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The Mansion’s Family
![The Mansion's Family (At the Crossworlds Book 2) by [Channing, Rose]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51d51IO5htL.jpg)
The Mansion’s Family is the second book by Rose Channing in the Crossworld’s series. While the first book focuses on Ellie and Savannah Senka and how they reset the magical worlds balance, The Mansion’s Family goes deeper into the character’s history and family. The book also devotes a large portion to the Eva’s story. Channing brings the twins back to other world where magic is not known or very strong. It is in this world the girls discover Travis, their father. They find they have a half sister and brother that inherited some of their father’s magical powers as well. The book also brings back Jerome and his escape from imprisonment. This brings out war in their magical world and many hard choices are made by all.
The beginning of the book opens with the start of the Fall Celebration. Everyone is rejoicing in the rebalancing of the magic and you see relationships forming between the main characters. From this point the book jumps between two plot lines; the Senka twin’s quests to find additional magical people that were trapped in the other worlds after the great storm that don’t know magic has been restored, and the story of Jerome and his escape. The twins journey into the other world through the shadow cave brings them more than they could have dreamed, they found magic and their blood family. After some trepidation from Travis he agrees to return with the twins and his new family to the Mansion for a visit. They grow as a family and twins start to really feel like they know their heritage.
While the twins are building their world back up at the Mansion out in the woods Jerome has used the magic he still had to continue to control his people and to seduce Dece. Dece hid her power of being a builder, or so she thought, but Jerome sensed it and manipulated her. He lied and tricked her into freeing him from the trap June’s army placed him in. Once free he continued to use Dece to further his plans to take back over the world. While planning he was also hoping to get his daughter Eva back from June’s mansion. Eva meanwhile was plotting how she would kill Jerome one day and break herself away from the evil he stood for and carried with him.
When the time comes to go to war, Ellie and Savannah must face some difficult choices, they will be tested more than ever before, it isn’t a matter of if their powers are strong enough to do what must be done, but if their hearts can take it. The war is devastating on many levels, everyone loses someone they love in the battles, not all the main characters will make it through this war. Eva will forever be changed by the things she endures and see.
The Mansion’s Family has complex topics that blur the lines of right and wrong. What is good and right is not always what needs to be done, what feels wrong is what sometimes needs to be done to save the greater good. This book is the changing point for many of the residents in the Mansion, they are no longer children with the carefree ability to learn their magic and grow without fear of the what if’s. Now they have all experienced the good and bad and have a greater understanding of the balance that must be achieved, and that the two are not mutually exclusive of each other.
Pages: 479 | ASIN: B00ZVH4F3U
Lady Athina
Things have gotten worse for our protagonist since we saw them last in Lord Athina. Danny C. Estes outdoes himself in the second installment of his trilogy: Lady Athina. Our protagonist, Jim, who was whisked away from the world as we know it and plunged into the body of a sixteen-year-old high-born woman who has just given birth is not out of the woods yet. Lady Athina follows Jim’s trial in the body of Athina as he tries to make sense of what happened to him at the end of the previous book. Feeling more isolated than before, Jim finds himself meeting both of Athina’s parents and realizes that he is now an eligible female whose parents want her wed. Still struggling to accept the fact that he is no longer a man in his late thirties but a woman in her prime, Jim rejects everything and everyone with the entirety of his being. Assassination attempts have him learning how to use a knife but he’ll be damned before he lets himself be married off.
Lady Athina is much more of an emotional ride than the previous tale. Even though he is in a woman’s body, Jim’s male mind is still infatuated with breasts and women so the very thought of marrying, and consummating said relationship, with a man makes the very heterosexual Jim balk. In fact, we learn that Jim would rather get naked with Renault, a female guard who is staying with Athina’s family since she saved Athina’s life, than with Wendell; the young man Athina was apparently smitten with many years before she was married off.
Jim struggles in this tale with the fact that he is not used to the frail female body he’s trapped in, but he also struggles in dealing with trauma from his former life. Dealing with flashbacks of his youth growing up in a household ruled by domestic violence, it is clear to see that his distaste for how Athina’s father treats her is founded in personal experience. There are some things that will translate no matter what sex you are.
In an attempt to flee marriage to Wendell, Jim/Athina finds himself/herself running from the safety of Athina’s father’s walls and out into the unknown world. Jim receives kindness from strangers who basically keep him alive long enough to be sucked into an enchanted forest and into the hands of the wizard who rules there. It is here that Jim reunites with Renault and discovers parts of himself he thought were long buried. With his newfound understanding of himself and his relationship to the body he now inhabits, Jim forges forth to write a new tale for Athina.
This installment in the Athina series is a refreshing change from the obsession with the female-form that the first had. Estes has a clearer grip on Jim as a person as he guides the story over more realistic emotional hurdles that the first book lacked. Picking up smoothly from where the first book ended, Lady Athina is a welcome tale of adventure and defiance that leaves readers begging for more.
Pages: 224 | ASIN: B00JSQ5XHW
Shackled Scribes
Shackled Scribes is a fantasy piece that takes place in a world powered by runes and those that carve them for the worm rulers in power. The story opens with Cyesko, an interesting character. He strives to be a respected rune scribe, partly due to his addiction to Ichor, a golden liquid that he receives as payment for his runes. He is a bird-like creature who has spent most of his life being a weak rune scribe, but that all changes when he runs into Tialina, a female bird creature who is naturally gifted in rune scribing. When he takes part of a rune she created, it sends him on a new path of stronger rune creation. However, those new runes bring new problems.
Soon, he begins to wonder who this woman was and how she became so powerful, as well as some truths that change how he sees the world around him. Meanwhile, Tialina has discovered the consequences of using rune power so often, and begins to look for a solution that might change the world.
The strength of this story lies in its world. It is unique in almost every respect, and the characters respond and react as one would expect under those circumstances. It is also a world that is well-defined. There were not many times when this reader ever felt lost or confused by the introduction of a new mechanic or function in the world. The details are revealed in such a fashion that makes the reader desire more, and gives enough of those details in a timely pace that also keeps the reader satisfied.
The plot is entertaining and straightforward. There is not a lot hiding in the details of the story, and some readers might find the actual conflicts to be a bit generic, despite the rich and unique setting. Regardless, the story moves quickly and the reader will be anxious to find out how these characters progress through the troubles where they find themselves.
Overall, the story is well worth the read. Some of the ideas are very far-fetched, but that creativity makes the reading interesting. If you can deal with ideas that aren’t much like any of the traditional magic we find in contemporary fantasy, then this will be a book for you. It is a unique setting with interesting characters. I hope that there will be more adventures in this realm.
Pages: 195 | ASIN: B01KDG6OKA
Soul Searcher: The Reckoning Part One
In Stephen S. Arend’s Soul Searcher The Reckoning Part One the reader will find themselves on an incredible journey that will not only take them to the heart of battle but to the depths of the human soul. In a world where magic is as common as breathing, a soul transfer goes terribly wrong. The Mage-Lord Mordeth is attempting to complete a magic ritual where he can obtain a sliver of immortality. Thwarted and split in two the reader will meet the protagonist of Arend’s tale: Rork. A crafted man with half a soul and even less emotion, Rork prowls the world trying to deny the dreams he has which give small betrayals of his involvement with Mordeth. A large man who has been alive for only ten years Rork finds that he is missing much and is less than reluctant to find out where exactly he came from and how.
Arend does a wonderful job when it comes to emotion in his tale. Rork is full of rage and anger for a variety of reasons. He has been alive for a snippet of time. All he knows is battle and the haunting dreams that plague his sleep. Due to his firecracker temper which is liable to go off at the drop of a pin Rork finds himself saddled with an unexpected package: the scout Bregan. It seems like oil and water have met and are now expected to become friends. Rork immediately voices his disapproval over traveling with the young whip but what he will ultimately learn from his adventures with the scout. Both are more like boys in the beginning and Arend captures the metamorphosis into men quite well.
In a fantastically described world where magic is woven with intricacies even the smallest detail is given quite beautiful description. It is quite easy for the reader to picture the story in their minds as they read. You won’t be left guessing what expression the characters were wearing or what color the trees are when you read Soul Searcher.
For a first part Arend does masterfully in capturing the readers’ attention and lays out the ground work for subsequent tales. Information is freely given yet there is still more to be learned. These are key elements in any piece of work that is meant to go longer than the tome at hand.
With carefully crafted battle scenes and delicate explanations of magic Stephen Arend knows what his novel is about and is diligent in conveying the story to the reader. He takes the relationship between two unlikely friends and uses it to tell his tale. He doesn’t over embellish the tale which can be a major faux-pas for many fantasy writers. He uses his skills to convey the story in all it’s glory without diminishing the importance of the relationship between the two men. Other writers would gloss over the importance they play for each other and how they are essential to the development of each man’s personality,
Soul Searcher is a fantastical novel that is sure to delight those who read it. It’s not a fluffy piece where magic is used to make tarts and cakes. This is an involved and epic tale that is sure to keep your eyes glued to the words until the very end.
Pages: 222 | ASIN: B01IQP0QOU
Legends of Perilisc
Legends of Perilisc is a collection of short stories created by Jesse Teller. This collection has eight different stories that all tie together along a timeline. While each story can stand alone there is a sense that it’s building up to something that we don’t get to in this book. Each title is subtitled with a phrase like “120,000 Years Before The Escape” (Teller p.7) and “Three Years Before The Escape” (Teller p. 197). While the preface lists the date as being after the Escape it offers no clue to who is escaping what. This leaves the author open to create many more books in this series. There is one character that reoccurs in most of the stories, Simon the Bard.
At first the beginning story sounds like a twist on the Greek Mythology stories from when the Gods battled for control of the world. While some of the names mentioned do link back to mythology, most of the characters are original to Jesse Teller. Their personalities and names differ from one story to the next. I think this lack of continuity is intentional and well done showing the different times and places in Perilisc. These stories are dark; they are not happy endings with moral lessons. It is a work of fantasy unlike anything I have come across. Each individual story tells of a quest, usually the quest is to find someone and kill them. Through these short stories you get so much detail though. The author does not waste words. Every line is important to character development, the action or setting.
Piecing together information from the different stories we learn more about Simon the Bard. He is the constant so far in the world created by Teller. He travels the word claiming to be a simple story teller, but is always in the right place at the right time to offer important information. He is immortal, and has magical powers but the reader does not discover just how deep those powers go.
As with any collection of short stories it can be frustrating to get small pieces of a story line and not see where they end up. Knowing that all these story lines interact building up to “the escape” is even more frustrating given the huge jumps in time. Chances are we may never know more about the characters we read about. One example is Konnon. His story is brief, we find out about his devastating childhood, his enslavement to an enchanted beast, and his revenge. His story takes place in one night, but we don’t know how this fits into the overall story line. It is just a good snap shot into the world and how it is developing through time.
Legends of Perilisc is a great collection for the reader looking for a fresh take on fantasy novels. It is not for the reader looking for a happy ending and a magical quest with elves and good wizards. This collection is dark, full of death and evil. Topics of patricide, cannibalism, adultery, rape and many more dark topics fill these stories. A good read with an open ending leaving the author free to continue this world and create many more stories to entertain and shock his readers.
Pages: 141 | ASIN: B01I7KD9O8
Lord Athina
Danny C. Estes’ first installment to his saga, Lord Athina, is quite unlike anything else you might read today. We start our journey in ‘our’ world with forty-one-year-old Jim Sanders. Jim is a bit down on his luck, stuck in traffic and grumbling about all the things that are pushing his buttons lately. That doesn’t last long, however, as Jim soon finds himself staring down death via metal piercing his minivan. In a sense, Jim does die and he finds himself wandering a plane of nothingness only to be pulled into a strange reality. He’s confused, he doesn’t know what’s going on and all he knows is that everything about him feels different somehow. His body hurts, but not where the metal pierced him and not in a way he’s ever experienced before. That’s because Jim’s soul has been pulled into an alternate reality and promptly plunked into the body of a young woman who is giving birth.
Estes does a great job showing Jim’s confusion towards his new situation. He very much thinks and feels like a man, however his body is completely changed. He’s also been transported to a seemingly alternate world where the people are living in an age of renaissance or medieval time. Not only does Jim struggle to understand what has happened to him he’s in a panic and completely out of his element. For six agonizing days as Jim’s body recovers from the trauma of childbirth his soul approaches recovery of his situation. On the final day he is greeted by a wizard who explains what has happened. The world Jim is now in has magic and this wizard had very much wanted to bring a soul back to the body of Lady Athina, however he wasn’t bargaining on Jim’s soul being the one he grabbed.
Jim is confused and you can feel his anger, confusion, frustration and helplessness oozing through every page. For a first volume in a saga Lord Athina does a fantastic job setting the scene. We learn about the world our protagonist has found himself in and we get a grasp on how the politics and monetary transactions work. Estes sets up a great story line with enough intrigue and betrayal to keep any reader happy. Nothing feels over the top and where some authors can spoil the whole idea of magic, Estes peppers it into his story just right.
Jim must get accustomed not only to this strange world where he’s found himself in a precarious position but he must also become accustomed to the body of a young girl. His male ego and libido do nothing to help his plight which can be a bit cumbersome to read. Jim finds almost all the women we meet in the story attractive and wants nothing more than to have his way with them.
Aside from minor grammatical issues and the extensive obsession Jim has with breasts, Lord Athina crosses boundaries and perspectives unlike other tales in the fantasy realm. It’s definitely a treat to read.
Pages: 226 | ASIN: B00DT0C1DC
In Fiction They’re Endlessly Fascinating
Eric Johnsen Author Interview
Birth to the Stilldead tells the story of a young doctor, Tel, and a necromancer, Aarne, who fight off increasingly disturbing supernatural occurrences while working in a cancer ward at a hospital. Why did you choose a hospital for the setting of the story?
I spend lots of time wandering around a particular hospital as a Literacy Program volunteer, so this cavernous and labyrinthine layout is something I’m familiar with. Also, there’s lots of strange rooms and hallways that I’m not allowed access to, which sets my mind wandering with story possibilities.
Aarne is both a mysterious and perplexing character. He listens to the dead and knows what they want. What was your inspiration for building his character?
The idea of being a modern day wizard is very appealing. Having access to forces that aren’t recognized by science and using them to run gung-ho over the world. However, it would be tough to remain a good person with that kind of power. Aarne makes no moral calculations whatsoever and pursues the work for the sake of knowledge and power. In reality, people like that cause tremendous damage, but in fiction they’re endlessly fascinating.
Many of the children that Tel is treating have cancer. I thought you did a great job capturing the emotional turmoil and pain that families go through in these situations. What kind of research did you do for this novel to ensure you captured the essence of what it meant to be diagnosed with cancer?
Thanks. The atmosphere of an Inpatient Pediatrics unit is one I’ve spent some time in. However, not being privy to personal conversations between doctors and patients/parents, I sought out personal stories and training information.
Are you a fan of the supernatural horror genre? What books do you think most influenced your work?
Supernatural horror is my favorite genre. I love the worldview it espouses. Not only is the universe amoral and indifferent at best, but also, laws of physics are merely accidental conveniences and in reality, anything can happen. Thomas Ligotti is a huge influence along these ideological lines, although I don’t try to write like him. His stories are more philosophical fables on the nature of horror rather than plot-driven. Clive Barker’s supernatural horror is one of my earliest and all encompassing influences. He marrys a cinematic scene-style of writing along with deep ideas and poetic descriptions which is exactly how novels are supposed to work.
What is the next book you are working on?
It’s called BirdTorn Tapestry and is about a man adjusting to his new office job, which starts to resemble a mystical initiation into a group he cannot escape from. Another novella, a bit surreal but still a horror story. My goal is to publish a new work every six weeks or so, and I’ve got quite a few lined up, so keep your eyes peeled.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website
Struggling young doctor Tel Hunniset becomes the interest of rogue necromancer Aarne Soars, who is able to blend seemlessly in with hospital personnel. Together, they save the lives of many children dying of an epidemic, with Tel getting all the credit. As supernatural events increasingly intrude upon Tel’s life, he is forced to confront the terrible cost of his actions upon the dead.
Able to Channel Chaos
Sorrow’s Heart revolves around a young slave girl who is being tormented by a sadistic dark wizard. What was the inspiration for the dark wizard and the experiments he performs on the children?
Well, the Girl is a main character in a novel I’ve been working on for several years now. In that book, she, as an adult, is asked by a priest how she could talk to animals without being able to channel Chaos. Due to the story line in that book, I needed her to have some kind of affinity with Chaos, while at the same time hating the priests. So I decided that she’d been experimented on. As to why Ruddick, the priest, is driven to do the things he does … I’ll leave that up to my next book.
The story is told through the viewpoint of the young girl. How did you handle, not only writing from a young girls perspective, but one that is in dire distress?
Well, to be honest, that’s why it is written with a sense of distance. Beyond that I simply put myself in her place. She is someone who’s traumatized and treated as little more than a lab animal, yet she still yearns to live and fight on. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.
There is a lot of things that are not directly answered in the book. Was it your intention to leave so many mysteries in the story?
Yes, I wrote it from her perspective. It’s vague because she simply doesn’t know what’s going on and I felt that the mystery added to the sense of dread. Beyond that, at its heart it’s an origin story. I have more books with her as a driving force where we learn much more about her, her past, and her destiny.
Sorrow’s Heart explores misery, despair, and pain. Were there any parts of the story that were difficult to write?
Very much so. When I first created her I knew her back story, but actually having to write much of it, the pain, the torment, and of course the violation, made me cringe. I love her, and hated the thing that happen to her. I think that really helped.
Will there be a follow up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
There is a follow up in the works. It’s a monster of a book, well over two hundred thousand words, that I need to split into two and then go through the editing process. Because of this I wanted to have put something out there. Most people aren’t going to pick up something that big by someone they’ve never heard of before. I just finished the first draft of another book, a full length novel titled “Cleansed”, that I hope to have out by the summer, before I tackle the completion of the Girl’s follow up. I have a lot more stories in me that are all interrelated. I have a lot to tell. So if you enjoyed Sorrow’s Heart don’t worry, there is more on the way soon.
Author links: Website | Facebook | Twitter
A young child, abandoned by her family, is enslaved and experimented on by a priest of the God of Chaos. She struggles to endure and find meaning in her fragile, tortured life. She finds help from some unexpected friends, but does she have the heart to not only survive, but thrive?
LITERARY TITAN 