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

October Sky Fantasy by Alledria Hurt

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October Sky is a novella by fantasy author Alledria Hurt. She’s written several novels and novellas available on Amazon although this is the first I’ve encountered her.

Most of the story is good, albeit with some potholes in the plot. Emmaline Simmons is an apprentice alchemist; in this story an alchemist works with potions to effect healing or other results. She wakes to hear someone in her mirror talk about the Well of Souls, which in her world is a fall constellation. Eventually she gets pulled through the mirror to help Cedric heal his king. She and Cedric keep one step ahead of the evil chancellor’s guards as they gather the ingredients Emmaline needs to make a healing potion.

The pluses:

  • Emmaline is a compelling character. I cared what happened to her.
  • The idea of brewing potions from herbs and things like werewolf hair to make changes, both good and ill, is intriguing. I’d like to see the author do more with this.
  • Minor characters Mr. Amon and Emmaline’s grandmother were well done, especially given the short novella length.
  • I’m interested in some of the events that weren’t explained. Why was the chancellor so determined to keep the king ill? Who was the stranger who shot grandmother and threatened Mr. Amon? Did Mrs. Snow have any more to do with Emmaline or was this a one-off encounter?
  • The writing style was good. Ms. Hurt crammed a whole lot of story into 44 pages.

The minuses:

  • Plot holes abound. The world on the other side of the mirror is the world of death. So why would the chancellor try to let the king die? Can someone in the land of the dead die again?
  • If the Well of Souls is the gate through which souls pass, then why are there not many undead people wandering Emmaline’s world?
  • Emmaline just happens to have the ingredients to make a sleep-inducing smoke lying around in her dungeon cell. Can we spell plot device? Same when looking for the other ingredients. Of course this is fiction!
  • Cedric, who should have been a major character, served mainly as a foil for Emmaline.

Overall I enjoyed the novella and the pluses outweighed the minuses. I’ll likely look for more by Alledria Hurt.

3+ Stars

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To Hold the Bridge – Old Kingdom Novella and Short Stories by Garth Nix

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The wonderful cover on this collection features the bridge from the namesake short story, To Hold the Bridge. I liked this story very much as it had the same flavor as the longer Old Kingdom novels Sabriel, Liriel and Abhorsen. Bridge is the only Old Kingdom story in this collection and I didn’t care for most of the other stories.

To Hold the Bridge gets started with Morghan, penniless orphan who has hiked a couple hundred miles in hope of becoming a cadet of the Worshipful Company of the Greenwash and Field Market Bridge. The company feeds, houses and clothes its cadets and Morghan is hungry, homeless and raggedy. Morghan is able to secure a position and proves his worth when a necromancer attacks the bridge with swarms of undead and vile creatures.

The other good story is A Handful of Ashes, featuring Francesca and Mari, servant /students at the magic college. The head of the college and her spoilt niece both dislike the idea of lower class or poor girls moving up in the world due to hard work and skill. They force Mari to read aloud part of the Old Bylaws, magic contracts that bind the college, and as a side effect, force the poor servant/students to wear ashes on their faces.

Bridge and Ashes have a sense of urgency, similar to the Old Kingdom novels, and underdog characters we identify with. Both are good stories, probably 4 stars on their own.

The Highest Justice is OK. The situation and plot leave me cold but I liked the main character Jess, a girl determined to help her mother have her last wish, even after death.

The rest of the collection is mediocre. I didn’t care for the characters and the plots are unexceptional and I’ve seen several in other anthologies.

I would be very disappointed if I had bought this collection. As a library loan it’s OK but I wouldn’t bother getting it again.

3 Stars

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The Bastard’s Refuge: Blood of Wrodor – Book One by Brian O’Rourke

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I’ve been cleaning out my Kindle library, reading some books that I’ve had for a couple of years, and came across The Bastard’s Refuge. I don’t recall exactly, but it was probably a BookBub special and I didn’t expect much, figured it would be yet another book that I read 10 pages of or so then delete. In fact The Bastard’s Refuge is excellent. Brian O’Rourke created a compelling world with tension, threats, intriguing back story and a far more interesting main character than many fantasy heroes.

Galeran lives at the Abbey of Bronze, a shelter for all high-born bastards, run by warrior monks. He is one day short of 18, and at 18 must either take monastic vows or leave. Noble families have a nasty habit of killing off bastards, either their own or their rivals, so leaving is risky, and it’s difficult since Galeran has no money and the abbey is remote. At the same time his country is under attack by invading Ra-Haizur, a force that includes over 100,000 warriors and skilled sorcerers.

One of those sorcerers is leading a force to capture the abbey and kill all the children and monks, thus eliminating all possible high-born children, even those born illegitimate. Galeran must take all the surviving children and escape to a forest.

And the book ends.

Yes, it ends. Galeran and a couple hundred kids are in a cavern making their way to safety when it ends. It speaks much for this author’s skill that I looked on Amazon to see the next book in the series, despite the horrible, cliffhanger ending. Unfortunately, although The Bastard’s Refuge is noted as Book One there does not seem to be a Book Two. If there were I would buy it.

4 Stars I’d give this a solid 5 stars for completely exceeding my (low) expectations and delivering a well-written fantasy had it not been for the ending.

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The Flaw in All Magic by Ben Dobson, Magebreakers Book 1 Even Mages are Human

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Even mages are human.  And humans make mistakes.  That was the thesis for Tane Carver’s senior dissertation at the mage school (which got him expelled in disgrace) and it is the underpinning for his livelihood.  The flaw in all magic is the mage who casts it.

Lead character Tane Carver is very, very good at analyzing magic and spotting flaws but has no magical ability.  Tane scratches a modest (very modest) living examining spell diagrams for flaws and advising how to correct problems and gaps in wards.

The Flaw in All Magic opens with the dean of divination at the mage school asking Tane to consult on a murder that could not have happened.  One of Tane’s old friends is murdered in a locked lab, secured behind wards that prevent anyone unauthorized to enter.  So how did someone gain access and who is the murderer?

The Flaw in All Magic combines a bit of whodunit with interesting fantasy elements and fun characters.  Tane is a bit much sometimes, way too smart and not always truthful.  Of course, as the hero, he bends the truth to save the day.  Tane is irksome when he gets on his soapbox and author Dobson is good enough writer to keep these soliloquies to a minimum.

Author Dobson did not stint on creating even minor characters with personality.  Indree, Tane’s old girlfriend and now a leading light in the local police, is fairly predictable yet believable, as are the nasty villain and the university leaders.

The best character is Kadka, half orc and half human, an extremely rare type of individual.  She left her orc homeland because they saw her as human, and wandered the human countries for a while, finding they saw her as Orc.  Now she is in Audland Protectorate, the one country left from the breakup of the Mage Empire centuries before that encourages magic and welcomes folks of all species, from goblins and orcs to elves and sprites.  Kadka is in love with magic, seeing the wonder in what the mages do and the beauty in the magical workings.

Kadka has a fairly simple philosophy; if threaten anyone I care about then I will smash your throat in.  That is extremely useful when she teams up with Tane to solve the murder and along the way finds a threat to her adopted country and indeed to everyone.  Kudos to Dobson for writing such a novel blend of innocence, wonder and badassery.

The Flaw in All Magic is an enjoyable read, well written with complex backstory, good pacing and solid characters. The writing is good, with a few clumsy moments, as when Tane explains to Kadka how things work to bring us readers into the backstory.

I’ll most likely look for the sequels.

3+ to 4 Stars

Superhero Detective For Hire: Superhero Detective Series, Book One by Darius Brasher

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Superhero Detective For Hire is a fast, cute read with some pleasing character development and nifty backstory and plot.  Our hero detective Truman Lord appeared a few times in Darius Brasher’s other books Sentinels and Rogues, and I thought he was interesting enough to check out the full-length novel featuring his exploits.

Lord is a wise-cracking private detective who happens to be a superhero, able to do almost anything with water.  He hides behind his smart aleck ladies man persona while actually smart and persistent.   He makes fun of himself to himself, giving himself alliterative names such as Truman the Tenacious and asks random ladies whether they are dazzled by his good looks.

Truman Lord takes a case from a university president who is being blackmailed by her boy toy lover.  Oops.  The boy toy is a meta human too and can record anything from his perspective and put it to video.  This skill serves him well when it comes to getting ladies to pay up.  Lord takes the case and finds himself behind the eight ball with dead bodies piling up and a shortage of clues.  Needless to say he manages to solve the mystery.

Superhero Detective for Hire is a fast read, easy to follow as Brasher takes care to tell us where we are and why, who the other people are and why we should care.  For example, at the end we revisit a minor character we met earlier and Truman tells us just enough to jog our memory as to who this person is.

I liked Superhero Detective for Hire because it was funny and the super hero aspects were low key.  (I really do not want to slog through pages someone’s powers.)  Truman Lord doesn’t take himself or the whole superhero panoply seriously and the story is a lot of fun.

At the same time Brasher does a good job helping us get to know Truman.  He is far more than a jokesmith – albeit one with good taste in clothes – and I will enjoy his exploits in future stories in this series.

4 Stars

The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure The Daniel Codex Book 1

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The Artifact Enigma: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure by Judith Berens, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle is the first book in a (so far) three book series, The Daniel Codex.  The back story and plot elements are mouth-watering:  Magic is swarming over the earth because our magical sister planet Oricera now aligns fully to us and magical people now walk and live in our midst.  At the same time our CIA is trying to understand a separate group of aliens, people from other planets outside our solar system.

Daniel Winters is a CIA agent because he wants to serve and protect at the same time he helps his grandfather with his combination magical oddity and antiques business.  Daniel stumbles into a deep plot to do something with the aliens.  In fact the CIA already erased one entire town after messing up with an alien meet and greet.  Or something.  Daniel really doesn’t know anything about this other CIA group’s motives or goals, but he decides to throw in with a rogue group dedicated to keeping us and the aliens and Oricera safe from trigger-happy CIA folks.

This sounds like it should be a great story, but The Artifact Enigma is flat.  I feel no connection to any of the characters and it doesn’t appear that the authors tried to involve readers into the story.  The plot moves fast with plenty of action, but even the action is subdued, distant, doesn’t feel real and left me just not caring.

The final sequence is particularly telling as Daniel becomes judge, jury and executioner for a gang trying to take over his neighborhood.  After pages of high-minded yakking about duty and service and not wanting to kill people, our hero just walks into the gang house and kills everyone.

I doubt I’ll read any more of this series, although the plots sure sound tempting.

3 Stars

Sentinels: The Omega Superhero Book Three Series by Darius Brasher

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Sentinels, the third book about Theo Conley’s growth from out of shape country hick to high-powered super hero, takes a sharp bend from the first two novels.  Theo is a fully-licensed hero now, and finding his way in the big city and the wide world.  Things are different than he had expected with many more shades of gray and far less black and white.

Now he can discover just who killed his dad and why and bring them to justice yet Theo keeps hesitating.  He is slowly discovering that he can’t just jump in and blast the bad guys, that some bad guys take revenge against the wrong people, that judgement and wisdom are not the same things as strength and smarts.

The book has several unpleasant events, notably a very long and detailed evening in a strip club that I could have done without, an annoying “You are the Chosen One” sequence and a shocking end to a main character.  Further the ending is both shocking and unbelievable.  Theo found out who tried to kill him earlier but couldn’t go to the Hero’s Guild because he had no proof yet at the end he somehow has sufficient evidence.

Overall I did not like Sentinels nearly as much as I did Trials and Caped.  On the positive side Isaac remains a breath of fresh air and new character Taylor Lord is a great addition.  (Lord has has his own series too, what a coincidence, yes?)  On the negative side the story drags a bit due to uneven pacing and I do not care for The Chosen One theme nor the sexual content.

3 Stars

Trials: Omega Superhero Series Book 2 by Darius Brasher

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Darius Brasher’s Omega Superhero series started out well.  Caped introduces us to Theo and his friends and his world, one where meta humans can become licensed superheroes and fight bad guys, complete with cape, tights and mask.  I expected a fast plot with plenty of cliches and was happy to be surprised with a well-written novel peopled with characters and deepening stories.

Second novel, Trials, continues with Theo (aka Kinetic) taking the exhaustive and dangerous tests to earn his license.  Unfortunately for him someone is continuing their quest to kill him and isn’t too fussy about how they do it.  That murderous threat is one challenge; the others are from the nature of the trials themselves and the moral challenges of using one’s powers to help, not hurt, and friendship.

This series has been quite a find and I’m off to read the third book, Sentinels.

4 Stars

Bullets and Blades – A Montague & Strong Detective Novel Orlando Sanchez Book 7

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Orlando Sanchez started his Montague and Strong supernatural detective series with a bang, rattling off four  enjoyable novels in a row, each building on the strength of the characters Simon Strong, a normal human, and Tristan Montague, a mage plus assorted demi-gods, a hellhound, vampires, were-creatures and more.  Lots of fun to read, lots of action, plenty of character development, humor and a sense of danger.  The fifth novel was far less well-written due to some irritating new characters and Simon’s sudden descent into passive stupidity.  Book six was only slightly better and I wondered whether Sanchez had lost his magic touch.

Book 7, Bullets and Blades, is not quite up to the standards of books one through three, but still far better than book five.  True we still have LD and TK Tush – thankfully with minor roles – and too much “a miracle occurs here” type magic, but on the plus side Simon has his brain back.

Overall this is a big improvement, although I still used my Kindle Unlimited to borrow instead of buy.  It will take a few more top quality novels from Sanchez before I plunk down cold hard cash.

4 Stars

Caped: The Omega Superhero Book One – Contemporary Fantasy by Darius Brasher x

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Caped:  The Omega Superhero is surprisingly enjoyable.  Our hero, Theo, is dismayed to find he has the super powers, moreover, that he is an omega class, the most powerful.  Theo didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do in life – besides not be a farmer – but being a hero was definitely not his ideal career.

Events take over and Theo decides to embrace his abilities and learn as best he can to control them and take on the role of hero.  He is motivated first by revenge, but quickly discovers he has a new family with the other young heros-in-training.  Seeing Theo grow into a likable young man takes Caped from a typical adventure to a story with nuances of character, plot and back story plus a bit of humor to keep it lighthearted and a pleasant evening read.

Caped is the first in a series by author Darius Brasher and I intend to read Trials, the sequel.

4 Stars