This was a fun and creative twist on the Battle Mage Farmer series. After saving the world where they lived, John and Ellie go on their honeymoon, into the chaotic void. They’re transported by their faithful super-bull Ferdinand and guided by Ellie’s prescient sense of direction.
Eventually, they end up in a confusing cluster of planets where there is a nest of vicious void beasts.
What a start to a honeymoon!
This creativity continues for the rest of the book.
This progressive fantasy continues with our protagonists Matt and Liz highly trained after years of ascending the path to Level 10.
Now they’ll compete with other Pathers at that level and the problem isn’t they aren’t strong enough, but that they’re too strong! You see, promising Pathers are assassination targets for the other Great Powers who do not want to face the in war.
So they adopt three false identities each and play under their ‘real’ identities, but using only a limited amount of power.
They want to walk a delicate balance. They want to hide their real powers and still qualify for high rewards within the tournament.
Meanwhile, we learn that spies from every government are seeking out their true identities by any means possible.
What a cool book! I knew nothing about globemaking beyond gores; now I know a whole lot more, both of the multiple crafts involved and of its history.
But what makes the book great is the author’s personal story, telling how he went from making a handmade globe for his father’s 80th birthday to starting a bespoke globe company with a worldwide audience and customer base.
It’s a review of both the history of globemaking and of our recent history from 2008 to now.
I recommend this book to anyone with an ounce of curiosity.
What a wonderful explanation of basic Christian principles! Author Miles Stanford explains both the theory and practice of Christian living and growth.
He begins with the cross and explains that trying hard to overcome sin is not enough. We must totally die to sin and realize our death daily. But our death leads to our resurrection in Christ. Having Christ live in us is how we triumph.
How can this miracle be achieved? Not by us. But Christ has already done it. It is up to us to believe and to claim His life and to live it through faith and perseverance.
Mr. Stanford draws from a wide range of respected Christian authors and teachers as well as many quotes from the Bible to prove his points.
I recommend this book most highly to anyone who wishes to learn about Christianity.
This fourth time around, I was writing my own fantasy novel/series and I looked at how Pratchett started out his series. It was a ripping good start, with unending action and interesting characters from the beginning. Who doesn’t like Death as an animated skeleton and a lugubrious voice?
We come to my first favorite SciFi novel and it’s a goody.
My first book of the year! It’s a fantasy, with familiars who are intelligent badgers, owls, hamsters, and prairie dogs. Enjoy a dash of humor with your fantasy.
Familiars enhance and magnify your magic, but they come with troubles of their own. They’re just people, who are animals.
Patricia McKillip practices her craft of writing fantasy at the highest level in this atmospheric depiction of a city, Ombria, rocked by the death of its regent, Royce. The mysterious and manipulative Black Dominia immediately orders his mistress, Lydea, out on the streets, presumably to die. Lydia, a beautiful former tavern wench, makes her way across the dangerous city at night to her father’s tavern. A mysterious girl, Mag, helps her.
Mag was raised by a sorceress, Faye. Faye stays in the shadows of Ombria, content to sell her spells to the highest bidders–including the Black Dominia.
Ms. McKillip introduces more colorful characters, without explaining the magic they exercise at all. The complex political and magical mystery continues until the end when the mystery pops like a bubble.
This is a must-read for any fan of fantasy with vivid characters.
Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Second
We move from fabulous fantasy to funny fantasy. Or maybe, a fabulously funny fantasy that’s famous?
I re-read this book for the fourth time, the second time since I became an author, and I love it even more!
This is the first book in Terry Pratchett’s Disk World series, so he sets up his magical system (magic is a color of light), his fantasy world (a flat world on the back of four elephants, standing on the back of a space turtle) and his characters (Rincewind, a magician with only one spell he can’t use. Cowardly and good at running away) (Twoflower, a classic tourist, with limitless chest of gold, no fear, and endless curiosity), (The Luggage, a suitcase with legs, mage of sapient pearwood, invulnerable and clever). And those three are merely the protagonists.
I won’t spoil any of the insane plot, but suffice it to say, that Pratchett satirizes nearly every fantasy trope and many conventions of our current culture.
This fourth time around, I was writing my own fantasy novel/series and I looked at how Pratchett started out his series. It was a ripping good start, with unending action and interesting characters from the beginning. Who doesn’t like Death as an animated skeleton and a lugubrious voice?
Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Third
We come to my first favorite SciFi novel and it’s a goody.
It’s been six years since I last read this book. This is the third time I’ve read it and I enjoyed it just as much as ever.
Honor Harrington just got her first command of the light cruiser Fearless. She’s 5 years younger than her executive officer Allistair McKeon and he hates her for it. But he’s just the start of her problems.
The admiral in charge of new weapons has halved her missiles in exchange for a grav lance. It’s a deadly weapon, but it only works at close range. Too bad the lightly armored cruiser is unlikely to survive any close-range encounters. Basically, the light cruiser is crippled, with only half of its offensive power.
Honor manages to use the grav lance once to destroy a superdreadnought in fleet practice maneuvers, but everyone then is out to destroy her. So the ship gets destroyed endlessly in fleet practice, depressing the crew.
Then the ship is assigned to the backwater of Basilisk Station. There the commanding officer, Pavel Young, was beaten up by Honor while they were in the Space Academy together because he tried to rape her. He had to apologize for sexual innuendo, but no one knew the full reason for his beating. He hates her guts.
Then he leaves her in charge of the entire station while he takes his ship to be repaired. It’s too much for one light cruiser to fulfill all the responsibilities, so she’s sure to fail and get a black mark on her record.
Only no one tells Honor that. This is where the story gets good.
Truly a 5-star mystery book! First, you have Lord Peter Wimsy, well-dressed, polite, knowledgable, with a wide streak of mischief and irreverance.
But he goes incognito, as Death Bredon, an aspiring copywriter for Pym’s Advertising. Why? A man died falling down their iron spiral staircase. It’s steep, with narrow, slippery stairs, so why is it a murder?
Death investigates not just the murder, but the whole office of gossipy ad writers, typists, and helpers. There are dozens of delicious characters for the reader to explore.
This mystery is still selling after 90 years should tell you it’s really, really good. It’s also a time capsule looking at England in between the wars.
Best 5 Books I’ve Read This Year – The Fifth
My fifth book is in yet another genre. And I’m cheating: it’s not really a single book, but a collection of sixty-six books I’ve read all my life: The Bible.
Now, you may dislike or may be apathetic about the Bible, but I predict you may be entertained by my reviews. I treat each book in the Bible as a separate book and review them as I would a novel. Let me give you a few:
‘Genesis’ is Greek for beginning. It’s translated from the first word of the Bible, bereshit in Hebrew, which means ‘in the beginning’.
Genesis covers the beginning of time and the universe, of mankind, of marriage, and of good and evil. And that’s just the first three chapters.
After Adam and Eve sinned, their story continues as mankind grows more and more evil, until the flood comes and God starts again with Noah’s family, the ark, and the flood.
After the fresh start, guess what? Man sins again. This time God confuses their language at Babel, creating the multiplicity of languages we have today.
Is there any hope in all this evil? Yes, God promises to bless all mankind through Abraham and his family. Through him will come the Messiah Who will solve the problem of sin and evil and crush the devil’s head.
But that’s the rest of the Bible.
Another Favorite Book Within My Favorite
Psalms is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Read how I rave about it in my review:
Amazing. The Bible’s books of psalms encompasses one hundred and fifty of the finest Hebrew poetry from 3,400 years ago to about 2,400 years. What’s so great about Hebrew poetry? Imagery.
When I look unto the heavens, which thine Own fingers framed, Unto the moon and to the stars, which were by thee ordained, Then say I, “What is man that Thou, should be mindful of him? Or what the Son of Man that Thou, so kind to Him should be?” Psalm 8, from a hymn.
The book of Psalms is full of images and phrases that are part of the fabric of our society. Consider the world-famous 23rd Psalm
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
My Favorite Continued
But beautiful imagery is not all. The Psalms are full of fulfilled prophecies, like Psalm 22 where you find six fulfilled prophecies in 18 verses:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Jesus’ words while on the cross) Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? 2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. 5 They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
More Fulfilled Prophecy Below
7 All those who see me mock me. (Verses 7-8 were fulfilled by those mocking Jesus on the cross) They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, 8 “He trusts in Yahweh; let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.” 9 But you brought me out of the womb. (Jesus being conceived and born of a virgin by a miracle) You made me trust at my mother’s breasts. 10 I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me. 11 Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help. 12 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. 13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring. 14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. (Jesus’ words on the cross ‘I thirst’ prophesied) You have brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet. (A prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion, before it was invented) 17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me. 18 They divide my garments among them. (A prophecy of Roman soldiers gambling over Jesus’ clothing) They cast lots for my clothing.
But you have to find out for yourself. Read the book of Psalms looking for imagery and prophecy, fulfilled and to be fulfilled. It’ll transform your experience.
Too bad the tour is over. But lucky for you, all my audiobook excerpts are still available for listening right here. I think the links to all the additional excerpts in the blog posts all still work too. Be sure to leave a comment on these blogs. The authors love engagement, just like I do.
