Tag Archives: Dragons

Games of Fate

Book Review of Games of Fate (Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon #1), Kris Austen Radcliffe

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Games of Fate

I grabbed a copy of Kris Austen Radcliffe’s  Games of Fate from the Amazon free list. 

Description from Goodreads:
Rysa Torres’s stumbles through life an overwhelmed young woman fighting against her attention deficit disorder. She can’t get a handle on the world, no matter how she tries.

But when monsters activate a part of her she didn’t know she had, Rysa becomes the Fate at the center of an epic battle against a terrifying future—and a world consumed by fire.

When Ladon and his companion beast, Dragon, find Rysa, they see only the potential hell a young Fate might unleash into their lives. But Ladon quickly realizes Rysa is much more than the daughter of an old enemy—she is his key to forgiveness.

With the threat of a burning future distorting Rysa’s Fate abilities, she sees only two options: End her own life, or watch Ladon, the only man to see beyond her attention issues and love her for who she is, die. Will they accept the only future they see, or will they find the strength to break the bonds of fate?

Review:
I only occasionally use star ratings on this blog, essentially only when I can make a point with them. As I can now. I really want to give this book a low 2 star rating, because I really didn’t enjoy it. But I’ll drag it up to a 3 because a large part of what I disliked is the result of me not being the proper demographic for the book. Plus, the writing is honestly fine. (Though the book did feel overly long, some passages seemed to drag and deus ex machina solutions are never good, IMO.)

Before I get into the review, I’m going to talk a bit about myself. This is to centre me as a reviewer so others can understand where I’m coming from in my review…what type of reader I am. This should help others in deciding if my review would be pertinent to them or not. For those much like me, I hope it will be, but it probably won’t be for a lot of others.

I’ve not read a lot of New Adult books. Of the few I have read I found that they tend to encompass all the worst (most annoying) traits of Young Adult literature, except the heroine is in college instead of high school and they include sex, or worse, a lot of angst about if they should be having sex.

The thing is that I’m a woman in my mid-thirties who has been married for a dozen years. I can no longer relate to this whole internal agony over such a decision. It’s not that I don’t respect it as an important one, but whole plots that hinge on or are simply cluttered with an endless litany of yes, no, yes, no, maybe, I want, I don’t want, I crave, I don’t crave, I cry, I push him away, I pull him near, I give in, I regret, I make a big deal of my own decision, etc drives me away as a reader. So, from the get go, I’m always a little wary picking up a NA book. I always hope for the best. Why else would I bother? But I’m more often than not disappointed.

Despite my misgivings about it being NA, I had such high hopes for this book. It has dragons in it! Yes, fates too and they’re cool…but DRAGONS, my favorite mythical beast.

The plot is basically that a new Fate is born and a human/dragon pair rescue and fall in love with her. There’s a bit more to it, but not much.  The vast majority of the 300+ pages is dedicated to worshipping Rysa.

Now, I understand that the target audience is women in their early twenties who are likely in the stage of life when they are looking for someone to make them feel special. However, I eventually started gagging on all of Ladon’s obsessive appreciation of her and how he wanted to protect her, coddle her, make her happy, bla, bla, bla.

It’s not that I mind it in and of itself, but it was ennnnddddllllesssss. And being coupled with Rysa’s cliché, no man looks at ME that way, no one’s ever told ME that I was pretty, I’m ugly, awkward, a spaz, etc pushed it into annoying overdrive.

Then there was the ex-boyfriend issue. Apparently, he was a selfish and unconcerned lover, as many young college-aged men are wont to be. But is bad sex really worth counselling, low self-esteem and a hesitancy to trust any other men? Seems a little extreme. The guy certainly deserved to be slapped something fierce, but it hardly equates to grievous harm.

If she’d been raped or abused I could see it, but being so emotionally damaged over something so slight makes her seem very, very weak. It makes it feel like she has no emotional armour or resilience, which is one of the most important parts of a heroine’s strength. I simply don’t like to waste my time with female leads of the victim variety and a woman who is so easily injured and has NO CONTROL OVER ANYTHING, even what’s in her own head is nothing but a victim. She’s no fun to spend time with or root for.

Additionally, there is no downtime in the book. It’s run, cry, confusion, on a constant stream. It’s too much. The only exceptions are when Rysa repeatedly just lets bad things happen to her because she suddenly and inexplicably can’t think straight, or can’t remember, or can’t control herself, or someone else can control her mind. Victim. Victim. Victim. Blerg.

Irritating me more even than all that, was the subtext of her sexuality.  Whenever she was conscious she pushed Landon away, but whenever she was unconscious, she was literally crawling all over him, rubbing, kissing and seducing him. As if to suggest that any “good girl” couldn’t possibly also be sexually forward and secure in her own desires. In order to be that, she has to be unconscious and devoid of responsibility.

I mean she had to be punished with bad sex and emotional damage for daring to have sex in the past! If I really wanted to drag this point out, I could break the events down further to show how they reinforce this same idea. For example, the one time she pseudo-initiates sex, it is immediately followed with tears, fear and guilt because some horrible realisation crashes down on her as a direct result of allowing herself to “impulsively have sex with Ladon.” However, the one time her frail sensibilities are essentially overwhelmed by his intense passion they get their happy night together.

This is a trope I see a lot of and HATE. I’m not a prude but I must ask, is this really the message we want to still be sending young women approaching their own sexual maturity? That in order to enjoy, or even personally want sex they have to abdicate all responsibility for it and they’ll be (deservingly) punished if they don’t? I’d hoped we’d grown beyond that.

There was also the small matter of the insta-love, or at least baseless love. Since the action essentially never stops, there is no point at which the characters could slow down and have a conversation. They were never given the chance to get to know one another, so what was their love based on? I especially felt this lack of development in Ladon/Dragon’s extreme loyalty and dedication to her and her safety and happiness.

Now I can’t blame all of my dislike on being too old to appreciate the genre tropes. And honestly, that’s most of what I dealt with here. I also spent a lot of time gagging on the incredibly descriptive, purple prose used to describe Rysa’s experiences or visions. And while I understood that she was tied to chaos, I was quickly annoyed with the pages and pages of confusion and discordant havoc. There were a lot of times that I simply couldn’t understand what was supposed to be happening or had simply reached my limit of ‘it’s all crazy and unexplainable because of her ADHD.’

Speaking of her ADHD, I thought that it was over emphasised, even before she went all Fate, vision-laden über ADHD. It just felt like one more way to weaken her so that Landon could more fully protect her.

The book also has the same problem a lot of such books have. Rysa is essentially psychic, but for more than half the book she somehow still manages to misread every obvious signals Ladon throws her. And there are a lot of really obvious ones and very very few contradictory ones. The man wants her with every fiber of his being, practically from the moment he meets her and he’s pretty clear on that. But still Rysa, who can see the past, the present and the future and knows they’ll end up together in some way at some point continues to think of herself as nothing but an unwanted burden to him. Um…either she’s REALLY dumb, which we’re told she’s not or this is a giant fault line in the plot to keep the angst high and the story rolling along.

Lastly, I was left wondering about all the characters who were introduced and then dropped. What happened to Gavin, Marcus and Harold? They all just kind of disappeared.

I did like that there is an effortless gay couple. By effortless, I mean that no big deal was made of it. It was as unworthy of extra attention as any het relationship and I appreciated that. I know that mentioning it at all counters that same easy existence, but I can’t compliment it if I don’t and I’d like to see more such inclusions in fiction, which requires that people make it known that they like finding it.

All in all, not a winner for me personally. But I’m owning up to the fact that it really might be me, not the book that was the problem…Or, at least, the pairing of me and this book. I know a lot of people really like the heavy-handed romances. To each their own.

The Marcher Lord

Book Review of The Marcher Lord (Over Guard, #1) , by Glenn Wilson

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The Marcher Lord

Author, Glenn Wilson, sent me a copy of The Marcher Lord.

Description from Goodreads:
Private Ian Kanters has just been initiated into the renowned ranger division of the Bevish Empire–a space-faring, Victorian-Era society. He is slightly apprehensive, however, as his first assignment is escorting a noble family on a hunting expedition. But their destination, the newly-acquired planet of Orinoco, quickly lives up to its wild reputation.

The planet’s climate is harsh and the wildlife deadly. His company of rangers is also not nearly so easy to win over as he had hoped, though he finds the nobleman’s daughter to be unexpectedly distracting. But that’s only the beginning as they trek into the vast wilderness where Ian is soon to find the adventure that he’s been waiting his whole life for.

Review:
Um, where to start. The Marcher Lord is surprisingly well written and edited, considering it’s gotten almost no attention since it was published. I liked the main characters. I thought the side characters were pretty interesting. (I was especially fond of Rory.) The alien planet kept me interested and the military bits felt really believable. But, and it’s a big but, the book is missing something important, a plot.

Well, that’s not strictly true. I think there is a plot, it’s just so slow in developing that it’s sure to take about 2,000 pages or so to get to it, meaning that this book is not a complete work on it’s own. It barely feels like a prologue actually. The book is roughly 250 pages and, while there were a few vague hints at possible political intrigue, the only action that might (depending on how it’s explained in the next book) be described as plot-driven happens in the last 5 or so pages. The rest is just soldiers on safari.

In a way, it reminded me of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. You go in expecting intergalactic sci-fi and instead find military fiction in space. Like Starship Troopers, the book is centred on a young, naive, idealistic new recruit sent out to an alien world to use all his military skills to fight non-humanoid prey. However, instead of being at war with an intelligent insectoid race, Ian and his cohort are escorting a noble on what amounts to as an African big game hunt.

That’s it. That’s the book. You spent time marching, hunting, fishing, eating, etc. In and among these really quite mundane activities you get to know Ian. He’s a really nice chap, Ian is. There’s one little twist in the female MC department, that I admit I didn’t see coming, but I also have to admit wasn’t well explained. (Someone’s attitude seemed to change inexplicably allowing Ian’s to change too.) There’s a little out of place religion. It’s part of the worldbuilding that this is a “space-faring, Victorian-Era society,” so by extension Christian. But it felt extraneous to the story. Similarly, given this is a galactic empire, it felt really simplistic that the few dominant cultures seem to only be Earthbound cultures (specifically English and French).  But there is also some interesting observations on humans and humanness.

All in all, not a bad book. Pleasant reading, but no real pay off in the end, unless you’re committing yourself to the whole series, all of which isn’t even available as far as I know. But it you liked Starship Troopers, I bet you’d like this.

Book Review: Broken Mirrors #1-3), by Vaughn R. Demont

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It appears to be Vaughn R. Demont week around here. First, I read and enjoyed House of Stone. Then, this happened, resulting in this and this. (Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that when a community, even one stretched across the globe, decides to move a mountain, that shit shifts.) Then, I decided to give the Broken Mirrors series a try as well.

Coyote's CreedDescription from Goodreads:
If con games were taught in high school, Spencer Crain would be on the honor roll. As it is, he’ll be riding the edge of failure to graduation next month. Then Spence gets the news that his long-gone father is not only dead, but was a Coyote, one of three clans of tricksters in the City.

With a near-catatonic mother on his hands, Spence couldn’t care less about the Coyotes’ ongoing feud with the Phouka and the Kitsune—until it lands on his doorstep. Suddenly he’s thrown headfirst into a dangerous world he knows next-to-nothing about. His only guide is Rourke, dashing King of the Phouka, plus a growing pack of half-siblings, a god, and Fate herself.

As Spence embarks on a journey to learn the Coyote’s creed, the truth about his heritage, and how to handle his growing attraction to Rourke, he wonders when his life turned from TV sitcom to real-life danger zone. And what price must he pay to survive the next roll of the dice…

Review:
Funny, funny, funny…maybe a little on the lowbrow side, with the endless blond jokes and such (and I say that while admitting that I liked it, so I don’t mean than in a snobby way). It fit the character so no complaints here. I found myself reading with a goofy smile on my face more than once.

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers who have pointed out that Spencer had a tendency to speak beyond his years, showing a knowledge a self awareness that isn’t particularly realistic in an eighteen year old—the type of knowledge and introspection that is only possible with a little age under your belt so that you can look back at your ignorantly self-assured teen self and see your own faults. But he was still a loveable rogue that I enjoyed spending time with.

Spencer’s sexuality played a large role in this book. Not in a pornographic way, but it was still an important aspect of the plot. I adored the fact that he was completely at ease with who he was in that respect. There was none of the angst or shame or just weighty significance to his bisexuality that is so often seen in literature. His ability to say (or not say, as the case may be since even saying it wasn’t a necessity) ‘I am what I am, so what?’ gave it an easy naturalness that is usually reserved for heterosexual relationships. This was really a pleasure to come across in a character. I’d love to see more such depictions.

I was a little lost in some of the supernatural aspects of the book. The idea of different mythologies existing beside each other is an interesting one, but it left plenty of gaps for a reader to wonder how things really worked, especially as it relates to the destruction and reformation of worlds, placement of the gods, and their relation to the paranormals of the book.

But despite these few niggles I generally really enjoyed the read. I enjoyed Spencer’s quirky, media-soaked, libidinous personality. I enjoyed seeing him learn new things without him feeling baselessly naive or taken advantage of. I enjoyed Demont’s ability to maintain a breathtaking pace without leaving the reader feeling rushed. I enjoyed the fact that the book is relaxed enough to let a series of stupid riddles carry a scene and still leave me laughing. All in all, well worth the read.

Lightning RodDescription from Goodreads:
Sorcerers have always been feared in the City, their origins as unknown as the nature and extent of their power. When James Black, a young man fleeing an abusive lover, becomes a sorcerer, his old life is erased from existence, and his new life is indebted to powerful entities.

Escaping the man who abused him was supposed to be the end, but the very magic that freed him has put him on a collision course with the gods and the Sorcerer King himself.

And only one of them can survive.

Review:
Hmmm, how do I start with this one? You see, I’m a little uncertain of my footing. I really enjoyed book one of this series (as well as House of Stone, by the same author), and while this seemed an OK read, it just didn’t stand up to the other two books by Demont that I’ve just plowed through. So where does that leave me and my need to review it?

Mostly I feel that the book didn’t have that certain something special the other books did. The main character was a victim, and while he grew in strength and determination, he didn’t have the humor I loved in some of Demont’s other characters. In fact, I found that James never particularly endeared himself to me. I cared little for him by the end of the book.

I also thought the weave of the plot wasn’t as tight. There were a lot of times that I either couldn’t quite visualise what was going on or wondered how something happened. For example, at one point, James had to cross into a magical circle, and in order to do so, he had to go through a fairly elaborate ritual. Shortly thereafter, someone else crossed the same circle with no such ritual. How? Similarly, Heath is stated to have been untrained; however, a very short while later, he showed some pretty impressive skills. How?

In every Demont book I’ve read, the side characters haven’t been as richly tapestried as the main ones. No real problem; that’s just the way it is. But here, it felt extreme. The primary antagonist only showed up sporadically, had no depth, was unilaterally evil and prone to evil villain speech. I didn’t find him particularly believable.

Then there was the sex…or not sex as it would appear. I’ve really enjoyed Demont’s ability to write a sex scene that is both gratifying and not overly pornographic…no that’s not quite right (I don’t mind pornographic); rather, I mean, sexy without also stretching the realms of erotic possibilities to the point of fantasy. However, here the sex was rushed and undetailed. We were essentially just left knowing it happened. Meh.

Now, having said all that, the book does still have Demont’s trademark geektastic comic streak. There’s a Marvin (though I think I would have appreciated him more if the character hadn’t felt the need to explain the reference to the reader). There were Dungeon’s and Dragon’s references. There were potshots at the LARPers. The book is still a fun read. But, honestly, I don’t think it stood up to Demont’s other works. I’m told that the series redeems itself in book three, though. So there’s still hope.

community service coverDescription from Goodreads:
The King is dead, long live the King. And, uh, could you float him a couple bucks?

Life as the only human sorcerer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for James Black, the Lightning Rod. Between gremlins in the closet, paladins crashing through skylights and working spells in a storage locker, hunting a body-hopping spirit is a welcome distraction. If only he didn’t have to partner with a Coyote.

After being punted to the curb by his roommate (with benefits), things are looking dire for trickster Spencer Crain, until an old friend offers him a shot at a big score scamming the best of marks: a vampire. Thing is, he’ll have to work with his worst enemy to pull it off.

With lives in the balance, James is learning the hard way what being a sorcerer really means—and that he picked a hell of a time to quit smoking. Spencer is faced with the choice between his future and his friends. Yeah, like he’s never seen that movie before…

Review:
So very much character growth in this novel! James learns to stand on his own merits and to have confidence in his own strengths. Spencer learns a lot about basic human decency and what it really means to be a good man. It really was an enjoyable read.

There were times I thought it dragged a little bit, but they were largely eclipsed by the times I thought that the way Demont managed to parallel events to create tension and a little mystery was awe-inspiring. I also found myself (here and in the previous books) seething in vocabulary envy. I love that Demont can throw out ten-dollar words (and Scrabble jokes) without it feeling pretentious or forced. Love that!

Still front and centre to the humour of the series is the nerd/geek references. I’m a bit too young to have hit the peak of D&D (It was Vampire Masquerade when I was in High School.), but I can still identify with the character traits that make a Geek identifiably a Geek. D&D, Hitchhikers, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc., and I love when these same traits (tropes, really in this context) can be used for self-effacing or non-demeaning humour because the reader sees themselves in there somewhere. So much fun. I’m looking forward to more of the series.