Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Midnight Queen: By Sylvia Izzo Hunter

THE MIDNIGHT QUEEN

SUMMARY

Gray’s deep talent for magick has won him a place at Merlin College. But when he accompanies four fellow students on a mysterious midnight errand that ends in disaster and death, he is sent away in disgrace—and without a trace of his power. He must spend the summer under the watchful eye of his domineering professor, Appius Callender, working in the gardens of Callender’s country estate and hoping to recover his abilities. And it is there, toiling away on a summer afternoon, that he meets the professor’s daughter.

Even though she has no talent of her own, Sophie Callender longs to be educated in the lore of magick. Her father has kept her isolated at the estate and forbidden her interest; everyone knows that teaching arcane magickal theory to women is the height of impropriety. But against her father’s wishes, Sophie has studied his ancient volumes on the subject. And in the tall, stammering, yet oddly charming Gray, she finally finds someone who encourages her interest and awakens new ideas and feelings.

Sophie and Gray’s meeting touches off a series of events that begins to unravel secrets about each of them. And after the king’s closest advisor pays the professor a closed-door visit, they begin to wonder if what Gray witnessed in Oxford might be even more sinister than it seemed. They are determined to find out, no matter the cost…
REVIEW

Part romance, part fantasy, and part historical fiction, fans of Mary Robinette Kowal and Marie Brennan will thoroughly enjoy The Midnight Queen.

While I ended up liking The Midnight Queen, it was slow going at first. Don’t get me wrong, Sophie and Gray are good characters and as the book moves along Hunter is able to develop their characters even more, but for the first part of the book it was a lot of building without a lot of reward.

Of top of that, while I liked Sophie and Gray, in my opinion they had to carry much of the story, as many of the other characters felt relatively flat.

That said, once the story gets going it really starts moving. Readers will enjoy the chess like plotting and conniving, the disguises and secrets, and the love story aspect.


All in all, while the beginning is a little slow, once you get through the initial  sluggishness the story and the characters develop quite the book. Definitely worth looking into if you’re a fan of historical fantasy.

INFO

Publisher: Ace

Published: September 2, 2014

Price: $15.00

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Queen-Noctis-Magicae-Novel-ebook/dp/B00IOE4N52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409798314&sr=8-1&keywords=the+midnight+queen

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Hidden: By Benedict Jacka

HIDDEN

SUMMARY

With his talent for divining the future, Alex Verus should have foreseen his friends’ reactions to the revelations about his previous life. Anne Walker no longer trusts him—and has also cut all ties with the mage community after getting kicked out of the apprentice program. As a favor to Luna, Alex’s own apprentice and Anne’s best friend, he checks in on her only to be told to leave her alone.

Then Anne gets kidnapped. The Council Keepers of the Order of the Star believe Dark mages from her past may be involved. Working with the Keepers, Alex and Luna discover that Anne has been taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, and they must find a way to rescue her.

But another shadow from the past has resurfaced—Alex’s former master may be back in London, and Alex has no idea what his agenda is…
REVIEW

When I read Benedict Jacka’s first book in his Alex Verus series I said that Jacka was an author to keep an eye on.

In Hidden he no longer is someone on the road to writing fantastic books, he’s there.

Hidden focuses on the effects of the events in Chosen, particularly Anne and Sonder’s mistrust in Alex and the dissolution of this group of friends who seemingly could take on anything. It is through this mistrust that readers get an insight into the inner working of Alex’s mind, and the beginning transformation from survivor to hero as Alex looks for a kidnapped Anne even though he will gain nothing from doing this (as she still hates him).

Readers will also get a chance to see Anne’s inner workings. Transforming her from a more two dimensional side character to a strong 3D lead character. Anne is a complicated character and seeing her dark side and what happened while she was kidnapped is fascinating.

Of course the biggest change in Hidden is the introduction of a huge new plot point that I’m assuming will drive the series forward in future books. I will not say what it is for fear of spoilers, but let me just say I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the next in the series.


All in all, Hidden was awesome. Like the other books in the series Hidden is filled with tons of action, (in my opinion fight scenes with a diviner are pretty awesome), great characters, and a well paced plot. I fully recommend it, and it is perfect for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, and Kevin Hearne.

INFO

Publisher: Ace

Published: September 2, 2014

Price: $7.99

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Alex-Verus-Book-5-ebook/dp/B00IOE4LCM/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1409711599&sr=1-7&keywords=hidden