Small aside, there are
only five rather than six sample reviews this time. For reasons that
perplex me, I wasn’t able to download a sample for Ken Warner’s
Katana Shodan.
Free the Darkness
(King’s Dark Tidings book 1), by Kel Kade
The sample follows
Rezkin’s childhood and young adulthood as he’s trained in a sort
of medieval/Renaissance type second world. The progression is similar
to the way Fallout 3 handled the protagonist’s childhood. Stealth,
combat, lockpicking, all that sort of stuff is covered. To be honest,
I found the writing somewhat detached. On the plus side, the premise
is interesting (I shan’t spoil the end of the sample because,
though reasonably predictable, it’s still intriguing and well
done). Rezkin’s odd view of the world, due to his martial
education, is quite entertaining too.
Storm Glass (Harbinger
book 1), by Jeff Wheeler
This was a bit of an
odd duck. I’m not fond of child protagonists. Ghost stories aren’t
an especial interest. And orphan stories are something I can take or
leave. The sample (which is shorter than most, though the book
appears full-sized) contains all of those, and I found it very
engaging. It follows Cettie, a twelve year old girl, and an orphan.
She’s passed from pillar to post, and ends up with Joses, a boy of
similar age, looking after younger children in the ‘care’ of a
penny-pinching harridan who doesn’t feed them enough. Soldiers
arrive to consider whether or not to take the orphans away, the
result being unknown by the end of the sample. I thought it was
extremely well-written and well worth checking out.
Firewalker (the Saga of
Java Mountainstand book 1), by Loren J. Kones
This one wasn’t for
me. I suspect I’m not the target audience (I’d guess YA female
readers would be) and, whilst it’s not badly written, it didn’t
grab me. Java is a servant girl who ends up betrothed to someone she
doesn’t like. So she runs off to join an all-female mercenary
company. It’s fantasyesque (no magic that I saw) but the mercenary
group and dialogue is very modern (there’s a Hell Week). There’s
nothing broken about the plot but also no hook that made me want to
read more.
Sister Sable (volume 1,
The Mad Queen), by T. Mountebank
This is really
intriguing. It’s set in a second world but with a seemingly
identical tech level to the modern day. A long missing, and long
sought, woman is suddenly rediscovered, and the hunt is on to rescue,
capture, or kill her, depending on which group is doing the hunting.
She plays a vital role in a sinister prophecy. There are magical
elements, but it’s of a more psychic, manipulative nature (it
seems) than hurling fireballs. The story dances back and forward in
time, sometimes back a few hours from the woman’s rediscovery,
sometimes years back to show what the wider importance of her is, and
sometimes forwards as the net closes. Time jumps can be iffy, but I
thought these worked very well. If somebody outlined the book to me
I’d perhaps be wary (between the time shifts and modern tech level)
but I really enjoyed the sample.
Note: this is
translated to English, so I was somewhat worried it’d be clunky,
but if I hadn’t flicked back (I always do that to check on any
world-building notes, maps etc) I would never have guessed.
Uncommon World: The
Complete Epic Quartet, by Alisha Klapheke
The sample for this is
pretty large, and follows Kinneret, a low caste sailor in a highly
hierarchical society. Trying to provide for herself and her young
sister Avi, whilst having mutual teen lusty thoughts about high caste
friend (soon to be forbidden when they formally become adults) Calev,
she ends up sailing into dangerous waters and a terrible thing
occurs. The world is quite interesting and the premise (struggling
low class sailor) more original than most. That said, it wasn’t for
me. The writing isn’t bad or anything like that. It’s akin to
perfectly fried egg. I can appreciate the competence of the creator,
but the creation just isn’t to my taste. However, if it is your cup
of tea the e-book has a price tag of just 99p, which is rather good
value.
And so endeth this
Snapshots post. There’s one more planned for the near future, after
which I’ll probably pick a few to read. If I have
time/money/remember.
Thaddeus
No comments:
Post a Comment