More Books than Time

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

Big Disappointment – He Drank and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe

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After enjoying The Sword-Edged Blonde (reviewed here) I was eager to read more Eddie LaCrosse adventures by Alex Bledsoe. Unfortunately He Drank, and Saw the Spider: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel disappoints.

We still have Eddie, now on vacation with his girlfriend,  Liz Dumont, traipsing through the world, we have the refreshing modern names and vocabulary, we have other characters and flashbacks to Eddie’s first years as a mercenary.  We also have gaping plot holes, boring secondary characters, and a force-fit sets of problems.  Overall the book was boring with a predictable conclusion.

I read several other Amazon reviews and most enjoyed the book, giving it a 4 1/2 star overall rating which is darn good.  No one commented on the gaping plot hole, which means either it didn’t bother anyone else or the answer was in the book and I missed it.

In the flashback to 16 years before, Eddie encounters a group of soldiers sent by Crazy King Jerry with orders to kill the baby girl he protected.  We never found why the soldiers were sent after the baby, particularly puzzling since Crazy King Jerry wasn’t even aware there was a baby.  I was pretty sure who the baby would turn out to be, but kept reading because I couldn’t see why Jerry would want her dead.  This wasn’t answered and frankly, I don’t really care enough to go back through and see whether I missed it.

This was a big enough let down that I doubt I’ll look for any more books in the series.

Witches Protection Program, Urban Fantasy by Michael Phillip Cash

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If you are in the mood for a cute, easy to read e-book then try Witches Proection Program by Michael Cash. I read it as an early reviewer through Net Galley and it’s on Amazon with quite good reviews.

Unfortunately I can’t recommend this book more than halfheartedly.  It is too silly and the characters are two dimensional, caricatures of evil witches, earnest young men, bitter old men and ambitious corporate execs. The plot starts out OK but the last quarter gets ridiculous as do the characters.

The story has two types of witches living among us regular folks, Davina who are good and Willa who are bad.  In this case, thoroughly bad, greedy and wanting to take over the world and put all the men in concentration camps type bad.  That’s the background.

The dialogue is partly good and partly wince-worthy.  That’s the basic problem with the book, it varies between being quite cute and reasonably entertaining and making me wish I never downloaded it.

Eddie Lacrosse Series – Alex Bledsoe – The Sword-Edged Blonde

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Enjoyable, fast read, fun characters facing real problems, lively pace, what’s not to like in  a book?  Add to that a nod to the Greek stories of Medea, Tantalus, Thyestes and even Attila the Hun’s wife and the fairy tale of the Seven Swans, and you have a winner. The Sword-Edged Blonde: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel is the first book in a series of fantasy/private eye novels by Alex Bledsoe.

Synopsis

The Sword-Edged Blonde: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel starts with Eddie LaCrosse getting hired to find and retrieve a princess who supposedly ran away to experience life (aka, lust), but who in fact was running to her real father to escape her supposed father, the king.  It was complicated and had nothing to do with the rest of the story except it put Eddie in the way to respond to his oldest friend, King Phil’s, request for help.

King Phil married a mystery woman, the blonde in the title, a few years back, had a child with her, but the queen was found locked in the baby’s nursery with a pot of boiling human-looking parts and strange symbols on the floor.

I knew this story.  I couldn’t recall where I read about a queen accused of murdering her own child other than the Greek myths of Medea and Tantalus, and the Seven Swans fairy story about the queen falsely accused of killing her child, but it is sure-fire horrible crime to kick off the investigation.

Eddie quickly discovers that the “baby” in the pot who was buried in the royal tombs as the prince is actually a monkey.  Eddie needs everyone to think the queen is guilty so he can track down the real villain.  Eventually he retraces his steps from a long-ago journey, tracks down the queen’s arch enemy and manages a happy ending.

The plot moves quickly and the fantasy is believable.  I didn’t feel trapped in a never-ending saga or tedious world building, both of which are all too common in first books in fantasy series.

Characters

Eddie was great and I enjoyed the other minor characters like King Phil and the queen Rhiannon/maybe-goddess Epona and Eddie’s traveling companions.  Even the villains were well done, believable people.

Bledsoe created an interesting, three-dimensional person, threw him into a crazy situation and let him go.  We learned a lot about Eddie by his occasional reminiscences and by watching him be the clever gumshoe.

 Setting, Backstory and Humor

Eddie’s world is a blend of today and imagination.  His Kingdom of Arentia is believable as are some of the other places.  Bledsoe basically took our world but with a dose of magic, realistic politics and swords and made it a believable backdrop.  That proved a worthy shortcut because we didn’t have to wade through world building and explanations of the current politics and magical systems.  Instead it was presented matter of fact, as Eddie’s world.

I really liked the fact Bledsoe used real names for people and short, easy names for places.  King Phil, Eddie, Janet, so much better than the usual made-up, grandiose names with strange consonants or apostrophes.  It helped make the backstory fun and easy to follow.

Eddie has a complicated history of his own.  Originally heir to the LaCrosse barony and Crown Prince Phil’s best friend and planned-to-be husband to Princess Janet, he made a stupid mistake that cost Princess Janet her life and Eddie his self-respect.  He eventually worked it out but took the final step only near the end of this novel when he had to compare what he had done with what the villains did.

I didn’t quite follow why Eddie chose to leave Arentia at the end and go back to being a sword jockey (aka, fighter/PI/whatever-else-you-need-and-can-pay-for), except it set up future novels with the same character.  Of course you can’t go home again exactly, but you can forgive yourself and pick up responsibilities from your family and king.  Instead Eddie makes his own responsibilities.

The book has some humorous scenes and dialogue that makes you smile, but it’s not a comic.  It reminded me a lot of the Garrett novels by Glen Cook, great dialogue, interesting setting, realistic and likable characters.

Overall

I enjoyed this so much I requested Blensoe’s latest, He Drank, and Saw the Spider: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel and stayed up a little late to finish in one evening. It too was pretty good, but I will take a break for a while before reading the others in the series.

Guess Graphic Novels Aren’t For Me

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I received a copy of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: War Cry Collection (Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher from Net Galley at no charge.  The opinions are mine.

I’ve read every single book and short story Jim Butcher wrote about Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing wizard, so was delighted to get a chance to see this one early and at no charge.  Unfortunately I discovered that it was very difficult to read, not because of a weak plot or lack of interest, but due to the limitations of graphic novels typography.

I simply could not read the words.  My Nook Color can expand a given part of the page, and I tried to do that with a few pages, but it is tedious and when the text was expanded enough to read, the pictures and rest of the page were blocked out.  It’s too hard to follow the story when you have to jump back and forth dialogue bubble by dialogue bubble.

Look at that cover.  Doesn’t this look like a great read, with lots of Harry action, swords and wizardry?  I’d like to read the story but not when it means peering at the page to see the text.  This is a limitation of me, not the novel.

Fairytale Apocalypse The Verge #1 Jacqueline Patricks

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Fairytale Apocalypsetic Fantasy was good in parts, overall OK, while I was reading it, but I had to go back to the novel to refresh my memory to write this review. A really good book sticks in your mind more than a day or two.

The plot is complicated. Believing she is called to be the Lady of the Verge, Lauren crosses into the elven realm at the castle of Lord Kagan Donmall, the Protector of the Verge. Lauren’s twin sister, Tessa, has looked out for Lauren, or in Lauren’s mind, bossed and fussed and kept from having fun, follows in a panic. Tessa has to fight her way through the Verge, and reaches Lord Kagan’s castle just as Kagan and Lauren are sealing their engagement. Lauren’s arrival causes the castle to catastrophically fail, pushes Kagan, Lauren and Tessa back to earth. Lauren gets home just in time to see her parents and home burn in a fire. Kagan gets stuck at the crossing between elven lands and earth. Lauren gets home around the same tiem as Tessa.

Lauren’s home isn’t the only thing destroyed. Most of the earth is a wasteland; most people are shells and no one can have children any more. We next see Lauren and Tessa living in a bunker community, sheltering from the empty people and raiders. Kagan shows up, gets into fights, then Tessa gets kidnapped by raiders, Tessa and Kagan and others go to the rescue. And on. Of course everything ends up just as it should. Tessa and Kagan fall in love and the earth turns back to its green loveliness; Lauren goes back to the elves’ home to be Lady of the Verge.

The plot was far more complicated than this synopsis. I didn’t mention the many people who die or get introduced but we never see again, or the goddess-type creature who calls Lauren to the elven land or how the Verge has been losing its magic, or the agreement another elven lord, Damin, makes with a demon, or Laruen’s spurned lover or any of the other umpteen things that happen.

The plot is pretty good, although I thought the ending was ridiculous; the earth magically goes back itself because Kagan and Tessa stop being mad at each other. What about all the people and animals and plants that died? Did they come back too?

The setting was interesting. Kagan lives in the land of the Fae, which connects to our earth via a bridge. The Fae lands have declined and faded the last many years which worries Kagan and is the reason he is willing to marry Tessa when she arrives and announces she was sent by Danu to be the Lady of the Verge. The bunker on wasteland earth was sketched in enough we got a good idea of the miserable conditions.

Characters were predictable with few sidekicks who added humor or dark interest, like Stan the dim bunker guy and Damin the would-be villian. Tessa was a bit much. You would think after 5 years of wasteland earth she’d stop interfering and taking care of Lauren. Nope, even at the end she’s still fretting. Lauren was selfish and shallow. She was 16 at the beginning so selfish and shallow are the job description, but she didn’t grow out of it. Kagan was unpleasant and unattractive, convinced of his own wonderfulness and high status.

The Fae are unpleasant. Kagan remembers wars fought over an insult, bloodthirsty, overly proud people, just like he is.

I don’t know that I would have finished Fairytale Apocalypse – A Romance of Apocalyptic Proportions: Epic Romantic Fantasy (The Verge Book 1) had I not been given a copy with the expectation of a review. It was OK, not bad or boring. None of the characters were appealing or people I want to spend time with, the complicated plot seemed endless and I had to push myself to finish the last third. Overall I’d give this three stars, perfectly decent if you like fantasy.

Ascension The Demon Hunters – Just What Era Are We In By the Way?

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I try not to be too picky with things like historical accuracy or logic of magical systems, but sometimes novels simply are not good enough to make me overlook anachronisms or flimsy “powers”.  This book, Ascension (Demon Hunters), by A.S. Fenichel, never put the heroine in a plausible setting or explained the narrative in a way that made sense.

Ascension has a lovely cover picturing a young lady wearing a dress from the early-mid 1800s and carrying a sword.  The guy behind her (whom we can expect to be a hunk since he shows a few inches of chest) is mostly hidden.   The lady is Lady Belinda Clayton, the daughter of an earl, engaged to Lord Gabriel Thurston, the Earl of Tullering who goes to ton parties that include the promenade.  Gabriel recently returned from four years of service in the war and wears his hear in a queue.

Those few pieces of background say we are in the early 1800s, possibly even the latter part of the Napoleonic wars, except the dress doesn’t match.  And men didn’t wear long hair much after the early 1800s.  And Belinda’s faithful maid, Claire, runs a hot bath for her after a long night of demon hunting, yet hot baths during the middle of the night required heating jugs of hot water, lugging jugs and the tin bath up the stairs to the bedroom, pouring the water in, then pouring it out, jug by jug, once the bath was over.

We have anachronisms upon anachronisms.  Sadly the book didn’t appeal to me enough that I could overlook these, nor the ridiculous plot.  Lady Belinda was kidnapped by demons to be a water sacrifice, tortured and then rescued just in the nick of time by her now-friends and associates in the demon killing gang.  In the four years Gabriel was away, Lady Belinda developed muscles, dirty fighting tricks and learned to use a sword to kill demons.  I guess that’s almost plausible, except why would even stupid demons kidnap a rich, titled lady when London was full of homeless, nearly nameless people of any age or gender.

The premise of the book sounded so good:  “A lady by day, and a demon hunter by night”. “Gabriel … determined to show her that their love can endure, stronger than ever.” Doesn’t that sound enticing?  Plus a strong heroine and a big dollop of romance where the guy is in love?

Unfortunately I just could not finish this.   I got to page 60 or so, jumped to the end to see whether it actually ended or was set up for a sequel (there will be a sequel) and gave up.

There are some good points.  The book is well edited with no obvious spelling, grammar or basic writing errors. A.S. Fenichel’s writing style is pretty good.  The bad points are the flat characters and unrealistic (even for fantasy) plot.  Plus, be aware there are sex scenes every few pages.

This book was given to me with the hope I’d write a review, but unfortunately I didn’t like and can’t recommend Ascension (Demon Hunters).

Liesmith, Book 1 of The Wyrd Alis Franklin – Another Loki Novel

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I received an advanced reader copy ofLiesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd<.  Over the past year or so I’ve read several novels that included the Norse god Loki and saw both Thor movies, which induced a disjointed sense of deja vu reading book by new writer Alis Franklin. She brought a unique look to the character with her back story and setting.

It’s refreshing to read a story that treats multi dimensional Loki as a complex, complete character; several books, including Hammered in the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, treat him more as an insane force of nature, a foil for the good guys. In Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd Franklin presents Loki living in Australia as mega rich founder and owner of the world’s largest IT company, that is when he is not being the non-human, Jotunn / feathered 7 foot tall creature with a tail.

Franklin has done her homework, researching Loki and the Norse tales, and developing a back story to explain Loki’s presence in Australia and his non-participation in Ragnarök.  (She equated Ragnarok to World War 2.)   I found the back story stretched and unconvincing, and I’m not sure why she included it. Possibly it will be relevant in future books, since as we see in the title, Liesmith is meant to be only the first book in a series.

Liesmith hinges on its characters, mild-mannered Sigmund Sussman (who is actually Sigyn, Loki’s wife), Loki himself, Sigmund’s friends and dad. The characters were interesting, but not compelling; ultimately I did not care much about any of them. Sigmund and Loki are at the very beginning of a gay relationship, while meanwhile Sigmund’s friends and dad fight off demons.

I enjoyed the first half of the book quite a bit more than the last half when the plot got twisty.  I didn’t quite follow why Loki and Odin would have done what the shadowy maybe-Odin implied, nor did the switch between Sigmund and Sigyn and Loki.  The plot in the first half was good but the transition from normal, mundane corporate life with Dungeons and Dragons on the side to the nightmarish second half just didn’t work for me.

Given the plot complexities, the strange back story and the good but not great character building, I doubt I will look for the rest of the books in the series. Liesmith was an OK read, maybe a 3 or 3 1/2 stars out of 5. The novel was good enough to finish, but I won’t be keeping it on my Nook to reread.

Throne of Glass – Pretty Good; Crown of Midnight – Not

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I read Throne of Glass while on vacation and liked it a lot despite the unappealing main character. Unfortunately, the sequel, Crown of Midnight was boring and I did not finish it.

This review focuses on the first novel, Throne of Glass. The main character, Celaena Sardothien, is an assassin, trained since childhood to kill for money. She is 18 and has been imprisoned at hard labor for a year. With that background, she has very little choice when offered the chance to leave the prison to compete to be the king’s champion.

It’s obvious Calaena doesn’t like killing people but she is put out and angry when someone does not instantly recognize her or her lethal skill. We don’t know much about her, but from the broad hints she was the daughter of the murdered rulers or highborn nobles in the neighboring country that the King conquered. She did not have much choice but to learn the assassin trade, and once trained, was presented with a bill for 5000 marks for her training. It’s clear that it never occurred to her that she could have left the assassin guild once she paid back the 5000 marks – she could never have left before repaying – nor did she ever look for alternative employment.

That’s the main character. A rather stuck up assassin who doesn’t much like to kill but is very very good at it. Her main adversary is the King and her sidekicks are the King’s son Prince Dorian and Captain of the Guard Chaol. These two secondary characters are more likable but we don’t learn much about them.

The political background could be fascinating. Unfortunately we see hints of the politics, but nothing is built out. Calaena spends a lot of time getting dressed up, exploring secret passages, flirting with Chaol but she is a flat, lusterless character in a sketched out world.

Nonetheless, Throne of Glass was enjoyable enough that I was eager to read the sequel, hoping that Calaena would grow up a bit. However, after reading about 30 pages of Crown of Midnight I put it back in the library return bag. I could not read it.

From the reviews on Amazon, readers are split, either loving it or a little bored. This is another novel that was written for older teen girls who probably love it.

Awaken – Fated Saga Fantasy Series – Young Teens YA Fantasy Fiction

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One reason I write this blog is that you cannot rely on reviews on Amazon without knowing something about the reviewer.  A teen might rave about a book that we adults find boring – I know my tastes have changed since I was 15!  Knowing I am an adult female should put my comments into context and help you know whether my opinions are useful guides to what you will like.

YA fantasy fiction today is heavy on vampires, dystopias and zombies, but a perennial favorite is the coming-of-age- and-discovering-you-really-do-have-magic-talents.  Awaken the first novel in the Fated Saga Fantasy Series is a good short novel on theme number four, coming of age and discovering magic talents.

As an adult I found the writing style crisp, fast moving, characters reasonably done. The foreshadowing elements (a locket that pricks the young heroine Meghan, ominous screeches that are not owls, tangling with a moose in a lake, Uncle Arnon’s musings with Kandra) are a bit heavy but probably perfect for teens and tweens. The book is short, 115 pages and takes about 90 minutes to read.

A few of the characters are obviously going to be involved more in future novels in the Fated Saga series, as they are peripheral to this story. Plus many plot threads that are left hanging as Meghan and her twin Colin fall through the pine room into another world at the end. The author Rachel D’aigle clearly aimed this book at the 11 to 14 year old reader who would enjoy this. Even as an adult I enjoyed it enough to read to the end, although I don’t plan to read the sequels.

Overall, it’s a fun, clean, enjoyable book that younger readers will love and adults will like enough to complete.

Not a Vampire Story But Close!

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Just like the first novel by Tony Bertauski, The Socket Greeny Saga, The Drayton Chronicles reaches in, grabs your heart, and makes you care for the title character. Drayton is an immortal who feeds on the life essence of a dying person. He began as a savage creature, killing as he wished, but learned to be human and to care centuries ago. Now he thanks the people who give him their dying breath and he takes on their unfinished business.

The Drayton Chronicles is a collection of five novellas, each moving one after the other. There is a narrative break between each story, but there are references back and it would be best to read in sequence. The first novella, Drayton The Taker, is a good example. Drayton finds Blake Barnes freezing to death on Mt. Hood and takes his dying breath along with his aching need to apologize to his family. Drayton makes his way to South Carolina where he finds the family and resolves Blake’s true burning regret. He also finds the bully who is making Blake’s family miserable and resolves that problem too.

We are steadily drawn into Drayton by seeing him through the eyes and feelings of the people around him, those that he is helping to pay back the final breath he took from their loved one. One of Tony Bertauski’s gifts is developing strong characters that you care about. With The Drayton Chronicles we seldom venture into Drayton’s minds but see inside the minds of those he is with. With The Socket Greeny Saga, also by Bertauski, we see the main character, Socket, through his own thoughts. Both are powerful, but I found Drayton even more compelling and with more interesting, fully drawn side characters.

The plot was reasonably good as was the setting. The novellas had varied locations and intricate layers of trouble that Drayton had to work his way through before finding the true nugget at the heart of the misery and anguish he came to solve. I found the first novella, Drayton The Taker the best, with Swift the Current and Numbers creepy. Bearing the Cross and Yellow were compelling.

This is not a long novel as all five novellas together are only about 260 pages and is a fast read. I got mine through the author’s generosity as he offered anyone who signed up for his newsletter their choice of a free E book from him. Thank you, Mr. Bertauski for your offer and for the beautifully done characters and story.