More Books than Time

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

Wizards, Warriors and Zombies in the Minnesota Woods

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Wizard Dawning (The Battle Wizard Saga, No. 1) was a good book for one of those tired Sunday evenings when you don’t want to invest a lot of brain power in a novel. It is a wizard and warrior story featuring a seventeen year old Sig, his great grandfather Thor, mother Meredith and assorted bad guys and bit characters. There is a some coming-of-age actions (naturally given our teen aged hero) but there isn’t a lot of angst and misery or girl chasing.

Overall this was a pleasant, easy to enjoy book.  The characters were a bit flat but the dialogue was OK and the plot was fun and fast paced.  I don’t normally care much for wizard and warrior novels nor martial arts or dressage.  Author C. M. Lance used the martial arts and dressage as background, more setting and back story than as critical elements.  We did not have tedious explanations of “how things worked” either, which so often drags down a good story.

On the down side, I read this on my Nook.  The editor used poor rules for dividing words at the end of lines; for example, aren’t was often divided so one line ended with aren and the ‘t began the next line.  This was disconcerting.  (A pet peeve of mine is the fantasy writer who insists on using apostrophes for everything!  At least we were spared that.)

Another fun element was siting this story in a small town in Minnesota.  C. M. Lance didn’t belabor the location, but used it with a deft touch, incorporating the farm lands, hills, lakes, ice as backdrop.  It’s always a nice change when fantasies are not set in Central Park or California.  I enjoyed the way Lance used zombies, as story fodder, vs. making them a central element.

As indicated by the title, Wizard Dawning (The Battle Wizard Saga, No. 1) is meant to launch a series. The book had a logical beginning, middle and end, but there clearly is more story to come as Sig leaves for college and his mom is starting to learn about magic from an economist/gypsy.   We also need to find out how Sig will regain his own magic.

Wizard Dawning was the author’s first book and quite likely future ones will have richer characterizations. This first novel suffered from slightly wooden characters but was livened by an intriguing back story, well-done setting and fun plot.  To the positive Lance did not fill it with steamy romance scenes, explicit violence, boring martial arts or swear words!

Overall I recommend it if you want a fun story that doesn’t require a ton of deep thinking.

Red Rising – Social Threats Played Out in a School Game

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I almost gave up on Red Rising (The Red Rising Trilogy) after about 30 pages or so. It seemed stale, just another future with brutal overlords and a rigged brutal life for the underclass. The book started to pick up a little, then it kept getting better. By the time hero Darrow was leading his Mars house the plot was moving and the characters were more complete.

A few words of warning. Red Rising is violent. People get killed. Most of the murders are not described in graphic detail but there is enough that you will get sick of it.

Plot and Background

The society Darrow lives in goes to extremes to maintain its vitality with the same families and castes on top. One method is the Board of Quality Control selects only a fraction of the highest caste Gold youth each year to attend the schools scattered around the solar system. And of that fraction, half are murdered immediately and others will die. Youth who do not score high enough to go to the schools are relegated to powerless roles, the dilettante Pixies and looked-down-on Bronzes.

In theory only the students who graduate as Peerless Scared or Graduates can assume roles of power. Another method to ensure only the best survive is the school testing ground. Students are divided into Houses, each based on a Roman god, and must themselves sort out who leads each school, and which school will win over all the rest. The schools do not get the same resources. Mars has nothing except a tall castle, no food, no weapons, no way to start a fire. Ceres has ovens, walls, food. Minerva has horses and archery weapons. The Mars adult preceptor tells Darrow that Mars burns hot and burns out quickly. And indeed we see this. For a while I thought Red Rising was a Lord of the Flies reprise with the Mars house losing all cohesion, factions and internal fighting.

When the Mars preceptor shows the Mars students their house, he asks them how they can possibly win.  The answer?  Enslave the others.  Each house has a standard that will mark anyone from a rival house as a slave.  When I was reading this, my first thought was “get allies”, and I was surprised when the answer was “take slaves”.   Each house strives to get slaves, capture the standards from other houses, take over their resources.  Darrow makes a new path, with allies.

Backstory and Ideas

This  novels had one of the more intriguing social backdrops. Superficially we have a rigid society with severe caste restrictions (called Colors in Red Rising), with the bottom caste of Reds relegated to dangerous mining work far underground. The Reds believe they work to help terraform Mars, not knowing that the planet already is home to millions of people, with atmosphere, plants, animals, cities. The Reds are kept in artificial strife, with a rigged set of mining quotas and awards for the most production, given barely enough to eat. Girls marry at 14 and people are old at 35.

The problem with this is that it is not sustainable. Violence and fear can keep people in line for a long time but not forever. The minute Reds realize the lie, they will have no reason to obey other than fear.

The other threat to the Gold rule is internal. There are more types of power than military, commercial or political. What happens if a Pixie becomes socially dominant? Is there a Gold version of the society leaders?

Then there is good old fashioned nepotism. In fact, Darrow realizes that the school game is rigged to favor the son of the Mars governor. Given the social structure Red Rising sketches, the governor takes a huge risk. He promises favors and position to the twelve Preceptors – if his boy wins. If his son does win, all is good, no one will have reason to talk about it. If his son does not win, then what hold does the governor now hold? It’s too good a story, too juicy a gossip, too funny a joke with too many who know, not to whisper about. The author may have painted himself into a corner at the end when Darrow pledges himself to a man who is going down, we just don’t see it yet.

I’m curious how author Pierce Brown addresses these internal issues in the next book in what is planned to be a trilogy. If he spends time on Darrow and the plot elements of Darrow gaining power and position and eventually changing society, the story will be a good read. But if he uses the political and social flaws in his imagined world plus Darrow’s drive, we could have a winning combination.

I am not real fond of the dystopia genre and ever since Hunger Games became successful we’ve been inundated with them. Red Rising is several notches above and I recommend it.

Set Up for A Finale? Or More? Alliance: The Paladin Prophecy

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The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1 was a fun read that moved at breakneck speed and left a lot of questions and holes. (You can read my review here.)  I couldn’t wait for the library to get Alliance, book two so I bought it from Barnes and Noble. (Thank you Deidra for the gift card!)

Alliance moves fast too, and leaves us with even more holes and questions and it ends on a cliffhanger. Parts are just darn weird. For example, they explore a tunnel that is lined with big statues of American soldiers. Huh? Why would someone drag a humungous statue down there and how did they even move something that large?

And why did the Knights set up a lab about a mile underground? Which came first? The tunnels from the island mansion or the lab? And how did either one know to go towards the ruined non-human city?

Yes, I still enjoyed Alliance and yes, I’ll look for the third book when it comes out. But I’m a bit wary now.

Will this series deteriorate from a fast-paced, well-written story with enjoyable and realistic characters (and a big dose of oddness) into an on-going, never ending series about Will and friends vs. the Knights of Charlemagne? I hope not. I prefer books that have a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s fine to split the story up over multiple volumes but I don’t care for books structured like an endless television series.

Overall, this was good, with interesting people, intriguing settings and back story and a fast plot. I liked it, just am a bit leery whether it’s setting up to be a never-ending series.

MIB? Super Heroes? Kid Sensation Returns! Mutation by Kevin Hardman

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As the title says, Mutation: A Kid Sensation Novel (Kid Sensation #2) is the second book after the initial Sensation: A Superhero Novel. Once more we join Jim, with his friends and fellow super hero trainees, but this time they are not saving the world. They are saving themselves.

In Mutation Jim is first recruited with an offer he can’t refuse from a murky government agency nicknamed MIB. Jim does refuse, which causes the agency, led by bad guy Mr. Gray, to target Jim and all the super heroes in training by way of a virus. The virus causes their special gifts to go haywire, either going into overdrive or essentially dying. And the kids are sick.

The threat from the MIB, the mercenaries they recruit and Mr. Gray’s determination to take Jim down are very real. Kevin Hardman does a good job setting up the situation and sketching the bad guys, with enough verisimilitude to make us feel Jim’s dilemma. How can he stop the MIB and their hench people, yet remain true to his ethical standards?

One of the opposition hench people is Estrella, whose super powers are star-like. Literally. Jim can barely keep ahead of her and realizes he needs to tap into her star nature to trigger her stellar evolution into a super nova. Mutation is full of these little gems, small snippets that move quickly yet let us feel the pressure and terror.

Mutation was enjoyable enough that I will look for the next one in the series, Infiltration. There were a few points that make me just a tiny bit concerned about the direction this series is taking.

  • Novel moved very quickly through multiple plot arcs and many characters.  The speed was essential to make the point that this is how Jim perceives the world, but a galloping plot could leave behind the characters and humor that I loved in the first book.
  • Like a lot of second books, this one had a sense of setting up, that Hardman moved the plot and characters and setting around to position for a series.  Nothing wrong with a series, but the books need to maintain the fun and character development, not deteriorate into a comic book.

As long as the author Kevin Hardman keeps the quality up the series will be a great deal of fun.  I look forward to more books about Jim, the Kid Sensation.

You can read my review of the first novel, Sensation, here:  So You Want to Be a Super Hero – Sensation by Kevin Hardman.

How to Keep the World From Going Sideways – Resonance by Chris Dolley

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After reading Medium Dead (reviewed here) I bought Resonance which appears to be Chris Dolley’s best known and most admired book. This book was more challenging to read.  It is also harder to review as it is hard to put my finger on what about this left me a little lukewarm.

For one thing I love good science fiction or fantasy, am intrigued by alternate worlds, prefer novels that are well-written with interesting characters and good dialogue. Resonance has all these. Yet it also had traits that I don’t usually enjoy: Obsessive/compulsive behavior in the main character, a character that matures far beyond what we have reason to expect, somewhat confusing setting and middling-good ending.

Overall Resonance is excellent. The writing quality is very good. We see the main character Graham through his own eyes and through his awareness of how others respond to him. Graham knows people think he’s weird, unsocial and probably retarded. What Graham knows is that it’s important for him to follow certain rituals in order to keep the world more or less in running order. Graham has it backwards, it is not the world that flops around but he. Graham moves among alternate worlds.

One interesting side note is how the villain sees the alternate worlds as a source of profit. He isn’t interested in moving goods and people, trading or exploiting, but in harvesting the combined experience of 2 billion worlds to develop breakthrough products. That’s a unique view and probably more realistic way to profit from alternate worlds, if they do exist and if we are ever able to talk to them.

Resonance felt incoherent to me at times. I think that was meant to be the case since Graham would experience the world as constantly changing, but it was unsettling and made it harder to read.

I do recommend Resonance, but be aware that it is unsettling to read and not as fun or as fast as Medium Dead.  Be sure you have several hours free and try to finish in a few days.
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So You Want to Be a Super Hero – Sensation by Kevin Hardman

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You see the title “Sensation: A Superhero Novel” and you think it’s another comic book, right? Actually no.

Sensation by Kevin Hardman is well done, readable, funny book about a kid born with a plethora of super powers in a world where super heroes are organized into teams, have an academy and training camp for young would-be heroes. I remember as a kid wanting to fly – and then wondering, what on earth would you wear to fly? Why pick a cape and tights? It’s cold way up there!  I never did figure the whole costume thing out and never learned to fly either.

Sensation by Kevin Hardman actually covers this important point. Kid Sensation, aka Jim, mentions his special-made clothes. And covers the need to not go to super speed indoors (to avoid carpet damage) and points out that you really need telescopic vision if you’re going to have super speed (since otherwise you’ll run into things).

The whole book is like that. Funny, with an engaging character, classic villains, realistic (once you accept the notion of super heroes) dialogue and plot trails. Jim has a few moments of growing up, finding his place in the world, but this is not a classic coming of age novel, nor is it a sketchy comic. Jim’s super powers are on the fantastic side, but they work the way you would think they should, if you spend any time thinking vs. enjoying.

This is a complete novel that stands on its own. Of course it sets Jim up to have many further adventures and includes a wealth of other characters we can get to know, but it’s written to be a full story on its own, not just the first book of a trilogy (why do all fantasy authors write trilogies anyway?) nor the first in a series.

The book I read recently that comes the closest to this is The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey reviewed here. A big difference though is that Sensation is not a kids’ book or YA fiction either. The main character is a teenage boy, but it is aimed at a broad audience that enjoys fast action, plenty of fun, and interesting characters.

Sensation is a fast read. I think it took me under two hours to finish, but I was laughing and eagerly looking for the next page all the way.

I highly recommend this if you are in the mood for something completely un-serious and fun.

Kind of Cute, Kind of Short, Kind of Pompous The Frog Prince Fairy Tale Retelling

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The Frog Prince (Faerie Tale Collection) sounded so good. A retelling of the fairy tale “The Frog Prince”, this story by Jenni James had a fun twist on the story of the prince spellbound into a frog. Our hero, Prince Nolan, has been engaged to Princess Blythe since both were infants, but he’s pretty sure she’s a rather nasty piece of work. To find out he has himself turned into a frog (talking of course) and transported to Princess Blythe’s favorite pond in her mother’s castle grounds.

Princess Blythe meanwhile has despaired of ever being loved or finding someone to love. Nolan’s stilted letters show him as a conceited, obnoxious bore and she’s not interested in marrying such a man. Of course she and Nolan-the-frog end up having a great time together and fall in love.

The plot idea is cute, the story nice and short so why is this just a so-so read? Maybe it’s the 10 pages of pontificating at the end, or Blythe’s too-perfect nature or her oft-repeated desire to have someone “see her”. I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but I found the first 30 minutes OK and the last 10 tedious. Yes, that’s right. This is well under an hour read. And by the time I finished, I was glad not to have wasted any more than 40 minutes.

The Frog Prince has a 4.5 rating on Amazon with almost all the reviews complimenting the humor, plot and characters. It is not listed as a YA fantasy, but would appeal to romantic minded teens.  It didn’t work for me.

Yes, It’s Light, But Not Silly and Not for Kids – Medium Dead, Chris Dolley

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I was in the mood for something funny, not too serious and found Medium Dead. This book was one of those “if you like A then try…” on my Nook. It sounded cute so I got the free sample, read it and immediately bought the full story. Just what I was looking for: fun, interesting characters, underlying mystery and a serious back story, fast plot and great dialogue.

Heroine Brenda has been vegetating since finding her best friend with her husband four – count ’em, four – years ago. Since then she’s watched soap operas, gotten an undemanding job with great hours, lives alone three hours from Mom and older sister Susan, and, oh yes, sees ghosts. She meets a new ghost one morning who warns her to leave NOW or risk her life. Sure enough, in comes a serial murderer-rapist along with his car jacking victim, ineffectual Brian.

Only catch is that Brian is hard to kill. He absorbs bullets, even loses his head, and still keeps after the bad guy. Brenda doesn’t know what’s going on but she gladly helps, improvising right along with Brian. After Brian tells Brenda that he is a Vigilante Demon, here to fight crime. Fun ensues.

A few minor quibbles. I can’t fathom why anyone would claim to be a demon although Brian invents a demon call center staffed by Sanjay for some of the funniest dialogue. The plot has loose ends.  If Brian and Brenda stay crime-fighting partners and see Mom and Susan again, I’m not sure how Brian will morph from sexy Fabio the model, doctor and fireman to Brian. And at the end we see Brian is not a demon, just a semi-normal guy with a passion to put the creeps away.

Overall the plot is pure fun, the characters interesting, dialogue witty without a bit of meanness. Brenda and Brian feel like real people – ghosts and shape changing aside – and interact with other real people. The villain is well done and creepy, and at the end we see enough of the other creeps to know there’s plenty of room for a sequel should Dolley choose.

Medium Dead is a fast read. I finished in one evening and got to bed early. Don’t think that it’s written in a juvenile style though. There aren’t a lot of big words or heavy historical allusions but it’s meant for adults.

I recommend Medium Dead. In fact, I just started another Dolley novel, Resonance. Always a happy event to find a new author!

Excellent and Not Just for Kids! The Paladin Prophecy Fantasy by Mark Frost

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I was up till 12:45 last night. Why? The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1 kept me up. Just a few more pages, just until we find out what’s going on.

This book could have been 539 pages of copy cat fiction, with a helping from number 4, mortal coil and a dose of harry potter. The plot uses Will, a teen hero who unexpectedly gets a perfect score on a standardized test and gets recruited for a special school. Sound familiar? Last month I read Diamond In My Pocket that had a similar starting point but dwindled to a mediocre YA fantasy. The Paladin Prophecy turns that on its head in the first 4 pages.

Will wakes up feeling a “queasy cocktail of impending doom” that takes on shape when he sees the dark sedans that seem to be chasing him on his way to school.  The book takes off from that.  We have a raft of interesting characters, including Will’s nutty roommate Nick, adults that may be just what they seem or not, a New Zealander that drives a souped up hot rod (and who happens to be dead), obnoxious bullies at school and of course other friends and roomies.

The Paladin Prophecy is listed as YA fiction but it’s not really. True, the main characters are teens and author Mark Frost glides past plot and background elements that adult novels may explore a bit. But the characters feel real and the underlying conflict is not for kids. Plus the dialogue, setting, people are richly done and the plot moves at 90 miles an hour. Which is how I found myself nearly done at 12:30 and staying up just a few more minutes to finish the ending.

You notice the “Book 1” in The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1. We ended with many loose ends:

  • Are the school headmaster, teachers and board part of the conspiracy?  Or are they good guys?  Or a mix?   The ending gives us very good reason to suspect the school is not on the side of the angels.
  • Why did Will’s roommates believe him almost at once?
  • What happened to Dave?
  • Who is “The Old Gentleman” and does he have a human analogue?
  • How did the roommates get their abilities and why?
  • Is the conspiracy really done?  (Of course not, but we need to find out!)

Book 2 is out now too, Alliance: The Paladin Prophecy Book 2, and from Amazon’s descriptions there will be at least one more.  I intend to get that one just as soon as possible!

Two Fantasy Novels I Did Not Finish: City of Dark Magic and The Rithmatist

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Sorry, I could not finish either of these.

City of Dark Magic: A Novel

I had more fun reading about the Lobkowicz family and the Prague castles on Wikipedia than reading City of Dark Magic: A Novel. Nothing really wrong with the book, except there wasn’t much to it. The historical back story was interesting; the characters and their problems were not.

I got about half through, decided it was pretty boring and skipped to the end because I was curious about the senator and her role in the mix. Got the answer, closed the book. Yes, I am interested in Prague but not enough to read the rest of the novel.

The Rithmatist

For those who love Brandon Sanderson’s work, this will be heresy. But I have not yet found a book by him that caught my imagination and made me want to spend a couple of hours with it. Mistborn was OK, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to look for the sequels.

The Rithmatist is listed as a YA title and the main characters are teens. I found the book dull because the characters were not interesting.

The back story was intriguing. Why would a high class school spend so much time and energy educating Rithmatists when supposedly their creations did not affect the real world? Is the study only good for dueling or is there a practical use? Why is the North American continent a bunch of islands? How did the chalkings go wild?

This novel didn’t get to these questions. Instead it was true to the YA market and focused on Joel and his desire to be a Rithmatist.  Some days a good coming-of-age story hits the spot, but not today.