I read a book! And it is not part of an older series I have already commented on. I read a new book in a new series by a new author and it was good.
Book cover for Guardian of Chaos – image from the internet.
Guardian of Chaos by Michelle Manus follows the adventures of Nyx Fortuna, an amnesiac living on Earth – for the first five pages of the book anyway. Within moments, our protagonist is pulled into the Between, a magic waystation that guards the entrance to earth. But the fun doesn’t just stop there, immediately appointed Guardian of the Station, Nyx is almost as quickly assigned the impossible task of tracking down an escaped criminal – with zero training. She stumbles her way from deadly assassins to a prison planet and back again. Making friends and enemies alike, Nyx’s life of near invisibility suddenly becomes filled with others and their various demands on her.
Overall, Guardian of Chaos is a fun romp through a fantasy-space setting. There are some magical creatures, some deadly chaos threats and other words to explore and become acquainted with. The writing was solid. Nyx was a good protagonist with enough of an unknown past – amnesiac, missing the first 20-ish years of her life – to hook the reader. The side characters have personality and their own goals, sometimes aligned and sometimes not with Nyx’s.
There are a few things that I will knit-pick otherwise this review would be dreadfully dull and pointlessly short. First, the lazy use of tropes when establishing Nyx. This is the main protagonist and deserves more than American cliches. For example, she has an unwarranted predilection for back shirts and jeans. Which doesn’t make sense when she was so broke, she was down to some twelve dollars in her pocket. At that point, I am pretty sure she would jump at the chance to wear a nice suit if it was clean and especially if it was tailored to her physic. The love of her clothes feels like it is playing into the girl-next door ideal that America is setting up. This beautiful person in seemingly plain clothing designed to make the character relatable, even if they are not ‘normal’.
Nyx’s obsession with coffee. While I appreciate she is not a raging alcoholic, as a non-coffee drinker I find this tiresome. Along with the clothing, this feels lazy. Like no thought was put into why she would love coffee or black clothing. I also don’t love the way coffee becomes a substitute for food. Why are heroines poor eaters, but still have the ideal body type? This perpetuates the terrible idea that a woman can have poor eating habits but still have a beautiful (and often powerful) body. I get that books are fantasy, but can we ground some of this in reality?
So when Nyx arrives at Earth Between Station, she becomes bonded to the Station’s Avatar, which she promptly names – despite the avatar saying it is not necessary. Fantasy trope: names have power. Now, I am not opposed to Nyx naming the Avatar, which seems fine to me. But everyone in the story comments on it. And Nyx, despite knowing the Avatar for 6 seconds, suddenly crusades for equal rights. I appreciate morally upstanding citizens, but this felt forced. And it wouldn’t have taken much to make it better.
First, you could establish the habit of Nyx naming everything because she longs for a friend. This is reasonable since it is quickly established she is nearly invisible to the people of earth and life is terribly lonely. Second, you could say that as guardian she feels the connection with her Avatar, so the Avatar feels like a real person to her. Or that she has always championed for the rights of talking lifeforms. But when every character comments on how odd this is, you better explain why Nyx, so new to this world, is sticking with the name. Because, if she was that lonely, I am pretty sure she would do her best to fit in and make friends with the new people who suddenly notice her.
Finally, the character flaw. The best characters have a good character flaw. The strange attachment to black jeans and t-shirts or her obsession to coffee are clearly not flaws to the author. Instead Nyx is a nerd? Geek? It is not clear. It is also not a flaw. Reading fantasy novels is hardly a flaw, and Nyx seems to read mostly the popular works. I personally think she is selfish and deaf to the feelings of those around her, but that is not an intended perspective. The author did try to play up the clueless aspect, but even then Nyx has kickass skills from her forgotten past – which further diminishes any tarnish her few nerd/geek references might make.
Book covers for the series Nyx Fortuna – image from the internet.
Still, Guardian of Chaos was sufficiently interesting that I will likely try the next book in the series. Being harsh I would give this book a 3.5/5 star rating – but that could just be me feeling critical tonight.
A Sharpened Axe is a fairy tale inspired story of Samiris, a young woman struggling to support her family during the curse that has blanketed the country of Leiria. It has the lovely feel of a traditional fairy tale. And there are enough elements to draw similarities to Beauty and the Beast. However, this is not a retelling of a classic and that is what I love best about A Sharpened Axe. It is its own story!
When a fae princess places the Crown Prince under a curse, the furthest reaches of Leiria are hit the hardest. The land becomes barren and people struggle to find enough food to live. Samiris’ father was a wealthy lord of a prosperous farm, but he now suffers from the Wasting sickness. Samiris’ mother died with the birth of her younger sister some twelve years earlier. In response, Samiris teaches herself to use the axe so she can harvest wood in the forest to keep their home heated and help ease the pain of the illness destroying her father.
Things are rough. Samiris is facing a marriage she doesn’t want in order to abide by the inheritance laws of the country. Until she is Chosen as one of the twenty young women who are selected each year to fall in love with the Crown Prince. Each year, one woman from the group faces the Questioning. And each year that woman is burned alive by magic for not having actually fallen in love with the Crown Prince and he with her.
Afraid of what the extended absence would mean for her family, Samiris rebels against going north to the capital city. The one place in the country where abundance still remains, a stark contrast to the starvation and poverty Samiris knows. She is disparaging of the Crown Prince and the other nobility. She is caustic towards the other Chosen woman, who in turn are catty bullies towards her unrefined manners and appearance.
Book cover for A Sharpened Axe. Image from the internet.
Samiris is particularly antagonistic towards Duke Artem Trego, Captain of the Royal Guard, who was sent to fetch Samiris when she didn’t respond to her summons as Chosen. This relationship starts off brilliantly with both parties frustrated with the other person. Naturally, they banter and over the course of the story they fall in love. It was a slow progression that was well crafted and reminiscent of Eliza and Darcy. I am a sucker for friction turned friends turned lovers as a story progression. So naturally I ate this up!
I think there is a fair bit of change in the main character’s perspective on life at court. Although I did find Samiris a bit repetitive at times. She also helps to bring a different point of view to some key members of the court with her own way of looking at things. I like that she is focused on making everyone’s life better. For a woman who can and does fight with an axe, many of her other skirmishes were fought and won with words (and some kindness).
For me the biggest weakness surrounds the scheming nature of the court and those involved in the whole Chosen program. There is a scene in a back alley, where Samiris and her maid overhear two people discussing this year’s crop of girls and clearly planning that none should successfully fall in love with the Crown Prince, who naturally is physically unattractive. Unfortunately this was not followed up. Sure it ties to killing off one of the girls at the end of the story, but really it leaves too many unanswered questions. For example, who picks the women that are to be Chosen? And how easy/hard is it to sneak in and murder one of them. What other changes in the court have been manipulated by this political group? It was a good idea, but not fleshed out properly.
My other question comes at the end of A Sharpened Axe. When it is revealed that the man everyone thought was the Crown Prince, was just a scholar yanked into position by the curse. So, was the woman being his mother actually his mother or the mother of the real Crown Prince? And if the dowager was the biological mother of the scholar, then does the real Crown Prince actually have any family? And why did Lady Evanora not take more control over the court? She seemed far too passive and in the background.
Despite these lingering questions, I really enjoyed A Sharpened Axe. I was hooked from the first chapter and ate my way through to the end. The characters were great. I really enjoyed the dialogue. The setting was interesting. I am now sad that I read it too quickly! Overall I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars for a wonderful fairy tale!
Knight from the Ashes -series: Crown and Crest Book 1 -by Shari L. Tapscott, Jake Andrews Spoiler Warning!
Knight from the Ashes is a fine book, particularly for young adults. It is going for high fantasy and fun. The biggest problem is that between the jacket-cover style description and the sample chapters I had developed certain expectations which, in the end, were not met.
Henrik is a soldier questing to become a sealed Knight, a position of respect. Certainly a station well above his blacksmith origins. He has his eyes focused tightly on the seal, which would bring him up to level with the beautiful princess.
Clover also has royal aspirations. She is already a lady-in-waiting to the princess, who Clover despises. Beautiful, noble born and raised largely by her male relations, Clover oscillates between delicate damsel and adventuring tomboy.
Book cover for Knight from the Ashes. Image from the internet.
When Henrik is sent on a supply run north, he ends up being asked to keep a close eye on Clover. The two are quick to bicker and declare their disdain for the other. The description read, “By the time they reach their destination, they are more than ready to be rid of each other.” Between this line and the starting chapters (sample portion), I thought this was setting up to be a good antagonistic relationship turn to love. I was right, but I expected more head bashing and less falling into the liquid splendor of the other’s eyes. They banter and snipe at each other, but all too soon they are feeling the feels and pining with desire for the other person.
The pacing was off for me. I really liked the mutual dislike for the other person that was expressed at the beginning of the story. I would have liked to see that carry through to the end, where they could start to feel less antagonistic. After all this is going to be a series, so we don’t want to rush the romance too soon. Or you risk setting up the same cycle for all the rest of the books, which I find tedious. Also, the two main characters focus too much on each other. I would really have liked them to connect with one of the side characters more. The side characters felt more like after thoughts, there to be some window dressing and show how amazing Henrik and Clover are in contrast. In fact, they were so background to the story, I am not bothering with their names.
Another aspect that was a struggle for me, was the high fantasy world building. I suppose that is my own fault. I did read “troll-pit” in the blurb, but I didn’t take that to mean this was going to be a Tolkien inspired world of high elves, humans, hog-people, rock-gnomes, wood elves, trolls and all sorts of other fantasy creature. I can appreciate the author was trying to make the different races a little different from their Tolkien versions, but I don’t see the point. I don’t see what the different races bring to the table. Why do we have wood elves and humans and high elves and hog-people and rock-gnomes and trolls and… Also, because you can see the romances being set up, what are the procreation possibilities? From a line dropped early in the book, Clover is supposed to have high elf in her family tree, suggesting that humans can mate with high elves. But can they also have children with the wood elves, which have antlers? What about the hog-people or rock-gnomes? I was not feeling the multi-race system being set up in Knight from the Ashes.
Finally, I am confused about the magic in this world. It seems like it is held in distaste. Expect when it is healing magic because people are always getting hurt. And what are the powers of necromancy? Is it the ability to speak to the dead and learn how they were killed? Or can a necromancer raise an army of zombies? The level of magic and its tolerance was unclear in the book.
I did like the jacquesalaupe – a bunny with antlers that grows huge and vicious when threatened. This is probably my favourite critter in the world because it is not a troll, or rock-gnome or hog-people or elf… It is different, cute and scary, and just makes me smile. I also liked Clover’s ability to use a bow 🙂
Book covers for the first two books in the Crown and Crest series; book 1 is Knight from the Ashes, book 2 is Forged in Cursed Flames. And yes, these covers are fantasy tropes.
I can see where Knight from the Ashes is going to be a fun adventure for some people. It just wasn’t for me. Clover was too inconsistent in her strong independence or desperately needing help. And really, why is she there? Henrik is cold and competent and way too blood thirsty. I would give Knight from the Ashes 3 stars out of 5. It was fine, reasonably enjoyable, but not quite my thing.
The Salamander Prince -series: Refurbished Fairy Tales Book 1 -by S.R. Nulton
I liked the Salamander Prince. It had a calm and relaxed tone about the writing. It was almost passive in the story telling with very little overt action and a great deal more introspection. Which in the right mood is a joy to read.
I liked the strong female enchantress that we follow as she is abruptly married to a cursed salamander and then forced to leave her home in the woods. Grace is a charming character, faulted, powerful and with a wicked sense of humor. She is great.
As Grace travels from her cottage on the edge of the forest to a new kingdom, she passes through some different lands with some different kinds of people. I liked that each land was known for something, greed, military, family… There were some interesting locations visited in the story.
Book cover for the Salamander Prince. Image from the internet.
What first struck me was a line from the prologue, “It’s a tale of broken souls and corruption that pitted brother against brother.” I kept waiting for things to go wrong. I kept waiting for some terrible betrayal. But the story ran smoothly. It never actually felt like the characters were playing for high stakes. The abundance of magic was always present to smooth over problems (or cause them when the plot needed a push). It was a very quiet feeling story.
Also, I am still not clear on this twin soul thing going on in the family. Two brothers, sharing one soul? Other than feeling a connection to each other, what does it mean? I suppose it was only there to explain the dark magic of pitting the brothers against each other.
To be clear, the Salamander Prince is a retelling of the Frog Prince. Which it supposedly combines with King Thrushbeard, but as I am not familiar with that story I cannot confirm. However, it is clear that this is part of a bigger world retelling many familiar fairy tales, some of which are set up as Grace walks her way through the plot.
The book was sweet. Grace was charming. Her husband, the salamander, was fine – but far from memorable. Overall I would give this 3.5 stars out of 5. It might be interesting to see what else is happening in this world by reading some of the others in this series.
Kingdom of Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast -series: The Kingdom tales Book 1 -by Deborah Grace White
Apparently I am in a fairy tale reading phase! A Kingdom of Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is a well done version without any major surprises. It follows more of the Disney movie version with Felicity and her family expelled from the capital city to some forgotten village. Naturally there is a Gaston-like boorish male in the village who believes Felicity will marry him. And will eventually cause problems for her later on.
Book Cover for Kingdom of Beauty. Image from the internet.
The beast, the Prince Justin, is a self-centered, arrogant male transformed into a hideous beast and locked away in the summer palace, which vanished from the land when the curse took hold. He is cold and very slow to change. He is suspicious of everyone. Which is his fault, because he is now an adult. Although I will say that his upbringing was pretty poor with a horrendous father to instill horrendous ideals. However, I will also point out that the father has been dead for ten years, and Justin’s Uncle could have been a model for being a better kind of human being.
The play on visible / invisible castle and servants is sort of interesting. The inclusion of dragons seems largely superfluous. But I guess this might weave into a larger narrative that the author is clearly building in this world. In addition to the dragons, other fairy tales have been alluded to, so you know more are coming in this series. It is good the author is setting things up early so the stories will all feel connected.
It is also passingly interesting that the sorceress that curses Prince Justin is then surprised at how strong her curse is. And is lasting much longer than she planned. This leads the woman to actively try to help break the curse, ultimately placing Felicity on the path to meet Justin. But also hints at bigger problems on a global scale in this world.
The character progression for Felicity and Justin is solidly done. I cannot fault how things grow and develop between them. Their path is very true to the Beauty and the Beast route. It was all competently done. I suppose my only hesitation with the series (outside of the random dragons) is the predictability. Which is perhaps unfair as I am choosing to read a story that says clearly in the title it is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. For me, I would give this 3.5 stars out of 5. I liked Kingdom of Beauty quite well. It is another solid retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I might even pick up the next in the series.
Book cover for the Legendary Inge from the internet.
I don’t often read the preface before starting a book, but for the Legendary Inge I did. It did not spoil the story, since I know nothing of Beowulf and am also confident this story is at best loosely inspired. First off, I liked the Legendary Inge. It had just enough surprises to make it interesting, but no dramatic twists that come out of nowhere and make no sense. In fact the entire story flowed well together and you could see how the little clues about the characters and plot were sprinkled well in advance.
The Legendary Inge starts with the titular character Inge (Ingrid), accidentally killing a monster plaguing the castle. As her reward, Ingrid is adopted by the king as his son and heir to the throne. While Ingrid might be dressed as a boy when she takes down the monster, she is most unhappy to be slotted into that role. She is the eldest girl in her family of seven children. With her parents dead from a wasting sickness, Ingrid has a lot of responsibilities and no time to play prince to the kin.
Unable to decline the king’s reward, Ingrid is forced to discover that things at the castle are not as they seem. The monster, a terrifying nightwalker, is not the only problem in the castle. The king is going mad according to rumours and the court is a vicious place for the untrained. Inge is forced to face all this as she grows in her own confidence as an individual and learns to accept the great legacy left by her own father.
Book cover for the Legendary Inge from the internet. I think I like this one best of the two.
Well written, the characters are competently developed. While they are a little on the young side, I recognize that I am getting older. Young adults want to read books with characters of their age. Still, the world was interesting. It had that nordic-viking flare, while including plenty of magic to make it truly fantastical. More than the setting, it was the character interactions that sold the narrative. I like books with family, and this had plenty of it. Sure, there were a couple of orphans, because all great legends seem to circle around them. In the end, everything really came back to family – both chosen and blood.
I like the author’s way of writing. The Legendary Inge is a solidly developed story with great characters and a fantastic plot – 4.5 out of 5 stars.
In celebration of a loosening of the COVID restrictions, I have been to the movies. The most recent movie I saw was Free Guy. This is the movie with Ryan Reynolds, Jody Comer, Lil Rel Howery and Joe Keery. There were also a number of cameos by other actors, like Alex Trebek, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum and others – some of which I missed.
My spoiler free summary of the movie: I expected it to be either terribly bad or terribly stupid, but was surprised when it was actually a fun and funny movie. I liked it! I think it is my favourite movie this summer!
The following is a slightly more complete reflection, with some spoilers…
Guy and Buddy, best friends and NPCs walking down the street of Free City and enjoying their coffee. A wildly dangerous place to live. (Image from the internet)
Ryan Reynolds plays the titular character Guy. Guy is a NPC (non-playable character) in a video game called Free City. Essentially, Guy is a background character on a fixed loop of actions. He wakes up, talks to his goldfish, gets his coffee and goes to his job as a teller at the bank.
In this open-world video game, players are generally the villains – or heroes in their own minds. They rob banks and stores on a regular basis. They steal cars, knock out people and blow up buildings. They are your typical player in a game where there are zero real world consequences for their in game behaviour.
Of course, things are a bit different from the perspective of the NPCs. They are caught in their usual loops of actions. For example, during a bank robbery, all the NPCs capitulate without question. Buddy, Guy’s best friend and Bank security guard, never fights back. He drops his gun at the first sign of trouble and joins Guy on the floor. This cycle continues for Guy until one day he meets the player Molotov Girl (aka Millie). Seeing her triggers something, a change in his programming that causes Guy to veer off script.
Millie (aka Molotov Girl – in game) and Keys, living in the ‘real world’ and working as computer programmers.
(Image from the internet)
But the story is not limited to the actions within the video game. We are introduced to some of the players and the media world they occupy too. I was impressed with the switch between “in game” and “real world” story telling. There was a lot of different aspects of modern life brought into the storytelling of this movie. The visual shift between the two worlds was nicely done. And the connections with the story were well organized. The plot about a corrupt owner of a popular (but bland) video game company wove in well with the idea of successful AI and stolen code. The plot used just enough jargon to sound vaguely real, but explained enough that someone with no gaming background could follow along. And the AI wasn’t evil and out to destroy all humanity. The AI was nice and just wanted to do its own thing – so relatable to our everyday life.
I loved Guy. Really Reynolds did an excellent job making the character so likeable. It was wonderful to see that Guy’s method for leveling up was generally non-violent. He was just trying to do good. And he approached this goal with the idea of minimal violence and nothing permanently damaging (or tried to). It was a nice change from the pirate blimps machine gunning the streets in the background.
Speaking of background. I totally want to watch this movie again just to pay more attention to the crazy work going on in the background. There is always something insane happening – usually because of the game players. Cars are exploding, fighter jets are zooming through the skies, it is an endless flow of weird and generally violent actions that I sometimes failed to notice because I was focused on the primary plot. They did an awesome job making the background and characters interesting!
Movie Poster for Free Guy – image from the internet.
Really, Free Guy was just a great, straightforward, fun story. The actors sold the characters really well. It looked like it would have been a blast of a movie to work on. And it was not part of a franchise, not a sequel and not a remake. All of this has pushed Free Guy to the top of my summer movie list – full five stars (out of five)!
So, there was this little release back in Summoner Wars original run called Alliances. It was an interesting big box packed full of goodies and surprises. The concept behind it was the various game’s factions paired up like an elementary school’s Valentine’s Day social and then awkwardly stepped on each other’s toes at the evening dance while realizing with sinking despair they had nothing in common.
No doubt they hung out with each other afterwards regardless of this fact.
It was a fascinating little project, however, as it created interesting thematic and mechanical mashups. The decks featured some of the most complicated rules and some of the most creative ideas. But were they good?
Well, that’s a different story.
Alliances came out near the end of Summoner Wars life cycle and so the designers had a better eye for what was strong and what was not. Alliances thus… struggled with trying to present interesting, innovative and compelling decks that did not tip the balance for those that had come before and were still dominating the discussion amongst the enthusiast community. Which is to say the decks were hobbled in their design to make sure that their parent factions wouldn’t be grossly unbalanced from their release.
As such, the mashups of the generally considered weaker factions were better than those that were formed from the originals considered powerful.
Which led us to the Tundra Guild.
I hate the Tundra Guild. Frothingly so.
And here we have the Tundra Guild returned.
Don’t be fooled by Plaid Hat’s marketing speak. The Polar Dwarves are not the first new faction. They’re those disgraced little snow midgets trying to sneak into the club with some fresh fake IDs. You thought no one would notice? Ha! We notice. And we’re keeping a close eye on you.
What an absolute unit. She looks standard enough but boy is her power so well constructed around her deck.
I’ve been skeptical of Svara and her little frostbitten fleas since they first previewed. And now, getting my grubby little hands on them I am proud to proclaim…
… well, I must admit that they aren’t half-bad. I so desperately wanted to hate them. But, dare I say, they’re actually quite good. And the more I play them the more I like them. Are they strong? I actually think they are. There’s a fair bit of layers beneath this ice. They’ve also got their own unique tempo compared to the other factions.
Furthermore, they absolutely abuse the new Build Phase and I love them for it.
My initial impression of the faction was in the gutter due to my preconceived bias. But I think they’re the third strongest in the box. Perhaps, with some time, I may even consider them the second? And hey, at this rate, they could be the best deck by the end of the year!
So what makes Svara stand tall amongst giants?
It’s certainly not her stock standard stats. Her ability is further unremarkable on first blush. Pushing around gates like some frigid, battlefield Sisyphos.
Granted, this is some mild spoilers, but her ability is meant to address the weakness of her slow cursed common yet to be previewed. However, shuffling around gates isn’t necessarily a terrible idea. You can’t really talk about Svara without getting a little into the weeds about the new Build Phase so, I suppose, let’s get into it.
Knee-high walls in gaming are getting out of control
The original Summoner Wars had the infamous walls that rather dominated the discussion and tactics of its release. These 10 health absolute units could only be placed on your side of the board and, for the most part, once down they never moved. You only had three of them, giving the tantalizing prospect of smashing all your enemy’s walls and leaving them unable to summon anything for the rest of the game.
Course, you didn’t, because 30 health worth of attacks in the last game where health pools were tiny and attacks were off the chart meant that you never really had a chance to swing for the fences when it was always better to be eating our opponent’s forces for lunch and preparing to have your champions duke it out in the mid or late game.
But here, in new Summoner Wars, things are different. For one, your bonus gates are half the health now. But you have an extra one to compensate. Furthermore, gates can be placed anywhere so long as they’re adjacent to your summoner (as well as the back three rows of your board). This means you can get aggressive summoning points rather handily on your enemy’s side which is a terrific source of pressure.
Svara, naturally, has these same capabilities. But even more than that, she can drag her gates with her. So any gate dropped early for funnelling or to clear your hand can eventually migrate like the ancient glaciers to your opponent’s side. And there’s really no better way to block an enemy’s summoning point than parking your own gate right in front of it.
Svara draws this weird ice curtain with her cold war, shrinking your opponent’s movement options as the game drags on. Naturally, “just shoot the gates” is a reasonable suggestion. Except it’s hard to do when feral bears are ripping your face off at the same time.
Look, it’s our old friend from the Tundra Orcs. Only it’s leashed to being close to your summoner but can now be your regular gates as well as Svara’s other toys!
Not to mention Svara has the amazing Parapet. This is a stupid waist high wall of the shooting genre fame. It won’t let you summon from it but you can fire over it while your opponent is absolutely baffled that you disappear from sight mere moments after lobbing some snowballs in their face. It doesn’t just provide your units a shifting shield of five health – it actually shuts down lanes as no one wants to leave their units vulnerable to the parapets’ defenders while they try to blow up the stupid thing.
Then, to lend Svara a hand with her gate rolling, she has Glacial Shift. Once again, we’ll get into how this event helps your little construct common later but even having it for repositioning all your gates and parapets is pretty damn helpful. And while I’m starting to find myself burning gates in other decks for the magic, you can be assured Svara is going to play all three of hers.
Ice Ram is fun. Vital? No. Overwhelming? Not really. You can win handily without ever using it. But is that really a victory?
And with all these structures littering the field, Ice Ram becomes such a lovely little tool.
This is worthy of Svara’s epic slot. The dream, of course, is to pair Ice Ram with Glacial Shift to just come crashing into your enemy’s face with all your buildings. However, I find even getting 1 or 2 assured damage and some reshuffling of enemy units to be worth it. Svara has some decent tricks in her event suite that she isn’t reliant on to secure an advantage. They’re merely additional threats that may, or may not, come out and this keeps your opponent on their toes.
Finally, if those poor fools do think “Man, these ice gates and walls really are ruining my day, why don’t I just kill them?” Svara has Ice Repair to make them regret having this entirely justified and rational thought. This is, perhaps, the best healing card we’ll see. Costless, two health across the entire battlefield is probably not going to be replicated for anyone else. And I’m not mad about it either.
Perhaps the best healing card in the game. Which is funny, because there’s actually a healing faction and Svara ain’t it.
And this is what I find beautiful about Svara. She’s got an excellent suite of event cards that you don’t need to hold for the best moment. On the other hand, you can carry one or two for an opportune moment and still get a good payoff for it. I never really find myself saving a card for “just the right moment.” I can squeeze some value from her events at any point.
The House of Earth and Blood is the first book in the new Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas. Bryce Quinlan is a half-human and half-fae living a life of work and partying in Crescent City. Her world crashes when her best friend is murdered by a demon. But as hard as that was, things become more difficult when the demon behind the murder re-emerges two years later. Now Bryce is being roped into the investigation and she is seeking revenge.
Hunt Athalar is an angel of death. A slave and assassin to the Archangels, Hunt has been recruited to track down the murderer stalking the streets of Crescent City. He doesn’t want to work with Bryce, but if they find who is responsible, Hunt can win his freedom. Together, Bryce and Hunt will face a formidable enemy and risk their hearts along the way.
So, that is the jacket-cover overview of the book. Now for my thoughts.
Book cover for Sarah J Maas’s House of Earth and Blood. I find this cover very busy and slightly baffling – and that is after I read the book. Image from the internet.
It was good. And it was long.
Let’s start with the things I liked about the story. I loved the world setting. It was a fun mix of technology and magic. The world was flavoured with ancient Roman/Greek vibes mingling with the modern urban fantasy trend of multiple supernatural races. There were angels and demons, vampires and werewolves. There were temples housing oracles and a goddess called Luna! The environment felt Mediterranean in climate. The city was a mix of ancient stone buildings and modern glass skyscrapers. And it worked. The old-new city was vibrant, the mix of different races was seamless. I loved that Bryce worked for an antiques dealer. The magic played well with the modern technology. It was all integrated and fun.
The story itself was compelling. There was lots of emotion to be had. Life for Bryce really collapsed when Danika was murdered. The struggles she faced felt believable and tragic. Certainly the twists and turns were gut-wrenching as the story progressed.
Hunt’s story paralleled Bryce’s, though older and blunted by time. His decisions and their consequences again seemed realistic. His slow change in attitude and the budding hope made for a power shift in the book.
It was good, but there were things that I didn’t love. I read a lot of Sarah J Maas’s Throne of Glass series, which was young adult. I was expecting something similar in tone and language. House of Earth and Blood was far more adult. There was a great deal of swearing, drugs, alcohol and sex in the book. Between the tone, language and themes, it was a mature story with an adult (over 18 years old) focus. Which was reflected, I suppose, by the age of Bryce also in her early twenties.
Book cover for Sarah J Maas’s House of Earth and Blood. I like this cover better than the other one for its simplicity. Though I don’t know what it is representing. Image from the internet.
I also found the pacing of the book a challenge. Every time I thought we had reached an endpoint there would be a new twist. The betrayals that happened along the way were epic. My first thought was I didn’t like them, but reflecting later I was impressed with how the actions of a person can seem both good and bad when viewed through different lenses. I think each shocking twist worked, but it did make the progression to the conclusion feel like a string of mini-peaks – more awkward than anything.
Finally, this is book one in the Crescent City series. I don’t know how many books are going to be in this series, which I assume will focus on the evil Empire. The Empire is evil and change is never easy. But while I liked this book, I worry that this series will become bloated and melodramatic. Is there really more to be done with Bryce and Hunt? Or will Maas take a different approach and follow other related characters. I think the latter holds more hope for a good sequel, but the last teasing scene in the book left me hesitant about the future of Crescent City.
So, in summary. I loved the world being developed. The story was interesting with strong characters and high emotional impact. This is an adult book that is long. Worth reading. 4.5/5 stars.
So, I finished my NaNo! Woot! An entire novel done in a month and do I feel accomplished. Alas, it did take up a lot of my time and motivation, so I was not able to track progress in pretty much everything else in my life. So that’s unfortunate. But I’m in full celebratory mode for the moment so I can’t be bothered to be fussed about it!
I was doing a rather in depth look at the reboot of Summoner Wars. Except, as it turns out, my project came to a conclusion just as access to the beta came about! So there goes all my wild speculation! Now I can get some actual experience with the game which now makes it poorly based speculation!
For those who are only mildly interested, and to give myself a little more time to get familiar with the decks against things that aren’t boneheaded AI, I’m going to do a quick summary of my thoughts for each of the decks releasing in August. Don’t fear, I still plan on doing deep dives on the others. Largely because I don’t have much else to share on the blog currently.
So let’s get into the quick faction breakdowns!
We’ll begin with the factions already covered more in depth in my April reviews. First up are the Breakers. Who I will no doubt misname as the Benders. These mistakes happen with IP updates, I’m certain. Just bear with me.
Tacullu
Tacullu got a face lift but that has not dampened her power. He was a terror in 1.0. And I think she’s a terror in 2.0 as well. She’s got a rather economic deck packed full of powerful ranged units. With the odds to hit change, however, her lack of melee options is now significant. To compensate, she simply has a large store of dice to throw. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got bad accuracy if you and your friends are all packing uzis.
All rights and images reserved to Plaid Hat Games who make this lovely game that I lovingly love.
More important, however, is that Tacullu still retains her control over the battlefield. I was pretty cold on Mind Control when I first previewed it but now that I’ve seen the other factions, it’s a very good epic event. Its usefulness, however, is matchup dependent and I think this will add to making the Breakers a more difficult faction to master though they do allow a lot of mistakes as well.
They’d be what you’d call a high floor and high ceiling faction, I suppose. However, their tricks have few counters from what I’ve seen. Positioning was always important in Summoner Wars and now with commons sticking around longer, it’s more important than ever. Tacullu has unfettered control over where units will go and how you can block out her attacks. With all her pushing of allies and enemies, expanded movement on her own soldiers and limited movement on her foes, it’s very hard to keep her out. She can assassinate, she can trade with her high base attack and she has several pressure release valves if the opponent gets on her too strong.
And that’s not even getting into a discussion of the economic advantages you can squeeze out with Mind Capture.
Overall, she’s probably one of my favourite factions so far and I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future.
Sneeks
On the flip side, we have poor Sneeks.
The Cave Goblins certainly capture the feeling of a descending horde of gnawing rats. Unfortunately, I don’t think they do well against a field littered with giant cats.
Sneeks offers some fun tactical consideration and planning with Sly, however. And it’s great not having to be concerned about your economy since most of your units and champions are free. However, their low health and attack make them rather tricky to wield effectively. I think the key to success with the Cave Goblins will come down to effective use of their fairly respectable suite of events.
However, when one of your strongest units has a measly 1 health, things are a bit tricky to squeeze out a victory.
I will say, however, that Sneeks has the best chance of benefiting from the expansion of the game. Almost all of combo synergies revolve around 0 cost units which are common enough across factions that I think he’ll have a rather expansive pool after all is said and done to make him a tricky deck to face.
Does that compensate for his poorer base deck? Well, I’m not one to judge.
Abua Shi
Kait’s favourite faction has returned with a much more theme fitting name as the Savannah Elves.
They feel more like alliance faction between the shadow and jungle elves from Summoner Wars 1.0. Which is weird because mechanically they’re the most similar to the Deep Benders.
Oh well!
A base mechanic in Summoner Wars 2.0 is the boosting mechanic and the Savannah Elves are here to showcase it on release. They are, however, still focussed on large wild animals but this time they need a little tender loving care to become the big scary beasts from before. All of their units interact with boosting in one way or another. Either they get stronger from boost tokens or they help give boost tokens to their friends.
On the flip side, everything is expensive. Course, given enough time, the Savannah Elves can turn their regular commons into cheap champions in terms of strength and health so it feels warranted. However, they also feel rather slow. Losing their investments in time and events also feels rather poor, especially if you can’t get decent trades for them either.
I personally find them in this weird middle zone. They’re capable of rather surprisingly powerful turns off a summon or two combined with some token shifting and events. But in between these bursts of power, they struggle to keep up with their opponents.
They’re a tricky lot to pin down but I’m not certain their tricks are as potent as the Breakers so familiarity will leash their effectiveness.
Which, I guess, is accurate to their 1.0 incarnation. I feel they’re more effective than the Cave Goblins but have struggled to get them rolling compared to the others.
Svara
I’ve been taken aback by the Polar Dwarves. Yes, they’ve been touted as Summoner Wars 2.0’s first new faction. But let’s not kid ourselves. Beneath that sheet is Old Man Hogar and we don’t really need the Mystery Machine gang to figure this one out.
I won’t ever hide my disappointment with the Tundra Guild from the alliances box. When Svara appeared, I was expecting… well… more disappointment.
Even my first impressions were pretty low. I’m coming around to the idea that this may have simply been biased.
I… kind of like Svara. I think she’s pretty strong. Her whole deck revolves around structures which have had a rather tumultuous history in Plaid Hat Games. And this might be the first time they’ve actually done them well.
She’s a defensive deck that sports a very powerful punch. I originally thought she’d be very combo event based but I think those are just some cute tricks she can do to catch her opponent off guard rather than relying on Glacial Shift and Ice Ram shenanigans. Ice Mages pack a huge and cheap punch. And the massive health pools are actually difficult for her enemies to take down. Ice Golems are terrifying with the sluggishness hardly a brake on their strength. Shifting structures is simple enough with Svara already but that they can be summoned like structures and serve as mini gates makes them hard to avoid.
And if you’re ever worried that their attack is too weak, just toss some Ice Smiths on them to make the problem go away. If that’s not enough, you’ve got some Bear Cavalry in the back pocket.
Svara’s biggest weakness is that she has possibly one of the worst champions in the game. But she also has some decent ones as well so it’s hard to be chuffed. This is a very strong deck that is slowly growing in my evaluations.
Sera Eldwyn
Sera is back with a vengeance baby! Tired of being considered one of the worst factions, the new and improved Summoner Wars 2.0 Vanguards are insane.
Absolutely nuts.
I will say, I like the mechanical similarities she shares with Ret-Talus. It really does feel like an opposite sides of the same coin sort of relationship. They both pull into their discard for units and such, but Sera’s has a rather impressive ceiling to it. It comes with a cost, however, which makes her deck exciting.
In order to recycle your units and have access to infinite magic, Sera Eldwyn must be on the frontlines attacking enemies. It puts her in a precarious position which is good because her deck has a phenomenal potential for crushing any game that gets into the late game. To get there, however, she has a very rocky early and mid game to contend with. Her units are expensive and, honestly, a little weak. Their cost is more of an investment, however, since you can play six, seven or more Citadel Knights in one game.
Which does feel oppressive. Granted, you’ve got to keep something alive on the board so there is some counterplay.
She’s a tricky one to navigate, I feel but has the punch to really be effective if done well.
Ret-Talus
Summoner Wars 2.0 is really a story about redemption.
Barring the Breakers, all that was dusty and old is new and shiny. Ret-Talus had a rather poor reputation which was only ever polished up in the last days of Summoner Wars 1.0.
This time, however, he’s coming out of the gate swinging.
And what he’s swinging are noodles.
Sorry, I’m not going to make this about his art. Ret-Talus is a rather powerful, exciting, combo-oriented deck all about murder, death and unlimited power. Power.
Power.
Unlimited power.
Sorry, I’m still just blown away by how good this deck is. The basics are simple. Stuff dies, you get stronger. But it gets better. See, killing stuff is necessary to win the game, so your opponent rebuffing your assaults works in your favour. And to rebuff your assaults, it leaves units for you to kill to get stronger. And you really don’t care about your stuff dying because you just bring it back for the low, low price of a little health. Oh, are you near death? Just heal up after a massive turn of delicious massacre and repeat the whole process again.
That there’s a bunch of ways to force the sacrifice of your units, which then makes all your other units stronger, is simply gravy. You’ll have these board states where one unit dies and it causes a whole cascade of effects that ultimately result in your enemy dying.
It’s fantastic and I’d say Ret-Talus is about on par with Tacullu as the deck to beat.
Now, I may think there’s a ranking of power between these decks, but I do want to emphasize that the balance of Summoner Wars 2.0 is a lot better. I think all the decks are much closer in effectiveness. You’ll probably notice the imbalances when you’re playing the extremes rather than anywhere else. And even then, the Breakers can lose to the Cave Goblins. Kait’s done it in the demo already. Which is great news if you’re a sucker for underdog factions. It’s also exciting since it makes predicting what’s good or how matchups will shake out rather murky.
I’m excited to really crack this nut open and I’m so happy to see Summoner Wars returned to form having clearly learned all the lessons of the past and much improved because of it.
