Fear is an Easy Sell

When I’m not writing, I’m a teacher. You can probably guess what I’m certified in – my specialty – without too much trouble. It doesn’t start with M and doesn’t require a Periodic Table if that helps at all – although I am getting better and better with my Stoichiometry (just ask my students).

I’ve noticed a shift over the last several years, and it is something I am concerned about and that is fear.

You see, I have a daughter who turns three in January and she’s starting to give orders. Not real orders of course, but the ‘this goes here, that is mommy’s, put it down daddy’ kind of orders. The ‘I’m trying to make sense of this world that has more to it than gravity and light’ kind of orders.

This means that, soon, she’ll start asking questions. Both my wife and I have discussed this turn and we’re not sure what to respond as she kicks into trying to understand and comprehend that bigger world. Whose perspective will be better for her.

The reality that I see is a wonderful and amazing place to explore. People are, in general, good folks with interesting stories who merely want an ear to listen or tongue to speak – an opportunity to share. There are fascinating stories out there with most people and, if you listen to them, chances are you can find someone or something to relate to with them.

The world is a similar place. There are wonderful places to explore – mountains to climb, trees to crawl through, parks to visit, etc. It’s an adventure that, if you take the time to examine, will give you something to relate to and remember.

But…that’s not the attitude that most people have. I remember growing up that most of the attitude wasn’t quite as bright and springy as mine, but there was something still there: hope.

Now, though, I see something different: fear.

Fear has replaced that in many of the students that I interact with. I do have the over-the-top macho kids in my room, but when they get confronted, that attitude dissolves. There’s no guidance. Similarly, when I work with some of my co-workers and talk with some of my friends, fear has become a unifying factor. Rather it’s a worry for the future of the country, a job, or what’s going to happen tomorrow, it’s become an overlying part of things.

Even the TV shows have it more now. We call the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more ‘mature’ and ‘deep’ than their 1980’s counterparts – and that’s true. But at one point our entertainment was meant to entertain the kids and not us.

Don’t take this the wrong way – I love shows like TMNT and Avatar: The Last Airbender. My daughter loves My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Daniel Tiger (and Daniel Tiger is NOT in one of those ‘more mature’ categories in the slightest. It does have a sense of hope and excitement). But at one point the excitement came from wondering how Mikey was going to take down the Shredder this week and not if he was going to.

Our heroes are easily defeated. That only used to happen in the two-part episodes.

The same holds true of entertainment for adults. I’m really enjoying Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Once Upon a Time, and Agents of Shield (my TV shows are a bit limited – I have Netflix and not cable is my excuse).

There isn’t anyone to save us anymore and, while some of the shows do examine a person pulling themselves out of defeat and saving themselves, more often we are faced with a failure that we have to deal with.

And maybe that’s true. There is a lot of truth to the fact that, often, we are going to have to deal with meeting in the middle or the short end of the stick. That is life.

I don’t really have a problem with that. I wish there was more hope and adventure to my entertainment than there is – and I might be missing something (feel free to share). But it doesn’t usually feel particularly hopeful when I am watching.

Except maybe NCIS – because at some point, they have to deal with Gibbs and Gibbs doesn’t mess around.

But now, we’re not even getting the stick. We’re learning to be afraid to even reach for it.

It’s fear we’re being sold.

And it is an easy sell.

Look at Game of Thrones. Nothing against Martin – he’s clearly a writer with talent. I personally don’t particularly like Game of Thrones, but it’s popular and well written. But it boils with two things – sex and fear.

It’s an easy sell.

Even worse is the sudden advertisement of giving in to fear. Back during the first trilogy, I don’t know that there was anyone who was excited to be a member of the Sith (and yes, this is a specific cultural example. Sue me). The villains of the movie and the universe as far as Star Wars is concerned. Now, it pops up everywhere.

Ignoring the Sith vs Jedi argument (that’s for another day as well), now matter how you look at it, they are the created antagonists of the films. We get strong implications (and sometimes visuals) of them casually murdering people. These are not people that would normally be a group that folks would want to join.

But they have embraced their fear and gained power for it. We’re embracing our fears, but it’s leaving us weaker – at least thus far.

I wonder if that isn’t because fear is so primal to our beings. It’s hard to establish a hopeful attitude – it takes convincing someone that there can be something better over the hilltop or beyond the horizon even though all of their current experience says otherwise.  You have to life yourself up to have hope, to examine the best that could be coming and work for it. It takes a tremendous amount of work.

 

Say what you like about Donald Trump, but he is definitely a Presidential hopeful. He’s putting in that effort and he’s trying to find ways to get to that ‘better’ that he sees. So is Bernie Sanders. And that’s all the politics I will mention for this post because I’m not going to get into the conflict of hope that comes from perspective. I’m sure it is one of the causes, but that’s a post in and of itself. Fear has that as well, but to a lesser extent.

Fear doesn’t. Fear says ‘that’s bigger, be scared’, ‘that’s faster, be scared’, ‘that’s different, be scared.’ It’s unifying and, relatively, universal.  And universal means easier to sell, easier to control. Some of those pundits that claim our new culture of fear is part of a government/corporate/etc conspiracy to control us and I can’t help but wonder in the back of my mind if there isn’t some truth to that claim. Fear does make for easy control and focus – hope, joy, and other ‘working’ emotions are not easy to create and hold in place.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day. I will leave you with this one:

Life on Ramen

I have always been about creating. I love to write, to create adventures and characters with my friends through RPGs and LARPs, to produce plays and portrayals through acting on stage. All through my life I have created.

One such creation that I had was called Life on Ramen. It was a sprite comic that I produced while I was in college. Keep in mind – this was during the hay day of sprite comics. We had Bob and George on the one hand and 8-Bit Theater on the other. It was an awesome time. If you had MS Paint and a few sprite sheets, you could make a webcomic.

Mine was about myself and some of my friends and our various insanities. I called it ‘Life on Ramen’ because I was in college and that was pretty much my only non-campus sustenance. I found the comic very funny and I put a lot of work into updating it on GeoCities. You know, back when GeoCities existed.

It was the first piece of something I had created that I shared outside of my personal bubble. I put it up on the internet and I joined some webrings (does anyone remember those? 🙂 ) and I posted it for feedback and fun.

It was something I had never done before – exposed myself like that to a strange audience. I remember being a little scared of it, at least at first, but also excited. I had hoped that I would find some folks who liked it – there were certainly enough 8 and 16 bit Sprite comic lovers out there at the time.

There wasn’t a lot of original content to it, I will admit now. But as I gained new skills and software (thanks Ferris), it improved. I had some fun characters and some, in my opinion, funny humor. There were a lot of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments – which I still find funny.

Any how, I thought I would share this memory of my first time putting my work out for public critique and see if anyone else wanted to comment. What was your first time sharing something publicly like? What made it exciting or interesting to you?

Book Review: Red Hot Steele (Daggers and Steele Vol. 1)

 

But the book on Amazon HERE!

Things here have been a little bit crazy as of late, so I haven’t had a lot of time to write.

I have, however, had a lot of time to read. So, I grabbed up my tablet and looked through for something fun but different. The cover for this one caught my eye and it was on a promotion for $0.00 so I downloaded it.

It’s a crack!

This is a detective story that is playing with all of the tropes of a detective story while throwing in elements of fantasy. Apparently there is a movement towards fantasy-crime novels (something I didn’t know) and this was my first full dip into it.

The plot is, pretty much, a standard NCIS, CSI, etc plot. Someone’s been murdered and Jake Daggers (our narrator) has to solve the mystery. Unfortunately (at least according to his perspective at first) he’s just had his long time partner replaced with a newbie fresh from the academy. To make matters worse, the newbie is a woman and an elf. So he has to deal with the newbie and a murder. Lots of fun.

The plot is pretty much straight out of those style outlines, but that’s to make room for the characterization. Daggers is clearly the focus and it shows. He has a fantastic characterization and reading him is just like reading the old detective serials that used to be on the radio. I can hear Howard Duff’s Sam Spade as I read the novel and it’s fantastic. Daggers is not a fantastic role-model – some of his views and perceptions are out of that same era and it makes for him to be very much a throw back of the era. This is particularly true regarding his partner, Steele. And while his view of Steele changes over the course of the story and becomes somewhat better, that doesn’t happen for women in general. It’s a part of the character and the setting, so it makes for good characterization. Daggers has faults – lots of them (women just being one), but he is overall a likable character with a strong voice.

Steele, his partner, does a fair job of standing up to him and its pretty obvious that the rest of his team (there are four total agents on Daggers’ task force) don’t share his archaic views. She even calls him out a few times but, unfortunately, they don’t stick. The rest of the team just let it pass, so it Daggers does come off as a bit of a bully that the reader is expected to excuse. For the most part, I am a forgiving reader and I am anticipating that this will change over the course of the series. It’s an easy place to have character growth and development and I cannot imagine that the author won’t take advantage of it.

But back to the team. The team is interesting, though most of our experience is with Daggers and Steele (imagine that!). Steele gets some screen time and it becomes clear that she’s not going to take Daggers lying down – yet she sometimes lets things slide that make this inconsistent. It’s a significant flaw, and, again, I’m assuming the author is going to fix it eventually.

The answer to the puzzle becomes a bit obvious as the novel gets close to then end, but its still a good solution and fun to reach. The ‘getting there is half the fun’ trope really holds sway through the novel, and the novel is a lot of fun to read.

Despite the flaws of the story, this is a fun book to pick up and read if you enjoy shows like NCIS or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. For the price of free, you really have no excuse not to.

Characters: 4.5 / 5
Plot: 3.5 / 5
Action: 4 / 5
Value: 5 / 5
Writing: 4 / 5

Overall: 4.2 / 5

 

 

 

Click HERE to buy The White Tower from Amazon.com!

I bought the paperback version of this novel from a local vendor (sorry Amazon. I love my little stores too) and finally had a chance to sit down and read it. On the whole, this is a good story with a lot of fun elements to it.

The story opens in a classic fantasy opening with Damion being tasked by his father with a quest that, at 11 years old, he doesn’t really understand. However, that there is terror and Dad involved, he commits to the promise of delivering ‘The Key’ to the White Tower.

Jump forward and Damion is now a young man working on a farm when his promise to his father comes back to his mind, setting him off on a quest to finish what it was he was supposed to have done more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, things don’t go especially smoothly as a number of complications arise. For one thing, the farmer’s daughter has a son who decides to follow Damion. For another, he has absolutely no idea where the White Tower is. Add on to that a rather sinister figure hunting for him and a little bit of young adult attraction and you have all of the elements of an excellent story popping up.

Damion is an interesting and fairly well developed character, especially for a premier novel. Some of the ‘first’ books that I read on my Kindle forget that ‘first’ is often ‘last’ and will forget to have an identifiable protagonist. Not so in The White Tower. Damion is a pretty well rounded character who reminds me, more than anything else, of Peter Parker – he is determined but flawed with a great deal of heart and concern for others. He’s not an excellent swordsman or a lone-wolf adventurer; he is an every man with the flaws that entails. And those flaws do actually matter – the cost him opportunities and respect in many cases when he meets someone with a greater skill set than his own. Damion recognizes that and works with what he has. His determination to ‘always keep his promises’ is noble, but also comes in to conflict with the story as well and creates for some good character dynamics.

The secondary cast, on the other hand, is a bit less rounded. The Princess and her bodyguard are memorable, but not as well developed as our protagonist. She reminds me far too much of Princess Leia in ‘A New Hope’ when Luke and Han show up and she doesn’t really move on from that state very well. There are some moments of character development, but they feel a bit forced to me. Our main antagonist (I won’t spoil the book with specific names here because it is somewhat important to the plot) is similarly evil. How do we know he is evil? Well, he uses mind control and crushes windpipes right at the get go and only gets worse from there. So, he is easily identifiable as evil and we know not to like him.

The world, on the other hand, is very well developed. It appears to be a sort of post apocalypse world. There are instances of the old world occasionally – broken down roads, some bits and pieces of electricity, even a minor villain named Holland – to hint at the fact that *something* happened in the past that resulted in the downfall of humanity that has left us in a sort of lurch. There are hints and some good revelations in the story (again, I try not to do plot spoilers in reviews) but that really only deals with the layout. The culture and societies all have unique elements and interact believably. There is a lot of the depth to this world and I look forward to reading the sequel.

Given the ending, I am assuming a sequel at least.

On the whole, this was a fun read. I strongly encourage readers to pick up a copy of ‘The White Tower’ for an excellent Holiday read. 🙂

Characters – 3.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Action: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Total Rating: 3.95/5

Book Review – Blades of Magic (Crown Service #1)

Book Review – Blades of Magic (Crown Service #1)

By Terah Edun

Click HERE to buy it on Amazon.com

I grabbed this book as a part of the promotion when book two launched. The author had it up for free as an enticement to check out the sequel. I’ve been busy with my students and conferences, but I managed to find some time to do some reading and this is one of the books I was determined to get through. Of course, that meant that I missed the sale and grabbed it at $2.99.

Totally worth it.

The story is fairly simple – we have Sara, the daughter of a disgraced imperial commander. Her father was killed for deserting and, given what she knows of her father, this has always bothered her. This leads her to develop her sword skills and make some living wages to support herself and her mother for much of her early life.

When she comes of age, and a few tragedies, she finds herself working with the Mercenary Guild and beginning to unravel what really happened with her father and the Emperor. There are a number of sub plots and loose threads introduced and expanded on and it’s well balanced between resolution and mini-mystery.

I’ve always enjoyed Edun’s work and this is no exception. Sara is a fine main character and fun to follow along with. I also enjoyed Ezekiel as a bit of a challenge to Sara and her developing skills. That a ‘Battle Mage’ can transform in to a Berserker – like a classic Berserker – is also interesting and makes her accessing her abilities feel like there is some actual consequence to her magic use.

The other secondary characters felt a bit more static than I generally enjoy, but it comes off to me more as her getting things established than any kind of laziness on her part. To put it simply, this is a new aspect to her world and she is getting it prepared for the future. That static-ness makes it so that she can focus on Ezekiel and Sara and the mystery of Sara’s father while introducing elements that can grow in the future. Sara and Ezekiel are charming enough that I’m willing to be patient with those characters and I look forward to grabbing the sequel when I have a chance.

The world and society that Edun has built is interesting. It appears to be linked to her Courtlight series (which I am a huge fan of (I still need to finish the last book)), but this area and part of the world feels unique and distinct in comparison to what we read in the other series. It’s much more Roman/Greek-ish (for lack of a better phrase) over in these cities and for Sara. I also like the Mercenaries and their role and reaction to Sara. I don’t want to spoil it, but it makes significant sense given the world and the way Edun has established their purpose.

On the whole, this is an excellent new world from a great author. I encourage everyone to give it a shot when they have a chance. It’s completely worth the price asked at $2.99. I see there is a print price and, if Edun ever comes to my area for a convention or something, I’ll probably grab a print copy to get it signed.

Characters – 3.5/5

Plot: 3.5/5

Action: 4/5

Value: 4/5

Writing: 4/5

Total Rating:  3.75/5

Book Review – The Third Kingdom (and some on Terry Goodkind)

So, I’m getting back on the horse.

The summer is over and I can finally sit down and write again! YAY! I’ll be watching for more challenges and really working on my book over at Scrib. I’m going to get this sucker done.

But that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here for a Book Review. I normally don’t do ‘full on’ New York Times style authors, but I wanted to do something on The Third Kingdom because I really liked the Sword of Truth books. I like them enough that my mother got me a signed copy of ‘Faith of the Fallen’ (my favorite in the series). There was a LOT of fun and adventure in the series. I may even have named my daughter after Kahlan.

Terry Goodkind finished the Sword of Truth series with Confessor. I really did enjoy the series and had fun reading it. There were some slow parts, but I made it through the Wheel of Time, so that’s not really a major issue.

However, after reading The Third Kingdom, it is clear that Goodkind is tired of writing Richard and Kahlan.

The series has always had a certain amount of violence and direct confrontation about the action and reaction of suffering, pain, and emotional trauma. I expect that in a Sword of Truth novel. But now? As I read what happens, it feels like Goodkind just isn’t happy with being stuck in this world anymore. Given his devotion to the ideas of freedom and choice, I can’t help but think that he is beginning to resent writing more and more about these two characters.

I’m not saying the novel isn’t good. It’s as well written as any of the other other Goodkind novels I have read (and much better than Pillars of Creation in my opinion). The villain is interesting, the introduced characters have talents and quirks that add some depth to the world of the Sword of Truth. I liked the plot – Spoiler alert: Not quite Zombies are present – and the action, like all of Goodkind’s books, comes at an excellent pace. The fighting is vividly described and fun to read as it whirls around.

But Goodkind comes accross as tired and resentful. Maybe I am reading too much in to it, but it feels that way every time he is forced to address Richard and Kahlan. Since Richard is the main protagonist, this happens fairly often. I like the series, but I don’t like the tone of this novel. I’ve got a copy of Severed Souls here to check out, but I’m going to go through some other works first to clear my head and see if I’m reading to much in to The Third Kingdom. I guess we’ll see.

Writing: 5/5
Characterization: 4/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow: 3.5/5
Value: 5/5
Total rating: 4.5 / 5

Book Review : Sworn to Conflict (Book #3 in the Courtlight Series)

Click HERE to buy this book
OR click here to buy the first 3 books in the series in a set!

Click HERE for my review of Book 1 in the series

Click HERE for my review of Book 2 in the series.

Notice: I was provided a copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

When last we left off, Ciardis Weathervane had fought with some pretty terrifying monsters, discovered she had a brother, felt betrayed by…well, a lot of people (it seems to be a consistent issue for her), and had drained her powers pretty well.

We pick up in a completely new area of the Empire – the Northern Border. This is the same border that is referred to in the first two books in the series as the place where the Empire’s soldiers have been fighting for decades. Ciardis isn’t sure how she got there and things go downhill from there. Physically, she pretty much collapses from materializing there sans appropriate clothing; mentally she’s out from being power drained, and emotionally she’s out of juice as well. The end of Sworn to Transfer (sorry, no spoilers) has left her in a very vulnerable state.

That vulnerability comes in to play several times throughout the story.

Essentially, she meets some of the Kith (monsters as other books would call them, essentially non-humans) that have been aiding the humans in their war in the North, and gets dragged in to the politics between these Kith (I’ll get to their commander, Inga, in a second), the General of the Imperial Army, Prince Sebastian, and, believe it or not, her Brother.

To say that the situation is murky and somewhat tense would be an understatement.

Anyhow, there is a great deal of conflict going on for Ciardis in this book. The primary conflict that drives it is her internal questioning of who to trust when stories don’t match up between the various factions. She also has to reconcile what she sees with what she has been taught in the Empire about the North and the Kith. Her brother and Prince Sebastian aren’t helping matters. Both of them strike at her when she is vulnerable (or at least when she perceives herself to be vulnerable) in different ways and the contrasts in how they treat Ciardis are extremely telling about their characters.

Now, in my last review I said that one of the flaws present was a lack of development on the part of the secondary cast. I am happy to say that this is not the case in Sworn to Conflict. Prince Sebastian is given several interesting times to shine that show different aspects of his personality and ability to handle conflict. I think that putting General Barnaren in as a contrast to Sebastian was excellent on Edun’s part – it really gives Sebastian some excellent contrast to show off against. He is also contrasted with Ciardis’ brother – a sort of Khan style antagonist – whom Ciardis is extremely curious about. This is not to say she immediately trusts him (that would be foolish on her part), but there is some definite development and reaching out there on the part of Ciardis which is contrasted well with her relationship with Prince Sebastian.

And then there is Inga. I am in love with Inga. She is a Frost Giant who leads her Kith in the War. She is also herself – regardless of the situation. Even in situations where ‘herself’ is going to cause more conflict than good. She brings out opportunities for Ciardis to question why she is making the personal choices that she is and, similarly, gives plenty of opportunities to show why those questions should be asked. And answered as Inga sees fit. Inga gets her own character arc here as well, which is interesting in its own right (and would probably have made a great ‘companion’ novel to boot).

The only “flaw” (and I use the term flaw here loosely”) to Sworn to Conflict is that there is a LOT of worldbuilding and history explored in its short pages. I had to, occasionally, take breaks to let my brain process everything that was being thrown at me. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting (it was); it just came at me so fast that I am truely hoping that I did not miss anything for next novel.

Sworn to Conflict is a fantastic continuation of an already excellent series. Pick it up – you won’t regret it. (If you haven’t already gotten the first two, they’re on sale as a group pack now!).

Writing: 5/5
Characterization: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow: 4.5/5
Value: 5/5
Total rating: 4.9 / 5

Book Review – Enchanted Immortals

Click HERE to buy Enchanted Immortals on Amazon.com

Enchanted Immortals is a fun read that I would strongly encourage you to check out.

The story starts out quite slow – a word of warning. It looks like an attempt to do some world-building, but it’s quite a bit of lag. If you can get past the first few chapters, however, the story gets a lot better. You just have to make it through those first bits.

Thomas O’Malley is our protagonist and he’s been tasked with guarding the Sylphs and happens to be immortal as well. This creates a set of circumstances that can make it hard for Thomas and his immediate family – there is a strict ‘no contact’ policy in play that makes things tough for Thomas’ father as well as Thomas himself. Of all of the characters, Thomas is given the most development and there is an excellent story just in Thomas and his interactions with the world. That his father and several other characters happen to share the world, and the page, with him is gravy.

The book is a little tricky to follow – it uses a series of time jumps to follow the story through several time periods. Thomas’ immortality plays a part of this, but it does get confusing occasionally to track the different viewpoints and what is going on in each ‘era.’ Reading it on my Kindle made this even more difficult, as the file liked to jump around when I was trying to navigate – the most recent update to it appears to have fixed the problem, but that was after I had read it.

But, back to the characters. As I said, Thomas is the most developed and he is a believable main character. He is interesting – as an immortal, his interactions with the Fae world and the real world are sometimes in conflict. He tries to handle those conflicts as best he can, but he is still ‘human’ which means that he makes mistakes in resolving those conflicts. It makes for a good, authentic read.

The plot is a bit slow – even after the introduction. It’s also a bit predictable – you can see several of the conflicts coming. This is especially true of the conflicts that are coming from the new division of the United States government that has been tasked with investigating and monitoring the Fae. How the author handles those conflicts, however, is what sells the story. CJ Pinard does an excellent job of making the conflicts seem unique and special even when they play to the common tropes. Just because I saw the conflict coming did not mean that I did not want to see how she would write it . Pinard’s sense of conflict is excellent and well developed, making even the common conflicts interesting and suspenseful.

This is clearly a first book – there are a number of conflicts that are too large to settle in one story. A quick check of Amazon reveals a series of sequels and a novella about the new government agency that has formed in response to the Fae. That’s not unsurprising – it’s clear the Pinard wants to build on the conflicts established here at the outset by about half-way through the book.

All in all, Enchanted Immortals is a good start to a series with an excellent protagonist. The pacing may need a little work, but it shouldn’t be enough to keep you from checking out the book.
Writing: 4.5/5
Characterization: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow: 4/5
Value: 5/5 (At Free)
Total rating: 4.5/5

Book Review – Sworn to Transfer

Click HERE to buy Sworn to Transfer at Amazon.com

Edit: Disclosure – this review is based off of a copy I received from the author.

Sworn to Transfer picks up with Ciardis almost immediately after the end of Sworn to Raise. Ciardis and the Prince are, essentially, packed off to solve a growing tension between the Kith and the Imperial Court. Given what occurred at the end of the last book (sorry, spoiler free review), there is an issue with the supports for the Kith’s forest and Ciardis and the Prince are sent out to examine the problem and find a solution.

While this is going on, Ciardis is also exploring her past and finding out more about what happened to her mother. There’s some honest interest there and some interesting hints that this is not a typical orphan story. There’s also some development between Ciardis and Sebastian that is a lot of fun to read – you can tell the pair of them are awkward in trying to figure out exactly where they are in the ‘Friends-ish’ phase of the relationship. Ciardis’ insights regarding him are a true delight to read, and it is clear that Edun had fun writing Ciardis.

The world building continues in this novel at a good pace. The Imperial territories have been established, so now Edun gets to play with other societies and peoples around the area. There are some good political elements here, though some of them are a bit awkward. Still, they make for an interesting atmosphere for the fast-paced story.

The magic system is similarly explored and expanded on. Ciardis is still just as valuable and unique in this novel as she was in the last one, but more limitations on sorcery are established from the outset and we see her starting to push at her own personal limits several times. She also learns more about what her gift can do as she delves in to the mystery of what is happening with the Kith as well as her mother.

Ciardis becomes a full character in this novel. She is much more fleshed out and even given some significant flaws that impact both the plot and her relationships with other characters. It is fascinating to see Edun’s work with the character bear such a ripe fruit. The secondary characters, with the exception of Sebastian, still tend to be a bit of a weak point to the tale; while they are not quite as conveniently placed as they were in the previous story, they still feel fairly obvious and flat. It is better than it was in Sworn to Raise, and if Edun’s record of improvement holds, I’m certain it has been addressed in the next novel.

The pacing of the book is fast and events move a long at a good clip. Like Sworn to Raise, Sworn to Transfer is excellently timed with politics, conflicts, swords, and sorcery intermixed in a truly excellent romp through an exciting fantasy world. I highly recommend the book.

Writing: 4.5/5
Characterization: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Total rating: 4.5 / 5

Book Review – Crime Czar

CLick Here to purchase Crime Czar: A Hard Boiled New Orleans Legal Thriller (Tubby Dubonnet #5)

Please Note: This is Book 5 in a series and was free when I was searching the Kindle store. I have since gone back with my Premium membership to read the first four in the series to see if what I read in #5 was consistent among the other novels and also see if it made #5 make more sense.

Tubby Dubonnet is not your typical New Orleans lawyer. He’s a bit on the crooked side and a bit of a sleaze but he has a wonderful sense of humor and camaraderie with his friends and allies. At least according to the excerpts and Publishers Weekly reviews he does. Personally, I found Tubby to be a rather slapdash character with very little likeable to him excepting his penchant for getting in to situations he has no real business being in.

Billed as a ‘Legal Thriller’ series, I was expecting something more Courtroom Drama than poor CSI. The description of each of the books paints a wonderful picture of a dynamic character with a great deal of interesting characteristics. Tubby is a ‘maverick’ a ‘gambler’ and a person who ‘fights evil to pass the time.’

I must have been reading the wrong series.

This story is a confusing group of plots and subplots all coming together to try and form something coherent. Tubby has been hunting for the ‘Crime Czar’ – a criminal mastermind behind everything that has been going on in his territory (New Orleans). This mastermind is responsible for organizing and assigning crimes as well as covering them up and keeping things from collapsing in on themselves. He is utterly convinced that if he can bust this crime overlord he can take care of most of his home turf’s problems.

Meanwhile a hooker with a heart of gold is having issues of her own when she crosses over in to organized crime’s territory. She vows vengeance on the man who kills her ‘not-boyfriend’ and manages to get a gun to do so. Meanwhile, Tubby’s thief , and sort-of girlfriend’ is visiting New Orleans with some jewels they stole in a previous story. All of this is happening during a re-election campaign WHILE Tubby sets up a trap for the Czar.

Yeah, there are a lot of threads to track.

Unfortunately, the setting, while authentic, is not very well used. The people speak with their dialects and accents as appropriate and do a fairly good job of sounding authentically New Orleans. However, that is about it for the characters. I find Tubby distasteful at best and downright slovenly at worst. He’s supposed to be an interesting person and a part of his community, but he comes off as being somewhat selfish and confused most of the time. Tubby doesn’t seem to know what is going on around him, which is frustrating for the reader since a lot of the time it’s Tubby’s perspective that is governing what we can see and interpret. Dunbar’s secondary characters are all 1-dimensional and easy to predict and see their purpose.

The plot is a confusing mish-mash of threads. Dunbar seems to be hinting that Tubby is on the right trail in his Crime Czar hunt, but nothing is really resolved within the book. There are dozens of candidates available and only one is satisfactorily resolved as to whether or not he is the one behind the crime in New Orleans. The rest are examined very vaguely. That is the main plotline of the story. The sub-plots are half-hazzardly placed within the story and very little is done with it. Tubby’s assistance on a campaign for judge, for instance, is mentioned and focused on for perhaps 10 pages total and is the center of the humor for this particular story. Unfortunately, this sub plot gets so lost in the shuffle that the reader is barely able to track it. Some organization and focus would be very helpful.

All in all, at ‘Free’ its an OK choice to spend some hours on the novel, but I would not spend any real money.

Writing: 3/5
Characterization: 2.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow: 2/5
Value: 3/5 (At Free)
Total rating: 3.2/5