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Review of 'The Fallen' by Jae V. Reece

4/1/2014

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I was hooked straight away and am mightily impressed by the writing of young debut author, Jae V. Reece.  The Fallen is a series of twelve short stories set in the fantasy world of Paesia.   In an interesting format, the chapter stories match up 1 and 12 (Leiden), 2 and 11 (Oba), 3 and 10 (Phirra), 4 and 9 (Zerale), 5 and 8 (Mayomin), and 6 and 7 (Arosad).  I found this an appealing idea.
The story begins with the teenage winged prince, Leiden whose city is under attack by red-skinned daemons.  I found the young character really engaging and enjoyed the descriptions of his silvery blue hair and feathered wings.  There were nice emotional touches with his mother, bringing fleeting gentleness in a battlefield.
Another character I'm really rooting for is the female dwarf, Mayomin, whose father is on trial for his part in a rebellion.  In a cruelty of justice, her entire family is sold into slavery to atone for his crimes.  She's a feisty little one and puts up a good fight while on the run from her captors.
The author describes this novella as a prologue consisting of discarded scenes from his soon-to-be published part 1 of the Paesian series.  It is an usual format and the stories didn't all interconnect, but it is well worth reading for his beautiful descriptive style and fast-paced action scenes.
Some of Jae V. Reece's fascinating ideas include: the colourful magic styles, the treeweaver speaking through the trees, the pulsating crystals, Mistborne - flying evil creatures, and the sentient Mother Tree.
The most memorable scene for me was of a winged creature running with wings ablaze.
I believe this book is suitable for fans of dark fantasy and paranormal books aged over 15 years.  With a little polishing, this will be a truly excellent series.  I can't wait to see what the author writes next.

Click here for the book:  Amazon



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Book review: Toothmarks on the Sun by Anthony Riddell

3/9/2014

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I feel as though I have fallen down the rabbit hole into Wonderland in this unusual short story.  Anthony Riddel describes his writing style as, "Things fall from my head and I gather them in a roughly coherent form."  I have to agree that this is exactly how it felt to me as well.

The structure of the story was rather unusual.  There was no beginning, no information given to explain what was happening.  There were no real chapters and it ended as abruptly as it began.

The main character appears to wander aimlessly, viewing people with rabbit
heads, objects changing form eg: from a head to a TV, and all manner of strange perceptions.  There is much repetition of themes such as rabbit heads, eggs, yellow and re-introducing himself.  There are bizarre sensory issues such as things feeling like treacle, petroleum jelly or frozen blue bubbles.

Overall I found it strange and waited for an explanation at the end, which alas, did not come.
I guess it's a book to try if you'd like something very different from a tradition story.



Sorry, I couldn't find a cover picture online.  You can find this book on www.writersweb.com.au

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Magical book review: Quintessence by Marsha A. Moore

2/15/2014

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Adventures with dragons are my favourite books to read and this one's a beauty.  Quintessence is the fifth and final of Marsha's Enchanted Bookstore Legends.  It's the first one I've read and it's full of magic, dragons, quests and battles.
The author immerses you in the fantastical world of Dragonspeir which is entered through enchanted books in a modern day Indianapolis bookstore.  Lyra and Cullen are magical lovers who are on a quest to return four missing keystones to the Alliance and defend against the Dark Realm.

I certainly had some catching up to do, being given this fifth book to review.  Cullen is a wizard and Lyra is a scribe, which seem fairly similar to me, but use different kinds of magic.  Lyra has Quintessence, which is very rare. You'll have to forgive my ignorance, as I'm sure this is well described in the earlier books.  Kessa is a 10 year old seer who has been imprisoned by the bad guys and is in need of rescue. 
I must admit I got a bit lost in the hosts of magical creatures and was thankful for the descriptions at the start of the book.  Here are a few of the many weird and wonderful creatures: malificates; black dragons; cimafa - small dragons; circutamina - tree spirits; witches; alchemists; fire drakes - like dragons; golden dragons; guardians; magma drakes; psuedodrgaons; a warlord; an auspex; scorpents - scorpion snakes; magical locust; sorcerors; skeleton-people; blue dragons; bronze dragons ;talking phoenix, tortoise, trees and unicorn.  There are also wizard familiars such as an owl and a psuedodragon.  Wow!  I wish I had a hard-cover book, because my Kindle wouldn't let me skip back and forth to the descriptions.
The magic and characters have coloured auras, some colours are good and some bad.  The lead characters have a very cool communication stone and can speak telepathically.  Other magical elements used included the craft of fascination and bloodswear bond.
Intricate characters and magic aside, this is a great story and builds towards an exciting battle.  Will the young seer be saved, or will the scribe need saving herself?  You'll have to read it to discover the outcome of this epic series.
I rate this book 4 stars and definitely recommended it for fantasy and adventure lovers.
One last note, is that the book is promoted as a fantasy romance, but there's not a lot of romance here so I would classify it as fantasy adventure.  The romance part is not for children.

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    Applying for book reviews:
    I don't do many reviews, but will do the odd one from time to time.  Usually it'll be something that piques my curiosity.   I like to do reviews for Writers' Web and support emerging writers.
    I am not interested in trading reviews, but if we are both interested in each other's work, that is OK.
    I will give an honest opinion and if I think the work is not ready, I will let you know.  I am happy to post the reviews online.
    Please contact me at kasperjbeaumont @outlook.com if you're interested.

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