and another tribe simply referred to as the savages are the only outright fantasy elements in this novel. I’m not really sure what the savages are, but it is clear that they aren’t entirely human. Perhaps they are Australopithecines, but Mr. Allen doesn’t say. Whatever they are, they are terrifying and pity-inspiring all at once because the Niphilim use them as shock troops, driving them into battle with whips.

A great deal of this novel is about battles. Ander proves to be a charasmatic leader, and after helping a town unsuccessfully fight the Niphilim, he recruits a couple of priests to help him form an army. Ander and Urik never actually meet, and if they did, they probably wouldn’t like each other. But they are both ultimately after the same goal.

I just have a few critiques. For Ander’s scenes, the point-of-view was almost someone other than himself. This allowed the reader to see him from the viewpoint of other people, but it did mean that the point-of-view switched often. When there is one point-of-view per scene, this is fine, and for the most part, Mr. Allen kept us high and tight inside one person’s head. But there were several scenes where the point-of-view roved about confusingly, and in one scene between Urik and a woman he rescued, Adah, the point-of-view switches from sentence to sentence. However, this didn’t happen very often.

This is a brutal novel, but I was not overwhelmed by blood and gore. There is no sex and only a hint of romance. I found the quality of writing literary, yet the pacing equal to more commercial fiction. Most of the major characters are men, but Mr. Allen makes up for this by making the major villain an absolutely kick-ass Niphilim woman, and we even get to spend some time in her head. Adah comes into the mix rather late in the novel, but I liked her a great deal. My favorite character was Urik and the scene where he meets his destiny was especially heart-wrenching.

In an epilogue, Mr. Allen attempts to tie some of the characters to The Bible and a Babylonian epic poem, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, which I am certainly now going to reread. I’m not sure if Mr. Allen was entirely successful, for it made me think that there is a sequel to come, and perhaps, one day, there will be.

Slaves of the Shinar is a keeper for the reread shelf. If you like blends of ancient history and fantasy, this is something you are going to enjoy. I can recommend it highly.

Review – The Stepsister Scheme and The Mermaid’s Madness

Posted on by
6

TheStepsisterScheme
The Stepsister Scheme (Amazon USA – UK – Canada)
First Chapter (pdf)
DAW Books

The Mermaid’s Madness (Amazon USA – UK – Canada)
First Chapter (pdf)
DAW Books

by Jim C. Hines

Reviewed by Superwench83.

These are no ordinary princesses.

Jim C. Hines’ latest novel, The Mermaid’s Madness, came out recently, and since I’d not read the first in the Princess series, I bought them both at once [The Stepsister Scheme and The Mermaid's Madness] and read them back-to-back. These books turn the three most celebrated princesses in fairy tale tradition into heroines rather than damsels in distress. With fast-paced plots, whimsical settings, and clever dialogue, it’s no mystery why so many people love Hines’ books.

In The Stepsister Scheme, Cinderella (named Danielle) has married her prince and is looking forward to her happily ever after. But when her stepsisters kidnap the prince, Danielle teams up with Sleeping Beauty (Talia) and Snow White (Snow) to save him. As the queen’s secret agents, Talia and Snow are trained for this sort of thing. Talia is a martial arts master, Snow a powerful sorceress. (Don’t call her a witch. She hates that.) Their rescue mission takes them deep into Fairyland, where they encounter strange creatures, dazzling scenery, and the dangerous new magic Danielle’s stepsisters have acquired. Even with all their skill, Talia and Snow may not be a match for what awaits them. And Danielle the cinder girl may have to save them all.

In this first book in the Princess series, I felt that the character development wasn’t quite up to par, with the exception of Snow. Talia was too irritable and moody, Danielle too sweet and naïve. While Talia does have a troubled past that comes out during the novel, I never got close enough to her to truly understand why she has such an attitude, which prevented me from feeling fond of her. (Hines solves that problem in The Mermaid’s Madness by making her a point-of-view character.) With Danielle, I just wanted to shake her sometimes, because her naivety caused a lot of problems. I felt that the plot relied a bit too heavily on that, making her more naïve than was believable. Snow, however, was very well characterized, and after two books, she remains my favorite of the three.

TheMermaidsMadnessThe Mermaid’s Madness is a far cry from the original The Little Mermaid and the Disney version of the tale. Lirea is one p.o.-ed mermaid princess. She was scorned by the man she loved, and now there’s hell (or Davy Jones’ locker?) to pay. Once again, Danielle, Talia, and Snow set out to stop a crazy, magic-wielding menace before she hurts the people they love, along with many others. And the further they sail from home, the stranger—and more dangerous—things get.

Not to say things weren’t strange and dangerous before they left. The queen has suffered a severe wound from Lirea’s magical spear. Should Danielle, Talia, and Snow fail to stop Lirea, the queen will die, and the kingdom could find itself at war on land and sea.

I found the characterization much improved in The Mermaid’s Madness. Talia makes more sense, while Danielle is learning that not everyone is as nice as she. The secondary characters are deeper and more interesting as well. Not to mention the villain. Villains are much more engaging when they evoke your sympathy.

The thing that makes these books stand out is that touch of fantastic whimsy. The Stepsister Scheme and The Mermaid’s Madness both feature settings, creatures, and magic spells that call out that sense of wonder. The girls ride to Fairyland in a basket hung round a falcon’s neck. They seek allies in a pixie saloon. They turn into mermaids and swim alongside kelpies. It’s stuff like this that brought so many of us into the fantasy genre, those “ooh” moments that make you feel like a kid again.

The Stepsister Scheme and The Mermaid’s Madness were both fun to read. I can’t say I loved them, but I did enjoy them. They cast well-known fairy tales in a fresh and humorous light and offer a fast-paced adventure full of magic and surprises. Red Hood’s Revenge comes out next year, and there is potential for Jim C. Hines to continue the series for quite some time.

Tia’s Notes:

Dang it! I knew this would happen! Now I must read them. And I have long wanted to read Jig the Goblin, too. Thanks for the review, Katie!

Debut Series Review – The Youngest Templar

Posted on by
5

KeeperOfTheGrail
Keeper of the Grail (Amazon USA – UK - Canada)
by Michael P Spradlin
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin)
Paperback

Wow; this is an exciting series.

Penguin sent me these books over the summer. The second book in The Youngest Templar series, Trail of Fate, was coming out this week, so they thoughtfully sent me the first book, Keeper of the Grail, as well as the second.

I devoured both!

Keep in mind that this series hit a bunch of my loves all at once. It was historical fantasy, which I love. It was placed during the Third Crusade. I was once a fairly serious Crusade scholar. My area of expertise is the first Crusade, but it’s hard to study the First Crusade without learning about the other Crusades as well. (To be specific, I own five books on the Crusades. Three are about the First Crusade in particular, the other two are about all the Crusades. One of them is The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, so don’t think I just got one side of the story. I also own Will Durant’s Caesar and Christ, which is to blame for getting me interested in the Crusades in the first place.)

Anyway, the story is about a boy who was abandoned at an monastery. The monks decide to call him Tristan. When he is about fourteen years old, a group of Templars come to quarter at the monastery. One of them, Sir Thomas, is impressed by Tristan’s ability with animals, and he asks Tristan to become his squire. At the same time, Tristan runs afoul of the powerful Sir Hugh. Eventually, they end up in the Holy Land.

The plot moves very fast because in no time at all, they are in the thick of the battle for Acre, an important port city. During this battle, Tristan’s actions save the life of Richard III, King of England. As soon as they conquer Acre, Saladin besieges the city. They hold out for a while, but then Saladin’s forces close in, and Sir Thomas knows the city is going to fall.

And that’s when he entrusts Tristan with a precious treasure, and sends him on en epic quest across Europe.

One thing I would have liked to seen here is more development of Sir Thomas and Tristan’s relationship. Thomas tells him at one point that Tristan is the only person he trusts. Since there are other good knights among their company–excellent knights, to all appearances–this came across as false.

Two additional people show up in the latter half of the book. I don’t want to give away their identity, but one of them is a Muslim, and is therefore the enemy. Except this person switches sides and helps Tristan for reasons that I wish the other two characters would have explored more. But it is a very short novel, and I guess there wasn’t room to explore all the character’s motivations to the extent I would have wished.

This novel followed the Mythic Journey template, which I learned about on Kimber An’s site. Think the basic plot of Star Wars, of The Lord of the Ring, of many coming-of-age, or bildungsroman novels. It’s a perfect template for YA or middle grade, but it makes it a bit predictable for the adult market. Still, it was highly enjoyable and I just tore through it. It did end on a cliffhanger, but fear not! The publisher provided the first chapter of the second book, so you don’t come away unsatisfied.

TrailOfFate
Trail of Fate (Amazon USA – UK – Canada)
by Michael P. Spradlin
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin)
Hardcover

Trail of Fate picks up in the next breath after the end of Keeper of the Grail. Literally. Tristan and his two companions, which I will keep unnamed for the purpose of this review, is on the run across Europe with Sir Hugh hot on their trail. They end up on the east coast of France after surviving a shipwreck. Oh, Tristan also has a fourth companion, a small female dog, which, at the beginning of Trail of Fate, is unnamed. In this novel, the dog becomes an important character.

After Tristan collapses on the shore, he is found by a sword-bearing group of young men and women. They take him for a spy, but eventually accept his story that he is a Templar on his way home. Except they have no love for Templars. They are Cathars, which is a group that preaches tolerance toward other religions, except Templars, apparently. Their leader is the beautiful Celia, daughter of a leader of the Cathar movement.

Tristan gets more and more involved with Celia’s struggles, and his male friend (who is pictured on the cover) must remind him that he is on a quest. At this point, Tristan’s companions know nothing of Tristan’s true quest, since Thomas swore him to absolute secrecy. By the end of the novel, Tristan decides that his friends has earned his trust, and he takes them into his confidence, completely.

Although I enjoyed this novel, I didn’t feel that the story propelled the overarching story of the series along very far. Toward the end, there are some secrets revealed–especially about Tristan’s parentage–but much of it is one long side quest. It makes me wonder how many books are going to be in the series altogether. It ends at another cliffhanger, and since my copy is an advance reader copy, I didn’t get the perk of having the first chapter of book 3 included at the end. I guess that’s the price I must pay for being able to read it early.

I especially liked the cover of this novel because I know exactly what shot that the character is trying to take here. And it’s a very important shot, indeed!

I thoroughly enjoyed these novels. The characters are unabashedly Christan, except when they are Muslim. The Muslim character’s Muslim-ness could have been explored a bit more. I could not classify this as a Christian novel, because the theme is not Christian-centric. Yes, the subjects are Christian, but you don’t get the impression that the author has an agenda here. There are evil Christians and there are good Christians. The character spends such a short amount of time in the Holy Land that you don’t really have the opportunity to explore any evil Muslims. Mr. Spradlin toes a delicate line here, but eliminated much of the difficulty for himself by keeping the characters mostly in Europe.

This is a rousing adventure, which I heartily recommend for the young and old(er) alike!

Debut Review: The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker

Posted on by
6

MissPercyParker
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker (Amazon USA – UK – Canada)
by Leanna Renee Hieber (site includes blog and book trailer)
Leisure Books
Mass Market Paperback

Reviewed by Superwench83

Blurb
What fortune awaited sweet, timid Percy Parker at Athens Academy? Considering how few of Queen Victoria’s Londoners knew of it, the great Romanesque fortress was dreadfully imposing, and little could Percy guess what lay inside. She had never met the powerful and mysterious Professor Alexi Rychman, knew nothing of the growing shadow, the Ripper and other supernatural terrors against which his coterie stood guard. She knew simply that she was different, haunted, with her snow-white hair, pearlescent skin and uncanny gifts. But this arched stone doorway offered a portal to a new life, an education far from the convent—and an invitation to an intimate yet dangerous dance at the threshold of life and death…

A Victorian ghost story with a hint of Bronte and a splash of myth: such is The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber. In an almost-hidden realm in Victorian London, the supernatural occasionally bubbles into the normal realm to cause events which most cannot understand…but then, Alexi Rychman and his friends are not most. And Percy Parker is about to stumble into their world.

There is richness and passion in the people on these pages, and it shines forth even through the constraining veil of Victorian manners. Or perhaps it shines so brightly because of this contrast? There is Percy Parker, as pale as the ghosts no one but she seems to see, haunted not by specters but by the cold eyes of all who scorn her for being different; the brooding and handsome Professor Alexi Rychman, for whom Percy cannot shake her fascination; and Rebecca Thompson, the no-nonsense headmistress with a connection to Alexi which Percy doesn’t understand. Not to mention kind and friendly Michael, ever-sarcastic Elijah, and the rest. These characters’ relationships are both bitter and sweet, full of the complexities of all human relationships. And the mood these conflicts create sets the stage very nicely for the gothic gloom and mythological beauty.

The mix of myth, history, and the supernatural in this novel is refreshing. In a novel set in England, one might expect to deal with myths of fairies and Celtic spirits, but not a legendary love story of another ancient land. And to tie it into stories of famous English ghosts and Jack the Ripper is just something no one else has ever thought of. The magic and mystery tumble open in a series of breathtaking circumstances which fly by with each eager turn of the page. The book is short enough to read comfortably in a day, and that’s a good thing because I, for one, couldn’t put it down. It clips along at a steady pace, balancing mystery, romance, and action scenes so that things never get static.

The plotting wasn’t perfect, mind. There was a bit of predictability here and there, and I can’t grasp why no one saw through the villain right from the start; the villain was so transparent to me. Also, one particular assumption the Guard makes over a definition bothered me because their definition was so narrow—which was rather convenient in allowing them to overlook something important. And in the powers of the Guard, Rebecca is supposed to be Intuition. But regarding the one thing which leads directly to the climax, I didn’t find her very intuitive. Also, Michael’s power seems vague, weak. I’d like to have seen a better display of the Heart, what it means, and why it’s so essential. Despite this, though, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker was more than a worthy read.

For those who love dark old London, mannerly mysteries, magic, and gothic romance, this is a book for you. It’s like a student in a mythology class crashed into a British Literature student and their notes got all shuffled together. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is a haunting and, yes, beautiful story. It is the first in a series of Strangely Beautiful tales, and Leanna Renee Hieber has set the bar high for herself. There is much potential for these next books.

As an added benefit, I got to meet Leanna Renee Hieber recently. She’s a Cincinnati area native like myself who came home to do an Ohio book tour. At her reading and signing, she talked briefly about the coming books in the series. She plans for a series of five books, not all of them featuring the characters from The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. The series will include a prequel, taking readers back to the Guard’s origins, and will run into the twentieth century at the time of WWII. (Or did she say WWI? I can’t remember!) She is super, super nice, not to mention fascinating. Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, which certainly made her reading interesting. Not every writer can read each of her characters in a different voice!

Suffice it to say that this is one instance where the author is as charming as the world she has created. I can’t wait to read the next book.