Tag: fantasy

Stacking the Shelves (22)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

My book-filled cup runneth over. The publishers are putting their end-of-the year titles out, and the lists are getting pretty awesome.

Three authors are in here that I’ve always wanted to read, Lisa Marie Rice, Cassandra Clarke and Carolyn Crane, but I didn’t want to jump into the middle of established series. They are all starting new series, so a chance for me to get in at the beginning.

I also want to give a very big shout-out to Tor Books. They approved my request for Three Parts Dead on NetGalley after they’d archived the title, so they sent me out a non-ARC print copy. This is one I really want to read, so I’m very happy.

Did you get anything special this week?

For Review:
The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes by Raymond Benson
Chasers (Alone #1) by James Phelan (print)
The Escape Diaries by Juliet Rosetti
Fortune’s Hero (Soldiers of Fortune #1) by Jenna Bennett
Heart of Danger (Ghost Ops #1) by Lisa Marie Rice
Lady Alexandra’s Excellent Adventure (Summersby #1) by Sophie Barnes (print)
The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James
A Most Scandalous Proposal by Ashlyn Macnamara
Mr. Real (Code of Shadows #1) by Carolyn Crane
The Red Wolf Conspiracy (Chathrand Voyages #1) by Robert V.S. Redick
The Second Rule of Ten (Tenzing Norbu #2) by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay
Seducing Mr. Knightly (The Writing Girls #4) by Maya Rodale
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (print)

Purchased:
Backstage Pass (Sinners on Tour #1) by Olivia Cunning
Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter (Midnight Liaisons #2) by Jessica Sims
A Groom of One’s Own (The Writing Girls #1) by Maya Rodale (99 cent sale)
Rock Hard (Sinners on Tour #2) by Olivia Cunning
A Tale of Two Lovers (The Writing Girls #2) by Maya Rodale (99 cent sale)
The Tattooed Duke (The Writing Girls #3) by Maya Rodale (99 cent sale)
Three Schemes and a Scandal (The Writing Girls #3.5) by Maya Rodale

Book Review: First Lord’s Fury by Jim Butcher

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> audio reviews> audiobooks> book reviews
Format read: audiobook purchased from audible, print book purchased from Barnes & Noble
Formats available: Hardcover, Mass Market Paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: Codex Alera #6
Length: 465 pages
Publisher: Ace Penguin
Date Released: November 24, 2009
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

For years he has endured the endless trials and triumphs of a man whose skill and power could not be restrained. Battling ancient enemies, forging new alliances, and confronting the corruption within his own land, Gaius Octavian became a legendary man of war-and the rightful First Lord of Alera.
But now, the savage Vord are on the march, and Gaius must lead his legions to the Calderon Valley to stand against them-using all of his intelligence, ingenuity, and furycraft to save their world from eternal darkness.

I’ve had the hardcover of First Lord’s Fury on my shelves since it was first released. I’m astonished to see that I’ve been carting it around for three years. I think I didn’t want the Codex Alera series to end. It’s been a big sprawling mess of fun.

And that turned out to be kind of a problem. There are a lot of crow-begotten politics involved in the Codex Alera, and it took me a while to catch up to who was still backstabbing whom–while the Alerans were literally in a fight to save, not just their kingdom, but their entire species. Talk about “fiddling while Rome burns”. And an apt cliche, Alera Imperia owes a lot to Roma Imperia, including its legions.

But the Roman Empire didn’t have magic, at least as far as we know. Alera certainly does.

The center of the series has been Gaius Octavian, but at the beginning, we don’t know that’s who he is. He’s just Tavi. And that was the point. He learns to be First Lord very differently from his predecessors by growing up without the knowledge of who he is, and without the ability to furycraft, to do magic.

He works his way up through the ranks, as a furycrafter, as a legionnaire, as a man. He deals in what is, with or without power. He makes allies that someone who is used to being at the top of the heap would never think of.

The “powers that be” wish that he were anything but what he is. But then, his times demand someone like him. Because the enemy is not another race like the Alerans. They’re not human. They’re not even the Aleran’s ancestral enemies, the Canim. Who are, in truth, intelligent canines. The Alerans and Canim turn out to have common ground.

The enemy is the Vord. And they are insect versions of Star Trek‘s Borg. Just as implacable, just as absorptive  and just as deadly. They do not negotiate, they consume everything in their path.

Tavi has returned in defeat from the lands of the Canim, with the last of the Canim host as his allies, to Alera. The Canim were supposed to kill him. Instead, they’ve returned to bring down the Vord or die trying. Because if they don’t, the Vord will cover the land and there will be nothing left of people or Canim or free will. Only slaves and death.

He’s not supposed to make it. He’s not supposed to reach the last stronghold in time. There’s not enough time and too much ground to cover. But he has more power, and more allies, than anyone expects.

Because Tavi knows how to bring down a foe when they have all the power and he has none. It’s what he was trained for.

Escape Rating A-: Rating this is difficult. It took me quite a while to get back into it, because the politics are very complex. This series is meant to be read from the beginning. Start from Furies of Calderon. Everything is layered, one piece on top of another. Everything matters.

Once I got into it, I couldn’t stop. There were so many different threads, and they were all fascinating to follow. Tavi’s final maturity, in some ways, wasn’t as interesting as the other things that were going on. You knew he was going to get there in time. The only question was, how? His handling of the situation with Valiar Marcus was beautifully done, but I don’t want to spoil it.

Kitai is a terrific, absolutely magnificent example of a female warrior who is different and equal. She represents the outsider’s point of view so well. Her people are less civilized, for certain values of civilized, than the Alerans, so she is able to comment on Tavi’s society in a way that he can’t see.

The Canim are fascinating because they are not human, yet Tavi makes common cause with them. Any warm-blooded, free-thinking race has common cause with him against the Vord. How he works past ages of prejudice and war was, not just interesting, it was often slyly amusing.

The Vord, however, were just a bit too much like the Borg. Really. Plant-based Borg, complete with queen.

About the audiobook. The reader, Kate Reading was great. She voiced all of the parts, including the Canim, who have incredibly rough bass voices that must have been absolute hell to do. However, there were horns blaring at the end of every chapter that drove me nuts. I could seriously have done without the horns, but that wasn’t what made me stop the audio and switch to print. I just couldn’t stand the suspense by the last 50 pages and had to find out how it ended.

If you like epic fantasy and have somehow missed Alera, you’ve missed out on something terrific. And the series is complete, so you can read the whole thing all at once without having to wait. Treat!!!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Thrones of Desire edited by Mitzi Szereto

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 4 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the publisher
Number of Pages: 256 pages
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Cleis Press
Genre: Fantasy Romance, Erotic Romance
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) |Goodreads | Author’s Website | Publisher’s Website

Book Blurb:

Thrones of Desire is a place where lust and legend abound, and adventure, passion and danger entwine. Think mystical lands and creatures, kings and queens, knights and renegades, heroes and villains, warlords, maidens and princesses. Think battles and danger, honor and dishonor, good and evil. Most of all, think hearts filled with passion and secret desire. This is a place where romantic chivalry is alive and well, but so too is romantic wickedness. This is a place where the good do not always win, and the bad are often more captivating and desirable than their altruistic counterparts. In these lush and timeless landscapes, the battle for flesh can be as important as the battle for power. Intrigue, sorcery, revenge, lawlessness, dark secrets and mysterious elixirs; entanglements with supernatural beings — everything is possible in these magical mythical landscapes. Inspired by Game of Thrones these imaginative steamy tales transport the reader to fantastical realms.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

The thing about short story collections is that some members of the set are going to be absolutely fantastic, and some are going to be, in a word, “meh”. It’s the nature of the beast.

But what about this collection?

There were two stories that stuck in my mind afterwards, that definitely lived up to the promise of being both dark fantasy and erotic sexuality intermingled.  Kim Knox’s At the Sorcerer’s Command and Ashley Lister’s Here There Be Dragons. In both cases, the darkness comes from the fantasy side of the equation.

In the Knox story, a paladin and an apprentice wizard invade the inner sanctum of a sorcerer, and are trapped. Or so it seems. But nothing is as it seems. The apprentice wizard, Miar, is a soul-catcher, she can find out the true-name of anyone, and with that true name, she can control them. Of course, there’s a catch: she doesn’t know what triggers her talent.

Varun, the paladin, is more than a paladin. Or less. He is a shadowbeast. He has no soul, being wizardspawn. But he is immune to most magic. Miar doesn’t know what Varun is, only that she desires him, and that it is forbidden. Her mage trainer is owed her maidenhead as the price of her training.

The sorcerer is the enemy. She thinks that she controls these enemy interlopers. That she is watching them fulfill their base desires for her own amusement, before she throws them both to her troops. But she is wrong. Varun has outplayed her. Miar’s fulfillment triggers her talent, and the soul-catcher steals the sorcerer’s name. Also perhaps what little heart a shadowbeast has.

Here There Be Dragons was haunting. A female dragon trainer, Georgiana, exacts revenge on an invader through a series of lies of omission so subtle that he doesn’t realize that he’s being misled to his death. Unfortunately for poor Georgiana, she sends him to his fate after she’s discovered through a bout of quite satisfying sex that this raider could make her very, very happy, but only if she were willing to betray every oath she ever swore, and she simply can’t.

Other stories in the collection are good, but much more in the vein of standard fantasy romance, or at least standard fantasy erotic romance.

There were a couple of stories, Nyla Nox’s The Widow’s Man and M.H. Crane’s Saints and Heroes, where I had the feeling I was reading a piece of something that belonged in a larger universe–I kept hoping for more explanation of the setup, or the background, than I had. I was interested, but I just didn’t have enough to figure the whole thing out.

Verdict: I found a lot of stories in this collection that I enjoyed. A couple didn’t veer much outside of standard fantasy, but were still good, while some, like the Knox and Lister stories, were absolutely standouts. The Eric Del Carlo and Janine Ashbless stories that open the collection are also very, very good and worth a shout-out.

I give Thrones of Desire four blushing stars.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Stacking the Shelves (20)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

This issue of Stacking the Shelves is back to normal. Well, normal for me, anyway, which means seriously overstacked.

I feel so much better now.

There are a few titles that landed on the list because of something I read elsewhere…so to speak.

Nights of Steel by Nico Rosso, and The Importance of Being Wicked by Miranda Neville are both the next books in series to books I reviewed this week (Skies of Steel by Zoe Archer and The Second Seduction of a Lady by Miranda Neville, respectively) I finished the one, and immediately went out hunting for the next. Thanks go to Edelweiss in both cases for feeding my addiction.

Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey is a book of other writers responding to E.L. James much talked about work. (Yes, I’ve read the Fifty Shades trilogy.) I’m curious to see what fifty writers had to say about it that a publisher thought there would be money publishing the collection.

And last, my one print book in this week’s stack, Cory Doctorow’s Pirate Cinema. Tor Books sent this to me with a very interesting reprint from The Guardian about “Why the death of DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers,” written, of course, by Doctorow. Galen and I are hoping to dual-review this one.

Of course, everything on the list except for Pirate Cinema is an ebook.

So, what terrific books are stacking your shelves this week?

For Review:
Above All Things by Tanis Rideout
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
Bettie Page Presents: the Librarian by Logan Belle
Commencement (Hellsbane #0.5) by Paige Cuccaro
Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey edited by Lori Perkins
How Beauty Met the Beast (Tales of the Underlight #1) by Jax Garren
Ice Cold (T-FLAC #17) by Cherry Adair
The Importance of Being Wicked by Miranda Neville
A Lesson in Chemistry with Inspector Bruce (The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard #2.5) by Jillian Stone
The Merchant of Dreams (Night’s Masque #2) by Anne Lyle
Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (print book)
Nights of Steel (The Ether Chronicles #4) by Nico Rosso
Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V. Snyder
Stellarnet Prince by J.L. Hilton
Sugar Rush by Rachel Astor
Tudor Rubato (Tudor Dynasty #2) by Jamie Salisbury

Purchased:
The Killing Moon (Dreamblood #1) by N.K. Jemisin ($1.99 ebook sale)
The Vampire Wardens and Werewolf Society 5 Story Box Set by Lisa Renee Jones ($1.99 for the entire set ebook sale)

Stacking the Shelves (18)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

I beg your indulgence for two week’s worth of shelf-stacking. This actually isn’t bad for me for two weeks of temptation, now that I look at it closely.

Maybe I’ve learned a little restraint? Not a chance.

The lone print outlier on the list, Dreams and Shadows by Cargill, is the monthly contribution from Library Journal. I never know what’s going to drop out of the envelope. I will confess that this one looks better than the last one. I may be the only reviewer on the planet who did not like Doyce Testerman’s Hidden Things, but I just didn’t. It read too much like an unbaked version of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and Gaiman just did it better. For that matter, so does Simon R. Green, since his Nightside is the snarky version, where Neverwhere is the one with more heart. My 2 cents.

There are a lot of audiobooks this fortnight (not many times that one gets to use that word properly!) Audible was having a sale, and I couldn’t resist. Also it gave me an opportunity to start my great re-read, well, it’s turning out to be a re-listen, of the awesome Liaden Universe series by Lee and Miller. I’m only sorry I waited so long. Sometimes books (or movies) are not as fantastic as we remember. Liaden is even better than I remember.

What new books have you discovered this week? Anything wonderful that you’d like to share?

For Review: (everything’s an ebook unless specifically stated otherwise!)
The Devil’s Thief (The Saint’s Devils #1) by Samantha Kane
Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill (print ARC)
The Forbidden Lady by Kerrilyn Sparks
Gilded (The St. Crois Chronicles #2) by Karina Cooper
The Lady Most Willing (Lady Most #2) by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockaway
Lady X’s Cowboy by Zoe Archer
Merry Ex-Mas (Life in Icicle Falls) by Sheila Roberts
The Naughty Angel (1Night Stand) by Sheila Stewart
Season for Surrender by Theresa Romain
Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear
Skies of Steel (The Ether Chronicles #3) by Zoe Archer
The System by Heather Lin
What an Earl Wants by Kasey Michaels

Purchased:
First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera #6) by Jim Butcher (audiobook)
Invasion (The Secret World Chronicles #1) by Mercedes Lackey with Steve Libbey, Cody Martin and Dennis Lee (audiobook)
Iron’s Prophecy (Iron Fey #4.5) by Julie Kagawa
Local Custom (Liaden Universe #4) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (audiobook)
The Night Beat (Necropolis Enforcement Files #1) by Gina Koch
Princeps (Imager Portfolio #5) by L.E. Modesitt (audiobook)
Scout’s Progress (Liaden Universe #5) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (audiobook)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 9-16-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Naughty or Nice Blog Hop> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

It’s 83 and muggy in Atlanta. So much for Fall.

Maybe it has something to do with the books I reviewed this week. There was an awful lot of heat between some of those pages…

A Review: All He Ever Needed (Kowalski Family #4) by Shannon Stacey
B+ Review: Ravished Before Sunrise (1Night Stand) by Lia Davis
A- Review: Yesterday’s Heroes (Boomers #1) by Heather Long
B Review: Delusion in Death (In Death #35) by J.D. Robb

And for the curious, under my Rocket Lover alter-ego, I have two dual reviews over at Book Lovers Inc. this week as well as a Bookish Rant on “The Buying and Selling of Book Reviews.”

2.5 Star Review: The Last Victim by Karen Robards 
4 Star Review: Timeless Desire by Gwen Cready

I found the t-shirt with the “so many books, so little time” image. This classic version is by Edward Gorey, he of the marvelously creepy Masterpiece Mystery intro. The t-shirt image isn’t creepy at all, unless the poor boy is crushed by his pile of books. As mine often used to threaten me, before the advent of ebooks.

This week at Reading Reality, in addition to Monday’s regular Ebook Review Central (this week it’s Samhain) I’ll be having two special guests, and a treat!

Wednesday and Thursday are the guest days.

Wednesday’s guest will be Regan Walker, and she’ll be here to talk about her new book, Racing With the Wind. Racing is historical romance, and it’s all about spies and shadow warfare between England and France in the years after Napoleon is finally defeated for the second time. The hero and heroine are very interesting, because neither is willing to settle for someone who can’t accept all of what they are, when all of what they are is very, very secret, and dangerous.

 

Thursday my guests will be Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. Kathleen and Clark are the co-authors of the Cowboy and Vampire series as well as husband and wife. The second book in the series, Blood and Whiskey, came out earlier this year, and I’ll be talking with them about how they got these two genres, the western and the vampire, to play well, or not so well, together.

 

On Saturday it’s blog hop time again at Reading Reality. My good friend and fellow blogger Nat at Reading Romances is hosting the Naughty or Nice Blog Hop, from September 22-29, and Reading Reality is part of the hop. Does that make me a hopper or a hoppee? I’ll be giving away an Amazon gift card, so the winner from Reading Reality can pick their own book, naughty or nice.

 

What else am I reading for the next couple of weeks? Well, I also have reviews scheduled over at Book Lovers Inc. I’ll be reviewing Suzanne Selfors’ The Sweetest Spell at Book Lovers Inc this week, and at Reading Reality next week (hint: that sweet spell is all about chocolate) and there will be giveaways both times!

To keep teasing, I’ll also be interviewing Sheila Roberts in a couple of weeks about her latest book, Better than Chocolate, about a chocolate company. I’m still not sure there’s anything better than chocolate, but the book is yummy.

Does just the mention of chocolate cast a spell on you? Mmm, I think I’ll go see if we have any.

 

Review: Of Thieves and Elves:A Supernovella by A.P. Stephens

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 2 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Format Read: ebook provided by the author
Number of Pages: 252 pages
Release Date: April 8, 2012
Publisher: Fanda Books
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Formats Available: Hardcover, ebook
Purchasing Info: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Goodreads | Author’s Website 

Book Blurb:

A monumental tragedy has befallen the Clan of Ionor, an ancient brotherhood of elven warriors. Concerned when their Master does not reach his secretive business in a distant kingdom, the Elders learn that Tryn, their beloved leader, has been captured by a cutthroat gang of bandits known as the Steel Claw. Yet this is not the darkest of their tidings. The relic under the clan’s safekeeping, a weapon of terrible power that was forged by the gods themselves, is also missing. The Ionor dispatch Eonen, a headstrong Elder, and a young and talented apprentice, Tride, to rescue the Master and the relic by infiltrating the bandits’ stronghold-the formidable Fortress of Toppledom. As the two determined elves hasten into the unknown beyond their borders to restore balance and honor to their clan, they encounter the true darkness behind the matter-the very origin of the world’s evil. Allegiances will be twisted. The fates of many will be set into motion. And the destiny of one will be realized.

My Thoughts:

This was originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.

I had to check the definition of a novella. It’s the librarian in me. Because this is a fantasy, the definition that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America use should suffice. SFWA defines a novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000 words. At 252 pages, believe me, Of Thieves and Elves is a novel. A pretty decent one, but a novel.

About that novel…if there is one basic plot (as opposed to 7 or 10) that plot is “Who am I?” Of Thieves and Elves is a “Who am I?” story. It’s the hero’s journey. In this case, the hero just happens to be an elf.

Tride is a young man, well, young elf, and he’s a bit different from everyone else in his clan. That’s what makes it his story. Tride is an orphan, a foundling. He’s also visibly different, but nothing drastic. He’s just dark when everyone else is fair. He’s also always a bit disheveled, because he’s always being shoved, kicked or beaten by his fellow students, and never draws attention to it. No one cares.

Except Eonen. His family fostered Tride. And when Eonen needs a young warrior to assist him on a secret mission, it is Tride whom he unhesitatingly chooses as his companion. But it’s a secret mission, and Tride is too young to keep informed. Elders always know best. Yeah, right.

Even in buddy stories there are misunderstandammits.  When the buddies are warriors, those misunderstandings usually get people killed.

When the story is the hero’s journey, the person who gets killed is always the mentor. Eonen follows in a long and storied tradition.

So what do we have in Of Thieves and Elves? A quest, a stolen relic, a missing high council member, a daring rescue attempt, and, of course, it all goes horribly wrong or there wouldn’t be a story. They run into betrayal, terrible magic, and a fortress full of evil bandits.

The story is generally good fun in the classic high fantasy tradition. The bandits are really evil, and their leader is so crazy he’s stupid with crazy. In the process of rescuing the people that the bandits have enslaved, Tride starts becoming the hero he was meant to be.

There’s a definite sense that this is going to be a trilogy. The story certainly didn’t wrap up at the end. And it left way more questions than answers about Tride’s origins and the motives of the big, bad evil dude. The reader should want answers.

But I took some time to think. This is a buddy story. Eonen teaches his apprentice Tride the things he’ll need to know to become a hero, even if that’s not what Tride thinks is going to happen. Big brother and little brother. Looking back, I realized that there are not just no women with agency anywhere in this story, but there are no women except the downtrodden slaves that Tride rescues and the victims that the bandits are raping.

The Learners that Tride trains with in the Elvish stronghold are all male. The Elder Council that Eonen is part of are all male. We see no females with any authority anywhere. There were no female bandit captains. While I don’t actually want to see a woman portrayed as that evil, some female would have had big enough brass ones.

Tolkien could get away with this, and he’s no longer around to argue with. Besides, even Celeborn answered to Galadriel. In contemporary-written fantasy, if a society has no females of agency, there needs to be a reason. Or they need to be dwarves, where both genders have beards and outsiders aren’t meant to know.

I give Of Thieves and Elves 2.5 stars for telling a pretty good story but shooting a whole quarrel of arrows through the Bechdel Test.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: White Raven, the Sword of Northern Ancestors by Irina Lopatina

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

There is a fine tradition in epic fantasy of young men with wizardly mentors who go off in search of magic swords. The mentors usually die much too soon, and those swords are necessary to fight off unspeakable evil. Irina Lopatina’s debut novel, White Raven adds some wintry new elements to that fine old tradition.

And so she should be. The folk traditions that Ms. Lopatina draws her inspirations from are  not the usual Celtic flavor. Ms. Lopatina’s tales are much colder and wilder, from the seasonal swings of her native Siberia.

But the epic begins with a young prince, Vraigo, and an old wizard, Agar. Vraigo is a prince, the nephew of Vlady, Grand Duke of Areya, the great northern land. Agar’s death by magic is the first strike in a long war. Monsters have come to Areya, not in ones or twos, but great hordes of them.

There is, of course, a great sword, Urart, to fight the black monsters. Urart is a magical artifact, its power greatest against the unnatural foes. But these monster hordes have an intelligence–something is driving them. And they find a way to infiltrate the palace and steal Urart. With it, they steal any hope the humans, and other free peoples, have of defeating them.

Vraigo is a young man. He has not followed the path that his uncle expects of him. Instead of becoming a war leader, he spends his time in the forests, exploring with the druids and learning the ways of the forest creatures. He knows that the monsters are stronger than even his uncle suspects. But because he has not exactly been an obedient nephew or subject, no one is willing to listen to him.

Vraigo is also a magic user, if somewhat untutored. Magic users are not totally trusted; another strike against him. So when the great sword goes missing, Vraigo knows exactly what he must do, he must follow the trail and get it back, wherever that might lead. No matter how unfamiliar or magical a place the evil thief might have taken it.

Even if that place is as strange as 21st century Earth.

Escape Rating B: There were times when Vraigo reminded me of another young hero with a wizard mentor and a magic sword, a fellow named Arthur Pendragon, but that’s a different tradition. Also a little bit of Luke Skywalker. Which only goes to show that this hero’s journey is universal. (Even Harry Potter if you squint)

What makes White Raven stand out from the crowd is the setting and the mythology. On this side of the world we don’t see much fantasy based on Russian or Slavic myths, so the new-to-us landscape and bestiary is cool and different. Everything sparkles a bit because the world works slightly differently. Climate changes a lot.

Vraigo’s fish-out-of-water tale when he ports to 21st century Siberia makes for a fun switch on the fantasy. It also involves an entirely different set of characters in a way that will probably come up later in the series, because it seems like the author is foreshadowing that the forces behind the monsters are planning to branch out to other worlds than Vraigo’s original one. They are evil with a capital “E”.

At the same time, there are a lot of plot points going on. Vraigo’s story is a big one. Evil is on the march. Vraigo is involved with the druids, the forest people, and he is the nephew of the Grand Duke. There are political implications. Vraigo has three cousins, one of whom is the heir to the Grand Duchy, one is a magic user. And more politics. And lots of magic theory into the bargain.

Then the story moves to 21st century Earth, adding yet more complication. There was probably enough material for two whole books here. This is good epic fantasy, but perhaps it would have been that much better if it had been allowed to be a bit more epic.

Interview with Author Jane Kindred on Angels, Demons and Overlords + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours> Book Giveaway> ebook giveaway> Giveaways

Today’s extremely special guest at Reading Reality is Jane Kindred, the author of the dark (and decadently marvelous) epic fantasy tale of angels, demons and heavenly court politics about The House of Arkhangel’sk. I had the pleasure of reviewing the first book in the trilogy, The Fallen Queen, over at Book Lovers Inc. and my review of the book two, The Midnight Court, is here. Jane also wrote an amazing guest post “A Few Select Shades of Black and Blue” (about the current BDSM bandwagon and demon sex in particular) over at Book Lovers Inc.

Now, let’s get to those questions…

Marlene: Before I get into the really tough questions, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself? Your bio says you started writing in the wayback of a Plymouth Fury? Is there a story in there?

Jane: Didn’t everybody have a wayback growing up? Er…I guess I’m showing my age. For those who don’t know, it was the rear-facing third row of seats in the back of a station wagon. (And a station wagon was a car that forced you to go on family vacations, and played 8-track tapes.) Ours happened to be a Plymouth Fury, which is the same model as the car Christine. Just sayin’. I spent a lot of my adolescence writing love stories and fantasies on the way to and from church…and during church. Which may explain why I ended up writing about angels and demons having sex.

Marlene: Who or what were your inspirations for The House of Arkhangel’sk?

Jane: Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia—or rather, the fictionalized version of her—was the inspiration for the basic idea behind the series, and then I stuck my Anastasia in the middle of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair was another influence; I’ve always loved the idea of a prince enchanted by a wicked queen. And for Belphagor’s character, the germ of him started with an episode of Firefly called “The Message,” about a small-time con man who ended up gambling his own body.

Marlene: Were you seriously into Russian history before you started on the series? And how much research goes into each book to make the historic parallels?

Jane: No, I wasn’t into it at all before the idea came to me, although I’d always wanted to learn Russian, which I did (sort of) as part of my research. The research for the historic parallels was mostly done in one big chunk when I took a Russian Culture class and then read several books on Russian history and the Romanovs. Most of that stayed in my head. (The story of the Romanovs, particularly; it feels like it happened to people I knew.) I still refer back to those sources while writing the other books in the series, and I’m now completely obsessed with Russia.

Marlene: What do you say to readers and reviewers who might see the relationship between the demons Belphagor and Vasily as jumping on the current BDSM bandwagon?

Jane: I haven’t read the book that seems to have caused so many people to imagine BDSM is something that was recently invented. Plenty of books containing BDSM elements have been published since long before the current trend. I can’t imagine why anyone would jump on any kind of publishing bandwagon, anyway, given the speed at which traditional books are published. By the time you write something you think is “in,” it’s not, so it’s never a good idea to write to trends. I started writing The House of Arkhangel’sk in early 2006 and finished the first draft of the trilogy in 2009. Took another year to polish it and find an agent, then another five months before it was sold, and the first book came out seven months later. I’d have to have been extremely prescient to have timed my first novel to be released just before the rest of the world “discovered” BDSM in order to capitalize on it.

Marlene: People usually equate being on “the side of the angels” with goodness. But your angels aren’t necessarily good. And your demons aren’t necessarily evil. How would you define the difference?

Jane: Essentially, my angels are the celestial nobility, while the demons are the peasant class. I decided to use the idea of this class system to reflect conditions in pre-revolutionary Russia. Since no one in that equation is all good or all bad, neither are my characters.

Marlene: Now that they’ve been teased a bit by the first few questions, can you tell readers what they can expect of The Fallen Queen and The Midnight Court?

Jane: They’re epic fantasy on the darker side with a little bit of urban fantasy thrown in. Add an angelic imperial family, a wicked fairy queen, murder, mayhem, love, two naughty leather demons (“leather,” incidentally, is code for BDSM, for those who don’t know), and some dirty Russian words, and there you have it. Oh, plus a bizarre game of dice and cards that nobody could ever possibly win, except my tattooed demon scoundrel.

Marlene: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?

Jane: Belphagor, Vasily, and more Belphagor. 😉

Marlene: Turning the tables a bit, what book do you think everyone should read, and why that book?

Jane: The Princess Bride, because it’s the best romantic fantasy ever, and because there’s even more Fezzik and Inigo than in the movie.

Marlene: What are your upcoming projects? What comes next in the House of Arkhangel’sk?

Jane: The Armies of Heaven. And after that…I’m currently working on a second Arkhangel’sk trilogy, and I have another series that began with my novella, The Devil’s Garden, that I hope to find a home for someday soon.

Marlene: What do your two feline overlords think of all this? Do they interfere much with your writing? What are their names?

Jane: The photo I’ve included answers most of that. The one in the photo is Neo. He thinks he owns my lap. The other is Urd, an extremely round calico who demands hourly pettings. I feed these little overlords four times a day (first and second breakfast, first and second dinner—I have to divide up their meals into separate courses). If I didn’t, I’d have no peace.

Marlene: And for anyone else who happens to be going, where and when will you be at Dragon*Con next month?

Jane: I don’t have any particular plans. I’m not on any panels and haven’t looked at the schedule yet to see what I want to attend, but anything Joss Whedon or Star Trek related, and I’m there.

Anything Joss Whedon or Star Trek related sounds like a perfectly good plan to me…assuming that any of our feline overlords let us out of our houses!

~~~~~~~~~***GIVEAWAY***~~~~~~~~

Are you teased? Good! If you are just itching to start reading The House of Arkhangel’sk, or if you’ve read The Fallen Queen and can’t wait for The Midnight Court, the Rafflecopter is waiting. The lucky winner will get their choice of an ebook copy either The Fallen Queen or The Midnight Court.

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Review: The Midnight Court by Jane Kindred

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Jane Kindred’s House of Arkhangel’sk trilogy reminds me of Russian tea, initially bitter, often and unexpectedly sweet, and filled with immensely complicated rituals. And incredibly satisfying for those who savor a heady brew.

The Midnight Court comprises the second book in this tale, following The Fallen Queen. The title is apt; in The Midnight Court Anazakia’s court is definitely in eclipse. All is as dark as midnight in a Siberian winter.

And the situation goes all downhill.

At the end of The Fallen Queen, Anazakia and her temporary allies rescued the demon Belphagor from Aeval. In the process, they burned much of the Supernal Palace that Anazakia once called home.

When The Midnight Court begins, it’s been months, and the alliance is fracturing. So is Anazakia’s peaceful household near the earthly 21st century Russian city of Arkhangelsk. Belphagor came back from Aeval’s torture broken; not where it shows, but inside. He’s not the demon he used to be.

And Vasily, his lover, is caught between anger that Belphagor offered himself to save them all, and guilt that in Bel’s absence, he fathered a child with Anazakia.

Ola, the child, is the light of all their lives. She is also a pawn of powers. For Anazakia is still the last heir of the house of Arkhangel’sk, and Aeval has no right to the throne of Heaven she sits on. It should be Anazakia’s. Or her daughter’s.

And Ola’s power is greater than anyone could have imagined. Because Vasily is not, as he was raised to think, a demon. He is a Seraph, one of the host. The little girl is more than a little girl. More than a sweet child or a toddler with tantrums. She is the holder of the fifth radiance, not air, fire, water or earth, but aether.

Some of the powers of heaven want to control her; others want to kill her while she is still a child, to make sure that the “wrong” party does not control her.

Ola is kidnapped, and the hunt begins. Across all of Russia, and through all the orders of Heaven, one tiny little girl is bartered back and forth like a tiny bomb, or a pearl of great price.

Her parents will sacrifice anything to get her back.

Escape Rating A: The Midnight Court (and the whole House of Arkhangel’sk series so far) is the kind of densely multi-layered political pot-boiling gut-churning romance that doesn’t come along very often. The nearest comparison is Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series, as much for the very long game political machinations as for the kink relationship between Belphagor and Vasily.

The part of the comparison that I come back to is the politics. Every layer of every relationship, both personal and political, is going to matter before this series is over, and Kushiel had that same feel to it. Everything counts. Sex is sex but IOUs are forever.

The saying that “revenge is a dish best served cold” may have had Aeval in mind. She manipulated both the Romanov dynasty and the House of Arkhangel’sk to get something she wanted.

Waiting for the Spring of 2013 for the final book of the trilogy The Armies of Heaven, is going to be absolute torture. I stayed up until 4 in the morning to finish The Midnight Court. It ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, in a scene that reminded me a lot of something from The Dark Knight Rises. Read Fallen Queen and Midnight Court and see if you see the same thing. It’s so worth it.