The characters do have a lot of introspection and awareness of their own faults with good reasons for their choices. At times I thought they were maybe a little too aware of their own shortcomings during these self-examinations but the characters really were wonderfully handled. Even Calypso and other support characters had motives beyond just being bad, for the sake of being villains.
This one was an assorted bag of fabulous, and some odd, not quite sure how I feel about it stuff. It’s a slow building world that relies on the MC Richard, to tell the story through a combination of flashbacks – partly through sharing stories with his daughter Ana (who is mute for the most part), combined with present day events.
As military fantasys go, I found a lot to like in this one. There’s a lot of battles which get progressively bigger until the finale. There are organising troops, gun use, and marching – some of my favorite parts were the parade row marching and just any of the scenes where they had to keep or use a tempo. I especially loved the use of sound combined with the visuals to bring the scenes alive.
This opens with a bang, befitting the title but it’s weird bang – kind of like small town fireworks with the reload time between the bursts of color, as this stops mid-action to give us a bit of catch-up. Once we are caught up though, it’s go-time, and the rest of the book is an easy, quick, and fun read.
I honestly don’t know what is it about this series that I absolutely adore. I mean, this is as grimdark as it can get – well, okay, maybe not as much, but you know – and most of the characters aren’t exactly nice, or loveable. And still. Here I am, trying to gather my thoughts and coming up with something to criticise. I’m afraid this will be one of those unbalanced reviews where all I do is gushing. I guess I need to have those every once in a while. I’ll keep this review spoiler free, unless you’ve not read Priest of Bones yet. You might get spoiled then.
As I’m reading Priest of Lies by Peter McLean currently, and one of my favorite characters happen to be Billy the Boy, a 14 year old lad, I started to think about books where children were not only side characters but had an important role. As I’m mostly reading adult fiction I went and looked at those books to pick 10 – which, let me tell you is a challenge.
The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter is a solid and entertaining read. Being the debut of Caroline Flarity, I think it has good potential. All in all, it mostly delivered what I expected: a fast paced, sometimes spooky read with a bit of teen drama. If you like ghost hunter stories, evil spirits wreaking havoc in a little town playing mindgames on people, with teen angst and love drama on the side, then I’m sure you will enjoy The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter.
Thorn of the Night Blossoms is a good entry point into JC Kang’s world. Whether you only just get to know the Dragon Songs Saga series or you already read one the books and you are interested to learn more about Jie’s past, you won’t be disappointed.
So, I am just going to leave it there and say: If you’re like me and been hearing lots of good things about this author but haven’t had the opportunity, or weren’t sure where to start with his work…well, then this is a great place to jump on the Mark Lawrence bandwagon.
This issue has less short stories, but it contains more other content. Such as an article in memory of Gene Wolfe, an interview with Gareth L. Powell, a game review of Sekiro, bookreview of Uncanny Collateral, a movie review of Illang, an article about the legacy of Sheri S. Tepper and an analysis about the Gormenghast series.