Category Archives: Book Reviews

Kill the Queen – Book Review

Title: Kill the Queen

Author: Jennifer Estep

Book cover. Image from the internet.

Kill the Queen was an engaging read. Everleigh, Evie, Saffira Winter Blair had a strong voice. And the author, Jennifer Estep, did a pretty good job explaining how Evie went from low status royal family member, seventeenth in line to the throne, to challenging her cousin in a duel for the crown. Sure the training sequence was a little rushed, but waiting years and years for Evie to develop the skills would have been less exciting to read about.

Besides, Bellona is a land of magic mixed with a gladiator tradition. It was interesting setting for the story. I of course liked the strong female presence running through the entire world. Here men and women are treated equally. The rich and the poor are not.

There was political intrigue with the neighbouring courts of Morta, Andvari and Unger. There were fierce fights between skilled gladiators, pageantry with the gladiator shows (feeling more like a circus with their acrobats and food sales) and of course there was a crown up for grabs by the strongest and most cunning of the Blair family line.

In many ways this was a story about family, a large and dysfunctional family that was massacred by one of its one in the first chapter. So, perhaps it is better to say this was a story about surviving ones dysfunctional and very deadly family.

Escaping the castle and its bloody court, Evie joins a gladiator troop where she puts some of her random skills to work and befriends a number of the prominent people in the group. One of the weak points for me was her keeping the secret of her identity for so long. Mostly because the Queen’s final words before dying words were to find the Black Swan gladiator group and seek help from their illustrious leader. It is not like Evie didn’t have a number of opportunities to come clean about who she really was.

Book cover for the sequel to Kill a Queen. Image from the internet.

That aside, I liked that Evie was an older heroine (~ 28), understandably skilled in a number of random areas like cooking, dancing and small talk. That she was a strong character, who had learned the value of silence. The magic in the world was interesting. The politics were thoughtful. The overall word was detailed.

I lament the way that we equate strength to the physical prowess needed to destroy another person. There are more ways to solving a problem rather than just running a sharp blade through its heart, but that is a general comment on trends in writing and society.

Importantly this was a fun read and I look forward to the next book, which just might address a very important aspect of these power plays. It is one thing to kill the queen, but how do you keep the throne (and stabilize your country). Killing and ruling are not the same skill set, at least not entirely.

Final Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Heartstone – Book Review

Title: Heartstone

Author: Elle Katharine White

“Pride & Prejudice meets Dragons”

Book cover. Image from the internet.

Much like Pride, Prejudice and Zombies the Elle Katharine White is tweaking Jane Austen’s classic romance by adding more fantastical elements to the well worn narrative. One of the biggest differences, and greatest strengths of Heartstone was the author’s choice to create their own world. It is not Hertfordshire with some dragons roaming about. Rather, the story of of Pride and Prejudice has been reskinned with new character names and a world of fantastical creatures. But don’t worry, you will not have any problem connecting Aliza Bentaine with Elizabeth Bennet.

My first question upon completing the Heartstone was: Why? Why did the author restrict herself to following the plot points of Pride & Prejudice, when she so clearly struggled to contain her own voice within these narrow confines? The greatest failing, in my mind was the fact Heartstone mirrored Pride & Prejudice. Granted, there are some obvious differences, one of the Bentaine sisters is dead. Their family lives and belongs to the great house in the neighbourhood. THere are dragons that act as elite cavalry units in hunting and killing dangerous creatures of myth and legend. I could go on. But the differences pale in comparison to the similarities. The overall plot, the arch of the narrative is undeniably P&P.

This meant that I knew from the second paragraph what would  help, at least in broad strokes. There was no great surprise at the inevitable betrayal. Not great victory when Aliza and Alastair Daired acknowledge their mutual attraction. To me it felt like the author sacrificed the potentially interesting world, filled with magic and manners, for something people already recognized. This was disappointing. The story could have been great. It could even have started as a mirror of P&P, but it should have been allowed to grow and flourish on its own terms, not someone else’s.

Before you write off my complaints as those of a person who hates everything. I didn’t hate everything. I like dragon riding warriors. I like fantastical worlds of magic and dangerous creatures merged with regency-flavoured societies. I like the tensions that arise between the snobbish upper-upper crust and those who are on the lower rungs (but still part of Society). The setting worked. It had potential. But there was not mystery, because the story was so obviously Pride and Prejudice.

Book covers for the first too books in the Heartstone series. Image from the internet.

What I would have loved instead, was for the story to feel reminiscent of P&P without following the events like a paint-by-numbers drawing. The movie, Age of Adaline, feels as though it was inspired by Sleeping Beauty. But the authors did not have a princess prick her finger and fall asleep. Instead they explored a different form of agelessness and what happens when someone comes into your life talking about love.

Heartstone could have been heavily inspired by Jane Austen’s work, without copying it so closely. This would have been amazing, instead of mediocre. But then this brings up another important question: Would I have chosen to read the book without the blatant reference to Jane Austen? I would like to say the answer would have been yes. But it is just as likely I would have skipped over this story, as I have skipped over many others in my search for a really good read. So instead, I will ponder my third question: Do I bother to read the sequel?

Final Rating: 3/5 stars

Enthroned: King Arthur and Her Knights Book 1

Book cover. Image from the internet.

Title: Enthroned

Series: King Arthur and Her Knights

Author: K.M. Shea

Tags: Arthurian Legend, Medieval, Fantasy, Time-travel

 

Every once in a while I find myself taken with a book or a series. For reasons I cannot even begin to explain, I have fallen for the series King Arthur and Her Knights. It is a sweet, lovely series of seven books, the first of which is titled Enthroned.

Book cover. Image from the internet.

The premise is simple: while on vacation in Britain, American born Britt Arthurs is pulled back in time to the time of Legendary King Arthur. Specifically to the time when Arthur pulls the sword out of the stone. The real Arthur has run off with a shepherdess and Britt is recruited to take his place. Yup, it is a silly idea. And yes, I can certainly find flaws or at least things I don’t like. But mostly I found the series charming.

I like Britt. I like her largely practical view point, especially as she is a little older (in her mid-twenties). I like her open way of speaking, her strength with a sword and various flaws. Yes, time travel is a tricky beast to write about. This one had some good ideas, the spell dealt with the language barrier. Britt’s slightly unusual past explained her skill with the sword and competency when riding. I found it entertaining that her modern slang was not understood by those in medieval england.

Book cover. Image from the internet.

The author neatly dealt with the issue of Britt’s gender. I like that from the very beginning, there was a core group of powerful individuals in on the secret. It certainly made the cover up of her sex more believable.

I was especially pleased that the author dealt with the idea of bringing knowledge of past events to the past. Legends are twisted and reshaped over time. The stories we tell today are not the same stories that were told 200 years ago about King Arthur, so it is not unreasonable to assume that the actual events are also different. Now, you do have to accept magic exists for this world to work. But internally, I found it consistent.

Arthurian legends have often been a miss for me. I am no expert in the history of King Arthur and perhaps that was a boon in this case. Over the years, I was turned off Arthur largely by the betrayals. Like Britt I struggled to like Lancelot with his affair with Guinevere. So, this Lancelot and Guinevere were fun to read. Especially as the main character was largely biased against both parties. Granted, I also struggled with the encroaching domination of Christian beliefs as they squashed out the pagan rituals, a topic not covered in this series.

Book cover. Image from the internet.

I have two complaints that I would level at the story. As much as I loved the ending (spoilers to come), I found the paradox of time-travel set up by the last chapter disheartening. Especially as it was such an easy fix. I know the author is trying to be cute and have everyone connected, but really, I would have been happy, if the Knights and Fairies who came forward had not interacted with Britt during her childhood. Poof – no paradox to deal with.

My second complaint is: the books were too short. I loved the little daily scenes about the castle and interacting with the different knights. I would have loved to see Britt interact with even more of the people of Camelot. Mostly, I would have loved to read more about her adventures. Each of the first six books is about 125 pages, with book seven being a more satisfying 290 pages.

Book cover. Image from the internet.

Yes, there is magic. Yes, there is time travel. But most importantly there is adventure, sword-fighting, a hint of romance and all the chivalry you could want in this series. Also, a strong female character backed up by other strong females! I loved this series and for right now it is my obsession. So, I bequeath five stars on Enthroned, Enchanted, Embittered, Embark, Enlighten, Endeavor, and Endings.

Modern Magic – Enchanted, Inc. and Vampires Drink Tomato Juice

Book cover for Enchanted, Inc. Image from the internet.

Title: Enchanted, Inc.

Series: Enchanted, Inc.: Hex and the City

Author: Shanna Swendson

Tags: Urban-Fantasy, Comedy, Fairy-Tales, Magic

 

Title: Vampires Drink Tomato Juice: A Chicago Urban Fantasy

Series: The Magical Beings’ Rehabilitation Center

Author: K.M. Shea

Tags: Urban-Fantasy, Comedy, Magic

 

Between binge watching the Olympic games and working, I have managed to read a couple of books. Recently, I have been sucked into two worlds that share a number of delightful similarities.

Both series take place in urban settings, though neither book is the dark urban fantasy that has been very popular recently. Shanna Swendson’s magical New York city is filled with frog-princes, winged fairies,  gargoyle security guards and Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc. It is a world where magic is mostly hidden as the lives of wizards and other magical beings runs side-by-side with the corporate business world. K.M. Shea has integrated the more classic urban-fantasy species of vampires and werewolves into her Chicago setting. But again, they remain hidden from the eyes of the average human.

Book Cover for Vampires Drink Tomato Juice. Image from the internet.

I know nothing about either city, having not visited or lived in either New York or Chicago. So, I cannot comment on the authenticity of the settings. They seemed interesting enough. New York felt more like a bustling city while Chicago setting seemed to have less of an impact on the story. However, I thought that the species of Swendson’s New York leaned more towards classic fairy tales – with a twist. There were fairies with wings and elves with pointed ears, but both species are placed in a corporate business setting. Shea seems to prefer the more popular collection of vampires, werewolves and elves. Though she also gave her mythical species a unique spin to make them a little more interesting. Mostly by making them less like their most popular examples. The vampires are not all ruggedly handsome and sparkle in the sun. She also expands the usual collection of creatures to include some goblins, that are seen more like mafia than small dirty individuals.

Book Cover for Once Upon Stilettos, book 2 in the Enchanted, Inc. series. Image from the internet.

Both books are comedies. These are light-hearted books about friends, friendship and even a little romance. The bad guys are more devious in Swendson’s book, as he does want to take over the world – through business. Actually, the kidnapping at the end of Shea’s novel also revolves around a business transaction. Cooperations are dangerous business it seems.

Swendson’s main character is a grown career woman, with schooling, smarts, and a sweet Texas drawl. Katie Chandler was perfectly adorable in her down-to-earth attitude, and complete normalcy. Her change in job leads her to the MSI – Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc. As an executive assistant, Katie works for the CEO of this interesting downtown business.

Sixteen year old Morgan Fae hails from the suburbs of Chicago. Still attending, high school, Morgan finds herself employed by the Magical Beings Rehabilitation Centre. Here she mostly teaches the magical creatures of this hidden world about being human – at least a human teenager. Can any student really be considered normal? Certainly Morgan makes a good effort at being as practical as possible for a high schooler.

Book covers for the Enchanted Inc. series. Image from the internet.

The quirky style of both plots, the solidly built characters and the entertaining secondary characters works to draw in the reader for both series. While, my leanings might be for the older, business women in Swendson’s Enchanted, Inc., there is no denying the appeal of Shea’s Magical Rehab Centre. Certainly, both books are filled with enough magic and modern mayhem to entertain any reader. The stories are built up competently, the pacing is solid and character development makes sense. These authors know how to pepper their writing with just the right number of clues that the big twist at the end fits internally with the story. I have enjoyed other books by both Shanna Swendson and K.M. Shea and these stories did not disappoint.

Full marks for both Enchanted, Inc. and Vampires Drink Tomato Juice. I will certainly be reading more in both series.

Book cover for Ready Player One; image from the internet.

Title: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

Tags: Boy Fantasy, VR, Dystopian Future

Reflections: With the impending release of the video adaptation, I was recently lent the book Ready Play One. After a week of effort, I finally finished reading it. I also finished reading the third and final installment in Patrick Weekes’ Rogues of the Republic series, The Paladin Caper. I bring this up because there are some strong similarities between these high fantasy novels; only one was well written and one was boring.

As I have mentioned in an older post, the Rogues of the Republic series is a blending of Ocean’s 11 crossed with high fantasy Dungeons and Dragons. Ready Player One is a nearly dystopian, virtual reality fantasy that was written by someone who loves the idea of D&D. Both books pull heavily on D&D style fantasy elements and trops. The difference is Ready Player One references D&D with key phrases like: I collected my ring of power and stashed in my bag of holding with an ancient sword that added +5 to my attack value. Yes, there are lots of terms from D&D embedded in the book, but there is less of an integration of the concepts. Mostly it is a series of references that do not help with world emersion.

Whereas in Rogues of the Republic the D&D elements come out as character types and world design. Only these are not simple flat caricatures, the book has a complex ensemble that includes a shapeshifting unicorn, a talking warhammer, a death priests, a wizard and many others. Despite the large cast of characters, they are all interesting and individual with complete backstories and personal goals. It is fun to watch how they all interact together on the page.

Book cover for Ready Player One; image from the internet.

Both books focus around a fetch quest and even include some con work to accomplish the main quest. While the fetch quest of Ready Player One is the main point of the book. It spends a great deal of time coming up with clever riddles that are so vague they could literally reference anything – as long is it was part of the 1980’s. The unique (selling?) feature of Ready Player One is the constant passing reference to music, movies, and occasional books from the 1980’s. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the references that can be used by the reader to understand the oblique clues. The clues must all be explained and even then there is no logic or elegant flow to their reasoning.

In contrast, the Rogues of the Republic is an over the top con-theft story. That wraps nicely together come the end. Internally, the world is logical. The heist may be ridiculous but it is written in such a way that sweeps the reader along. The surprising twists seem to come out of nowhere, but in the end it does make sense. Everything works and then it all ties together.

The biggest difference between the two stories is the method of telling, or the style of the author. Rogues of the Republic is well written and highly entertaining. The characters are complex, the world is internally consistent, and the banter between individuals is vastly amusing. The author is good about including diversity, adding some social commentary in a way that is not hamfisted or last minute additions. Most importantly, Patrick Weekes is good about showing and not just telling. There is lots of action, the characters are always doing something, even if doing involves conversing with someone else.

Cover for Patrick Weekes’ book, The Paladin, third in the Rogues of the Republic series. Image from the internet.

Ready Player One suffers from poor writing, that is largely boring. There are long swaths of exposition (the first 10 chapters), which demonstrate a poor concept of their world and a number of logical concerns (internally speaking). The dialogue between characters sounds is largely dumb – with all characters sounding like 15 year old boys. And let’s face it, 15 year old boy are not known for their witticisms. The first conversation that final broke up the monotony of the main character’s stream of conscious thought devolved into a series of 1980’s style insults with no purpose or substance.

Also the author spends way too much time explaining… well everything. Including words. With the story set in a not to distant future, focussing mostly on the virtual reality of that time, you would expect the audience to be mostly young boys (teenagers). Much of the content is wish fulfillment for male nerds. So, it baffles me that the author spends the first half-dozen (or more) chapters defining terms like VR, XP, PvP, and MMO. Granted, my mother might not know these terms, but then I don’t think she would have picked up this book anyway. The other one that really stood out to me, was the discussion about how people could make money in this alternate VR world as though it was something new. People have been buying and selling skins for years now. And even I know about marketplaces and microtransactions. Mostly, it seemed like Clive was writing about Gabe and Valve. (personal perspective only)

While Ready Player One is far from the worst book I have read, it is not one that I would strongly recommend. It is filled with tons of 80’s references which fail to develop into anything more than “hey, remember the 80’s, cause like, yeah… that’s all I got”.

If you want something more, something well written, fun and still filled with crazy high fantasy elements, then pick up Rogues of the Republic instead. This trilogy is filled with all the D&D references you could want, all the major heist adventure you could hope for and is actually well written too!

Winter Book Shelf – The Princess Game

Book cover for The Princess Game; image from the internet.

Title: The Princess Game: A Reimagining of Sleeping Beauty

Author: Melanie Cellier

Series: The Four Kingdoms

Tags: Young Adult, Fairy Tale

Reflections: I don’t usually like to read books out of order. I make a point of starting series with book one. This not always the best method, but one that I am a stickler for following. Except in this instance. Belonging to the Four Kingdoms series this was book 4 and I have not read the others. Though it does read comfortably as a stand alone novel.

The Princess Game was a cute re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty. It was safe and light but I rather liked it. I am a sucker for hidden identities. Particularly when a person pretends to be one thing during the day and something else at night. Not surprisingly I am a huge fan of Zorro. And there were elements of that dual identity throughout the book.

While I appreciate the idea of making Sleeping Beauty more of an active participant in her life, I did find the curse a little on the weak side. Granted, this was because of some interference of various fairy godmothers (to be discussed later). Instead of death or sleep, the princess is cursed to have her gifted intelligence put to sleep – in effect becoming an idiot. Only, through some more magical manipulations, Sleeping Beauty is forced to have the appearance of an idiot, while she keeps her fierce intelligence to herself.

Book cover for The Princess Game; image from the internet.

I appreciate that the book celebrates the importance of intelligence, but overall this a very low impact curse. Mostly it means that when seen by others who know who she is, our heroic princess must play the part of flighty airhead. This seemed to take the route of keeping her conversation on topics of clothes or in a pinch anything that is not related to the current topic of discourse. Cute, but not high stakes.

My other complaint comes in the form of an over abundance of fairy godmothers. It seems at times the characters are tripping over these gift-giving magical creatures. It feels a bit like a cheat to have everything solved so easily by someone else. Though, this re-imagining did try to stay rather close to the Disney version, complete with the requirement of True-Love’s Kiss. Like with many other stories, there was a lack of subtlety that would have made the simple, familiar plot a little more intriguing.

Still, with a target audience of young adults, there is nothing offensive in the story. And I did like the princess turn spy, so overall I would give this a 3 out of 5.

Winter Book Shelf – The Earl of Brass

Book cover for the Earl of Brass; image from the internet.

Title: The Earl of Brass

Author: Kara Jorgensen

Tags: Clockwork, Adult, Fantasy

Reflections:

I suppose my first impressions were that the book was fine. There was nothing overtly offensive about the story or the writing. But that was a lazy anwer and the more I reflected, the more dissatisfied I became.

Our lead male, Eilian Sorrell is an exceedingly flat character. A moral snob when it suits him and selfish, moody brat the rest of the time. When we are first introduced to the next earl, he is standing on the deck of an airship bemoaning his wealthy status. How fate be so cruel as to saddle him with wealth and status? Oh, the tragedy of it all…

Only the unthinkable happens and the airship goes down in flames and destruction. Our melancholy hero is anything but heroic in these moments as he pushes his way past screaming mothers and dying passengers. Eilian failed to garner my sympathy when he is one of very few individuals to survive this terrible incident then spends the rest of the book feeling sorry for himself. For you see, Eilian lost his arm – though not his life. And this makes him somewhat of an outsider in his old social circles. Mostly he whines about his sad state of existence while completely ignoring how lucky he is to be alive.

Our lady heroine, Hadley Fenice, has all the disadvantages of dead parents and brother, low income and female gender paired with sharp wit and mechanical genius. While I am attracted to the cross-dressing aspects of Hadley’s adventure, the fact is she plays such a backseat role. Partly because her marvelous mechanicals serve very little purpose in the overall plot.

This brings me to the two biggest complaints I have for the story: the choice of setting and the obviousness of the message.

The author chose to set her story in an a clockwork Victorian England. But then spends the rest of the book pointing out how terrible this time was for … practically everybody. It was a time of rampant racism, sexism and classism. (and probably even more -isms) So, why bother when you are going to just complain about how it is not fair for women, or any person belonging to another culture? And why is this message delivered in such a ham-fisted manner?

The mystical people of utopian society found in the desert, where an odd inclusion and seemed to be placed only to prove how backwards Victorian England was. But really, don’t we already know that Victorian ideals are anything but ideal?

Also, why build the world’s most complex mechanical prosthetic when really the story veres off to some random treasure hunting tangent? It seemed that the clockwork window-dressings were forced upon the world. While mostly selfish main characters tried to feel better about themselves by professing the ideas of equality.

I cannot complete fault the message. Equality is important, but there are far better ways of expressing the idea – such as creating a functioning world where equality exists. This book was nearly preachy in its message, bland in its characters, and confusing in its world design. So, now that I have finally written my book review, I will give it a conservative 2.5 / 5. Hopefully the author will mature in her writing and create more impactful writing for I think they have potential.

Winter Book Shelf – Coiled

I know it is has been a long time since I posted a book review. The end of last year (October – December) was a little chaotic for and I simply had no time for reading. However, the New Year has brought a few days of binge reading. Now it is a matter of recording my thoughts about what I have read to share with you. Don’t worry, these will be very short as work is starting to pick up again.

The first book from my Winter Book Shelf Reading List up for review is Coiled.

Book cover for Coiled by H.L. Burke, taken from the internet.

Title: Coiled

Author: H.L. Burke

Tags: Young Adult, Fairy Tale / Myth

Reflections: Coiled was a cute, young adult fairy tale/romantic myth. Set in a world feeling like ancient Rome/Greece, Princess Laidra is cursed. While her sister dominates her Kingdom’s court and parents affection, Laidra is relegated to the shadows. Until the day she is taken as sacrifice for a monstrous serpent. Escaping her captors, Laidra washes ashore of the island guarding another cursed child. Prince Calen is isolated from the world even more than Laidra. But alone in the dark, they can become friends. At least until those tormenting Calen come to finish off the prince.

The book is cute, predictable and decently written. The target audience is younger and while I enjoyed having the time to read, it was not the most gripping of tales. The world is different from traditional medieval fairy tales, so that was a nice change. However, I would have prefered more focus on the character development. Instead the plot focuses on the convoluted relations of one rather dysfunctional family, how parents ruin the lives of their children and demigods are mostly selfish, vindictive jerks.

In the end, my biggest complaint was the seemingly random fetch-quest the main characters are set to solve their problems. And it does solve everything. All their personal problems are dealt with by collecting magic water from the well of life (or something like that). How this action changes the long standing opinions of others is a bit of mystery to me, but the story had to end somehow and in reality interpersonal relations are difficult to resolve.

Overall, this is a competent story that gets points for its less common setting but failed to inspire more than “it was fine” rating from me. I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Schooled in Magic – Book Review

Image of the book cover, Schooled in Magic by Christopher Nuttall. Image from the internet.

Good news – I have gained more employment. Bad news – I will have even less time for reading and writing reviews. Thus I anticipate this is going to be my last post for a while.

Schooled in Magic is the first in a fantasy series by Christopher Nuttall. Our female protagonist, Emily, has a tragic sort of life when she is pulled into another world rife with necromancers, danger and magic. When it is discovered she also has sorceress potential, Emily is sent off to the prestigious Whitehall School.

The story is fine, the writing is sufficient and the characters are okay. This I realize is hardly a stellar review. Well, the book lacked that hook to engage my attention and perhaps I was not in the right mood for that style of book.

The plot was not the most interesting and is far from original. When we are introduced to Emily, we learn she leads the most sad of sad lives. She is a tragic high school student with nearly no friends. Teased and bullied by other students and verbally abused by her stepfather, Emily retreats into books. While I too love literature and libraries, I did not need my mother to fail as a parent for me to enjoy them. Emily’s mother not only married an abusive second husband (after the first one vanishes – I bet I can guess where he went!), but she remains in this abusive relationship. And while I recognize people do behave in this manner – it is becoming a bit of trope in the world of fantasy. At least it feels that way to me.

Image of the book cover, Schooled in Magic by Christopher Nuttall. Image from the internet.

Then suddenly, Emily is whisked away to another world where a necromancer plans on sacrificing her life because she is the Child of Destiny (her mother’s name is Destiny). While the book does try to play with this idea – even Emily recognizes she cannot be the person prophesized – the story also falls back to Emily being super special. You’re a Wizard Harry Emily! I suppose I should have known from the title of the book that much of it would revolve around Emily learning magic in a world reminiscent of Harry Potter – if more students died and the magic was a bit meaner. Harry Potter at high school I suppose. Even the teachers are meaner.

I appreciated the rather pragmatic view of the main character who is willing to sell the ideas of our world to this new land (with its more medieval structure). However, it was difficult for the American heroine to sell me on how there is no classism in the US. Yeah, for pointing out how the social structure of the past was bad. Sadly the presentation of such information was not interesting, and it was presented by a character whose home world is far from perfect.

Anyway, for a younger audience, I think this book would be more interesting. And perhaps the series picks up over time. For me it was mediocre, which was a bit sad as I actually paid for this book. But as I mentioned earlier, I may just not have been in the mood for the story. At this point I would give it 3 out of 5 stars. Nothing offensive but nothing noteworthy.

Star Nomad – Book Review

Despite my personal bias I find myself reading a number of science fiction books of late. Before you get excited, these are not serious, heavy, intense science fiction books exploring quantum metaphysics the existential relationship between artificial intelligence and souls. These are light, space-opera type books packed with space pirates, laser battles and a hint of romance. Oh, and occasionally an alien – but not always.

Book cover for Star Nomad, book one in the Fallen Empire series. Image from the internet.

Star Nomad is the first of the novel in Lindsay Buroker’s Fallen Empire series. It doesn’t have any aliens. It does have space pirates!

Our daring protagonist is a survivor of the recent war between Empire and rebel Alliance. She is determined to return home and reclaim her daughter and the first step in accomplishing this goal will be acquiring a ship – a freighter, not a warship. In the wake of all great space adventures our heroine does not have a huge arsenal at her disposal. Rather the odds are stacked heavily against her. She is joined however by a colourful caste of crew and passengers which include the hated cyborg, loyal engineer, security office running from the mafia, passenger with a love of narcotics and a monk with some dubious morals.

This is a book heavy in the tradition of Star Wars and Firefly – two science fiction universes I love. From Star Wars we have the existence of space magic. This comes in the form of the mystic Starseers and probably my least favourite aspect of the work so far.

While the opening of Star Nomad struck me heavily with its familiarity to Firefly. My worries that I was destined to read a pale version of the TV cult classic disappeared as the author’s own strong voice came through. This is not a space-western. The similarities in the crew are superficial at best. There is depth to these characters that makes for great reading.

Book cover for Honor’s Flight, book 2 in the Fallen Empire series. Image from the internet.

However, one of the things that I am really starting to enjoy are the different perspectives of interstellar governance. The war between the Empire and the Alliance is over at the start of the first story. The characters are now dealing with the consequences of war and the emergence of a new ruling body. With characters coming from both sides of the conflict we are able to glimpse some of the problems inherent in rebuilding afterwards.

While I might be spoiling somethings, I really found the discussion over the oppression of the Empire being compared to the current lawlessness under Alliance leadership. Is it really repressive that civilians are denied access to weapons? Or was the order and safety provided by those rules a worthwhile trade off. The presentation of this debate has been interesting to follow – especially as it is packaged in this fun, futuristic setting!

So far, I am loving this series. Star Nomad achieves the 5 out of 5 star rating. It has a solid plot, a caste of interesting characters and successful use of banter. I like this book and recommend it to fans of the lighter aspects of science fiction.