More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Your Name in Fire by Kara Emory – Psychopathic Vampire Stalker vs. Video Game Designer

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Who would win?  A nasty, vicious control freak who happens to be a vampire or a kind, rather normal video game designer?  Can the game designer save Wendy/Dawn from the vampire Francis who wants to control and own her, and who, in fact has turned her into a vampire?

Your Name in Fire is an unusual blend of traditional suspense/psychological thriller with paranormal romance.  Author Kara Emory develops her story by creating interesting people out of what could have been stock characters, then adds paranormal mystery to top it off.  Overall the novel is about people and how they solve what appear to be insolvable problems.

Connor meets Wendy/Dawn working for a video game company on the verge of launching its blockbuster game.  The video game launch offers a good backdrop for the action

The writing is quite good with the author using dialogue plus action and inner thoughts to tell us about the people.  Flashbacks of events from 18 years earlier help explain the current situation without belaboring the problems.

I enjoyed Your Name in Fire far more than I expected from a newbie author.  I typically don’t read books about vampires or video games but was enticed to try because of the great reviews.

4 Stars

Bright Ruin by Vic James – Harrowing Finale to Dark Gifts Trilogy

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Bright Ruin picks up immediately after Tarnished City (which follows right after Gilded Cage, the first book in the Dark Gifts trilogy by Vic James); be sure to read the books together so you don’t lose track of the characters and setting.  Bright Ruin is the climax and offers an ending that is meant to offer a path forward to an England that appears to have no future beyond more oppression and cruelty.

The Skilled Jardine family, including daughter-in-law Bouda, have immense talents that they use to achieve and hold power.  Bouda is the only one who genuinely cares about the country – and she believes the Skilled are better and should rule and that Slave Days are the obvious and natural outcome.

Their counterpoint family is the Hadleys, mostly oldest Abi and goodhearted Luke.  Vic James develops the characters to some extent but what we see in Gilded Cage we see in Bright Ruin, except that Gavar finds a conscience and Abi determination.  Bright Ruin includes all the people from prior books, telling the story through Abi, Luke, Gavar, Bouda and Silyen.

 

** SPOILER ALERT**

England faces the basic problem of “what next”?  Do the Equals continue enslaving common people?  Do they lighten up a bit and make the slavery less cruel?  Do they abolish slavery?  The economy and social structure are built around 10 years of slavery for all commoners.  You cannot simply end that without some plans for the future.  Bouda carries much of the story line, where she continues to insist that Equals should rule and commoners slave, all while she wonders whether that is completely true.  Gavar makes his choice because he loves his daughter.  Silyen doesn’t really care; he doesn’t like slavery and cruelty but he’s not going to fight to eliminate it.

James had a challenge to wrap this up.  She brings in new magic and a mythical figure and an enormous sacrifice from Silyen, whom we would never expect to sacrifice anything (or perhaps he takes this action to follow the wonder king).  The result is not completely believable nor completely satisfying.

Overall I didn’t care for Bright Ruin as much as the first novel; I dislike series where the author writes themselves into a corner and then must have a miracle occur to conclude and that is what Bright Ruin feels like.

3 Stars

I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in expectation of a review.

Tarnished City by Vic James, Sequel to The Gilded Cage – Dystopian Magic in England

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Vic James’ taunt fantasy thriller, The Gilded Cage, introduced us to a horrifying alternate England, one where magic-wielding Skilled Equals tyrannize everyone else, even requiring all commoners to serve 10 years of Slave Days.  The slavery conditions vary, from miserable to deadly, and Equals have little or no consequences for injuring their slaves.  Once a commoner serves their 10 years as a slave they are more-or-less free, with however, no political power.  (Gilded Cage review is here.)

Tarnished City picks up immediately after The Gilded Cage.  Luke is Condemned, in the hands of Crovan, a psychopath Equal, highly skilled at inflicting torture via the mind.  Luke’s sister Abigail has escaped from the car that is bringing her and her parents to the slave town, and now makes her way to an Equal family she believes can help her prove Luke’s innocence and set him free.

Neither sibling realizes exactly how naive they are.  Only a few Equals care about commoners or are willing to take action even knowing someone is innocent of a crime.  As power-hungry Whittam Jardine says, “Stupid girl.  Truth isn’t what happened, it’s what people will believe happened.”

Tarnished City‘s plot is escapes, followed by searches for family, followed by desperate quests for fairness and justice, with a good-size helping of violence.  The story combines Luke and Abigail coming of age, realizing exactly what their country is and what they can – and cannot – do to save it.  Their counterpoint is the Jardine sons.  One grows into betrayal, one into on-again/off-again decency, and one is a sociopath, caring almost nothing about anything beyond his Skill.  One family is Slave and the other Equal and they are bound together.

Characters have a range of emotions and motives although a few of them remain opaque.  The villains are notably sketchy (after all, what author wants to delve into the mind of a psychopath like Crovan?)  Even Abi and Luke feel more like people in a book rather than real people.  Despite the somewhat-limited character building we can empathize enough to realize the incredible danger and no-win situations for the individuals and the overall country.

Overall Tarnished City is well-done.  It is difficult to read in large doses given the truly terrible and horrifying events and situations that Vic James develops.  On the downside there are a lot of characters and some are in-and-out, no one you have to remember.  The author tries to help us keep the point of view narrator clear by noting the person in the chapter titles, but it is still a little hard to recall a minor character from the first novel.

I just received an advance copy of the final novel, Bright Ruin, and am curious how James will end this.  There is no happy ending that I can see.

Please note that this series is marked YA because the protagonists are older teens but I certainly would not recommend this to anyone very young.  The concepts are blatantly moralistic and political, and while we hear the villains tell us why they think they are right, they don’t make a lot of sense.  Don’t give this to a young person who can’t distinguish motive from means from ends.

4 Stars

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – Mystery, Terror, Magic in the Cold North

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Spinning Silver is not a sequel to Novik’s wonderful Uprooted.  The two novels have no characters, setting or magic in common, and, although Novik says both books are set in the same world, the stories and countries are far apart.  Spinning Silver is also not as good as Uprooted.

Spinning Silver gives us three heroines, and Miryem, daughter of an improvident, hapless Jewish moneylender, Irina, daughter of an ambitious duke and Magreta, the poor daughter of an selfish, cruel man has two brothers to protect.  The three ladies live in a country similar to Old Russia, where Jews are kept in their ghetto and in their place, always at risk for pograms and perfect scapegoats for a too-long winter.

Miryem realizes her father would rather let his family freeze and nearly starve than to demand repayment.  She takes over his job, demands her father’s debtors pay on their loans and discovers she has merchant talent and can turn silver into gold.  The Staryek king hears her boast that she can turn silver into gold and leaves a bit of silver on her doorstep.  Miryem is smart and takes the silver to her cousin’s suitor, a jeweler, who turns the silver into a bewitching ring that catches all eyes.  The jeweler sells the ring to Irina’s father.  Next the Staryek leaves a larger pile of silver, which Miryem and the suitor turn into a necklace.  The third time Miryem asks the Staryek king what he will give her in return; he will make her his queen – whether she wants it or not.

So far we have the outline of a Rumplestiltskin fairy tale, but the novel has far more depth than the tale.  The Staryek king terrifies Miryem, and she calls upon the backbone she found when demanding loan payments and stands up to him.  She forces him to see her as an individual instead of as a despised mortal.

Meanwhile, the demon-possessed tsar marries Irina because his demon wants to consume her.  The demon loans the tsar magic and in return, the tsar must provide the demon with victims.  The tsar is cursed with the demon because his mother bargained for her power in exchange for her infant son.  He doesn’t know how to rid himself of this unwanted monster and is terrified that his nobles will discover he is possessed and burn him as they did his mother.

Magreta comes into the tale because her drunken, worthless father owes Miryem’s family; since he cannot repay the loan Margreta works for Miryem’s family, eventually taking over some of Miryem’s collecting tasks.

All three ladies live in fear.  Miryem first fears her neighbors, then the Staryek king.  Irina fears her husband’s demon and knows that if the nobles kill him that they will kill her or imprison her in a convent.  Magreta fears her father and fears for her brothers.

The novel’s story is how all three overcome their fears by winning against terrible odds and tyrants.  This is the best part of the book.

The romances are weak.  Novik gives us reasons that the Staryek king will want and admire Miryem, but we don’t really see why Miryem would want to marry him.  Irina of course has no choice because she already is married to the tsar and we see hints that the two will be happy together, but there is no compelling love story here.  Neither the Staryek king nor the tsar are fascinating people, nothing like Sarkan, the dragon in Uprooted.  All the men feel like blank slates, only there for the girls to be strong against.

The other weak point is that the dangers feel muted, distant.  The characters tell us they are in danger and we can certainly see it, but the threats don’t feel as immediate as they should.  Even when Miryem fears her king will kill her for not completing a task the story focuses on her determination more than on the danger, and the same is true for Irina and Margreta.  All three girls either have or develop spines of steel and spend most of their emotional energy on remaining adamant.  I certainly appreciate that in a character – far better than moaning and groaning – the side effect is we lose the sense of deadly peril.

Overall the writing, pacing, world building are excellent.  I was a little disappointed because Spinning Silver is not as good as Uprooted, lacking its overall emotional punch.

4 Stars

Stuck in Manistique by Dennis Cuesta – Gentle Comedy in a Small Michigan Town

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How could I pass up a novel set in Manistique, a small town along a beautiful stretch of Lake Michigan beach in the Upper Peninsula?  Stuck in Manistique is unusual, a bit of romance with a touch of screwball comedy, and meant-to-be-quirky characters.

Protagonist Mark is a financial planner in suburban Chicago who inherits his aunt’s home in Manistique, not realizing it is a bed & breakfast.  He quickly learns when his first guest, young medical resident Emily shows up, fresh from deciding to walk away from her affair with her mentor doctor.  Emily has nowhere to go because the town’s hotel is full with a bus tour group and she hit a deer on US 2 and the town’s dealership cannot fix her Saab quickly.  Mark allows Emily to stay, followed by elderly George, then weird maybe couple Yvonne and Peter.  In between all this Mark must scatter his aunt’s ashes on Indian Lake with the help of Bear Foot, a local visionary friend of his aunt.

So far so good, we have the screwball elements in place with people coming and going, all while our hapless innkeeper is the victim of his own kindness.  Romance, death, revelation all ensue.

Stuck in Manistique is short; it won’t take more than a couple hours to read.  There isn’t much action beyond eating at the various pubs and pizza joints, running along the shoreline, paddle boating on Indian Lake and driving around the UP and the northern Lower Peninsula.  The main story is the people.

  • What is the connection between Mark and Emily?  They both feel something, but it isn’t romance.
  • Will Mark decide to stay in Manistique?
  • Will Emily finally cut the connection with her adulterous lover/boss?
  • Can Mark get over his fear of bridges?  (Believe me, you do not want to drive over the Mackinaw Bridge if you are afraid of bridges!  It’s huge.)
  • Can Emily come to peace with her guilt over Nicholas?
  • Will George ever catch up with his tour group?
  • Will Peter and Yvonne make it around Lake Michigan in his electric car?

Simple questions.  The author manages to bring these together in a gentle comedy that is engaging, and combines it with beautiful setting and an atmosphere of What Next Can Go Wrong?

There is almost enough meat to the characters to make Stuck in Manistique a winner.  The people tell us about themselves, and while we see Mark being kind in action, that kindness doesn’t quite align with his internal story about dumping his girlfriend when she wanted to get married.

Writing is good although don’t expect a lot of action or snappy dialogue.  The characters are the story here.

3 to 4 Stars

I received this via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

 

The Librarians and the Pot of Gold by Greg Cox – Television Show Spin Off

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The Librarians and the Pot of Gold by Greg Cox is based on a television show and some of it reminded me of James Bond movies:

  • The initial sequence is fast and dangerous and has nothing to do with the rest of the plot
  • The action and setting are vivid
  • Dialogue is short and snappy
  • People don’t always think before they act

Overall I enjoyed the book despite being completely unaware of the television show.  The Librarians and the Pot of Gold references past adventures over and over, which is a little annoying, but readers who follow the show or have read earlier novels will likely enjoy.

This is a very fast read, two to three hours at most.  The authors don’t explain the characters or back story, presumably we’re supposed to be familiar already, but it’s easy enough to pick up and follow.  The good guys are obvious and the bad guys even more obvious, and there are plenty of secondary characters to add interest.

I would like to read more novels, written with a bit more serious intent, that use the Library concept.

I’m not sure I’ll read any further books in the series but do recommend The Librarians and the Pot of Gold if you enjoy fantasy with lots of action and color.

3 Stars

I received an advance copy via NetGalley in expectation of an honest review.

Titan by Daniel Mignault and Jackson Dean Chase – Greek Mythology Turned Real

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Titan by Daniel Mignault and Jackson Dean Chase is subtitled “An Epic Novel of Urban Fantasy and Greek Mythology” and is the first book in new series The Gods War. Mignault and Chase have created an unusual blend of ancient Greek mythology with vicious high school and societal control.

Titan’s hero is young Andrus Eaves, adopted son of a rich couple, in his final year of school training to go into the warrior service of the New Greek Theocracy.  Titan’s world developed because the primeval Greek god Kronus defeated his children including Zeus and Thanatos (Hades or Death), and rules supreme over the tiny remnant of earth left after the devastating war.  Kronus “mercifully” let humans live, providing him with worshipers and service.  No one can die, not matter how injured, because Thanatos is imprisoned.

Andrus pretty much takes his life for granted, is satisfied with his future service until he begins to have segues that disorient and distract him.  He loses face when he loses a climbing test to his arch rival, and his teacher then assigns both young men to a final test, with a catch:  both must pair with one of the weakest people in their class and both must make it to the top before the other pair.  The evil arch priest takes note of the contest and this spawns the action.

Back Story and Setting

Mignault and Chase have built a horrific world, one where everyone is at the mercy of Kronus and his sadistic priests.  Everyone must attend temple weekly and kneel on stone floors for hours.  Any who fall over or settle back – even old and infirm – are turned into “worms”, without legs or arms, and thrown to Kronus to eat.  Anyone out after sunset curfew is fair game for centaurs who enjoy eating people, although rich folks may purchase tokens from the priesthood that allow them later hours.

The world has some odd side notes.  For instance, it is set on the US West Coast and Andrus’ parents are rich because he discovered oil on their former property.  Andrus’ father drives a new red Ferrari, although Europe and the Farrari factory are demolished.

Rich folks own slaves and the priests or the security force can condemn anyone to be a slave.  Poor people live in a ghetto area with few services and very little opportunity to escape unless they are able to pass an exam.  Andrus’ climbing partner is one of these poor folks and if he and Andrus lose then he will suffer greatly.

Characters

The characters were the weakest link in the story.  Andrus is fairly well developed but his new friend and climbing partner is less so.  Andrus meets and supposedly falls in love with his friend’s sister, but the romance feels more a literary convention than anything real.

The villains are stock characters:  the bloodthirsty and vicious priest, the nasty and vindictive centaur.  Andrus’ parents and their slave butler are reasonably well done, obviously with mysteries that are not revealed in this first novel.

Overall

Titan has some YA fantasy conventions, most obvious with the romance and the easy-read writing style.  The authors don’t challenge anyone’s brain with this book.

I enjoyed Titan for the most part, despite the tedious and unnecessary romance, and may possibly try the next book in the series.  You can get Titan and the rest of the series on Kindle Unlimited.

3 Stars

Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department)

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Bangkok Warlock by John P. Logsdon is book 1 in the Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller series, also called Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department.  Bangkok Warrior uses the theme of a supernatural police force protecting us humans and borrows the Paranormal Police Department Logsdon uses in other novels.

This is an OK novel, not bad and not great, a decent read while I was camping.  The main character, Mark Vedis, is an unassuming low-level mage in the Paranormal Police Department until he inadvertently bonds with a demon.  Not to worry, the demons in this series aren’t devils, more like powerful, obnoxious paranormal creatures it’s best to avoid.

Mark then must take on more challenging responsibilities and lead a new team in Bangkok.

The author gives us almost nothing about Bangkok as the focus is on the paranormal side, not the earth side.  The characters are OK, again not bad, reasonably interesting and somewhat fleshed out, but not compelling.

Overall Bangkok Warrior is a decent read for a lazy afternoon, best if you have a Kindle Unlimited account.

3 Stars

 

Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt – Magic and Family

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Heirs of Grace by Tim Pratt came up on BookBub, came up on Amazon recommendations, came up on Goodreads.  I’m not sure just why it comes up so much as the novel is OK but nothing great.

The plot is pretty basic.  Youngish woman inherits an old house complete with ancient magic (source never explained) along with a good-looking lawyer bound to server her and some creepy half-siblings.  Two of the siblings want to kill her, but she manages.  So far so good, not terribly original or compelling, but this type of novel can be a fun read if the characters are good.

Heirs of Grace just misses.  Main character Bekah is OK, her romantic interest is blah, her eldest sister is hung up on pleasing their dead father and her brother is a homicidal power-mad nasty piece of work.  None of them feel real and the action and conflicts also slide right past me.

I read Heirs of Grace on vacation and it was engaging enough to finish, but not so good that I will look for more by this author.  Thankfully this is a Kindle Unlimited, not a purchase.

Note:  There is some cursing and bad language and Bekah is above the petty concerns of normal morality.

3 Stars

City of Broken Magic by Marah Bolender – Great Premise, So-So Characters

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Marah Bolender’s debut novel City of Broken Magic is built on an unusual magic system and world.  The city Amicae is built to contain and ward off infestations of magic monsters that spontaneously form in broken amulets.  The city designers did too good of a job and now the civic leaders and almost all citizens do not believe that monsters exist, and that’s a problem because amulets do wear out and break.  Sweepers are responsible to remove any monsters that form, a terribly dangerous job.

Our heroine Laura is a Sweeper training under the only other surviving Sweeper, Clae.  I kept expecting some romantic sparks between Laura and Clae, or between Laura and the new apprentice Okane but neither happened.  Laura is determined to learn as much as possible and develop her skills just to survive, while she dissembles about her job to her aunt and cousin to avoid worrying them.

The plot felt contrived and had a few holes.  Clae takes Laura to another city to present her to the sweepers from other cities, yet when they arrive they and their hosts are the only ones there, no one from the other cities, and many of their hosts are too busy insulting Clae to take more than a glance at Laura.

I’m not sure why City of Broken Magic feels flat, bland to me.  The action felt 3rd hand, almost impersonal.  The two main characters are decent, with Laura a strong-willed determined young lady who wasn’t going to die fighting monsters if she could help it.  Somehow the book just doesn’t connect with me.

I think the biggest problem is the secondary characters seem taken right out of central casting:  The greedy, foolish businessman, downtrodden almost-enslaved native, chauvinistic wanna-be boyfriend, matchmaking aunt.  These characters never read like real people, they are 2-dimensional.  There is also no true villain.  A few characters get in Clae’s and Laura’s way, but they are minor problems, not over-the-top threats.  Overall the poor secondary characters weaken the rest of the novel.

Several reviewers were not happy with how Bolender introduced terms that one had to infer from context, but I didn’t find this a problem.  We learn about the world the say way a visitor would, in bits and pieces.  I thought the author left several trails unexplored, ideas and situations that she could build upon in future novels, such as the intriguing city of tiers.  The novel felt as though the author had a start and an end and took the shortest path from one to the other without looking at the scenery.

Overall City of Broken Magic was a decent read, not one I can rate as high as I would like to given the imaginative world building, but certainly worth reading if one enjoys fantasy.

3 Stars

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance reader copy given in expectation of an honest review.