Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review of On the Accidental Wings of Dragons (The Dragons of Eternity #1), by Julie Wetzel

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On the Accidental Wings of Dragons I picked up a copy of On the Accidental Wings of Dragons, by Julie Wetzel, when it was free on Amazon. (It was still/again free at the time of posting.)

Description from Goodreads:
When Michael Duncan is sent to investigate the disappearance of several dragon subjects, he finds himself in a bind. Locked in a dungeon, his only hope lies wrapped in a bundle of cloth tossed at his feet. One kiss and his life is changed forever. Hunted by his own people for crimes he didn’t commit, Michael has to learn a whole new life at the hands of a beautiful woman. Can she help him clear his name, or will just being in her presence get him sentenced to death?

Carissa Markel doesn’t know who this man chained to the wall is, but he’s her only chance for escape. She has power, but, born without a voice, she lacks the means to wield it. One choice, made in desperation, sends them running for his life. Does she have the strength to help him clear his name? And what will her brother, the King of Dragons, do if he finds out what she’s done? That’s immaterial, the real question is… can she keep her hands off him long enough to find out?

Review:
I went into this pretty much just thinking, “DRAGONS!” I love dragons, but that wasn’t enough to carry it through. The book is fluffy and  I can’t say I hated it, but it is pretty flimsy in the plot, development, character and world departments. A lot of questions are left unanswered. Characters are introduced and then disappear when they’re not needed anymore. Most of the events are little more than a sketched out structure to hang the ‘romance’ on. The villain is a shadow, you never really even meet him. None of the side characters have any depth and the main ones have very, very little. It had a few cute bits, but that’s just not enough to make a book worth reading.

Steelflower

Book Review of Steelflower, by Lilith Saintcrow

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SteelflowerI borrowed a copy of Lilith Saintcrow‘s Steelflower from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
Picking the wrong pocket can get a girl in trouble…

Thief, assassin, sellsword—Kaia Steelflower is famous. Well, mostly famous, and mostly for the wrong reasons. She’s made a good life for herself, despite being kicked out of her homeland for having no magic. She’s saving up for her retirement, when she can settle down, run an inn, and leave the excitement for others.

Then she picks the wrong pocket, wakes up with a hangover, and gets far more than she bargained for. Now she has a huge, furry barbarian to look after, a princeling from her homeland to fend off, and an old debt to fulfill. And for some reason, the God-Emperor’s assassins want to kill her.

It’s never easy being an elvish sellsword, and this time it just might be fatal…

Review:
I both really enjoyed and found myself quite frustrated with this book. I liked Kaia. I liked the Barbarian. I adored D’ri. I liked the world and the writing. BUT the book never really goes anywhere. They wander around and do this and then that and then something else, but there is no intent in it. Also, while I understood Kaia’s strong reluctance, I got tired of reading it. Worst of all, the hints that all the hardships she’d suffered in her life might have actually been her own fault, based on a misunderstanding that she didn’t seek clarification of over a decade is off-putting to say the least.

Despite all that, I’d read more if there was any, but Saintcrow states that she does not intent to continue the story, as e-piracy killed the series. Which means that this, an incomplete story (though not a cliffie), will always remain so and that makes it kind of a pointless read IMO.

Book Review of The Untold Tale, by J. M. Frey

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The Untold TaleI received a copy of The Untold Tale, by J. M. Frey from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Forsyth Turn is not a hero. Lordling of Turn Hall and Lysse Chipping, yes. Spymaster for the king, certainly. But hero? That’s his older brother’s job, and Kintyre Turn is nothing if not legendary. However, when a raid on the kingdom’s worst criminal results in the rescue of a bafflingly blunt woman, oddly named and even more oddly mannered, Forsyth finds his quaint, sedentary life is turned on its head. 

Dragged reluctantly into a quest he never expected, and fighting villains that even his brother has never managed to best, Forsyth is forced to confront his own self-shame and the demons that come with always being second-best. And, more than that, when he finally realizes where Lucy came from and why she’s here, he’ll be forced to question not only his place in the world, but the very meaning of his own existence. 

The Untold Tale gives agency to the unlikeliest of heroes: the silenced, the marginalized, and the overlooked. It asks what it really means to be a fan when the worlds you love don’t resemble the world you live in, celebrates the power of the written word, challenges tropes, and shows us what happens when someone stands up and refuses to remain a secondary character in their own life.

Review:
I did a lot of flip-flopping while reading this book. I thought it started out well and then I figured out the schtick (twist) and groaned. It’s cheesy, it is, but I got used to it I accepted it and enjoyed the book for a bit. Then, Pip started in on her lectures and I groaned again. I HATE didacticism in my fiction. Hate it, even when I agree with what is being preached. I mean, I love this quote, it verbalizes something I’ve long wanted words for (and it largely sums up the novel),

I spent my whole goddam academic career championing female character agency, fighting against lazy writing that falls back on epic fantasy gender stereotypes and utilizes rape as a back story excuse, against the half-assed conflation of strong female characters with violent female characters, screaming myself horse about visible minorities in fiction and the normalization of queerness, and what does the world I love best go and fucking do the goddamn millisecond I get here? Slaps me in the face and ties me down!

but the book frequently stepped over the line into lectures and I started to twitch a bit. They are no fun and I read fiction for fun.

I adored Forsyth and his fussiness, but thought his internal dialogue got repetitive and old. I hated K & B and then they suddenly showed up all lovely and contrite and I was supposed to forgive and like them; a swift transition I wasn’t quite able to make.

I appreciated the critique of rape of female characters, even the subtextual suggestion that it is frequently presented as consensual, but there was far too much sex. It was gratuitous to the point or plot, serving no further purpose. I liked that Pip had emotions and anger, but it disappeared too quickly. I like that it was him who gave up his life, when it’s usually the female, but disliked everything from that point forward. The book goes on for ever.

I went back and forwards between loving this book and disliking this book again and again. I 100% applaud the author’s intent (which I saw as a feminist critique or subversion if epic fantasy), but I don’t know that I necessarily enjoyed the journey.