Showing posts with label wizard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wizard. Show all posts

Buy Cheap The Shadow at the Gate (The Tormay Trilogy #2) Review

The Shadow at the Gate (The Tormay Trilogy #2)

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The Shadow at the Gate (The Tormay Trilogy #2) Review

This is really good, how am I the first review?
Shadow picks up where The Hawk And His Boy leaves off, and if anything gets better. No middle volume slump here. Several significant confrontations with the Dark along with identities and allegiances uncovered, both expected and unexpected, keep the story moving along at a good pace. The prose standard continues to be high. And where some authors outsmart themselves with "clever" twists that make you roll your eyes and wonder what they could possibly have been thinking, the twists here work well, keeping the story fresh, and yet having that feeling of inevitability one gets from a story proceeding exactly as it must.
As with most longer fantasy the story follows multiple characters or groups. Often with that type of plot I get annoyed with one or more threads and plod through them waiting to get back to party X with the characters I like, but that doesn't happen here as all characters are either sufficiently appealing in their own right or up to no good in such a way that I genuinely wanted to know what they are doing.
A lot of focus in first half or so of this volume seems to be on characters other than Jute, arguably the main character in volume one, though it does drop in on him occasionally at first and more often as the story progresses. A number of characters who had lesser roles in Hawk And His Boy get to spend a lot more time on stage and come into their own in this volume. Owain Gawinn and Levoreth happily get a lot of stage time here.
Can't wait for the final volume, which will immediately jump to the head of my queue when it's available. If you like classic Good vs Evil save the world fantasy, give this series a try.

The Shadow at the Gate (The Tormay Trilogy #2) Overview

The Epic Continues

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43% Off Discounts: Best Buy for Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) Review

Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13)

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Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) Review

At a time when so many sci-fi and fantasy writers produce two or three good books and then start phoning it in, Jim Butcher stands apart from the crowd. He just keeps getting more imaginative, more sophisticated and more entertaining with every new book in this series. Ghost Story is the 13th novel of the Dresden Files and it rivals White Knight and Turn Coat for the best.
I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical that Ghost Story would work as well as some of the other books in the series. Changes, the previous installment in the Dresden Files, ended with the main character left for dead. So much of the appeal of the previous novels derives from how Dresden uses magic to combat enemies in the realm of the living that I couldn't really think of how Ghost Story could be made interesting. Leave it to Jim Butcher to turn an unlikely premise into a great read.
As it turns out, Harry Dresden's luck is not much better in death than it is in life. In fact, he doesn't get to go to the great beyond because there was something that was not right about his death. Instead, he has to return to earth as a ghost to find out who murdered him. If he fails, he learns, three people who are close to him will come to great harm. Harry returns to earth to find that the planet is deeply troubled. The destruction of the Red Court has led to a power vacuum and chaos in the supernatural world. Magical beings are attacking and destroying both each other and humans who connect with the world of magic. The stakes are as high as they have ever been.
Harry's adventures as a ghost are hugely entertaining. He is invisible and cannot communicate with others in the absence of help from Mort the ectomancer or other mediums. But he develops a new array of powers such as passing through walls and short range teleportation a la Nightcrawler (from the X-Men). Dresden still manages to get involved in countless fracases with supernatural beings and, as usual, take his fare share of beatings along the way. Butcher guides us through all of this with a kind of page-turning suspense that has now become a hallmark of this series.
In fact, bringing Harry back as a ghost proves to be the ideal mechanism for showing his maturation as a character. Although Harry cannot connect with the real world physically as a ghost, emotionally everything that he feels is made more visceral. Throughout the novel, when he runs into people he has both helped and hurt during his life he is forced to come to terms with the consequences of his own actions in a unique way. This is why I disagree with those who express disappointment that Dresden is slightly more contemplative and not quite as involved in the action as in previous installments of the Dresden Files. In this novel we may get more of Harry's thoughts than his deeds than we have become accustomed to. But this allows Harry to take some huge strides as a character.
Butcher's prose in Ghost Story is as crisp and light as it has ever been. In fact while the writing in the first few Dresden novels was generally serviceable and at times a bit workmanlike, here he gives us some passages that are truly elegant compared to other books in the genre.
The only caveat I would have about buying this book is that it might not be the best for a new reader of the series. Many of the plot lines and characters are quite developed at this point so it is better to start with one of the earlier novels if you're new to the Dresden Files. Since most of the suspects in Dresden's murder are characters that have appeared in previous novels, it is important to know a bit about their back-stories if you really want to get into this novel.
Most fans of the series will likely agree that this novel cements Harry Dresden's status as one of the most, if not the most, entertaining characters in fantasy and science fiction toady. I can't think of any other character in the genre that brings his mix of unique abilities, hard-boiled realism and humor.

Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) Overview

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn't doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin. But being dead doesn't stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own. To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic...The eagerly awaited new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series.

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Special Prices for The Kinshield Legacy (The Kinshield Saga) Review

The Kinshield Legacy (The Kinshield Saga)

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The Kinshield Legacy (The Kinshield Saga) Review

If this book were a movie, my husband would be all over it! In fact, I can picture it as a series he would follow as eagerly as he follows "Legends of the Seeker," and for much the same reasons. This genre isn't typically my preferred type of reading material, but the description was intriguing so I wanted to give it a go.
Wow. I was hooked in the first chapter and had trouble putting the book down to sleep last night. Each of the first few chapters introduces new people, people whose lives and stories become inextricably tied together as the story continues. One of the things that sometimes turns me off about the fantasy genre is the whole new language one must learn to understand what is going on. There are new names for objects, actions, types of people... it's like taking a confusing crash course in a foreign language. That's a lot of work when all I want to do is enjoy. Although K.C. May introduces new creatures and unfamiliar items with unusual names, the book is very readable, and there was no confusion. I didn't have to work to enjoy; this fantastical world is seamlessly woven into terms to which we can all relate.
The writing style is such that it was very easy to become engaged in the story. When I read some stories, I find myself constantly thinking of how I would have written certain lines or paragraphs differently. That tells me that the writing is not to my standards, and it distracts me from the story the author is trying to tell. When reading this story, however, I found myself enthralled and fully immersed in the adventure. The pacing of the chapters and introduction of new characters was ideal for maintaining interest and moving the story along without drawing anything out unnecessarily. Sometimes bad things happen to great characters, and I mourned the unavoidable losses along the way, even as I celebrated the small victories. I cringed, I delighted, I was completely and utterly engaged.
The ending is very satisfying in and of itself, but it does open the door for a sequel. I, for one, am eager to read more from this talented author.

The Kinshield Legacy (The Kinshield Saga) Overview

A mysterious stone tablet with five magical gems has sat abandoned in a cave for two hundred years. The kingdom is in ruins, with only warrant knights to keep the peace. But then, the gems in the tablet, one by one, disappear.Warrant knight Gavin Kinshield is a man of many secrets. He's the one deciphering the runes in the tablet. Unless he can find a suitable replacement, he'll be Thendylath's next king. All he really wants is the letter written by his ancestor Ronor Kinshield, the last man to see King Arek alive... a letter he must earn by tracking down a common thief.But when Gavin saves a woman's life, what should have been a simple task draws him face-to-face with his nightmarish past... and the truth of King Arek's demise.______________________From the very first page, The Kinshield Legacy grabs you by the throat and propels you into a world of magic, sorcery, jeweled-eyed gargoyles and a sisterhood of female warriors. A world where beyonders savage unsuspecting travelers; where a dark, yet charismatic, wizard covets the king's throne for his own and will let no one get in his way--including the rightful ruler. He who claims the King's Bloodstone shall reign as king. Enter Gavin Kinshield, warrant knight and rune solver, a man haunted by his past, and a hero like no other. A rousing debut from K. C. May, an author worth watching.~ Carol Davis Luce, Author of Night Passage"The Kinshield Legacy is a rousing good fantasy tale, with nice characterization and some ferocious action. These days I read primarily for business rather than pleasure, but I found myself eager to return to this novel."~ Piers Anthony, Author of the Xanth novels______________________The Kinshield Legacy was named a Top-4 Read of 2010 by book reviewer Grace Krispy on DailyCheapReads.comUpdated 6/23/11 to include a map of Thendylath. Readers can also find it on the author's web site.

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33% Off Discounts: Lowest Price Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) Review

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) Review

With this introductory novel was published in 1997, few would have predicted the unprecedented success this series would produce. And everything that made Harry Potter so successful is all first shown, though hardly fully explained, in this book, HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSPHER'S STONE.
The novel opens with Harry living under the cupboard with his abusive aunt and uncle. He has had a mean, depressed life, and though an active boy, the sheer amount of trauma he must have endured would scar any child. But the door opens out of this lifestyle. I've read an interesting theory (obviously not true), that a much different writer than Rowling would have ended Book 7 with Harry having imagined all this fantasy world, where he was so prominent and famous, to help escape the neglect and abuse from the Dursleys.
He gets a letter (actually, hundreds) saying he is in fact a wizard. So he is enrolled the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Him, along with his new friend the giant Hagrid, go to Diagon Alley, a magical bazaar, and thus he is thrust into the magical universe so captured the imagination of millions. We soon learn Harry is world famous among wizards for conquering an evil Wizard named Vo - um - He Who Must Not Be Named. Sorry `bout that slip. =). Along the way, we learn that Voldemort is after a magical artifiact called the Philosopher's Stone (which was, unfortunately, changed from the UK original title to "Sorcerer's Stone" in all other regions). So much of the novel is driven by the three main characters defending this stone from Voldemort.
In this novel we get the first ever glimpses of Hogwarts, Voldemort, Quidditch, Dumbledore, Severus Snape, muggles, the Forbidden Forest, the Invisibility Cloak, and any other number of thins Rowling's magical confectionary of an imagination has cooked up for us.
One of the best things about this book, and indeed about the whole series, is how Rowling plants details which, when reading, you may not necessarily pick up on, but are later rather important in later volumes. Who would think Griphook and Hagrid's admonition no one breaks into Gringotts would have such prominence in Book 7? Or the importance of Harry being able to talk to the boa constrictor, something which is not referenced again until Book 2 and then not fully explained until Book 7? Or the Invisibility Cloak, a device first introduced in this novel, but you have no idea of its importance, or even that it has real significane, until Book 7.
Another great example of this planting of clues is Neville Longbottom, who, but by fate, could easily have been the main star of the series, though you don't find out that information until much later in Book 5.
The book also introduces the relationship dynamics that would continue throughout the entire series, from the interplay between the three main kids (Harry, Ron, and Hermione), to the ambiguous Severus Snape, the wise mentor figure of Albus Dumbledore, bumbling Hagrid with his love of nasty creatures, prim and reserved Professor McGonagall, evil incarnate Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, etc.
Overall, there are numerous memorable scenes in this novel. As the novels progressed, the children aged and the target audience would have aged as well. In this novel, they are still very young and immature, but already at this early point in their career, there are seeds of greatness for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
The same can be said of this debut novel as well.
This is my order of Potter books by preference:
Deathly Hallows
Prisoner of Azkaban
Order of the Phoenix
Philosopher's Stone/Chamber of Secrets (I rank them both the same)
Half-Blood Prince
Goblet of Fire.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) Overview



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