fantasy

Book Review: Brother Odd

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Brother Odd
Odd Thomas #3
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

While living in a guest house at a monastery in order to simplify his life, Odd comes across something completely new, even with his penchant for seeing ghosts and other paranormal connections. The bizarre creature seemingly made of bones, combined with the Bodachs that have appeared around the area, leads Odd to believe something bad is about to happen.

This was my favorite book in the series so far. There are a lot of amusing moments in the book, from Odd’s interactions with Elvis to his banter with the suspicious Russian man also staying at the monastery. I continue to enjoy Odd as a character—kind and modest almost to a fault with a strong desire to protect those who are weak. The mystery kept me engaged, though I have to admit that the reveal was a little confusing, even convoluted. But that was really my only issue with the book. I was sad about a chapter that closed at the end of the book, but I look forward to seeing where the series goes. Sadly, I’ll have to fit the rest into my normal reading schedule, because the rest of the audiobooks don’t seem to be available from any of the library services available to me. But I enjoyed this third book enough to be willing to continue on my own.

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Book Review: The Disappearances

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The Disappearances
by Emily Bain Murphy

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA historical fantasy

When Aila’s dad is drafted to fight in WWII not long after her mom’s death, she and her little brother Miles are sent to live with an old friend of their mom’s in the small town where their mom grew up. The siblings quickly begin to notice some strange things about their new home, like the lack of mirrors in the entire house. And how the flowers in the backyard don’t have any smell. As it turns out, every seven years, the people in the town lose something, like the ability to smell or dream. It’s been happening for 35 years and no one knows what made it start or what might make it stop. And the next Disappearance is only days away.

This is one of those books that leaves me struggling to figure out where to start with my review. I was so caught up in the story that I had a really hard time putting the book down and ended up staying up an hour later than normal to finish it. The Disappearances, the way the town reacts to them, their attempts to counter them—all of it comes together in an intriguing story. Add to that Aila’s and Miles’s grief over their recent loss, worry for their endangered dad, and difficulty in settling into a new town, which is all really well done and feels authentic. 

As the main story is unfolding, we get glimpses of another plot that seems to have connections to the main story, though it isn’t immediately clear what those connections are. But as the story goes on, more and more hints are dropped. I actually looked something up online based on a clue from the book and made a connection before the book brought it up. I had no idea why it was significant, but the excitement I felt at my realization was just further proof of how invested I was in the book. I can’t say a lot due to not wanting to spoil anything, but I already mentioned how caught up I was in the last quarter or so of the book. There are some details that aren’t explained in the end, but nothing that was left unexplained bothered me. I don’t need to know how the “magic” worked. I just loved the way the author worked everything out. It actually reminded me of Holes, which is not really touted as fantasy, yet has a curse-related overall arc that is similar to this book. I also have to admit that the book doesn’t feel particularly historical, even though it’s set in 1942, but I just didn’t care enough to be bothered by it. I don’t give 5 stars easily, but I haven’t enjoyed a book of this genre this much in a while. If the book interests you at all, I strongly urge you to give it a read!

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Book Review: How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale

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How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale
How to Train Your Dragon #5
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When a legendary Viking hero long believed dead rescues Hiccup and the other young Vikings-in-training from certain death, Stoick asks the hero to be Hiccup’s bodyguard (well, I was listening to the audiobook, and I think it was actually called a “bardy-guard,” but I really don’t know for sure how it was spelled). But it turns out that Humongously Hotshot might not have had Hiccup’s best interests at heart.

We’re well past the point of this series reminding me at all of the movies anymore, which is good, because it’s a lot easier to evaluate the stories on their own. The last couple have been much more enjoyable, breaking at least enough from the formula of Hiccup being ridiculed by the other Vikings and sort of stumbling into a situation where he gets to save the day. This one goes back to the formula a little, enough to where it doesn’t make any sense that people keep ignoring Hiccup’s wisdom and acting as if he’s completely inept, even though he’s saved the day multiple times by now. Despite all that, this is another fun story with another good temporary character and another visit from an archvillain. Toothless adds to the story in his own way, both for ill and for good. And as always, David Tennant’s narration bumps the enjoyment level up a notch or two. This is a solid addition to the series, though if you’re interested, I’d recommend starting at the beginning. Though it took me a bit to get into the series, it’s still worth reading all of it.

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Book Review: The King’s Scrolls

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The King’s Scrolls
The Ilyon Chronicles #2
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Kyrin, her twin brother Kaden, and the half-ryrik Jace are now living with other resistance members in a camp in the woods of Arcacia and helping run missions to free other followers of Elôm, an outlawed religion. When the camp gets some unexpected visitors in the form of a group of dragon-riding cretes who ask for help in tracking down the last original copies of the King’s Scrolls, which contain the Word of Elôm to his followers.

With this book, I realized I was a little off in my comparison of this fantasy world to the time of Nero’s persecution of Christians. It seems much more like Old Testament times now, and I found it fascinating that the couple of times that words from the scrolls were shared, they were right out of the Bible. Knight clearly didn’t want to create her own religion and instead made the decision to mirror biblical history in her fantasy series. As an author who went through a process of trying to decide whether or not to create a new religion for a fantasy world I had dreamed up, this is really interesting to me. There are a lot of great moments in this book, both related to the religious aspects and otherwise. Dragons, family connections, allies and betrayals. And though I began to suspect that Knight was always going to write an out for anyone in peril, there is a devastating loss in this book as well. It’s sad, definitely, but makes the story more real. And it’s a beautiful example of John 12:24 (which may be a spoiler, so maybe don’t look it up if you don’t know it).

There were a couple of main downsides to me, the first being that I still just don’t care about Kyrin at all, which is a shame, since she seems to be the main-main character. She’s just so…blah. A little too shiny, if that makes sense to anyone else. The other issue I had was peril fatigue. It seemed like there wasn’t enough rest time, for me or the characters, between each different danger sequence. But try as I might, I couldn’t lower the rating more than half a star for these things, because there was just so much about the book that was amazing! I was right in thinking that I’d like this book more than the first one, because the first one picked up halfway through, and this book continued from there. It’s like Knight had to sort of clear her throat with the first half of the first book, but so far, what has come after that has been great. Older teens up through adults who enjoy Christian fiction about persecution and standing up for one’s faith should consider reading this book. The fantasy ramps up a little in this book, but I still don’t think you’d have to like fantasy to enjoy it.

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Book Review: Forever Odd

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Forever Odd
Odd Thomas #2
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

When Odd’s best friend’s recently deceased (like, super recently) father visits him, Odd starts off on a mission to find his friend and save him from whoever seems to have abducted him and killed his father.

After finding the first book in the series interesting but a bit slow, this book is just as slow and less interesting. I still like Odd himself as a character. He’s very different from what you normally see in fiction in a lot of ways, a kind of throwback to a different time. Some reviewers seem to see this as a fault with the book, but I appreciate that his gifts have led him to live a simpler life—he has no real ambition, no need for vices, and in fact, what most people would see as a minor complication would throw his life out of whack completely. However, the first book really felt like a stand-alone. There’s usually a very different feel to a book that is the intentional first in a series compared to a book that was written to be a one-off, and though plenty of times a sequel or two may come after an original stand-alone, to me, this just didn’t work as a sequel. The main thing that I felt was seriously lacking in this book was the use of Odd’s gifts. His psychic magnetism gets plenty of play (and a new angle, unless I’m just forgetting something being mentioned in the first book), and he does see a few ghosts, but it seemed like a huge chunk of the book was just trying to escape from, hide from, and outwit the bad guys. It dragged down what was already a fairly slow read for me. Good thing I listened to the audiobook, or it might have taken me a really long time to get through this book. As for recommendations, if you haven’t read the first book, you probably shouldn’t start here, since it definitely references back and spoils some things. If you have and liked it, you may or may not like this one, depending a lot on which aspects of the first book you particularly liked or didn’t. That’s all I can really say.

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Book Review: How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse

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How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse
How to Train Your Dragon #4
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When Fishlegs is diagnosed with a deadly dragon’s curse, the cure for which can only be found by raiding a particularly crazy band of barbarians, Hiccup defies his father to go on a quest for the cure.

This book brings a refreshing break in the formula, with Hiccup not just failing some kind of training and happening into a situation where he has to save the day. Instead, he deliberately sets out to save the day and even takes a different cohort along—Camicazi, his female counterpart from another tribe, who is a lot of fun in this book too. I wasn’t sure about this series after the first couple of books, but I find I’m quite enjoying it now. The narration is brilliant as always, and I recommend the audiobook for readers young and old alike, and really the book in general.

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Book Review: House of Many Ways

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House of Many Ways
Howl’s Moving Castle #3
by Diana Wynne Jones
read by Jenny Sterlin

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

Charmain just wants to be left alone to read her books, and when she’s sent to house-sit for her great uncle, she think she’ll finally be able to read as much as she wants. But this is no ordinary house. Charmain’s great uncle is a wizard and his house is full of magic, which, along with the young apprentice who shows up looking for Great-Uncle William, encroach on Charmain’s reading time.

I liked this book a fair bit more than the 2nd in the series, but not quite as much as the first. It did bring back some of the charm of Howl’s Moving Castle, but Charmain is not a terribly likeable character. She’s naïve and fairly selfish, though I can’t that it’s all her fault, since she was clearly brought up to be entirely helpless. Like the other books, the story meanders for a while, which got a little tedious for me. There are hints at the plot here or there, but nothing particularly solid, at least until it started to come together further into it. Plus, characters from the first book show up around halfway in, and I certainly enjoyed that (and they’re more “present” than they were in the previous book). Overall, it’s not a bad follow-up to the whimsical first book in the series, and for others who have read the first and wonder if they should read more, I’d say at least this third one is worth it. For me, I may someday re-read Howl’s Moving Castle, but I won’t feel the need to re-read the rest.

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Book Review: Resistance

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Resistance
The Ilyon Chronicles #1
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

When the self-proclaimed emperor of Arcacia begins to crack down on the worship of Elôm instead of the nation’s moon gods, it leaves many of Elôm’s followers scrambling to hide their faith or hide themselves. Kyrin has been trained since a young age to serve the emperor, but drawing too much attention to herself right now is not a good idea, given her faith. Jace is half ryrik, a race that is believed to have no soul, which means that many believe he can’t have a soul either. But he has also come to believe in Elôm as the one true God, though he can’t help but wonder if Elôm could possibly care about him. Both find a possible home at a camp for fellow believers of Elôm and hope that they can keep their new home safe.

The overall idea of this book is good, sort of a take on the time of Nero persecuting Christians, set in a medieval-like fantasy world with at least 5 different races. I particularly liked Jace’s story arc, but Kyrin’s was underwhelming in comparison. Some exciting things happen with her for sure, but it just takes a really long time to get into it. I felt like a few hundred pages could have been cut from the book and details in those pages could have been either cut completely or sprinkled throughout the rest of the book in flashbacks, memories, general backstory. Most of this excess was probably Kyrin’s story, which is likely what makes me feel like her arc was underwhelming. But there’s also the fact that there are something like 8 POV characters, which is far too much. Too many people to try to get to know, especially considering that several of them are minor characters and thus do not need their own POV. And at least one of them just seems to be there to reinforce what we’re already learning about Jace, so again, unnecessary. If I were rating just the part of this that felt like the meat of the story, it’d probably be more like 4.5 stars. But man, it just took so long to get to it.

One thing I did appreciate about Kyrin, though, is that she’s still young in her faith and not perfect by any means. She’s trying to learn to lean on Elôm but struggles with fear, because she didn’t believe in Elôm and immediately become a perfect follower. That was a realistic angle I liked. The overall Christian parallel here is really interesting and well done. Because what I liked most came in the 2nd half or so of the book, I anticipate the story picking up from here and am looking forward to seeing where the series goes. My 15-year-old daughter read it first and recommended it to me, and it looks like the book is classified as “new adult,” so I do think that older teens up through adults who enjoy Christian fiction about persecution and standing up for one’s faith. You wouldn’t really have to like fantasy to enjoy it, I don’t think, since it’s fairly light on the fantasy.

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Book Review: Odd Thomas

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Odd Thomas
Book #1
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

Odd Thomas can see dead people, but he can also see dark shade-like creatures that tend to congregate at sites of future disaster. Between these two things, Odd is drawn to help bring justice for victims and prevent future tragedies. He works as a short order cook in a small town in California, and when he sees a large congregation of these creatures, which he calls bodachs, interested in a particular customer, he does his best to investigate so he can try to stop whatever future catastrophe might have drawn so many bodachs.

Leaving aside the paranormal aspects, this book is a thriller mystery and a race against time to stop a massacre. Adding the paranormal aspects back in, and the overall story here is engaging and inventive. Odd himself is a sympathetic hero, if maybe a little too naïve and Gary Stu-ish. He tends to draw people to himself by being a nice, quiet guy and has more than one mentor-type character. The background Koontz shows us for Odd make me happy for him that he has these other people in his life to counter-balance some truly awful parents.

I’ve only read one Koontz before this, and I loved it, but this time, I found that his tendency to describe things in way more detail than necessary slowed the story way down. There was also a lot of focus on sex and references to body parts for a book with a main character that isn’t sleeping with his girlfriend. And a couple of the major side characters I did not particularly care for. They were just over the top in their personalities. I listened to the audiobook, and I don’t know if it would have been better to read it, so I could skim some of the descriptions or worse, because then I would have struggled to get through some of it and taken a lot longer to read it. Either way, I enjoyed the book more than not and was actually kind of annoyed with myself for not clocking the slight twist at the end before it happened. Also, I am very glad that I had already read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie before reading this book, because Koontz full-on spoils it! Overall, I like the world Koontz has set up here and Odd Thomas himself enough to continue the series. I think most people who enjoy paranormal thrillers would enjoy it, but just keep in mind the slowness.

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Book Review: How to Speak Dragonese

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How to Speak Dragonese
How to Train Your Dragon #3
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When another Viking training exercise goes wrong, Hiccup and Fishlegs find themselves at the mercy of Romans and a nanodragon named Ziggerastica.

This was my favorite book in the series so far. The tiny-but-arrogant Ziggerastica is a lot of fun, Hiccup meets the heir to another Viking clan who also provides some enjoyable moments, and we get the return of a dastardly villain. Though I’m not a huge fan of the formula these books tend to have with Toothless and Fishlegs screwing up and happening upon something they otherwise wouldn’t, I enjoyed the overall journey more this time. I was considering stopping with the series after this book, but I enjoyed it too much to not keep going. Plus, I really do enjoy David Tennant’s narration, and even his interpretation of Toothless is growing on me more and more. For that matter, Toothless himself, though so different from the movie version I knew first, is growing on me with every book.

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