fantasy Archives - Page 7 of 12

Yzabel / November 5, 2015

Review: The Dream Engine

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

A truth terrible enough to bury for a millennium …

A mysterious boy calling in her sleep …

A secret city that shouldn’t exist …

When Eila Doyle first sees the strange boy beckoning in whispers from somewhere deep in her imagination, she questioned her sanity. She was used to seeing strange things with her eyes closed — that’s what Eila did all day while strapped to the Blunderbuss, Building whatever the Ministry of Manifestation required — but never before have those images felt so real, or so dangerous.

After Eila learns the terrible truth about her reality and the monsters inside it, she thinks that maybe madness might be her only escape…

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

2.5 stars

A very interesting theme, but ultimately this novel felt more like an introduction.

I liked the idea of a world shaping its inventions through thoughts, from concepts and a strange machine called the Blunderbuss. I liked the explanation behind how this weird science worked, where exactly the concepts and images came from, not to mention that in general, anything that has to do with dreams tends to fascinate me. One part of the world living a relatively placid existence, with nights spent in quiet, without dreams; and the other, its counterpart, having to sift through dreams nightmares in order to send feedback. And the remnants, what nobody wants, the pollution born from human minds, which just goes… somewhere else. Although the explanations weren’t too easy to follow at first, soon they made sense.

Another thing I liked was how the “mysterious boy” didn’t end up as the mandatory love interest, the one that always ends up trampling over the plot in typical YA novels, whether their genre is actually romance or not. It was quite refreshing, and I can only hope that the world and the stakes presented by the “dream engine” will not fall prey to “luuuurve” in the next volume. There’s enough going in without giving in to trends. So, authors, thank you for sticking to the weird science and dreams and contraptions here.

However, as I was reading, I kept feeling that a lot of things often got rehashed and repeated more than necessary—that some trimming would’ve been in order. It took a long time for what I thought would be the plot to unfurl, and while Eila’s hesitation and questioning herself was totally understandable, it still looked to me like beating around the bush, instead of helping flesh out her character as well as others. In the end, Cora, Daw, Levi (for a few minutes, I couldn’t even remember his name, even though I’ve just finished reading the book… that’s how much an impression he made on me), all the others, were more shades than actual people. Eila was the most developed of all, yet her running in circles in her mind kept her at a basic level: I still don’t know what she likes and dislikes, for instance. I think this is the kind of plot where less time should’ve been spent on introspection, and more on subplots (no need for complex ones: simple things such as more than just Atwell confronting Eila after dinner, or someone realising she wasn’t with Cora every evening, etc.).

So much potential, so many endless possibilities, yet never truly explored…

The world itself, albeit interesting, also suffers from the “pocket universe syndrome”, in that the idea behind its foundations is great, but it seems really, really tiny, no more than a city and some land around it. It could be an island, for what it’s worth, completely isolated, and I didn’t get the feeling of a “real” world, for all its talks of airships and pilots bringing goods from other areas. How far is Stensue from Waldron’s Gate? Is Pavilion only under the latter, or does it extend everywhere? Are there other Pavilions under other towns? And so on.

Conclusion: despite finding quite a few likeable elements in there, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I may or may not pick the second book someday, to see if the potential of this series is going to be properly exploited; right now, though, I really don’t know.

Yzabel / October 30, 2015

Review: The Prophecy Con

The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

Book Two in the Rogues of the Republic series.

Who would have thought a book of naughty poems by elves could mean the difference between war and peace? But if stealing the precious volume will keep the Republic and the Empire from tearing out each other’s throats, rogue soldier Isafesira de Lochenville—“Loch” to friends and foes alike—is willing to do the dishonest honors. With her motley crew of magic-makers, law-breakers, and a talking warhammer, she’ll match wits and weapons with dutiful dwarves, mercenary knights, golems, daemons, an arrogant elf, and a sorcerous princess.

But getting their hands on the prize—while keeping their heads attached to their necks—means Loch and company must battle their way from a booby-trapped museum to a monster-infested library, and from a temple full of furious monks to a speeding train besieged by assassins. And for what? Are a few pages of bawdy verse worth waging war over? Or does something far more sinister lurk between the lines?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I read the first book not long ago, and a lot of what I posted in my review at the time is valid again in here. The heist(s), with several levels of deception, double-crossing the opponent, thwarted plans, having to do with a situation turned for the worst… And with twists that aren’t always planned by all members of the team, ending in somewhat hilarious moments that nicely counterbalance the overall “they’re a bit too ready for absolutely everything” feeling one may get. Because something’s bound to give, to turn sour in a heist, otherwise there wouldn’t be as much interest in reading such adventures—at least not for me.

The characters are mostly the same, with some changes reflecting darker turns of events from the first book. Kail is still his old I-give-a-name-to-everything lockpick and pickpocket, and his skill in wielding “mom jokes” remains the same (also he’s contaminated Icy); however, his brush with mind-bending magic left him a bit more somber, but more decided than ever to fight this. Desidora has returned to her duties, yet is now questioning her role within the team, as she feels she is less useful. (I quite liked the conversations between these two, as their predicaments were somewhat related.) Ululenia and Dairy… well, let’s just say things didn’t exactly go as planned (not to mention that the unicorn had to make a choice whose consequences wouldn’t be so light). Loch is trying to work on the side of a law that doesn’t exactly make things easy for her in that regard. Hessler has broadened his magic, with somewhat dangerous results that however leave room to humorous dialogues: a welcome thing, considering that the tone of the novel is a bit darker and that this time, wounds aren’t only superficial.

We are given a bit more of a view of other parts of the world here: the Empire, the dwarves, the elves, as well as the Ancients themselves. A welcome addition, too. At first sight, it doesn’t stray too far from clichés (Elves had tree-ships and prefer to live far from humans, dwarves are often miners…); however, read just a little longer and the differences become obvious. I especially liked how the dwarves were so polite and orderly, while the elf dignitary was at the same time badass and insufferable (in a funny way). While the rules of magic in this world remain fuzzy, the relationship between magic and elves (through the crustals embedded in the latter) was interesting nonetheless.

This novel may have been slightly less humorous than the first one, because its stakes were higher from the beginning—not just a heist to steal a book and earn tons of money, but preventing a war, and trying not to become the sacrificial lamb in the middle of all this. Oddly or not, I liked it even better for this reason, and for another one: this time, knowing the characters, I could also better anticipate on what their moves might or might not be, and this made it more “logical”, so to speak, when something happened that I would’ve otherwise deemed a deus ex machina. Predictable? In a way. Yet the kind of predictable I like, that I *want* to see happen, and then, when it happens, I strike the air with my fist and I’m all “Yesss!”

4.5 stars. I’ll keep recommending this series, and hope book 3 is on the same level.

Yzabel / October 28, 2015

Review: Alice Takes Back Wonderland

Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

After ten years of being told she can’t tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she’s going crazy. Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real. But all is not well in Wonderland.

The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful. But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl?

Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows. Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace.

With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

Both funny and leading one to think about darker themes, though a bit confusing at times.

I pretty much enjoyed this this novel. Its cover, for starters. Its grim version of a Wonderland not turned into gothic-like darkness or anything, but into an even more dreadful thing: grey, boring normalcy. Its mash-up of fairy tales, different from the ones known in our world, their echoes reaching us and being turned into stories, while our world has in turn their own echoes in those places—transcending time and space, too: Alice is actually from our contemporary United States, but Peter Pan knows her through her story as a girl from 19th century Britain, a story he himself was told before going to Neverland. Good ideas aplenty, in how the “true” characters were different: Pinocchio as a boy who doesn’t know whether he’s real or not (and with a darker backstory to his being a “puppet”), what’s truly going on with Captain Hook, Robin Hood’s real identity, Queen Charming who lost everything and has turned into a tyrant of her own kind because she couldn’t cope with all the sadness… There’s even a bit of a wink to Lovecraft, one that seemed odd at first yet ended up being not so odd, all things considered, with everything going on around it.

It may have been a bit too much at some point, making it difficult sometimes to remain focused on the story—possibly because of the large cast of characters and their nonsensical dialogue and ways of thinking: totally fitting the Wonderland setting (and thus good, too), but depending on your frame of mind and/or degree of tiredness, not necessarily the easiest to go through. I would advise not treating this novel as a “light read for when you don’t need to focus”, because you do, and you should, else some of its (interesting) elements may get lost along the way. (I’d dare say it’s the same with Carroll’s Wonderland, after all: to fully enjoy it, you definitely need to pay attention.)

I admit I would have liked to see just a bit more of Alice’s “madness” in the normal world, to better grasp how exactly she gave up on Wonderland at first: to me, it seemed she never gave up, picked up fairly quickly, and seeing her struggle more (or differently?) would have been nice. Not that I didn’t want her to accept Wonderland again—just differently, since Ace’s dominion there, his desire to turn it into a normal (boring) place, prompts her to take action and “retake” Wonderland. In the beginning, she didn’t *want* to believe, then the switch happened a bit too fast. Same with Alice’s parents: will they force her back into normalcy, or not? Can she stand up to them in that regard? Such answers aren’t given.

Otherwise it was a funny adventure, with good twists and turns and renewed takes on well-known fairy tales characters (the mysterious Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the dwarves dealing in moonshine…). 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / October 25, 2015

Review: The Palace Job

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Loch is seeking revenge.

It would help if she wasn’t in jail.

The plan: to steal a priceless elven manuscript that once belonged to her family, but now is in the hands of the most powerful man in the Republic. To do so Loch—former soldier, former prisoner, current fugitive—must assemble a crack team of magical misfits that includes a cynical illusionist, a shapeshifting unicorn, a repentant death priestess, a talking magical warhammer, and a lad with seemingly no skills to help her break into the floating fortress of Heaven’s Spire and the vault that holds her family’s treasure—all while eluding the unrelenting pursuit of Justicar Pyvic, whose only mission is to see the law upheld.

What could possibly go wrong?

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I have a soft spot for heist novels. Give me thieves, rogues, criminal jobs demanding planning, enemies getting in the way, and odds are I’ll be happy—all the more when most if the action takes place in a city, and not travelling (I have trouble with the latter). I got this here, and perhaps even more than I bargained for, as it’s not only about one job in the end: not only does each party member have his or her own little heist part first, but it’s also about a bigger con, and quite a few people here have the potential to be both a criminal and a life-saver. In general, anyway, the characters were enjoyable.

Loch, whose motives are of theft and revenge, but who’ll stay loyal to her friends to the end. The death priestess, who didn’t want the job for starters, yet has to contend with what she was given. The magician, who could very well scamper away but is growing fond of the kid. The unicorn who will not abandon said kid, even though she’d probably be better off whisking him away too. The justicar, in a typical “investigator who may or may not see the light” fashion that I still found nice to read about no matter what. The orphaned girl caught unti playing politics because her adoptive father doesn’t leave her a choice, yet sooner or later will have to revise her own position, too. The safe-cracker with apparently bottomless pockets of supplies, vials and enchanted crossbolts, who could’ve had another life, only it would’ve been one by her own choice.

There’s humour woven into the batch, even though the straits are often dire and the truth unpleasant. Loch has a comeback for a lot of situations. The flirtation bits were fun to read. The death priestess comes from an unexpected angle, to say the least (starting with her introduction scene). Kail and his “your mom” insults that never fail to work: hard to believe, but still hilarious. Dairy regularly tripping over his own feet (manner of speaking) and causing catastrophes that are fun yet wield interesting results. Ululenia the unicorn and her virgins, also her alliteration-rigged mind magic. Puppet shows to keep people informed, allowing the “journalists” to tell probably more than they would be allowed to otherwise.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this novel, too, which is longer and more complex than I expected. Some may appear as deus ex machina, as the characters seem to plan for a lot of contingencies without the reader being warned. Sometimes it worked, at others I thought “too easy”. However, thinking back on it, it’s obvious that Loch et al. aren’t naive, and after a while I started suspecting when such twists may occur, and imagining “surely they won’t fall for that,” or “I smell trap, but I’m positive that character will see through it no matter what, in a way or other, because by now they know each other too well.”

Let’s not forget the political commentary, which is maybe where I would’ve liked to see more, as the “racial interactions” were a bit simplistic (the “whites”, the Imperials who’re basically “Asians”, and the Urujar as “the blacks”). Probably there weren’t enough pages to tackle absolutely everything here, but since it *was* part of the political side of the plot (Silestin adopted Naria and paraded her as a means of showing his intentions towards “racial equality”), as well as of the heist itself (the acrobat/contortionist/martial artist had to be an Imperial with a name sounding like a translation from kanji), I think it should’ve been approached a little differently.

These qualms set apart, I really enjoyed this book, and am glad I have the next one on my reader as well.

Yzabel / October 18, 2015

Review: Homunculus and the Cat

Homunculus and the Cat by Nathan Croft

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Just a typical kitten saves the afterlife story, disguised as a book about death.

In a world where every culture’s mythology is real, Medusa’s sisters want revenge on Poseidon, Troy is under siege again, and the Yakuza want their homunculi (mythological artificial humans) back.

Near Atlantis’ Chinatown, a kitten and her human campaign for homunculi rights. Against them are Japanese death gods, an underworld cult, and a fat Atlantean bureaucrat.

The main character dies (more than once) and a few underworlds’ way of death is threatened.

There are Also giant armored battle squids.

Review:

[I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

Good ideas in this mash-up of various mythologies and their associated creatures, however, in the end, it was a bit too choppy to my taste.

The world of Gaia was inventive, fun, full of conundrums and syllogisms, all of those making for a place brimming with diversity… and with the problems associated to it, especially acceptance. This theme, along with the one of “humanity” in its largest meaning, was developed through the homunculi: artificial human-shaped beings, crafted by alchemists, gifted with certain powers, with a beautiful appearance for some, with intelligence and feelings, yet considered as unworthy because they didn’t have a soul—or so, some people said.

The political undercurrents permeating the story (the vote, the tricks used in Atlantis to thwart it against the homunculi, the strong will of a few people like Petra to help them get rights at last) were definitely interesting. Perhaps because of all the many creatures in this novel, the hypocrisy behind their reluctance to accept the “soulless” articificial beings was even more tangible, and made for a good metaphor of injustices happening in the human world. I can say I’d really have wanted this specific plot to shine more.

Where the mashup worked much less for me was in the narrative itself. A lot of things happened, more or less tied to the aforementioned plot depending on the moments, but they happened very fast, in a chaotic way. I guess it reflected the chaotic nature of Gaia, yet it didn’t male for a coherent read, and there were several moments when I had no idea anymore what was happening, why, or how the characters had come to that particular point or conclusion. Even though it made more sense once I read a few pages back, it was annoying nonetheless.

The other problem with such fast-paced events was that they didn’t leave much room to character development, and I felt I was told, rather than shown, the relationships between Tyro and the cat, Tyro and Mina, Tyro and Herakles… (Tyro wants to save him, but since I didn’t get to see them interact much, I didn’t feel very invested in knowing about the outcome. Same about Tyro and Ankh’Si: the conclusion here was so rushed I wasn’t sure if my copy of the book missed a chapter or two.)

I really liked the world developed here, however it was so diverse that it eclipsed the characters. Since I like those to be as developed in a “humoristic” read as in a “serious” one, albeit in different ways, I suppose, it didn’t work very well for me in the end.

Yzabel / October 7, 2015

Review: Harry Plotter and The Chamber of Serpents

Harry Plotter and The Chamber of Serpents, A Potter Secret Parody by M.J. Ware

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Austin comes to England knowing as an American he’ll stick out at his new school. But when an errant owl lands him at Hogwarts he’s in for more than he expected.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A somewhat funny idea, although in the end it didn’t go far enough to be more than quaint fanfiction. The story is basically that of the second Harry Potter book, from the point of view of an American pupil thrown into Hogwarts. It was mildly interesting, in that it inserted a different take on why some events got to unfold the way they did in the original novel (the cat hair ending up in the potion, for instance), as well as peeked into what may have been the daily life of other students than the ones we saw throughout Rowling’s series.

However, this should have been taken further, and to greater lengths, I think, in order to become a story of its own. As it was, it didn’t bring much to the Potterverse, because the “blanks” it filled weren’t many, and so it was mostly a retelling from a different perspective, rather than something really interesting. Austin being American didn’t play much of a part either; he could have been German or French, and it would’ve been roughly the same. The reason why he ended up in second year when he hadn’t attended the first wasn’t really explained either: “so that he’d be on the level with the Harry, Hermione and Draco of the official timeline” and “because he wasn’t in England before” are a bit of an easy cop-out.

Some aspects were tentatively explored (a Slytherin/Slipperen being friends with a Gryffindor/Gryffinbore, opening up to other people, all Slytherins aren’t uptight worshippers of pure blooded ancestry…), only not enough. It felt like an attempt to redeem this House by downplaying the others (Harry seen negatively…), in a “Slytherins are misunderstood” way, instead of delving further into what could’ve been complex House relationships. This is reflected in general in how the novel remained too close to the original one, and never soared away from it to become its own.

Also, seeing the names changed (Harry Plotter, Hogworts…) was strange: everything’s so close to the original that it doesn’t fool anybody. No doubt a matter of copyright, yet it made me wonder where Rowling stood regarding all of this. Did she allow it, and if yes, then why not a joint effort of sorts, using the real names and places? And if not allowed… then what? (Yes, you can tell I’m always torn when it comes to fanfiction. That said, the book’s free, which I can appreciate—making money off it would’ve been shameful.)

Fun enough if you want something light to read and on which you don’t want to focus a lot. Otherwise nothing exceptional.

Yzabel / August 23, 2015

Review: The Gospel of Loki

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other. Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his revenge.

But while Loki is planning the downfall of Asgard and the humiliation of his tormentors, greater powers are conspiring against the gods and a battle is brewing that will change the fate of the Worlds.

From his recruitment by Odin from the realm of Chaos, through his years as the go-to man of Asgard, to his fall from grace in the build-up to Ragnarok, this is the unofficial history of the world’s ultimate trickster.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I was quite keen on reading this one, but now that I’m done, I can’t help but feel that something was sorely lacking, and that the portrayal of several of the gods and goddesses wasn’t what I wanted to read.

Don’t get me wrong: different portrayals aren’t bad per se. They allow to shed another light on a character, to see a specific element in another way, to cast a whole other meaning and play with what is the “officially accepted” meaning, and so on. However, even though I’m fare from being a specialist in Norse mythology, I didn’t really understand some of the choices made here. For starters, what was wrong with Loki as a Jötunn (I’m not a proponento f Christian interpretations, so having here as a “demon” was definitely weird)? I especially couldn’t agree with the portrayal of Sigyn done here. I’ve always felt there should be more to her than what we know of, but seeing her reduced to a soupy housewife made half-crazed and happy to finally control his husband in the cave didn’t sit well with me. Granted, Loki made fun of all the gods and goddesses, only the way it happened with this one didn’t seem like an appropriate idea.

The tone of the story was somewhat light and funny in spite of the end of the Worlds it was bound to lead to, and highlighted Loki as a Trickster. The two episodes with Sleipnir and Thor disguised as a bride were particularly fun to read—I can never get tired of the latter, I guess. The gods and goddesses in general weren’t shown under their best colours, which here too fits with Loki’s point of view (being able to see the defects in people, himself included, and using them to his own advantage).

The “trickster tricked”, though, is another peeve I couldn’t shake off. Loki has always been a very ambiguous figure for me, not an evil one, so while his portrayal as being rejected because he’s a “demon” fits with his growing resentment (wouldn’t things have been different he had been accepted as Odin promised he’d be?), the end result looked more like a child being constantly thwarted and then whining about his fate, than a God bent on revenge for having been wronged once too often. This is not the kind of Loki I wanted to read about. He deserves more than that; his being tricked does happen (Útgarða-Loki being a good example), yet it quickly felt as if he always got the end of the shaft without never learning anything, and it doesn’t seem believable that a character like this one could be tricked from beginning to end.

I was probably also a bit annoyed by the omniscient view cast over the story, as it is told from Loki’s point of view after Ragnarök: I tend to grow quickly tired of structures of the “but the worst was still to come” kind. It didn’t help me to stay immersed in the narrative.

Overall it was a strange reading experience: when I was in it, it was alright, but every time I stopped, I had trouble picking the book again. It *is* pretty close to the Edda stories in some ways if you except the demon/Pandaemonium one, and probably this is both a strong and a weak point, as in the end, apart from being narrated by Loki, it doesn’t bring that much novelty or development to the already known myths. The Gods remain fairly one-dimensional, and while it was somewhat fun to read, I don’t feel like I’ll be opening this book again one day.

Yzabel / July 27, 2015

Review: The Floating City

The Floating City by Craig Cormick

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

The Floating City is in turmoil. The magical seers who protect it are being killed by fearsome Djinn that rise out of the canals at night. Members of the city’s Council of Ten are being assassinated by masked fanatics. Refugee ships are arriving, bringing plague. Othmen spies are infiltrating everywhere. New power blocks are battling for control of the city.

And the three Montecchi daughters, Giuliette, Disdemona and Isabella, are struggling with love and loss – and trying to write their own destinies. And moving amongst them all is the mysterious and deadly Shadow Master, who seems to be directing everyone like players in a game. But some things in this game may be beyond even his control.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Last year, I read the first installment of this series, The Shadow Master. I liked it and found it really confusing at the same time. I’d say that things are a little similar here, but that knowing the works that the author plays with (Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello…) helps in guessing a few things… and being misled when it comes to others, in a good way. I could both anticipate and still be surprised in the end.

This novel is more intricate than the first one, since it weaves the stories of the three Montecchi sisters along with those of the Shadow Master and Vincenzo, a young scribe with a strange power of making events happen differently by (re)writing them, a really powerful ability in its own right. These retellings from Shakespeare’s plays—and from the tales that inspired them—were fairly interesting: close enough, yet also subtly different, with a dash of humour as well. Mostly it worked for me, although there were a few instances in which the dialogues were, oddly enough, “too” Shakespearian, and clashed slightly with the way the characters spoke in general.

The city itself felt very present, much like in the first book. The atmosphere was more magical and poetic this time, through the depiction of a Venice-like city kept afloat by the powers of four couple of mages called the Seers, facing strange creatures in its waters, a plague, the looming threat of the Ottomans (Othmen), and a shady group of assassins taking down the Council members one by one. This is mostly where things felt confusing sometimes, because a lot was at stake, and the explanation at the end behind those events was too hasty, too convenient, perhaps. This is also where I would’ve liked the novel to be longer, to expand more on the Seers, on how their magic worked (pretty shady as well in its own way!), and on some of the “background characters”, so to speak.

However, paradoxically, the events surrounding the Shadow Master and Vincenzo, as confusing as they may seem, started shedding some light on events and characters from the first novel—especially when a certain couple was concerned. Though I may be mistaken, I have a gut feeling that the author is building something here, something far bigger than I had suspected at first: a sort of network of plots meant to collide at the very end, with the Shadow Master acting both as a hero/assassin and a storyteller, gifted with abilities that go deeper than suspected at first. I cannot deny, too, that the Shadow Master sometimes had a Fool’s flavour to him (as in a Shakespearian Fool), which I don’t doubt was totally on purpose. If only for that, combined to how I enjoyed the story, I shall make it a 3.5 stars, bumped to 4. I definitely hope my hunches are correct.

Note: I found some typos here and there; however, the copy I got was an ARC, therefore not the final one, and I’ll assume those few defects will have been ironed out by now.

Yzabel / July 24, 2015

Review: Abomination

Abomination by Gary Whitta

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

He is England’s greatest knight, the man who saved the life of Alfred the Great and an entire kingdom from a Viking invasion. But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.

She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have—hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.

When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible—and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.

Review:

[I received an ARC through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A somewhat entertaining read with good ideas and a somber atmosphere, oozing despair, but also bits of hope at times. Unfortunately, I found it a bit too dry when it came to the characters and their actions, “telling” more than “showing” how they were, acted and felt.

The premise was interesting: a dark, dark age, with King Alfred trying to protect his kingdom against the invader, so full of despair that he ends up resorting to one man and the latter’s inhuman means of winning. Obviously, that sorcery turns sour, and the king has to send Wulfric, his best knight and friend, on the hunt for former Archbishop Aethelred and his army of abominations. My opinions on that part were mixed: I thought the hunt went on too quickly, somehow. On the other hand, it wasn’t the main focus of the story, or rather, it was only its first focus, so it’s a good thing that it didn’t take half the book either to be sorted.

The abominations, the sorcery that gave birth to them, were truly horrific, and I had no trouble picturing them, imagining the horror they must’ve been for the characters. These creatures had a sad side, too, being twisted without any possibility to fight back nor to revert to their original selves.
Historical accuracy wasn’t always this book’s forte. At times I could suspend my disbelief; at others, not at all (would anyone get rid of a dagger in a time where metal was quite precious, all the more with enemies being so close?). This happened when it came to language as well, with some names being really strange for that place and time (Indra…). As a story with action, it was alright, but let’s not too closely at the historical side here.

While the characters had to face challenges and trials that had some nicely ambiguous sides (Edgard’s motives were not pure, but neither were they completely evil), I didn’t really feel any connection with them. The revelations they had to come to terms with and the introspection needed from them seemed at times off-pace, at odds with other aspects of the story. I could also guess from the beginning what the twist about Indra would be, which was a bit disappointing: it couldn’t be kept a mystery from me, so when it was officially revealed, it just fell flat. (Indra herself was interesting, though, for the way she wanted to decide for herself, live the life she had chosen, not caring about whether being a woman would bar her from figthing, and also her decision to give a chance to the Beast.)

Conclusion: good ideas and vivid descriptions of the abominations, but not enough in terms of character strength to hold my attention.

Yzabel / July 22, 2015

Review: The House of Shattered Wings

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

In the late Twentieth Century, the streets of Paris are lined with haunted ruins. The Great Magicians’ War left a trail of devastation in its wake. The Grand Magasins have been reduced to piles of debris, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine has turned black with ashes and rubble and the remnants of the spells that tore the city apart. But those that survived still retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital.

Once the most powerful and formidable, House Silverspires now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself.

Review:

[I received an ARC through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I liked the premise, I really did—not to mention that theme of the broken, rotting throne at night against the backdrop of a ruined Paris. There’s something both sick and magical to such a city. The Seine river blackened and polluted by magic turned sour, horrors lurking in its waters. Gangs scrapping remnants in order to survive, Fallen angels being their favourite preys, preys that end stripped up of blood and bone and basically everything, for the power those organs can bring. Houses full of mages, Fallens and their dependents, vying for domination, yet also teetering on the brink of destruction, for the last large-scale conflict among them ended up being the 1914 war, the Great War nobody nor any place in the world seems to have recovered even 60 years later…

Yes. Definitely enchanting, in a morbid way. I couldn’t help but be fascinated by this charred landscape, by the sheer hopelessness permeating eveything and everyone, despite the pseudo-grandeur some of the characters tried to keep as their facade. Descriptions here worked pretty well for me, making it easy to create this picture of Paris in my mind, all the more because I’ve walked those places, the parvis of Notre-Dame, the Halles, and so on. The atmosphere was somewhat old-fashioned, in that people in the story clung to a world long gone by (far away colonies entangled in the War, displays from fashion stores back when everything was still gilded…), and a lot of names were really traditional French names (Ninon, Madeleine, Isabelle, Philippe…). Although, as a native French speaker, it was also somewhat weird to see those names associated to English ones like Silverspires or Morningstar; that’s a matter of language on my part, though, and not any fault of the book.

And no romance. There was no room for that here. The only “links” were of blood and curses and magic and slavery of sorts. No “souls destined to be together”. The relationship between Philippe and Isabelle definitely wasn’t born under the brightest star, so to speak.

The reason why I’m not rating this novel higher is because… I wanted more. The mystery, the curse, those were intriguing, but the balance between unveiling them, developing the characters and showing the world around them was regularly a bit off. I would have wanted to see more interaction between Philippe, Isabelle and Madeleine; see more about how they evolved, or rather, could have evolved as people. I expected to see more of House politics, of the complex webbing of alliances and betrayal and various other ways of pecking at each other. More about Philippe’s origins and what his presence in Paris meant, more questioning about immortality and fallen angels, perhaps? At times, I felt that all that was more akin to beating around the bush, and that a while elapsed with nothing really happening, neither in terms of events nor of character growth. That while would’ve been the perfect place to inject… well, “more”.

I was also not too convinced by some of the secondary characters, more specifically Selene. I expected more cunning on her part, as someone who had been playing the game of House politics for decades. As a Head of House, she wasn’t “older” than Asmodeus, yet the latter and his schemes hooked me much more, seemed more ruthless and thus believable. I got it, nobody could have equalled Morningstar, but…

All in all, this is still an “I liked it” book. Just not the “I’m in awe” story I had hoped for.