fantasy

Book Review: Butterflies in the Storm

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Butterflies in the Storm
by Gary Warner

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Fantasy

When Melissa Jones is invited to a funeral for a girl she doesn’t remember knowing, the last thing she expects is to be whisked away from the funeral by a woman claiming her life is in danger. She’s taken to a place where she’s told she’ll be safe from a threat she never knew existed that all started hundreds of years in the past at a place called Brathy Beck.

Though the synopsis for this book was very vague, I was intrigued enough to give it a try. And the book starts off with a bang, with Melissa’s escape from unknown danger and flight to the secretive sanctuary in some nebulous location. (It took me a long time to realize this book is set in England, as I don’t remember any location names being given until quite a ways in.) But as Melissa tries to get her bearings in this complex full of women, she’s given nothing but vague answers by everyone she encounters. I’m annoyed for her, since supposedly she’s not a prisoner and this is all for her benefit, so the only reason I can see for all the secrecy is that the author wants to add suspense for the reader. As the answers begin to unfold, though, they take the form of the different women at the sanctuary telling their own story of how they came to be there. And for the most part, all of the stories are the same. Names and locations are different and the initial situation for each woman is different, but they all become a fight to free the woman from the men who are trying to catch or kill her and a flight to the sanctuary. After a few of these stories, I started to skim through them.

The fantasy element comes with the explanation, which, since it’s kept a secret for so long, feels like a spoiler to explain completely. But I will at least say that the fantasy element is also vague and could definitely have been expanded on some. By the last quarter or so of the book, the plot has devolved into a “who will end up with who” pseudo-romance, in which apparently all of these women are lesbians, who apparently marry men they care nothing about for the sole purpose of reproduction. Since this is not my preference in reading and wasn’t indicated anywhere in any of the locations this book is advertised, I can easily say that I am not the right audience for this book, which of course influences my rating and review.

In the end, the premise of the book was interesting and started off good, which is the main reason for 2 stars. But it simply became too repetitious and then took a left turn from the sort of suspenseful tone that was set up to focus on relationships. The ending was anti-climactic. Also, though the book was self-published, I didn’t notice a lot of line-editing issues that I often do with self-published books (typos, grammar issues, etc.). There are some weird formatting issues that might just be an issue with the ebook, but I didn’t factor them into my rating. Still, though, while I can’t say I’d recommend this book to anyone, I’m sure it has an audience that just doesn’t include me. Please do check it out at the link below if you’re interested.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

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Book Review: World of Warcraft, Vol. 1

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World of Warcraft, Vol. 1
written by Walter Simonson
illustrated by Ludo Lullabi

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Fantasy graphic novel

I have not played the MMORPG World of Warcraft in a while, but for many years, I played it a ton. One early quest line I’ve always remembered was “The Missing Diplomat,” which (spoiler alert) ended up being a search for clues about the missing king of Stormwind! I also remembered that it didn’t really have a satisfying ending, though it may have continued at a later time that I somehow missed. Of course, King Varian Wrynn is eventually reinstated and plays a role in later expansions, but I only ever heard bits of what happened to him while he was missing. Then we found a series of graphic novels at a library sale that tells that entire story. I’m not normally a graphic-novel reader (I struggle to follow the action), nor do I normally want to dive very deep into the lore of WoW that takes place outside of the game. But some of the storylines involved in quests in the game have intrigued me in the past, and this is one of the biggest ones, so I gave it a go.

All of that being said, I enjoyed my time reading this graphic novel. This is only part of the story, 1 of 4 volumes, and the mystery of why Varian is in this situation (far from home with a lost memory) is barely touched on in this volume. However, the end promised more to come. I think a lot of why I liked the book, though, is because of the references to and images of people and locations that I remember from my days playing the game. Though I’m an Alliance player and this was mostly on the Horde side, it still brought up a lot of nostalia. There are quite a few fight scenes that were difficult to follow (though based on other reviews, that might have been an issue with the book, not me), so I generally scanned until the end to see who won, who lost, and who was injured. And while I know this is common for this genre/game, that doesn’t mean I don’t still dislike the way females are portrayed (seriously, the harpies are practically naked).

Overall, though I can’t say whether anyone who hasn’t played WoW as much as me would appreciate this graphic novel at all, for those who do or have played the game, especially back in vanilla days, this might be worth checking out.

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Book Review: The Battlemage (re-read)

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The Battlemage
Summoner Trilogy #3
 by Taran Matharu

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA Fantasy

See original review here.

I don’t normally write a new review when I read a book I already reviewed on my blog, but sometimes I like a book more on the re-read and want to raise the rating. The first time I read this book, I gave it 4 stars, which is still good, but reading through my review on the book, I had some specific contradictions of feeling this time through. The main difference is that I must have been more caught up in the story in general, feeling every victory and loss more deeply than I think I did the first time I read the series. And I was less bothered by the battle scenes in the last third this time, appreciating the different displays of ingenuity Fletcher displays throughout the fighting. Even the ending, which I felt was a little lacking last time, I had no issues with this time. Sure, it left a few fairly minor things open, but I wouldn’t say it felt anti-climactic this time, like I said in my original review. It’s a nice conclusion to the series.

Overall, I enjoyed this series the first time I read it, enough to read it again a few years later, but I think I enjoyed the whole thing a little more this time. I’m sure that’s partly due to already knowing how things are going to go, but I think it also has to do with me as a reader. I read this series at the very beginning of my push to getting back into reading regularly, after losing the habit for close to 20 years. I’ve now been reading daily for almost 4 years, and I think my own tastes and how I enjoy a story have changed. Either way, I still recommend this series to fans of magical fantasy books, especially for teen/YA audiences.

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Book Review: The Runaway King

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The Runaway King
Ascendance #2
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
read by Charlie McWade

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, The False Prince.

Jaron’s return and ascension to the throne is precarious, as is the peace of his kingdom. The most pressing threat comes from the very group that tried to kill him years in the past and helped kill his parents—the pirates. Against the advice and wishes of everyone close to him, Jaron sets out on a plan to stop the pirates.

I can’t say I’m surprised that I liked this book less than the first. While the first one had the big surprise going for it by the end, I knew this book couldn’t pull off another similar twist. So what we’re left with is politics and war, which tends to just drag along for me, like most of the previous book did. What seems to be the big selling point for most of the people who like this series is Sage/Jaron himself and his wit, snarkiness, ingenuity, etc. However, while I appreciate the difficulty of his situation, he actually seems ill-suited for his role as king. He makes a lot of bad decisions and basically gets lucky. Plus, while the pirates aren’t exactly friendly, they don’t end up seeming quite as mean and hardened as they were made out to be. Imogen’s involvement is difficult to find realistic, and I don’t understand Amarinda’s role at all (is she good? bad? pointless?).

I did recommend the first book for teens, and I’d imagine that age group would be more interested in the rest of the series that I am. I’m personally calling it quits right here, which is saying something, considering that the book ends on a cliffhanger. It’s just not enough to draw me back. I’m not saying it’s terrible, since I did give it 3 stars. But in the end, it’s just too slow and uninteresting to give me a reason to come back.

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Book Review: Once a Queen

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Once a Queen
by Sarah Arthur

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA fantasy

When fourteen-year-old Eva Joyce visits her grandmother in England with her mom who’d left home after getting married and never returned before now, she doesn’t expect to find out that her grandmother might have been the subject of one of Eva’s favorite fairy tales growing up. The manor might even contain a portal to another world, but no one is willing to talk about it much, her grandmother least of all. Tragedy in her grandmother’s past overshadows the wonder and magic, and Eva begins to believe it’s her job to help her grandmother heal.

Packaged as a portal fantasy, this book is more about Eva’s grandmother’s past trauma, after losing someone close to her when she was a young adult. It’s difficult to separate what is part of the fantastical element of the other world(s) and what is just a reflection of the grandmother’s brokenness. There are questions about all of that that I never really understood and questions about whether Eva’s mom believed any of the tales or not, considering that she doesn’t want to talk about it now, doesn’t seem to believe it now, yet Eva grew up with the stories.

It’s clear that the author is heavily influenced by The Chronicles of Narnia books, though she makes no secret that she’s a major fan. I’ve only just recently read all of that series for the first time, and I saw some pretty obvious parallels. This book takes place almost exclusively in our world, though, with references to the other world(s), which wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Some history from the other world is told between chapters, but I wasn’t completely sure how much of it was important. In the end, this feels a lot more like a book for older teens or adults than teens around 14, with more of an emphasis on grief and trauma than fantasy adventure. The writing is poetic and elegant (and dialog and history related to the other world(s) is basically KJV-type writing, to put it simply), which is not really my preferred style and might be lost on the teens it’s meant for. Considering that the book is in 1st-person from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl, I question the style choice; perhaps if the narrator were to mention that she wrote down her memories decades after it happened, it would make more sense when she describes old manor houses using terminology I’d be surprised an American teen would know. The language also added to the slow feeling of the book as a whole. In the end, not much really happens, and while it sets up a series, it didn’t leave me wanting more. However, the other reviews for this book are generally positive, so please check them out if you’re interested. I wonder if people who have long been fans of Narnia would enjoy this more than I did or if they’d actually enjoy it less.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: January 30, 2024

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Book Review: The False Prince

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The False Prince
Ascendance #1
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
read by Charlie McWade

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Street-smart orphan Sage is tagged as one of three candidates to pretend to be the king’s long-lost son, in order to prevent a civil war that would lead to destruction by the nation’s enemies. He’s not so sure he wants to be the prince, but the alternative is death.

By halfway through this book, I was really beginning to wonder what so many people saw in it. It was slow and not terribly interesting, with cliched characters and politics that caused the story to drag. Characters make terrible decisions, and Sage himself doesn’t seem to know when to quit while he’s ahead. Just the fact that nothing interesting seemed to be going on caused intrigue as I tried to figure out what kind of twist might be coming that would cause so many people to give the book 4- and 5-star ratings. Then came a twist, like I was expecting, but not quite what I was expecting. And to say much more at all would be a spoiler, so before I get into that, I’ll say that, though I did appreciate the twist and how it made me look back on the rest of the story in a different light, it wasn’t quite enough to completely redeem that first 75% of the book. Also, the narrator is fairly monotone, and while I do intend to continue the series with the audiobooks, it’s mostly because his voice is already so ingrained in my head as the voice of Sage, I’ll hear it either way, so I might as well listen to him reading it. Now, read on if you choose, but beware that at least mild spoilers are ahead.

What this book taught me is that I’ve become far too trusting with narrators. I’ve always known about the potential of an unreliable narrator, but I haven’t come across them often and certainly not one to the degree that this book has. What I took as other characters making incorrect assumptions or Sage being unnecessarily cagey was actually just the reader being kept in the dark. And the sad thing is that even when it started to be revealed to me that some things had been kept from me, I didn’t follow that through to the Big Secret. I made guesses about the Big Secret, but the only way I could see it being true would be if the author used a really cliched trope. When I began to realize that Sage was keeping secrets from the reader, I should have realized…but I didn’t, so the twist mostly caught me off guard.

My guess is that most of the readers of the age group this is intended for would be blown away by the twist and would learn a good lesson in being too trusting of a narrator in fiction (like I did). While I do wish that the first 75% of the book had been more engaging overall, I still recommend this book to kids around age 10-13 and to anyone else that is interested in the premise.

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Book Review: A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest

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A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest
by Andrew Peterson
Illustrated by Aedan Peterson

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s fantasy

This travel guide through the dangerous and wondrous Glipwood Forest was written by one of the founding members of the Glipwood Official Rangers Guild (GORG). Not only does he share the best and safest (relatively speaking) path through the forest, he also tells of how he met each of the other original eight members of the GORG.

I really wasn’t sure what this book would be like when I first picked it up, and it turned out to be a really fun, quick read. The humor and whimsy of the original series can be found throughout this book. At times I felt like Andrew Peterson was making up as outlandish of names and descriptions of items as he could to try to stump his son, who drew sketches of Glipwood Forest flora as well as the members of the GORG for the book. I particularly loved the sketches of Owin and Chonis Ponius Groverly, the “in-world” author and illustrator of the guidebook. Fans of The Wingfeather Saga will enjoy this return to the land of Skree, with many references to locations they’ll remember from the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: November 7, 2023

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Audiobook Review: Hangman’s Curse

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Hangman’s Curse
Veritas Project #1
by Frank Peretti
Read by author

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA Christian thriller

I’ve read this book many times in the past (see review here), but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I wish there were an unabridged version, but it was worth listening to the abridged to be able to listen to Peretti’s own narration, which I very much enjoyed. I think the majority of what was cut out was character-building of the Springfields, whereas the main story seemed intact to me. While I certainly feel that the entire book is worth reading, if you’re considering the audiobook version of Hangman’s Curse, I still recommend it.

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Book Review: Beneath the Swirling Sky

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Beneath the Swirling Sky
The Restorationists #1
by Carolyn Leiloglou

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian children’s fantasy

Though named after Vincent van Gogh and loving to paint when he was younger, 13-year-old Vincent wants nothing to do with art anymore, after realizing that he’s not as good as he hoped he’d be. So when his parents leave him with his great-uncle Leo, a painting restorer, during spring break, Vincent expects to be bored. He expects to be lectured about art. What he doesn’t expect is to fall into a painting of van Gogh’s Starry Night and find out that he has the ability to travel through paintings. Then his little sister gets lost inside the same painting, and it’s up to Vincent and his strange cousin Georgia to find her.

Full disclosure: I am not an art lover; in fact, I’ve never had more than a cursory interest in even famous paintings. Yet I really enjoyed this book and can say that one does not need to be really into van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc. to read and like the book. The author does a good job of allowing the reader to tap into the enthusiasm of the characters in the book, even Vincent, who tries to convince himself he doesn’t care about art anymore. The focus on that in the narration got a little repetitive and almost caused me to lower my rating by half a star. However, the story and characters outside of that, and the payoff to Vincent’s attempt at being dispassionate about art are all wonderful, so I couldn’t bear to give the book anything less than 5 stars.

As Vincent and Georgia try to track down Vincent’s little sister, they come across others that can travel through paintings—others whose intentions are not exactly noble. And Vincent comes face-to-face with his own worst qualities in a very real way. But in a fantastical twist, he also comes face-to-face with the One who sees everything he is and still loves him. I don’t want to say anymore about this, because it was the absolute high point of the book for me, the moment that I knew I was going to recommend this book to everyone, young and old, and that I will read it again and again in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: September 12, 2023

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Book Review: Click Here to Start

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Click Here to Start
by Denis Markell

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure, fantasy

Twelve-year-old Ted Gerson meets his namesake, his great-uncle Ted, for the first time shortly before the man’s death. At that meeting, his great-uncle asks about his penchant for escape-the-room video games, and then makes him promise to never stop looking for answers. This cryptic message is followed by Ted being given all of the contents of the great-uncle’s apartment after his death. But then Ted discovers that the newest escape-the-room game on his computer is set up just like his great-uncle’s apartment and that the clues in the game are in the apartment in real life!

I really wanted to love this book for more than one reason. First, my daughter is the one who recommended it to me, which is always a special situation. Second, I’m an escape room player (real life games more than computer ones though), worked as a game master and game builder for a while, and still make escape room-type games for my job now. You might say they’re a big part of my life. But it’s probably because of that second reason that this book wasn’t so great for me. The main story about Ted’s great-uncle, whose history Ted got to know through the hunt, was interesting. The sub-plot with the mysterious person who is on Ted’s trail and clearly lying about being a reporter named Clark Kent wasn’t bad, though the reveal and conclusion were underwhelming. The three main characters—Ted, his best friend Caleb, and new girl Isabel—left a bit to be desired, but that didn’t really bother me much.

However, one of my pet peeves involving games that are included in TV shows, movies, or books was a huge part of this book. The way some of the escape room elements were solved just made no sense. There is NO way someone, especially a kid, could have figured out some of these puzzles. Some of them were just huge logic leaps that can absolutely ruin a game for players. Throughout the story, a new online escape room game will present itself to Ted, and it will be exactly what he needs to progress in his mystery. While this is, of course, a stretch, I can accept it as a fantastical element to the story (though, spoiler alert, it is never explained how this happens or who is behind it). However, the first of these games that Ted plays, he plays for 5 hours, then gets stuck, then goes to the apartment and walks through the same steps in a very short amount of time. Yes, he had already done the solving when he’d played the computer game, but 5 hours? To solve what took maybe 10 minutes to get through in real life, and some of that time was spent trying to give the others a chance to feel like they were solving it? I don’t buy it. Then, later in the story, somehow a book that is part of Uncle Ted’s mystery ends up being a clue to the home alarm system of someone completely unrelated (literally and figuratively) to Uncle Ted. How does that make any sense? 

It’s certainly difficult to translate something like escape room puzzles to a novel, though several authors have tried. Sometimes it works okay (the Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series is an example of it working okay, though it’s fairly light on the puzzles), but sometimes it doesn’t. In this book, it doesn’t. And unfortunately, for me at least, the rest of the book wasn’t enough to make up for that. For people who aren’t quite as into escape rooms as I am and just like a good puzzle-light mystery in the middle grade category, you just might find this a good read. If you’re a major escape room enthusiast, I don’t recommend it.

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