Tag Archives: fantasy

Book Review: Return to Mt. Snagra (A Mattie & Pete Adventure) (Volume 1) by Tyan Wyss

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Return to Mt. Snagra (A Mattie & Pete Adventure) (Volume 1) by Tyan Wyssi

A YA Fantasy Novel published through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform  (08/18/2013)

Summary:

Mattie and Pete, two imaginative children living in Southern California, hold the key to this fantasy. Literally: they have keys. And a very important book. They are swept into an adventure where they must use their wits, creativity, and strength to save the fantastical land of Gisper from the evil Vulture King. Along the way they become friends with an impatient and rude princess, a half-human half-creature of the land, and the mysterious man in the orange grove next door. Who wrote the book and why Mattie and Pete are sucked into its outlandish adventure will only be revealed if they can save the day.

“The soothsayer predicted a young girl with a powerful book would come to rescue the twin Gisperians when the moon was half-waned. Her hair would have many tiny braids, and her feet would be enclosed in boots with dancing spurs. She was to be accompanied by a powerful, one-handed boy with a golden voice and quick mind who negotiates first instead of grabbing his sword.” (Page 146-147).

Keywords:

 Fantasy, Adventure, Books, Heros and Heroines, Underdogs, Save the Kingdom

My Review:

This is exactly the type of novel I would have read in my voracious reading days in late elementary through the beginning of high school. It is a sophisticated read for any maturing teen who wants a little adventure, a little romance, and a little creativity. The plot becomes more and more complex as the book progresses, with the perfect touch of character development and self-discovery for the main character. This is a well-balanced fantasy where the world-building makes sense and all the elements are there for the reading.

Mattie and Pete are the main characters, but the story is mainly told from mattie’s perspective. Mattie is a likeable character. She is given the underdog story and readers will root for her, because she is a bit of all of us. At times she is plain, clumsy, impatient, belittled, bullied, and she can’t make up her mind what she wants to be. Then she falls into this magical story where she blossoms and grows. Again literally. She goes from an 11-year old girl to a robust teenager. She needed to know what the future held for her and if it would work out alright. Like “13 Going on 30” she is sixteen, flirty, and thriving. Mattie finds her self-purpose in helping the Gispers win their kingdom back and her conviction is solid. She becomes wise and verbose, giving the reader a taste of maturity and intelligence.

The author layers her plot and her motives like an expert, giving the book a higher degree of elegance than most that follow a more linear plotline. Wyss plays with the “Return to Mt. Snagra” novel, revealing the future so that the children have guidance during their quest while at times the pages are blank, waiting for their decisions and actions to fill in the words. The author has integrated the past and the future into this book that the children carry with them at all times.

The author also plays with time and space with more than just the way the words are revealed on the pages of the book within the book “Return to Mt. Snagra.” There is an element of time travel hidden within the layers of the novel. This gives the reader something to ponder over after finishing the book. There are quite a few ‘somethings’ that the reader puts together by the end of the book that are simply too cool.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed the Neverending Story by Michael Ende or the smooth and charming personable style of Roald Dahl

This novel was published through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform  08/18/2013 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 4.75

Links for more information:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18388212-return-to-mt-snagra

Website: http://www.authortyanwyss.com/

Rachel Barnard Publishes New Novel: At One’s Beast

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Local Author Does it Again!

Seattle, Washington, July 14th – Rachel Barnard, a driven young author in the Seattle area released her newest young adult novel, At One’s Beast this month. The novel comes on the heels of the re-release of her debut novel, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams (published March 25th, 2014).

Barnard began writing At One’s Beast last year during the Southern Cross Novel Challenge (SoCNoC – the Southern Hemisphere writing challenge mimicking the NaNoWriMo Challenge to write a 50k word novel in 30 days) in June. She began editing the novel the following winter, handed it to beta readers in the spring, re-edited in the summer and hit the publish button in July.

At One’s Beast is about a village that creates a monster… Every girl and boy in the village of Frey fears the beast who lives in the forest. Ten years ago, the beast was formed from the town’s rage — and the evil that lurks inside all people in moments of weakness. Every year since, the townspeople have sacrificed one of their own to appease his anger. This year the sacrifice does not go as planned. A young man saves the chosen girl from fate. She is torn between doing her duty and untangling the identity of her savior and captor. The young man grew up with thoughts of revenge on the town that turned their backs on him, but when he is close to the girl, he is reminded of who he used to be. From once upon a time to happily ever after, the people of Frey will have to rally together to rid the town of evil once and for all, but in the process will they destroy everything that is good in their world?

What did the beta readers have to say about the book? “Your action scenes are quite good!” and “I’m starting to get into the book and not wanting to put it down!” and “I loved the once upon a time opening – evokes storytelling, tells reader the type of story they are about to read.” (Bill Barnard)

Want to read more? Createspace Preview of Chapter one is available for your reading pleasure Here 

For more information on Rachel Barnard and her novels, you can visit her website at www.rachelauthorbarnard.com

Book Review: Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

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Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

A Young Adult Fantasy Novel published on amazon.com (3/31/2014)

Summary:

Lilith, along with her mother and father, arrive in Germany for the funeral of Lilith’s grandmother. During her stay, Lilith discovers some very peculiar happenings at the Bloom & Co mansion, where Roses of immaculate red color and scent are grown. She investigates the peculiarities with her trusty Whippet, Panther, and all trails lead to the roses. How do they maintain their color and beauty longer than any of their counterparts? Lilith is determined to find out.

Keywords:

Roses, Germany, twelve-year old, peculiarity, investigation, magical roses, tradition

My Review:

There is almost always something I find fault with as a reader nowadays, but reading Rosehead by Ksenia Anske broke all of my expectations. I could not put the book down and though there are close to 400 pages, I devoured the novel in one day. The only comment I would give is to the format of the book, the font is too large for my liking, which is entirely my own personal preference. There were also a larger-than-average number of minor spelling and grammar issues, but I read over them, noted, and kept going because the style of writing was so easy to follow and read through, even with the errors.

The author’s writing style was quite sophisticated. She crafted her sentences with care and her dialogue with entertaining closeness to reality. The dog’s voice is adorable and true to form of both dog and sidekick, “Pink is my favorite color. Besides, it’s more blush. Very delicate. Matches my tongue.” (Page 47). The Whippet is described as a, “…talking cat in a dog’s body with an unrivaled passion for steak, rosy jackets, and squirrels.” (Page 366).

Lilith is also a very well-drawn character. Immediately Anske lets us know that she is no ordinary twelve-year old girl because she, “… only felt sill when she was moving and [she] could smell things other people couldn’t.” (Page 366).

Lilith has her faults and eccentricities, such as her unique vocabulary and the way she is always trying to utilize as many sophisticated words as possible in her speech and the author will even italicize them to give them more emphasis. Lilith also, instead of getting emotional and angry at any bad thing done to her, finitely controls her language to be poisonously polite.

Lilith is such a loveable character because of her stubborn single mindedness. She gets fixated to a fault and she sometimes cannot seem to control her outbursts of accusations. It may be maddening for her to momentary lose control like this, but for the reader it adds tension and excitement. Panther, her Whippet companion puts it well, “I simply love your attention to detail and your inability to hear what others are saying once you set your mind to something.” (Page 186).

 

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys the hijinks and imagination of Calvin and Hobbes, the sidekick element of Pantalaimon in Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials series, or the whimsical darkness of Pan’s Labyrinth.

This novel was published through Lulu.com 8/19/11 and is available on her website here and Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 5.0

 

Links for more information:

Ksenia Anske’s Website

Goodreads Profile

Book Review: Unicorn Battle Squad by Kirsten Alene

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Unicorn Battle Squad by Kirsten Alene

A Bizarr0 Fiction/Fantasy novel published 10/1/12 by Eraserhead Press

 

Summary:

There is a world where horses can be transformed into Unicorns and where an ordinary boy can be transformed into a Unicorn Rider. Carl is only a boy when his father disappears, leaving in his stead a scrawny horse named Yury. Together Yury and Carl must ready themselves for a war that threatens City 21, their home. Carl turns from lowly clerk to fledgling Unicorn Rider, battling through initiation tests, the Theklanian army, and his feelings for one important Theklanian Princess.

 

Keywords:

Unicorn Riders, Bizarro Fiction, Battle, Other-worldly, A Boy and His Horse, Adventure, Capture, Escape

My Review:

At the first mention of ‘unicorns,’ I expected a fantasy tale full of magical creatures and wondrous realms but Kirsten Alene, the author of Unicorn Battle Squad, has a different take on what is meant by that word. Alene’s imagination is one that is not fastened down by fantasy literature stereotypes and she is able to create a world full of uniquely defined characteristics. Unicorns are not quite a magical creature but are the steeds of the Riders. Unicorns are horses that have been modified and outfitted for war, hence the battle-ready horn usually identified with a unicorn.

In what might have been a dystopian novel, Kirsten Alene instead focusses the book on something different, Unicorn Riders. Thank you for breaking from the end of the world, life-is-awful typical dystopian novels nowadays to give us something unique, while still giving us that bleak and sad world we seem to crave. The ironic view of the world, such as the kidnapper’s request, not for as much money as possible, but just to pay the bills created during the kidnapping, made me laugh.

Alene’s world is so familiar and yet so different. She only shows us a small portion, through the story of Carl and Yury, which is entirely aggravating because I never cared about Carl. Carl was only the instrument in which the author could spout wonderful phrases of prose. These descriptions were so beautiful and some of the dialogue so captivating, such as on page 55, ‘“Being a Unicorn Rider is about fighting in adverse circumstances, impaired by impossible handicaps, working in the most dire, hopeless conditions, overcoming the absurd unfairness of odds!”’ However, all these descriptions eventually piled upon themselves until they overshadowed any sort of plot in the novel. I found myself skimming hurriedly over the words in order to find the meaning of the story and to look for growth in the characters. I was left wanting. Alene does not dish out a beautiful or clever plot like she can dish out the beautiful and thought-provoking descriptions. Carl, the main character, has very little personality and does not win any favors with the reader. I have more sympathy and more in common with Yury, the horse turned Unicorn..

At times, even the descriptions would bore me with their redundancy and she overly-repeated the phrase ‘roared with laughter’ as if neither the characters nor the author had any other imaginative response to Carl and his actions.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed the irony of the world in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, the random intense imaginations of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll or any of the other Eraserhead Press Bizarro Fiction novels.

 

This novel was published by Eraserhead Press on 10/1/12 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 3

 

Links for more information:

On the web: http://kirstenalene.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4419714.Kirsten_Alene

Author Thursdays: Camp NaNo – Like NaNoWriMo but in April

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Of Ducks and Writing
Remember these pictures?

 

Camp NaNo is a looser form of NaNoWriMo in which you -still- attempt to write a novel in a month (April) but you create your own writing goals. Mine is 25k words. How am I doing thus far on the morning of the third day? Behind of course! I’m still fleshing out my novel but it will be grand. My goal is to finish the first book in well-edited first draft mode this year. It is the first in a young adult fantasy trilogy and I’m still fleshing out the plot particulars.

Any of you participating in Camp NaNo this year? It’s not too late to start!