It's a good tale, entertaining. I found the hook at the beginning drew me in quickly and I enjoyed the main character right off. There is a little espIt's a good tale, entertaining. I found the hook at the beginning drew me in quickly and I enjoyed the main character right off. There is a little espionage-ey setup, well done, so the reader is hooked and then he throws you into the curveball land of Alissa. Things get odder there and not everything goes as planned. The various adventures come off pretty smoothly to the reader, if not to the characters (e.g., things go wrong, there are costs to doing certain things). I found the plot bogged a little when the MC gets to the island (there's always an island isn't there) and there's a bit of suspension of disbelief that must go on, but all in all I found the main characterizations and interactions between characters ( there is a brief romantic interest) well handled. The ending is crisp, there is some good action, and though the very end requires one such as myself (Army trained) to forget all one has learned of antiaircraft operations, it's solid. Not everyone is aware of the difficulty of hitting a target moving in three dimensions, nor of the physics of ballistics, so I bet a lot if readers fly right though that :-)...more
Grudging, the prequel, gives Hauck a lot of momentum, and she takes the story forward from the beginning. You meet the same characters while the authoGrudging, the prequel, gives Hauck a lot of momentum, and she takes the story forward from the beginning. You meet the same characters while the author expands on their relationships (interpersonal and social) -- and they drive the book as much as the big-picture plot, which I like. The true conflict underlying the first book's contest get unearthed here, and it's enough to scare the most seasoned warrior. WE also see a nicely done romance grow, and like her approach to the fantastic, Hauck plays her hand with subtlety. No uncomfortable moments. Which is odd when you reflect on her handling of action, as noted in the Grudging review, which is exciting, crisp, but starkly brutal. There's a lot of blood. I mean, a LOT. That's an interesting dichotomy and I have to think there is a reason she structured the story that way.
So, yes, there are battles big and small and they are nasty, as they should be. Repercussions are serious, and drive character development. Excellent stuff, this is fantasy grown up.
This is a middle-of-the-trilogy book but it's got a solid climax and is a satisfying read. And yet, it sure makes you winder, what's next....
No work is perfect, and this is a review, but there is not much to say to the downside. Haucks writing is delightfully straightforward, her vision clear, the depth of the culture delivered without overwhelming the reader. there is a bit of navel-gazing going on, perhaps a tad heavy now and then, but none of it stopped me from reading a chapter father than I'd planned each night....more
Grudging sucked me in immediately. I really appreciated Michelle's ability to sketch a scene with just the right amount of detail, color, and smell, aGrudging sucked me in immediately. I really appreciated Michelle's ability to sketch a scene with just the right amount of detail, color, and smell, and enable my imagination to fill the rest. Not overdone but the bones are good and they evoke the world clearly in my head. The characters similarly are neatly done, and the plot, perhaps is her greatest strength. The tension is built right off the bat and she keeps the tension going throughout the book. Also, Hauk takes care to build a world around her characters that provides depth, in culture, setting, language, custom -- and the fantastic element, which is delightfully understated. No over-the-top magic wielding, magic is hard, and it has a cost to the wielder, as it should.
That said, I did have trouble about a third of the way in, when character motivation, to me, did not jive with what I felt would be 'right.' I put the book down for a week before coming back to it and then raced through to the end. I recognize that the scene Hauk write had to have a certain structure, and perhaps the build-up could have been different nonetheless, the book kept me seeing the world, and her characters continued to build on me.
The last major strength I think bearing mention is the action scenes. From the very first assault on the young protagonist, Hauk shows an expert hand at depicting action. This is often graphic and brutal, which might catch some readers off guard. The book veers slightly towards horror in that regard, and it works. In this book battles are marked by violence and bloodletting. Violence is not the focus of the story -- that is where it differs say from a horror tome -- but it is built into the book in an integral way. On to the sequel, which I purchased immediately on finishing this novel. Well done....more
I was not going to do the star rating as I'm not an 11-year-old kid and truly I think you have to be 11 to put a rating on this book. But then the wifI was not going to do the star rating as I'm not an 11-year-old kid and truly I think you have to be 11 to put a rating on this book. But then the wife explained, you idiot, that'll show up as a zero-star rating!
As an adult, I enjoyed it.
When one picks up a book purporting to be 'strange' one hopes the author achieves a truly oddball bent, and avoids common traps of childrens' books, such as telling lessons, princes saving princesses and magic wardrobes. The author succeeded at that, and the book was comfortably oddball and quirky. However, you've got to have some mechanisms, and the mechanisms are suitably odd.
I liked that the plot was completely unpredictable. Although to an adult, some of the conflicts were solved with just a touch of grit, tension and threat, I remember well enough reading books as a lad that had my blood going, which upon later inspection proved tame to an adult reader. I think this is such a book. For the right audience, I suspect it'll be baffling, fun and weird. ...more
This first-of-three novella dives straight into the deep end, immersing the reader in a different time for Earth (pre-WWII Spain) and a different (parThis first-of-three novella dives straight into the deep end, immersing the reader in a different time for Earth (pre-WWII Spain) and a different (paranormal) social structure, with politics, power grabs, and factions which use heavy-handed, even brutal tactics against even their own allies. Frohock gets the majority of this scene-setting done in the first two chapters, which is remarkable, as by this time the plot is in full swing, the MC is under pressure to rescue his lover and at the same time, frustrated by his own history tripping him up both directly (in the form of a secret which now must be revealed) and and indirectly (via another person who will be dear to him and presumably traded off the other).
To achieve this rapid immersion, the author uses third-person in classic epic fantasy style, with a lot of narration and direct description. This is a fell tale being told in the darkened greatroom of an ancient mansion, not a light story being recounted over coffee at a sunny coffee shop. The description is heavy in the beginning, where the mood is set. It's a lot of mood and I can see the rationale - to pull off the plot and supernatural element, you need to have a setting suitably dark, misty, and full of portent. Upside -- the descriptions are woven into the action, the story always moves forward. Along with a tensely-constructed challenge for the MC, we get some strange characters with otherworldly abilities and some nicely contained magic. No arbitrary Harry Potter stuff, nothing indiscriminate. Everything counts.
By the end of chapter 3, the heavy lifting is done, the train is out of the station* and gaining speed. Frohock gently presses the accelerator through the next section, and things get seriously weird as the caper is pulled off, to great cost to the main character...no Mary Sues here, there is a cost to every gambit and these characters do pay. The story closes with a denounment which is the setup for the next installment of Los Nefilim, and the author foreshadows challenges to come. I'm looking forward to the next story as we've got a ton of worldbuilding out of the way in this story.
Brood of Bones was a pick that was generated from interactions on twitter with the author, AE Marling. I figured, the books of a writer who produced iBrood of Bones was a pick that was generated from interactions on twitter with the author, AE Marling. I figured, the books of a writer who produced interesting tweets might prove fruitful, and I was right. I enjoyed the book, and tore through it pretty quickly. Attractions include the very intimate feel from the first-person narrative and the fun twists the author put on various characters. The protagonist can hardly stay awake, yet she is in fact more powerful asleep (where she does her magic, in an imagined laboratory - sort of a hyped up 'directed dreaming' ability). You never know, even up to the end, who is really the true antagonist, and there is enough chaos and contention that the protagonist's progress is never certain. Hiresha is no Mary Sue, her plans do go awry at times, and she has an admirable grittiness to her. Sidekicks are nicely done and there is even a hint of forbidden romanticism woven into the story. Although this IMHO is firmly in the fantasy camp, there are elements of horror here as well as fantasy, some blood and gore and threats of more; Marling doesn't revel in it, he uses it to kick up the tension. It's effective....more
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