Tag Archives: Fantasy

April 9, 2013 · 3:00 am

LICHGATES by S. M. Boyce – Blog Tour + Review + Giveaway

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I’m very happy to be participating in the Lichgates blog tour! Keep reading for my review of the book and a $25 Amazon gift card giveaway!
Lichgates

Lichgates by S. M. Boyce

Kara Magari is about to discover a beautiful world full of terrifying things–Ourea.

Kara, a college student still reeling from her mother’s recent death, has no idea the hidden world of Ourea even exists until a freak storm traps her in a sunken library. With no way out, she opens an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire and unwittingly becomes its master, which means Kara now wields the cursed book’s untamed power. Discovered by Ourea’s royalty, she becomes an unwilling pawn in a generations-old conflict–a war intensified by her arrival. In this world of chilling creatures and betrayal, Kara shouldn’t trust anyone… but she’s being hunted and can’t survive on her own. She drops her guard when Braeden, a native soldier with a dark secret, vows to keep her safe. And though she doesn’t know it, her growing attraction to him may just be her undoing.

For twelve years, Braeden Drakonin has lived a lie. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. Though he begins to care for this human girl, there is something he wants more. He wants the Grimoire.

Welcome to Ourea, where only the cunning survive.

My Review:

four stars

In a word: fascinating world-building, strong characters, a bevy of magical creatures, and a rather circuitous quest.

Lichgates is brimming with creative energy. Often when I read fantasy stories I’ll come across an interesting world-building idea and think “cool” or “that’s original.” But as I was reading this book, I often wrote notes in my Kindle that said “WOW!” or “What an awesome idea!” Boyce infuses her novel with exclamation point-worthy ideas from start to finish, and I was sucked into her magical world of Ourea. Although the author uses many familiar fantasy tropes—a quest, a magical portal that leads to another world, cute and cuddly animal sidekicks, and plenty of evil bad guys—I found Lichgates to be a charming story full of engaging characters that goes beyond surface material and thoughtfully explores the human condition as well.

Kara Magari is taking a walk in the woods one day when she stumbles upon an arched wooden structure with the word “Lichgate” carved at the top. She decides to explore and steps through it, only to find herself in a strange world. When she opens a door embedded in a rock face, she is pulled into an odd library-like room filled with old and dusty books. Kara’s fate is sealed when she manages to open a locked book called the Grimoire, an ancient journal penned by a man known only as the Vagabond. Much to her chagrin, Kara has become the new Vagabond and now holds the secrets and powers of the Grimoire.

Soon after, she meets Braeden Drakonin, a boy her age who has been trying to find the Grimoire for himself. But Braeden is not human. He lives in one of the kingdoms of Ourea and has been hiding out for the past twelve years, trying to avoid his father, an evil and powerful man named Carden whose people, the yakona, are known for torturing their enemies. Braeden longs to change his fate and wants his father to believe he is dead. But his luck—as well as Kara’s—doesn’t last long, and the two are thrown into the middle of a land whose kingdoms are warring against each other.

Kara and Braeden are sent on a quest to try to unite the kingdoms in a peace treaty, and most of the story follows them as they struggle to follow the instructions of the Grimoire and stay alive, as many people in Ourea seem to want them dead.

This is a fairly complex tale, and while I loved the creativity of the world-building, it sometimes seemed a bit too much. Not only are there five or six different kingdoms to keep track of, but the creatures who live in each kingdom each have their own set of rules and magical powers, not to mention difficult-to-pronounce names. Boyce fills her land with a large variety of mythical creatures both familiar (dragons, griffins and mermaids) and unfamiliar (earaks, flaers, and isen), and gives her characters the ability to wield all kinds of magical weapons (swords with poisonous edges and arrows made from air, to name a few). I almost wanted my own Grimoire to guide me through the complicated parts of the story (and in fact, the author has already created a website for the book, complete with an encyclopedia: check out http://www.thegrimoirebooks.com for lots of extras!)

I loved the Grimoire itself, an ancient book that hides the soul of the last Vagabond, a wise and friendly man who occasionally pops out the book to dispense advice and warnings. And the lichgates of the title, portals between the kingdoms, were a great device that not only showed the division between each of the lands, but helped keep enemies away.

Although the quest Boyce sends Kara and Braeden on was sometimes confusing (I honestly forgot where they were at times, since they travel to so many different locations), there’s never a dull moment. A map included somewhere in the book would have been a nice addition for readers to visualize their journey.

The best part of the story for me was the characters. I loved the feistiness of Kara, a girl who can never go home and must face some painful memories in order to move into her new role as the Vagabond. Braeden was one of my favorites, and I thought Boyce did a great job giving him both strengths and weaknesses, which ultimately makes him more human (even though he’s not). He hates his father and wants to destroy him, but he’s forced to look at that desire from an ethical standpoint.  Boyce asks the question, is it morally right to destroy an entire race of people, even if they are bloodthirsty killers? The fact that Braeden has trouble answering this question made him even more likable. Kara and Boyce are adorable together, and even though the author doesn’t emphasize the romance, their growing attraction to each other is slow and satisfying. Several minor characters also stood out; a young girl named Twin who seems lost without her dead sister; and a creature that Kara hatches from an egg named Flick, who imprints on her and becomes her fierce protector.

Aside from a few awkward sentences that could have used a heavier editing hand, Lichgates is a solidly written story that will plunge the reader into a fascinating, but dangerous, world. This is only the beginning of The Grimoire Saga, and I look forward to continuing the adventure.

Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Lichgates is FREE
Download your copy now!

Praise for Lichgates

Wow, the world building on this one was breathtaking. The world of Ourea is just full of so many things. Surprises are around every corner.

~Alexia P.

From the first few pages into this story, it was obvious that Boyce has a way with words.

~Author Becca Campbell

Author S.M. Boyce

International Amazon Bestseller. Fantasy Author. Twitter addict. Book Blogger. Geek. Sarcastic. Gooey. Odd. Author of the action-packed Grimoire Saga.

S.M. Boyce is a novelist who loves ghosts, magic, and spooky things. She prefers loose-leaf tea, reads far too many books, and is always cold. She’s married to her soul mate and couldn’t be happier. Her B.A. in Creative Writing qualifies her to serve you french fries.

Boyce likes to update her blog a few times each week so that you have something to wake you up in the morning.

Contact

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April 1, 2013 · 3:02 pm

BLACK FEATHERS by Joseph D’Lacey – Review + Giveaway!

Black FeathersBlack Feathers (The Black Dawn Volume One) by Joseph D’Lacey

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Horror

Publisher: Angry Robot

Release date: March 26 2013

Source: ARC from publisher

Pages: 427

four stars

In a word:  a dangerous and violent quest, a world on the brink of collapse, and a boy and girl who might be able to save it.

I have to admit I almost stopped reading this book a quarter of the way through, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Black Feathers isn’t the easiest book to read, but like many other books that I’ve initially struggled with in the beginning, by the end I was so wrapped up in the characters’ stories that I’m now salivating to read Volume Two.  The publisher calls this “fantasy,” which it most definitely is, but I have to call it “horror” as well. I’ve been reading horror for years and it’s getting hard to scare me these days, but there were scenes in Black Feathers that truly made me shudder. D’Lacey is one of those authors who can slowly draw out a story until the reader is practically screaming from the tension. Fair warning: most of the mysteries are not solved by the end of this book, and the author raises more questions than he answers. But if you’d like to see a master of storytelling in action, you need to read Black Feathers.

The story mostly alternates between two characters: Megan is a young girl who is chosen to become the next “Keeper,” an individual whose job is to observe and record the story of a certain boy whose existence is critical to the survival of humanity. Gordon is that boy, but he lives in a different time than Megan, so she must enter “the weave” in order to cross space and time to watch Gordon’s story unfold. Most of the book takes place when Gordon turns fourteen and is forced to flee his family and home after a group called The Ward take his mother, father and two sisters away. He manages to hide, but not without having several run-ins with two horribly nasty members of the Ward named Pike and Skelton. After receiving secret letters from his parents, delivered to him by a mole who is part of a resistance group called The Green Men, Gordon decides to follow their advice and look for the mythical Crowman, a creature who may or may not be evil and could hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

As Gordon sets out on his journey, Megan has her own quest to complete. At about the same age as Gordon, she sees the frightening Crowman in the forest near her home, and is later told that he has marked her as the next Keeper. With her parents’ permission, a mysterious old man known only as Mr. Keeper takes Megan to his home and begins to train her in the duties of being a Keeper. Megan’s part of the story is full of magic, mystery, pain and danger, as she must sacrifice her childhood in order to fulfill her calling. As the story evolves, Megan and Gordon seem to be coming closer and closer together, and it appears as though the two will eventually meet. But D’Lacey has plans for these two, and they might not be what you expect.

I was completely swept up in Gordon’s story and enjoyed it more than I did Megan’s. I think the reason I liked his story better was that his world felt more grounded and believable and was easier to relate to. As he is running away from the Ward and trying to stay hidden, he comes upon various groups of people. My favorite were a father and daughter named John and Brooke who are also on the run and hiding in the forest. Gordon only spends a short time in their camp, but he forges a tight bond with both of them, and I wanted their storyline to go on longer than it did. Gordon’s journey is fraught with violence and danger, and he escapes one perilous encounter after another, leaving a trail of misery behind him.

Megan’s story, on the other hand, is told in cryptic language and has a dream-like quality throughout. It was often hard to tell what was real and what was a dream, as Megan sometimes leaves her body to travel “the black feather path,” as Mr. Keeper calls her journey. She learns many things from Mr. Keeper, but the most important, and the true theme of D’Lacey’s story, is that she must learn to live in harmony with the land. He seems to want us to come away from this book understanding that if humankind can’t learn to live in peace with nature, our very civilization will crumble. It’s a theme that’s been done before, but never quite in this way. Both Megan and Gordon must fight to survive in the wild during their journeys, and the author even throws in an earthquake to make his point: watch yourselves, humans, or mother nature can take everything away from you.

The entire book is written in D’Lacey’s gorgeous and fluid prose. Combine that with graphic violence, the mysterious Crowman who is still not explained by the end of the book, and the unanswered question of the relationship between Gordon and Megan, and you have a story that is irresistibly addicting. For patient readers who appreciate the difficult craft of good writing and storytelling, Black Feathers is a must read.

Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. You can purchase Black Feathers here and visit the author’s website here.

And thanks to Angry Robot, I have an ARC of Black Feathers to give away! U.S. only this time (postage has gone up!). To enter, simply fill out the form below with your name and email address. One random winner will be drawn on April 12th and notified via email. Good luck!

This giveaway is now over, thank you to everyone who entered! My winner of an ARC of Black Feathers is Ron Pratt! Congrats:)

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January 24, 2013 · 4:55 pm

THE SIX-GUN TAROT by R. S. Belcher – Review

Six-Gun TarotThe Six-Gun Tarot by R. S. Belcher

Genre: Adult Horror/Western/Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Books

Release date: January 22 2013

Source: e-ARC from publisher

Pages: 368

five starsWhat do an Indian whose relatives are coyotes, a sheriff who has been hanged three times and lives to tell the tale, and a man who keeps his dead wife’s head in a box have in common? They are all characters in this quirky, horrific and magical Western filled with some of the most interesting characters I’ve ever run across. The publisher describes this book as “Buffy meets Deadwood,” and they aren’t wrong. As the ultimate Buffy fan, I found lots of Buffyesque material to keep me happy.  Belcher’s first novel is masterfully written and constructed, and it’s a good thing it is. When I started reading I’ll have to admit I was wondering how on earth he was going to be able to bring the many seemingly disparate elements together, but not to worry! The Six-Gun Tarot will have you hooked from the beginning, and keep you reading up to the gory and yes, emotional ending.

Jim Negrey is a young man running from his past, trudging through the vast deserts of Nevada with his injured horse Promise and nearly dead from dehydration and heat exhaustion, when he is rescued by an Indian named Mutt and taken to the small mining town of Golgotha. Jim is on his way to find a “near mythical railroad job in Virginia City,” but when he arrives in Golgotha he decides to stay for a while. It isn’t long before he discovers that the residents of Golgotha are hiding secrets, and the biggest and most terrifying secret of all may be buried deep under Argent Mountain, the location of a now-defunct silver mine. When the good folk of Golgotha start to go missing, it’s up to Sheriff Jon Highfather, his trusty deputy Mutt, a brave woman named Maude, and Jim himself to stop the evil thing that just might be trying to break free and take over humanity.

That’s about the best summary I can come up with. On the surface this seems like just another good versus evil plot, but what makes this story different are the characters. Each one is painstakingly drawn and most are given detailed backstories. Jim’s story is particularly interesting. He’s running from the law, but he’s the kind of man who gives his horse the last bit of water from his canteen. Jim carries an eye made of jade, a peculiar object that used to belong to his father. The tale behind the eye plays an important part in the story, and Belcher slowly reveals the details of how he came to have it in a series of flashbacks. Just about every character in the book is intriguing and likable, except for the bad guys, of course, who are exceptionally bad.

But my favorite character is Maude, a woman with her own secrets who carries a flask of blood around her neck, blood that defines who she is and will ultimately determine the future of Golgotha. And here’s where the Buffy comparison comes in. Maude is descended from a long line of women warriors who are taught to carry “The Load,” and eventually pass their skills and knowledge on to another girl. This reminded me so much of Joss Whedon’s Slayer mythology that I was immediately drawn into Maude’s life as she trains her daughter Constance to eventually take over The Load. We also meet Maude’s grandmother Bonnie through flashbacks as she trains a young Maude to fulfill her destiny. I have to admit I wanted to read more about Maude and I wished her character had been more prominent. Here’s a wonderful quote during a scene where Maude and Constance are training:

The knives hummed from her hand like angry hornets, straight toward her daughter’s heart.

Belcher fills his story with a melting pot of religious and social groups that not only add to the craziness of the plot, but really show the amount of research he must have done to make these elements believable. Golgotha is home to a group of Mormons who live in luxury on the hill, squatters who have little or nothing and eke out a living on the fringes of town, the Chinese, or “Johnny’s” as they are referred to, who live in Johnny Town and keep to themselves, not to mention the whores, Protestants, merchants and other colorful characters that make up the fabric of a small western town in the 1800s. In one poignant chapter we learn that Mayor Harry Pratt, an upstanding Mormon with two wives, is in love with a piano player named Ringo. Swirling around all of this is a growing evil buried somewhere under the silver mine on Argent Mountain.

When the evil shows itself, watch out. Belcher adds enough gore to rival the best of Stephen King. I might even go so far as to compare the evil in The Six-Gun Tarot to Invasion of the Body Snatchers…but I don’t want to give away its best secrets. Even chapters that seem to come out of nowhere, like the ones that take place between two angels as they discuss the fate of humanity, eventually tie into the big picture. Belcher is a skilled weaver, as each dangling story strand is eventually tucked in and tied up nicely.

Despite the horrors in The Six-Gun Tarot, both human and supernatural, there is an underlying humanity that grounds this story. When I get to the end of a story and the author has made me cry, I know I’ve just finished a five-star book. What more can you ask of fiction?

Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. You can purchase The Six-Gun Tarot here.

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November 14, 2012 · 7:15 am

Waiting on Wednesday (33) THE SIX-GUN TAROT by R. S. Belcher

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Head on over there to see what other bloggers are waiting on! This week I’ve found a book with this tagline, which I could absolutely not ignore:

“Buffy meets Deadwood in a dark, wildly imaginative historical fantasy.”

In order to appreciate the wonderful details on the cover, I had to show you the image as large as possible. Isn’t it fantastic? The Six-Gun Tarot comes out on January 22 2013 from Tor. Here’s the story description from Goodreads:

Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation.

Add to Goodreads

Having recently read an amazing supernatural western, The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins, I’m pretty excited to get my hands on this one. What are you waiting on this week?

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July 5, 2012 · 11:12 am

THE REALMS OF ANIMAR by Owen Black – Review

Writing this review is such a dilemma for me. I absolutely loved the story and the creative ideas Black has come up with. And the story ends with a cliffhanger that made me scream with rage. But as in many other indie novels I’ve read and reviewed, I have issues with the writing. And if you’ve read my reviews on a regular basis you’ll know bad writing is a real pet peeve of mine. So I’m giving The Realms of Animar four stars for the story, the pacing, and the incredible world Owen Black has created. As for the writing, it needs more work, but let’s talk about the creative elements first.

Animar is a wonderful creation, where “polymorphs” are divided into four main realms of life: Avian, Aquan, Carnic, and Herbic. Every person in Animar is able to change into an animal form at will. The story focuses on the settlement of Avryndale, a gathering of herbivores who live peacefully within a walled city that keeps out the dangerous carnivores. Thane is a fifteen-year-old boy whose animal form is a horse, and he wants nothing more than to run in the forests outside the walls. But when he and his friend Javan sneak out one day, they witness the terrible deaths of several members of the community by a vulture spy and a pack of hyenas that have been sent by the leader of the carnivores, an evil creature named Fatalis. Fatalis wants to rule all of Animar, and in order to do so he must locate the other realms and kill every creature that is not a carnivore.

After discovering Avryndale’s location, Fatalis sends a pack of wolves to invade the settlement and kill Thane, the son of the settlement’s leader, Avryn. Among them is a wolf named Mordigal, who has a secret. Long ago he fell in love with an Avian named Trussil, but she left him to live in Avryndale and follow her calling to be a teacher. As Mordigal and the other wolves break into the compound and prepare to carry out their orders, Mordigal senses the presence of the woman he still loves and manages to save her from the attack of another wolf. Their reunion is short-lived, however, as Mordigal is captured and imprisoned.  But he makes a deal with Avryn to join the herbivores and fight against Fatalis, who is staging a huge battle against the peaceful animals.

In order to prepare for the fight, Avryn sends his most trusted people to contact other factions in Animar to join them, including the elusive and dangerous Aquans. Guderian, the herbivore sent to convince the Aquans to join forces with them, manages to make contact and is taken to the Aquan realm in one of my favorite parts of the book.

Back in Avryndale, Thane discovers he can change into something other than a horse, a fact that startles many in the settlement. Other abilities emerge as Thane trains for battle: he is able to disappear and reappear in another location, which makes him a dangerous weapon against Fatalis’ forces. As the herbivores prepare their once-peaceful town for the inevitable attack, Fatalis and his immense army arrive in force, and the fighting begins.

The story is filled with many imaginative details that make the world of Animar unique. Wearing or holding metal objects makes it impossible to change forms, and Fatalis gleefully uses this to his advantage by shoeing horses to keep them in animal form. The descriptions of the different realms were very well done, especially the Aquan realm where Guderian is taken underwater to speak to the leader. I also loved the Avians, who live at the tops of trees on wooden platforms, where those too young or old to fly live in fear of falling to the forest below.

But unfortunately, all of this creative world-building gets lost under unpolished writing, and much of the magic of the story loses its impact. The style Black has chosen is formal and overwritten, with a gothic feel that may have been intentional, but would have worked better if the writing had been stronger. Strange word usage throughout pulled me out of the story.  Phrases like “Thane’s eyes bolted to life” and “smells meandering” struck me as funny, and even though I understood their meaning, I was left wondering why Black chose to use certain words. As far as character development goes, Black gives his characters emotional and engaging back-stories, but fails in the dialog department, where many of them come across as juvenile. In the end it all comes down to a serious lack of editing and proofreading, which is one of the worst pitfalls of self-publishing.

The Realms of Animar is a truly unique fantasy that gives the reader a fully realized world that is easy to get lost in, but clumsy writing and editing detracts from the reading experience. Black leaves us with a delightfully frustrating cliff-hanger of an ending, which implies that he is setting us up for a sequel, and I’m hoping he takes the time to work on some of his writing mistakes before releasing the next book. If he can, I will certainly be in line to read it.

Many thanks to the author for supplying a review copy.

You can purchase The Realms of Animar from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

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February 19, 2012 · 9:08 pm

THE AWAKENING OF LEEOWYN BLAKE by Mary Parker – Review

The first in a series, The Awakening of Leeowyn Blake is a young adult fantasy that tells the magical tale of a teenage girl who is not only trying to find her place in the world, but literally trying to find out which world she belongs in.  Leeowyn lives in sunny Florida with her mother, until the fateful day of her fourteenth birthday, when a man claiming to be her uncle knocks on the door. The man has yellow eyes and red hair, just like Leeowyn, which convinces her that he must be related to her.  After explaining that her father is dead, he tells Leeowyn he has come to take her back home, the home her mother took her from long ago. For the next four years, she splits her time between living with her mother in Florida during the summer and her uncle the rest of the year. Exactly where her uncle Cyle lives, however, is a mystery throughout most of the story.  Cyle picks her up every September and during the drive to the family estate, Leeowyn always falls asleep and is never actually able to track her journey.

During the winter months she lives with her Grandmother and uncle and studies in the vast library. She befriends a girl named Peach and meets a boy named Alex, a potential romantic interest, but interspersed with the sameness of daily life, Leeowyn has nightmares about a dead girl holding a raven, and she’s convinced the girl is trying to tell her something important.  It is only on her eighteenth birthday that she discovers why everyone in her uncle’s house has been so secretive:  Leeowyn is actually a Guardian and she is about to “awaken,” or come into her powers.  And her duty as a Guardian is to save the world, actually worlds, from the evil Ruok.  This startling news and what follows makes for a truly fast-paced, page-turning read, as Lee realizes that she faces a truly difficult decision.

Although the story feels familiar, I found the characters to be engaging and likeable. Leeowyn feels like a real teen with real teen problems, not the least of which is how to handle her growing attraction to Alex. Her uncle Cyle and tutor Rodrick add a sinister air to the story, as the chapters alternate between Lee’s first person voice and the other characters’ third person point of view.  There is clearly something going on that Lee is unaware of, although her recurring nightmares and her friends’ odd behavior should be enough to tip her off that everyone is keeping secrets from her. My only complaint with the story is Leeowyn’s use of pop culture references, which for some reason pulled me out of the fantasy world I wanted to stay in (although I understand why she did it.)

The book is short and the ending abrupt, and I’m sure I’m not the only reader who got to the last page only to cry “What? That’s the end?”  I immediately wanted to start the second book, which I hope Ms. Parker is hard at work on.

Many thanks to the publisher, WordCrafts Press, for supplying a review copy.

You can purchase The Awakening of Leeowyn Blake here.

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January 25, 2012 · 12:32 pm

VENTURE UNTAMED by R.H. Russell – Review

I am happy to introduce R.H. Russell, author of Venture Untamed, which I am reviewing today, and its sequel Venture Unleashed.  Russell has eighteen years of training in judo and other martial arts, and that experience really shows in the fighting scenes. Venture Untamed is marketed as YA fantasy, probably because of Venture’s age (twelve when the story begins), but it felt like more of an adult fantasy to me, perhaps because the writing was so mature.  Venture Delving, whose parents are dead and has only an older brother for family, is bonded to Grant Fieldstone, a successful land owner and farmer, and must serve his household until he turns nineteen and becomes a free man. Fieldstone is a fair man and lets Venture study with his daughter, Jade, who is his best friend, but Venture has a temper and trouble seems to follow him.  After getting into a serious fight defending Jade’s honor, Venture is given one last chance to stay with Grant Fieldstone: he must train in the art of fighting at Beamer’s, the local training center for boys.

There Venture comes into his own as a fighter, making friends at the center, but enemies as well. Most of the boys there have one goal: to be allowed to participate in the Quarter Championship and earn a spot in the Champion’s Center, where a fighter can train to be Champion of All Richland. Although Venture’s dream is to acquire this title someday, something is standing in the way:  his own brother, Justice, will never allow him to fight professionally because of a terrible family secret. In order to convince Justice to let him go, he argues that by leaving the Fieldstone household, he will be distancing himself from the temptation of being with Jade, whom he loves but will never be allowed to marry. Eventually Venture succeeds and is on his way to the Youth Quarter Championship.

I found one of the strengths of Venture Untamed, and there are many, to be the powerful fighting scenes. Normally I wouldn’t choose to read a book about hand-to-hand combat, but Venture is such a headstrong and earnest character that I was rooting for him from the beginning, when he was a scrawny orphan, to his teen years as a young man who is determined to rise above his station in life.  The fight scenes themselves were emotionally packed, and I could almost feel the sweat and blood running down the faces of the fighters. Venture is beaten down many times, but he always gets back on his feet and tries to improve his fighting skills with every loss.

The class system Russell has created is very effective and allows for lots of tension between Venture and his best friend Jade, a delightful and scrappy girl who sticks up for Venture and thumbs her nose at the “cresteds,” the members of the elite class. While Venture is little more than a slave, Jade is expected to marry a crested someday, although she only wants to be with Venture, the boy she has known most of her life. Their relationship is heartbreaking at times, as everyone in their lives conspires to keep them apart. Although Russell sends Venture off to the Champion’s Center without resolving things with Jade, the stage is nicely set for the sequel which is, luckily for us, already available. For believable characters, strong world-building, and a story with emotional impact, Venture Untamed is highly recommended.

Many thanks to R.H. Russell for supplying a review copy of Venture Untamed.

You can purchase Venture Untamed here and visit Russell’s website here.

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October 8, 2011 · 3:07 pm

What Keeps Me Up At Night

October is the perfect month to talk about scary stories. It’s also the perfect time to mention Stephen King, without doubt one of America’s modern masters of horror. (I’m pretty sure someone else came up with that title.) Say what you will about Steve (yes, I am claiming the right to call him “Steve”), he has had a major impact on the world of publishing, and if I hadn’t discovered The Shining back in highschool (I vividly remember trying to read it during choir practice – choir practice of all places!! – I could not put it down. Sorry Mr. Parker!), I would not be the person I am today.  When I was sixteen and finally had a steady, though tiny, income from working at McDonald’s, I purchased my very first hardcover, The Stand, and my future was set.  Many years later I own over three thousand books, and I have Stephen King to thank for it.

Now like most writers, Steve has had his ups and downs. His hits and misses. His classics and flops.  I am not so blinded by his brilliance that I can’t admit to being disappointed once in a while (Cell, anyone?).  But today I want to focus on one flash of brilliance, in particular a smallish book that was originally published back in 1982 by Donald M. Grant.  The Gunslinger was a mere 216 pages long (Compare that to Under the Dome, which clocks in at 1,072 pages.)  The first book of The Dark Tower, The Gunslinger was different from Steve’s other books: it was fantasy.  Not only was it fantasy and a puzzlement to many of his loyal fans, but the book was hard to find.  Donald M. Grant was (and is) a publisher of fine, limited edition books.  The Gunslinger was released with a print run of 500 limited edition copies (meaning signed by the author and artist) and  10,000 first edition trade hardcover copies.  After those had sold out, Grant released another print-run of 10,000 second edition trade hardcovers (one of which I am proud to say I own.)  20,500 copies may seem like a lot, but compare that to the first print-run of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was 12 million copies!  Grant’s edition was gorgeously illustrated by Michael Whelan, and a precedent was set for future volumes.  In fact, the covers you see above are the original editions published by Donald M. Grant, each with its own illustrator (Phil Hale, Ned Dameron, Dave McKean, Bernie Wrightson, Darrel Anderson, and Michael Whelan, who bookended the series by illustrating the first and last books.)  A paperback edition was not published until 1988, about the same time that The Drawing of the Three, the second book in the series, was released.  It wasn’t until 2004 that Roland’s story finally came to an end in The Dark Tower, and I realized that I could now read the entire series the way it was meant to be read: one book after another, from start to finish, without years between books trying to remember where one book left off and the next began.  Instead of losing the threads of the story (and believe me, there are lots of threads), I had the best reading experience of my life.  I remember tracking down reading copies of all the books except for The Dark Tower.  I did not want to wait another year for it to come out in paperback. (An aside: the term “reading copy” usually refers to a paperback edition of a book.  To a book collector, it’s a copy of a book that can be read: you can fold down its pages, spill coffee on it, and generally put it through  hell if you want to.  I did read my second printing of The Gunslinger when I purchased it, but I assure you I probably read it with gloves on.)  So I got my reading copies together and put them in a big stack, and I started to read.  It took me three months to read all seven books.

All this is a roundabout way of getting to the point of this post: What does keep me up at night? It may not be what you think. The Dark Tower is not horror, really.  There are horrific elements to be sure, but most people would categorize these books as fantasy.  What keeps me up at night is the fact that there are probably loads of people out there who have never even heard of The Dark Tower, let alone read it.  The single experience I had of immersing myself in Roland’s story for three months was life-changing, and I can’t imagine not having read these books.  If you are reading this, and you have read The Dark Tower books, perhaps you understand. (Of course, maybe you read them and didn’t like them. And if that’s the case, you probably won’t be coming back to this blog…)  If however, you have not read about Roland and his friends, and you have some time to spare (about three months, I’d say), I urge you to take the time and jump in.  All seven books are now available in any number of affordable editions (including digital and audio), or can be found at the library, or can be borrowed from a friend.  They may not keep you up at night, in the scary/horror sort of way, but they will make you think, and dream, and imagine.  And I will sleep better knowing you are reading them.

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is:  The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, The Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower.

Special thanks to Goodreads for being so helpful with book covers and publishing dates.  You guys are awesome!

Learn more about Donald M. Grant Publishers.

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September 30, 2011 · 8:15 pm

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern – Review

A contortionist folds herself into a tiny box.  A young girl’s gown changes from white to black in front of your eyes.  A magical ice garden waits to be explored within a black and white striped tent.  Welcome to the Night Circus, a place where imagination is real, and reality is whatever you can imagine.

Erin Morgenstern has an abundance of creative ideas, and many of them seem to reside in The Night Circus. Told in lush, fluid language, the story centers around a pair of magicians who decide to have a competition. Each selects a protégée to train in the art of illusion, and many years later a playing field is selected and, unbeknownst to the players, the games begin.  This playing field is the Night Circus, a creation of mystery and wonder by a man named Chandresh Christophe Lefèvre, that appears out of nowhere and is only open from nightfall until dawn. The two players in the game, Celia and Marco, finally meet as young adults; Marco is the circus proprietor’s assistant, Celia the circus illusionist. Both have become masters of illusion, but amidst the magic of the Night Circus, their enforced rivalry turns to love.  If the plot seems hazy from this inadequate description, then you can begin to understand the complexity of this labyrinth of a book. 

Like the Night Circus itself, there are many twists and turns in the story, and time is a fluid character that winds in and out, taking the reader back and forth between the story of Marco and Celia, and the near future where a boy named Bailey is set to play an important role in the circus.  Morgenstern writes in present tense, usually a negative for me, but for this book it seems to work fine; the style creates an immediacy and a feeling that something is about to happen, and it might just be a mystery to the writer as well.  The chapters alternate more or less between the present, linear story of the creation of the circus and its beginnings, and the future chapters about Bailey and his propitious meeting with Poppet and Widget, red-haired twins who were born the night the circus opened. Occasional short bursts that address the reader directly are interspersed throughout, leading us on a private tour of some of the circus’ hidden corners.  As present and future converge, secrets are revealed and magic is lost and found. Characters fade away and the circus grinds to a halt.

Reading The Night Circus is like being in a dream.  Each of Morgenstern’s descriptions of the circus and its inhabitants is more unusual and sensual than the next, her creations a feast for all the senses. To over-explain my experience of reading it would take away from the enchantment, and so I leave you to discover the magic for yourself.

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