Tag Archives: fantasy

Off Leash

Book Review of Off Leash (Freelance Familiars Book 1), by Daniel Potter

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Off LeashAuthor, Daniel Potter sent me an ecopy of his fantasy novel, Off Leash.

Description from Goodreads:
When Thomas Khatt awakens to the magical world following the sudden, violent death of his elderly Archmagus neighbor, he doesn’t get the standard package of awesome power combined with a hero destiny. Nope, he trades his thumbs in for a tail, tawny fur and four feet with a very low co-efficient of friction on linoleum. His destiny as one of three talking mountain lions in the magical world? To be sold at auction and bonded to some pimply faced apprentice for life. 

Thomas would rather eat dirty kitty litter. 

Armed only with an impressive set of chompers and buckets of snark, Thomas faces off against a lightning-bolt throwing granny and a sexy union recruiter as he desperately tries hold the threads of his old life together. To stay off the leash he’ll have to take advantage of the chaos caused by the Archmagus’ death and help the local Inquisition solve his murder. A pyromanic squirrel, religious werewolves, and cat-hating cops all add to the chaos as Thomas attempts to become the first Freelance Familiar.

Review:
I was charmed by Off Leash. I enjoyed Thomas’ refusal to accept his given situation and insistence on doing the right thing. The magic was surprisingly well developed and there was an interesting and amusing set of characters that were largely more than shadows on the page.

However, I thought that as hard as Thomas tried to get his human self back, we never fully came to grips with him. I never missed him as anything other than an idea.

Further, I thought the plot took so long to become apparent that it felt non-existent. Let me clarify that. There is a plot, but it ties itself together at the end and up until the last few pages, when all the decisions Thomas makes throughout the book culminate, it just felt like he was running around randomly reacting to stimuli placed before him. It seemed a bit scattered.

Lastly, I had little trouble placing the genre. It’s fantasy certainly, and if it weren’t for the cursing and oblique references to sex I’d call it upper Middle Grade Fantasy (especially with the illustrations that feel geared toward young readers) but there is cursing and references to sex (though not a lot), so…not MG despite feeling MG. The whole thing had a bit of a Terry Pratchett feel, in the sense that it’s sometimes ridiculous just for the sake of ridiculousness. There were a few delicious ironies, humor and some very readable writing. So, if you like that sort of book, pick this one up.

The Golden City

Book Review of The Golden City, by J. Kathleen Cheney

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A note before I get to this review: Most summers my in-laws come for an extended visit to play with the kiddos. That includes this year. I currently have house guests. They will be here for six weeks. As you can imagine, trips to the zoo, dinners, socializing and basically having a grand old time is cutting into my reading time. So, for the next month and a half you can expect reviews to appear less frequently and probably in spurts. It will pick up again, I promise.

The Golden CityI won a paperback copy of The Golden City, by J. Kathleen Cheney from a Goodreads giveaway.

Description from Goodreads:
For two years, Oriana Paredes has been a spy among the social elite of the Golden City, reporting back to her people, the sereia, sea folk banned from the city’s shores….

When her employer and only confidante decides to elope, Oriana agrees to accompany her to Paris. But before they can depart, the two women are abducted and left to drown. Trapped beneath the waves, Oriana survives because of her heritage, but she is forced to watch her only friend die.

Vowing vengeance, Oriana crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira—a police consultant who has been investigating the disappearance of a string of servants from the city’s wealthiest homes. Duilio also has a secret: He is a seer and his gifts have led him to Oriana.

Bound by their secrets, not trusting each other completely yet having no choice but to work together, Oriana and Duilio must expose a twisted plot of magic so dark that it could cause the very fabric of history to come undone….

Review:
I’m pretty ‘meh’ about The Golden City. I liked the writing. The editing was fine. Finding it set in Portugal was a change from the regular US/UK based fiction one normally finds (though I’ve seen others comment it wasn’t accurate, I don’t know one way or another) and Selkie, Otterfolk and Seria were outside the norm magical creatures.

I even liked Oriana and Duilio. But I found them dull. Really, they seemed to exist in parallel plots that they then occasionally talked about. And they were so bound by social convention that there seemed to be no passion in them at all. And Oriana has to be the worst spy in history.

The mystery seemed shaky. Almost 50 people disappear and no one notices? I mean sure, employers might be oblivious, but did none of these people have families or friends that might report them missing? The great magic that was supposed to happen seemed questionable at best, though even the book admits that. And it all seemed to fall apart for no real reason at all. Oriana was still walking around as if no one was after her, and it didn’t seem anyone was despite claims to the contrary. Sure, Duilio dodged assassination attempts, but it’s Oriana that’s supposedto be in danger, but I never once felt that.

And I was distinctly dissatisfied with the ending. It’s not a solid HEA, which I don’t always have to have, but it felt like something had been left incomplete. In fact, what it felt very much like was an obvious tie-in for a sequel, which irks me.

All in all, I would call this OK, not great but not wholly bad either. I’d read a sequel if I came across it for free or could borrow it. But I doubt I’d spend money on it.

Book Review of U.S. Army Mage Corps: SWORD, by John F. Holmes

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U.S. Army Mage Corps: SWORDI downloaded a copy of  U.S. Army Mage Corps: SWORD, by John F. Holmes, from the Amazon free list. At the time of posting, it was still free.

Description from Goodreads:
What if … magic were part of every day US Military Operations? 

In a backwater Central Asian Country, a threat to Western Civilization is growing, unnoticed by the world. The men and women of the US Army Mage Corps, feared on the battlefield and despised back home, enter into a struggle which may cost them their lives and their country. 

Review:
This is another case of interesting concept, poor execution. Basically, I liked the characters, though they were never deeply developed. I liked it idea of magic in the modern army and honestly, the army bits are well done. But the story stops and starts, jumps around and isn’t particularly developed. There are also no limits or descriptions of the world or the magic, so creatures and abilities just seem to pop up willy-nilly. The writing is simplistic, POVs shift without warning and the editing is a mess.

I’m actually going to take a moment to address this last point, because I downloaded my copy of the book on May 11, 2015 and there is an author note on Goodreads saying, “As of 09/25, heavily edited to fix mistakes.” One would presume 9/25/2014. This is supported by a comment on an Amazon review in which the author states, “Uploaded a much edited version. Thank you for the comment.” That was Nov 3, 2014. So, I can only assume I have that newly edited edition. Now, Holmes may have fixed some errors, maybe even ‘heavily edited’ it, but there is no way this book has been in the hands of a professional editor. There are still a ton of mistakes, some of them things like zeros showing up in the middle of words. Things a standard spell-check should have caught.

So, in the end I think the book could have been better…maybe even could have been good. But it’s not there yet. It’s too rushed, there isn’t enough explanation of the magic limits, and there are too many characters and POVs to feel invested in the characters. Meh.