Cast a Dark Shadow - De-ann Black

I felt like reading something different this time. I've read a lot of good fantasy fiction recently and needed a break so have indulged my (not so) best kept secret love affair with westerns. I was hoping this latest ebook would be a decent read but unfortunately it fell somewhere short of the mark.



Like everything, there are good and bad elements to this book. The language was easy to read and I got through it in a couple of days. The story was easy to follow, which after reading a lot of heavy fantasy tales (I'm thinking of The Dark Tower here) it made a welcome change. It was good to read a mystery story. The hero of the book is discovered, unconscious, by a local boy. He is patched up by the local doctor but has lost all this memories, the story follows the hero on a discovery of who he is. Great. It's a fantastic premise and could have been a really good novel.

I'm not going to say anything else about the plot as I don't want to spoil it for anyone but I will say I feel that plot won over character in this novel. A lot of the side cast are two dimensional and flat. They seem to play a role in the book but not do anything else after that. It's a real shame as for me, characters make a novel worth reading. The hero is well thought out though and does go a ways to solve this problem.

Luck seems to play too large a part in the book too. The hero(s) are saved from death by luck more than once and after the second time it starts to feel a bit contrived. Everything fits together a bit too well and it broke reader immersion for me. I just found it too much of a coincidence, which never works well in a novel, in my opinion.

All that said, I did enjoy the read and despite its faults, it is an ok book. I'm not sure what to read next so any suggestions you have would be welcome. So long as I can get it on kindle that is!

Approaching the Dark Age; Orchestra - Matthew Chivers

I'm going to have a tough time doing this book justice as I'm reading it off the back of a series everyone in the world knows I love. Still, I will try to do my best at it.
 
Orchestra has both good and bad points like most books, I shall start with the good! The story is further developed through the novel and you get to see some genuine progress from the characters. They grow a lot more in this book than the last and I found myself interested in what happened to them. Maledream is no longer the spoilt rude brat he was at the beginning of Resonance and Angelite is a lot less irritating. Even the support characters have changed which is great. Not giving too much away, I think the one who grew the most was Crazy John due to some catastrophic events that happen. Keep an eye on him while your reading, he's worth watching!

The way the characters interact is good too, just like the last book. The squabbles and banter between Maledream and Neveah brings the characters to life. The teasing between them all shows how the relationships between the characters have changed. I hope this continues into the next book.

The world building is also very cleverly done. Chivers has put a lot of thought into this aspect of his writing and it clearly shows while your reading. I love how crystal energies are harnessed and found the 'learning' parts of the book fascinating. I keep wondering whether I should magpie it and do something similar for my own work but that would be cheating right?

OK, the not so good stuff: I know Chivers is dyslexic and for him to create a novel of this length is a true victory, however, saying that, there are more than a few words that are the incorrect one, example: pale and pail, weather and whether. I know its a small thing but it is distracting for a reader. It breaks immersion and lets be honest here, having someone else read through the work would solve this problem.

The next issue, and probably my biggest with the book was the use of other people's phrases. I spotted three in there and they bugged me. 'Make it so' belongs to Picard, 'I love it when a plan comes together' is from the A Team and 'At last we will have revenge' was uttered by Darth Maul. Rather famous lines said by big characters. Maybe it was a shot at intertextuality, I don't know, but I found it jarring.

The last thing I will mention that needs working on is dialogue. Some of it is OK, some of it really does need looking at. People just don't speak to each other that way. Some more clipped words and slang would be great. Although keeping the slang in speech is a must!

And that's your lot. I did enjoy this book despite the issues I found and I think Chivers works very hard to achieve this. It shows in his writing and long may he continue, it's a vast improvement on the first novel and it shows in the virtual pages! Keep it up!

The Wind Through the Keyhole - Stephen King

I got the latest Gunslinger book for my birthday, which made me a very happy person I can tell you. I've been meaning to get my grubby little paws on it for a while and it was well worth the wait.

It was delightful to open a book and find Roland and Co in it. Something that has been disappointing me when I have opened other books lately. King seems to have ruined a lot of things for me by having awesome characters I want to read about. Not a bad thing, this new book was ace. King uses the story within a story frame set for this novel and does so masterfully. The flow of the stories are perfect and fit together seamlessly proving once again that he is a master author.

I was a bit concerned that this novel would turn out to be a cash in on a complete series, that the tone of this book wouldn't fit in with what I've come to know and love. I couldn't have been more wrong, all the flavours from the original novels are in the book and yet we still manage to learn new things about the characters. The themes that permeate theother books are present, although its more subtle as the majority of the novel is set in Roland's past.

The use of language is such a high standard in the novel that I don't even know where to begin, it is easy to see why King has built himself an empire! The same can be said for the world building More detail is added to Mid-World that we didn't know about and although the place is dying, you can really see the place with deep colour.

I could praise this book all day and then go some more but really, it speaks for itself, go and read it. You don't need to have read the other Gunslinger novels to follow the story which makes it a wonderful introduction to the series. However, it has also made an old fan like me very happy once more.

Star Trek: TNG: Klingon Empire: A burning House - Keith R A DeCandido

I fancied something different and as many of you who know me are aware, I am a fan of Star Trek. Reading a novel about the Klingon's was a good choice.

I loved the novel, it was fun in every way. I'll start with the technicalities. There were no spelling errors, the pacing of the individual stories was perfect, it kept me gripped and interested throughout and I even enjoyed reading the Klingon language that peppered the book.

The story follows the crew of the ship Gorkon while they are on leave as the ship is repaired. Once I got used to the individuals names - there are a lot of names starting with K - I found the stories captivating. The characters are all different and the way they interact is beautifully written. All the stories are different and interwoven expertly with each other, keeping the reader wanting to know more... there were a few late nights reading with this book that's for sure.

The novel brought in some old familiar faces, Worf for instance, but I don't think the book needed to refer to a familiar character. The story with him in was good, don't get me wrong, but his presence wasn't needed.

All in all this was a good read and I'd recommend it to those who are familiar with the Star Trek universe. I was a welcome break from some of the other things I have been reading recently that's for sure.

Wizard Rising - Toby Neighbours

I'm afraid to say that this book was average at best. There are a number of reasons for this and I shall go into those in just a moment. I'm going to start by saying something positive though. I like to find something positive in everything I read, sometimes this is easy, sometimes this is most difficult. Here goes...

I enjoyed the main character in the story most of the time I was reading about him. He was a well rounded individual with enough flaws and insecurities to be mildly interesting. He learns through the novel and there was some growth in there as well. I particularly liked the developing relationship between the hero and his father. It worked well for me. The world building was also decent. Neighbours had put some thought into it and it showed while I was reading. Well done!

Now down to the niggles and there are a few of them. I found more than a handful of spelling mistakes in the book that would make even my top year 5's cringe. To find them in a book I have purchased is a bit of an insult if I'm honest. There were multiple instances of words being duplicated, put in the wrong place or omitted, which made it hard to read in places. Continuity was a bit of an issue as well when the heroines hair changed colour half way through the novel, it started off black but became blond at the end of the novel. Another issue, the one that got to me the most was the phrase 'off of' as in 'get off of him'. It is sloppy and could be replaced with something much easier to read, for example, 'He couldn't take his mind from her.' What this book really needs is another final edit to pick up on these little mistakes. It would make the books grammar a lot tighter and it would be a better read.

Let's move on to another issue I have with the book; the plot. It all seemed a bit generic and dull, I've read a lot of independent novels now and a lot of them have very similar plots to other fantasy stories. I know you can only do so much but there are infinite possibilities and ways to put your own spin on a tale. This book falls a bit short of the mark, making it just another fantasy story.

The secondary characters were okay in places, dull in others. The antagonists seemed like generic conniving wizards without any real reason for their power hunger. It also seemed a bit silly describing a huge power struggle between them - taking sides and making alliances, when there are only four of them. It didn't seem to work that well.

Wizard Rising was not the worst book I have ever read, it's not even in the top ten, but it isn't the best either. Maybe after another re-write it will be but that's between the author and his words.

The First time: True Stories of Virginity Lost and Found - Kate Munro

This book was offered to me via email from Amazon, I get them monthly and usually ignore them as they deserve but this one caught my eye. It's true stories of people's first sexual experiences. Maybe I was attracted to it because I'm nosy, a trait inherited from my mother! Nevertheless, my interest was piqued so I gave it a go.

Munro has collected stories from all walks of life, the stories are captivating. It is a subject everyone has an opinion on and Munro doesn't skimp on expressing those of the people she interviews. It was interesting to see the aspects of social history involved and how attitudes towards sex have changed over the last one hundred years. I enjoyed learning of people's different experiences of thier first time and reading of their different attitudes towards the event. A lot of emphasis was placed on the spiritual journey too and how one single event can shape the whole of an individual's life. I both agreed and disagreed with this but to be able to have such thoughts provoked by a text was a wonderful reading experience.

It was lovely to read the opinions of those much older than myself. To hear the stories of men and women in thier 70's, 80's and even 90's was a delight. Thier attitudes at the time were so different to my own it seemed so alien. The stories come from the spectrum of the world, from Muslim to Christian, men and women are both included, the experiences good and bad. Munro expresses that she has many stories that are not included in the book and I'd like to be able to read some more tales.

Although this book was written like an essay, I found it easy to read, unlike some of the books I read at university. The language flowed and I read this book in a matter of days. This is a quick review and I hope I can do the book justice. It made a great change to read a non fiction book and what started out as a nosy curiosity turned into a genuine good read. Give it a go, it really is a thought provoking book.

Eye of the Wizard (Misfit Heroes, Book 1) - Daniel Arenson

This book was a blessing of a find. I wanted to read some fantasy, as I often do, but fancied something a bit different and this book offered me just that. It follows the story of five characters and how their apparent flaws get them exiled from their homes. They end up banding together and having to save the world from a skeletal warlock whose lust for revenge seems to dominate his entire being.

I admit to being a bit unsure during the first chapter or so as I didn't know quite how to take the novel. Once I realised it was a comedy and written to be so, I started enjoying it. I enjoyed it so much I managed to finish it in a matter of days! Although I wasn't quite laughing out loud, there were a few snickers along the way. Arenson writes in a few cliches through the novel which normally would be a massive ranting point - as I have done in the past - but he uses them to his advantage. He pokes fun at the accepted norms of fantasy and does so very well. The antagonist of the novel is a walking cliche but that's what he is meant to be and as a result, is all the more amusing.

The language was a delight to read, simple and to the point, there are no long winded descriptions in the novel, a lot of this is left to the reader - just how I like it, I think even the ten year old kids in my class at work would enjoy this novel, its so easy to read! Not too many adverbs and the right balance between action and chatter.

There are five protagonists in the book and each one has different flaws. These flaws do cause the characters no end of problems, especially the warlock who gains a temporary deformity every time he casts a spell, like rabbit ears or a giraffe neck, yet somehow they manage to overcome their difficulties and still achieve their goals. The characters seemed balanced and well formed to me, I cared about what happened to them and even the odd repetition of phrases didn't bother me.

I only have two niggly points to make about the novel; the chapters seemed episodic to me, like the novel was written as a bunch of short stories and then formed into a novel later, they are consistent but I like a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of a chapter, not for everything to be well rounded - maybe a personal preference and don't let it put you off reading. The other is an even more minor point, one of the characters makes a curse on the Queen of England. It bothered me because it's set in a fantasy world, which means England probably doesn't exist, let alone have a queen, it grated me a little but not enough to put me off the novel.

I have heard there is a sequel to the novel so will be off to give that a read in a little while, this book is well worth it, it will have you laughing on the inside, if not the out!