Writing Weird Western Fantasies with J.R. Frontera

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 94 with J.R. Frontera .

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

Kicking off things this week, I’ll start with my author update. I’m still plugging away at the first draft of book 4 in the Huntress Clan Saga series. I plan to wrap up the first draft early next week. I can’t wait to share this one with my readers. There are so many great twists and characters I’ve added to this one for you. If you haven’t picked up the first three books in the series, now’s the time to do that. Check out the entire series over on Amazon starting with Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga.

Huntress Cadet Marketing Quote "Tell him the Huntress who nearly killed him wants to finish the job."

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Today on the podcast, I chat with J. R. Frontera. love of science fiction and fantasy originated with her early exposure to the worlds of Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and Dune. Exploring the potential and pitfalls of future or fantastical worlds is a temptation she’s just never been able to resist.

She lives in rural Missouri with her husband, son, and a random assortment of four-legged and feathered friends. She tends to write gritty, character-driven speculative fiction with plenty of action and romance, though she’s also written a light-hearted funny scifi series and sometimes dabbles in children’s books. She has been telling stories in some form or another since she could hold a crayon and draw.

Check out my interview with Jenny (aka J.R.) right now and download her awesome book, Bargain at Bravebank: A Western Steampunk Adventure.

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Award-Winning Young Adult Fantasy Writer Susan Faw on the Podcast

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 93 with Susan Faw.

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

Kicking off things this week, I’ll start with my author update. I’m still hard at work on book 4 in the Huntress Clan Saga series. I plan to wrap up the first draft next week. I can’t wait to share it with my readers. If you haven’t picked up the first three books in the series, now’s the time to do that. Check out the entire series over on Amazon beginning with Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga.

Huntress Cadet Marketing Quote "Tell him the Huntress who nearly killed him wants to finish the job."

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On today’s show I interview Susan Faw. Susan is the Winner of the Dante Rossetti Grand Prize for Best Young Adult Fiction of 2016 (Seer of Souls, Chanticleer Reviews) and multiple other awards, Susan loves to bring new worlds and fantasy adventures to young adults and inspire them to join her on her make-believe journeys.

Always the dreamer, her earliest childhood memories are of a make-believe game she played with her sister, imagining epic adventures inspired by a picture chosen at random from a National Geographic magazine.

Susan is actively crafting stories that sing in your memory. Find Susan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SusanFaw.

Check out my interview with Susan right now.

You can read Susan’s Heart of the Citadel series here.

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Grimous Ironblood and Author Ken Boyter on the Podcast

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 92 with Ken Boyter.

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

To start off things this week, I’ll begin with my author update. I’m really excited about the release of Huntress Cadet, book 3 in the Huntress Clan Saga. I’m so excited that I’ve already started work on book 4, Huntress Scout. Lots of great twists already in the next book so get caught up on the first three so you’re ready when the next one comes out in May.

Check out Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga, or book 2, Huntress Apprentice. All three books are available from Amazon.

Huntress Cadet Marketing Quote "Tell him the Huntress who nearly killed him wants to finish the job."

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On today’s show I interview Ken Boyter. Ken loves stories and storytelling, especially fantasy. He writes stories to show we can learn more about real life and the nature of humanity through reading fantasy. He really enjoys world building and the ongoing process of creating his magical world of Edra.

As well as writing and storytelling, Ken is also an actor, artist, graphic designer, and medium. He has an English Literature degree from the University of Sussex and co-created and co-hosts The Bottled Imp YouTube channel.

Check out my interview with Ken right now.

Here’s the link to his book The Legends of Grimous Ironblood.

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Author Natalya Capello Shares Rich Fantasy Worlds

Natalya Capello logo

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 91 withNatalya Capello.

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

To start off things this week, I’ll begin with my author update. Huntress Cadet, book 3 in the Huntress Clan Saga released last week. I’m really excited by the reader response to this third book in the series already. I urge you to check it out and pick up the whole trilogy of urban fantasy books with a VR gaming twist. Check out Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga, or book 2, Huntress Apprentice. All three are available from Amazon.

Huntress Cadet Marketing Quote "Tell him the Huntress who nearly killed him wants to finish the job."

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On today’s show I interview Natalya Capello. Natalya lives in a world of oddballs, weather wizards, and big dreams. Really, it’s just Texas.
She loves chocolate and spaghetti (but not together!) and writes about fantastical worlds with strong heroines and lots of magic. When she’s not writing she enjoys spending time with her cat and playing video games and tabletop RPGs.

Check out my interview with Natalya now.

Natalya’s book, the Song of Shadow (Ballad of Emerald and Iron Book 1)

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Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann: Review by E.G. Stone

I read a lot of fantasy. It so happens that I really like all varieties of fantasy (and almost every genre) but there are some that just make you sink back with the biggest cup of tea you can find and smile. In this particular instance, the book was Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann, a book that combines epic fantasy with some of the more fiddly aspects of detailed oriented historical fiction, as well as a touch of the grimdark to spice things up. This book, I shall tell you with great delight, is what I imagine a literary chess game to be. It has strategy, threads woven together, forethought, false directions, intrigue, and that wonderful fascination that puzzles invariably provide.

This plot is definitely one that is not simple. Some epic fantasy stories will follow a character or a group of characters on a quest. Some follow more intricate details that move through various characters’ lives and create a world, fully formed, fully fledged, stunning. This book does that. There are definitely a few things to follow: Danaster is being invaded by its neighbour, Chanastardh. The Danasterians would agree that this is a problem. Therefore, some of the people in Danaster, namely a holy warrior, a slightly-befuddled wizardess, and a few other people who are smarter than you might think, have decided that perhaps they should do something about this. Naturally, there are other forces at work. Ones from the long past. And they’re bringing other people into play.

The plot is expertly woven together, with details about the actually-terribly-important history of the world that I found fascinating. Often, epic fantasies rarely manage to get the history involved in a truly realistic manner. Or, they give you an info-dump at the very beginning disguised as a prologue. This plot involves the history in careful remarks, chance phrases, and an elf perhaps screaming too loudly about such matters.

Again, this is like a chess game, only with death being the result if you lose a piece.

There are a few really important characters in this book, but I shall focus on two: Dragnar and Kildanor.

Dragnar is a man fleeing his past. His very mysterious past. We first meet him in the isolated backwaters and he is invariably mysterious and interesting. This is a potent combination, which usually—in epic fantasy, as well as other genres—means there is a tragic backstory. This tragic backstory, though, is actually rather central to the plot and does more than just develop Dragnar’s character. To be fair, it does that, too. Dragnar tries to flee, but the past has claws and does not so easily let go. In facing it, he becomes a key upon which events turn.

Kildanor, on the other hand, is fully aware that he is significant. This is not arrogance, but experience. He is one of an order of holy warriors, belonging to a religion that current times have done their best to ban. (It hasn’t worked all that well, as these things go.) Kildanor has power and he has the influence to wield it. So, he does. All in the name of his god, Lesganagh, god of Sun and War. But there are other dangerous forces afoot, some of which haven’t been seen since one of the last wars and hoped to have been locked away forever.

The characters in this book read like wildly interesting and realistic people. They have quirks and fears. They joke with their friends. And they both shape and are shaped by the world around them. These are really well done characters, ones I enjoyed reading almost as much as I enjoyed the situations in which they found themselves.

There was a bit where things caught fire and people were complaining by means of axe-strike. That was definitely my favourite bit.

My critique for this book has very little to do with the book and more with my inability to read a map. It took me a few chapters to figure out who was fighting whom and which side everyone was on. However, it was all made completely clear once I looked again at the map so helpfully provided at the front of the book. Otherwise, I really have no major critiques. Just the knowledge that I am directionally challenged and geographically incompetent. C’est la vie.

Overall, I would say that I have not read a book of this depth and detail and thought for a while. Sometimes I read to melt my brain and clear the synapses. But most of the time, I like to think and to be invited to think. This book definitely did that and I am glad for it. I could probably read this book over and over and still enjoy unravelling it. I would therefore say that this book was excellent.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Dreams-Light-Dark-Book-ebook/dp/B07BJ46JP6

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Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater by Brent Michael Kelley: Review by E.G. Stone

In some stories within the fantasy genre—including all the grimdark, horror, epic, adventure, and otherwise—there are beings that are as old as the world. Usually these beings are gods, or monsters. In Brent Kelley’s work, Chuggie and the Desecration of Stagwater, the main character is one of these beings. And he manifests as a drunk, more-than-slightly sarcastic person with a chain and anchor protruding from his ribs. Chuggie is the manifestation of Drought and he is, unknowingly, about to enter into a series of events that is going to change the lives of a good number of people and also cause a whole lot of trouble.

There is a lot going on in this book, which is actually quite nice. There are so many different elements that all exist separately and yet come together to make the whole. For people like me who enjoy a well-woven story just as much as puzzles, this is a really good combination. The way that Chuggie interacts with the world seems to be a haphazard and drunken staggering from plot point to plot point. The characters around Chuggie have their own intent, their own mechanisms, their own motivations, and yet everything that Chuggie does expands upon and renders moot all that these characters do. Basically, this world has no idea what hit it. The way that this is explored is really well done on the author’s part. It is a difficult feat to manage to make everything come together under the attentions of a character who seems completely blown about by chance. And also quite impressive.

For as much as Chuggie seems to be a drunken wanderer who has no real intent beyond living his life and enjoying it, he is actually a very complicated and interesting character. It is sometimes hard to relate to these incomprehensibly old and powerful beings in stories, simply because their experience is so far beyond our own. With Chuggie, however, he seems to be a perfectly ordinary guy. Well, except for the super old bit. And the embodiment of Drought bit. But everything else is just a result of Chuggie trying to eke out a decent life and encountering rather dangerous and unfortunate situations along the way. The really entertaining part, though, is the way that all of the other characters seem to underestimate him. He may act like an ordinary guy, but he really isn’t. And honestly, it’s more than a bit amusing to see the other people floundering when they realise their mistake.

There are so many pieces of this book that I enjoyed that it’s really hard to pick a favourite part. Is it the bit where we’re introduced to Chuggie and he’s stuck in a tree? Or the bit where he impulsively runs off to go fetch a goat-faced purse to save his trapped love? Or the part where the other characters finally realise what idiots they’ve been? I don’t know. So I shall instead say that my favourite part was the fact that everyone is going around riding goats like horses and pretending that it’s completely normal. Every time I read that, I had to fight from laughing out loud and scaring my cat. Even in dire circumstances.

I think out of everything, I had a hard time with the ending. This book does such a spectacular set-up and building of the dark-possibly-horrific world that we find ourselves in. There is so much going on that comes together so nicely. The bits that push this book into the horror category are really well described and quite vivid. So when everything ends so abruptly, it felt a little strange. Okay, yes, the ending does make perfect sense. And, yes, there is a book two that will (hopefully) answer all the remaining questions. But it felt a little like everything just stopped. It was a little like being yanked out of the story by a string of strangely spelt words (this didn’t happen, but for a linguist, this is the best parallel I’ve got).

Overall, though, and even disregarding the ending, I would say that this book is very well written, well thought out, and well done. The characters were interesting (if a touch grotesque in parts, which is to be expected), the plot was entertaining and the whole goat situation… Anyways, I would say that this book was very good.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chuggie-Desecration-Stagwater-Mischief-Mayhem-ebook/dp/B006G5N69A/

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Building Fantasy Fans with A.M. Rycroft’s Fall of Kingdoms Series

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 90 with A.M. Rycroft.

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

To start off things this week, I’ll begin with my author update. Huntress Cadet, book 3 in the Huntress Clan Saga releases this week. I love how the third book in this series came together. I urge you to check it out and the whole trilogy of urban fantasy books with a VR gaming twist.

You can also check out the whole series so far with Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga, or book 2, Huntress Apprentice. All three are available from Amazon.

Huntress Initiate book cover

I also have wrapped up writing book 8 in the Extreme Medical Services series. It’s going to be titled The Paramedic’s Amazon. I hope you all will enjoy it. If you haven’t already delved into this series, check out Book 1, Extreme Medical Services, available wherever you purchase ebooks.

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On today’s show I interview A.M. Rycroft. A.M. was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa (USA) and has been writing fantasy and horror since they were a kid. A.M.’s books have received a couple of reader awards, including Best Sword & Sorcery Novel for The Joy Thief (currently being revised for a second edition) at the 2017 Virtual Fantasy Con.

Check out my interview with A.M. now and read Corruption of Honor, book 1 in the Fall of Kingdoms series. Visit A.M. Rycroft on Facebook here.

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Swashbuckling Fantasy Fun with Author Sebastien de Castell on the Podcast

Sebastien De Castell photo with sword centered

This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 89 with Sebastien de Castell.

Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.

This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.

To start off things this week, I’ll begin with my author update. I’m prepping things to get ready for the release of Huntress Cadet, book 3 in the Huntress Clan Saga next week on Tuesday February 25. Check out my reader group on Facebook for a sneak peek at the new cover design before anyone else. If you haven’t already started this awesome series, you can check it out with book one, Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga, available from Amazon.

Huntress Initiate book cover

I also have just about wrapped up writing book 8 in the Extreme Medical Services series. It’s going to be titled The Paramedic’s Amazon. I hope you all will enjoy it. If you haven’t already delved into this series, check out Book 1, Extreme Medical Services, available wherever you purchase ebooks.

You can check out more information on what I’m up to, including sneak peeks of upcoming covers, special giveaways, and more, by visiting my fan group on Facebook, Jamie’s Fun Fantasy Readers and over at my website and blog, JamieDavisBooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On today’s show I interview Sebastien de Castell. Sebastien had just finished a degree in Archaeology when he started work on his first dig. Four hours later he realized how much he actually hated archaeology and left to pursue a very focused career as a musician, ombudsman, interaction designer, fight choreographer, teacher, project manager, actor, and product strategist. His only defence against the charge of unbridled dilettantism is that he genuinely likes doing these things and that, in one way or another, each of these fields plays a role in his writing.

Sebastien’s acclaimed swashbuckling fantasy series, The Greatcoats, was shortlisted for both the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy. the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, the Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Work, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His YA fantasy series, Spellslinger, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and is published in more than a dozen languages.

Sebastien lives in Vancouver, Canada with his lovely wife and two belligerent cats. You can reach him at www.decastell.com.

Check out my interview with Sebastien now and follow him on his Facebook Author Page.

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Devouring Dark by Alan Baxter: a Review by E.G. Stone

One of the most looming things in the lives of all living is death. Many see death as a darkness that will inevitably come and destroy them. Poetry, plays, novels, treatises, art and more have all been created about the matter. Rarely, though, have I seen a piece of dark supernatural thriller examine the matter of death and darkness in the way that Alan Baxter’s Devouring Dark managed to do. Of course, rarely do I see contemporary novels of any sort reference Shakespeare and the craziness of a London pub in the same chapter.

Devouring Dark follows Matt McCloud, a man who has darkness inside him doing its very best to eat him alive. He can assuage this effect by touching others and spreading the darkness on to them; it eats them and he can live. Matt has been using this particular talent of his by hunting down criminals of various sorts and acting as a supernatural vigilante. Unfortunately for him, he is seen. This leads to his entanglement with a criminal enterprise of the darkest sorts. Matt must fight both the darkness within and without if he is going to survive this particular situation. Only his wits, his friends, and a mysterious woman with a similar darkness are able to help him. Will the darkness, and thusly, death win?

If the story itself doesn’t grab you—though it is definitely one of the more creative stories I have read in a bit—then the writing itself will. This piece is an intriguing conglomeration of musings on the various forms that darkness can take, be it through a character’s thoughts, the casual mention of Hamlet by a man dying, even the situations themselves. However, this is no piece of pure philosophy; this is a thriller mixed with elements of noir, with the according danger to the character’s world, the desperate race to save things, the need to solve a crime or defeat that crime, and all the according pieces that are so enthralling to us lovers of mysterious happenings. The sequence of events is never too much to follow, nor are the various character interactions unlikely or unbelievable. Everything flows together quite nicely and I was kept intrigued until the very end.

As for the characters, they were extremely well done. The depth of each primary character, including the villainous or slightly-questionable ones, was incredibly well managed. Matt, despite his dangerous and illegal hobby of going after and killing criminal elements, was likeable and sympathetic. Victor was dislikable and sympathetic in much the same way, because of the way his empire functioned and the perhaps normal business of running a pub. Amy Cavendish was, though, my favourite of the array of characters because she was eminently more normal than all the others; she may have had a similar dangerous and illegal hobby as Matt, but seemed so much more cheerful about the matter.

Be forewarned, though, this book is definitely on the darker side of the supernatural/thriller realm. A lot of the struggles that the characters, protagonist or antagonist, face are definitely ones that force an examination of the darker side of things. There are even a few situations where people die in quite gruesome ways. Many reviewers have said that this book combines horror elements as well as the elements one would expect in supernatural thriller fiction. Now, I may be a bit dark in my own judgements, but I would say that this book did not quite fall into the horror category for me. (However, I did some research and discovered that many of the books I considered gothic, dark, or even just a bit intense are considered horror. Frankenstein, Dracula, many of the Edgar Allan Poe pieces [these I did generally classify as horror, but not all] are in the horror genre. Which means that I could be completely wrong in my genre identification.) I would not necessarily call this piece gory or spectacularly violent; it does not revel in or describe exclusively, violence or violent situations. But it is definitely dark, requiring a person to examine their own relationship with the darkness residing within, as well as their perception of death. For me, though, there was missing that extra edge of psychological manipulation that I expected from a horror piece.

This darkness does not, though, diminish my opinion of this book in any way. I would say that overwhelmingly, the writing was excellently done. Never once was I dragged from the story due to an unlikely situation or misspelt words. The story itself pulled me through, desperate to find out what the characters were going to do in order to extricate themselves from the pretty terrible situations in which they found themselves. The characters were interesting and sympathetic. And the ending… well, let’s just say that it made perfect sense and was both interesting and satisfying in a slightly death-y sort of way.

Anyways, I would have to say that Devouring Dark most definitely made it onto my list of best books for the 2020 reading year. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a bit of supernatural thriller or a delving into the human psyche. Settle in, though, because it is a wild ride.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Devouring-Dark-Alan-Baxter-ebook/dp/B07HK68S8B

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Wizardom: Eye of Obscurance by Jeffrey L. Kohanek: a Review by E.G. Stone

Have you ever seen a Rube Goldberg machine, where ordinary objects are taken and put together in such a way that a single act of motion is perpetuated throughout a sequence? They’re fun, fascinating, and are really hard to watch just once. Jeffery L. Kohanek’s book, Wizardoms: Eye of Obscurance, is like a Rube Goldberg machine. And it is really wonderful.

This book follows a few main characters as they explore the wizardoms of Kohanek’s world. One is Rhoa, an acrobat turned thief who is seeking out a particular artefact in order to seek revenge. She then meets Jace, a thief turned… thief who is seeking that same artefact for a rather large amount of money. Enter Rawk, a dwarf exiled from his people who has never seen nor interacted with the outside world. Then, there is Salvon, a storyteller who appears to hold mysteries from a time long forgotten. These characters meet and must join up in order to perform a particular act that will set a chain of events in motion that will forever change the world. For how can a normal person, in a world ruled by wizards, defeat a person whose power rivals a god?

There are a lot of different elements that go into this story. First off is the worldbuilding. It is familiar enough that the reader has a grasp of what is going on: instead of kingdoms, the world is broken into wizardoms, but there are magical and non-magical people, and the world works much as one would expect of a fantasy novel. That expectation and familiarity, though are enhanced so as to make things much more interesting and detailed and unique. The world comes alive under Kohanek’s guidance and I, for one, really like the result. It’s like watching a modern movie as compared to the old movie (except the modern movie has just a good a story); things are more fleshed out and vibrant than before. And it works spectacularly well with this particular set of characters.

None of these characters—except one, who is more the exception than anything—is from the upper echelons of society. These people are trying to make their own way and affect change without the benefits that power and position and wealth can bring. This means that their struggles are much more relatable than fantastical. With the worldbuilding being so vibrant, a bit of relatable reality is just what this story needs. As for the fleshing out of the characters, well, that was done quite well also.

Throughout the story, the reader learns more and more about the characters through their interactions with their surroundings and compatriots, as well as through strategic sequences of flashback and storytelling. These sequences serve to make the characters feel like actual people who have developed and grown over the course of their lives, as well as that of the story. In short, they’re great to read. Rawk, the dwarf with alopecia, is my favourite. He seems to be on such uncertain footing, having been thrown into a world that makes absolutely no sense to him. And yet he still manages to forge connections and find his way. That and stonecrafting is just really cool. Rhoa is also one of my favourites, but that could be simply for her snark.

As for the actual writing, Kohanek’s prose is not reminiscent of any great 18th or 19th century literature, nor is it distinctive for being unique in a strange way that some modern pieces try to attain. The writing is smooth, even, easy to access and basically falls away as you read. The writing is not important; the story is. This is an impressive thing to accomplish, given that I am often very aware of the actual writing. (Being a linguist and a writer, I am perhaps too aware of words sometimes, which can make it difficult to be truly engrossed in a story.) Even the flashback sequences and the storytelling sequences by Salvon were integrated seamlessly into the story and did not feel awkward or out-of-place as can often happen. In short, I was drawn into this story from the beginning and enjoyed it thoroughly. Did it take me to new heights as some classic literature does? No. But that really doesn’t matter.

This is usually the point in the review where I talk about my critiques for the work. For this piece… I don’t really have any. This story was well thought out, entertaining, it drew me in and I was never bored or uninterested. The characters were varied and none of them dislikeable to the point where they ruined the story (Jace’s jokes, though, were a bit on the “oh, piffle” side of things, but that’s besides the point). Frankly, this book was exactly what I would hope for from a fantasy of this sort. So I don’t really have any critiques.

Overall, Wiazardoms: Eye of Obscurance was a highly entertaining read. I enjoyed myself from start to finish and I am curious to see where the next book will take me. This is one I would recommend to anyone looking for a fun fantasy adventure with a healthy dose of snarky, strong characters thrown in. I think I can safely say this made my best books read in 2020 list.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wizardoms-Eye-Obscurance-Fate-Book-ebook/dp/B07XQFRTB7

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