The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, an attempted rape


 
Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan's burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels.

Their mission: to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone mysteriously missing. Faced with plotting courtiers and tight-lipped druids, an insightful storyteller, and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realizes an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom.

This book is set in the same world as the Blackthorn and Grim series, but I did not realize it was going to be about the children of Blackthorn and Grim. That was a sweet surprise! I instantly liked the characters Liobhan and Brocc. Dau took a little while longer to grow on me, but that was as it was supposed to be. In the end Dau ended up being my favorite character. He really grew as a character and I'm looking forward to reading more about him.

I was excited to read a book featuring bards and bardic magic. There aren't a whole lot of them. I also love Marillier's take on the "other world" and its creatures. Most of the books I've read by her follow a similar pattern, and this one was no exception. There is always at least one broken character who has to overcome trauma from the past. Sometimes that trauma is very hard to read about. And there is usually at least one character that has secrets to uncover, sometimes secrets they do not know themselves. This is a formula that I obviously enjoy a great deal because I keep coming back for more.

I liked that the book ends with the main story wrapped up, but it leaves smaller threads that can be expanded upon in the next two books, and I'm looking forward to reading them.

Thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Goodreads for providing me with ARCs of this book.

Hangman's Pond by Nick Moseley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Content: Strong Language (the British variety)



“Typical Monday,” Trev Irwin thought. “I spilled my breakfast, my car wouldn’t start, and someone’s trying to kill me...”

I liked this book so much more than the first book in the series. There are all kinds of urban fantasy elements here from witches to vampires to Druids, and the action is almost nonstop without being too much. I especially enjoyed the author's take on vampires. Old lady vampires are awesome!

"Nobody’s going to believe that the two of us needed to defend ourselves against a pensioner."  😂

Trev is continuously having to get himself out of predicaments and it's always fun to see how he will do that. It seems everyone wants him dead, but some of his predicaments are his own fault. He sometimes just recklessly does things without thinking them through.

"You may direct your whining at yourself if you wish, but not at me."

I thought the villains were great. There are mad scientists and weird zombie-type people. When the mask came off one of them it reminded me of this scene from the 1979 movie The Black Hole, when this thing's face mask came off.



It was terrifying to me as a kid.

The combination of wit and slightly terrifying adventure make this series great fun. Add interesting creatures and elements like the Greenweave, and the pond witch into the mix, and I'm hooked. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I love a book that makes me laugh!

July/August 2019 Book Club: We Are Legion

We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera
Content: Strong Language



Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

3.5 stars.

This was good fun! Our book club read this for July and August and I thought it was very entertaining. There was a lot of humor involved that included multiple copies of Bob. Some of those Bobs had personalities based on characters from pop culture. There was the 'Homer Simpson' Bob, the 'Commander Riker' Bob, the 'Garfield' Bob etc. For me this was the best part of the book. The worst part of the book was trying to keep all of the Bobs straight.

I thought this was a unique idea for a story. There was a lot of geeky nostalgia sprinkled throughout. It reminded me slightly of the way Ready Player One was full of 80s stuff, only it wasn't over done here.

This is a trilogy and while I was entertained by this book, I'm not sure I really want to read all three of them. I guess time will tell.

A Dragon of a Different Color by Rachel Aaron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
                              Content: An off page sex scene
  
To save his family from his tyrannical mother, Julius had to step on a lot of tails. That doesn’t win a Nice Dragon many friends, but just when he thinks he’s starting to make progress, a new threat arrives.

I adore this series! I loved revisiting Marcy, Julius, and Bob, and of course everyone else too. That being said I do wish this had been the last book. At this point I feel like the story is starting to stretch a bit thin. It could have been wrapped up really well here.

On a side note- It took me a year to read this book, not because I didn't want to, but because this is our road trip series I'm listening to with my daughter, and last year we ended up only getting half way through it. So we finally got to listen to the other half. It was not easy to wait, but I love having these to experience with my daughter while we travel.

“You don't make humanity stronger by making everyone else weak. That's not power. That's just shooting everyone in the foot because you happen to be better at limping than the other guys.”

Perilous Hunt by Lindsay Buroker

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Strong Language, Some mostly off page sex



After failing to catch up with her daughter Jelena so many times, Alisa's optimism is battered, but her determination has never waned. Alisa vows that she will find her daughter if she has to search a million asteroids to do so.

But Jelena and her close friend, Prince Thorian, have attracted the interest of many factions, and the Star Nomad isn’t the only ship on the hunt… 

Another fun entry into the series. We finally get some results! There are a couple of things that bother me about the series. One is that Abelardus continues to get away with violating people's minds without consequence. I wish he had been booted off the ship. I would love to shove him out of an airlock! Another is the way Alisa is constantly thinking about her romance and making suggestive comments. It's funny to a point but it just goes way too far. It kind of took over the whole series. I've only got one book left in the series and I'll definitely read it, especially now that a couple of the main objectives have been reached.

Age of Legend by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland, but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone’s plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to the Fhrey and leaves a dear friend in peril. Her only hope lies in the legend of a witch, a forgotten song, and a simple garden door. 

I'm very late posting this review. I read this back in July but with vacationing and moving this summer taking up most of my time I am just now getting around to reviewing it. First off, I will say that I ended up really enjoying this book despite the fact that it is probably the weakest one in the series. There are a couple of time jumps in this one, which is different from the previous books in the series. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about that but it ended up not bothering me all that much.

What a strange treasure is innocence, a virtue to the old and a curse to the young, so highly prized but eagerly parted with - the riches of beautiful skin traded for the wisdom of calluses.

  The characters have matured a bit in this book and some have lost their innocence. They've seen some horrible things; gone through some terrible times. There is a revelation about one in particular that left me rather shocked, and it will be interesting to see how this ends up, especially how it will affect the relationship this character has with another one.

Also, there is one part where Suri does something uncharacteristically dumb, but overall I enjoyed the characters just as much as in previous books. The characters are in fact what saved this book for me. Not a whole lot happened for the amount of time that elapsed, but the characters are always well worth reading about in Michael Sullivan's books.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: An off page sex scene



Every child of Glasnith learns the last words of Aillira, the god-gifted mortal whose doomed love affair sparked a war of gods and men, and Lira of clan Stone knows the story better than most. As a descendant of Aillira and god-gifted in her own right, she has the power to read people’s souls, to see someone’s true essence with only a touch of her hand.

When a golden-haired warrior washes up on the shores of her homeland—one of the fearful marauders from the land of the Frozen Sun—Lira helps the wounded man instead of turning him in. After reading his soul, she realizes Reyker is different than his brethren who attack the coasts of Glasnith.

As Lira and Reyker form a bond forbidden by both their clans, the wrath of the Dragon falls upon them and all of Glasnith, and Lira finds herself facing the same tragic fate as her ancestor. The battle for Lira’s life, for Reyker’s soul, and for their peoples’ freedom has only just begun …

I can't really remember why this book looked appealing to me in the first place, other than I think I was under the impression there were actual beasts and dragons in it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. In the beginning I found it pretty interesting, but as I got deeper into the story it started to get boring. It really doesn't go anywhere, at least not enough to keep me interested.

I got a little tired of the repetitive nature of the story. It seemed like the main characters were constantly hiding from enemies and being captured. I ended up abandoning this at 87%. I know, I was almost finished, but I just realized that I really didn't care anymore and felt like I was wasting my time.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.