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Book Review of Billy Wong’s Iron Bloom

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Iron BloomAuthor, Billy Wong sent me a copy of his novel, Iron Bloom (Legend of the Iron Flower, #1). It also happens to be free on Amazon and Smashwords.

Description from Goodreads:
Action-packed fantasy adventure with a powerhouse female epic warrior in the spirit of Achilles or Beowulf.

The tale of a mighty warrior torn between the power of the sword and her longing for a peaceful life.

A young woman with a kind heart and extraordinary constitution, Rose becomes a warrior to better the world. Despite the wealth and fame she wins as one of the greatest champions of her time, the bloody reality of her new life is nothing like her ideal dream. She yearns for a chance to escape the violence.

She finds that chance in Ethan, the leader of an altruistic pacifist group. But when a barbarian horde invades their kingdom, Rose knows that she can make a difference by taking up her sword again. Will her need to protect her homeland cost her the man she loves?

Review:

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I suspect he’ll regret that, as I didn’t much care for it. I apologise upfront for that. There are a few spoilers to follow, and it’s really quite a long review. You’ve been warned. 

To start with, I thought that the writing was really quite stiff and naïve, for lack of a better word. Things were just related, one after another. There was no sense of build-up, transition, or progress. I also thought a lot of the dialogue was unrealistic. 

But more than almost anything, what irritated me was the constant praise of Rose. She didn’t seem to have earned it, and it overplayed her charisma. In the beginning, she was almost instantly accepted as an equal by the captain of the guard, thanked and congratulated for things that whole groups of people accomplished, strangers constantly addressed her instead of the older guards at her side, and even when walking with senior soldiers the group was often referred to as hers,  ‘Rose’s four,’ for example. Later on, she easily walked into forts and was given a place among the respected. It felt very much like the focus of the story was artificially forced onto her. It also left the other characters essentially characterless since they only seemed to exist to give Rose someone to talk to.

She also seemed to be invincible (never even needing recovery time to heal). At one point, she was stabbed THROUGH the right breast and half gutted, but she still managed to tend to her dead friends’ bodies and walk away. Another time she took a mammoth spear THROUGH her chest. It nicked her heart and came out the other side, and still, she fought on, won, survived, and buried her dead. This inability to die kinda stole the suspense. It reduced the story to a series of battles with no apparent end goal. It was like reading a list of how many ways she could be injured and how many ways she could kill a man. It got old fast.

A character needs a challenge to overcome. I couldn’t find Rose’s. What’s more, her uncommon and largely unexplained mental and physical fortitude left those same battles flat and lackluster. How many times can you read about a woman winning fights before your eyes start to glaze over? I made it to the shrub battle at about 17%. In this example, the bush fought by muddling it’s opponent’s mind. This didn’t work on Rose, so she was able to simply hack it to bits and burn it. But there was no explanation or reason that the evil bush’s mind trick didn’t work on her. It was just one more miraculous win…and there were plenty more after that. 

I also couldn’t quite get my head around her being 15. Totally unbelievable. She acted and was treated like she was much older—drinking heavily and being accused of trying to seduce people and such. Besides, she wouldn’t even be fully physically grown at 15, so how was she besting all those adult men and monsters? An additional side point: that the woman on the cover, whom one would assume is meant to be Rose, is far, far older than 15. As a character, she needed to be at least in her mid-20s. Mid-teens just did not work. 

Now, I did appreciate that she was a strong female lead and remained so without having to also conform to modern standards of beauty. She was described as being large, stocky, and beautiful. I liked that Wong broke the mold on her. Plus, she wasn’t the only strong woman in the novel. High five from me for the warrior women. 

It’s just too bad Wong felt the need to counter it with a peppering of rape.  The first attempt came on page one…seriously, page one! After that, every bad guy seemed to be a rapist too. It got redundant. There are other ways to victimise women, even some that aren’t specific to women. You know, being a terrorist or a murderer is still being an evil bastard. No need to also label them a rapist to get the point across. 

I had a lot of complaints about this book, but my absolute primary complaint is, “Where was the plot?” There wasn’t one. I’m not trying to be mean. But the book starts when Rose goes off to join the RIEF (essentially the National Guard). It then follows her for a year or so of her life as she gets into fight after fight. She creates enemies for herself, like Lennox. She decided he was evil incarnate, visited the king to complain about him, and eventually killed him herself, all based on the third-party testimony that he encouraged the mercenaries and was a bad man. I saw no evidence that she witnessed his evil, so why dedicate herself to his extermination? She just randomly chose the battle and it was just one of many. He wasn’t her main nemesis or anything. She didn’t have one of those. 

The whole book was like that. ‘Oh, I’ll go fight this person. Oh, I’m being attacked by this person.’ But there was no villain of importance, quest to be accomplished, or challenge to be overcome; nothing to mark a transition of progress or show Rose to have accomplished something important to the story. The book really is just a series of random battles that occurred in one random year of her life. That’s not a plot. 

Then there were the ogres and other monsters. They seemed to come out of nowhere but were not an integral part of the story. They seemed to just add complication, since they popped up for about 30 pages and then were never seen again. So, is the story a high fantasy novel or not? 

I have to be honest, and no offense to Mr. Wong, but if this hadn’t been a review request, I probably would have dropped it at about 10%. I found finishing it a struggle. Everything was very simple and one-dimensional, coloured with a painful sense of naiveté. Kings who state “you seem like a person with only good intentions” when confronted by the fact that she killed a lord. Really, a king is going to let her off because she had good intentions. Really? 

Now, I think Wong had a good idea in here somewhere. Rose was called God-Touched, and her story pretty accurately shows the double-edged nature of such existences. Isn’t it part of Greek mythology that the Heroes were never allowed a happy ending? That’s Rose. She tried so hard to do right, only to have it crumble again and again. This is an interesting concept. It could have been built on and turned into something substantial. But, like so much else in this book, it was eclipsed by the endless and often pointless battle scenes. I have no problem with gore, but like romance novels with too much sex, sword (and I suppose sorcery) novels with too many battles only cripple themselves. 

Now, other people have loved this book. It has a lot of good reviews out there. So, I’m not trying to trash it. But it did almost nothing for me. **Sorry**

Book Review of the Niki Slobodian series #1-4, by J.L. Murray

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I grabbed all of J.L. Murray‘s Niki Slobodian series off of the Amazon free list over the last year or so.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
The Devil is a Gentleman
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Devil Was an Angel

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue SeaDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian sees things – things that aren’t supposed to be there. Labeled an Abnormal by New Government, her name is tacked onto the Registry, which seems to be getting longer these days. Now she can’t work or she’ll end up the same place as her father: in prison. But with no money coming in, Niki’s getting desperate. 

So when a mysterious client offers to get her off the Registry in exchange for taking his case, Niki jumps at the chance. All she has to do is round up a homicidal Dark that’s escaped from Hell and is cruising around the city in borrowed bodies. The murders are piling up, with Niki’s notorious father somehow involved, and Niki’s running out of time. And it seems the Dark isn’t the only thing that escaped…

Review: 
I really quite enjoyed this book. I found Niki to be a strong, quick-witted heroine. Her sidekicks were useful and there was a surprising amount of humour. It all came together in an interesting paranormal action/adventure mystery with excellent writing and flawless editing. There did seem to be a lot of history between some of the characters that made me wonder if I was really reading the first book, but I caught up soon enough.

My only real complaint, two-fold as it is, was that the book felt very short. Amazon lists it at 160 pages, but I started it after dinner and was in bed before 11. In that time, I also bathed the kiddies and sent them off to dreamland. So even if it there is an physical page count of 160 somewhere, I bet it’s double spaced.

Also contributing to this perception of brevity was the way challenges were overcome very, very easily. If seemed like Niki and her crew waltzed in, said “be gone” and vanquished the big-bads effortlessly. Of course, it wasn’t that simple, but it felt like it was. She managed to solve two mysteries and save the day twice in the 160 pages available. That didn’t leave a lot for buildup, tension, or elaborate planning.

Yes, it all felt too easy but that really was made up for by the humour and engaging characters. I can’t wait to read The Devil is a Gentleman.

The Devil was a Gentleman Description from Goodreads: 
Where Niki goes, death is never far behind. 

Everyone Niki knows hates Congressman Frank Bradley. He is the father of New Government, after all. He started the Registry, and the world adopted it. Bradley is the man who separated Abnormals and Normals, and made it a crime for Abbies to exist.

So when Bradley shows up at Niki’s door bearing a terrible secret, then promptly disappears, she feels compelled to dig deeper. But the more Niki uncovers, the more danger she is in. A mysterious organization is out for her blood – literally – and her father’s criminal past may not be as self-serving as she thought. There is also the matter of Niki’s inscrutable employer Sam and the secret of his identity. With help from her partner Bobby Gage, Niki finds out just how little she knew about her family, and the truth of who she really is.

Review:
I’d call this another hit. I continue to enjoy Niki and Bobby’s wit and the mysteries Murray sets up for us. I also really started to feel the influence of, or similarities to Kim Harrison‘s The Hollows series or Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (before the plots devolved into cheap erotica). It has a similar gun toting, strong heroine with a tendency to gather followers, fans and abilities as the series progress.

Like the first, this book also felt short. It also introduced some interesting side characters, that seemed to have just been dropped unceremoniously and it ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, which I hate, but the writing was just as crisp and well edited as in the first. I’m looking forward to book 3, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Before the Devil Knows You're DeadDescription from Goodreads:
The worlds are out of balance. The Creator is missing. And the war between Heaven and Hell has begun.

Niki Slobodian came back, but there were side effect. She is filled with a strange power no one seems to be able to explain. Not even Sam. She is also plagued with strange visions whenever she touches anyone. This does nothing but complicate the fact that she may be the reason for the war raging in the streets of her own city. A war that could mean the end of humanity. 

Niki has always done whatever she had to for the people she loves, but this time is different. With carnage escalating and the people she cares for in danger, Niki and Sam must work together to save what is left of humanity. And with a psychotic archangel trying to assume to post of the Creator, and one slim chance to right the balance, the odds are against them.

Nothing is ever easy for a Slobodian. Not even stopping a war that could unmake the world.

Review:
I’m still enjoying this series, but it’s also faltering in much the same way as many other such series. There seems to come a time when the main character reaches a point where she goes from being an exceptionally powerful or talented whatever, to becoming the most powerful. It becomes unbelievable after a while and I think Niki reached that point in this book. Perhaps it will be pulled back a bit in the next one. I hope so. Because if she remains so all-powerful, what challenge can there really be? I’m holding off on my judgment on this until I finish the next book.

Some major Biblical characters are offed in this book. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one…and I’m not even religious. But it’s difficult to fathom using preexisting myths and then ignoring or changing large parts of them in order to fit the plot. It’s jarring. Be that as it may, Niki again proved herself to be a resilient woman of stellar moral fibre and imperturbable determination.

The Devil was an AngelDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian knows loss. She knows tragedy. But she has never known this kind of pain. After the war the Archangel Michael waged on her city, Niki is dealing with the loss of her loved ones. And the haunting suspicion that everything was her fault. As well as her new duty to help all the lost souls cross over.

But when Niki’s only living friend, Bobby Gage, comes up missing, she has to take action. She enlists the help of Lucifer and together they learn that Bobby has been tracking Kane, the man who murdered his family, and is now killing again, leaving a trail of mutilated corpses all across the globe. And with the power to disappear unnoticed, it seems an impossible feat to find him and stop him.

But Niki is familiar with the impossible. And she would do anything to help her only living friend. Anything.

Review:
I’d say this was a great end to the series, but I get the distinct impression that it isn’t actually the end. Rather, The Devil was an Angel is simply the most recent book published in the series. I’d certainly be interested in reading more if Ms. Murray decides to write them, but I’d be disappointed if it turned into one of those series that never actually concludes. I find that so unsatisfying.

I was plenty satisfied with this book, however. Niki continued learning about herself and her abilities. She grew a lot as a character, especially around the matter of acceptance. Lucifer was an interesting incarnation of himself. I really felt bad for poor Sam though, despite all his misdeeds and the first half of the book is almost devastatingly sad.

There is quite a bit more gore in this book than the previous ones. I’m not particularly bothered by this, but some might be. But Ms. Murray’s writing remained exceptional ’till the end. Thumbs up.

Book Review of Sara Bain’s The Sleeping Warrior

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The Sleeping WarriorAuthor, Sara Bain sent me a copy of her novel, The Sleeping Warrior.

Description from The Goodreads:
LONDON solicitor Libby Butler’s life is in a mess. Her affair with her boss is going nowhere as is her position in a city law firm. A narrow escape from the knife of south London’s elusive serial murderer, The Vampire Killer, has challenged her outward bravado and left her nerves in tatters.

When duty calls Libby to a police station in the middle of the night, she meets the enigmatic Gabriel Radley. Dressed like an ancient warrior, Gabriel has a habit of disappearing from police custody and danger appears to dog him.

Gabriel is searching for a ‘stone’, its value ‘beyond human imagination’, that will help bring a ‘monster’ to justice. When Libby agrees to help him, she plunges her life into grave danger where no one is safe.

A cult who call themselves The Awakened, a gangland thug and his henchman, a female assassin, a detective chief inspector from Scotland Yard, and even the serial killer, all become inadvertently embroiled in the chase for the stone and the pivotal force of Gabriel.

As the death toll rises, Libby is forced to face herself, learn the true value of life and the potent significance of the Sleeping Warrior within.

Review:
I generally thought this was an entertaining story with a number of interesting, seemingly independent threads that eventually wind together into a neat little package. There were some interesting characters. I particularly liked Libby, Gabriel, Rose and Lars (as we’re supposed to). It was also interesting to see, what would otherwise be considered bad guys, fighting on the side of good. That seems to be a sub-theme (is there such a thing?) of the book. Actions alone aren’t enough to judge the shade of one’s soul. I never could decide if it’s supposed to be religious fiction or not. But if it’s so subtle that I can’t decide, then it’s not obvious enough to bother me.

While most of the many twist were wonderful, there were occasionally some that were unbelievable. One in particular, the second hospital scene, almost ruined the book for me. Not just because it pushed the envelope of credibility, but also because it came out of no-where (When did everyone have time to plan this?), and because the whole book changed tone and direction after it. It really felt to me that there was a perceivable breach in the plot-line and that series of scenes is the epicentre of the rupture. A lot must have happened behind-the-scenes, because a number of characters suddenly started acting out of character all of a sudden and kept it up until the end.

At end the reader is left with questions. I don’t mean loose threads. The characters are left with the same questions. There are just some things—like what Gabriel actually is, or what Shinar did to be pursued, or what led Shinar to hunt the stone—that no one learns the answer to with any certainty. The reader can guess, but has no way of knowing if they are right.

Lastly, though not a criticism by any means, if you’re looking for a steamy PNR, this isn’t it. There are no sex scenes. There is love, of sorts, but no real romance. That’s not the point here.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed The Sleeping Warrior and would be up for reading more of Ms. Bain’s work.