Tag: Reading

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Book Review – Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.

Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan follows the story of Vaelin Al Sorna as he is given to the Sixth Order by his family. The Order are protectors of both the realm and the faith, the Sixth is their martial arm where the brothers are trained from childhood for one purpose – to become deadly weapons.

The Cover: This is a solid fantasy cover. The image, the fonts, the title, and the colours all complement each other, yelling ‘I am dark fantasy’ from the bookstore rafters.

The Good Stuff: Wow! I absolutely loved this novel. There is fighting, magic, magical weapons, politics, scheming, love, betrayal, and so much more. There were actually 728 pages in this book, around 200 more than I thought I was getting. The more the merrier I say. In a way it reminded me of ‘The Name of the Wind’ with the scribe taking down the story as it unfolds, only this is done so much better, placing you firmly in the world among the action. The author, Anthony Ryan, effortlessly feeds so many little details into the prose that the world feels so authentic. So real. And what a dark, tough, and gritty world he has created. The characters are true to themselves, well developed, each with their own personality, but dare not to become attached to them, there will be sadness. In this world there is plenty of death.

The Bad Stuff: What can I say here? I got so involved in this book that nothing really bothered me. The things I remember are the author’s tendency to use a phrase like ‘it could have been a minute or an hour’ where the character gets so absorbed in a task. This stood out to me, but by no means detracted from the story. I also saw a character name spelt incorrectly once – but shit happens! You can’t catch every typo even if you send a book to 3 different editors.

Overall, this is an excellent book. I loved every page of it. For me, this is what fantasy is meant to be and I would highly recommend it to any fantasy fan. This one is getting a dark encompassing, knuckle cracking 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham.

The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin, #1)The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Dragon’s path follows four different characters along their journeys as war threatens to grip the land.

The Cover: This is a classic fantasy cover with a good clear font selection for the title and author name. The image presents a sword in the foreground and a landscape with silhouettes of riders on horseback in the background. The colours work together too. Overall it is a solid fantasy cover.

The Good Stuff: The story was well written and I found most of the characters interesting. Marcus and Cithrin held my attention, but Cithrin was by far my favourite and I wanted to see more of her in this book. I think a lot of people will love this novel, but I think I had my grumpy pants on when I read this one and as I reflect on the content I find I remember more than I thought I would.

The Bad Stuff: Maybe I’m becoming a grumpy old codger, but I struggled to get through this book as the story switched between the four characters, again and again. While the characters were well developed, I wanted something more from the storyline and less head hopping would have made this a more enjoyable read for me.

I really enjoyed the prologue to this book and was expecting to enjoy the rest of the content just as much. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations. I think that if the prologue had not been there, I wouldn’t have built up a preconception about what I was going to get from this book and I probably would have enjoyed it more. I’m only giving it 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks, at least until I take my grumpy pants off.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – Irradiated by S. Elliot Brandis.

Irradiated (The Tunnel Trilogy, #1)Irradiated by S. Elliot Brandis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Irradiated is about Jade and Pearl. Two sisters fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Pearl is different, she has a mutation. When Jade comes home to find Pearl missing one day, she sets out to find her.

The Cover: The cover has a good clean font, but I’m not overly fond of the image. While it may give some readers the idea of a post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel, It doesn’t really work for me other than to provoke a feeling of the tone of the book.

The Good Stuff: The book is well written and has some great characters. The world is dark and gritty and S.Elliot Brandis sure knows how to create a mean antagonist! I thought the story had an original element to it that I personally haven’t seen in post apocalyptic stories before.

The Bad Stuff: This is a dark world with some mean characters and yet for some reason I felt it was more suited to a YA audience.

This is an original story with some great characters. The author has created a savage world and he has a way with words that makes it a thoroughly enjoyable read. Some readers will absolutely love this book, but as it felt like it was for a younger audience and Post-apocalyptic Dystopian stories are not my favourite Genre, I’m giving it a sun-scorched 3 out of 5 Golden bookmarks.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – The Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan.

The Magician's Apprentice (Black Magician, #0.5)The Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Magician’s Apprentice was an Aurealis award winner and tells the story of Tessia, a girl from a village who wants to be a healer like her father, something that is not acceptable within her culture. But a twist of fate sends her on a path to become a magician.

The Cover: I really like this cover. The picture, the fonts, the colours, and the placement of these elements all present it nicely as a fantasy novel.

The Good Stuff: Trudi’s stories are always well constructed, she has good quality cover designs and her books are well copy-edited. She has created a believable fantasy world with starkly different cultures, making good use of the conflicts that arise between them. It is clearly evident that as an author, she knows this world inside and out. The setting is familiar across all of her books (or at least with the ones I have read), which makes it easy to fall straight back into the fantasy world. In this book Trudi has covered topics that are an issue in some modern day cultures and have been prevalent in Western World society, both in the past, and to a lesser extent in current times.

The Bad Stuff: Trudi uses the characters internal thoughts to tell readers how the characters are feeling or where the plot could go. This internal dialogue doesn’t seem to be natural to me and I struggle with this technique as a reader.

On the whole, I never really got hooked into this book the way I have with some of her others. I have read many Trudi Canavan novels in the past, the best in my opinion being The Black Magician Trilogy, but this one just didn’t have the same level of enjoyment for me. I’m only giving this one 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – Zen of eBook Marketing by Guido Henkel.

Zen of eBook MarketingZen of eBook Marketing by Guido Henkel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zen of eBook Marketing is written for writers who want to know how to market their eBooks. Written by author and programmer, Guido Henkel, this is the second book in his Zen series and provides a general overview on marketing ebooks.

The Cover: I’d say that this is a simple, clean cover that aligns with the genre of non-fiction and gives clarity about the topic covered within its content.

The Good Stuff: This book gives a wide range of methods and provides a good deal of content around the differences in the social media available. There is a wealth of information between the pages and I certainly learnt a few things from reading the content. This would be an ideal book for someone starting out and will more than likely provide something new to the authors already well on their way to marketing their books. As with Zen of ebook formatting, this book is easy to read and understand and has some valuable tips inside.

The Bad Stuff: This book will give you a general overview of marketing techniques and the Social media available to market your books through, however it does not provide a detailed breakdown of how. If you are a seasoned writer that has been selling your books online, you will know most of the information within this book already.

Overall, this is another great addition to the toolbox of Indie writers. It will give you a better understanding and good insights on how to market your books. This one is worthy of receiving a neon light, flashing 4 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

 

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – The Salvation of Yellow by William J. Grant.

The Salvation of Yellow (NSR: The Silence, #1)The Salvation of Yellow by William J. Grant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the interests of full disclosure, I would like to note that William J. Grant is a friend of mine. Even so, I believe that this is my unbiased and honest opinion of his book – The Salvation of Yellow.

In The Salvation of Yellow, we follow the story of Kayley, a thief that steals memories from dead-gods’ and sells them on the black market. Her own memories are limited, even those of the ones she has loved. Kayley is forced to take a job she doesn’t want when her fence refuses to trade with her, unless she helps him.

The Cover: I really like this cover, though it speaks more of a mystery to me than a fantasy novel and I feel it may attract the wrong audience for this story.

The Good Stuff: I loved the characters in this story and it is original and creative. I get a manga vibe from it, a sort of Aeon Flux on acid vibe. There are some good, well constructed sentences that give great descriptions of the characters, the world, and what is going on. The story is a little out there, but if you are after something interesting and new that’s a little bit crazy, you will enjoy this book. I would love to see this as a graphic novel.

The Bad Stuff: First up, I had a problem with the names of the Triple Gods of Death – D, Ea and Th. I get the idea behind them, but trying to pronounce the names in my head every time I came across them detracted from my reading experience. I know this won’t bother some people, but for me, it was hard to overcome. I also have to admit that I got lost a couple of times while reading this book. One minute I’m chugging along knowing what’s happening and then POW… I had no idea what was going on! The story seemed to jump for me, whether I just didn’t get it or if some connecting sentence had vanished, I don’t rightly know, but I got a little confused in places.

Overall I enjoyed the story, but it was not an smooth read for me. I didn’t get drawn in and carried away on the undercurrent of words, rather I was tossed around a little when a wave of confusion struck me and dragged me along the surface.

I’m giving this book a mind bending 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – The Sword of Shanara by Terry Brooks.

The Sword of Shannara (The Original Shannara Trilogy, #1)The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Sword of Shannara is an epic fantasy novel about a vale man torn from his normal life and thrown into a quest to retrieve the Sword of Shannara and destroy the Dark Lord to save the world as he knows it.

The Cover: This is a great fantasy cover with all the elements you would expect to see.

The Good Stuff: The storyline is good and would be enjoyable for those who have not read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or those that will not be bothered by the similarities.

The Bad Stuff: This book has some stark similarities to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. There is a Dark Lord, black wraiths, small vale men, elves, a strange wizard that disappears on other errands and a crazy gnome who has a magical item. This really irked me. There is also some repetition, overuse of words and a writing style that tells rather than shows.

In my opinion, this is a good fantasy novel let down by the fact that it is so similar to another authors work and yet, not quite as good. For this reason I’m only giving it 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

Amazon.com.au
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

The Princess BrideThe Princess Bride by William Goldman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a story of love and adventure. It is the story of a farm boy who falls in love, goes away to make his fortune and gets captured by a pirate, and returns to save his true love from marrying a conniving prince.

The Cover: There are a few editions of this book, the cover on the edition I have depicts a man in black (think Zorro) holding a sword which cuts through the title, replacing the I’s in the words Princess and Bride. I would say it conveys an adventurous story in the fantasy genre. I have no issues with the font types, but some words are in red and do not show up clearly against the red background of the cover.

The Good Stuff: First let me say that I loved the movie and I watched it over and over with my daughters when they were younger. I was pleased to see the movie had been true to the book (mostly anyway). I loved the humour, the characters are just as they were depicted in the movie, the key lines in the movie are word for word from the book, and the Arch dean really was written with a speech impediment. The book generally moves along at a good pace and was mostly an enjoyable story.

The Bad Stuff: Okay, something that didn’t come through to me in the movie was the sexism. If it had, I certainly would not have watched the movie over and over with my daughters. This really irked me about the book. Buttercup is made out to be simple and is shut down, ignored and disregarded by the male characters throughout the pages. I understand this title was first published in the early 70’s, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. The other issue I had with the book is that I found it very dull and even a little confusing at the start. I almost gave up on it until I got to chapter 4 and that’s where it really turned around for me. However, the constant interjections are not done nearly as well in the book as they were in the movie.

Overall, aside from the very slow start, I enjoyed the story. But if you ask me, this is one instance where the movie is better than the book. I’m only giving this one a sword swishing 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks and that’s bolstered by my fond memories of the movie.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

Amazon.com.au
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Having Déjà Vu? Don’t Worry, You’re Not Going Crazy.

pexels-photo-1130980
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Hello Readers,

If you’re feeling like you’ve seen some of my posts before, don’t worry. I am in the progress of re-posting book reviews from my old wordpress site (so they can all be found in the one place). As some of these reviews were written a long time ago, I have also been making some small changes to them to standardise the format and improve them a little. However, I’m not rewriting them completely and therefore they may seem a little less informative than usual. Sorry about that, but I feel I would need to re-read the books to write more comprehensive reviews… and that would take me forever. I guess what I’m trying to say is they are a little rough around the edges compared to my more recent reviews. Anyway, I hope there are one or two you haven’t already seen and that you get some enjoyment from them (even if it just highlights how much my reviews have improved).

Happy Reading.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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Book Review – 5 Secrets Of Story Structure: How To Write A Novel That Stands Out by K.M.Weiland

5 Secrets of Story Structure: How to Write a Novel That Stands Out (Helping Writers Become Authors Book 6)

5 Secrets of Story Structure: How to Write a Novel That Stands Out by K.M. Weiland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Review – 5 Secrets of Story Structure by KM Weiland
5 Secrets of Story Structure by KM Weiland covers off on the fundamentals of structuring a novel.

The Cover: This is a solid non-fiction cover that clearly conveys what the book is about.

The Good Stuff: This book is well presented and provides the formula for writing a good story in an easy to understand way. The content is very similar to Planning Your Novel by Janice Hardy, but presented in a slightly different format. From memory, I paid around $16.00 for the Janice Hardy book and I have no regrets, but (at time of writing this review) this one by KM Weiland is currently free on Amazon and Kobo and is just as insightful. Excellent value and a great book for anyone who needs to gain a better understanding of story structure.

The Bad Stuff: If there is any bad advice in this book I couldn’t find it. My only qualm would be with the term ‘plot points’. In my opinion this term is a little vague and did not fit, but this is only my opinion and it is a minor thing considering the value of the content in this book.

Overall, this book will be of great use to those starting out with their writing and anyone who struggles with story structure. It will teach you the fundamentals of the structure required to write a good story in an easy to understand, tried and tested way. I’m giving it 4 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

Amazon.com.au
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

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