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

Wreckers Gate – Classic Epic Fantasy From a New Author

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Wreckers Gate intrigued me with its cover and blurb.  General Wulf Rome is too successful, too charismatic, too uncouth for his king and the nobles.  The king sends him on a should-be suicide mission that ended up with Rome and his friend Quyloc finding a strange ax in the desert that enables Rome to usurp the throne.  The ax somehow links to the imprisoned god Melekath and when Rome takes the ax it allows Melekath’s primary servants to escape and prepare for Melekath’s eventual full release.

Wreckers Gate reminded me of David Eddings’ multi-volume works.  Way back in the distant past goddess Xochitl imprisoned Melekath. Xochitl’s primary servant Lowellin comes to Rome and Quyloc to warn them of the upcoming apocalyptic battle, and tells Quyloc to visit the frightening other world Pente Akka for a weapon that will battle Melekath.  Lowellin also visits the Tenders, the now-disgraced sisterhood who served goddess Xochitl until they allowed themselves to be corrupted.

Writing Style

The plot is similar to Eddings’ and other authors’, with the humans fighting for one god against another and with deep-seated evil rolling over the lands.  I am not an Eddings fan but his best books grab my interest and I care about the characters.  I was able to stay aloof from the characters and events in Wreckers Gate; it was interesting and I was moderately curious, but ultimately it remained only story, it did not feel personal.

Wreckers Gate is author Eric T. Knight’s first novel and it is pretty good considering.  He creates an interesting back story that may come out more in the sequels.  We can feel the underlying tension between the nobility and their new ruler Rome, among the Tenders, between Quyloc and Lowellin.  There are hints that there is more to the Xochitl-Melkath story that will come out in sequels.

Knight is at his best describing the settings.  The city had smells and noise; the desert had wind and scorching heat and bitter cold; the Tenders’ home was shabby and poor.

The overall writing quality was good.  The story was clear even when switching among viewpoints and Knight sketches in the back story without spending undue time rehashing the forgotten past.  Pacing was pretty good although I thought it bogged down a bit when we were with the Tenders.

First in a Series

Wreckers Gate is the first in a series of five books.  With long series like this we always have the problem of losing continuity, forgetting what happened in earlier books, or the writer himself may take some odd shortcuts. All five books are out now available on Amazon as a boxed set here.

Also the story is pretty easy to follow because it has one main theme:  Melkath is escaping.  We need to remember who is on whose side, but there are not that many individual characters who play large roles so it’s easy to keep track.  I put the novel down several times to read other books that were more compelling and never had a problem picking back up or remembering who is who.

If you like epic fantasy and don’t mind long book series you will likely enjoy Wreckers Gate.  It’s well-written with reasonably interesting back story, plot and characters.

That said, I’m not sure I want to read 5 books in this series (I don’t much like epic fantasy series).  I will read the second book and see whether it’s compelling enough to continue.

3 Stars

Mini Reviews: Paradigm, 1799 Planetfall, Lake of Sins Escape

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These three books from Instafreebie are by new authors who want to establish themselves by gaining an audience.  I respect and commend their dedication to writing and to the very difficult process of writing fantasy/science fiction for adults.

Paradigm, Three Shots of Science Fiction by Killian C Carter

Paradigm is a set of three stories; Exhibit X and Half and Half are short stories and Into Infinity is longer, more a novella. Author Carter writes reasonably well, with a good sense of pacing and delivers decent characterization and setting in these short pieces.  Exhibit X and Half and Half both suffer from endings that are predictable when they are meant to be surprise twists.

Exhibit X takes a class on a field trip to the Smithsonian sometime after an apocolypse that killed most animals and people. The story does a good job with the teacher, Mrs. Zilmore, whom we all can identify with.  She’s a stereotype but a nice one.

Half and Half takes to to a different dystopian future where people are now cyborgs.  It’s not clear why the cyborgs want to eradicate the normal humans.  This story is the weakest of the three.

Carter builds an interesting world in the novella Into Infinity.  It’s an alien world with a mysterious lake, threatening wildlife and an annoying journalist.  It’s my favorite of the three, quite well done.

Overall the collection is 3 stars.

1799 Planetfall by Chogan Swan

1799 Planetfall asks what would happen if an alien were marooned on earth back in 1799, on a mission to stop invading creatures from acting like locusts.  The premise is great.  The writing is mediocre and the plot has plenty of smut.  I didn’t finish.

1 star

Lake of Sins – Escape by L. S. O’Dea

I’m not sure what to say about Escape.  It’s the first novel in a series, dystopian with some funny moments, many twisted moments and some disgusting moments.  I believe author O’Dea intends us to ask “what makes someone a people?”. According to the blurb the world is populated by normal humans and human/animal hybrids, although it’s not clear in the novel that the different groups are animal hybrids.  The only wildlife are small, rabbits and squirrels.

Lead character Trinity is the child of a Producer/House Servant union, a forbidden union.  Producers are normally huge, males 8 feet or more tall and almost as wide, docile; they farm and produce the food.   House Servants are smaller and have fangs and retractable claws.  Poor Trinity is supposed to all Producer and is small with fangs and claws she tries to hide.

This first novel mostly builds the world where the Almightys (normal humans) control Producers and House Servants and Guards, with everyone knowing their place.  Trinity is desperate to discover what happens to the Producers who are Listed, removed from their compound.  Do they go elsewhere to farm or do other tasks?  It isn’t a huge surprise when we learn that Listed Producers get fattened up and slaughtered for food.

The novel sets up a conflict to come when Trinity meets and becomes friendly with Almightys Kim and Jethro.  Kim is old enough to know what happens to Producers, and while she apparently doesn’t approve she also isn’t doing anything about it.  Jethro is too young and hasn’t yet been told.

Escape grabs one’s attention but the overall premise is so dark and unpleasant that I’m none t sure I want to read the sequels.  On the one hand we have people who cook and work and call their parents Mom and Dad but who are raised for food, on the other we have humans who bake cookies and work and also call their parents Mom and Dad and who eat the food.

How do you talk to someone, work with someone one day and eat them the next?  At some point anyone would have to ask “Why?  What makes this group People and that group livestock?” but apparently no one has.  Yet.

The novel flows easily and has good pacing.  Trinity is the main character but is actually not that well developed  The most interesting person was Lead Producer Troy who is assigned Tina as his mate but is actually gay and will do anything to keep his lover Remy safe.  Troy schemes to frame the people he most dislikes and to keep Remy from being retired along with Millie, Trinity’s mother and Remy’s assigned mate.

3+ Stars

General’s Legacy: Part Two, The Whiteland King Outstanding Fantasy from Indie Author Adrian Hilder

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It’s always delightful to find a new author to love, books to buy then snuggle up to read.  It doesn’t happen often enough.

Recently Adrian Hilder’s fantasy novel Inheritance, part 1 of The General’s Legacy made its way into my Kindle book pile.  I got it along with a hundred others via Instafreebie, most listed with only the cover so every pick was a guess and golly.

Authors’ newsletters clued me for which novels to read first.  All the shape shifter and vampire, YA romance went to the back of the pile, along with any promoted by newsletters that were incoherent, full of swear words or boring.  Hilder’s newsletter caught my eye because he sounded down to earth, authentic, humble yet confident that his work of love, Inheritance, is worth reading.

I agree. Inheritance is outstanding, especially for a newbie author.  Book 2, The Whiteland King, nearly matches it for quality and compelling reading.

Plot

The Whiteland King picks up immediately after Inheritance, with Valendo’s forces divided in two.  The larger group stays to defend the country from the undead army and ends up besieged in Dendra castle.  Prince Cory leads a tiny group into Nearhon to end the war.

The story moves fast. The plot is exciting enough to keep our interest and we aren’t sure how Cory will triumph or who will survive, or who will end the problem how with Nearhon’s lead mage, Magnar.

Whiteland King missed a couple opportunities to make more of the Dendra defenders under siege.  For example, the men fear the undead necromancer will re-animate any creature that dies, yet one horse dies and is not re-animated.  Despite the defenders being curious nothing happens about the horse.  I thought the author could have developed that into a little vignette, either explaining that the horse’s rider somehow left it immune to the necromancer, or that it indicated the sorcerer was absent.

The defenders’ situation was grim after a week or so, with their food stores destroyed, no feed for the horses, unable to sortie, unable to receive reinforcements or materiel from the outside.  The Cory narrative continues for about 10 days after this, so presumably the defenders had no relief.  I wondered a few times how they were doing, how they continued to survive the necromantic attacks.

Writing Style

The author develops three main points of view, the besieged defenders, Prince Cory’s band, and the Nearhon group of King Klonag, Magnar, Julia, Commander Brocksheer, easy to follow with smooth transitions.  We never wonder where we are as Hilder breaks the point of view changes into chapters and orients each one, e.g., “Resting his face against Sunny’s warm neck Cory…” followed next chapter by “King Sebastian watched…”

I admire Hilder’s ability to add small details into the main narrative flow.  He doesn’t sidetrack us with abrupt segues to tell us about the scenery or expand the minor characters; instead uses a phrase or two to show us.  This keeps the novel flowing.

For example, minor character Toldroy acts as a guide for about 3 pages.  We learn more about Toldroy when we find that “he kept some of the steps in the staircase loose so they creaked ensuring no visitor could arrive unannounced.”  That tells us about Toldroy:  He is more than he pretends, and he has good reason to be afraid, and we can feel the dark staircase and hear the creaks.

Whiteland King is the second book in The General’s Legacy and it combines with Inheritance to tell a complete story.  The two together have a beginning, middle and end.  The Afterword mentions a third book but I expect it is set later and has different challenges.

Characters

Julie shines in Whiteland King.  She shows courage, resourcefulness, dedication, honor, honesty, family devotion. Julia introduces us to a new character, Lyam Brocksheer, equally honorable and dedicated.  Neither is perfect so you know they could be real people.  Julie is impetuous; Lyam is willing to deceive his king when Klonag expects repugnant action.

We get a glimpse of Cory as a child and see a little why the General chose him and we see him grow as he faces what must be done.  Cory’s brother, King Sebastian, also sees what he must do, takes a deep breath and does it.

One of my favorite characters is Zeivite, Arch Mage of Valendo.  Through him we meet his daughter Petra who plays a major role in the plot but doesn’t take up a lot of room on the stage.  I expect we’ll see more of Petra in subsequent novels.

Just as with Inheritance the novel starts with a vignette that is incidental to the plot.  We meet Flynn, merchant and orphanage master, whom I hope to see again.  Flynn is interesting!

Petra’s reminiscences in the early vignette hint at another mage, a mysterious bald man who is an instructor at Petra’s school.  He’s another one that is likely to show up in later books.

It was refreshing that neither Inheritance nor Whiteland King used swearing or blasphemy and most of the older characters are married and happy about it.  I’m always glad to find a book with decent moral attitudes, sadly harder to find now.  Hilder is matter of fact about God and heaven and hell; he doesn’t preach, it’s just assumed that of course God exists.  I liked that.

Setting

Inheritance moved slower in the beginning, with people going about their daily life, romance and courtship, government, family worries.  Hilder spent a little of the slow period lovingly showing us Valendo; we got to know its green hills and waterfalls, the towns and castles.

Hilder took a different approach with Whiteland King.  He bundles the setting description into the narrative.  It doesn’t work quite as well as a method to show us the landscape, but it also allows setting to get out of the way and let plot and character run the show.  Part of Cory’s mission trudges through a high plateau in a winter blizzard.  Hilder could have bored us to tears with the snow, or spent a paragraph or so to help us feel the cold.  What he actually did was to skip right by the winter scene; we read once that Cory was miserably cold and uncomfortable huddling in a yurt.  That felt rushed.

Setting helps us feel and experience alongside the characters.  Too much description and we’re bored and too little and the story loses some of its emotional impact.

Emotion

Whiteland King has a tiny bit less emotional punch than Inheritance.  We feel tension, worry, love, concern, fear, all tempered by the fact that the Valendo people have no choice.  They either move forward or they die.  The do-or-die nature actually calms the heart, allowing the characters to still feel – and us along with them – but also to shove their feelings to the back and get on with the task.

Summary

I rated Inheritance a solid 5 stars, and would give Whiteland King the same.  I thought Whiteland King was just a hair less polished than Inheritance, as it felt a bit rushed and I would have liked to see more of the Dendra Castle group, but overall it is excellent, well written, with solid plot and people.  The setting and emotion were less solid or intense, still very very good.

Sometimes new authors put their heart into their first novel and don’t have much left for the second.  Hilder delivers outstanding fantasy in both novels in the series and I look forward to reading the third one when it comes out.

5 Stars

General’s Legacy: Part One: Inheritance. Outstanding Fantasy with Complete Characters, Plot, Setting, Emotion and Style

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The  General’s Legacy: Part One: Inheritance by new author Adrian Hilder is just the ticket for those of us who love well-written fantasy with real people, rich settings, solid plot.  I’ve lost my tolerance for books that hit on one or two of the five cylinders – plot, people, setting, style, emotion – but miss the rest.  Inheritance is a wonderful surprise, full of rich characters, vivid descriptions, fast-moving plot, good dialogue and a balance of suspense, magic, romance, determination, fear, loathing.

Setting

Have you noticed many new books completely skip the setting?  Reading them vs. reading Hilder’s Inheritance is like watching today’s miserable kids’ cartoons vs. the richly detailed Disney or Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 1940s-60s.  Hilder makes us feel the rich spring air, the steep mountain paths and old castle towers by spending just the right amount of time staging the scene.  We can easily feel our legs turn to mush along with Cory when he runs up and down the 5 towers, can feel the heat from the fire and smell the nasty odors from the tanneries polluting the lake.

Recently I read yet another Modesitt story that had way too much detail, too many words describing soggy breakfasts or dusty roads.  In Modesitt’s novels I read the words but don’t feel them, don’t smell the horses or feel the rain.  In comparison Hilder hits just the right balance.  Too much time on setting and we forget the story, too little and it’s gray instead of color.

Plot

Hilder starts the book off 15 years ago at the General’s climatic battle to save the country of Valendro from bloodthirsty neighbor Nearhon and starts every chapter with a synopsis of battles that the General won over his long career.  Now the General is dead and grandson Cory must pick up and go on.

The plot is complex with plenty of action, some romance and leavened by orchestra concerts and Council meetings.  Again Hilder balances the need for action with the fact that action is most vivid when it contrasts with the daily routine.  We are alongside Cory and his brothers as they work with their father, the King, to govern Valendro during peacetime when the biggest conflict is which city should get the road upgrade first.  We are still with Cory when he confronts the deadliest enemy.

There are a couple small plot questions that related to the magic, such as why the Nearhon wizard Magnar didn’t strike sooner, but nothing bothersome.  I don’t look for detailed discussions of the magic systems in fantasy novels, suffice it that the magic exists, that it has some limitations and costs, that it can be reasonably consistent.  Hilder delivers this.

Character

Most of the main characters are multi-dimensional, well-developed.  I found the ladies sufficient but not quite as interesting as the men.  For example, Julia’s father has not been able to win arguments with her, but we don’t see her as quite that strong of a person.  Don’t get me wrong, Julia is well developed, just not quite as thoroughly.  We get hints that there is far more to Julia than a pretty face, music and horses.  I’m hoping book 2 shows more of her character.

The enemy wizard Magnar doesn’t appear in the novel many times, but when we does we notice and we remember!  He’s not a cardboard villain, but a person obsessed with magic and exploring its depth and breadth all while walking a tight rope with the king of Nearhon.

Style

Hilder does a bang up job telling the story through side vignettes and dialogue.  Some dialogue is internal, as when Sebastian wrestles with his frustration at not knowing much about diplomacy or Cory struggles to not be overwhelmed with his responsibility.

The pacing is also solid.  We go fast, then slow down a bit, then speed up zoom zoom!  A few places I had to go back to re-read to make sure I inferred correctly what happened because Hilder tended to skid right through some major plot events.

Emotion

I like books that make you feel.  Authors do this in part by creating characters that feel like real people, like friends you want to meet, and partly by the dialogue and plot.  The vivid setting and scene staging help too.  This was the most emotional book I read since Naomi Novik’s Uprooted (see review here), and like Uprooted, Inheritance has the horrible sense that failure meant that everything failed, a dash of romance, determination, and the characters’ fierce joy in accomplishing what they must.

Overall

I enjoyed Inheritance and look forward to reading the second book, The Whiteland King.  I rarely give 5 stars but will do so with Inheritance.  Solid writing, first rate characterization, fun plot, vivid setting rate a 5 from me!

Obsidian Son – Great Sounding Fantasy, But What A Bust

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I don’t usually review books I don’t finish.  Since I read 5 to 10 books a week and review only a couple, I put most effort into books I like or ARCs.  I’m making an exception for Obsidian Son, the first novel in a four-part series by Shane Silvers.  Obsidian Son sounds so good and has great reviews on Amazon, a fun premise, neat cover.  It’s all there, everything except the book itself.

The story starts off with our hero, Nate Temple, wizard, bookstore owner, super rich young fellow and recent orphan, sneaking up on the Minotaur to engage in a bit of cow tipping.  He gets smeared with cow dung, arrested, interrogated by the police, released.  When he gets home to have a drink with his two best friends he simply tosses his coat into the laundry basket and makes drinks – without washing up.  Sorry, that was hard to take.

The main character is a sophomoric jerk with an overabundance of ego and a nasty attitude about women.  (Quote:   “To women and careers and the men who ride them.”)  Yet this same character hasn’t asked his office manager for a date because he might get turned down.  Yeesh.

Author Silver has way too heavy a hand with foreshadowing.  Even without getting past the first quarter of the novel I could tell that Temple’s mysterious client is himself a dragon (he smelled like rocks and snakes), that Temple’s friend Peter was somehow corrupted by someone magic (since he had on a new bracelet and suddenly had magic abilities), that Temple will discover his parents’ company used magic as much as technology.  So on.  Really, how much more obvious can someone be, yet Temple, who is supposed to be super smart never notices and never even asks his buddy Peter where he got magic?

The author clearly has little to no understanding how people who have money actually use it, or what the consequences might be of flinging Aston Martin cars around to one’s friends.  The main character thinks nothing of driving through red lights, speeding down urban streets and doing donuts to stop his flashy new car in front of his friend.  Does anyone really think that having a fancy car means he doesn’t have to share the road?  This is when I decided to pull the plug and delete Obsidian Son from my reader.

The last point is the blasphemous use of the name Jesus.  This is the name of God’s only begotten Son, not some casual throw-away interjection.  The author tossed a couple of these in the mix too.

Overall, 1 star.  Did not finish and do not recommend.

Excalibur Rising – What Happens When a Crime Boss Wants a Sword?

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Author Eileen Enwright Hodgetts has a unique answer to why the legend of King Arthur is so strong yet we have little to no historical evidence the man existed.  (Best theories put him as a war leader fending off the Saxon invasion, not as a larger-than-life heroic king of all Britain.)  Her answer?  The king ruled in an alternate Britain around the 1100s and his knights slid through into our world to quest and run off their wild oats.

The novel Excalibur Rising picks up today, when an English historian offers an acquisitive Las Vegas crime boss the chance to purchase King Arthur’s legendary sword.  The boss assigns his curator, Marcus, a former television treasure hunter, to verify the details and get the sword if it’s authentic.  That starts a whirlwind of murder, trips to Florida, England, environmental protests, kidnapping, car chases, and semi-psychic tracking.

 

Characters

The main characters are Marcus and Violet, the semi-psychic that the mob boss contacts to help with the search.  Both are well written. We meet Marcus first and he’s about what you would expect from a man once famous, now slightly on the seedy side.  His television show is long gone as is his money and most of his self-respect.  He has not contacted his ex-wife or children in years and lives in his boss’s casino hotel.

Violet is pretty but plump, not at all active and lives in Key West with her brother and sister.  All three were adopted and no one knows anything about Violet’s background.  Violet’s brother is a wannabe actor and adds a lot of humor and snark to the story.  Violet herself is pretty greedy – that Conch house eats money! – and can often find recent history just by touching something.  She wants the mafia boss’s reward.

Despite initial reservations and distrust the two join forces before the meet a whole crowd of extra characters, some nasty, some nice and all too many dead.

Mordred (or his latest descendant) makes an appearance and is the same conniving, greedy, care-for-nobody that we all detested in the original Arthur stories.  His evil minions are alive and well and join to terrorize the people in their version of Albion.  King Arthur himself is the central point of the novel but appears only at the very end.

Plot

The author is telling a fantasy and writes well.  She sets her plot to move fast, from Las Vegas to London to northern England to Wales, picking up people and clues along the way.  The book moves fast enough that it’s easy to suspend disbelief, although after Marcus once more said there was no evidence for King Arthur whatsoever I wanted to raise my hand and point out the Saxon invader theory.  (As a theory it explains a leader, but none of the knightly trappings or round table or any of the Grail quest.)

Overall

I thoroughly enjoyed Excalibur Rising, in fact it was a very pleasant surprise to read a book as well-written with so many engaging characters.  It sets up for a sequel at the end, but can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.

Excalibur Rising is right between 4 and 5 stars.  It’s not quite there to get 5, but better than many 4 star novels.  I eagerly look forward to reading the sequel.

Note the links to Amazon are commission links.

The Return of Sir Percival – A Different Arthurian Romance

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King Arthur is dead.

The Knights of the Round Table are dead.

The Table is broken.

There is no leader left and Albion is disintegrated.  The dream of a united kingdom is dead.

Queen Guinevere has fled and all have deserted Camelot.

Morgana enslaves Britain’s people, conspires with murderous Saxon war chiefs and seeks the head of Merlin the wise.

The Return of Sir Percival is no ordinary Arthurian romance, no mere retelling of the rise and fall of a magical realm.  Instead author S. Alexander O Keefe bases his story on the historical invasion of Celtic/Roman Britain by the Saxons and sets it after Camelot falls and King Arthur dies at Cammlan.  In this retelling Guinevere was not unfaithful to Arthur; Morgana and Merlin were from the Eastern Roman Empire and bitter enemies and Morgana seeks revenge, power, wealth and status.

People

Morgana is a critical character, here a vicious, scheming, malevolent woman. Arthur and his kingdom defeated Morgana at the battle of Cammlan, but lost overall when no strong leader emerged to keep the British people united.  Instead the kingdom devolved into small pockets, some ruled by thugs like Ivarr the Red, others by family and clan groups, others more or less left alone.  Morgana seized the lucrative silver mines and allied with the Saxon invaders who will turn on her the minute she is unable to pay them off.  Morgana is a noblewoman from Byzantium, related to the Emperor, and is in Britain at his behest (and also from a well-founded fear she would be killed if she returns).

It’s hard to show the character of someone as despicable as Morgana without making them cardboard, and O’Keefe does his best to show Morgana is motivated by more than spite and hatred.  She doesn’t like the northern climate and longs to return home to the Empire but dares not leave without securing the Emperor’s goals.  Characterization is moderately good.

Capussa is a great addition to the story.  He is a Numidian ex-gladiator friend of Sir Percival who joins him on his return home to Albion. Capussa is an excellent military strategist and helps Percival in battle but his biggest contribution is that of wry humor.   We don’t get to know Capussa as a person particularly, but he is a fun character.

The other main characters, Sir Percival, Merlin and Guinevere are interesting and enjoyable to read about but we don’t get to know them well.  In all fairness to the author it is difficult to show the characters of people that we think we know so well from legend, especially since O’Keefe discards much of the romantic trappings.  In this novel Guinevere was never in love with Lancelot; instead she and Percival were good friends on the verge of falling in love when Percival honorably left Camelot, first to build the northern defenses, then for his Grail quest.

Story Line

The plot here is excellent, very well thought-out, enjoyable and interesting.  O’Keefe based his ideas on actual situations to build a story that felt plausible yet was aligned with the romantic Camelot legends.  For example, early Britains did mine silver (and gold) and the Eastern Empire would have coveted the mineral wealth.  Britain was quite civilized after 300 years of Roman occupation, with good roads, some literacy, some sense of national identity.  It would be easy for the Eastern emperor to covet such a pleasant territory and its riches.

Writing Style

Author O’Keefe published a thriller, Helius Legacy, before he wrote The Return of Sir Percival.  He shows himself to be a careful writer, creates clear sentences and narratives.  The book moves a little slowly in parts, most in the beginning, and picks up the pace.  O’Keefe alternates between Morgana, the Saxon leaders and Percival for his main points of view which helps us keep the sense of time and urgency.

One weak point that I’d like O’Keefe to improve is the setting.  He did a good job on the back story and used Capussa and Merlin to help tell the story of what happened to Percival and to Albion, but the physical descriptions were weak.  Stories like this with scenes that depend on our sense of place need more vivid descriptions.  I lost track a few times where the characters were.

Maps would have helped.  It’s not necessary to have the action take place in the real-life locales – this is a fantasy – but something to show us about where Guinevere took refuge relative to London and about where Morgana ruled in her castle would have helped.  I wondered several times why Morgana didn’t take bolder action to follow up upon Arthur’s death and Albion’s disintegration, and knowing about where the various power centers were would have cleared that up.

Overall

This is the first of a planned series and I expect to read the subsequent novels.  I grew up reading imaginative Arthurian fantasy by T. H. White and Mallory and found most later novels set in the same legend (such as Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave) were disappointing.  The Return of Sir Percival uses the legend as backdrop and asks “What if?”.  What if Arthur’s kingdom wasn’t completely dead?  What if Guinevere was faithful and alive and ready to help lead people back to a unified Albion?  Setting the novel seven years after the fall of Camelot helped position this as a separate tale – and a good one.

4 Stars.  If I were rating solely on the imaginative use of the story I would give this 5 stars.  Overall execution and characterization were slightly less.

I received an advanced reader copy for free from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

 

 

Gilded Cage by Vic James – Excellent Fantasy Set in Alternate England

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Gilded Cage by Vic James will be released on Valentine’s Day, 2017.  This is an excellent novel with a rich backstory and detailed world building, interesting characters and plenty of plot.  Don’t go by the blurb for this novel which make it sound like YA fantasy with teen romance and devoid of original ideas.  It has plenty of themes that adults will enjoy:

  • Slavery.  No, not based on race but on sheer power and ability to dominate.
  • Revolution
  • Peace and prosperity based on a grotesque social compact
  • Power

Gilded Cage postulates an England where Charles I died when overthrown by Skill users, men and women from certain families who have immense mental abilities.  The Skilled can heal themselves, raises entire buildings, adjust the minds of others and kill.  The Skilled didn’t only kill Charles, they abrogated all political power to themselves and now call themselves Equals.

Unskilled people, commoners, live ordinary lives, marrying, having children, raising families, going to school, working, saving, enjoying life, retiring.  Except that everyone – truly everyone outside the 300 or so Skilled families – must spend 10 years as a slave.  The slaves have zero rights, are legally not people.  Some serve the Skilled as unpaid servants while most live and work in slave towns.  Food, shelter, clothing are minimal and work is long and brutal, 12 hours 6 days a week.  Slavery is nothing like our community service and no one comes out the same as they went in.

Backstory – Slavery

James built a detailed and richly thought-out world.   Consider her treatment of slavery, a repulsive idea in any context however configured.

The slavery concept as executed in the novel is unique.  The Equals could  have forced everyone to work 1 week a month for 41 years, which would be about the same total as 10 years all at once.  But if you think about it, a 1 week per month routine would quickly become just a duty, onerous, unpleasant, but not soul-shattering.  To make their power and position absolutely, unequivocally clear, Equals force the 10 years.

When do you do your 10 year slave days?  Young so you have the rest of your life free (if you aren’t killed or maimed)?  At 55 so you can enjoy 35 years of adulthood first?   Alone or with a spouse?  With your children? It’s a horrible choice and there is no good answer.

The Equals also were smart to leave commoners alone to live normally outside the 10 year slave days.  They could have made everyone permanent slaves but that would have been unwise for economic and security reasons.  The commoners are the prime market for the goods that slave towns produce, and the guards and managers are all free people.

I wondered too about the guards, especially the sadistic bullies.  You would think that word would get around and they would be paid back when they too eventually had to serve their days, even if they went to a different slave town.

Anytime an author establishes a framework so carefully structured that readers think about the economic and political (to say nothing about moral) ramifications we have the makings of a great fantasy.  Once the author sets up the structure then she must create characters and a story that are equally vibrant.  James has done that here.

Characters

James does an excellent job showing us the characters, especially Skilled brothers Gavar and Silyen, one expected to pursue political leadership and the other scheming and exploring his Skill, Gavar’s repulsive fiancee Buoda, commoner Luke and would-be revolutionary leader Dr. Jackson.

She uses small details to show us the people.  For example, Bouda wants to force anyone who is unemployed long term back into slavery and can’t understand why her perfectly logical idea was not adopted.  That tells us about Bouda.  We see people interacting, many interesting minor players and some take risks and some do not.

Gilded Cage stands alone as an excellent, thought-provoking novel but it is also set up for sequels.  It is character-driven with several minor characters positioned for larger roles in the next books as conflicts are primed to start.  I expect we will see more of Luke’s older sister Abi as she escapes at the novel’s end, heartsick at Luke’s fate and from leaving Gavar and Silyen’s UnSkilled (but still noble) brother.  We will see more of Daisy, Abi and Luke’s young sister and her charge, Libby, Gavar’s illegitimate baby daughter who may provoke Bouda to ill-advised cruelty.

I Want to Know More – Skill and Equals

It’s clear that some Skilled can steal Skill from others, some do so unknowingly, and that some are overly fond of humiliating and hurting others.   Gavar’s father mentions he enjoyed his time using “special techniques”, i.e., using Skill to force commoners’ minds or torture.  He expects Gavar to do the same and seems to have almost no normal familial feelings beyond pride.

The man who founded Gavar’s family is the one who killed Charles I in an agonizing, extended execution.  That man’s son established the Equal leadership and set the Skilled as the only ones who lead and govern.  These people are repulsive, but there are hints that some may be rethinking their role.

Silyen wants to learn everything he can and he has more than his share of power, possibly stolen from his UnSkilled brother.  And what about Libby?  Does she have Skill?  Can she play a role to reconcile the commoners and Equal?

Overall

Vic James has given us a fascinating novel with a genuine plot, world and characters.  She balanced writing a solid story with setting up sequels and I hope to follow her through her next novels.

5 Stars

I received an advance copy from NetGalley in expectation of a review.

A Crown for Cold Silver – Complicated, Confusing and Ultimately Unpleasant

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I started A Crown for Cold Silver during a month of intense busyness, reading 15 minutes one day, half an hour another.  The book started strong, with five different groups all engaged in life-or-death struggles in interesting and different situations.  I wanted to know more and see what connected these people, what would happen next, but it was hard when reading a dribble here and a drabble there.  Finally I had an evening with several hours and sat down to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, the strong beginning peters out.  We see how the characters will connect, what may eventually bring them together, who may oppose whom.  But none of the characters is likable or interesting enough to keep going.  About half way through my evening I found myself distracted, wanting to do just about anything aside from finishing the novel.

Too Much Back Story

The world in A Crown for Cold Silver has a complex geo-political back story, something that usually fascinates me and keeps me going.  A challenge with building a new fantasy world in a novel is moving the story along with action and character development at the same time as explaining the back story and helping the reader understand the context.  This is essential for a novel that has geo-political/religious/cultural conflicts and it is where author Alex Marshall fails to deliver.

A Crown for Cold Silver has plenty of action, lots and lots of action, and some character development.  I liked the characters less he more I learned about them, not a good sign.  None of the countries or religious groups were attractive either; the Crimson Empire apparently used assassination and regicide and duels to transfer power and the main religious group was sadistic.

Just Not Interesting

The combination of overly-complex and un-illuminated fantasy world with unlikable characters and what felt like a pointless plot (revenge no matter the cost) left me feeling “so what”.  In fact I could not quite finish the book even though it was from NetGalley.  (I’ve managed to get through some real stinkers but this one was just too bad to read.)

Maps might have helped but I think the main problems are the unlikable people and the fact the actions take place in a world that we know nothing about.

1 Star

I received this novel from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

The Bear and the Nightingale – Best to Read in Your Warmest Room

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Russian winters are long, long and cold and full of snow.  In the days of the Rus winter was terrifying; even rich nobles risked starvation and freezing.  Roads were closed in fall and spring, open in winter for sleds and in summer for horses.  Winter was a time for fear and staying close by the fire, with whole families sleeping on top the oven to survive.

Katherine Arden’s new novel, The Bear and the Nightingale, is set in the late 1200s, after the Mongols conquered the Kievan Rus kings who ruled semi-autonomously from their wooden palace in Kiev.  Vasilisa. the main character, is the daughter of a rich Boyer and the granddaughter of a prior Kievan king.

Vasilisa has a happy life with her close family and kind father until he remarries, this time to the fiercely devout and unpleasant daughter of the current king, his brother-in-law.  (Apparently the Rus nobility weren’t concerned with degrees of consanguinity because Vasilisa’s sister marries the king’s nephew, her first cousin.)  Her new stepmother wants Vasilisa gone, married if possible, cloistered if not, or dead if all else fails.  She gains an ally in the new village priest, an ambitious man.  Vasilisa is willing to marry but would prefer to remain single, to visit her sister in Kiev or to stay and care for her young half sister.  Unfortunately she doesn’t get a choice.

Primary Conflicts

The story moves along in small plot incidents, much like daily life does for everyone.  We have several conflicts, both open and simmering, that intertwine around Vasilisa and her affinity for the household and nature spirits that most people cannot see.

  1. Vasilisa to be married/cloistered or Vasilisa to be free
  2. Stepmother/priest vs. the household spirits
  3. Winter as a deadly force vs. everyone
  4. Winter as a nature spirit vs. his brother

The story is easy to follow as conflicts rise to the surface then subside.  There is not a lot of drama.  Vasilisa saves the small son of her father’s serfs at the cost of scaring off her betrothed a day or two before the wedding by out-thinking and out-riding him.  She flees her stepmother’s plans to force her to a convent and runs into Winter’s brother who takes the form of a rich, normal man. All these events just happen, although each has ramifications that follow.

Arden does an excellent job showing Winter as man’s deadly enemy.  The Rus live in a cold, inhospitable land and must force nature to allow them to live.  They plant and harvest – even the priest helps harvest – and they cut wood.  They put up thick shutters and keep the oven running day and night.  They eat what they can and when the ground freezes and it’s safe they hunt for meat during the short winter days.  We see the effort it takes to create and retain any sort of civilization in this wild land northeast of Kiev.

Writing Style

Arden writes in a natural, unaffected manner that is easy to read, enjoyable, but also understates the high moments that could have used a bit of drama.  It is as though we see the events through the eyes of a child who sees what happens but doesn’t recognize the import unless it directly affects him.

Overall the story is good.  I particularly liked her personification of Winter as a force and an enemy, and Arden did a nice job characterizing Vasilisa and her father as people.  We could understand their hard choices and the depth it took to retain one’s decency in the face of harsh climate and a miserable wife or stepmother.

Not Like Uprooted

The blurbs on Amazon and NetGalley compare The Bear and the Nightingale to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted but that is unfair to both novels.  Uprooted uses a character’s name from a Russian fairy tale but is set in a created fantasy world and the main character works magic.  The Bear and the Nightingale is based on a Russian fairy tale and is set in the real world, the Rus Kievan kingdom of the 1200s and magic is the background.  Both feature young women with unique gifts who must fight terrible enemies to save their homes and families, but otherwise they have little in common.

Overall

The Bear and the Nightingale is good, well worth reading, especially when you remember that it is Katherine Arden’s first novel.  Had I not been expecting more fantasy, more on the lines of Uprooted I would have liked it better, but it is still a fine novel showing family and home in the depths of Russian winter.  Older teens and adults will enjoy the flowing style and interesting characters and setting.

I received a free advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

4 Stars