Tag: young adult fiction

Over the Dragonwall, by H.C. Strom & Dennis Montoya: A Review

At the borders of the land called Delvingdeep lies the Dragonwall, and what lies beyond the Dragonwall is the stuff of legend. When the young monk Oberon (Obi) confesses to his Sovereign that he dreams of crossing that wall, not for gold or riches but to see a dragon, to add to the body of knowledge his order maintains, he is sent to do exactly that.

Obi and a band of friends and new acquaintances, including a half-elven brother and sister, decide to take a short-cut, and – well, this is fantasy, and we all know what happens when short-cuts are taken in fantasy. Suffice it to say that the results of that short-cut, and the ensuing adventures across the Dragonwall, make up the rest of the story.

What came to mind as I finished the book was the quote attributed to Mother Theresa  “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” It sums up this book perfectly. It’s not a great book: the authors’ influences, from gaming to classic fantasy, are obvious – in some ways it’s a bit like fan fiction. The story is not complex. There are a number of production errors in the paperback copy I read. But it has clearly been written with great love, especially for the protagonist Obi.

I’d recommend Over the Dragonwall for young readers of fantasy whose interest will be in the plot and characters, and not in the literary quality of the writing. My review rubric gives Over the Dragonwall 2 1/2 stars, which is 3 stars on Amazon and Goodreads, and for what I believe is its target audience, I think that’s fair. Obi’s adventures will continue in a sequel, and I look forward to it; Obi has rather charmed himself into my heart.

The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Free Book!

On March 25th my new ‘mini-book’ Spinnings goes on sale at Amazon.  FSpinnings Final Coveror the first five days of its publication, you can also download my novel Empire’s Daughter from Amazon for free. This is a limited-time offer…so spread the word and take advantage!

You will have to pay for Spinnings…but it’s priced as low as Amazon will allow.

 

Broken: Book III of the Cage of Lies series by Susanne Valenti: A Review

Broken is the third book in Susanne Valenti’s dystopian Cage of Lies series. Packed with action, the book continues the story of Maya and Taylor in the world beyond The Wall as the battle for independence and freedom intensifies.

Over the series Valenti has found a better balance for the intersecting stories of Maya and Taylor and their new compatriots. The characters have developed and their motivations, strengths and weaknesses are clearer than in the first book. The writing is competent and the action nearly non-stop; there is little time for contemplation or explanation in Maya’s world. As a dystopian action-adventure story, it delivers all the right goods. I found the plot a little predictable – no spoilers, but I’d worked out the end by about half way through.

In my review of Chained I commented that I felt the world-building was insufficient. While more background has been given over the series, I still find myself unclear as to where some of the items these people have access to – coffee, especially– actually come from. But that is a feature common to more than one dystopian novel or series I have read, and actually doesn’t diminish the action unless the reader allows it to.

Overall, 4 stars for Broken. Cage of Lies is an action-rich series that will appeal to many readers of young-adult dystopias looking for entertainment and the challenge of wondering what they would do in the same situations.

The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Surface’s End, by David Joel Stevenson: A Review

The Surface's EndJonah, a young man in late adolescence, is responsible for providing his family with game, the major source of meat in their post-apocalyptic world. He’s found good hunting grounds at the edge of the dead zone, the desert known as the Deathlands, but even there the game is growing thin.

A wounded buck, fleeing the pain of Jonah’s arrow, leaves the shelter of the woods to run into the desert; Jonah, who cannot waste the kill, follows. Near where the buck finally falls, he finds a metal wheel…a wheel which is opens a door into another world – not a magical world: this is no rabbit-hole – but an underground city, peopled with the descendants of those who fled a ravaged Earth many generations earlier.

This is the premise of The Surface’s End, a young-adult dystopic science-fiction novel by David Joel Stevenson. I finished the book over two days: it’s short, at about 139 pages on my Kindle app, but it was also compulsively readable. Both the homesteading world of Jonah and his family and their fellow villagers, and the mole-rat like existence of the underground inhabitants were internally consistent and plausible, although both were slightly too one-dimensional, with no hint of strife or disagreement within the homesteaders and no positive aspects to the underground world.

SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!

Having the ‘wildlands’ adolescent discover the ‘city’, rather than the other way around, was a nice twist on the young-adult dystopic meme. The inevitable romance between Jonah and Talitha, the girl from underground, is handled sweetly, Jonah’s uncertainty and awkwardness particularly.

For the most part Stevenson’s writing flows smoothly (and occasionally brilliantly, as in the line, referring to the Deathlands: ‘He took his first step into the undiscovered lands.’, an echo of Hamlet describing death as ‘the undiscovered country.’). A minor niggle was that I found the tone and pacing of the narrative did not always reflect the tension and action of the story.

My only other niggle with the story was the scene in which Jonah and Talitha watch a digital feed of the deathbed confession of one of the original founders of the underground city. While it is important, a turning point in the story, the confession goes on too long, unbroken by the reactions and emotions of the two young people watching it.

All in all, though, I’m giving The Surface’s End four stars. It’s a worthy addition to the young adult dystopia genre (personally, I think it would make a good film), and it has enough originality to make it stand out from the crowd.

The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are mine alone.

Book Review Policies

I’ll post this on the book review page on my website as well.

For everyone who has asked (and those who might wish to) I review published or pre-publication work from indie authors.  My preference is for young-adult fantasy/dystopia/sci-fi but will consider other work.  I do accept e-books (actually, I prefer them).

My practice is to share the review with the author before I post to anywhere except my website.  As well as my website, I post reviews to the following sites:  Goodreads, Amazon in the UK, Canada, and the US, and Kobo and Smashwords – but don’t unless the author requests it.

My contact details are marianlthorpe at gmail.com.

A Pre-publication Review: Creeping Shadow: Rise of Isaac Book 1, by Caroline Peckham

Creeping Shadows:Rise of Isaac Book 1

Creeping Shadow is a young-adult fantasy by indie writer Caroline Peckham. Building on some of the best traditions of British children’s and young-adult writing, the story caught my imagination from the first pages and held it throughout the book.

It is truly difficult to find new ways to address themes and memes in young-adult writing. Some of my appreciation of Creeping Shadow almost certainly stemmed from the fact it was ‘familiar’: the opening events and settings, which have elements reminiscent of the introduction to Narnia, or to Susan Cooper’s Over Sea, Under Stone, began the story in a way that leads the reader to expect certain things to unfold, the way ‘Once upon a time…’ opens a classic fairy tale. And the reader is not disappointed!

Wizards appear; a quest is demanded; travel between multiple worlds is required. The challenge required of the young protagonists in this first book of the series, however, is modern, owing more to The Hunger Games and to some extent to the Harry Potter series than to C.S. Lewis, firmly siting the book in the modern young-adult universe.

The copy I read was an ARC – publication does not occur until December – and had a remarkably small number of production errors. The story is well-plotted and characters sufficiently complex in most cases to avoid being stereotypes, although roles are usually almost instantly identifiable. Creeping Shadow has the honour of being the first book I ever read on my iPhone, mostly because I really wanted to finish it and my phone is almost always with me, so I could read anywhere. Strongly recommended!

This is an independent review of an ARC. The opinions stated here are mine alone.

Open Mike Night

Our revered and celebrated local bookstore/restaurant/cinema opens its restaurant/bar area to writers on Monday mornings.  It’s just a quiet place to write, with internet access, coffee and tea, and focus.  No instruction, no conversation.

I’ve just started attending this fall.  Sometimes people record on the chalkboard what they are working on – business writing, theses, novels, short stories, memoirs, blog entries.  I use the time to work on Empire’s Hostage. It’s highly productive: there are no distractions, and unlike working at the university library I can leave my laptop and phone on the table when I go to the washroom, or to move my car to avoid a parking ticket.

In a couple of weeks we’re doing an evening session, a salon – basically an open mike night for the writers who write here.  I’m both looking forward to it and apprehensive.  Two of the writers who come on Monday mornings – regulars – have both been nominated for prestigious national writing awards.  And I’m going to read an excerpt from my genre fiction?

But yes, I am.  While I’m in awe of writers who are writing work worthy of major book awards, I’m not one of them. I write to tell a simple story to entertain – and I hope to some extent challenge – young adults (or maybe anyone over the age of twelve) and to explore landscapes, both physical and of the mind.  I do it the best I can, and that’s what I’ll read.  And because I know this city, and the attitudes of those for whom this bookstore is an important part of their lives, there won’t be judgement, or negativity.  We’ll appreciate each others writing, regardless of genre, or publishing contract, or experience. I’ll let you know how it goes!