Tag Archives: fantasy

Sleepless

Book Review of Sleepless (Curse of the Blood Fox, #1), by Sera Ashling

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SleeplessI nabbed a Copy of Sleepless, by Sera Ashling from the Amazon free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Curses are not subtle.

They are things of pain, and for a very long time Santo has been caught in one. She haunts the roads of the country of Kurdak as a mercenary, fighting back sleep every night so that she won’t have to face the horror that comes for her when she rests. Weary, with sanity almost gone and no end in sight, Santo doesn’t know who did this to her or why she is still alive.

Someone does, though. 

As the mythical Week of Colors arrives, she receives a visit from a long-time acquaintance. Traken is a sharp-tongued sorcerer with a sadistic streak, and he comes bearing an “invitation” from his master, a secretive lord who has been watching her for far too long. Santo isn’t thrilled, until another message arrives in the form of an ominous prediction: following the sorcerer will mean the answers she wants, but she’ll likely die in the process. 

That’s fine with Santo, though, because she isn’t searching for a way out… she’s searching for revenge.

Review:
Wow, I am thrilled 2015 is starting so well. I stayed up way too late last night to finish this book. Then, tired as I was, I had to check if the sequel was available before I could drag myself to bed. (It’s apparently not, but I would have bought it if it had been.)

I had very low expectations from this book, being an Amazon freeibe. But it surpassed them by some distance. Santos and Traken are a fun pair. At the start of the book they are long time acquaintances, familiar and comfortable (if wary) with one another, but not friends. That changes over the course of the book and the back and forwards banter was great.

Santo is a wonderfully strong heroine, never flailing helplessly or swooning for a man. Meanwhile, Traken is nursing a touching fragility (while still remaining badass). Plus, though there’s no sex or even much romance, seeing a man practically begging a woman to give him orders is darned sexy. Having read what I just wrote, it doesn’t sound like it would be, but in the context of the story it really is.

I’m also happy to report that this isn’t a YA book. There isn’t anything in it that would be unsuitable for younger readers, but it’s pleasantly adult for a fantasy. There is violence and surprisingly grown-up themes of healing and redemption.

The writing was fun to read and the editing was fine. I noticed a few dropped particles here or there, but that could have been a character’s speech pattern. Hard to tell.  And, though never dull, the book does seem to drag a bit in the middle. There just seems to be a lot of middle, if that makes sense. All in all, a real win in my book, made especially sweet since I really hadn’t expected as much.

Book Review of Liberty & Other Stories and There Will Be Phlogiston, by Alexis Hall

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Liberty and other storiesI received a copy of Liberty and Other Stories, by Alexis Hall, from Netgalley. These stories constitute #2-4 & 6 of the Prosperity series. (Yeah, I don’t really get the numbering either.) I read and reviewed the first one, Prosperity, here. It happened to have been one of my top reads for 2014.

Description from Goodreads:
An instructive story in which vice receives its just reward.

Inspired by true and scandalous tales of the Gaslight aristocracy, we present the most moral and improving tale of Lady Rosamond Wolfram.

Weep, reader, for the plight of our heroine as she descends into piteous ruin in the clutches of the notorious Phlogiston Baron, Anstruther Jones. Witness the horrors of feminine rebellion when this headstrong young lady defies her father, breaks an advantageous engagement, and slips into depravity with a social inferior. Before the last page is turned, you will have seen our heroine molested by carnival folk, snubbed at a dance, and drawn into a sinful ménage a trois by an unrepentant sodomite, the wicked and licentious Lord Mercury.

Reader, take heed. No aspect of our unfortunate heroine’s life, adventures, or conduct is at all admirable, desirable, exciting, thrilling, glamorous, or filled with heady passion and gay romance.

Review:
I find myself in a quandary. I love the Prosperity universe. I love the characters of this series. I greatly enjoyed learning a bit of their history. I found myself surprisingly aghast ant the subtle perversions of The Sound of Music, something I quite liked.

But I’m not a huge fan of short stories as a medium and I’m even less fond of such stories told in a series of correspondences and/or interviews/depositions/testimonies/etc. Which is how most of the stories in this book are told.

So, here I am, completely thrilled to have spent a little more time (not enough, mind you) with Milord and Rueben, Miss Grey, Dil and Byron. I even liked the new character, George. I still love the narrative style and voices. I still love the writing. I’m still enamoured with the amazingly effective use of pauses. I still think there’s an enviable intelligence to the story, as a whole. I still think the covers are to die for. I still think the editing is superb and this is a stellar example of a book. But the fact that I don’t particularly care for the type of book it happens to be kept me from being completely blown away. That I liked it as much as I did, despite not liking shorts says a lot though.

So, I’m not sure where that leaves me…’torn’ I guess, between fangirl squeeing and lacklustre praise of the work as a whole. I’d still read anything Alexis Hall writes, so it can’t be too off-putting.

There will be PhlogistonI downloaded a free copy of There Will be Phlogiston from Amazon. It is, confusingly, book 5 of the Prosperity series.  At the time of posting it’s also free from the publisher.

Description from Goodreads:
An instructive story in which vice receives its just reward.

Inspired by true and scandalous tales of the Gaslight aristocracy, we present the most moral and improving tale of Lady Rosamond Wolfram.

Weep, reader, for the plight of our heroine as she descends into piteous ruin in the clutches of the notorious Phlogiston Baron, Anstruther Jones. Witness the horrors of feminine rebellion when this headstrong young lady defies her father, breaks an advantageous engagement, and slips into depravity with a social inferior. Before the last page is turned, you will have seen our heroine molested by carnival folk, snubbed at a dance, and drawn into a sinful ménage a trois by an unrepentant sodomite, the wicked and licentious Lord Mercury.

Reader, take heed. No aspect of our unfortunate heroine’s life, adventures, or conduct is at all admirable, desirable, exciting, thrilling, glamorous, or filled with heady passion and gay romance.

Review:
Like with the end of Liberty, I find myself torn between absolutely loving this and ending on a disappointed note. I’ll start with the disappointment, since it’s pretty cut and dry.

This book is listed as 150/262 pages long (depending on if you looks at the ebook or Kindle edition), but it’s literally half that long. At exactly 50%, the story ends and the rest is all sneak peaks of the other stories in the series. I was really bummed too, because I had been excited about starting the next chapter and getting 75 or so pages of Arkady, Jones and Ros’ new life together. I really wanted to see that work, see how it works. I felt cheated out of something substantial that not even a little of that was included.

Other than that rather serious complaint, I loved the story. I love the way one man’s refusal to accept ridiculous social dictates resulted in, not only his own happiness, but freeing two others too. I loved that, by the end, there was a wonderful flexibility in what was promised to be the future relationship. I simply loved Jones. I liked Arkady. I liked Ros. But I loved Jones. I don’t think it would be possible not to.

Like everything else I’ve read by Hall, I think the writing is wonderful, the humor subtle but undeniable and the sex hot. I did think the editing was only passable. I noticed a few mistakes and I didn’t in any of the previous books. But hey, this is a freebie, so I’m not complaining and honestly there weren’t that many. They were only even notable because of the previous lack of them.

I’m really hoping there will be more books in this series…and that they’ll be books, not short stories (just a personal preference). Definitely recommended.

Lastly, because each of the stories contained within Liberty technically has their own cover and because I think they are all so freaking marvellous, I’ve included a nice little collage of them for you to admire. Enjoy.*Screen Shot 2015-01-02 at 13.17.44

*Note to Mr. Hall. Seven is a terribly inconvenient number to fit nicely into any sort of attractive patter. Could you perhaps correct this by adding one or two more books to the series?

Book Review of Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1), by Leigh Bardugo

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Shadow and BoneI bought a hardback copy of Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo.

Description from Goodreads:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Review:
About two years ago I finished up my second Masters degree and decided all my tired brain wanted to do was read books that required very little mental involvement. YA books fit that bill perfectly. I subsequently went on a binge. I read a ton of them and bought even more. However, as I recovered my cognitive facilities, I grew bored with all the useless and frankly annoying teenage angst of these books and moved on. As a result I have a backlog of YA books sitting on my shelves (physical and digital) waiting to be read. Shadow and Bone is one such book. I’m not even sure why I picked it up this afternoon. The cover grabbed my eye, I think. (‘Cause it’s a great cover.)

To my complete surprise I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t full of Bella-esque drama and, while I’m not deeming Alina a wonderfully strong heroine, I didn’t find her too-stupid-to-live either. I also appreciated that it wasn’t a full love-triangle. I got scared for a while there, but it passed. The thing is though, while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either. I don’t even know that I liked it. And that’s a strange place to find myself. I fully acknowledge that this is a well-written, well-edited, creative book. I consumed it in an evening. It’s wonderful in it’s own way, but also kind of bland.

It’s like a store brand cheddar. It’s a perfectly acceptable cheese. I’ll slice it up and toss it on my sandwich and be perfectly happy with it. But it’s not Brie. It’s not my favourite. It’s not something I’m excited to have gotten to eat and will remember. But I’m also notably not dissatisfied with it. Are you sensing my vacillation and painfully middle of the road feelings, here? Yeah.

Again, very well written. Again, a heroine I didn’t hate. There was also a hero I liked (but didn’t know well), a villain that was truly bad but had hints of multiple layers (but only hints) and side characters that were colourful enough to not just be filler. All good ingredients, mixed into a somewhat blasé whole.