Tag Archives: #Strangecreatures

Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller

Reine, S.M.: The Darkest Gate (The Descent II) (2012)

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The Darkest Gate1
Cover by S.M. Reine

I think my favorite part of The Darkest Gate is the way S.M. Reine writes Elise’s pain. Her emotional baggage is at least ten sizes larger than her and the manner she deals with other creatures (human or not) reflects that. Emotional pain eats you up and makes itself so much at home that you forget that it is there. But your interactions will reflect the depth of your pain and the extent to which you work to keep a lid on it. For once the lid comes off, man. Well, it’s an experience.

Elise’s awkwardness is not only due to her emotional pain. As we get snippets of her past we see that the main focus of her parents has been to train her to fight and to repress her feelings. At 14 James found her (see Death’s Hand) and her career as a kopis began. No wonder Elise has no time for the niceties.

Another factor influences Elise’s interactions with others. In 1999 (as you will discover in this novel) Elise went to a gynecologist to figure out what her problem was. Her discovery shocked her and created another wound to place in her casket of pain.

How much influence this next factor has had on Elise’s way of dealing with the world, I do not know, but I imagine quite a deal. The life of kopis and aspis is not an easy one. It requires a great deal of dedication and sacrifice. There is no glory and no wealth in the life of keeping humanity safer from other creatures. At one point James tells us that:

“hope for was dying in the service of mankind. The idea of being able to settle down was equally tempting and disappointing, since he knew it was something he couldn’t have. He couldn’t afford to eat on many days.”

We get several realistic descriptions of their situations. My parents grew up with poverty, my dad with hunger. When they speak of the harsher parts of their childhoods I find myself amazed to see the people they have become and the lives they have been able to provide us. I see some of their pain reflected in the writing of S.M. Reine.

When you are placed in such a position, some of us find ourselves willing to do things we might not otherwise do. Our practical sense of survival takes over. In 1999 Elise, not James, was the practical one of the two and decided she had to do the job Mr. Black offered to pay for. Doing that job and the consequences that derived from it led to the situation the retired kopis and aspis find themselves in when 2009 comes around. One might say that James and Elise’s lovely rear ends are being royally bitten by the past catching up with them.

I think I am going to leave you with that. Well, that and (as you have probably guess) I LOVED The Darkest Gate.

Review:

  • Print Length: 304 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1937733076
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Red Iris Books; 1 edition (May 4, 2012)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0080RED3U

My review of Death’s Hand

Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Sagara, Michelle: Cast in Sorrow (Chronicles of Elantra IX) (2013)

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Cast-in-Sorrow
Cover art by Shane Reben­schied
Cast in sorrow without text
Artist: Shane Rebenschied
Nice mood.
From scene late in novel.

Sometimes I fall in love with a character and end up following that character for as long as the author allows me to. Private Kaylin Neya is one such character. Cast in Sorrow is Sagara’s ninth installment in her Chronicles of Elantra series, and I am still enjoying my acquaintance with Kaylin. Part of that has to do with the growth of both the author and our Private. Cast in Shadow was extremely well-written and a fun young adult novel. Cast in Sorrow raises Sagara and Kaylin another level in my opinion.

Part of Sagara’s appeal for me is her prose. Patricia McKillip and Sagara share the same kind of tone to their novels. We are lured in with the beauty of their words and end up being buffeted from side to side by the winds of action.

At the start of the series Kaylin Neya is about 20 years old. She has been with the Hawks for seven years and was around 13 when she escaped the fiefs. Since that time about a year has passed. I’m not really sure about that because one has to allow for time for travel, how long her classes last and regular life between books. But according to other readers, this is about where we are.

In just one year Kaylin goes from a person who hates Severn, to one who feels great guilt about him, to one who accepts the role he has in her life. In that same amount of time Kaylin goes from a person who hates herself to one who more or less accepts that her fate in life is different to that of most humans. In accepting herself and others Kaylin also sees that her lessons have a reason and she slowly implements them.

In Cast in Sorrow Kaylin has come to the point where she is able to help Teela. She now has the tools (her role as harmonista and her latest experiences) and understanding of Barrini nature that are needed for her job.

Each novel has something to do with the runes on her body. In each novel Kaylin ends up as storyteller. Cast in Sorrow is no different from the rest of the novels in that respect. Once again her runes and nature give Kaylin a unique opportunity to heal. For that is pretty much what Kaylin is in each novel – a healer. Whether she brings female dragons back into existence, helps elementals be born, saves strange “aliens” friends, Kaylin’s mission in each novel is to heal something that has been broken. In Cast in Sorrow that is Teela and her friends.

I’ll be buying the next Chronicles of Elantra story as well. This is one person whose life I enjoy following.

Reviews:

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller

Alexander, Cassie: Shapeshifted (Edie Spence III) (2013)

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ShapeshiftedFinal
Cover photo illustration by Aleta Rafton
Cover design by Kerri Resni

The Catholic church is a fascinating church. Within its realm we find people praying to both official and not quite so official saints to get these saints to function as mediators between themselves and God. Santa Muerte (the Skeleton Saint) is one such unofficial saint (a folk saint) – one that people pray to in spite of the priest’s condemnation of her.

For some strange reason the followers of The Godmother are persecuted in both Mexico and parts of the US. Human nature being what it is this has only led to an increase in the Saint Death‘s popularity – in some places eclipsed only by Virgin Mary worshipping. Santa Muerte is The Personification of Death itself and is considered very powerful. People pray to her on issues of health, money, love and so on.

PaleHorse Santa Muerte
Pale Horse Santa Muerte

In Shapeshifted the Lady of the Shadows seems to have disappeared. When Edie seeks help for her mother, the condition for getting help from the Shadows (from the sub-basement of County Hospital) is that she find Santa Muerte for them and inform them of the Skinny Lady‘s location.

Edie has no clue as to who/what the Holy Girl is. So she does what most of us do – goes on the internet. While looking for the Pretty Girl Edie finds a job in a poorer and criminally challenged part of town. The reason she applied for the job is because of a picture on the net of a huge mural of the Black Lady on the wall of the clinic. Unfortunately for Edie her lack of Spanish is a huge minus but due to how she deals with a crisis she gets hired.

Without knowing it, Edie is firmly back in the midst of the supernatural world and is once again going to have to fight for the lives of her friends and herself. Even though Edie felt she was getting a grip on what the supernatural world entailed, she finds her beliefs and values challenged. Not only must she find Santa Muerte, but Edie must also discover how much she believes in freedom of choice.

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Reviews:

My review of: Nightshifted and Moonshifted

Fantasy, Young Adult

Leckman, J.R.: Pursuit (The Legend of Kimberly) (2012)

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Pursuit
Cover art by Georgi Markov

I have placed this cover among my favorites (see slide show). Markov has captured one of the scenes of the story perfectly.

So, here we are with book no. 2 of The Legend of Kimberly, Pursuit. According to the author: “The Legend of Kimberly series is really about growing up and learning that life, even a fairy tale one, is never what you expect of it.” I think that all of us who have been through this process can attest to that statement.

Kimberly grew up very quickly in Inheritance, at least physically, when she was unceremoniously dumped in Auvierra. Mentally she had quite a bit of catching up to do. Through her friendship with the “fox” Ip and the troupe she ends up wandering and fighting with she finally gets an understanding of what fairly healthy relationships are like and she gains the strength to continue her fight against the cruelty that others wish to inflict on her and others.

Fighting for the “light side” continues to be part of Kimberly’s job in Pursuit. This time she has to get her friend Serra away from those freaking zealots that appeared in Inheritance and kidnapped Serra. The Brotherhood of Zor are possessed with defining anything non-human or non-conformative as demons or as being possessed by demons. These guys are nuts from my point of view but filled with the light of truth from their own point of view.

The first chapter has a wonderfully gross description of Kimberly’s encounter with the macklejacks. I must admit that I am partial to such vivid detail of muck and smells. Action-filled and humorous first pages.

Poor uncle Ben – Kimberly’s uncle. He is about to get the shock of his life. When he discovers that he is the son of an apparently insane author father and then discovers that dad really wasn’t crazy after all life can only get worse. Then he meets a mermaid. After that the Brotherhood. Oh, boy, his introduction to Auvierra stinks. Unfortunately, this makes becoming a family for Ben and Kimberly more difficult.

We have some seriously crazy people in Pursuit. In addition to the Brotherhood a wizard with an evil imagination joins the kabal (hold-over from Inheritance). His compatriot is an assassin/con-artist who loves to torment others. I’m not sure if we can add his walking staff to the evil cabal but he/it too has some serious issues. For those of you who like nasty, I am certain Maitlan’s fate is right up your alley.

J.R. Leckman writes well, really well. He remains in the flow for the most part and has an action-pace that almost takes my breath away. Add to that all of the strange characters and abilities and we have a cauldron filled to the top with a delicious word-stew. Good job.

Reviews:

  • Published: Aug. 01, 2012  
  • Words: 57,370 (approximate)
  • Print Length: 161 pages           
  • Language: American English           
  • ISBN: 9781476239446
  • ASIN: B008RQLEHW

My review of Inheritance

Science Fiction, Short story/novella, Thriller

Lichtenberg, Tom: Dragon Town (The Dragon City) (2011)

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Dragon Town
Cover art by

I was not aware of this being a series so I jumped right in with Dragon Town (no. 3) and had no problem with that. While there obviously is a thread (the strange disappearances) to the story Dragon Town seemed to stand completely on its own legs.

Sapphire Karadjian has been ordered by the top honchos of the media concern she works for to return to Spring Hill Lake to report on a sinkhole that is supposed to have swallowed a football stadion. For a war journalist that seems both unlikely and rather tame and she cannot for the life of her understand why they want her specifically. Granted, she grew up there, but she feels completely overqualified for the job. Orders are orders and off she goes.

Her journalistic career has removed any rose-colored glasses Sapphire might have had before leaving Spring Hill Lake. To an extent I know my own rose tinted glasses have come off and that I see more of the world as it is and not as I want it to be. Sapphire’s case is even more extreme than my own. I imagine doing stories about one horrible deed after another tears down all illusions you have about people.

Sapphire is the main character of Dragon Town. Dragon Town is in the style of X-Files or the Twilight Zone – you know, sort of weird and sometimes creepy. Here we have “the burning girl”. Interesting to have a person on fire yet not get hurt. Then you have the back-story of the city. Add to that the suddenly appearing hole. And finally, for those who have read them, there are the two preceding novels.

I liked Dragon Town. It is only 84 pages long, so I guess that would make it a novella. Despite its shortness it packs quite a bit of story into it and manages to give me the creep-factor a couple of times. I like it when stories abstain from horror but embrace creepy.

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Fantasy, Short story/novella, Thriller

Violante, Maria: Hunting the Five (La Roca Chronicles) (2011)

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Hunting the Five
Cover art by Blake Eason

I must say I loved what the reviewer Justin Robinson-Prickett said of Hunting the Five:

“The classic pulps are oppressively masculine, chock full of male wish fulfillment. That’s all well and good for guys who want to read two-fisted tales of adventure.  But where are the ladies to turn?  Well, now they have something to scratch that itch.”

It is true that the fantasy pulp market has been mainly written by and probably for males. While using many of the same tools as the masculine species in her writing, Maria Violante has managed to give her protagonist, De La Roca, her own twist. There is plenty of violence in Hunting the Five but is wholly appropriate in its setting.

I do not understand why some reviewers have found the first chapter out of place. Perhaps it has been changed since the time of their reviews or perhaps I just feel differently about her need to get her gun back. Her methods of achieving her goals are anything but gentle but extremely effective.

Alsvior is a fascinating creature. While we see that he has interesting talents there is also a feeling of mystery left behind by the story. Lots of questions in my mind about that horse.

What would it be like to have had to be a mercenary for the Angel for three centuries? 300 years seems an awful long time to pay for whatever you might have done but being told that she has only five kills left before her stay in Hell is over seems like a set-up to me. Something just seems off about that.

De La Roca is something as strange as a demon killing demons for Heaven. How weird is that? She has been told that she is a demon by her personal Angel. Could be, but then again what role would Alsivor play in all of this as he is a tool from heaven. Lots and lots of questions. To me De La Roca seems like a bounty hunter with her soul as the reward for her kills.

Another reviewer felt a Mexican vibe a là Antonio Banderas. That could be. His part in the Mariachi trilogy certain was gritty enough. I think that is what I liked so much about Hunting the Five. Dark and gritty and plenty of action is important ingredients in a novel like this. Hunting the Five is also easy to read. Maria Violante manages to keep herself in the flow for the most part. There are some places where she falls out of it but she manages to pull herself back in.

122 pages isn’t a whole lot but Hunting the Five is after all billed as a novella. Thankfully you can pack a whole lot of fun into 122 pages and Maria Violante has managed to do that.

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  • File Size: 294 KB
  • Print Length: 122 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Publisher: Airam Publications; 5th edition (September 27, 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services,  Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005Q4LZPE

First chapter in audio

Adventure, Fantasy, Humour, Young Adult

Soriano, M.F. : Blood Brothers (Bound By Blood) (2013)

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Blood Brothers
Cover design by Streetlight Graphics

Blood Brothers is Soriano’s first completed fantasy novel although he has previously published some work under the pseudonym of Don Broma. It is the first one in a series, something that means that we actually get an ending – something I really like. I also really liked the cover designed by Streetlight Graphics. Soriano actually managed to include the name of the cover designer. I wish all authors could do that, even if the designer is themselves.

I have to say that my favorite character was Verlvik. There was absolutely no competition in my mind. He is so completely alien to my way of thinking and yet completely magnetic. This is what I mean by alien:

“The bird let out another chirp, and then broke out in song. High exultant trills that soared up in bright melody, and then dipped into lovely low warbles. Verlvik’s lips split into a wide grin. It delighted him that such a small creature could be so full of life.

For several minutes the bird poured its heart into its wondrous song. And then, as if singing weren’t enough, it started dancing too. It bowed its cherry head low, spread its brilliant wings, and started hopping forward and back.

Verlvik pushed the locks of his hair out of his face, and turned his head slightly to the left, to get a better view of the bird with his good eye. The tiny bird, apparently pleased to found an attentitive audience, abandoned itself to its performance. I began to spin like a little top, its bright wings flashing in the sun.”

Here Soriano has set me up with an image of a perfect moment in life. The vividness and feeling of this picture is so clear. And then he hits me in the head with a hammer:

“One of the bird’s spins brought it within Verlvik’s reach, and quicker than a cat he’d snatched the bird up and popped it into his mouth. Its little skull cracked like a nut between his teeth, splashing his tongue with a burst of rich flavor. Its delicate ribs splintered as he chewed, and pricked the inside of his lips, salting the meal with a hint of his own blood. He closed his eyes and munched away happily.”

Say what? My mouth practically fell open. Then I laughed and was completely in love. A better job at setting me up has seldom been done. The superlatives are lining up. A character like Verlvik has never come my way before.

Grillis is the first one we are introduced to. He is about 18 years old and is now alone in the world. Because of a facial birthmark others tend to avoid him and he has been bullied some. He was raised by his grandmother and well-loved. Because of this love he has learned the ability to trust, something that will come in handy for him but also bring him trouble. Grillis is also the kind of person that just keeps on going. We meet Grillis a lot in fantasy literature and I have to say that putting him first fooled me into thinking that this was a regular hero’s journey novel. Blood Brothers is not quite that but it does have elements of it.

Athemon is a character I understand. He has grown up bullied for who he is, growing up among a people who have been taught that they are less than the others. We get a taste of that bullying in his introduction. I have to say that my heart-strings were playing low notes in reading about the way he was treated by “his betters” and how his father reacted to that treatment. Sad, sad, sad. One day Athemon has had enough and his revenge is sweet.

All three characters are brought together and together they have to fight some really bad guys. If I was going to guess at target group it would be somewhere in the YA range and up. Maybe not too young because of some of the violence.

One of our characters is human, the other is a caprine and the third a pictsee. The story is told from each person’s point of view and that means, of course, that we switch between Grillis, Athemon and Verlvik.

When switching between characters like Soriano has done it can be difficult to keep in the flow. As I am sure you could tell from the quote above, Soriano definitely has a feel for the flow and he stayed in it a lot of the time. When he falls out he manages to find a way in. This is an excellent quality and it is obvious that Soriano has a talent for the craft. Every once in a while I felt preached to. All it takes to get that away is a little more editing and that will probably hurt.

Blood Brothers was given to me as a reviewer’s copy. As usual I have tried not to let this influence my review.

Fantasy, Mystery, Short story/novella, Young Adult

Humphrey-D’Aigle, Rachel: Bloodsucker Bay (The Demon Isle Witches) (2012)

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Demon Isle
Photographer: Danielle Page
Cover design: Rachel Humphrey-D’Aigle

Rachel Humphrey-D’Aigle. Now, there is a proper author’s name – at least in my head.

I love this cover. I agree with Humphrey-D’Aigle that Danielle Page is a great photographer and Rachel has done a cool job with the colors and fonts.

I think Bloodsucker Bay would be considered a novella as it is only 73 pages and 4 chapters long. It is definitely part of a serial as the ending leaves the reader hanging in loose air.

Bloodsucker Bay is a mystery – dead body and all. The thing about Demon Isle is that most of the inhabitants know of the weirdness of both the Howard family and the Isle itself. When a dead body turns up the Sheriff uses the Howard family as much as she can in solving the crime.

For the main part the story is about the Howard siblings and their vampire guardian William. Melinda, Charlie and Michael each have their strong and not so strong sides and we get to share in them. Melinda is a great potion maker and is prescient. One of the reasons William hangs around the witches is that Melinda makes a potion that helps him not bite humans. But he also acts as their guardian while they all try to come to terms with the death of their parents. Melinda feels guilt at not having prevented the death of her parents as her newly developed prescience had warned her of it.

Charlie is a werewolf. That gives him great strength but also urges that get stronger around full-moon. He is the big-brother and suffers from all of the big-brother symptoms.

Michael happens to be the one to feel the full force of Charlie’s big-brotherness. Charlie just cannot let Michael decide on his own what his future is to be. He feels that as fate made Michael a Howard and the Howards traditionally are caretakers of Demon Isle then Michael should just get his act together and do the job. Michael’s witchy side is being a death reader. That means he is very popular with the Sheriff when some unsolvable death occurs on the island.

There were a couple of scenes that I really liked. One was in an underwater cave and involved the brothers. The other was with Emily, Michael’s probable girlfriend. The pace in those two scenes was perfect and the way they were written fun.

Bloodsucker Bay has pretty good potential. Rachel showed the ability to hit the flow and with a little more tightening she could manage to stay there.

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Adventure, Fantasy, Young Adult

Graham, R.A.M.: Gwenmere (The House of Mere) (2013)

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House of Mere
Cover design by R.A.M. Graham

Gwenmere is another of those gems that just turns up out of the great blue. I believe this is author R.A.M. Graham’s first novel and I hope not the last.

Gwenmere was full of the kind of humour that I love. No belly laughs, but dry, dry wit that tugs at the corners of my mouth again and again. I do not know where Graham is from but am tempted to infer that he/she is from the United Kingdom.

Gwen is an incredibly fun character. Her fracas on the floor with her brother comes to mind. The absolutely priceless image of Captain Faroe opening the door and seeing true sibling hate is delightful. She is the teen-age version of Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes.

Flow, flow, flow. There is nothing better in the world than reading a book that flows all the way through. Graham stirs secrets, fighting, deception and class issues all together into a wonderful stew of words. Beautifully done and something that few authors manage.

Gwenmere seems to attract the seethers. Why that is, no one seems to know. Whether no one actually does not know remains to be seen. Due to the attraction of the seethers to the Royals, Gwenmere’s Crimson Guard, Captain Faroe, seems to be wanted by all of the Royals. Apparently only he is immune to the attention of the incredibly dangerous creatures.

Should you read Gwenmere? Definitely. Especially if you are a fan of dry humour interspersed with action and sibling rivalry in a fantasy world of strange people and creatures.

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EMD Guy’s review

Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Young Adult

Porter, Ronnell: The Pocket Watch (The Trinity Saga) (2009)

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The Pocket Watch
Cover art by Ronnell D. Porter

In addition to being an author, Ronnell D. Porter designs covers. Which is why I assume that he is the cover artist for the cover of The Pocket Watch.

The Pocket Watch is definitely a young adult novel. I think I might be getting the hang of what a young adult novel is – maybe.

Imogen Stromholdt is a US teen-ager who like a lot of teenagers thinks that her life is boring, she is boring and her dad is boring. She would really like something exciting to happen in her life. Exciting is overrated. Believe me, it really is!

Eden, Oregon is a regular small town with regular small-town people living in it. In Eden people know each other. When a pallid, eerie boy turns up wherever Imogen goes she feels creeped out, especially when people start turning up dead.

Then Imogen gets what she wishes. Her life becomes exciting. Extremely exciting. A stranger comes to live with Imogen and her father, Lucius Knight takes an interest in her. Fantastical creatures turn out to be real and they aren’t all that fantastic. Then you have Imogen, herself, who turns out to be some other person than she had thought and so does her father. Exciting really isn’t all it is made out to be.

The Pocket Watch is a fun novel. I agree that there are editing problems. It seems editing has become an art that quite a few authors and whoever they use as editors struggle with. Spellers are great, but spellers are not substitutes for a good slicer and dicer. In spite of that, there was plenty of drive to the story. As usual the romantic angle didn’t do much for me, but I imagine there will be quite a lot of readers who enjoy that part.

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Adventure, Fantasy, Reading together, Romance, Young Adult

Britain, Kristen: Green Rider (1998)

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I just finished reading Green Rider to my youngest son. When you have a dyslexic audience, reading to them is always IN. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be to love literature, yet be so hindered by something that I take so much for granted. Maybe it is somewhat like my need for a wheel-chair.

Anyways. Back to Green Rider.

green_rider__cover_art_by_pallanoph-d3j5tne

Check out this cover illustration for the UK edition of Green Rider by April Schumacher. WOW! It catches the spirit of the novel perfectly.

As I read this book out loud, there are a couple of things I want to point out. Kristen writes beautifully. Names like Karigan G’ladheon just roll off my tongue. Reading was a delight. Tension, fear, beauty and humour came through the translation from page to mouth. Wonderful! What a gift.

Karigan G’ladheon is a typical hero character. She is conflicted about the many challenges that come her way, but she desperately wants to do what is right for her country. Danger is drawn to her, or perhaps Karigan is drawn to danger. Action is practically thrown her way. Thank goodness Karigan seems to have a gift of getting out of all of the life-threatening situations. Like Captain Mapstone claimed. Karigan seems to survive due to sheer spunk. Gritting her teeth, Karigan gets on with whatever comes her way. Gray riders, militia, dangerous creatures or spirits is just part of what Green Rider has to offer.

The plot is easy to understand. Someone is out to take over the country of Sacoridia (they think). Someone else has another agenda. Karigan supports the throne and stability. Battle ensues between the “good” and the “bad”. Presentation is everything and Kristen Britain Excels at this. Good job. In fact, excellent work! Enjoy.

My reviews of books 1 (Green Rider), 2 (First Rider’s Call), 3 (The High King’s Tomb) and 4 (Blackveil)

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