Tag Archives: science fiction

Dark Legacy

Book Review of Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai (Dark Legacy Cycle 0.5), by Domenico Italo Composto-Hart

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Dark LegacyDomenico Italo Composto-Hart‘s Dark Legacy is free at both Amazon and Lulu. This is the second review in my month-long challenge to read only authors I ‘know.’

Description from Goodreads:
The End of the Kai of the Dark Legacy Cycle details the violent end of the Kai Order – an ancient, spiritual guild of warrior guardians and priestesses who have sworn their lives to protect the Oracle Queen of Atlantis – at the hands of Maniok, the being referred to as the “Great Evil” in the age-old Song of the Oracle King.

It is a chronicle of Arkan, the last Kai guardian, and his desperate attempt to save the life of his priestess who carries his unborn son, and his escape from Atlantis.

Review:
I find myself in an odd position here. I picked this book up in good faith, but found that it isn’t what I thought it was. I would say, ‘what it presents itself to be,’ but I’m not willing to allot the blame. So, I’m going with not what I thought.

You see I’ve just discovered that Dark Legacy: The End of the Kai is in fact a brief prequel and then the first three chapters of the book Dark Legacy: Trinity, which is book one of the series.

I hate this kind of thing. I just want to be able to pick up a book and know it’s the book, not part of it or an addition to it, or a snippet of something else. If I wanted to read Trinity I’d have picked it up, not a separately bound (well, digitally bound) portion of it. Seriously people! When did this become OK?

So, at 30%, when The End of Kai ended and Trinity was to begin, I bailed. I’m not about to knowingly start a book that I don’t have the end to. In fact, I resent that the author set me up to be in just that position. It feels like a manipulation and a way to trick readers into buying something. (Granted, The End of Kai is free, so it wouldn’t be a second purchase.) I’m not saying it is a manipulation, just that it feels like one.

So please take note. This review is for the first 30% (~50 pages) of this ‘book’ only. Anything after that would be a different book, or part of one and I neither read it nor am reviewing it. I’m not calling it a DNF, because I finished the prequel. But I didn’t read the last 70% of the file.

I found the writing here, while technically fine, pretentious. Or rather, if I was willing to stretch grammar close to it’s breaking point, portentous. The word really is an adjective meaning, of/like a portent and a portent is a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen. So, grammatically it doesn’t really mean what I’m about to use it for.

But anyone who reads a lot of sci-fi or fantasy will be familiar with the heavy, atmosphere-building tone frequently used during passages of prophecy or symbolically significant events. This whole book reads like that…like it’s a portent, like it has meaning beyond the words on it’s pages, like it considers itself more than it is.

I think it’s because it’s a prequel and designed to be a lead-in to book one. If I’m honest, I’m always a little uncomfortable with prequels. I’m never entirely sure when I’m supposed to read them, before the first novel or after the series as a bonus. Plus, I’ve found that when written after the main book(s) they tend to skimp on details, assuming the reader is already familiar with the world and/or characters.

I can’t accuse this book of that. I thought the world was well defined (and really intriguing). But that’s about all it is. There are no mentionable characters, really. This isn’t a story of it’s own, so much as a, ‘hey look, this happened. Don’t you want to know what happens next?’ The book starts with some random street urchin that plays no significant role other than providing a POV, then we see the world through the eyes of a crow (yes, a crow), meet some dying religiosos, a Darth Vador-like bad guy who has some past relation to a couple of fleeing lovers (none of which we learn). We meet them. That’s all. We pass them by while moving on to bigger, better things. Nothing more.

Now, the writing is lyrical and pretty. And while it worked for 50 or so pages, much more of it would have started to grind on my nerves. It felt very tense. Where does this leave me? It’s well written, an interesting world and what is probably an interesting story…but also almost none of that is enough to make me happy with The End of Kai. It’s not enough on its own and I’m pretty irked by its mere existence. So, not on my recommended list unless you go in planning to read the series.

Book Review of the Royce Ree Omnibus (The Emperor’s New Clothes), by Aldous Mercer

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Royce Ree OmnibusI picked up Aldous Mercer‘s Royce Ree Omnibus after I saw it recommended in a Goodreads thread I was watching in a semi-stalkerish way…you know, reading all the posts while only being marginally involved myself. Since picking a book to read from the thousands I own can sometimes take me hours, I decided to just forgo the search, buy this one and read it. Done. Annoying decision-making process completely sidestepped. Score!

Description from Goodreads:
Imperial Agent Royce Ree needs to pull off the biggest heist the Universe has ever seen, or it’s bye-bye cushy government job, hello cleaning toilets in a dive-bar on Baga-V. 

To succeed, he will need help from the last person he’d ever ask: his ex.

Review:
I just plain had a blast reading this. I thought that Royce and Les were wonderful characters, their interactions were a pleasure and their poorly concealed feelings for one another marvellous. There was a lot of humor and the whole thing just had a sweet feel to it. The writing was crisp and compelling, the dialogue believable, the world-building just solid enough to give the reader a clear picture without bogging down the story, and the wit often subtle but readily apparent. Plus, there were psychic pets, zombie fashionistas, super spies, naked royalty, secret missions, soul searing love and one spunky rebellious princess. What more could I ask for?

Now, the book wasn’t faultless. There were some minor editing issues, changes in tense and person (3rd to 1st) and occasionally I wasn’t entirely clear what happened in a scene or what a particular technology actually did, but it really wasn’t all that often or noticeable. I’ll also admit that if I had been reading the individual instalments, instead of an omnibus (that read as smoothly as any other book I’ve encountered) I’d probably have been scratching my head about why it’s broken up. But I wasn’t, so I’m pretending it originated as a single text and moving on.

Lastly, I’m not a huge fan of the explain-it-all-in-a-big-historical-reveal-at-the-end technique. Here I thought some of it felt a little too convenient, some of it felt unrealistic (characters who knew each-other all pretended they didn’t without the reader knowing why, for example) and some aspects weren’t clearly explained. An example of the latter was the ‘only if he asks you’ scenario. This was accomplished, ostensibly arranged by Royce, but it was never shown how he managed to manipulate events and people to bring it about. (I realise that only makes sense to people who have read the book, for the rest of you it’s just an example to show that there is an example.)

None of these issues severely detracted from my basic enjoyment of the book though. As a ‘buy on a whim, even though I have tons I should read first’ book I deem it a complete success. I look forward to the continuation of the series and will be looking for more of Mercer’s writing.

Dark Indiscretions

Book Review of Dark Indiscretions (Dark Indiscretions #1), by Shakuita Johnson

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Dark IndiscretionsI downloaded a copy of Dark Indiscretions, by Shakuita Johnson, from the Amazon free list. 

Description from Goodreads:
What happens when your whole family is scarier than any nightmare and you have no desire to be anything like them? Do you stay and go along with the family plans or do you rebel and have them possibly turn their viciousness on you?

Jennifer Johnston experiences first hand why whispers are spoken in the dark about her species’ being evil when she was just a century old. What should have been another family dinner spent arguing over why she didn’t want to keep the bloodlines “pure” by being married off to her older brother turned into a nightmare and left her with more than tortured memories.

Jackson Dawls and Taylor Durham had been pack mates, best friends, and the other’s mate for as long as they could remember. They were a deadly species all their own but even they feared the Mystics and their overly cruel and barbaric ways, but unforeseen circumstances bring them face to face with not one but a few. Will there lives be in danger or is something great and unexpected awaiting them?

They also have to stay under the radar of the human society that is set out to destroy those they believe to be “Tarnished” and a danger to mankind.

When the three meet long ago secrets are brought to the light. Secrets no one but Jennifer knew. Not only do they have to learn to get along with each other because they are fated, someone is also stalking Jennifer and preforming sinister acts without her being any the wiser.

Jennifer must seek guidance from old acquaintances and form alliances with those she never thought she would. She is met with riddles and startling revelations that she never would have imagined possible.

Will they accept their fates and work together or will old fears destroy their lives? Will Jennifer be able to reclaim what was taken from her right from under her nose?

Review:
Years ago, when my husband and I were young and had time for such things, we used to enjoy something called Good Wine/Bad Movie night. It was exactly as the name implies. We would take turns picking out a good bottle of wine and a bad movie. The idea being the better the wine was, the worse the movie could be. We had a lot of fun on such nights. You couldn’t take the drack we were watching seriously (serious B grade sci-fi was a favourite), but when paired with high quality alcohol you would have been laughing at it too. It was fun.

If Dark Indiscretions was a movie, it would have been a prime contender to pair with an excellent Côtes de Bordeaux. It’s bad. I mean, really bad. I wish I used star ratings here so that I could say that the only reason I’m not giving this a one star is because it’s so bad it trips over into the ‘so super-bad it’s funny’ category and since I’m the sort who enjoys staying awake to watch the cheesy late-night fantasy fair I actually got a kick out of this.

I cringed at the writing. The dialogue just about killed me. The plotting was a disaster. The editing was MIA. The character development was nonexistent. The sex was brutally blunt, brusque even. The POVs and tenses were erratic at best. But it was like a train wreck I just couldn’t look away from. Not once did I consider putting it down and not finishing it. I was too busy being amused at it’s horridness.

I highlighted a number of examples that I had intended to include here, but I think at this point it might just seem cruel. Instead, I’ll link to my Amazon highlights. And despite my assertion that the book is a rolling disaster, I’d still recommend it to people like me who enjoy a good cheese-fest on occasion, maybe a little WTFery thrown in on the side. This is the book for you.