The Killing Moon - N. K. Jemisin

RATING: FOUR STARS 

Gujaareh is a city that knows true peace. There is almost no crime, virtually any ailment or injury can be cured via dream magic, and its people flourish under a deep spiritual understanding. It is Gatherers that enforce this peace – agents of the dream goddess who root out and destroy those deemed to be corrupt.

But not all is it seems. Rumours of war are beginning to circulate and evidence of corruption in Gujaareh is mounting. But, worse still, bodies of people who have died in horrific agony are beginning to appear all around the city. Gather Ehiru knows of only one such creature that can kill in such a manner – a Reaper - and understands that it falls to him and his apprentice to slay it and restore balance to Gujaareh. What Ehiru does not know, however, is that the secretes they will uncover while hunting the monster could quickly prove to be the doom of all. 

The Good 

One of the things I particularly liked about The Killing Moon was its Ancient Egyptian setting. By basing the book’s culture on the Egyptians, rather than feudal Europe like most fantasy novels do, N. K. Jemisin has managed to give The Killing Moon a unique feel that made it very interesting to read. This, along with her vivid descriptions and superb character development, really allowed me to immerse myself in her story. 

Another thing that I liked about The Killing Moon was its simple and well explained storyline. In fact, throughout the book the events and factors that influence Ehiru’s (and the other characters) decisions are clearly laid out. This is makes it easy to follow their progress througout the story and helps the book to read lightly as a whole. This is something I found particularly refreshing since I've been focusing on reading big series’ recently that drip feed information over a few books! 

The Bad 

The only issue I had with The Killing Moon was with a series of intermissions that Jemisin spaces throughout the novel, which do little to add to the plotline. An unknown character is speaking in these intermissions, who is apparently telling a story to another unknown person. I found that these breaks became slightly annoying after a while because they had little to do with the events unfolding in book. Saying that some of them were actually quite interesting, but I thought that overall, they detracted from the story and just seemed a little pointless. 

My Thoughts 

I enjoyed The Killing Moon though, and found that it had a fresher feel to it than many of the fantasies I've read lately. The book was a good length, so didn't take too long to read, and I have to say that I’ll be finishing the duology off with its sequel (The Shadowed Sun) fairly soon. I was impressed with it guys – you should definitely give The Killing Moon a go!

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!

The Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb

RATING: FOUR STARS 

The dragons of old have all but disappeared, and only the mighty Tintaglia remains to save her race. As the last queen, it is her duty to ensure that dragons survive in the world and she knows that she must help the diminishing handful of serpents to reach their cocooning grounds before the last of them perishes into memory. But even with the help of the rain wilders—mutated humans that live in acidic swamplands—she knows that the serpents have little change of emerging as dragons. They are too old, having spent far too long in the oceans where their bodies have grown weak and their minds have become warped. 

And so, when the young dragons emerge from their cocoons with monstrous deformities, they are abandoned by Tintaglia and the rainwilders must devise their own plan to deal with them. They know that they cannot hunt to sate the appetites of a pack of hungry dragons for long, and soon reach the decision to chaperone them to their fabled city of Kelsingra. It is hoped that here, the dragons will be safe and more of the lost secrets of the fabled Elderlings will be found. 

The Good 

One of the main things that impressed me about The Dragon Keeper was how realistic its characters were. And, after reading the book, I would say that Robin Hobb has a remarkable talent for developing characters in a very short space of time. This meant that before long, the people I was reading about began to feel like old friends in my imagination and I was really able to identify with them. Obviously, this greatly added to my enjoyment of the book and Hobb has certainly avoided the trap that many authors fall into where they mar a perfectly good story by creating a cast of bland characters. 

Another thing that I thought was great about the book was Hobb’s novel take on dragons. Rather than conforming to the standardised mythology of fire-breathing lizards, Hobb has altered her dragons to effectively create a new animal. Hobb’s dragons actually spit acid instead of fire, and have a complex life-cycle that involves them being born in the ocean as serpents and then metamorphosing into dragons like caterpillars do into butterflies. In addition to this, Hobb has also given her dragons a complex culture and bold personalities that really helps to bring their species/characters to life. 

The Bad 

Although The Dragon Keeper is light-hearted and very well written, I was surprised by how little actually happened in it in terms of events. At 553 pages, the book is not unusually long for fantasy, but much of the prose is just scene-setting and discussions that develop Trader culture. Don’t get me wrong, this is interesting to a degree and Hobb does an excellent job of using it to create a diverse world, but it slows the pace of the book down and much of the first half of the novel is actually pretty unnecessary. In my opinion, The Dragon Keeper could have lived up to its potential in terms of excitement much more if Hobb had condensed the waffle—leaving a book that is still culturally rich, but is much more exciting too. 

Another problem with The Dragon Keeper, which I guess is linked to its rather unnecessary length, is that it does not make for light reading. In fact, I frequently had to make sure that I had plenty of free time ahead of me before I even dared to open its pages! This is largely due to how Hobb writes—using very long chapters with few line breaks. In fact, the 553 pages of the book are split into just 17 chapters! Though I understand that, in all fairness, this criticism might just be me being overly fussy, I like to stop reading a book in natural breaks rather than putting it down midway through a passage like I often had to do! 

My Thoughts 

Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Dragon Keeper and will certainly be continuing to read The Rain Wild Chronicles with Dragon Haven (its next instalment). The book is unarguably very imaginative and has a ‘fresh’ air about it that many works of fantasty lack. Due to this, I would certainly recommend it to any fan of the genre. (Although to be frank, I can see some ‘die hard’ dragon fans having an issue with Hobb’s interpretation of the animals that might put you off the book).

Watch an interview with Patrick Rothfuss

Earlier today, I was lucky enough to have stumbled across an interview with the master word-smith Patrick Rothfuss. The interview - which is available at: http://twit.tv/tri/99 - is fascinating (albeit rather long) and sees Rothfuss get probed about his inspiration for The Kingkiller Chronicle, his motivation for writing it and how he has managed to develop such real and distinctive names (among other things of course).

It's definitely something to check out if you are a fan of the series!

Rise of the Dibor - Christopher Hopper

RATING: FIVE STARS 

Imagine a world that is untouched by evil, where pain, greed and crime don’t even have words to describe them. Imagine a world where everyone is honest and pure; a world where Adam and Eve never sinned, and mankind was never cast into a lonely world to be confronted with our own mortality. This is Dionia, the world where Luik, son of Lair, lives and grew up in. 

But the world is changing, and a once defeated evil is beginning to stir again. Even as rumours of Morgui’s rise begin to circulate, people are already disappearing, and strange weathers of cold, snow and rain are beginning to besiege a people that have known only the warmth of summer. It is in these dark days that Luik is summoned from his carefree life as the son of a great king, to join the elite ranks of the legendary Dibor. His training is brutal, moulding him from a laughing boy to a wise warrior just in time to help resist Morgui’s host of Dairne-Reih as they advance on Dionia’s capital city of Adriel. 

The Good 
The world Christopher Hopper has created for The White Lion Chronicles is rich, being full of history and complex cultures. This adds some much needed credibility to his story, making it believable enough that I could actually imagine it happening in a real place somewhere! In addition to this, the whole concept of the Rise of the Dibor (based on a world without sin) is rather unique, which, along with his vivid prose and superb character development, makes the whole book very enjoyable to read. 

The Bad 
One of the main issues that I had with the Rise of the Dibor however, is in Hopper’s concept of wound healing. Essentially, because the people in his book live in a constant union with God, any wounds or injuries that they sustain heal instantaneously. So far, this is believable within the realms of fantasy and Hopper makes a big point of this early on. Later in the book however, once the fighting has begun, this idea kind of gets thrown out the window and Hopper’s characters quickly begin to acquire injuries. Although Hopper does offer an explanation for this (so he is clearly aware of the issue), I felt that his explanation was rather shaky and did little to set the matter to rest in my mind. Due to this, I feel that he would have been better off just leaving the idea out of the book altogether. 

Another qualm that I had with the book was Hopper’s continuous appraisal of God. Despite not being deeply religious myself, I have no problem with faith and people glorifying God if that’s their belief and way. I just felt that the extent of Hopper’s appraisal in the book was too much. For example, he could mention it five or six times on some pages, which took my attention away from the plot and almost made the book read as religious propaganda rather than a fictitious story.

My Thoughts 
Despite the issues that I have mentioned above, I thought that the Rise of the Dibor was a very well written book that I greatly enjoyed reading. It is very unique, at least in my reading experience, and I definitely recommend that you give it a go and explore Dionia in The White Lion Chronicles - I know I will be, continuing the series with its next instalment, The Lion Vrie, pretty soon!

'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!

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

RATING: FIVE STARS 

I must confess that with the notable exceptions of those by Tolkien and Wells, I’ve never really been interested in reading what I consider as ‘old books’. This is mainly due my conception that they are written in long-winded and tedious prose, as was the custom back then, but I don’t really know. Due to this ignorance however, I was pleasantly surprised when I decided to delve into the pages of Treasure Island and quickly fell in love with Robert Louis Stevenson’s witty, albeit rather archaic, text! 

In fact, I actually found that his outdated form of writing greatly added to my enjoyment of the story and really brought the characters of the infamous Long John Silver and his buccaneering companions to life! Stevenson’s vivid descriptions, use of old sailor slang and his classic: “yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum” poem really made me feel as if I was adventuring on the seven seas with Jim Hawkins, Doctor Livesey and the rest; securing Treasure Island’s place in my all time favourite read’s list. 

I don't feel the need to describe the plot of the book to you, as I'm sure many of you already know it. Whether from actually reading the book or watching a film (such as the Muppet’s re-enactment as I did as a child), you probably know the story well. I will recommend reading the book though, if you haven’t already, and feel confident that you won’t be disappointed! Even if you just marvel at how people used to speak, as Stevenson’s English isn't English!