Tag: Review

• Author: Jaime Lee Mann
• Publisher: Blue Moon Publishers
• ISBN: 9780993639715

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book.  Not only have I had a spate of not so good books lately, but this book came about from the author telling her children bedtime stories.  Because of that, I thought for sure this would be a new favorite.  What Fantasy fanatic doesn’t love a good fairytale type book that originated from a child’s beloved bedtime story?!  Unfortunately, as much as I tried, I just didn’t enjoy this book at all.  In fact, I only got about halfway through before I stopped trying to come up with excuses for it and gave up.

The problem is almost immediate.  This is meant to be a middle grade book.  However, the writing is so simplistic that it makes Disney movies seem profoundly complex.  It feels like it should be for a child just beginning to read, but there are some elements of the story that I would feel uncomfortable with a child that young reading about.  A younger child would take the events of the book, or at least most of them, at face value, but there is such a lack of explanation that I think a middle grade reader would be bored or annoyed with it.

At first, I was going to recommend this as the type of book that could be read to any younger child.  However, I think that parents should read the book first and then decide on whether or not it’s appropriate.

• Author: Nancy Baker
• Publisher: ChiZine Publications
• ISBN: 9781771483100

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Euskalans are a matriarchal society that must pay tribute to the Fey every year at a faire.  Teresine was a Deshiniva slave girl in Jayasita when she escapes by stowing away on the boat of the Euskalan’s ruler’s daughter, Sarit.  She becomes extremely close to the ruling family.  Teresine’s, and her family’s, story unfolds from there.

I can’t really say anything else about the story without giving too much away.  What I can say is that this isn’t an action story or even a quest narrative.  It’s simply the story of Teresine’s life and how her interactions with the Fey cause unforeseen consequences for her family.  The only thing that even makes this a Fantasy story is the inclusion of the Fey, though it is a different world with many vaguely Asian elements.  If anything, I found the combination interesting.  However, the story itself was a bit predictable, the main issue was too easily resolved in a very uncontroversial way despite the issue’s extreme controversy in reality, and the pacing was slow.  Also, I got the impression that the matriarchal society was “superior”.  Even though the Euskalans did seem to have a better life, especially compared to the life that Teresine lived while she was in Jayasita, the only power that the men seem to have is that they are able to choose their partners.  They don’t have any power within the government, and though the women’s choice of whether or not to have a family is an admirable aspect, I don’t agree that any form of society where the genders aren’t completely equal is superior.  The Euskalan society is just a reversal of gender roles with the added benefit of a lack of double standards in regards to sex and relationships.  It was believable, but not Feminist.

Because of this book’s emphasis on the women’s story, a female-centric part of a much larger world, and a plot that reads like a Lifetime movie, along with the fact that men don’t have much of a voice, I can only recommend it to those who prefer that type of story and/or brand of “Feminism”.

• Author: Amelia Smith
• ISBN: 9781941334065
• Publisher: Split Rock Books

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Darna is a servant who can see dragons and has dreams of going to Anamat.  When she finds out something that could ruin her plans, she runs away from Tiadun keep.  She befriends other “scrapplings” along the way and they discover that to survive in Anamat, they’ll have to beg, scavenge, and steal their way into enough beads to buy an apprenticeship.  Despite this rude awakening to a rough life involving street gangs and the risk of being thrown in jail, they all agree that it’s still better than where they came from.

The problem with this story is that nothing really happens.  At first it comes off as a sort of quest narrative, but after Darna and her new friends reach Anamat, the story meanders around seemingly with no point.  It eventually goes somewhere, but I began to get irritated with its lack of progress towards any kind of a climax or resolution at about the halfway mark.  It didn’t help that I absolutely despised one of the characters, Iola.  That would have been fine if she were one of the unsavory characters, but that wasn’t why I couldn’t stand her.  She wasn’t someone I loved to hate.  She was just so ridiculously naive and clueless about everything, and on top of that, her fanatical religious beliefs caused her to betray her friends.

One of the few elements that I enjoyed about this book is that the story is set in a very sexist world that also seems to treat its children as easily cast aside.  Unlike a couple other books I’ve read this year, though, the main character is a young girl who chooses to go against societal pressures to make her own way in the world and not just accept her “fate”.  The girls in this story have backgrounds and character traits and physical descriptions.  They’re not just decoration or plot points along the way.

Overall, I didn’t really like Scrapplings.  However, I didn’t hate it either.  I think it deserves a chance if you truly love Fantasy, especially Fantasy involving dragons, or if you’re tired of reading male-centric trope filled quest narratives.  This isn’t for you if you prefer fast(er) paced books, and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who is new to the Fantasy genre.

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kirin D’Velt, son of the Kovor (the village’s leader), goes through his coming of age tests, but as he’s returning from his final test, he finds a horrible scene of devastation and death.  The rest of the story involves his true coming of age as his experiences mold him into a man.

Aaaaand that’s pretty much it.  Oh, and there’s plenty of tropes, sexism, and the objectification of the very few women who show up along the way.  After the halfway point, the plot becomes ridiculously predictable, and Kirin (who takes on the name Aeden) turns into the generic male Fantasy character.  Sometimes the descriptions feel a bit repetitive, and lines that seem wise end up coming off as moralizing or, at the very least, trying too hard.  The story often feels like a rip off of real world history.  Most of Aeden’s time is spent at a monastery of a religion that is a copy of Medieval Christianity, and one of the monks, whose personality and statements are stereotypically Arab, is from a place that resembles South West Asia.  Towards the end of the story, they end up in this monk’s homeland, where it is obvious that the people hate the monks and their religion.  To top it all off, we don’t even find out the rest of Aeden’s story.  I don’t know if we’re not supposed to know, or if the author intends to write a sequel, but either way, the non-ending made me even more angry than I already was.  If there will be a sequel, I won’t be buying it.

I really thought this was going to be a great Fantasy story.  I wanted to like it.  I kept my eye out for anything good about it that I could write in this review so that it wouldn’t seem all bad.  Even with all the things I’ve mentioned, this isn’t the worst book I’ve read this year.  I tolerated it enough to finish it, but I definitely didn’t enjoy it.  The only people I can recommend Tears of a Heart to are those who absolutely love Fantasy and/or coming of age tales no matter how contrived or poorly written, or perhaps die-hard fans of Terry Goodkind who thought Stone of Tears was a great book.  Both titles include the word “tears”, and both are on my list of books that made me decide to not continue reading an author’s books.

Of Bone and Thunder, by Chris Evans, is so good that I wasn’t quite sure what to say about it beyond “You must read this book!”  It’s a retelling of the Vietnam War in a Fantasy setting (including dragons).  Though it deals with the horrors of war, it’s not moralistic.  It is vividly realistic, however, and not for those with weak stomachs.  The story is told from several characters’ points of view, which are diverse.  I was pulled into what they were going through in such a way that I didn’t know how connected I was to them until I was crying at one point, and almost snarling every time one of the characters came into a scene.  I realized this isn’t a book; it’s a world to become fully immersed in.  It’s also a roller coaster, with well-timed lulls in the action for much needed breathers.  I never had to take a break from this novel, and that’s all due to the pacing, which I didn’t even notice until I thought about it afterwards.

Two things I did notice while reading were his handling of race and gender issues.  Again, this wasn’t done in a moralistic way.  He simply wrote about the realities during the Vietnam Era.  The race issues are between men and dwarves.  Dwarves are formerly enslaved, newly integrated into Human society, and derogatorily referred to as “mules”.  For the gender issues, women simply aren’t present, mentioned only in passing, with the exception of a very few who have a hard won agency.  They are looked down upon as being inferior by many of the male characters.  Respect is slowly gained as the story approaches its climax, but there remain men who still espouse their beliefs that women belong at home.  Though at first I felt annoyed at the lack of women, that was a knee jerk reaction.  Now, I see it as refreshing to have an author face the ugly truth of sexism without being preachy.

I would love to recommend this book to everyone, but it’s more for those who enjoy war stories or D&D type Fantasy.  I’m giving it 5 stars, and adding it to my list of all time favorite books.