Category: Fantasy Page 15 of 34

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston

On May 4, 2022

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Alex Livingston’s The Knave of Secrets. Later today, and I won’t guess when, I’ll be posting my take on the novel and you should definitely take a look at the feed for https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours to see what other bloggers have to say about the book. But first, let’s get to know a little bit about it.

Book Details:

Title: The Knave of Secrets by Alex Livingston
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing
Release date: June 7, 2022 (US), June 9, 2022 (UK)
Format: Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 400 pages

About the Book:

A twisty tale of magicians, con artists and card games, where secrets are traded and gambled like coin, for fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Mask of Mirrors.

Never stake more than you can afford to lose.

When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament.

Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…

Book Links:

Amazon ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Alex Livingston grew up in various quiet New England towns before moving to Buffalo, NY to study English at Canisius College. He writes SFF prose and interactive fiction. Alex is married and lives in an old house with his brilliant wife and a pile of aged videogame systems.

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker: A Curmudgeon to the Rescue?

By HCNewton

On April 29, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

by K.J. Parker

DETAILS:
Series: The Siege, #1
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: April 8, 2019
Format: Paperback
Length:  350 pg.
Read Date: April 20-25, 2022

According to the books (there’s an extensive literature on the subject) there are fifteen ways to defend a walled city. You can try one of them, and if that doesn’t work—

Indeed. But the books were written for generals, kings, emperors; better luck next time, and we have plenty more cities where that one came from. And, to be fair, each of the fifteen ways is practical and sensible, provided you’ve got an adequate garrison, and sufficient supplies and materiel, and a competent staff of trained officers making up a properly constituted chain of command.

What the books don’t tell you is, there’s a sixteenth way. You can use it when you’ve got nothing; no stuff, no men and nobody to lead them. Apart from that, it’s got nothing to recommend it whatsoever.

Fine, I thought. Let’s give it a go.

What’s Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City About?

Orhan is a colonel in charge of a company of engineers—and a very good one. He knows what it takes to work the system to equip his engineers with what they need (and if it takes forgery of official documents and bribery to get people to do their jobs, so be it). Then in the field, he gets his men to do what they need to do.

As his company returns from some bridge building and repair work, they start to suspect something is afoot (okay, more than that, but I’m trying to keep it vague) and they hustle back to “the City.” Once there, they discover that one mistake after another has been made and upon the engineers’ return, Orhan is the highest-ranking military officer in the City—and therefore, he’s solely responsible for defending the capital of the Robur empire.

Whoops.

Now, Orhan may not be the hero that the City deserves (although he might be), but is he the hero the City needs?

Orhan

This is one of those books where your enjoyment of the book is going to be wholly dependent on your opinion of the narrator/protagonist. If you enjoy his voice and are entertained by the idiomatic way he goes about his work, you’re going to have a good time reading this. If you read a few pages of this book and aren’t taken with him—do yourself a favor and move on.

He has almost no social skills and seems to thrive on offending those in power and authority (when he bothers to care about his social skills, that is). He’s confident-bordering-on-arrogant, misogynistic (although I think it’s more applied misanthropy than anything else), quick thinking, decisive, and too clever for his own good. This will strike some readers as off-putting, and would be in a real person, but it works in this fictional world.

Really, at the end of the day, it’s all about solving problems—give him a problem and he’ll come up with a solution, and everything else isn’t that important. It leaves a few bruised egos and ruffled feathers in his wake—but he gets the job done.

But man, the way he tells a story and his attitude throughout really works for me—I read those first few pages and knew we were going to be friends.

A Series?

I don’t see how this functions as the beginning of a trilogy without hurting the last couple of pages—I don’t know if this was intended to be the start of a series, or if that came later. If it was supposed to spawn a sequel all along, I misread the last chapter or two.

I really don’t think Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City needs more books to tell this story, but what do I know? Parker (and his alter-ego) have written so many books that they clearly understand story, so I assume that I’m wrong on this point—and he’s very likely doing something I don’t expect.

While I want to see how wrong I am, the fact that this works so well as a stand-alone makes me disinclined to jump on the sequel. I don’t need more in this story, as fun as it probably is.

So, what did I think about Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City?

“We’ve been ingenious, resourceful and inventive, and we haven’t let ourselves be hindered by outmoded or irrelevant ways of thinking. It’s a shame, really, because nobody will ever know how clever we were.”

The fact that the narrator lives long enough to leave a record suggests that his second-in-command is wrong in his evaluation of their chances—at least some will survive (and Orhan mentions that a few times). But still, you know that a besieged city doesn’t have a lot going for it, and reading about the siege should be grim going. And it is at times, but that doesn’t stop this from being a fun fantasy read—almost all of that is due to the narrative voice, this isn’t a comedy by any means. But it is frequently funny.

This really struck me as similar to what Sand dan Glokta went through in defending the city of Dagoska. However many his faults, Orhan is no Glotka—he’s not as vicious, he really doesn’t torture anyone, and he’s not as limited by his own injuries. But there is something about the two characters that are similar. Orhan also reminds me of R. Wilson Rogers from Zieja’s Epic Failure series—an engineer who knows how to get things done in the Armed Forces (by manipulating the system) who is thrust into a leadership role at a critical time. Orhan really is the overlapping area in the Venn diagram of Glotka and Rogers, the more I think of it.

Several of the characters could be drawn better—but they really don’t need to be, we get enough depth to understand them, but not much more. It fits with Orhan’s character—he sees most of them as tools to use in solving his problems. You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your hammer’s backstory. He does understand, and helps the readers to understand, the more important figures in the story. In most books, I’d criticize the lack of depth, but in this one, it actually fits.

There are a few battle scenes, but not to the extent you would get in similar books—Orhan and his men aren’t fighters by trade, they’re builders. So even the fight scenes are different than what you’re used to. I’m all for variety—especially variety that fits with the story.

There’s a whole lot going for this book, and little to complain about—for a fun, fairly quick, fantasy read, give Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City a shot.

3.5 Stars
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge

By HCNewton

On April 28, 2022

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

I’m very pleased today to welcome The Write Reads Ultimate Blog Tour for Tom Beckerlegge’s The Carnival of Ash. I couldn’t fit it into my reading schedule, but if you take a look at the feed for https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours, you’ll see a lot of bloggers who did find the time to write interesting things about it. Still, I wanted to spread the word a bit.

Book Details:

Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing
Release date: March 15, 2022
Format: Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook
Length: 528 pages

About the Book:

An extravagant, lyrical fantasy about a city of poets and librarians. A city that never was.

Cadenza is the City of Words, a city run by poets, its skyline dominated by the steepled towers of its libraries, its heart beating to the stamp and thrum of the printing presses in the Printing Quarter.

Carlo Mazzoni, a young wordsmith arrives at the city gates intent on making his name as the bells ring out with the news of the death of the city’s poet-leader. Instead, he finds himself embroiled with the intrigues of a city in turmoil, the looming prospect of war with their rival Venice ever-present. A war that threatens not only to destroy Cadenza but remove it from history altogether…

Book Links:

Amazon ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Tom Beckerlegge grew up in the northwest of England in a house filled with books. Writing as Tom Becker, he won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize with his debut novel; The Carnival of Ash is his first adult book. He lives in Enfield with his wife and young son.

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

Opening Lines: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker

By HCNewton

On April 22, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction, News/Misc., Opening Lines, Quotations

We all know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (yet, publishing companies spend big bucks on cover design/art). But, the opening sentence(s)/paragraph(s) are fair game. So, when I stumble on a good opening (or remember one and pull it off the shelves), I like to throw it up here. This one grabbed me with the voice, the perspective, and the attitude. If Parker can maintain this, I’m in for a great time.

from Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker:

I was in Classis on business. I needed sixty miles of second-grade four-inch hemp rope—I build pontoon bridges—and all the military rope in the empire goes through Classis. What you’re supposed to do is put in a requisition to Divisional Supply, who send it on to Central Supply, who send it on to the Treasurer General, who approves it and sends it back to Divisional Supply, who send it on to Central Supply, who forward it to Classis, where the quartermaster says, sorry, we have no rope. Or you can hire a clever forger in Herennis to cut you an exact copy of the treasury seal, which you use to stamp your requisition, which you then take personally to the office of the deputy quartermaster in Classis, where there’s a senior clerk who’d have done time in the slate quarries if you hadn’t pulled certain documents out of the file a few years back. Of course, you burned the documents as soon as you took them, but he doesn’t know that. And that’s how you get sixty miles of rope in this man’s army.

Opening Lines Logo

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez: Saying Good-Bye to this Hero

By HCNewton

On April 13, 2022

In A. Lee Martinez, Constance Verity, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe

by A. Lee Martinez

DETAILS:
Series: Constance Verity, #3
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Publication Date: March 7, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 290 pg    
Read Date: April 6-8, 2022

She pushed a chair into a corner of the room not visible from the street and sat. There was a feel to her life. Danger didn’t usually feel this dangerous. Danger was just background noise. But this was a lot of people trying to kill her. More than normal.

What’s Constance Verity Destroys the Universe About?

This book starts off with Constance Verity doing something almost unbelievable for her—normal things. She attends a dinner party to celebrate her best friend’s/sidekick’s upcoming wedding, she spends a day hanging out with her fiancé at a park and museum—sure, there’s a duel with an alien in there, as well as dealing with an international crisis, etc. But for Connie, that’s pretty sedate.

Then things stop happening—no death rays, mad scientists, pan-dimensional threats—not even a kitten stuck in a tree. It’s unnerving to all who know her well. On the plus side, Tia and Hiro’s wedding should go off without an interruption, right? And it does—the reception, however…

When things start happening again, there’s a distressing trend—people from all over the universe and time show up because they’ve been told that Constance Verity is going to destroy the universe, and they’re going to stop her. The assassins are plentiful enough that Connie’s getting nervous—so she does what she can to keep her loved ones safe and then sets out to see why people are saying she’s going to destroy the universe. All she’s ever done is save it, why would she change?

A Plethora of Ideas

Connie had a problem with Nebraska. And that problem was that it was too close to Kansas.

Kansas, where dark gods waited to rise from their forgotten tombs and bring about the extinction of mankind.

Kansas, where all time travel led to a black void where a pale, wizened figure would greet you, playing a banjo and singing endless choruses of “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Kansas, where Connie had come the closest to death on more than one occasion.

Kansas, her kryptonite.

In a sentence or two—or five brief paragraphs in the above quotation—Martinez is able to tell a whole story—or at least hint at one. Most of these little stories could be fodder for a novella or a novel, but in this trilogy, they’re given anywhere from a sentence fragment to a page. And then he moves on to something else so the plot can be advanced.

Every A. Lee Martinez novel has a surfeit of ideas that come flying at you, that’s nothing new. But I think in these Constance Verity novels that he’s outdone himself. Martinez treats these all as throw-away remarks, with no real investment of time on the reader’s part. But it has to be the kind of thing that would drive your average novelist to exhaustion just trying to come up with them all.

You get just a taste of a fantastic adventure or death-defying feat that Connie’s pulled off (frequently with Tia at her side) in these. You add enough of these together and you really start to see all the things that Constance has done and you understand how much is riding on her successes and how she’s become a legendary figure throughout the universe.

Sorry, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus*

It probably says something about the way my brain works that my favorite writing on Free Will vs. Determinism comes from Science Fiction—particularly those prone to a comedic tone. Okay, it says a lot about me, but that’s for another time.

Constance Verity Destroys the Universe plays with those ideas a lot—even knowing (after being told repeatedly from reliable sources) that she’s going to destroy the Universe, Connie refuses to believe it and flat out says she won’t. This idea is treated with derision by some (rightly) and supported and echoed by others (also, rightly). The mostly retired demigoddess of destiny that has moved into Connie’s apartment building cannot muster up the desire to weigh in on this, and of anyone, you’d think she’d have a lot to say about it.

I’m not saying that I think Martinez has penned a well-developed treatise on the idea in the middle of this SF/Fantasy Action novel—I’m just saying he has a lot of fun playing with the idea and that anyone who enjoys that sort of thing will find the Free Will vs. Determinism discussion a tasty side dish to accompany the SF/Fantasy entree.

* Okay, not really sorry.

So, what did I think about Constance Verity Destroys the Universe?

“I don’t have a lot of other leads, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that when in doubt, point myself toward the nearest adventure and let it work itself out.”

I hate that this volume is the end of the road for this trilogy—but I’m not sure what else he could accomplish in this world. When the series started, Connie was an adventurer/savior-of-the-universe wanting a normal life and being unable to; and we wrap up things up with her finding her own brand of normal, which she’ll be able to enjoy if she survives the assassination attempts and doesn’t destroy the universe. That’s a pretty decent arc.

I think I like the arc that her side-kick/best friend Tia goes on a smidge better, but that might be because Tia’s a bit more relatable to those of us not burdened with cosmic destiny. Either way, it’s a good run.

The ending of this is perfect on several levels—exactly how a novel (or a series) like this should end.

Could you read this apart from the other two novels? Yeah, I suppose. But I don’t think it’d be a great stand-alone, but you could get away with it. Why you’d want to, I don’t know—the first two books in the series are a blast.

On Twitter and his blog, Martinez will insist that he doesn’t write humor or comedy, that he’s not that satirical. I’m not so sure, but let’s take him at his word. His SF/Fantasy adventures (this one and all his others) are so funny that you can see why people would make that mistake. But when you ignore the humor, you get a very satisfying SF/Fantasy story that takes tropes and themes you’re very familiar with and presents them to you in a way that makes you see them with fresh eyes and frequently makes you re-evaluate the trope/theme to come at it with a new appreciation. If you happen to chuckle along the way, consider that a bonus.

Obviously, I recommend Constance Verity Destroys the Universe to you—and everything else Martinez has penned. Thank me later (if you remember to).

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Ventifact Colossus by Dorian Hart

By HCNewton

On March 30, 2022

In Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

I’m very pleased and excited today to welcome The Write Reads Blog Tour for Dorian Hart’s The Ventifact Colossus. Unlike the the bloggers whose posts about it are found at https://twitter.com/WriteReadsTours, I didn’t have time to read or write about it. Still, I wanted to spread the word a bit.

Book Details:

Book Title: The Ventifact Colossus by Dorian Hart
Series: The Heroes of Spira, Book 1
Publisher: Jester Hat Books
Release date: January 7, 2016
Format: Paperback/Ebook
Length: 344 pages

Book Blurb:

A tale of epic fantasy begins…

Banished to an otherworldly prison for centuries, the monstrous Emperor Naradawk is about to break free and wreak havoc upon the world of Spira. The archmage Abernathy can no longer keep the monster at bay, and has summoned a collection of would-be heroes to help set things right.

Surely he made a mistake. These can’t be the right people.

Dranko is priest-turned-pickpocket, expelled from his church for his antics. Kibilhathur is a painfully shy craftsman who speaks to stones. Aravia is a wizard’s apprentice whose intellect is eclipsed only by her arrogance. Ernest is a terrified baker’s son. Morningstar is a priestess forbidden from daylight. Tor is a young nobleman with attention issues. Ysabel is an elderly farm woman. Grey Wolf is a hard-bitten mercenary.

None of them are qualified to save the world, but they’ll have to do. Even Abernathy himself seems uncertain as to why he chose them.

What starts with a simple scouting mission soon spirals into something more far-reaching and sinister. The heroes will contest with dream warriors, evil cultists, sentient gemstones, and a devious yet infuriatingly polite gentleman with a perfect mustache, on their way to a desperate encounter with the unstoppable: The Ventifact Colossus.

Book Links:

Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Goodreads

About the Author:

Dorian Hart graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in creative writing. This led circuitously to a 20-year career as a video game designer, where he contributed to many award-winning titles including Thief, System Shock, System Shock 2 and BioShock. He is also the author of the interactive novella Choice of the Star Captain.

Dorian now lives in the Boston area with his fantastic wife and two clever daughters. When not serving as house chef and chauffeur, he works on the kinds of novels he’s been itching to write since he was ten years old.

Author Links:

Website ~ Twitter

My thanks to The Write Reads for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson: A Hilarious Fantasy Filled with Adventure and Shenanigans. Definitely Shenanigans.

By HCNewton

On March 14, 2022

In Fantasy, Fiction, Humor

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

by Sean Gibson

DETAILS:
Publisher: The Parliament House
Publication Date: December 10, 2020
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 358 pg.
Read Date: March 10-12, 2022

I am, if not the most well-known bard in Erithea (yet), arguably the most talented, and unarguably the cleverest. I also wouldn’t quibble if you suggested that I’m the most beautiful, but that’s just because I’m very agreeable (and beautiful)…

Decades ago, I was sworn to secrecy regarding the true story of the great and terrible “Dragonia,” but recent developments have released me from that promise, and so I can finally tell the tale.

What’s The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True About?

This is that true story about Dragonia, told alongside the “official” account so the reader can see how the details were adjusted and tweaked to create the story everyone knows.

The town (or village, depending on who you ask) of Skendrick is being terrorized by a dragon—crops are being ruined, trade is disrupted, and the town is about to fall apart. Desperate, they put out a call for adventurers to come and kill the dragon. But they get no takers—so they go to Plan B. The villagers (or townspeople) pool their meager resources to hire a bard. This bard is to compose a song to make the attempt to kill the dragon sound appealing enough—and its treasure (which may or may not actually exist) enticing enough—to get a band of adventurers to come.

This is where Heloise comes in. She takes the gig and soon gets a new and yet unaccomplished band of adventurers to take up the call to action. I don’t want to get into describing the group, you want to meet them in the book.

They encounter difficulties from without and within; nasty, malodorous geography; orcs and other creatures; and, well, the dragon.

Heloise the Bard

“You’re not half as funny as you think you are, as I suspect you have a very high opinion of yourself.”

“My opinion of myself is in direct proportion to my amazingness,” I said sweetly.

The half-elf, Heloise the Bard is our narrator—as you can tell from the quotations above, she has a fairly high opinion of herself and her abilities. She’s also rather impressed with her hair and certain other physical attributes. Probably her greatest skill is self-promotion.

She decides to accompany the adventurers, to chronicle their journey and the outcome of their clash with the dragon. Her wit and quick thinking prove valuable to their effort and her particular set of skills make all the difference.

She is a hoot. It’d be easy for Heloise to be an annoying, over-the-top character, but somehow Gibson keeps her as an entertaining, over-the-top character. I’ve been trying to come up with a character to compare her to, and I’m failing. Maybe she’s the Fantasy version of Evanovich’s Lula, except Heloise has the skills that Lula thinks she has. Maybe she’s the equivalent of High Fidelity‘s Barry. Somewhere in the Venn Diagram featuring Fantasy, Lula, and Barry, I guess.

She appears in a couple of other books by Gibson, and I’m eager to spend some more time with her.

The Humor

The section could easily be merged with the previous one because the humor displayed in the book is primarily Heloise’s. The jokes are pretty much non-stop—even in the middle of fight scenes, or when death is nigh. The danger is still present, and the combat (and so on) is as deadly as it would be in another book—it’s just surrounded by laughs.

It didn’t take me long before I’d highlighted too many lines to quote—not that it stopped me from going on. My notes on this one are ridiculous. I kept chuckling throughout the reading. I probably would’ve finished the book in 2/3 the time, if reacting to the jokes didn’t make me stop reading for a moment.

If you’ve read The Tales of Pell, you’ve got a good idea for the pace of the jokes—and tone of the book, too.

There’s slapstick, there’s scatological humor, a great Meatloaf (the singer) line, some fantastic bursts of alliteration for the sake of a laugh, some general silliness, clever dialogue, and…honestly, I’m having a hard time thinking of a kind of humor that’s not in there. There’s a running gag (that I’ve alluded to) throughout about whether Skendrick is a town or a village—I can’t tell you how often it’s brought up. And the joke works every time—I should’ve gotten sick of it, and I never did. I don’t know how Gibson pulled that off, but that alone is the mark of a fantastic humor writer.

In addition to The Tales of Pell, if you’ve enjoyed Christopher Healy, Dave Barry, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Peter David, Scott Meyer, Joe Zieja, Jim C. Hines’ Jig the Goblin series, or John Scalzi—you’re going to dig the humor here. And if you dig the humor, you’re going to really enjoy the book. It’s that simple.

So, what did I think about The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True?

You know by this point that one of my main goals in telling this story is to show that the adventuring life isn’t all it’s thought to be. It’s mostly boring, frustrating, dangerous (though not excitingly dangerous), smelly (dear gods, so smelly), and not particularly lucrative. Occasionally, however, it’s exactly how the songs make it sound, and in those moments, it’s easy to see why people—even smart, capable people like Nadi—would devote their lives to doing something so irrational. Let the record show that entering a dragon’s lair for the first time is one of those moments, and it’s fair to say that each member of our intrepid band experienced more than a frisson of excitement as we crept across that threshold.

I think it’s pretty clear that I had a blast with this book, but I should probably make that explicit. I had a blast reading this book.

I think I should not that this is not a book to read if you’re in a “find out what happened and get to the end of the story” frame of mind. This is a “enjoy the trip, not the destination”/”stop and smell the roses” kind of book. The destination/what happens is fully satisfying, but the getting-there is so much better.

In addition to the jokes and the dragon, there is a running commentary on what “the adventuring life” is like outside of the glamorous or exciting bits. A lot of fantasy novels will show bits of it, but not enough of them do—and most don’t do it this way. For example, The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True contains more description of various odors than every 99% of the fantasy novels I’ve read by a significant factor. If this were a scratch and sniff book…well, I can’t imagine anyone would stock it—you just don’t want that in your warehouse/store. Sure, it’s silly talking about realism in a book featuring orcs, halflings, elves, etc.—but this factor does ground the book and give it a seriousness (for lack of a better term) that makes this more than a collection of jokes.

This is the funniest book I’ve read in 2022, and I can’t imagine it’ll face much competition. It’s got it all, go get your hands on it.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Friday 56 for 3/11/22: The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

By HCNewton

On March 11, 2022

In Currently Reading, Fantasy, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from Page 56 of:
The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson

If this were a performance and I were describing Borden, I’d probably call it tranquil and idyllic, but those are really just polite ways of saying boring and filled with lazy people, and since I don’t need to be polite here, I’ll say this: Borden is a boring place full of lazy, and frequently chauvinistic, people….

Suffice it to say, Borden’s not exactly a star-making destination for bards on the rise, but it does consistently offer gigs with solid pay, so if I’m in the region, I make it a point to stop over for a night or two. Around the time the people of Skendrick were so desperately seeking assistance with their little dragon problem, I was in the middle of a two-night stint at Big Bob’s, the nicest tavern in Borden, which is a little bit like saying it’s the least drunk sailor in a dockside bar. Still, the disappointingly regular-sized Robert, the proprietor and namesake of the establishment, didn’t ogle me, paid performers well, and at least had a decent selection of ales, so it was my preferred stop when I was in Borden.

Quest (Audiobook) by A.J. Ponder, Benjamin Fife (Narrator): A Lighter Fantasy Adventure with a Princess Set to Save a City

By HCNewton

On March 1, 2022

In Audiobook, Book Tour, Fantasy

Quest

by A.J. Ponder, Benjamin Fife (Narrator)

DETAILS:
Series: The Sylvalla Chronicles, Book 1
Publisher: Phantom Feather Press
Publication Date: December 15, 2021
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 8 hrs., 1 min.
Read Date: February 24-25, 2022

What’s Quest About?

Sylvalla is being raised the way most fantasy princesses should—but she’s not all that interested in the finery and culture. She has fire in her and ambition—she wants to be a Hero (with a capital H) and sneaks out of the castle to pursue her dreams and find a Quest so she can get that title, even if it causes problems with the one she already has. I couldn’t help but think of Princess Eilonwy daughter of Angharad, daughter of Regat of the Royal House of Llyr, just without being hampered by an Assistant Pig-Keeper.

Dirk is one of the many swordsmen out to find her and return her for the bounty. He’s also one of the fiercest swordsmen around and has a long list of people he’s promised to kill the next time he sees them. He’s technically a Hero, but there’s little heroic about him. He finds himself Sylvalla’s sworn servant before too long and ends up accompanying her instead of bringing her home.

Meanwhile, Capro Goodfellow a wizard of small repute has just turned 150 and continues to try to get his son interested in wizardry. Jonathan’s much more drawn to the commercial life, buying and selling—and profiting from both. But you know what they say about wizards being subtle, a vision about Sylvalla gives Capro a chance to involve Jonathan in something bigger than capitalism.

Eventually, these four end up in the same place at the same time, and Sylvalla gets her chance—can she take advantage of it? Will any of them survive it?

Yeah, There Was Another Thing

There was another storyline and another group of characters that I didn’t mention. They were interesting enough, and the characters and story had potential, but I think they were squandered. I kept wondering how the book would’ve ended up had Ponder not bothered with this and had spent the space deepening the others instead.

That said, I can absolutely see where this storyline is going to pay off in a further installment of The Sylvalla Chronicle. But for now, it felt like a poor use of space and imagination.

How was the Narration?

Fife did an acceptable job—there were some really strong moments. But there were a few times when the accent he was using didn’t work (words he didn’t know how to pronounce with a British accent, for example). When I read on his website that he comes from the same state as I do, some of that made a lot more sense to me. Also, there wasn’t enough variation in his tone of voice or pacing, which got a little old after a while and made it difficult to focus (that also could be a function of how tired I was, I grant—perhaps the combination).

That comes across as more critical than I intended it to be—Fife was very strong when handling dialogue for his characters, and caught the tone of the book well. I could’ve used just a little more.

So, what did I think about Quest?

This was a light, fun fantasy story in a similar vein to A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher and Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights by Liam Perrin (to name a couple of recently discussed books here)—Ponder’s not looking to satirize the genre, just looking to tell a fun story within it. Which isn’t to say there’s no meat to it, by any means. I simply wanted a little more from the two main storylines, but that’s likely just me.

I really liked Sylvalla as a character and enjoyed her arc through this—the same, to a lesser degree, for Capro and Dirk. I even came around to liking Jonathan—I enjoyed his arc throughout, even if I spent most of the book wanting someone to give him a swift kick in the pants.

A quick hit of fantasy that will bring a grin to your face, Quest is one to check out. Given how things wrap up, I imagine the rest of her Chronicles will deliver more of the same, too.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this Tour and the materials (including the audiobook) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Quest (Audiobook) by A.J. Ponder, Benjamin Fife (Narrator)

By HCNewton

On March 1, 2022

In Audiobook, Book Tour, Fantasy, Fiction

This morning I’m pleased to welcome the Book Tour for A.J. Ponder and Benjamin Fife’s audiobook Quest. In a little bit here, I’ll be posting my take on the audiobook, but for now, let’s learn a little about the book.

Book Details:

Book Title: Quest by A.J. Ponder, Benjamin Fife (Narrator)
Series: The Sylvalla Chronicles
Publisher: Phantom Feather Press
Release date: December 15, 2021
Format: Ebook/Paperback/Audiobook
Length: 302 pages/ 8 hrs., 1 min.

About the Book:

Sylvalla escapes Avondale castle and the life of a princess, in search of the adventure she’s always wanted – but once found, adventure bites back.

Fortunately, she is not alone. Unfortunately, her new-found companions are less than heroic. Jonathan would rather make money. Dirk would rather live a long and happy life. And at 150, old Capro would rather stop gallivanting, and harangue unsuspecting wizardry students about his glory days over a nice cup of tea.

Quest has everything; monsters, chases, escapes and a complete lack of true love. Discover Quest by A.J. Ponder and rediscover fantasy.

Purchase Links:

Amazon ~ Universal Link ~ Goodreads ~ Book Bub

About the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author, A.J. Ponder has a head full of monsters, and recklessly spills them onto the written page. Beware dragons, dreadbeasts, taniwha, and small children—all are equally dangerous, and capable of treading on your heart—or tearing it, still beating, from your chest.

About the Narrator:

Benjamin Fife has always had a passion for learning. With a mind that remembers all sorts of numbers and useless trivia, he regularly wins local radio shows and enjoys confusing people with sci-fi quotes. Fife grew up in Southeast Idaho. He attended college at Idaho State University, where he met his future wife in their music theory class. They have been married nearly 20 years and now have six children and a whole menagerie of animals.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this Tour.