high fantasy

The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood – Book Review

by
The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood – Book Cover

A.K. Larkwood’s The Thousand Eyes has one big flaw: it marks the end of the story. With this second book, Larkwood wraps up the Serpent Gates series. Other authors might fall to their knees, thanking the heavens for such a unique and brilliant concept, stretching the series across at least five books, knowing this could be the magnum opus of their career. After all, who can guarantee they’ll come up with anything even close to this good again?

The Thousand Eyes Hisses Ominously

Orc girls in love, crazed death-worshipping cults, divine incarnations roaming the earth, and countless worlds you can literally sail between through the Serpent Gates. The setup is monumental. But where Larkwood really shines is in her depiction of gods. In The Unspoken Name, her debut novel, she introduced three deities, any one of which would elevate any fantasy novel.

A goddess of serpents, shattered into a thousand pieces scattered throughout the universe; a terrifying dragon, banished to the cold of space, burning with eternal murderous rage; or an all-knowing entity that kurking in the mysterious depths of a mountain, forever hungry for human sacrifice. These gods create a fantastic foundation for Larkwood’s series.

Read more

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – Book Review

by
The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – Book Cover

Exciting Opening with a Talking Dragon

Jenn Lyons’ book The Ruin of Kings begins with an exciting premise: we have a hero who isn’t going to save the world, but rather tear it apart like a kid with a piñata. At least, if the prophecies are to be believed. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; if we’re counting correctly, this won’t happen until about 2100 pages later. Assuming the next two volumes turn out to be similarly hefty bricks. (Yep, exactly that.)

You’ll notice from the very first pages that the story in The Ruin of Kings is densely woven, as is typical of high fantasy, with an incredibly detailed background world. Almost every page includes some integral piece of background information seamlessly integrated into the text. The story is teeming with gods, mages, demons, and dragons, but fortunately, Jenn Lyons’ writing doesn’t suffer from any excessive magical antics. Magic is barely used, and the author’s commendable restraint ensures that the result doesn’t come off as ridiculous.

Oh, and there’s a talking dragon too. Yes, those don’t always turn out well. Somehow, though, it doesn’t come across as a major issue here.

Read more

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda – Comic Book Review

by
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda - Comic Book Cover

In Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda’s Monstress comic series, a 17-year-old girl explores her own past after a devastating war waged by humans against the Arcanics, who are roughly similar to humans. Roughly. This usually leads to bloodshed. Especially since many Arcanics possess animal characteristics, such as fox tails and ears, wings, or goat heads on their necks. (So it might easily happen that you yourself would strike first and ask questions later if you encounter one in a rougher neighborhood.)

Fortunately, Maika Halfwolf belongs to the more striking Arcanics. And not only has she been sold into slavery, but an ancient entity resides within her, seeking to take control over her. So, Maika has plenty to do and problems to solve as she embarks on a Kill Bill-esque revenge spree against her enemies, while Monstress – Volume 1: Awakening touches on themes such as genocide, reckless lust for power, or humanity in an inhuman world.

But what can be said about a comic that appeals to both amputation fetishists and cat lovers? Perhaps that it’s beautiful? Yes. Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening is beautiful, occasionally hauntingly erotic, with some panels that resemble detailed, baroque paintings created seemingly just for the joy of drawing. And you haven’t seen characters exuding such ethereal beauty in a comic before. Compared to them, even the equally beautiful characters of Locke & Key look like simple gnomes.

Read more

The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston – Book Review

by

Edrin, the wizard, returns to his hometown after 10 years to avenge the death of his best and only [ 🙁 ] friend.

Edrin starts the investigation in a film noir style. (Edrin buddy is DAMN cynical, self-willed, and snarky.) Unfortunately, the investigation quickly turns into much more uninteresting dungeon crawling.

At the same time, it turns out that Edrin has the coolest magic ability… but also not really. It also turns out that it’s bad luck to be claustrophobic during dungeon crawling.

The investigation reveals a GLOBAL conspiracy and leads to SUPERPOWERFUL adversaries. Meanwhile, a bit of a Supernatural like feeling creeps in, exactly like when Sam and Dean burst into some place armed with a single demon-killing pen knife, get slammed into the wall by some demon, but at the end, we realize somehow they still WON…

And our feeling intensifies that we are actually reading a series finale: the events are so massive (there are gigantic combat robots too!) So it’s hard to imagine where the heck Cameron Johnston is going to raise the stakes from here, maybe into the stratosphere???

Oh, and during the story, we probably realize that the main character of The Traitor God is not as insensitive jerk as he thinks himself: his constant concerns are, after all, the scum of the city and the two toughest assassins, who could probably finish him off in about 3 seconds with a not-so-good, used cotton swab.

6.6/10

The Traitor God (Age of Tyranny, #1) by Cameron Johnston
432 pages, Paperback
Published June 5, 2018 by Angry Robot
—
Review of the sequel:
God of Broken Things