Ghost Plantation: Frank is truly evil
I know Ghost Plantation is such a cheesy title, but I can’t think of a better title yet. I am hoping the death scenes aren’t too hokey. I am happy to say that I have made it to 25k words as of last night!
Would love to hear from anyone who has read any of this.
Here’s a tease of the next couple of chapters. You can read the rest after the jump.
Melissa’s sobs shook her entire body. The three cousins had grown up together. They were like siblings. Jonathan’s horrific babbling washed over her like waves of fire. Each sob felt as if she were going to break in two. George held her helplessly not realizing the tears running down his own paling features.
Frank watched it all in detachment. He was surprised and a little excited at the way Jonathan’s words made him feel. He understood now why the fog had felt so empowering. He struggled to hide his emotions. These sensitive rich kids would, could never understand. They lacked the character, the backbone to comprehend true power. His eyes fell on Alexia’s horrified expression. Such a little treasure she was. His eyes slid past her to the sniveling girl on the ground. His lip curled in mild disgust. He never could take the sight of such a show of emotion.
A thought came to mind that had Frank turning around to hide his smile.
“I think we should get back inside as quickly as possible. There may be a wild animal loose out there. We’ll get to the hotel staff and they’ll call the authorities,” Frank said.
He knelt down by George and the still weeping Melissa. She shied away from him immediately. Melissa did not want him anywhere near her. It was his fault Vicky had gotten separated from them. If he had just been a little nicer to her, she would… Melissa began to cry again too tired for the sobs. The pain shook her body instead. Bobby who had remained silent throughout everything stepped in and embraced Jonathan. He rocked his friend as if he were a child. He made shushing noises, repeating, “It’s ok, man, it’s ok.”
Review: The Bone Doll’s Twin
A friend of mine gave me a five dollar gift card to Borders about a month ago. Armed with the gift card and 30% off coupon, I went off to Borders to wander through their sci-fi/fantasy section. After several false starts, I came across Lynn Flewelling’s The Bone Doll’s Twin. I’d seen this cover several times and although intrigued never actually picked it up to read the back blurb. The novel is a great deal darker than the blurb led me to believe, but in a good way. When the blurb writer describes Tobin as disguised as a boy, I had no idea just how misleading that statement was.
Flewelling is a compelling storyteller. I never felt the need to skip uninteresting prose or boring scene descriptions until the last few pages when I was ready to pass out and just needed to know what was going to happen next.
I found the story fascinating, but so dark that in my current emotional state I could only take in small doses of this novel. Tobin has lived his entire life with the ghost of his twin brother chained to first his mad mother’s side and then to his after her death. Except Tobin is not a boy. He was born a girl. In order to protect her, the adults in her life put in motion a plan that would mean the sacrifice of one child to save her life and the kingdom. Tobin’s life changes with the arrival of Ki, a younger son of a landless knight, as his squire. Ki brings Tobin out of strange shell and shows how to behave as a normal boy, not having any other children in his life until that point.
Tobin and Ki are happy for several years even with Tobin’s father, Duke Rhius away so much on campaigns or to be kept under the watchful eye of the king in Ero. Two weeks after receiving the devastating news that his father has fallen in battle, the king sends his emissary to collect Tobin and bring him to Ero where he will join the Royal Companions. His cousin, Prince Korin, welcomes him warmly, but shows signs of weakness when under the influence of too much wine. Ki and Tobin both suffer from the slights of some of the Companions, but with their fighting skills manage to impress a great many of the Companions and watching nobility.
Unfortunately, everything is about to unravel for them both.
A dark fantasy building slowly but fascinatingly to an epic story of a warrior queen and her struggles to attain the throne that should have by rights been hers upon her mother’s death. Wholly recommended to any fan of a good story whether it be genre or other fiction.
Crown of Stars: King’s Dragon review
I have to admit I already miss this book. King’s Dragon Volume 1 of Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars series, was a pleasure to read. The content is dark, at times brutal, but in every way well written. The story is split into several parts, switching between the two main characters’ plot lines. There were times when the switch was welcome. I did not know how much of Liath’s torture I could take when suddenly I was reading about Alain’s mostly uncomplicated life. He witnesses terrible things, but filled with a sense of right and wrong, his journey is not so terrible.
After three years of slavery at her lowest point, Liath’s fortunes finally begin to change for the better. Filled with fear and ignorance she stumbles her way through a siege, a holy vision, and the death of a prince.
Alain barely escapes certain death at the hands of the Eika who pillage and burn the monastery he had been pledged to since birth. He experiences a vision from the Lady of Battles who in exchange for his vow to follow her, spares his village from the Eika raid. No longer able to fulfill his set path, he is sent to work for Count Lavastine for one year along with several other youths from his village. Overlooked or ignored by everyone else in the household, he overhears many things which allow the reader to learn of the greater world outside the Count’s home. He learns he may be the son of one of the Old Ones, or the bastard son of Count Lavastine himself and not a whore’s son as he had been led to believe.
I am both dreading and looking forward to reading the next volume, Prince of Dogs. I do not know how much depredation I can stand at the moment for the second volume promises to only descend further into darkness. I have a copy sitting at home. Perhaps I will begin tonight or perhaps I shall move on to another novel sitting on my “to read” pile.
Epic fantasy lovers will love the intrigue both political and metaphysical, the three dimensional characters, and the hints of prophecy, magic and an overarching plot in which you only get glimpses of in this installment.
The Sharing Knife: Beguilement Book Review
I’ve been plowing through books the last few weeks since my trip to Portland where I spent the other half of my Borders gift card. Another book I picked up with that card was Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. I finished it last night, which means I will probably get some actual sleep tonight! I have missed reading a book that is actually a pleasure. I wanted to get back to it as soon as I was done with my TV shows this week.
Fawn, after having sex for the first time, is pregnant and in pique of fear and embarrassment runs away from home. On the way she is kidnapped by mud-men, creatures created from stolen ground and animals shaped into men by malices. She is rescued by Dag, a Lakewalker whose life is dedicated to eradicating malices. Their adventures lead to a fight with the malice, Fawn’s terrible loss, a misensorcelled sharing knife, and their eventual falling in love.
Their falling in love is a problem since it is frowned upon for Lakewalkers to entangle themselves with farmers (not just actual farmers but anyone not a Lakewalker including townsfolk, innkeepers, etc). It is ok to dally with one, but no farmer would ever be welcome at a Lakewalker camp. It is not clear why such relations are forbidden. There are hints given about half-breed children, a difficult military, nomadic lifestyle, and the fact that farmers have no groundsense. Ground is explained pretty much the same way as the force in Star Wars, the energy that exists in all living things. Lakewalkers can actually sense this energy. Some use it to track, others to make, some to heal, but all use it to read other Lakewalkers. They can read emotions, moods, guess at each other’s thoughts, sense each other’s presence when hunting, and even to detect whether a woman is fruitful at any particular time.
I give this a definite two thumbs up. I love fantasy romance, and this one is right up there. You can follow the link from the cover image above to read an excerpt. Highly recommended for fans of fantasy romance, or anyone who would like a new twist on Jedis and the force.
Seraphs – Faith Hunter Review
I finished the second book in the Rogue Mage series, Seraphs by Faith Hunter. I really do enjoy this story, but there is still something bothering me about the book or writing or something. I think part of the problem is characterization. There are roughly seven or so characters other than Thorn. You know a little about all of them, but not enough to form a complete picture. Thorn seems to live too much in her head for the audience to learn more about the characters that she interacts with. I find that irritating honestly.
Another problem is the second gun fight just outside of the pit under the Trine. Seriously, do you have no other way to move the plot? Both books have now ended exactly the same way, Thorn decides to go into the Trine alone, is followed by other characters who then are injured or shot during a gun fight just at the mouth of the entrance, a fierce battle underground and then after nearly or actually dying, waking up in bed recovering from her wounds thanks to the seraph Raziel.
The other problem I’m having is with the scene changes. This installment felt like a bunch of scenes spliced together almost coherently. I say almost because of a few continuity issues. Continuity isn’t usually a huge thing for me. If there is something 200 hundred pages before that wars with something I just read, I don’t usually mind because I’ve already forgotten that part! However, when the very next scene makes no sense after reading the previous scene, well there I have a problem. For example, Thorn has a minor fight with Rupert but a few pages later Thorn is miffed that Rupert didn’t invite her to dinner. What?! Was Rupert supposed to get over whatever made him storm off when she got hungry? Just didn’t make any sense to me.
Again, my assessment of this series is that the concept is awesome, the execution not working out so great. I am reading the third installment, Host right now. Hunter brings up a great deal of questions that I want answered, but I may only stay with the series if this is the last book. Something tells me it isn’t.
Bloodring
I finished Bloodring by Faith Hunter last night. This is the first book of the Rogue Mage series. I was loathe to put it down all week, exhaustion the only thing that forced me to sleep. Last night, since I had no where I needed to be today, I decided I was going to finish it. Needless to say, I liked it, but there is something niggling at me from completely gushing about this book.
Thorn St. Croix is an unregistered neomage, a separate race living after the Apocalypse. The plagues, the arrival of the seraphim, the appearance of demons and Dragons, and the destruction of most of the world. Billions died when the seraphim arrived, but the world did not end. The Most High never appeared. The seraphim refused to affirm any religion which led to holy wars breaking out all over the planet. These holy wars only caused the seraphim to kill more. Any human violence was met with seraphim judgement. Neomages, a race not prophesied, are kept in concentration camps or Enclave. Any unregistered neomage would be captured, tortured, and eventually killed if captured by humans. The seraphim would just return them to Enclave.
Thorn cannot return to Enclave. When she came into her power at age fourteen, she was flooded by the thoughts of all neomages in Enclave. If she stayed, she would go insane. She has lived among humans hiding her nature.
Thorn’s ex-husband is captured by Darkness, a daywalker is stalking her stepdaughter who is pumping the little girl for information about Thorn, and a kylen (a quarter-mage, quarter-seraph, half-human) is investigating Lucas’s disappearance threatens to uncover her secret.
I didn’t feel that Faith Hunter was a great writer, but she definitely tells a good story. I have read a number of “how-to-write” posts in order to figure out how to re-write my two novels. Repeatedly the advice I’ve read is to start your novel as late as possible. I often had the feeling that I had missed a previous novel or the first two or three chapters while reading Bloodring which leads me to believe Hunter was following that advice. Aside from that vague unease that I was missing something, I enjoyed the story. The characters were not irritaing although I was confused by the Ciana’s characterization, (Thorn’s stepdaughter). For most of the beginning, I thought Ciana was a teenager. I was surprised to find she was only seven years old. Thorn was cool as a character but her motivations were difficult to understand. She was constantly messing up, but there was no apparent consequences. The only thing that could explain it, is that she must be under seraphic protection. All I can say is that I will be reading the next two in the series, so I can discover the answers to all my questions.
Sharon Shinn: Summers at Castle Auburn
I have read plenty of books by Sharon Shinn including all of the so far published novels of the Twelve Houses series, all but perhaps the last one or two of the Samaria series (angels on another planet) tried to read but couldn’t get very far, Wrapt in Crystal, and I just realized that I have read a young adult novel by her, The Truth-Teller’s Tale. I have enjoyed most of them very much. So when presented with a $40 gift card to Borders and not having any particular book in mind that I wanted to purchase, I took a stroll down the sci-fi/fantasy aisle and came across another of her novels that I had previously been unaware of. Summers at Castle Auburn was wonderful.
Coriel, Corie to her friends, is the illegitimate daughter of a nobelman who died when Corie was six or seven (don’t really remember). Her uncle strikes a bargain with her grandmother, so Corie can spend the summers with her half-sister Elisandra at Castle Auburn. Elisandra is betrothed to Prince Bryan who will ascend to the thrown on his 21st birthday. Corie along with every other young woman living in the castle is secretly in love with the Prince. He is handsome and dashing, but a spoiled brat. His impending ascension to the throne has the realm political turmoil. Civil war could start if such a spoiled and dangerous man is on the throne because the viceroys do not trust him.
Kent, the next in line to the throne, would make a much better king. On an expedition with her uncle, Bryan, and Kent to hunt aliora, fey creatures prized for their beauty, compassion, and intelligence as slaves, Corie meets Roderick a castle guard. These two men are played as potential love interests for Corie from the beginning, but Corie is too young to see it. She knows her place is not at the castle with aristocrats but with her grandmother where she is an apprentice to learn witchcraft. Witchcraft is nothing more than herb lore to treat disease and injury, but a witch can also create potions for other purposes.
The book is lovely, you grow up with Corie and begin to understand the world in which she lives through her ever growing understanding. Through her you come to understand that Bryan is not the perfect paragon that she has painted him in her youth, that her sister Elisandra is capable of anything, that her beloved uncle is in fact a slave trader responsible for the enslavement of over thirty aliora, and that although her presence at the castle is for the purpose of finding Corie a husband, she would not allow herself to be bartered off like livestock. The world around her is filled with political intrigue and injustice and it is only when her eyes are opened that she sees the idyllic Castle Auburn for what it really is.
I give this book four and 1/2 stars. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a well told story that can be contained in a single volume. The ending was little too pat, but that can be easily overlooked. There were a few awkward moments story wise and/or dialog wise, but overall the book was wonderful.
Cry Wolf
I finished Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs yesterday. This is a spinoff book from the Mercy Thompson series and the first in the Alpha and Omega series. It features characters first introduced in the novella On the Prowl which I did not know when I picked this one up. I could not shake the feeling that I was missing a whole story here, until I discovered it was a short story I had missed. I tend to ignore the compilation books these stories normally appear in. I think I know enough from the introduction not to worry about tracking it down.
In any case, this was a book that I lost a great deal of sleep over. I could not put the darn thing down! A bit after midnight Monday night, I decided I needed to sleep more than I needed to know what happened next. The main character, Anna, is a bit of a wimp but only because she’d endured three years of torture before being rescued by Charles, the Marrock’s (head werewolf of all the packs in America) second child and enforcer (read assasin). Anna will probably come into her own as a character in the next book, but this particular book reads like a romance novel. The story is more interesting than the characters and you’re only waiting until they finally figure out that they are madly in love. I personally enjoyed the Mercy Thompson books a whole lot more. Mercy is a tough cookie, but she knows how to ask for and take help. The men in her life aren’t cowed by the chip on her shoulder.
Anna comes across as way too fragile. By the end of the book, however, she has come to accept herself and her power. As an Omega werewolf, she has all the need to protect of an Alpha wolf but none of the violent or aggressive behavior. She can calm the beast within and grant peace to the werewolves around her. This special power is essential to keeping the Marrock from becoming something worse than a rogue werewolf. When she finally accepts who and what she is, she rescues them all from the clutches of Mariposa, a two hundred year old witch responsible for the torture and death of Asil’s, a much older werewolf bent on suicide living with the Marrock’s immediate pack waiting for the Marrock to decide when he will finally kill him, mate.
I would recommend this book to fans of Ms. Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series if only to visit with some of the other characters in that world and fans of urban fantasy romance.
For an excerpt, click here.
Peter S. Beagle
I had written in a previous entry that I had read the Innkeeper’s Song but I was mistaken. I had read Unicorn Sonata and was confusing that in my head with Tamsin. I have remedied that now by reading Innkeeper’s Song. I just finished reading just now. I had made several attempts at reading this particular book without much success. I can’t be sure what turned me off the first time. Perhaps it was simply Tikat’s suffering that I could not bear. After reading Folk of the Air, I feel less sympathy for Tikat. I find that Peter S. Beagle’s characters are seldom wholly likable. They all have their attitudes, their humanity if you will. Tikat’s stubbornness is admirable at first blush, but after a while it is abrasive, painful. Lukassa, the object of Tikat’s obsession, is a sympathetic character. You feel for her confusion, having only just been raised from the dead. Lal is impressive, the lone wolf adventurer. You find her pride to be annoying fairly early. I think Rosseth is the only one who you like early on and continue to like all the way to the end, when we learn his true name. Even Nyateneri/Soukyen you admire but grow tired of. I think Last Unicorn was the same way, I just don’t remember. Either way I enjoyed this story much more than Folk of the Air.
I wish I could remember whether I read Tamsin before I sold it. I can’t be sure.
I do enjoy Beagle’s work. I recently looked up his book list on Wikipedia. I had no idea how prolific a writer he is/was(?). I am now on the prowl for A Fine and Private Place. Hopefully I’ll find a cheap used copy or borrow it from the library. I realize I haven’t offered much by way of story synopsis or review, but it is difficult to gather your thoughts while tapping away at my husband’s iTouch with one finger. Perhaps later I’ll muster an actual review!
Folk of the Air
I finally took the opportunity to read a book. I’ve been denying myself the opportunity so I wouldn’t be tempted to read when I should be working on Christmas presents. Well, Christmas is over, I have one more little girl dress to finish and some cookies to bake, but on the whole I’m finished with presents. I decided to grab a book from to my “to read” pile that I normally would’ve skipped over. I wanted something without too much commitment. I decided on Folk of the Air by Peter S. Beagle. I have only read a few books by Beagle, The Last Unicorn, Tamsin and I think I read The Innkeeper’s Song, but I can’t remember. I loved Last Unicorn, and Tamsin was pretty good. I thought I would at least enjoy Folk of the Air. I did like all the pretty language, but at the same time the pretty language was a pain the butt. I found myself so caught up in the superlatives, I lost track of the meaning. Frankly, the actual story is boring, a little weird, but mostly boring.
Farrell, the main character, arrives back to the town he went to college at to stay with a friend who is now living with a much older woman, Sia. He runs into an old girlfriend who introduces him to these Rennaissance Festival type people who basically dress up as lords and ladies in their free time. He starts getting involved with the group as a lute player. He runs into Aiffe, their pretend witch, who is summoning Nicholas Bonner. Nick Bonner is not a demon or any other kind of magical creature. He knows spells and magice, and teaches Aiffe a few things all in the hopes of using her to get back at his mother, Sia (yes the older woman that Farrell’s friend, Ben is shacked up with). Sia is a goddess who is losing her powers after millenia, and she is afraid of her son.
Aiffe is a fifteen year old girl who is only interested in power so she can be the powerful or most popular one in the Medieval recreationist group. In trying to attain that, she drives one man insane, and causes the death of another. All this seems inconsequential to the main story. Like I said, I enjoyed it. I just had a problem with the flowery language and the unsatisfying ending. Farrell does not endear himself as a character. I did not care about him or what he was going through. He felt superficial. Ben turned out to be a jerk, using the powers attained by sleeping with a goddess in ways that hurt someone. Julie, Farrell’s old flame, tends towards hystrionics and then to being more placid. Aiffe comes across as a scared child one moment, then an annoying pratt the next.
In all, I wouldn’t exactly recommend this one, but I wouldn’t stop somebody if they wanted to borrow it from the library. In all Beagle writes in varied styles. Of the few books by him I’ve read, I haven’t come across one that’s been written the same or even in the same vein.
