HOWEVER MANY MUST DIE (The Blood Scouts #1), by Phil Williams

I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks for this opportunity.

All the books I’ve so far read and enjoyed from author Phil Williams have been set in Urban Fantasy backgrounds, so when I happened to encounter the description for However Many Must Die and understood that it was something completely different, I was curious to see where the change of theme would take his narrative skills, so I was quite delighted when Mr. Williams granted me an ARC of his new endeavor.

The setting depicted here is a richly complex one: at the roots of the narrative there is a world, the Rocc, engaged in the strife between its two main powers, the conquest-hungry Drail and its major antagonist Stanclif, each of them supported by their own alliances of minor states.   The background and the technical elements mentioned bring immediately to mind a level of civilization similar to that of Europe during World War I (with some steampunk accents) but with a huge difference, because this world is also home to a great variety of creatures – from the merely bizarre to the monstrous – which add a generous dose of fantasy to the mix, where one can also find magic wielders to complement the existing technology.

In this context of seemingly endless, drawn-out warfare we meet the Blood Scouts, an all-female squadron mostly employed in missions that entail commando-like incursions where sniping skills are particularly required. Wild Wish is a member of the Blood Scouts and we meet her in the heat of one such skirmish, a bloody one where the Scouts’ success is marred by some grievous losses. There is little time, however, to mourn the death of friends, because the Scouts are tasked with a dangerous but vital mission: intelligence reports hint at a terrible weapon being perfected by the Drail, one that might not only change the tide of war in their favor, but also threatens a massive loss of life.  Wild Wish and her friends then embark on a journey into enemy territory that will take them across a war-ravaged world and test their mettle to the utmost.

I was completely captivated by Wild Wish and the Blood Scouts in their quest across the Rocc and its different terrains, cultures and creatures, even though I did struggle a little at the start because this is a very complex, very layered world which requires unwavering attention – in this regard I was greatly helped by the glossary at the start of the book, returning to it time and again to help me make sense of the huge amount of information underlying the story.   In this respect However Many Must Die is a challenging read but once you become comfortable with the background you will be able to enjoy the characters and their adventures: the shining light in this novel comes from the camaraderie binding the Blood Scouts and the way they express it through affectionate banter or apparently rough exchanges that come from the well of shared experiences of this group of women.

In this world women are not viewed as effective combatants, there is a deep veneer of misogyny running through the Blood Scouts’ dealings with the other military and it’s interesting to see how this serves to cement their bonds even more deeply. Even the enemy – alerted by its own intelligence about a possibile incursion – struggles to accept that a handful of women could be responsible for the news of sneak attacks and successful stunts that are being reported.  On the Drail side of the war there is another woman, Maringdale, who is an officer of the Purification (a sort of secret police) and equally suffering from discrimination: she is the enemy, granted, and while it’s easy to hope that her hunt for the Blood Scouts will be unsuccessful, it’s equally easy to sympathize with her, given the supercilious treatment she must endure in her attempts to bring the Stanclif infiltration to the attention of her superiors and ultimately to foil it.

The characters are undoubtedly intriguing, and there are many more besides Wild Wish: from mage Emi, whose dirt-minding powers can affect the environment but require a price of momentary madness, expressed in manic laughter; to sniper Rue whose moods can turn from brooding to murderous at the drop of a hat; to Oksy whose inexhaustible well of knowledge tends to set Wish on edge, they all contribute to a wonderful tapestry of personalities we come to care deeply for.  These are mostly young women who choose to enlist either to show their worth or to escape from a dreary existence, but their shared experiences forge them into a cohesive whole where they are able to accept sacrifice not only for a higher goal but above all for the good of the small “tribe” they created with each other.  

The journey itself, that often takes the shape of a classic fantasy quest, thanks to the strange places and even stranger creatures that Wish & Co. encounter on the road, is one whose stakes and hardships keep increasing, as does the pace of the novel: where at the start However Many Must Die reads like something of a war chronicle, it gradually morphs into a high-octane race against time and impossible odds, punctuated by run-ins with the weirdest beings one could imagine, ranging from forest-dwelling barkmen (the name says everything) to goblins and vicious Grekkels (think something between lizard and wolf) and so on.  Be prepared for blood-chilling skirmishes and grievous losses, even among favorite characters….

But the best comes indeed last because the final showdown – set on a huge train rushing madly toward its momentous destination – will keep you on the edge of your seat and in serious need of oxygen, and it was my favorite part of the story, one that compelled me to stay awake well past my bedtime to see what would happen.

If this is – as it would seem – only the first installment in a new series featuring the Blood Scouts, I’m totally onboard for the continuation of the journey.

My Rating:

GRIEVAR’S BLOOD (The Combat Codes #2), by Alexander Darwin

I received this novel from the author, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to both of them for this opportunity.

In his afterword, author Alexander Darwin touches on the subject of middle book syndrome, the point in a series that can either make it or break it: now that I have read Grievar’s Blood I can say with total assurance that this book does not only make the series, but it also expands on the characters’ journey and on the view of the world in which the story is set, and does so in a gripping, page-turning way.

Where The Combat Codes focused mainly on the characters of young Cego, rising star in the Grievars’ training school, and of Murray Pearson, former Grievar Knight turned scout for fighting talent, Grievar’s Blood adds two more POVs to the story, Solara Halberd and Silas the Slayer and through them gives us a deeper, wider understanding of this world and its social and political forces at work. All of the characters – old and new – are on some form of quest here: Cego needs to learn more about himself and his talents after the momentous revelation on his origins, a discovery that has a profound impact both on his personality and on the way he interacts with his friends. In the previous book I enjoyed the theme of found family in this group of young trainees, and here the strength of the bond linking them is stressed even more once Cego finds himself facing a quite unexpected turn of events in what proved to be a very compelling narrative thread: the team’s reaction to what is happening is both heartwarming and harrowing, and leads to a detailed trial scene that kept me on the edge of the seat for the whole run.   It’s interesting to note, though, that Cego’s journey is not front and center in Grievar’s Blood: the bold move of having him share the limelight in equal measure with other characters pays off in the end, because the uncertainty about his fate that colors the last quarter of the book adds even more strength to the pivotal scene where the present leg of his journey ends to start a new one. Apologies for these quite cryptic comments, but I don’t want to spoil anything here…

Murray, after the shocking discoveries he made in the previous book, is a rudderless man who has turned to drinking himself into a stupor, literally touching bottom, physically and spiritually until something awakens him and gives him a new purpose: finding Sam, Cego’s younger brother. His commitment to this goal takes him back to his former self, and we see him taking great risks and paying a huge price for his actions: I am amazed at the kind of beatings this man can take and yet be back on his feet again, never surrendering to obstacles once he finds again a purpose in life.  In the course of the first two books of this series I have grown very fond of Murray: this grizzled, blunt, grumpy individual has unexpectedly carved a place in my heart, and I hope of seeing more of him in the final book.

In The Combat Codes Solara Halberd was described as a very committed, very serious young woman whose life has been focused on becoming a Grievar Knight and making her father – an eminent fighter – proud of her accomplishments. Here, on the heels of a huge personal tragedy, we see her leave the Lyceum on an almost impossible quest, to which she brings the same determination she applied to her studies and training. Where she might have previously appeared as merely ambitious and a little self-centered, here she exhibits a many-layered personality that comes across at its best in her dealings with another young trainee, N’auri: the growing friendship between these two girls is a delightful addition to the story and also brings some welcome female presence that was slightly missing in the previous installment.

And finally we come to Silas: the way Cego remembered his older brother – capable, focused but also affectionate – clashes with the person represented here, a cold-blooded fighter who crushes his opponents with cold, surgical detachment. The nickname “Slayer” seemed perfectly tailored for a character I was ready to dislike, to say the least – that is, until more was revealed about his personality and, more important, the ultimate goal he is pursuing here, and which ties in closely with the huge twist toward which the author has been leading his readers, carefully managing the various narrative threads that combine toward the end into a breath-taking payoff which, in turn, holds the promise for a quite spectacular conclusion in the next book.

When reading The Combat Codes I was often curious to know more about the world in which this series is set, and Grievar’s Blood did indeed reveal more details about it, particularly where the Daimyo – the actual rulers of the world – are concerned: there are several interesting glimpses into their mindset and customs, and in the social and political machinations they surround themselves with, but the most intriguing detail about the foundations of this society, and the origin of Grievar Knights, comes from a bitter musing from Silas:

The Grievar […] are characters in this world they’ve built made to play a very specific part […] fight in their arenas, settle their disputes […] With them looking down on us from above, watching us fight and bleed and get buried, all to serve at their pleasure.

It’s in this small seed that the riveting turning point at the end of the book finds the means to expand the story and its scope into a tale which grows from the relatively small-scale conflicts of the fighting arenas to an epic battle for freedom and dignity:

We who are not bound by the world they build

We who are free to fight

We who will fight to be free

Given what I’ve learned in this second volume, I can hardly wait to see what Alexander Darwin has in store for his readers in what promises to be the impressive climax of a gripping series.

My Rating:

CLAWS AND CONTRIVANCIES (Regency Dragons #2), by Stephanie Burgis

I received this novel from the author, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks for the opportunity to read the ARC.

Two years ago I was introduced, with Scales and Sensibility, to Stephanie Burgis’ new alternative version of the Regency Era, one where dragons are a fact of life and the ultimate fashion accessory for ladies of the ton. I was charmed by the adventures of spirited Elinor Tregarth and Sir Jessamyn, the dragon she came to adopt, so when Ms. Burgis contacted me with the ARC for the second book in this series I was delighted to go back to her imagined world.

Claws and Contrivances follows the adventures of another Miss Tregarth, Rose: the three sisters, orphaned after the death of both parents in a carriage accident, were sent to three different groups of relatives and while Elinor had the misfortune to be taken in by the insufferable Heathergills, Rose had better luck with the Parrys, a somewhat impoverished but loving family made of delightfully eccentric individuals: cousin Serena would love to live in a gothic setting, and looks for ghosts and ghouls behind every corner, while Georgiana aka Georgie is quite the tomboy, preferring riding breeches to flowing dresses; Beth, on the other hand, is the more reserved of the three, while Aunt Parry is a dedicated, distracted, ink-smudged novelist and Uncle Parry a noted dragon scholar.

While the family is waiting for Uncle Parry’s guest, a fellow dragon scholar, Rose stumbles on a dragon in one of the less-frequented rooms of Gogood Abbey: the poor creature is terrified and shows clear signs of previous abuse, but Rose’s gentle ways soon gain her the dragon’s trust – which seems to lead to the appearance of a second, equally traumatized creature…   Determined to find the dragons’ owner, Rose tries to contact the Parrys’ new neighbor, Sir Gareth, but the arrival of the expected guest – the scholarly Mr. Aubrey we already met in the previous book – brings about a change of plans and the start of a delightful comedy of errors that soon takes on some romantic overtones mixed with a slowly unfurling mystery.

I don’t want to share more of the plot because to spoil it would be a great disservice: it’s enough to say that here you will find all the elements that have made Ms. Burgis’ stories such a joy to read, with plucky heroines, dastardly villains and gallant gentlemen – and of course the dragons, which feature quite abundantly in this story  😉    I was delighted to see the return of distractedly bookish Mr. Aubrey here: he might be oblivious to the usual social graces while his nose is buried in a book (and how could a bookworm like myself blame him?) but when he’s called to higher purposes he shows a remarkable strength of character, which becomes quite necessary considering that the shady Sir Gareth is the kind of villain we all love to hate.

Rose is an outstanding heroine, her selflessness and courage work well within the conventions of the era, but she also shows a capacity to transcend those conventions when she feels the need to protect those she loves – either her adopted family or the dragons she has taken responsibility for. And speaking of Rose, I have to commend once again Ms. Burgis’ skills in creating romantic scenes that not only develop in an organic way inside the story’s framework, but also feel extremely appealing even to an old, grumpily un-romantic reader like yours truly – to the point that I find myself rooting for the protagonists to reach the necessary happily-ever-after…

If you’re looking for an enjoyable, quick read where the comedy of manners successfully meets a magic background (and dragons, let’s not forget the dragons…) you need not look further than this series and its charming, engaging characters. And since there are three Tregarth sisters, I do look forward to the dragon-linked adventures of the third one, Harriet: I have no idea where Ms. Burgis will take the story next, but I know that it will be just as engaging and lively as the previous ones.

My Rating:

THE COMBAT CODES (The Combat Codes #1), by Alexander Darwin

I received this novel from the author, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to both of them for this opportunity.

This review is part of the Combat Codes Blog Tour organized for the novel’s publication, which is scheduled for Tuesday June 13^th. You will find the links to the other posts for the Tour at the end of the review.

I have to confess that when Alexander Darwin contacted me about reading and reviewing The Combat Codes I was initially dubious because of the martial arts angle which features prominently in the story, since it’s not exactly my cup of tea, but a swift research online showed me that there was a good measure of character development in the book, and that was enough for me to take the proverbial plunge. Now I’m very glad I accepted because this novel offered much more than I expected, both story-wise and where characters are concerned.

The world in which the story is set has a long, bloody history of violent wars between nations; presently they have been set aside thanks to Grievar Knights, dedicated warriors who act as champions for the various factions: they meet in ritual combat in the arena and any dispute is settled with the outcome of the fight.  

“We fight, so the rest shall not have to.”

Grievars follow a set of rules, the Codes (each chapter starts with a quote from them, and is relevant to the events that take place in the story): they dictate not only the kind of moves allowed in combat, but also the moral tenets every fighter must adhere to, and these rules have been rigorously followed for a long time, but in recent times they have been abandoned in favor of more “modern” techniques and more performative physical enhancements.

Murray Pearson is a former Grievar Knight, once famous and powerful, now fallen into almost oblivion: he spends his days drinking and scouting for talent to be turned into Grievar champions in the prestigious Lyceum, the city’s academy where fighters’ skills are honed to perfection.  Cego is a young boy barely surviving in the depths of the city: he has no memory of how he ended there, only flashes of a former life on a remote island, where he and his two brothers were taught the way of the Grievar by an old mentor. Captured and forced to fight in the slave pits, a travesty of the Grievar arenas, he catches Murray’s eye who sees an enormous potential in the boy and manages to get him enrolled in the Lyceum. 

While he grows as a fighter and future Grievar, Cego starts to learn more about himself and his abilities, forms bonds of friendship with his team-mates and also deals with some unsavory characters who test his temperament and his respect for the Codes. Meanwhile, Murray is conducting something of an investigation into the dealings at the Lyceum, and both his search and Cego’s journey will take the readers toward a surprising revelation that will certainly lead to new and intriguing narrative paths in the next books of the series.

Where the novel’s structure holds a certain kind of familiarity – the old mentor, the young apprentice learning new skills, the school setting with its challenges, the adversarial bully, and so on – the story is carried by a very engaging prose that makes for a compelling reading, aided by the slow revelation of a very complex world in which elements of fantasy and science fiction seamlessly blend together to build the intriguing picture of a dystopian background in which technology and magic live side by side.  One of the details I found most intriguing is the link between the Circles (the fighting arenas) and the substance from which they are built: depending on the base element, the Circle takes on a specific color and can exert an equally specific influence on the fighters – either in mind or body – and therefore influence the outcome of a fight.

Another intriguing facet comes from the “present” evolution of the fighting rules: the Codes seem to be slowly losing their impact on the style and mindset of the Grievars, the use of enhancing drugs taking the place of more intensive training or as a way of increasing stamina. Older Knights, like Murray, perceive this phenomenon as a departure from the honorable way of fighting they were taught, while the younger generations see it as a way of gaining an edge against their opponents. It’s interesting to see how a young person like Cego feels a compelling need to remain faithful to the Codes, while feeling the pressure to perform better and better and therefore be an asset for his nation – a dichotomy that will take an interesting turn as the story goes on…

And speaking of Cego, I enjoyed his coming-of-age journey, from the grim depths of the slave pits to the excellence of the Lyceum, from the loneliness of the outcast to the glory of championship and the rewards of friendship and found family: throughout all these experiences, he manages to retain a certain form of candor, a deep capacity for honesty and appreciation for friendship that quickly endeared him to me and made me follow his progress with keen interest. And since this leads to discussion of the combat itself, I have to say that I appreciated these descriptions as well, to my surprise: as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, martial arts are not within my sphere of interest, but I found the depictions of Grievar fights very well detailed and quite cinematic, so that it was not hard to see them in my mind’s eye and they ended adding to my enjoyment of the novel.

The momentous revelation at the end of the book represented a big surprise for me and while it did not close the story on an actual cliffhanger (for which I’m very grateful…), it did promise interesting developments for the future, so that I’m more than looking forward to the continuation of this series.

My Rating:

THE COMBAT CODES BLOG TOUR

June 6^{th Queen’s Book Asylum}

June 8^{th Out of This World SFF}

June 9^{th BookwyrmsDen}

June 10^{th Under the Radar SFF Books}

June 11^{th Grimdark Magazine  &  FanFiAddict}

June 12^{th Fantasy Book Critic}

June 13^{th WeatherWax Report  &. Jessie MaeBooks}

Alexander Darwin’s website: http://www.combatcodes.com/

DYER STREET PUNK WITCHES (Ordshaw #7), by Phil Williams

I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks for this opportunity.

And so we’re back to the fictional city of Ordshaw, where magic lurks just beyond the corner of your eye, after the slight “detour” which brought us around the world with Phil William’s Ikiri Duology, even though that story also showed some connection to this main site of weird phenomena.

Kit Fadoulous used to be the leader of the punk rock band of the Dire Grrls together with her friends Madison and Clover, and at some point in their career they found online Betsy Burdock’s Book of Spells, a sort of do-it-yourself grimoire which changed their lives, teaching them to enhance their music with spells.  As the story starts, it’s a few decades after those “golden years” and Kit has taken on the job of editor for an independent paper focused on pointing out local authorities’ failings and on promoting worthy enterprises. She now lives in one of Ordshaw’s worst areas, one that is both crime ridden and abandoned to its own devices, and lost contact with her former friends: still surrounded by an aura of mystery and a whiff of witchcraft, Kit barely manages to keep he publication afloat, and her situation becomes even more complicated when a friend from the past warns her about the return of an old foe, bent on resurrecting the ancient gang wars – and he seems to have enrolled someone able to summon magic…

As is often the case with the Ordshaw series, saying too much about the plot would spoil the enjoyment of the story, and there is much to be discovered here, particularly because each chapter begins with a look at the past of Kit and her band – and how their art mixed with witchcraft and the gangs’ territorial wars, often with unpredictable and dramatic results – and then proceeds to add more details to the overall picture of the present, moving with a swift pace toward some final revelations that end up being quite surprising.  What’s different here, in respect of the other books in the series, is that the weirdness does not come from otherworldly phenomena or creatures, but from the wielding of magic through spells which are reinforced by the mixing of very, very strange elements: the excerpts from Betsy Burdock’s book are both intriguing and fun, enhanced by the fictional author’s unique brand of humor, and I enjoyed them very much.

Kit is an intriguing character (one, I have to admit, I was curious about since this book’s cover reveal some time ago): still very much tied to her punk rock singer persona in the manner of dress and the way she relates to others, there is a definite layer of wisdom through adversity added to her personality that instantly endeared her to me, a reaction that deepened as I understood that she carries a heavy burden from the past and from the fracturing of what used to be a very strong bond with her bandmates.  Every reference to that past is tinged with poignant regret and a sense of guilt that Kit probably tries to assuage through her tireless work in favor of the community: using magic imbued the three girls with a heady sense of power, but Kit has come to realize that the payoff was far too steep – there is one instance in which she warns about the consequences of that carelessly wielded magic, summarizing its noxious effects:

We don’t know how to heal things. Only how to break them.

Other characters, like Ellie – Kit’s virtual second in command at the paper – or newcomer Aaron, a young man who seems scared of his own shadow until he reveals unexpected talents, move around Kit like planets around the sun, helping to better define her psychological makeup and to underline her strengths and frailties. 

And of course there is always the city of Ordshaw acting as both background and character: as I often commented, talking about this series, there is a storytelling quality to these books that makes me imagine this city as colored in sepia tones, or immersed in a sort of perennial dusk: here that sensation is enhanced by the descriptions of the area where Kit operates, the community of St. Alphege, a once lively but now run-down sector where organized crime put some very deep roots and where the distraction of local authorities did nothing to improve the citizens’ living conditions.

[…] bare brick walls and windows barred like a prison, roads pocked with holes and pavements dotted with weeds. Even the sky’s blanket grey conspired to give the estate a miserable appearance.

Dyer Street Punk Witches (which is available from today) is loosely related to the rest of the series, so it can be read as a stand-alone, but if it can make you curious about the other Ordshaw stories, know that this unusual Urban Fantasy saga will prove both intriguing and entertaining in its peculiar weirdness…

My Rating:

TOUCHSTONES: A COLLECTION, by Stephanie Burgis

I received this story collection from the author, in exchange for an honest review.

This time around, the delightful surprise in receiving Stephanie Burgis’ new work to read and review was compounded by the discovery that it was a collection of short stories and, more important still, that they went in quite unexpected directions – narratively speaking – from this author’s usually light and playful style.  Which does not mean, of course, that you will not find some of her spirited and plucky heroines here, or that you will not travel through some of her Regency-inspired worlds: there is that, of course, but also some darker stories and themes that follow the time-honored fairy tale pattern of mixing darkness and light for added narrative depth.

And speaking of fairy tales, Touchstones contains not one but two retellings of the Cinderella myth, a longer one where the girl in question is quite reluctant to accept her destiny, and a shorter story that takes a very, very unexpected direction: in both instances I was thoroughly amused at the way Ms. Burgis turned the well known fable upside down, particularly in The Wrong Foot where we get a closer look at the famous Prince Charming only to discover that he’s… well, no, find out for yourselves! 😉

Staying with the lighter mood of the collection, The Disastrous Debut of Agatha Tremain is a fun romp through the idiosyncrasies of Regency society thanks to a spirited girl and her evil aunt, very much in line with the author’s previous offerings, while The Art of Deception follows a somewhat unlikely sword master and his friend as they move through the treacherous waters of a magical academy.  On the other hand, Love You, Flatmate is set in our present world during the Covid outbreak, but it will make you smile as you consider the effects of forced cohabitation between… ahem… different species.

For the darker themes, I would like to mention Dreaming Harry, in which we discover that a child’s imagination, when fueled by the wrong images (and a particular accident at the time of birth…) can be a quite dangerous thing.  Dancing in the Dark is a very poignant story about loss and the way a friendly ghost can assuage it. And again, True Names will take you on the harrowing path traveled by a young woman whose unexpected visitor brings a deadly threat.  My favorite story, however, is House of Secrets: the dark journey of a very special girl whose distant father you will come to hate and despise as much as I did.

Once again, Stephanie Burgis managed to take me out of this world into her special realms, in a variegated tour that proved to be both amusing and shocking, whimsical and weird, but always, always totally engaging:  I mentioned only a handful of the stories included in this collection, but there are many more that will take you down unusual paths and fuel your imagination.

If you already encountered her works, you will find in Touchstones her trademark narrative skills; if she’s a new-to-you author, this anthology might very well be the way to get to know her writing. In each case, it will be a reading experience not to be missed…

My Rating:

GOOD NEIGHBORS (The Full Collection), by Stephanie Burgis

I received this story collection from the author, in exchange for an honest review.

It’s always a welcome surprise when Ms. Burgis so kindly asks me to read and review her new works, because I know that I will always discover delightful stories where a thread of magic is woven with one of romance that even this grumpy old curmudgeon cannot find fault with 😉   (as a matter of fact, I quite enjoy these light-hearted forays into romantic territory…)

Magic is indeed a focal theme in this collection of stories set on a parallel version of 19^th Century England, one where this element is commonplace, as in Ms. Burgis’ equally engaging Harwood Spellbook series, but with the difference that here magic is not an integral part of society: anyone caught with such abilities or marked as “unnatural” is either ostracized or wiped out, depending on the mood of the neighborhood.  

Young Mia, the main character, is an inventor with a special knack for metal to which she can apply her peculiar kind of magic, but her skills have already exacted a heavy toll when her former fellow citizens discovered her true nature and turned against her and her father, burning their home to the ground and grievously wounding the man.  Now that the two of them have found a new place to live, Mia is firmly set in keeping her abilities well hidden, but she did not take into account the persistence of her next-door neighbor, necromancer Leander, whose misshapen undead minions she keeps finding on her doorstep…

Given the shortness of the four stories that compose this collection (Good Neighbors, Deadly Courtesies, Fine Deceptions, Fierce Company) I don’t want to dwell any longer on the actual plot, which despite its light, humorous tone is also able to touch on some very serious themes like the fear of anything we perceive as different or the double standards of people in power.  I can however concentrate on the character of Mia who, like many of Stephanie Burgis’ heroines, presents a captivatingly grouchy disposition on the outside that hides a generous, selfless soul ready to help those in need – be they human or otherwise.  Previous events – and the consequences they visited on her father – made Mia quite wary of outside contact and a virtual recluse, which forces dashing Leander to launch a well-organized campaign to tear those barriers down and turn the two of them first into allies and then into… well, something else. And he has a lot of ground to cover because, in Mia’s own words:

I was not some fluff-headed flibbertigibbet who could be flustered by a bit of close darkness and a handsome, teasing necromancer.

While the first two stories, which are also the shorter ones in the collection, remain on the light side, the longer third and fourth deal with some quite dramatic issues concerning the frame of mind of the so-called “good citizens” of a nearby town (I always shudder whenever the word “purity” is used as it is in this instance) and Leander’s harrowing past. There is clearly a thematic progression here that moves from the introductory stories where the characters are presented, to the more complex, more layered study of the world they live in, a world in which “normal” people feel threatened by supernatural creatures for no other reason that they are different – and no matter how much fanciful humor is laced throughout the story, there are several thought-provoking issues here that belie the apparent lightness of the collection.

These four short stories were previously presented on Stephanie Burgis’ Patreon between 2020 and 2021 and are now collected in a single volume that will be available from February 2^nd, 2022. My hope, after reading them, is that the author will write some more to expand both on this intriguing world and on Mia and Leander’s story. I will look forward to them.

My Rating:

GIVEN TO DARKNESS (The Ikiri Duology #2), by Phil Williams

The previous book in this duology introduced me to a new set of troubles afflicting this version of our world, in which the weird and supernatural coexist with everyday life, as introduced in Phil Williams’ Sunken City trilogy based in the fictional city of Ordshaw. 

Where the weirdness surfacing in Ordshaw remained more or less confined to the city itself, and more precisely to its subterranean levels, in the Ikiri Duology upheavals manifest in a very public and quite bloody way, requiring the shady Ministry for Environmental Energy to stretch its resources to find plausible explanations for the sudden, tragic bouts of violence erupting worldwide, and to keep the consequences under wraps as much as possible.

In Kept from Cages we met MEE agent Sean Tasker trying to deal with the situation and finding an unexpected – and weird – ally in Katryzna, a young woman with a violently unpredictable attitude. On the other side of the world, a band of criminally-inclined musicians met with a strange child, Zip, who soon proved to be the key to the strange events plaguing the world. Once the two groups met, the story truly launched into its inexorable path…

The unlikely allies are now faced with the need to go to the source of the disturbance, a place deep in Congo’s forest called Ikiri, from which the spreading corruption seems to originate and where dark mysteries need to be solved, both for the sake of the world at large and for young Zip’s safety in particular, since too many people seem intent on killing her.

With the scene being set in book 1, and the characters introduced, Given to Darkness can finally embark, unfettered, into the adventure proper: not that Kept from Cages was a restful story, of course, but here the author could finally indulge into the breathless journey he must have envisioned from the start, while also enjoying the space to let his characters grow and take on new facets while they deal with the unending string of dangers and threats peppering their path. 

For instance I liked very much the way outlaw musicians Reece and Leigh-Ann become even more protective of young Zip, whose emotional growth is driven forward by circumstances that are far too complex and harrowing to be heaped on the shoulders of a child: the way they almost become substitute parents, and the comparison with Zip’s real father – a heartlessly manipulative individual who is quite easy to hate – makes the goodness of their hearts shine even brighter. 

Agent Tasker turns out to be a decidedly more human face for the Ministry, whose ways – as often seen in the Sunken City trilogy – can be quite callous, and I have to admit he grew up on me, while in the first book I was not too sanguine about him.

Still, the character that truly shone for me in this novel is that of Katryzna, mostly because we are finally allowed a deeper glance into her personality beyond the external armor of cold-blooded violence she likes to wear: getting to know her better, and learning about the person behind the mask of the brutal killer was a very intriguing – and at times emotional – journey which left me with a very different outlook on this ruthlessly determined figure.

What can you expect from this book – and from the whole duology as well? Certainly a great deal of non-stop action sprinkled with humor, even though the darkness in the title is a definite, and often suffocating, presence. If you are looking for adventure, mystery and a good measure of fantasy elements, you need look no further than this book and its predecessor.

Given to Darkness will be available from October 19^th, which is exactly a week from today: the conclusion to this engaging series is indeed just around the corner, so… happy reading!

My Rating:

SCALES AND SENSIBILITY (Regency Dragons #1), by Stephanie Burgis

I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to her for this opportunity.

While I usually tend to shy away from romance-imbued stories, I’m always happy to make an exception for Stephanie Burgis’ works, because her take on the subject is always permeated with a good dose of tongue-in-cheek humor, and Scales and Sensibility, the first volume in her new, Regency-inspired saga, passed the test with flying colors.  When a book starts with this kind of sentence:

It was a truth universally acknowledged that any young lady without a dragon was doomed to social failure.

I know I’m in in for a delightful journey – particularly since the mere mention of dragons never fails to pique my curiosity…

Elinor Tregarth is an orphaned “poor relation”: her parents lost all their money at the hands of unscrupulous profiteers, then died in a carriage incident, leaving Elinor and her two younger sisters alone and penniless. The three girls were sent to live with various relatives, and Elinor clearly drew the short straw: her uncle Lord Heathergill is a pompous twit, his wife never utters a word, and Elinor’s cousin Penelope is a spoiled brat whose only interest lies in her society debut and grabbing a worthy husband. Oh, and in showing off her newly-acquired dragon, Sir Jessamyn – unfortunately, her horrid temper and shrill voice only have the effect of terrorizing the poor creature, which often leads to loose-bowels-related noxious effects.

After the umpteenth temper tantrum from Penelope, Elinor cannot keep to her meek demeanor any longer, and after (finally!) speaking her mind to her horrified cousin, she leaves Heathergill Hall, taking Sir Jessamyn with her.  Alone and penniless, and thrown into a ditch by a passing carriage, Elinor discovers that dragons can work a peculiar kind of magic, of which she takes advantage to try and forge a new path for herself – not that it will be an easy feat, what with having to deal with some very convoluted situations and her growing affection for a gentleman whose fortune-hunting intentions might not be as nefarious as they look…

I had a great time with Scales and Sensibility, which turned out to be a fast-paced comedy of manners with a good dose of magic and fantasy elements, carried by entertaining characters in whose depiction one can clearly feel the author’s delight in poking fun at the stereotypes of the Regency era: from the venomous vapidity of Penelope and her close friends to the obtuse snobbery of Lord Heathergill; from the scholarly blindness for social graces of dragon-expert Aubrey (one of my favorite characters) to the sly viciousness of the Armitages, a couple of mysterious highly-placed socialites, without forgetting the formidable Mrs. De Lacey, one of the queens of the London scene, who features prominently in the story – but in a very unexpected way – everyone plays a role in the intricate plot that mixes mistaken identities, strict social rules, nascent love stories and magic in a spellbinding tale that we know will lead to a foregone happy conclusion but that we enjoy following to the end because the cast makes the journey more than worthwhile.

My favorite element? It was the relationship between Elinor and the dragon Sir Jessamyn: it’s much more detailed and even more intriguing than the actual romantic plot, which is extraordinary since the dragon does not talk, except by warbling quite meaningfully and exchanging expressive glances with Elinor.  It’s not just because I’m quite partial toward dragons: Sir Jessamyn is an adorable creature (well, as long as he’s not upset, since that tends to create embarrassing consequences…) and a totally engaging creation.

Every time I have the pleasure of reviewing one of Stephanie Burgis’ works I feel the need to mention their covers, which remains constantly gorgeous throughout her production: the cover for Scales and Sensibility is no exception and works perfectly as a companion for a captivating and charming story whose next installments look already more than promising.

My Rating:

KEPT FROM CAGES (The Ikiri Duology #1), by Phil Williams

I received this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks for this opportunity.

Kept from Cages is Mr. Williams’ new novel, loosely connected with his Sunken City series and portraying completely new characters and backgrounds: the magically-infused British city of Ordshaw is mentioned, and we get a cameo appearance from one of the older characters, but this story takes place elsewhere, broadening our horizons in the matter of supernatural phenomena manifesting throughout the world.

The novel, as I learned from the author’s site, is one Mr. Williams has been working on for a long time and runs on two parallel but distinct tracks which might have seemed confusing at first, if I had not been prepared by the Ordshaw stories and learned that the author likes to place many, apparently unconnected, pieces of the puzzle on the playing field, little by little leading his readers toward the complete picture – or at least as much of the complete picture as he chooses to share at any given time… 😉

So we are presented first with Sean Tasker, an agent from the shady Ministry for Environmental Energy, investigating a ghastly event which occurred in a remote Norwegian village, where the inhabitants seem to have killed each other in an apparent attack of mass hysteria. Tasker’s investigations lead him to connect with Katryzna, a young woman with a history of violence and murderous skills, and they both travel to Congo as they follow a strange and increasingly weird trail of baffling clues.

On the other side of the world, a band of criminally inclined musicians is on the run after their latest hit, and they end up in an isolated farm where they discover a child with peculiar red eyes, tied to a chair: this is only the first of the freaky events that will see Reece and his band mates flee across the Deep South of the USA, hunted by the authorities, by a group of disreputable bounty hunters and bu a plethora of supernatural creatures that seem attracted to the little girl, Zip, like flies to honey.

Before the merging of the two separate storylines you can expect breakneck chases, harrowing battles with things that go bump in the night, old legends about an ominous mountain from where no expedition ever returned, cloak and dagger battles between crooked agencies and much, much more: the pacing is quite sustained, alternating chapters between the two groups of characters so that I felt compelled to move forward at a considerable speed because my need to know what happened next kept growing exponentially. It’s a crazy kind of adventure where you can only expect the unexpected right up to the epilogue, where we are left with such a surprising twist that calling it a cliffhanger would be to do it a huge disservice.

The tone of the novel is a little darker than what I found in the Sunken City series – which was not always rainbows and unicorns, to be clear about it – although there are many opportunities for humor, both in the delightful banter between the musicians, that comes to the fore even in the direst of situations, and through the harsh, uncouth and delightfully ill-mannered sorties from Katryzna, whose… well… unique approach to personal interactions offers the chance for a smile in the most distressing of circumstances.

Kept from Cages moves beyond the parameters of Urban Fantasy, adding elements of mystery, horror and humor to the mix, so that it would be difficult to classify the story, even in this era where the borders between genres keep blurring: it is definitely an adventure – both for the characters and for the readers, transported all over the world in search of the answers for an old riddle that might have dire implications for the present. 

Above all, it’s fun, and I’m delighted to inform you that it will be available from today, September 22^nd: if you enjoyed the Sunken City trilogy you will feel perfectly at home here (monsters included…), if you did not read it yet, it might present a good opportunity to sample this entertainingly spooky world.

My Rating: