Blog Archives
A Guardian Falls
A Guardian Falls by Rebecca Tran is a fantasy novel and the second book in the Chronicles of the Coranydas series. In the first novel, we are introduced to our main character Mara, who is seeking revenge after watching her father’s murder. She gives up her privileged lifestyles in order to seek justice. The second starts soon after the events of the first novel, with Mara’s betrothed recovering from his injuries after she has rescued him from her father’s killer, and her self-doubt in her abilities to finish what she has started.
The novel starts well, with a good re-introduction of characters and an update in the current situation. Tran’s writing is easy to follow, and you’re given a sense of the characters as soon as you meet them. Mara is also a likeable main character, and one of the reasons for this is that she is not a perfect or even confident lead. She doubts herself and her destiny throughout the novel, but all this makes for a more realistic and endearing character. It is much easier to empathize with a character who is self-critical and questions themselves, and this makes for an enjoyable read. Mara’s relationships also makes her more likeable. Her relationship with Kess is sweet and you find yourself invested in it – the novel starts with them having been in an argument, but their quick reconciliation is a subtle way to show you the strength of their relationship.
One thing the author does well is her ability to write both long scenes of in-depth dialogue between two characters and epic battle sequences. Both of these will hold your attention, and flow easily. The dialogue is good, and anything the characters say is believable and feels like a true conversation. Similarly, any action is written well, and is not too over the top.
The only problem I found with this novel is the amount of characters there are. It can sometimes be hard to follow so many characters in one book, and occasionally things can become muddled and you start to feel you’re in information overload. However, this does not affect the enjoyability of the novel to a high degree, but it is something you need to concentrate more on as you read.
Overall, this is a well balance book, with a good degree of both action and dialogue that is paced well. You will enjoy both the action sequences and the calmer, more character driven moments. The characters are strong, and our main character is likeable and relatable. The plot is interesting pushed along by some thrilling twists. If you are looking for a good fantasy read then you can’t go wrong with this one.
Pages: 394 | ASIN: B072LJV5Z5
The Legend of the Three Roses
Jason Hubbard’s new series starts out with The Legend of the Three Roses. This story puts on display the fascinating journey of a young magician’s apprentice named Kane and a female assassin named Callie. Callie has been hired to assassinate the insane king Hugo who is planning to start a war. Callie fails to assassinate the king but manages to escape dragging Kane with her as ransom. After an unfortunate turn of events Kane ends up on the king’s most wanted list. Callie meanwhile has her own troubles running from a crazy assassin. Together they end up narrowly escaping death more than once.
One of the most fascinating and enthralling aspects about this book was the setting. It was a captivating reinvention of a medieval city. The old city structure with the different rings based on class, the description of the towers, streets and shops, all keep in line with traditional medieval style. I enjoy fantasy involving magic that is believable, so getting details on how mages worked in this story was fascinating and lends a bit of realism to the story. Hubbard goes into detail explaining the potions that mages need to consume in order to do magic.
Kane and Callie’s characters, while a bit flat in the beginning, develop into dynamic characters that you connect with after the first half of the novel. Both went from immature and impulsive to strong, reliable, and determined. There was a definitively dark streak in the book while dealing with some of the inner rim crime rings that I found fascinating as a contrast to Kane’s more puritan attitude.
One thing that was odd for me was how vague the point of the story is. The title is The Legend of the Three Roses however aside from the mystery of trying to figure out what they are, we learn nothing about them. But this being the first in the series, I’m sure we’ll be learning more about this in future novels.
Overall The Legend of the Three Roses by Jason Hubbard is an enchanting and gripping introduction to what I suspect is going to be a riveting series. Having read other works by Hubbard I think this will live up to my expectations in the next novel.
Pages: 509 | ASIN: B072MFGJLM
Totally Unexpected
Harry James Fox Author Interview
The False Prophet is set in a post apocalyptic America and follows Donald of Fisher, our unlikely hero, as he must confront an army raised to conquer the land. What was the inspiration for the setup to this exciting novel?
The question applies to the first novel, The Stonegate Sword as well as The False Prophet although it is not necessary to have read the first book in order to understand the second. The initial idea was to create a character with a world view similar to present-day America and place him in a society with very different values, such as Medieval Europe. I considered a time-travel approach, but then hit on the idea that in the future the world could enter a second Dark Age. So the main character, Donald of Fisher is a lore-man, steeped in the study of the past from an early age. Then circumstances forces him to take up a sword and take on the role of a warrior. The conflict between the evil figure in the west owes a bit to Tolkien and a bit to the prophecies of the last days in Biblical prophecy. I made no attempt to create the details associated with the Antichrist, except that if the imagery in Scriptures is taken literally, it sounds as if the final battles will be fought with antique weapons. I realize that this could be figurative language, but I decided to take it literally, and that implies, again, that a dark age lies in the future.
The story follows two characters, The False Prophet and Donald of Fisher, which I felt were two contrasting characters. What themes did you want to capture while creating your characters?
The story follows the archetypal “hero’s quest.” Don is the hero and must face adversity. The False Prophet is the anti-hero and he does not actually appear in the first novel, being only a rumor, a malignant force driving the forces of evil. In the second novel, he is revealed to be a ruthless despot of the kind with whom we are all familiar. The Prophet’s armies are the driving force behind much of the conflict that Don must face and overcome, though human frailties (his own and those of his companions) are other obstacles in his path.
There were many biblical undertones throughout the novel. Where do you feel you paralleled the Bible and where did you blaze your own path? And how did that help you create an engaging story?
The story of the novel does have some similarities to the Bible in that the Israelites were often raided by their enemies and the kind of weapons were similar. The military tactics I describe are probably not similar to those used in Bible days, although some of the principles are timeless. The use of walled cities reminds one of the Bible and also Medieval Europe. The political situation in the free cities east of the mountains reminds me of Israel during the time of the Judges, when there was no king, and “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” The apostasy or falling away from the faith is prophesied in the Bible. The rediscovery of lost technology, for example, cannons, is a new path. The idea of a man of sin arising in the last days is found in the Bible.
The False Prophet is the second book in the Stonegate series. Where does book three take readers?
Book three will take place a generation later. The False Prophet was not destroyed, and the evil in the West rises again. It is up to the children of Don, Rachel, Carla and Howard to bring the saga to its final conclusion. Donald, now a middle-aged man, past his prime, attempts to mount an invasion of the West to overthrow the Prophet, but his attempts are met with disunity among his friends and overwhelming might of his foes. As to be expected, the victory depends on help from a totally unexpected quarter.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
This is the sequel to the award-winning Christian fantasy novel, The Stonegate Sword. All the major characters return, Donald, Rachel, Carla, and Philip.
Stonegate remains the key, and Donald returns to that great walled city and his beloved Rachel just as the hosts of enemy are also closing in. Part adventure, part love story, this epic saga covers the vast panorama of New Mexico deserts and Colorado Rockies in a possible future that looks very much like the medieval past. But duty, love, courage, and honor remain and are even more important than ever.
Brutally Betrayed
Fawn Bonning Author Interview
In this novel; passion, danger, and the madness of King Kynneth are spreading across the land, and Christa’s legend is at the center of it all. What was one thing that got you excited about writing the 3rd book in your Atriian Trilogy?
I was anxious to see how Christine would fare against crazy Kynneth and his formidable infatuation. And I was especially curious to see how she would resolve her greatest dilemma of all, her forbidden desires for Hannen Fallier.
Christa stays true to her headstrong nature and is prone to ignoring advice she doesn’t want to hear while making risky decisions. How do you think her character has developed throughout the trilogy?
As a young woman, Christine felt the world was pitted against her. She was defiant and unruly, and prone to distancing herself from others to avoid further rejection. When she finally lets down her guard, her trust is brutally betrayed, and she is left bitter and broken. When she becomes a mother, I believe her focus shifts. It’s no longer herself she is trying to protect. She is fierce in her resolve to keep her children safe. I believe her headstrong nature, her grit and determination, are the very traits that keep her alive on Atriia, and that ultimately forge her into a legend.
The cover art for the Atriian Trilogy has been fantastic. What decisions went into the art direction?
I wanted to depict the characters as I envisioned them, to capture the image of the fierce fraigen dropper with his menacing mask and toothy tattoo, Christine with her ravishing red hair and piercing blue eyes, Lor Zeria with his sensuous mouth, and King Kynneth with a gloating glare in his eyes that could only mean trouble.
This being the third book in the Atriian Trilogy, how do you feel about the series coming to a close?
It’s been bittersweet. I’m afraid I’ve grown much too attached to many of the characters. It was a fantastic journey, and though there were horrific moments that broke my heart, I’m sorry to see it end.
Do you plan on continuing these characters in another series or are you working on something different?
Currently, I’m working on a completely different series, but one never knows. Mayhap somesol Becca and Bixten may have a tale to tell.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Christine escaped Lor Zeria with her life and her child, but now she must face his brathern.
He is King Kynneth, hungry for power and bent on revenge. He means to rule the world of Atriia and to claim Christine as his own.
Will he conquer the world? Will he conquer Christine? Or does fate have other plans?
The Reaper
The Reaper opens with the revelation that the King of Akala is missing, and the new Queen, Leah, is now in power. She meets with President Inaeus Janu of Shaweh to offer a peace treaty that brings their long war to an end. Janu suspects the Queen is a figurehead and focuses on the mysterious Lialthas who seems to have an undue influence over the Queen.
In the meantime, refugees from Akala reach the city-state of Shaweh seeking asylum. The group includes the missing King Darius, his half-sister Moriene with the child Hannah in tow, General Victor Ikharson, and Sefas, once called Meddiah when he was an Empty One. They are shadowed by the black-clad Zacharias who used his magic to help them escape from Lialthas. When the Akalan’s gestures of peace turn out to be empty promises, President Janu and the Akalan refugees are whisked to a secure location as war resumes.
This is the second book in the Fallen Conviction series, and it wasn’t hard to catch up when the asylum-seekers told their story to Janu. This gave me the chance to get up to speed on the plot if you haven’t read the first book.
The interplay between Darius’ group of refugees and the leadership of Shaweh are the primary drivers of the plot. Character-driven stories are a big draw for me, and the author has a knack for showing the complex, often antagonistic relationships between all of these strong-willed characters. My favorite characters in this book were Moriene and Sefas, who were once under Lialthas’ control. Both escaped his grasp and recovered from being “Empty,” yet both still seem to be fighting the battles of the past.
I also enjoyed the high-tension setting. Being locked in a bunker with people you don’t like but are forced to trust is hard enough, but if that trust is tested, things are going to get violent. The situation erodes when Zacharias reveals that there’s something even worse that Lialthas out there, and they may not be able to stop it.
The first thing that struck me about The Reaper was the unusual formatting. At first, I thought it was a typesetting error, but it became clear that the line numbering was meant to give it a scriptural feel. Some of these passages have archaic sentence structure with rhyming words at the end of sentences, but it’s not always consistent and that can be frustrating for those expecting poetic meter. However, the nod to scripture isn’t surprising because gods and religion play a major part in this story.
Don’t assume that because this is written in poetic language that it won’t be exciting. This is a place where magic and technology that we would recognize today are both present, where battles are fought with WMD strikes as well as mind-bending magical attacks. War is gruesome, and the author doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to violence and mayhem. In this world, magic is fueled by blood, fear, and suffering, so whoever wields this power must harm others in order to succeed.
If you’re looking for a novel that offers both a unique style and a reading experience that challenges and defies “the usual” in fantasy, give this book a try.
Pages: 340 | ASIN: B06XRS3SFD
King Kynneth
Spoilers are unavoidable in this review, so if you haven’t read the first two books, read at your own risk!
In the third book of the Atriia series, Kynneth Zeria has declared himself King after the death of his brother Jerrod. He thinks Christa is dead and blames Lor LaRosse for stealing her body. He vows revenge, but in truth, Christa and her two children are alive and living with Hannen in hiding. Dahla is raising the decoy “heir” at Cas Zeria.
Kynneth is beating the drums of war, determined to bring the other Lors under his rule and defeat Lor LaRosse. When he papers the land with propaganda, Christa’s safety is compromised. Hannen orders her to never leave their home. Of course, circumstances intervene, and she is discovered. She may be able to stop a battle, but can she stop an all-out war?
The book offers a calm beginning, following Sam/Hannen and Christine/Christa as they heal and rebuild. Their shared experience on both Earth and Atriia get a lot of play here, with some surprising and heartwarming results. The first two parts of the novel are a great way to get reacquainted with the characters and the unique Atriian dialect—which can be a challenge—so there’s a glossary in the back if you need a refresher. Hannan loves her fiercely, but she struggles with the fact that he is her stepbrother. Even if they are not blood-related, she can’t bring herself to touch him, and if she does give in to her desire, another pregnancy would certainly kill her.
Don’t let the lovely pastoral scenes lull you into a false sense of security. This is the Loper of Zeria and the Foul Fraigen Dropper we’re reading about! Passion, danger, and the madness of King Kynneth are spreading across the land, and Christa—or her legend—is firmly at the center of it all. Powerful men from all sides of the conflict want to use her for their own gain. Some want to kill her, others to use her as bait, or want to lock her away to sate their own lust for power. But Hannen can’t let her go. He stalks her with a single-minded purpose: make her his forever, or die trying.
Christa Clavin again shows her bravery, even as she fights for her life through delirium, rage, and pain. She’s true to her headstrong nature, prone to ignoring advice she doesn’t want to hear while making incredibly risky decisions. Another constant is her sense of responsibility for the people whose very lives depend on her actions.
Fair warning: some of the scenes in this book make the other two books pale in comparison. Some of the horrific situations are pure nightmare fuel; it’s no wonder Christa has so many bad dreams.
The people of Attria think Christa Clavin, the Loper of Zeria is legend come to life, and indeed, her fate may be led by the hand of the divine Sola herself. It’s not hard to imagine her becoming a beloved hero of legend. I think fans of this series will certainly feel the same.
Pages: 569 | ASIN: B01KEMXROY
A Different Moral Code
Jason Hubbard Author Interview
The Hunters Sign is a genre-crossing novel with elements of paranormal and dark urban fantasy as well. Did you start writing with this in mind, or did this happen organically as you were writing?
There were a few differences between the summary and the final draft, but the overall story remained intact. I always try to make my fantasy books atypical, so I avoid as many fantasy tropes as I can and I tend to cross genres to make a story that’s unpredictable and interesting.
The supporting characters in this novel, I felt, were intriguing and well developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?
I’d say the main character, Adam, was the most fun to write for. He’s smart and also a smartalec, the kind of person I wish I had the nerve to be. I liked developing his relationship with Amy for I attempted to give them real chemistry. I’ve read a few books where couples come together out of physical attraction and having fun at events but don’t real talk about things they have in common. I guess the author is unwilling to have their couples touch on issues that a reader might take offense at, or perhaps a relationship is only meant to serve the story and nothing more.
I was once afraid that Ricky, the secondary character, would practically take the story away from Adam, but as the book went on that didn’t happen. He’s only meant to serve for expository purposes, to observe things for the sake of the reader that Adam can’t observe (or else the story would be over much more quickly). Still, it was interesting to write about a character who’s not exactly a bad guy but has a different moral code than Adam. He really is a scamp!
Magic is used throughout the book and I felt it was deftly handled. How did you maintain balance to make sure the magic that was used was believable?
I believe that in any fantasy story with magic-wielding characters, strict limits should be imposed on the magic. I did this by saying there are three different “schools” that mages can adopt, and while they can use magic from various schools, they can only be a master in one. I also said mages can be measured through “levels” that determine their adeptness, and I made it hard for one to become a mage by inventing “phosphorescent stones” which give people magic abilities but can be dangerous when handled incorrectly (an incentive for someone to not become a mage). If an author makes magic seem too easy, it may make readers raise questions such as “If this guy can do this useful spell at this time, then why can’t he do it at this other time?”
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be published?
My next book is titled “The Legend of the Three Roses,” which I’m very excited for! It takes place in a kind of medieval setting, and it starts out as a crime story only to evolve into a war story. The book reflects my thoughts on certain matters of spirituality, so characters touch on sensitive themes. It’s the most daring story I’ve ever written–graphic yet fun as well. I plan to release it sometime in June of 2017.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter
“Four years after the events of Part 1, 21-year-old Adam Taylor has moved to a new city, Almin. Here he plans to make a new start of things by attending a new school, learn new magic spells, and make new friends. And although love is not on his mind, he ends up falling for Amy Graine, the beautiful daughter of the CFO of Entercor Contracting. They are of two different disciplines of magic–him being a black mage and her being a white mage–yet they overcome their differences and begin a whirlwind romance that softens the scrappy young man’s heart. But Amy holds a secret that will test Adam’s conscience, and so he will be forced to side with either his girlfriend or those who wish to bring down Entercor.
Meanwhile, one of Adam’s school roommates, Ricky Grater, meets a mysterious man named Cameron Moss. Cameron is a fellow mage capable of powerful magic spells, and despite Cameron’s impulsiveness and abrasive behavior, Ricky looks up to him as a friend and mentor. The two men go through fast times gambling at the local casino, picking up lovely women, and enhancing their magic abilities. Ricky believes this is the start of a long and fruitful friendship that will further his magic career and keep the good times going. But behind his warm smile and easygoing attitude, Cameron has a hidden agenda, one that will ensnare Ricky in a web of lies, murder, and forbidden magic.”
The Seventh Sentinel
An ancient order. A young man with no knowledge of his past. Three friends who have trained and grown up together since infancy. This has all the trappings of a great fantasy-adventure tale with a back story that can rival even the most intricate video game. Yolanda Ramos has definitely done her homework with her epic tale The Seventh Sentinel. We have our main character, Cristiano, as he is raised in an orphanage by his mentor Julio Sierra: the man who has lost everything but is given the opportunity to retain meaning in his life. A boy with no apparent past. The boy becomes a man and is rigorously trained and skilled in various forms of combat and intrigue, but for what purpose? Readers will take an incredible journey in our modern day where the purpose of angels is still alive and well as they commune between man and God.
Even if you don’t particularly enjoy stories based on biblical characters or events, The Seventh Sentinel has a knack for focusing more on the actual adventure portion of the tale. Yes, there are angels. Yes, there are the Seraphim who are said to serve God alone. These angels have a purpose, and a personality, thanks to Ramos’ hard work. The descriptions in this tale are elegant and vivid. It seems as though it is based on actual events. In our modern world many feel as though God and His angels have abandoned us. Perhaps they have no need of us. Ramos is able to bring that slightly mythical sounding ideal into our century. These angels have a plan for Cristiano: he has a purpose. He will see it through.
Like most protagonists in this situation, Cristiano is an apparent orphan who was raised under the watchful eye of a male mentor. Julio cares for and teaches Cristiano as best as he can. Our protagonist is plagued with visions for a purpose he does not yet understand. And like most protagonists in this situation right as the truth is about to be revealed there is an attack and his mentor falls.
This is a fantastic book that deftly uses inspiration from religious ideals. Some may be uncomfortable because this book makes assumptions about what certain celestial beings can do while others may feel as though religion is a separate fairy tale. In the end, the way Ramos wove her tale together is entertaining in any case.
A story where a young man learns his purpose for our world is usually a delight to read. Yolanda Ramos does her research and attempts to be as faithful to the real monuments and angelic characters as she can be in The Seventh Sentinel. This book ends in such a way that if ever there were more, that would make sense. However it also ends in a fashion where questions are answered and another book is not entirely necessary. Readers will enjoy the journey Cristiano and his fellows take as they epically travel the world on a quest to discover whether or not the past truly matters.
Pages: 286 | ASIN: B00JVR7YPW
