The Complete Collection of the Revenant Wyrd Saga Is Released

December has been a big month for Travis Simmons and as well as seeing the release of The Turquoise Tower, the final instalment of his acclaimed Revenant Wyrd Saga, it has also seen the release of the complete collection of the series! The Complete Revenant Wyrd Saga is available from Amazon now (UK and USA) and contains all six books in the series:

Book 1: The Bonds of Blood
Book 2: The Mirror of the Moon
Book 3: The Well of Wyrding
Book 4: A Guardian of Shadows
Book 5: On Wings of Chaos
Book 6: The Turquoise Tower

Regrettably, I've fallen behind with this series, but I plan to remedy this soon and I'm eager to see how it all ends! The Revenant Wyrd Saga is an example of high fantasy at its best and is filled with magic, monsters and peril as it narrates the adventures of its heroes against a stunning backdrop of a broken world. It's definitely a series for your 'to-read' list and the ones I've read would make a perfect evening's reading this Christmas!

The Well of Wyrding is released today!

Hi all,

It's a big day today as Travis Simmons has finally released the third book in his Revenant Wyrd Saga, The Well of Wyrding! Being good friends with Travis, I was actually lucky enough to beta read the book for him and can promise that it's as exciting and encaptivating as the earlier installments of the series (The Bonds of Blood and The Mirror of the Moon).

"In the fantastical lands of the Great Realms, Angelica, Jovian, and Joya are on the search for their older sister Amber, who has been kidnapped by the villain, Porillon. But Amber has slipped away from all of them, and where she has gone is as big a mystery as why she was taken.

While they are searching for their sister, Porillon strikes a staggering blow to the entire land.

The Well of Wyrding, a mythic well which contains the magic and fate of every creature in the Great Realms, has been poisoned creating havoc as the magic power of wyrd becomes toxic.

While Grace, Rosalee, and Dalah seek a way to purify the Well of Wyrding, wyrd is going haywire, buildings fashioned with wyrd are turning to pinnacles of terror; wyrd is working against its casters; and people are taking up arms against the threat sorcerers and their kind pose.

But the toxic wyrd is causing a new problem to arise. They are called caustics: those wyrders who have been completely taken over by their chaotic wyrd. Husks of what they once were, they are now a vessel for Chaos in the realms."

Hopefully, this blurb (which I've lifted of the book's Facebook page) will be enough to convince you of its merit! If you are already familiar with the series, get yourself onto Amazon ASAP! If you aren't and really fancy getting your teeth into a complex, imaginative fantasy epic, then The Revernant Wyrd Saga is definitely for you!

Read an interview with Travis Simmons

Hi all,

I've actually been meaning to put a post about this up for a while now, but I never seemed to get round to doing it. I recently stumbled across an interview with Travis Simmons on My Book Addiction (another reviewing site) and thought that I'd post a link to it here.

As you may already know, Simmons is an independent fantasy, science fiction and horror writer who is most notable for his Revenant Wyrd Saga and Infernal Designs series'. Simmons writes with great flares of imagination and I have reviewed a number of his books in the past - check out his tag in the FEATURED AUTHORS section if you want to read them!

Desolation - Travis Simmons

RATING: FIVE STARS 

Trying to survive in the brave new world following a zombie apocalypse isn’t easy for Asher St. Paul. His family and friends are dead. His lover is dead. He should be dead. And to make matters even worse than the hordes of zombies that threaten him with each passing day, chilling rumours of necromancers are beginning to circulate through the last remaining human refuges. They say that survivors are being rounded up, caged and used to feed zombie populations as the necromancers’ fight to hive out their territories in the old cites. 

As Asher is searching for one such refuge, he observes a lone woman treating a pack of zombies as she would a dog and begins to suspect that there is more truth to these rumours than he would like to believe. His worst fears are realised when he finds the refuge to be taken in by them and Asher must come to grips with a dark secret as he struggles to save his newfound friends from certain death. 

The Good 

Written with the imaginative flair of Travis Simmons, the author of the gripping Revenant Wyrd Saga, Desolation is fast paced and exciting. The tragic events that befall Asher are believable within the confines of the story (accepting of course, the roaming zombies) and Simmons doesn’t go over the top with describing blood and gore. Instead, Simmons invests in describing Asher’s emotional battles as he learns to live the austerity and horror of his new way of life, which I found made his character very believable and easy to engage with. 

Without spoiling the book by going into too much detail, Simmons tells the story with a rather unique spin that I found refreshing as it helps Desolation to stand out from other zombie apocalypse books. Rather than focusing entirely on the zombies as the main villains, which of course they still are, Simmons mainly concerns himself with necromancers and how the zombies are used by them. By bringing in magic and a greater sense of purpose behind the apocalypse, Simmons has created an interesting blend of zombies and fantasy that I found both enjoyable and intriguing. 

The Bad 

I must say that I have little to fault with Desolation as it is well-written and Simmons steers clear of the ‘conventional’ clichés of zombie plotlines well. Saying that, Desolation does fall foul of the traditional problems that zombie stories face – where are Asher and the other characters getting all of their bullets? How is the electricity being generated in the Refuge? How are so many people being fed? I could go on, but I'm sure you know what I mean! 

Obviously, ammunition and electricity are things that probably wouldn't be around long should a zombie apocalypse actually happen, even if raiding parties did scavenge petrol from cars etc. for their generators. For the purposes of the story, however, it makes sense for Asher to have bullets in his guns and to be able to turn lights on in the refuge! And let’s face it, we don’t read zombie stories to be realistic so I found it very easy to forgive Simmons for this unrealism! 

My Thoughts 

After finishing Desolation, I found that I was disappointed that it was over. The book makes for a fantastic read that uses fantasy genre magic in a manner that helps it to stand apart from other zombie stories. As such, I would recommend that you add Desolation to your reading lists – you won’t be disappointed if you do!

The Mirror of the Moon - Travis Simmons

RATING: FOUR STARS 

Forming the second instalment of The Revenant Wyrd Saga, The Mirror of the Moon continues telling the story of Jovian, Angelica and Joya Neferis as they journey to rescue their sister, Amber, from the evil sorceress that has abducted her. The path they walk is every bit as perilous as that already behind them, and they must find strengths inside them that they never knew they had as they struggle to overcome the dark forces that seek to hinder them. 

Still led by Grace, a mysterious woman who seems to have a path fraught with dark secrets, the party soon begins to realise that the events that unfolding them involve more than just their sister’s life: the Well of Wyrding has been breached, tainting the magical ‘lifeblood’ of the world with evil; an army human-hating dwarves is stirring; the feared necromancer is rising; and the identity of the Mask has yet to be determined.

The Good 

As with its predecessor, The Bonds of Blood, Travis Simmons writes The Mirror of the Moon with a flair of imagination that few can rival. Throughout the book, he weaves a rich tapestry of the world surrounding the Neferis children and their escorts, building the cultures of those they meet to create a very realistic setting. This level of detail greatly added to my enjoyment of the book, placing their adventures into a developed context that I found really helped to reinforce the stakes of their adventure. 

The Bad 

One of the only problems I had while reading The Mirror of the Moon was that its pace often dropped. This is largely due to the vast distances covered on their adventure, which means that Simmons regularly had to move the characters away from a place before I felt it was 'right' for them to leave. As result, there are many passages of journeying that are well written, but are rather lacking in excitement! 

My Thoughts 

Overall though, I really enjoyed reading The Mirror of the Moon and think that Simmons has done another fantastic job. The Revenant Wyrd Saga is definitely a series that fantasy lovers should add to their reading lists!

'Desolation' release date

Recently, I have been lucky enough to have beta read Travis Simmons' latest novel. The book, which is called Desolation, is due to be released on the 11th June 2013 and is a rather unique zombie apocalypse survival story; made so by Simmons' enthralling blend of fantasy and horror.

I won't reveal the plot of the book to you, nor tell you about any of its events, but I will suggest that you add its release date to your calendar, as it's definitely a book to look out for and invest your time in!

The Bonds of Blood - Travis Simmons

RATING: FOUR STARS

The Bonds of Blood is the first instalment of Travis Simmons' Revenant Wyrd Saga, an epic fantasy that chronicles the adventures of Jovian, Angelica and Joya Neferis as they embark upon a dangerous quest to save their older sister, Amber, from the clutches of an unknown but prophecised evil.

Before they set out from their plantation home, Dauin Neferis gifts his children with elaborate weapons and powerful artefacts that were once owned by their mother; equipment that he knows will be invaluable if they are to succeed in their quest and bring Amber home safely. Lord Neferis also knows that there is more to his children than he has told them and sends Grace, a mysterious and elderly scholar, to guide and watch over them while they traverse the wilderness.

Frequented by reticent spirits and ancient figures with powers beyond their understanding, the Neferis children are continuously tested in ways that they could have scarcely have imagined and begin to discover what their father had neglected to tell them: that they have many more gifts than financial privilege. 

The Good

Simmons has set The Bonds of Blood in a remarkably vivid world, which has a well developed and unique history that gives the book a fascinating sense of realism. To briefly summarise his world, the Holy Mother became sick of the strife that man caused as they tried to rule and own all that surrounded them and, long before the events of the story, separated the Spirit Realm from those of the physical, leaving their inhabitants with little of the Wyrding Way. 

In addition to being set in a magical world that I could actually imagine as existing, Simmons has a remarkable imagination and has filled The Bonds of Blood with many different races of creatures (other than humans) that act to help or hinder the Neferis children in their own different ways. This adds a much more interesting depth to the story than if it was simply about good humans fighting bad ones, which in turn adds to its enjoyment to read.

The Bad

The main issue I had while reading The Bonds of Blood is that Simmons has, sadly, over-described everything and uses too many necessary adverbs in his prose. This slows down the speed of the story and makes much of the text more boring to read than it needed to be. 

Furthermore, Simmons tells the events as they unfold from multiple points-of-view, and whereas I don't have a problem with this per se, the extent to which Simmons switches character within each chapter often makes it hard to follow what's going on and who is thinking/doing what.

Final Thoughts

Despite having a few problems that may have put me off reading The Bonds of Blood before I picked it up, I think, after reading it, that it's scope and imagination easily counteracts them and make the book well worth reading. Thus, I would strongly recommend reading The Bonds of Blood to any lover of fantasy and even to someone who's unfamiliar with the genre, but wants to experience epic imagination at its best!