More Books than Time

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

The Runaway King, Book 2 of The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen

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As the title notes, The Runaway King: Book 2 of the Ascendance Trilogy is the second book in the Ascendance series that features Sage, grown to take the throw under his rightful name, Jaron.  (See here for my review of the first book, The False Prince.)  Jaron is threatened within his kingdom of Carthya, by ambitious regents who seek to push him aside or use him as a puppet, and from the outside by King Vargan of Avenia, greedy to add Carthya to his rule.

Jaron suffers from extreme foot in mouth disease, incurable optimism, self confidence and unbelievable skills he honed for thievery, climbing, undoing chains and ropes, pick pocketing.  The book opens with an assassination attempt that leaves Jaron an ultimatum:  deliver himself to the pirates who already tried to kill him, or see his kingdom destroyed.  Jaron knows the pirates work closely with King Vargan.

King Vargan offers to take a spring in exchange for peace, such a good deal, otherwise known as tribute or appeasement.  Jaron’s father had made many such small-seeming concessions over his reign, leaving Vargan eager to take the rest.  Jaron refuses the deal.

From that point on the book moves at light speed, with Jaron joining the pirates under an assumed name, intending to turn the pirates into his men, his allies.  An audacious move, it nearly works.

Characters

Prince, then King Jaron, is both a cardboard creature and a person.  He is most stereotyped when acting as a thief, the bold challenger, the escape artist.  He is best developed when we see hints of his true nobility and kingship, as when he realizes that to give into Vargan once means giving him over all of Carthya, with timing the only question.

Love interest Imogen is a little more developed in The Runaway King than in The False Prince, but still a little weak.  It’s not clear why she and Jaron fall for each other.  Princess Amarinda is better drawn and an attractive character.  Jaron’s other friends and sometime foes are interesting but secondary.

Thoughts About The Runaway King

The Ascendance series is fantasy without a trace of magic.   You’ll find no wizards, no witches or sorcery.  Books like this, set in semi-medieval kingdoms with fast paced action, depend on the characters and the interesting plots.  Author Jennifer Nielsen does a good job with both, aligning the series to the older teen audience that enjoys plots and fun more than vampires and dystopian apocalypse.

I was restless and looking for something fun when I re-read my review for The False Prince and decided to check out the sequels from our local E library.  I’m glad I did as this was perfect for the evening.  Adults looking for a fast, enjoyable read that doesn’t challenge with a ton of mysterious magic or oddball names will enjoy this too.

4 Stars for adults, 5 for teens.

The Phoenix Ring – Fantasy Novel by Alexander Brockman

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The Phoenix Ring (The Thunderheart Chronicles Book 1) uses the standard fantasy plot “Boy Discovers He Is a Wizard and Saves the World” and mixes in some fun elements and characters.  Aiden, the hero (who discovers he is a wizard) has help from Timothy, a normal wizard from a normal wizard family, and from Aaliyah, a magic-resistant amogh.  Aiden leaves home for the big city to join the King’s Rangers but gets recruited/forced into the wizards and sent to their school Fort Phoenix to learn wizardry.

Besides the character count and school background The Phoenix Ring is not much like Harry Potter.  Aiden is angry, as in furious, all the time, although we readers don’t see much to be angry about during much of it.  The anger helps fuel his magic and he is powerful.  He masters some elements of magic immediately and takes the Phoenix Ring that had been Marcus Thunderheart’s until Marcus left physical existence 63 years earlier when fighting Macommmer and his renegade wizards and dragons.  We then get a bit of whining, a trip, a few side trips and then conflict with the renegade Edwin.

Good Points

There are some fun plot twists and the book is an easy, extremely fast read (about 2 hours and that includes stopping for tea).

The subplot with Timothy and goblin Grogg is excellent and author Brockman could have done more with it.  The Phoenix Ring would have been richer and more complex and enjoyable had Brockman added more subplots like this one.

Bartemus and the other adult wizards appear sparingly during the novel which is a shame as they are interesting characters.

Not So Good Points

There is almost no transition between points of view and even between physical locations and times and this gets confusing and tiresome.  Even if the author didn’t want to say “meanwhile back at the ranch…” he could indicate a change in viewpoint by typography, a line of asterisks or similar.

Character development is spotty.  We don’t see why Aiden is so angry nor learn much about Timothy.  Aaliyah is a cipher.

The characters live in an interesting world and I’d like to see Brockman do more with the setting, the back story and the magic system.

Summary

As the title shows, The Phoenix Ring is the first book in a fantasy series.  I don’t expect I’ll buy the next books in the series as this was just a bit better than OK, a solid 3 stars.

Amazon lists this as for older teens, which is probably right.  As an adult I found the book a bit too slapdash and lacking in the rich detail and conflicts that make fantasy believable.

Review: The Scorpion Rule by Erin Bow Excellent Science Fiction

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Visualize a world of thirsty people, a world where wars and climate have caused billions of deaths, yet there are still viable countries, technology, civilization.  In this world Canada, augmented by the Great Lakes area of the US and parts of northern Europe, is a world super power called the Pan Polar Confederacy ruled by a queen.  The United States is now several smaller countries, including the newest, Cumberland, which is roughly the Ohio River watershed, parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, also with its leaders.

The countries that have water, including the Pan Polar Confederacy, are strong but constantly under threat by those who do not, like Cumberland.

Setting and Back Story

400 Years before the story begins the United Nations turned to its first and best Artificial Intelligence, Talis, created by uploading a human mind, to solve the problem of bringing peace to countries warring over water.  Talis solved the problem in a unique manner:  He used the orbital platforms to destroy several cities, then gave each country an ultimatum.  Behave or else.  To reinforce the “or else” he required that the leaders of each country sent their heir or heiress to be hostages.  If the parents’ countries went to war the children died.  If the countries tried to attack him or the hostages or refused then he’d lop off another city.

This is “making it personal” and it worked.  There were still ongoing small wars but poor countries tended to demand less and the rich (i.e., had water) countries tended to agree to reasonable requests.  The title comes from Talis’ view that the only way to keep peace was to ensure that no one could go to war without loss, just like two scorpions in a bottle.

The story opens 400 years after this with Greta, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, living as  Child of Peace in the 4th Precepture somewhere in the Canadian Great Plains.  Greta with the other Children of Peace in the 4th Precepture is responsible to grow and harvest the food they eat, clean their own rooms.  A former human AI runs the Precepture and there are AI spies and teachers and controllers all throughout the facility.  There is no privacy or luxury.

Greta’s country is on the brink of war over access to Lake Ontario for drinking water.  Lake Erie is already dry, leaving a slightly mucky damp spot, and Greta’s mother cannot agree to give that much water from Lake Ontario since the requested amount was above the lake’s carrying capacity.

(Some facts to put the thirst in context. Lake Ontario today discharges 262,000 cubic feet per second into the St. Lawrence River, which works out to 189,800,000 acre feet per year.  The Cumberland requested 7800 acre feet per year was over the carrying capacity of the lake.  That is a big drop in water volume.)

The plot then involves Greta, Talis, Elian the hostage from the newly formed Cumberland, and the other hostage children of Greta’s age.  The plot is interesting with a few small twists, but the novel isn’t about the plot, it about the people and about the challenge that Talis faces.  Just what do you do, or what should you do, when there are more people than water?  When people with their normal human scheming and thirst for power want more and more?   How do you keep the peace and keep individuals and countries operating decently and sustainably?

Characters

Greta is a bit of a non entity in the beginning.  She expects to die as she is nearly certain her country eill be forced into war, and she is most concerned with doing it well, acting as a Crown Princess should when it came time to walk to her death, and in the meantime studies the classics.  Elian’s arrival changes things and she begins to seek an alternative to death.

Elian is a born rebel, raised far from power but the favored grandson of the new Cumberland’s leader.  He resists the entire notion of being a hostage and is most definitely not interested in dying well.  He doesn’t want to die at all.  The other hostage children play lesser roles and are more background than primary actors.

The most interesting character is Talis, the former human turned into AI.  What will Talis do with the Cumberland’s revolt?  How will he handle the death of his oldest friend the AI called the Abbot who runs Precepture #4?  How will he deal with Greta and with Elian?

Summary

The book is riveting but when I analyze each piece, plot, characters, back story, setting, the only parts that are remarkable are the back story with Talis and the eternal question of how to maintain peace in a world full of conflict.  Somehow Erin Bow manages to make these small elements into a big story, one that will stay with me for a very long time.

I hadn’t realized until writing this review that Erin Bow also wrote Plain Kate. The stories are completely different but both dig into your heart and stay there.

I was given an advanced copy by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

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.

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.

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.

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.