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Book Review of Mystic Ink, by Casey Wyatt

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Mystic Ink

I grabbed Casey Wyatt‘s Mystic Ink from the Amazon KDP list. 

Description from Goodreads:
Welcome to Mystic, Connecticut, where a Satyr owns the local pawn shop, a Minotaur serves the tastiest pizza in town, and the nearest gate to the Underworld resides in the alley outside a tattoo parlor.

Nix–Sea Nymph, talented artist and proprietor of Mystic Ink–just wants to run her tattoo shop in peace and quiet. Peace and quiet, however, are the least of her problems. Mortal corpses keep springing up in her alley like daisies. Hades is angry that the mortals’ souls are missing. And to top it all off, the human authorities suspect Nix of foul play. 

Before long, the supernatural police force takes an interest. They dispatch Agent Calder Quinne to investigate. His assignment is simple: determine Nix’s guilt or innocence by observing her daily routine. Instead, he’s faced with an uncooperative Nymph who resents his presence and evades him at every opportunity. 

Nix finds Cal far too attractive and a challenge to her self-imposed ban on relationships. She wants him out of her life as soon as possible. When Cal’s soul is stolen next and Nix wakes up missing memories of the evening’s events, even she starts to wonder if she’s guilty. Now, she has only two weeks to locate Cal’s missing soul, or he’ll be doomed to spend eternity as a Shade.

Review: **Warning, slightly spoilerish**

Meh, it was alright. The writing was perfectly readable and it was well edited. I have no complaints on that front. But the story had a number of elements that I just plain dislike. For one, though Nix was the main character and the events centred around her, it wasn’t her who saved the day. Nope, Gods forbid the woman be in on the important action. Instead, she ran around from the start of the book until the end, encountering and being attacked by one mythological creature after another. Note, not intentionally doing anything but instead reacting to a presented stimulus. Then, in the end, all her male protectors went behind her back and saved the day. It was subtle, but all the impetus was taken by the men. At one point, Cal even asked her, Do you trust me?… Then hold your questions a little longer. In other words she not only wasn’t in on the action, she wasn’t even allowed to ask about it. This was all further exasperated by the fact that all of the power players were Gods. The only real Goddess you get to know is vapid and too busy with her facials and pedicures to be important.

Then there was the complete mishmash of pantheons. I get that this was intentional. The D.L. was, after all, an alliance of them. But come on, first we’re presented with the Greeks (including Sitars, Cyclops, Titans, Nymphs, Fates, Furies, Basilisk, etc), then the Egyptians. I’m still on board at this point. Then the Elves show up. Huh? And then Aliens! Really, WTF, it was just too much, too cluttered, too many disparate genres thrown together.

Then there was how easily everything wrapped up. The bad guy was defeated with absolute ease. More than once, problems were overcome almost miraculously. Nix being able to call in a favour based on winning the office raffle the year before, for example. Thats handy. Cal was given his prize and avoided a fate worse than death despite technically not completing his quest. Then, in the end, Nix rails at her father for three or four minutes and manages to convince him to change the rules that have been in effect for, presumably, millennia. I seem to recall stubbornness being a trait of the gods. Plus, these were pantheon-wide rules, so they affected everyone, not just her. It was just too easy.

Now I know I’ve bitched a lot. I was annoyed by the end of the book. But as I said, it was well written. There were some really fun characters. I especially liked Zeph and Devlin. I’m not discouraging anyone from reading it. Heck, I might even pick up the sequel if I come across it. I enjoyed the read, just not every aspect of the book.

Book Review of Shevi Arnold’s Why My Love Life Sucks

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Why My Life SucksAuthor, Shevi Arnold, sent me a copy of her novel Why My Life Sucks (The Legend of Gilbert the Fixer).

Description from Goodreads:
Gilbert Garfinkle is the ultimate tech geek. He has a compulsive need to take apart, figure out, and fix things; and he dreams of one day fixing the world. But a funny thing happens on the way to the future. Gilbert encounters the one thing he’ll never be able to figure out: a gorgeous, teenage vampire girl named Amber, who wants to turn Gilbert into her platonic BFF–literally forever! This leaves the ultimate geek pondering life’s ultimate question: “Why me?”

Review:
I have to admit to being caught completely off guard by this one. While I wasn’t expecting it to be bad or anything, otherwise why read it, I was expecting it to be really juvenile. (In he sense of written for younger readers, not written by a juvenile writer or someone with juvenile skill.) And while I have no doubt tweens could read and enjoy the book, as a 35 year old woman I did too.

Gilbert has a royal sense of humour that works really well as a narrator. He got quite a few laughs out of me. I also really liked him as a character. He is an über geek and comfortable with that. It’s a persona he cultivates and enjoys. It would be really hard not to like him. That pretty much made up for the fact that I so disliked Amber. She is well written and the author gave her just enough history to be forgivable. I think the reader was supposed to buy into the idea that she was so desperately in need of protection that her actions were excusable. But I didn’t like her. Personally I never was able to let go of her determined naivety and amazingly selfish behaviour and mindset—borderline narcissistic really. She made herself a sugar daddy (or maybe just a father) as far as I was concerned, though I’m fairly sure I wasn’t supposed to see it this way. I think it was supposed to appear preordained and therefor the ends would have justified the means. Bah!

I also quite enjoyed all of the geeky media references. There are a lot of them and some are quite subtle. I probably didn’t even catch all of them. I did think Gil’s genius and tech were a little over the top. Good for for comedic value but too advanced to be believable. I really look forward to the next in this series. There is definitely something hinky about Uncle Ian and the Liebermans. I have my guess and I can’t wait to see if I’m right.

On a side note: the cover does make sense after reading the book. 

Book Review of C.S. Marks’ Elfhunter & The Fire King

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ElfhunterA representative of C.S. Marks sent me a copy of Elfhunter (Tales of Alterra, The World That Is #1) for review.

Description from Goodreads:
This is the tale of Gorgon Elfhunter, a monstrous, mysterious creature who has sworn to destroy all the Elves of Alterra—until none remain. It is the story of Wood-elven heroine Gaelen Taldin, who has sworn to rid her world of the Elfhunter even as she is hunted by him. The conflict between them creates a tangled web that blurs the line between Light and Darkness, love and obsession, free will and fate. Filled with moments both tender and terrifying, thrilling yet thought-provoking, it is a timeless epic fantasy suitable for readers of all ages. Join the Company of Elves, dwarves, mortal men, and delightfully intelligent horses. Come to Alterra—the “World that Is”.

Review:
Elfhunter will likely appeal to most Tolkien fans. It would be almost impossible to miss the similarities between the two. I read Tolkien when I was younger and I loved his writing, his stories, and the way he could just reach in and snatch the breath from my chest with the seemingly simplest of prose. I enjoyed Marks’ writing, but it’s not Tolkien.

I have to be honest. There is a small part of me who whats to lay my head back, close my eyes, and just relish the fact that I finally finished this book. I would have gotten far more enjoyment out of it if it had ended 200 pages before it did. Now, that isn’t to say that I didn’t like the book. For the most part I did. There are some really fine characters here and a truly epic journey against a notable foe. I just thought that it was way too long. There are whole passages dedicated to what the horses are doing, for example. I’ll grant you that they are very charismatic and anthropomorphised horses, but I just don’t care what the horses are doing when their people/elves aren’t on them. I just don’t. Everything from clothing, to environs, to emotions is described in excruciating detail. The result is that the book moves at an agonisingly slow pace. Patience is a must for this one.

On the flip side of all of that detail is the fact that Marks in able to create a very detailed world. The elves, humans (who aren’t called humans BTW) and dwarfs all have fairly established societies. Granted, none of these venture far from the pre-established fantasy tropes. The elves are tall and graceful. They sing marvellously and live forever. The dwarfs are short and squat, grow beards, carry axes and tend toward mining and forging. The men are rough horsemen of noble heart. Nothing new in any of that. But Marks does a very good job of bring these societies to life.

I did struggle with the writing style a little bit. There isn’t anything ostensibly wrong with it, but I saw another reader refer to it as ‘uncomfortable.’ I know exactly what he meant. I wouldn’t have used that particular adjective, but the writing is stiff, almost formal. There are a lot of ‘he did this, for she had…” type of sentences. To a certain extent this fits the story. If focuses on elves,who are known to be aristocratic and, well, formal. But 500 pages later I really, really wanted to be able to relax with these characters and their language was prohibitive. Kind of like sitting down to tea with some prim English gentleman and then slurping the dregs of your soda through your straw–just not done. It grated on me eventually. I will concede that it was consistent and well edited though.

Most infuriating of all, however, is that after 500+ pages it ended with a ‘Meh.’ I needed a sweeping, grand finale to make it worth all the time invested. Instead there is the emotional equivalent of  ‘oh well, better luck next time.’ It is definitely not a satisfying ending. I realise, of course, that this is the first in a series, so in a way it isn’t the end. But still…

All in all I’m of two minds here. I did enjoy the story. I could pick it to death, sure. There are plenty of small things bothering me. Like the annoying way things kept creeping up from the elves long histories. Things like: ‘Oh yea, BTW she’s had her true love already. Didn’t you know?’ The youngest is over 1,000 years old so there is a lot of uncovered life that popped up from time to time. I never felt like I really knew them. But that’s a small matter. I can over look it and other small grievances enough to say with some certainty I enjoyed the story. On the other hand, I found finishing it a chore and it would be dishonest to say otherwise. I think this is a strong case of finding the right reader for the right book.

old elf hunterOn a side note, of no real importance to  anyone: I MUCH prefer the new cover (above) to the old one (right). In the new one she looks like a strong, aggressive 1,000 year old elf that no-one with half a mind would mess with. In this old one she looks like a frightened child. The two convey completely different messages and the new one is a vast improvement, as well as a more accurate portrayal of the character. I’m just sayin’.

The Fire KingAs I was reading Elfhunter I noticed The Fire King on the KDP list and grabbed it. It is a novella based in the same world as the novel.

Description from Goodreads:
From the creator of the beloved ELFHUNTER Series comes a tale of fate and faith, of the perils of pride, and of the power of love itself — as a King is forced to confront that which he has long denied–that which is in us all. The Shadow has come to Alterra: a force of such power and terror that none may stand against it. It has but one purpose: to lure Aincor to his doom.

Review:
The legend of Aincor was referenced more than once in Elfhunter and it was really interesting getting to read his story. I also really appreciated the little bit of history provided. I would almost suggest readers start here with The Fire King for just that reason.

I’m not a huge fan of novellas. They’re just glorified short stories as far as I’m concerned. I know that might be a little condescending considering I just complained about Elfhunter being too long, but there is just so little time for character development and I felt it here. The narration is almost entirely in the fashion of a storyteller. I.E. the reader is told what happens, what is felt, what is said and very little is experienced first hand.  This did enable Marks to relay a lot of information in a short word count, but there is a reason such narrative styles are largely reserved for spoken tales. I knew, because I had been informed, that the king was prideful, etc but I had no sense of him as a man. 

Be that as it may, it’s a fun little read and worth picking up. I enjoyed Aincor’s story. If you like the type of legends one might hear told around the campfire this is the book for you. It was really quite predictable. Between the tidbits given in the previous book and the basic set up of the plot it isn’t hard to figure out what will happen. But I’ve found that sometimes knowing where a story is going lets you feel a little closer to it.