Sep 7 2013

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Book Review: Wrath of a Mad God by Raymond E. Feist

Title: Wrath of a Mad God

Author: Raymond E. Feist

Series: The Darkwar Saga #3

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Overview: The Darkwar rages upon Midkemia and Kelewan, bringing bleak days of destruction and despair. To save the future of both worlds, the powerful sorcerer Pug and select members of the secretive Conclave of Shadows must journey deep into the dangerous realm of the bloodthirsty Dasati, there to carry out an audacious mission that has little, if any, chance of succeeding. In Midkemia, young warriors Tad and Zane, and their fellow soldiers, protect the Kingdom from raiders. And Pug’s beloved wife, Miranda, finds herself a prisoner of the Dasati and, even more ominously, of Pug’s nemesis, the evil sorcerer Leso Varen. Salvation may come from a friend thought long dead, an unlikely ally whose remarkable powers will be sorely needed in the momentous battle to come . . . a final, fevered onslaught against the most malevolent agents of evil ever known.

The Review:

Feist’s books have a special place in my heart as they were the novels that introduced me to the world of fantasy. I love his plots, his settings, and his characters. They are all memorable and dynamic and the main reason why I pick up each new book. These later works by Feist contain a great balance of new and old, which I love because it keeps the story both fresh and nostalgic at the same time.

As sad as I am to say it, I think Wrath of a Mad God was my least favorite novel so far in the 20+ list of books from him that I’ve read. I loved the premise for this story, but I had a little trouble with the concepts. They seemed a bit self-indulgent, requiring a great deal of explaining. When you need it fifty or more pages to explain to your audience what’s going on (especially so far in a series where the framework of the world and its realities are already pretty well-established) your concepts might be a bit too convoluted.

Another thing I noticed with this book (which I can’t decided if it’s a good or bad thing) is the fact that the series as a whole has slowly transformed from fantasy to science fiction. There is no space travel, but people from different worlds still find ways to interact through magical rifts and wrinkles in dimensions. While this shift in genre is interesting, part of me misses the epic fantasy feel of his earlier works.

Overall, I am slightly dissatisfied, but only when comparing it to the standard of other Feist novels. Nostalgia aside, I should also mention (without spoilers) that the ending of this book blew my mind and I genuinely can’t wait to see what happens next!

Recommended Reading: I usually hand the first book (Magician: Apprentice) to anybody wanting to try fantasy. It’s an excellent representation of the genre, and one I think fans of Terry Brooks and David Eddings would enjoy. Also, for any Feist fans who haven’t yet made it this point – keep reading, it’s worth it!

by Niki Hawkes

Other books you might like:

: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

: Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

: Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind

: The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Sep 5 2013

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Book Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Title: All Our Yesterdays

Author: Cristin Terrill

Series: Cassandra Chronicles #1

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: 5/5 stars!

The Overview: “You have to kill him.” Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain. Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside. Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was.

The Review:

All Our Yesterdays seems to garner mixed reactions from the amazing book bloggers I follow. Because it wasn’t getting across-the-board rave reviews, I decided to pass on it. I have to thank the marketing team at Netgalley for putting it back on my radar, because I absolutely loved it! It had me from the first page, and I set aside all my other books until I finished it (which is a rare thing for me, as I usually have about ten different books going at once).

One of my favorite things about this novel (there was a few) is how well the story was organized. Everything unfolded almost effortlessly, yet I know it must’ve taken a ton of work. It flowed so well that I forgot to take notes for this post (which, with really awesome titles, I don’t need the notes anyway because I’m so fired up about them). In my eyes, it was brilliant.

While the concept and world building were amazing, the real strength of this novel is in character development. Each character was distinct, vibrant, and written well enough to make me feel personally invested in their struggles. The range of dynamics she was able to get surrounding each individuals’ personality blew my mind. They were incredibly profound characters, and I guarantee I won’t be forgetting about them anytime soon.

Time travel is difficult to do well – there always seems to be several frustrating plot holes. If there were inconsistencies in All Our Yesterdays, Terrill hid them well within her explanations of how time travel works. Her concepts mixed with the clear, beautiful writing has me convinced she is a truly brilliant author – you can tell this project took a lot of thought and planning. Even though I read this as a free digital copy, I liked it so much I bought the hardcover the day it came out. I will definitely be reading anything she publishes in the future!

Recommended Reading: this book is fighting for a place in my top five favorite dystopians! Because of that, I plan on recommending it to fans of that genre – especially to those in the mood for something slightly different. Also to anyone wanting an atypical love story.

Thank you NetGalley and Disney Book Group for the chance to read and review this title!

Other books you might like:

: Divergent by Veronica Roth

: The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

: Legend by Marie Lu

: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

: Pure by Julianna Baggott

by Niki Hawkes

Sep 2 2013

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Your Pick for Nik – August’s Review: The Sharing Knife: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold

Title: The Sharing Knife: Beguilement

Author: Lois McMaster Bujold

Series: The Sharing Knife #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family’s farm. Enroute to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers. The necromancers armed with human bone knives fight “malices”, immortal entities that draw out life, enslaving humans and animals. Dag saves Fawn from a malice – at a devastating cost. Their fates are now bound in a remarkable journey.

The Review:

Story: I have read dozens of romance novels with a fantasy twist, but I have never before read a robust, rounded fantasy with a full romance focus. It was the very first true hybrid of the genres in my eyes and I have to say, if all romances were presented in this format I doubt I’d read much else. Usually, the biggest draws for a fantasy novel are world-building and events (fight scenes, magic/spell casting, etc. – basically: external conflicts). Romances, on the other hand, often focus exclusively on character and inner conflicts. To find a romance with such an authentic, rich fantasy world kind of blew my mind. I daresay this series is a sub-genre all its own and the unique mix of the two worlds was my favorite element of this story.

Pacing: As a strong character-driven story, most of the conflict was centered around the two main characters’ relationship and, as a result, was very slow-developing. While fantastic for a love story (because as far as I can tell, no one likes an insta-love) readers expecting a lot of action would probably have gotten bored. Personally, I enjoyed the relationship focused so much that I was totally engaged throughout the entire novel. In fact, some of my favorite parts took place when the pacing was at it slowest. Every scene in Beguilement was absorbing, and I lost myself to the internal conflicts of these characters more than once.

World-Building: I am always impressed when an author can come up with a compelling magic system. The magic in the story wasn’t earth-shattering, but it had some really cool history behind it, and I liked what it added to the story. The magic wasn’t the only thing with great history – the different cultures highlighted in the book were fascinating, and you can tell the author spent a lot of time on their development. Also, the villains in this book stems from and enhanced the history of this land (and, in my opinion, are what sold the book to me as a true fantasy). It really set up a strong foundation for what promises to be an excellent series!

Writing: This author screams of awareness. Although the story came across effortless, while analyzing it I could see several conscious decisions made by the author to shape this book into something amazing. Everything from side characters to settings were carefully orchestrated to build up the conflicts and draw you in further. I wish I could break it down more clearly, because it really was all the little things added up that made this a good novel. I applaud this author for not only understanding enough about story and genres to produce this amazing hybrid, but also for her talent as a writer to make everything in this world come alive!

Overall, I am thrilled this book was chosen for the YPFN book club, and I genuinely look forward to seeing where the story goes next!

Recommended Reading: As this one is heavily romance based, I would probably be more inclined to hand it to someone who likes love stories. It is an excellent crossover book for people who love romance and want to try fantasy, and vice versa.

by Niki Hawkes

Other books you might like:

: The Last Dragonlord byJoAnne Bertin

: First Truth by Dawn Cook

: Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon

: Sword – Dancer/Sword – Singer by Jennifer Roberson

: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Discussion time! (May contain spoilers):

Who was your favorite character?

I think Dag (although I really enjoyed Fawn’s aunt). I see him as an honorable character, and loved how he coped with villains, troop mates, and Fawn’s family.

What was your favorite part of the story?

The fact that it was a true mix between fantasy and romance… And done so in a way that brought out the best of both worlds.

We learned part way through the book just how much older Dag was than Fawn… did the significant age difference bother you?

For a while, I felt like it should. I think what saved it for me as that we got a chance to see just how genuinely Dag cared for her and there were no creepy alternative motives surrounding his relationship with this much younger girl. The characters evolved into so much more than age that I ended up coming out with a positive opinion of it. I don’t know that that positive opinion of the gap would transfer over to real life, however.

Did the lack of action after the first quarter of the book bother you?

No, Because I could see that wasn’t the point of the story. If you are going to focus so much on internal conflicts that the external take a backseat, it better be brilliant. And you know what? It was.

The questions are meant to generate conversation, so feel free to answer any or all in the comments area. If you also wrote a review for Beguilement, let me know and I will add a personalized link in this review.

Aug 30 2013

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August 2013: Review Recap / ARC August Challenge

I read quite a few books this month, and a lot of them were ARCs for my ARC August challenge (see below). In fact, I read so many books that I didn’t have enough time in my blogging schedule to feature them all (the one’s I didn’t get to will be featured in next month’s recap).

Here’s a look at this month’s books:

(click the covers for the full review)

Spartan Frost – 1/5 stars

Spartan Frost by Jennifer Estep

Never Fade – 4/5 stars

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Zenn Scarlett – 3/5 stars

Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

Hexed – 4/5 stars

Legend – 5/5 stars!

Broken Forest – 2.5/5 stars

Broken Forest by Eliza Tilton

Countdown – 2/5 stars

Countdown by Michelle Rowen

And my favorite:

Dragon Keeper – 5/5 stars!

The Dragon Keeper

Statistically, I find this month fascinating. It has the lowest average rating so far this year, and I can’t help but think that it has something to do with the fact that I read mostly “obligation” books (Aka: books I read because I feel like I should). I made a deal with myself at the beginning of the year that I wouldn’t read anything because I felt like I had to – and you know what? It’s made for this single best year in reading I’ve ever had! The moral of the story? Don’t bog yourself down by mediocre books just because they are free. That’s not to say there aren’t some truly amazing titles available as ARCs, it just pays to be picky.

Now for the ARC August challenge recap:

I am super excited that Octavia at Read. Sleep. Repeat. hosted this challenge because it gave me the motivation I needed to work through all of my outstanding ARCs. I’m happy to say that of the original six I plan to read, I got through four of them… And then read four additional acquisitions to boot! I never thought I would be at this point, but I finally have my Net Galley ARCs down to just two books – and it’s going to stay that way this time (by the way, for this challenge I considered only current ARCs eligible… it’s incredibly sad how many past ones I never got to before their release dates)!

ARCs Read:

: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

: Sky Jumpers by Peggy Edelman

: Inhuman by Kat Falls

: Countdown by Michelle Rowen

: Broken Forest by Eliza Tilton

: Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

: Spirit Animals: Wild Born by Brandon Mull

You can definitely see what kind of arcs draw my attention. The clear winner for my favorite arc read this month is: All Our Yesterdays! I haven’t officially written a review for it yet, but suffice to say it was a 5/5 star rating and one that I will be talking about for months – I loved it! Spirit Animals was a close second, and that review is also forthcoming.

by Niki Hawkes

Aug 28 2013

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Book Review: Countdown by Michelle Rowen

Title: Countdown

Author: Michelle Rowen

Series: N/A

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: 2/5 stars

Release Date: September 24, 2013

The Overview: 3 seconds left to live. Once the countdown starts, it cannot be stopped… 2 pawns thrown into a brutal underground reality game. Kira Jordan survived her family’s murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and a low-level psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis…1 reason Kira will never, ever trust Rogan. Even though both their lives depend on it. Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira’s psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan’s secrets prove evermore deadly, Kira’s only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even if that means running head-on into the one trap she can’t escape.

The Review:

I’ve agonized over this review for a couple of weeks now because the book was one of those that didn’t sing to me, even though it had several good attributes. Even so, the bad sort of outweighed the good in my mind and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I think the best way to approach it is to start off by talking about the things I enjoyed:

The overall concept for the book, and even the first chapter had me convinced this was going to be a five-star book. Two strangers are thrown together into a deadly game in which they have to complete all the tasks to survive. The suspense was increased when they realized they had to complete each task before the countdown hits zero or else they died. The life or death competition for survival in this book instantly reminded me of Hunger Games meets The Maze Runner. The characters didn’t know what was going on, save the fact that the tasks were for the amusement of a paying crowd. You can see why I was so excited – Rowen’s concept for this story was out of this world, and the way she told it within the first couple of chapters had me shaking with excitement (I also loved her voice, and enjoyed how well she immersed me in the character).

Then, the more the story moved along, the more the missed opportunities for brilliance began to add up. On to the things I didn’t enjoy:

As mentioned before, the basis for the book was that these two characters had to overcome a series of deadly challenges to make it to the end. The problem was, the challenges weren’t that difficult… or creative. In fact, their lack of development really kind of blew my mind. Most of the tasks took place with a 5 to 10 minute countdown, and by the time I got my brain wrapped around the task, it was already over. I honestly think that if the author had taken a half hour of her time and just brainstormed how to make these challenges interesting, she could’ve come up with something ten times better than what she had. Instead, what I felt were her biggest selling points of the novel came across as nothing but throw-away scenes. It showed a relative lack of awareness to setting and world-building, and I think those are non-negotiable elements when writing dystopians.

After finishing the book, I found out through Goodreads that this author writes under a different name (Morgan Rhodes) and that I have read a book by her in the past (Falling Kingdom s). I laughed when I discovered this because I discussed in that review how disappointed I was in the world-building. I also found out that this book was originally published as a romance novel and was adapted for a teen audience. It actually clarified a few question marks I had about why a female teen protagonist was seemingly okay (even though not thrilled) with a large audience of unknown spectators seeing her naked (and, additionally, why she was so un-conflicted about jumping in bed with a boy, but that’s another story). All I’m saying is that there were several parts of the book where I felt the author forgot her audience, and after seeing this story’s origins, am no longer confused.

Overall, I’m really bummed about this novel and what it could have been.

Recommended Reading: for those of you who have to read every dystopian on the market because you just can’t help yourselves.

by Niki Hawkes

Other dystopians you might like more:

: Partials by Dan Wells

: Legend by Marie Lu

: The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

: Divergent by Veronica Roth

: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Partials Review • Legend Review • The 5th Wave Review • Divergent Review • Pure Review

Thank you Net Galley and Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Aug 24 2013

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Book Review: Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

Title: Dragon Keeper

Author: Robin Hobb

Series: Rain Wild Chronicles #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5/5 stars!

The Overview: Too much time has passed since the powerful dragon Tintaglia helped the people of the Trader cities stave off an invasion of their enemies. The Traders have forgotten their promises, weary of the labor and expense of tending earthbound dragons who were hatched weak and deformed by a river turned toxic. If neglected, the creatures will rampage–or die–so it is decreed that they must move farther upriver toward Kelsingra, the mythical homeland whose location is locked deep within the dragons’ uncertain ancestral memories.

Thymara, an unschooled forest girl, and Alise, wife of an unloving and wealthy Trader, are among the disparate group entrusted with escorting the dragons to their new home. And on an extraordinary odyssey with no promise of return, many lessons will be learned–as dragons and tenders alike experience hardships, betrayals . . . and joys beyond their wildest imaginings.

The Review:

In my eyes, Robin Hobb is the epitome of an amazing fantasy author. Every element of writing I expect from my books she always delivers brilliantly, and is easily one of my all-time favorite authors. I didn’t think she could do anything to make me love her more… until she wrote a series about dragons!

She has written about dragons before, but takes it to the next level of brilliance in this latest, amazing series: The Rain Wild Chronicles. It follows the life cycle of dragons, makes them just as important as the humanoid protagonists, and celebrates just how beautiful and shall we say unhuman they really are.

I love how well-developed Hobb’s characters are. They always feel like real people, and their flaws make them endearing. What’s great about Dragon Keeper is that she applies that same talent for character development to dragons. I found the whole thing entirely fascinating and loves how much of an active role the dragons had in the story – we even get several chapters from the dragon’s POV.

Part of the reason Hobb’s characters are so memorable is that she takes a lot of time within the story developing them to their fullest. Her novels, while not lacking in either setting, plot, or events, are strongly character-driven. A lot of times the larger scope of the story takes a backseat to the inner conflicts of her characters. I have to say, I’ve never been bored despite the slower pacing. Hobb’s works are like trickles of water running into streams – A bit narrow and unremarkable at first, but eventually growing into raging rivers that give you an exhilarating ride to the end. I have never been anything less than completely engaged, and I absolutely love that about her works.

Overall, if you are a dragon-lover like me and haven’t yet picked this up you’ll kick yourself for waiting so long when you finally do (I know I did).

Recommendations: While this series can be read as a standalone, the characters within are ones we’ve seen before. In fact, this book is the culmination of everything we’ve been working towards in a previous series. Even though dragons don’t play a huge role in the earlier novels, they are still well worth your time to read. The last book in the Tawny Man series was so profound that it was one of the main reasons why I started this blog (I’d read a phenomenal book and had no one to tell… that had to change). :-)