BlackThorn, DeWayne M Kunkel

Today I am reviewing BlackThorn  by DeWayne M. Kunkel.  It is book one in a series, Chronicles of the Dark Sword. 

The tale begins with fifteen year old Cassius's village being attacked and overrun by raiders.  He is taken captive, with the intent he will be sold as a slave. Now held captive at sea, and tormented by Grel'g, the leader of his captors, the journey begins to go awry; the weather takes a terrible turn and Cassius escapes just as he is about to be sacrificed to apease the sea gods; wounding Grel'g in the process.  He seeks safety in the home of Carl and Winowa, who nurse him back to health and help him get to safety, with their nephew,Gayn; a scribe.

It turns out Grel'g's raiders were not randomly pillaging and plundering - they were eliminating a percieved threat for the evil enchanter Vool, who is less than pleased to discover one young boy has escaped. Telling him that he may have brought about the very thing Vool sought to avert, Grel'g is set back on the hunt for Cassius. B'jorn, Grel'g's overlord fears Vool and fear's Vool's Master even more; realizing he has doomed his people to a dark fate by casting his lot with Vool.

Cassius grows to manhood in the shop of Gayn the scribe, learning to love the craft. After 2 years, a job opportunity comes up that Gayn cannot fulfil as his wife is with child, but Cassius is more than willing to undertake it.  He travels by caravan, journeying to the far city of Elkrum. One night they are joined by a traveling minstrel who tells them there is trouble stirring in the north.  Once he arrives in Elkrum and delivers the contract, he is once again confronted by Grel'g. This time the confrontation is averted by the intervention of one Connell Malkor, known as the Eagle of Kesh.

Evil is afoot; ensnaring Cassius, and Connell.  Eventually they meet Marcos; a man who is much more than a man. He needs a swordsman, and wishes to hire Connell. Marcos is seeking a talisman which was lost in antiquity. As if things hadn't been interesting enough at to this point, things really become involved.  Magic, myth and legend are now entwined in Cassius and Connell's fate. The Evil of antiquity, Sur'kar stirs once again, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

This book is well plotted, and the characters are fully fleshed - the reader sees what they see and feels what they feel.  Cassius's adventures are both terrifying and engrossing.  Kunkel has written a true classic in this tale. The one complaint I have is it is definitely not a stand-alone book. Still,  I couldn't wait to get the second installment in the series! And as the author has priced the Kindle editions at .99 it is easy to afford them!

Back From Chaos; Yvonne Hertzberger

Back From Chaos by Yvonne Hertzberger combines fantasy and romance into a compelling novel of politics, intrigue and human nature.   The harmonic balance of nature has been disrupted; a seer see the imbalance and seeks to find the solution. The earth will suffer until men and women find some way to live and work together in harmony and understanding. Certain people are key to the outcome, if the balance is to be righted.

At the outset, war is raging - An arrogant king's decisions have brought calamity on his country. He and his armies are slaughtered, and those he sought to conquer have taken his cities and his castle. Of his family, only his daughter Marja survives. Desperate to bring peace to her country, she agrees to wed the man who has conquered her land, Prince Galen.  What begins as a wary alliance becomes a love match, and the tale shifts to Galen's right-hand man, Klast. 

A spy and assassin who dislikes killing, Klast keeps this secret side of his life well out of the public eye. He is known as a courtier and is admired everyone. Klast is a man of high moral code and personal honor. However, Klast's childhood has left him with deep scars which may never heal.

An incident occurs during which Klast rescues Marja's dearest friend and confidant, Brensa, from certain death, although he does not find her soon enough to prevent her being brutally gang-raped.  He deals with the rapists, and the story that unfolds between Klast and Brensa is both touching and beautiful.

The political intrigue which Galen, Marja and Klast must navigate is fraught with danger. There are enemies close to Galen, and Klast must discover them and eliminate the threat. 

I began reading this book on a rainy Sunday morning, and I was unable to put it down, finishing it just in time to dine on the pot-pies my poor husband had to cook for our dinner if he wanted to eat! I highly recommend this book.  It is SO much more than simply a fantasy novel, or a romance.  This is a gripping story of human nature and the effect we have on the world around us.

Definitely a 5-star novel!

Ring of Lost Souls, Rachel Tsoumbakos

In 'The Ring of Lost Souls' by Aussie author Rachel Tsoumbakos, we are asked to consider, 'What if Fairy Tales were real?"  Well, I think you know reading that line in the book-blurb intrigued me from the get-go!  And joy of all joys - this book more than met my high expectations! The story is set in the real location of Larundel Asylum but that is where the reality ends. I warn you, there is more of horror than of fairies in this tale. But then, true fairies never were the way Disney portrays them until only the last century, so maybe there is a great deal of Faerie.  They were thought to be capricious and cruel, and certainly not good to be involved with!

Long ago a human beautiful woman Eithne became involved with Finnbheara, the King of the Fairies. Unfortunately, Finn was married to Una, who took exception to the whole thing. Eithne was also a witch, and she made a magic potion which was to keep Una asleep for  100 years, but which had only worked for a season. Somehow the magic potion linked Eithne and Una, and gave Una a conscience, which turned out to be bad for Finn.

When Eithne discovered that Finn was also the King of the Dead and sacrificed humans on Halloween, she had been disgusted, but still she hung on to him. Eithne is forced by circumstances to marry a human King, Amairgin. He conspires with Una to force Eithne to magically banish Finnbheara from Ireland to 'the ends of the earth, a place not yet discovered or conquered'. This act has the unforeseen consequence of binding the four of them for eternity, in a complex cycle of rebirth.

The 'ends of the earth' turns out to be Australia. Living in Melbourne, Isobel is recently divorced and has also recently lost her job. She takes up running as a hobby, and frequently finds herself passing by the ruins of an abandoned mental asylum, Larundel. One day she finds a simple gold wedding band on the grounds, and puts it on.   Strange events begin happening, some things which call Isobel's sanity into question.

A ghostly 'bird-lady' named Maisy, urges her to 'kill them all'.  When Isobel asks who she should kill, Maisy replies 'the lost souls.' Things go downhill from there.

This tale winds though modern pop-culture and the events of her past-lives which involve Larundel. Isobel struggles to to discover who Maisy was and what ties them together. All the while she is struggling with this mystery, Finn and Maisy watch her, as ghostly entities.

Friends do not always have her best interests in mind, and what she has always believed of herself is proven to be a myth.

This story has more twists and turns than a country road. Just when you think you know what is going on, you find you were off track. The ending is unexpected and I highly recommend this tale to everyone who likes a good paranormal fantasy.

I enjoyed Rachel Tsoumbakos' first book, Emeline and the Mutants, an off-beat take on vampires, zombies and the cure for HIV. Both books are available for Kindle at amazon.com.

Dark Lover, J.R. Ward

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

Quite honestly, if I had not been able to get this for the Kindle, I would never have read it, simply because the cover is so embarassingly romance-novel-like and I would never have picked it up. Dark Lover can only be described as an urban fantasy, although it is also listed as paranormal-romance. I very rarely read romance novels, as usually they don’t interest me. However, I had a friend who had read this and LOVED it, so I thought why not take a little trip to the darkside and check out a romance novel. I am very glad I did. This is NOT your Mama's Romance Novel! This is about big, bad vampires and the completely separate society that they exist to protect. I warn you now; there is a great deal of profanity and some graphic sexual content in this novel.

The story begins in a nightclub. Darius, a vampire and high-ranking member of the ‘Black Dagger Brotherhood’ asks a personal favor of Wrath, his leader and King. Darius wants his friend to help his unacknowledged half-human daughter, Beth, through the transition that all vampires go through at the age of 25. Wrath and indeed ALL of the Brothers has a bad attitude, being somewhat xenophobic, and refuses Darius’ request. Wrath is the only pure-blooded vampire left in the world, and Darius believes that if his daughter drinks Wrath’s blood during her transition, she will survive it and then he will be able to acknowledge her.

Unfortunately, Darius is killed in a car-bomb explosion as he leaves the nightclub. Wrath then makes the decision to find Darius’s daughter and honor his friend’s last request. Wrath is an interesting character. He refuses to acknowledge his birthright and rule the vampires as king for personal reasons. He is also known as ‘the Blind King’ as he is blind, but one would never know that upon meeting him. Ward describes him as having a ‘cruel mouth’, and his appearance inspires terror in all who see him. All of the Brotherhood are big, well over 6’5” and skilled in the martial arts.

Vampires were created by the ‘Scribe Virgin’, and The Brotherhood exists to fight the strange once-human cult that preys on them, ‘The Lessening Society’. Lessers are the dregs of human society, always men, who have been altered by ‘the Omega’ and are used to hunt vampires. They are somewhat dead, no longer sexually capable, and smell like baby-powder. Lessers are also formidable enemies of the vampire society, and they are responsible for the death of Darius. In Ward’s world, vampires do not drink human blood; they drink the blood of other vampires.

Their society is very rigidly constructed, and the rituals of their religion are central to it. Worship of the Scribe Virgin who takes a personal interest in their lives is the underpinning of their culture. She represents their God, and The Omega represents their Evil.

The battles that the Brotherhood fight against the Lessers are graphic and not for the weak of stomach. The equally important battles between Wrath and his Brothers as they try to convince him to rule their society as he was born to are really well done, and the characters of the Brotherhood themselves are quite clearly drawn. Each male is an individual, with demons of his own to fight.

The story of Wrath and Beth sucked me in and refused to let me go. If you are looking for a big, broad adventure with a certain amount of adult content this is the book for you!

Still Searching for the Next Great Read

Each week I try to review a book that really rang my bells.

So what happens when I have read 6 books in one week and out of those six books I was only moderately interested enough to finish 2 of them, and I still don’t have a book worth calling ‘best’?

I keep on reading, hoping to come across a new L.T. Suzuki or a young Tad Williams.

What do I look for in a book? First, because I read so much that is produced by the indie author, I don’t really expect perfection in the editing department. After all, even big name authors like Rick Riordan and Stephen King have some editing errors in their work and they have big publishing behind them. As a rule, if it is a great story I can ignore most errors as long as they aren’t too frequent.  

But if I can be forgiving about some editing errors, there is one thing I must have and that is a real, interesting and original story that is worth talking about and worth telling my friends about. I want a well-thought-out plot with great tension and characters that interest me and draw me into their lives.  I want consistent, believable magic and political systems and if you have nothing new for me, then I want new takes on old plot twists. I want a big finish if it is the first book in the series, despite that fact that the author may have a series in mind.  I want that first book to stand alone, and leave me wondering what is going to happen after that last page is turned.

In short, every time I start a new book, I am hoping to read something that moved me the way L.T. Suzuki's 'Imago, A Warrior's Tale' moved me when I first read it. The trouble is, I already reviewed it here on October 21, 2011.

I am sorry to say that this week I didn’t have time to read more than 6 books. Out of those 6 books, 2 were moderately good reads and 4 were stinkers.  The four stinkers had more problems than I could explain in one post.  I will simply say that atrocious sentence structure gagged me with overwhelming descriptions of eye-color and scenery or offended me with random, inexplicable incidents of extreme violence for the sake of the shock value. The authors had killed their own books in the first 5 chapters. 

Rather than poke needles in my eyes, I deleted them from my Kindle and moved on, hoping for a jewel in the next book.

The 2 moderately decent books began with great promise.  They had imaginative plot ideas, and wonderful characters.  In both cases, I finished the book because of the characters and I wanted to know what happened. Neither book ended well, and by the halfway point the plots were faltering and I was unable to understand how the characters used their rather muddled magic powers.  But I did like the characters and I hope that the authors continue working on their writing skills because they do show promise.

But I do have around 50 or more books queued up in my Kindle that I have not yet read (being only able to read about 6 a week) so I am sure to have something new and wonderful to talk to you all about next week!

Until then, my friends! Happy reading!

Amber Magic, B.V. Larson

Today we are reading a rather short novel, by today's standards, called Amber Magic.  It is written by B. V. Larson and is the introductory novel to a epic series, The Haven Series.

The tale opens with the Giant, Twrog being tricked into murdering a man for Voynod the Dark Bard, who just happens to be dead. He is known to be a member of the dreadful Wild Hunt. the victim, Arlon, had entered the Deepwood hunting boar, in an effort to win the hand of Molly.  Unfortunately, Arlon is set upon by the Giant, and as he is dying, Voynod fills a silver goblet with Arlon’s blood.

Two brothers from River Haven, Brand and Jak Rabing are setting off late in the day, trying to get their offerings to the central city of Riverton before the full of the Harvest Moon. Brand sees a dark figure in the forest, one that strikes fear into his heart. The figure vanishes, and he tells Jak what he has seen and they continue on their journey to deliver their goods as is required of them.  All year, the people of Haven have known that something is wrong in the Deepwoods, stirring up the magical creatures. They have been plagued with reports of wolves, merlings and worse, but the two young men must continue on their journey, meeting with their cousin Corbin on the docks as they had planned. Jack suspect two families within their community, the Silures and the Hoots, of having had a hand in his parents deaths several years before.

They stay with their Aunt Suzenna and Uncle Tylag and several strange incidents happen, including an owl that tries to enter the room Brand and Jak are sleeping in. The man in black is also seen again. All of these incidents lead them to believe that the great pact wit Faerie had somehow been broken, despite the effort the people of River Haven put into gathering the large annual offering of the best foods and goods that they produced.

This is a completely original take on the world of Faerie as we think we know it.  All the dark things we have ever suspected, are here, but with a twist. The people in this tale draw you into their world, and you feel sympathy for them immediately, even for those whom we know only briefly.  Their names are colorful and so are the characters. I found myself living the story along with the characters, feeling the fear, the joy and the determination to survive as they did. 

Larson's style of story telling lures you in and holds you, compelling you to keep turning the page.  There is a truly original premise to this tale, and the ending promises fine things to come in the rest of the series. If you are looking for a truly wonderful, immersive epic fantasy, read this story. I promise that you will not be disappointed.

I have a new hero among the many great authors that I admire, and his name is B.V.Larson.  Larson is the author of many books, in the genres of both sci-fi and fantasy. He is the author of the fantasy series The Hyborean Dragons, and also the Sci Fi series, Star Force  I will definitely be reading the rest of the Haven series, and I will eagerly seek out any other work by Larson!

The Storm Dragon's Heart, David Alastair Hayden

The Storm Dragon's Heart, written by David Alastair Hayden is a nicely put together tale of a young wizard who is severely tested on the road to adulthood. 

The world that young Turesobei of the Chonda Clan lives in is remarkably Japanese in some ways, although it is clearly a fantasy world.  The people and the places all have distinctly Asian-sounding names and the warrior culture of Turesobei's world is clearly based on the historical warrior cultures of the far east.  This makes for a compelling well conceived background against which Hayden's tale is portrayed.

At the outset, 14 year old Turesobei of the ruling Chonda Clan is a sheltered, spoiled young man who makes many mistakes that a self-centered young person might make.  He is somewhat arrogant, as he has been tapped from birth to step into the position that his grandfather, Lord Kanenan occupies as the High Wizard when the time comes. Each day he trains rigorously, if somewhat rebelliously.  He has been betrothed since birth to a girl who disdains him, but for whom he has exceedingly confused feelings.  His father, Noboro, is a great warrior-mage who is obsessed with finding a magical artifact that is both dangerous and evil, The Storm Dragon's Heart.  Legend holds that it is actually the heart of the evil Naruwakiru, who has been dead for millenia, and indeed it is an object that has cast a spell upon his father. Noboro can think of nothing but gaining the Heart which has been guarded by the  evil Storm Dragon Cult.

Turesobei is overjoyed to be allowed to go with his father when Noboro returns to the hunt.  He is allowed to go because his father needs a wizard and Kanenan feels that Turesobei needs the experience and has the ability to handle what will surely be a grueling mission.  They depart with 24 guards.

Things go terribly wrong, and in a terrible battle all their guards are killed. Noboro is kidnapped by the cultists.  A terrible accident saves Turesobei's life. Suddenly alone in a strange country, and desperate to get his father back, Turesobei finds a friend in Onudaka, an old man who is also the brother of Sobei's enemy. Another unintentional ally is found in the female assassin, Iniru. 

Turesobei's journey into adulthood is well told, and draws you in.  I found myself thinking about this story when I was not reading it.  Hayden colors his worlds well, and his system of magic makes sense as do the  intrigues which provide the tension of the tale. 

The story is frequently violent. The cultists torture Noboro, and there are atrocities committed. There is no graphic sexual content, but are occasional references to adult situations which illustrate Sobei's deepening relationship with Iniru.  The personal transformation of Turesobei from an untried boy into a man to be counted on and respected is not without a few bumps in the road. His growth, both in his ability to use his magic, and in his character unfolds in a compelling series of events. The end of the story provides a satisfying conclusion to the epic-quest tale. 

The Storm Dragon's Heart is an excellent stand alone novel, as there are very few loose ends left at the end, but it is apparently the first book in a series, the Storm Phase series.  David Alastair Hayden is also the author of the epic fantasy tale, Wrath of the White Tigress which is the first book in a separate series, The Tales of Pawan Kor.