Vampirates | Justin Somper

Summary:

The Tempest twins, Connor and Grace, have lost everything. After their father's death, all his debts were called in and cost the twins their home. Their only options are to move into the orphanage whose headmistress already has plans to work them, or be adopted by a couple more interested in pets than kids. They take the third option and steal their father's boat and run away. Unfortunately a storm separates the twins. Connor gets picked up by a pirate ship and Grace gets picked up by the Vampirate ship of legend. The book follows their attempts at to stay alive long enough to reunite. 

Review:

Yes, this is a middle-grade book. Yes, I picked it up because the title made my inner child go "woah!" No, I have no regrets.

This book was an easy and enjoyable read. The main characters are generally smart, if a bit too curious sometimes. I greatly appreciated that Connor was as empathetic as he was towards Cheng Li and her situation. Captain Wrathe was a lot of fun and really embodied a lot of what people consider a pirate to be while also being a good captain to his crew.

I also really appreciated the sword/weapons based exposition Connor received from his lessons with Cutlass Cate. The talk about the different weapons and their respective fighting styles was a delight to read. So many people think broadswords are easy to handle and effective at killing, but they're a lot better for show and can be unwieldy. The precision weapons are the ones that are effective in slaying an enemy.

This world was a little difficult to get into. So much of the book makes it sound like a historical fiction but, in fact, the book takes place about 500 years in the future. While this fact is presented up front, it was still sometimes jarring to read about Grace having a diver's watch that could survive 500 feet under water. If I really wanted to get into this world, perhaps the graphic novels would help me with these things.

In all, if I were younger I know I'd be devouring this series. As it is, I still found this to be a fun read, but probably won't be picking up any more books in the series. I do recommend this book if you have younger readers or enjoy middle-grade books in general. 3.5 hoots!

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Mogworld | Yahtzee Croshaw

Summary:

The first time Jim died, he was a magic student at a low quality school that got invaded by the barbarian school next door. He went to a place where he felt happy and content. Then he and a horde of others get brought back to life as zombies by a Lord Dreadgrave who employs them to protect his tower from adventurers. While Jim finds the work easy enough, he still keeps attempting to find ways to die again, even converting to almost every religion he can find out about and then killing himself. This routine gets thrown out, however, when Deleters come in and completely delete Dreadgrave, his tower, and all but three zombies from his horde. Jim, Meryl and the priest zombie must now figure out why the world is so messed up: Adventurers are getting hit with the Syndrome, normal people are unable to die, and Barry is following the word of Si-Mon and destroying everything.


Review:

I picked this book up because I enjoy Yahtzee's YouTube channel with my husband. I will say that it was very easy to read the entire book in Yahtzee's voice and greatly added to my enjoyment. I'm sorely tempted to buy the audio book, especially after hearing the sample, and I don't like audio books! It also really helped me to prepare for Yathzee's sense of humor. There were so many things in this book that made laugh. I've highlighted more passages from this book than any other in the past year.

"This was the second time I'd been asked to justify being afraid of gnolls, and I still couldn't fathom why. It was like being asked to explain why old people should wear clothing."

This book is high fantasy. You've got sorcerers, undead, clerics, adventurers, etc. At the same time, it's as much about high fantasy adventure as Sean of the Dead is about zombie movies. It's a delightful combination of strong story and satire. As much as this book made me laugh, it was the characters and the story that kept me from putting the book down. Each of the main protagonists is endearing in their own way. Though I will admit I may have liked Slippery John more if he didn't keep referring to himself in the third person. That got very annoying very quickly, but it was quite consistent with the character.

At the same time, I appreciated Yahtzee's less obvious jokes. At one point a character gets called out on saying the word "little" a lot: "Did you know you use the world 'little' an awful lot?" Then he proceeds to use words like "small", "tiny", "diminuitive", "miscroscopic" etc. When I picked up on what was going on, I laughed even harder! And there are so many jokes like this, ones where you really need to pay attention. They payoff is totally worth the focus required.

Yes, some of the big reveals were kinda predictable, but the story and the characters are so worth reading. And the ending was so satisfying! It wasn't the ending I thought I wanted until I read it. I happily give 5 hoots and have already added more of Yahtzee's books to my TBR!

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Myth of the Maker | Bruce R. Cordell

*Book provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

After their video game "Ardeyn: Land of the Curse" failed to even be launched, Carter and his team get tapped by a former professor of theirs to test a new computer chip that, theoretically, will have infinite processing power. Unfortunately, they accidentally access an almost infinite network that is fully occupied by creatures that are now looking to eat everything on Earth. In a last ditch effort, Carter creates a new dimension around Earth out of their video game so that the creatures are bound by the rules of Ardeyn. Unfortunately, not all of Carter's friends are okay with being locked in Ardeyn. 

Review:

I had a lot of fun reading this book. There were so many strange and interesting things going on that I kept turning the pages wanting to know more. And there were a couple of twists in the story line that had my toes bouncing because I was giddy with excitement. No surprises were completely out of left field and the story, world and characters are strong throughout the book.

The humor in this book was also greatly appreciated. I found myself really able to relate to Carter and Kate because their reactions felt so natural. A lot of times these would make me laugh as well. There are some very good one-liners in here.

Cordell goes back and forth between the first person perspective for Carter and third person perspective for everyone else. This may be a bit off putting for some readers but I found it incredibly helpful, especially during Carter's revelation scene towards the end. It really made his personal revelations flow a lot more naturally and it fits that he gets the first person perspective; he is the Creator.

This is a wonderful fantasy book that has elements of high fantasy as well as science fiction. You have aliens trying to destroy the world, but first they must get past Ardeyn, a world where magic runs everything. You have so many things going on but they're all so cohesive and well blended that it's easy to keep track. I happily give this book 4 hoots and look forward to more from Cordell.

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Princeless: The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Plot Summary:

Princess Adrienne is taking a detour from rescuing her sisters and helps out "Princess" Raven, aka The Black Arrow, out of her tower and back onto her ship.

Review:

The latest book in the Princeless series, The Pirate Princess does a wonderful job of continuing the sense of fun and adventure. I absolutely love Raven's character and her interactions with Adrienne and Bedelia. All three are kick-butt ladies. The expansion of world this story takes place in is very well written and fits with with the series. I loved reading the history of the Xingtao bloodline. Everything about this book made me smile, especially the representation of the greatness of steak!

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Angeli: The Pirate, the Angel & the Irishman by Amy Vansant

I'll admit, this book kinda caught me by surprise. I'm not a fan of books that center around love stories. Fortunately for Angeli: The Pirate, the Angel & the Irishman there  is enough other stuff going on in the book to keep it interesting. Yes, there's sex. Yes there's a LOT of "he's not good enough for you". But you've also got warriors taking down infected angels who have fed off human energy, you've got knife fights, you've got pirates, you've got chaos, etc. 

This is definitely not a character driven story. I really felt nothing for the characters. Though I did find myself fascinated by the bad guy of the story, he takes up so little of the book.The rest of the characters, I dunno. They just kinda fell flat for me. 

I like the world this is based in. Arch Angels in charge of Guardian Angels who are susceptible to an illness that makes them destroy humans instead of protecting them, Sentinels to destroy the infected. It's definitely an interesting world. But the story line we're given in this world? It could have been better. 

Overall, I'm going to give this one 3 hoots.

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*"I was provided with a free copy of this book so I could give an honest review."

Call of the Herald (Godsland Series Book 1) by Brian Rathbone

So, I've had this book in my Kindle for a while now and finally got around to reading it. And you know what? I'm glad I read it and I'm even happier that Rathbone has already published the sequel. I kid you not, I got to the end of Call of the Herald and I was complaining about the book ending too soon.

At the very least, Rathbone has used this first book wisely in creating the world of Godsland, establishing its rules, history, and boundaries. The best part is, he is able to do this without the book being boring. Rathbone has an effective balance between action and exposition that I greatly appreciate. There may be a few slower parts, but they are filled with good information. I'm fairly certain that my own wilderness survival skills have improved through simply knowing what the characters learn.

There is so much going on in the world of Godsland and there is so much history there that has yet to be explored. Catrin's wandering through the caverns revealed an ancient world that leaves me hungry for more. Are there more things that she can use to focus her power as she does the amulet she found there? What is the story behind her mother's sword? I'm hungry for answers and want to explore this world more.

Probably the only thing I had problems with was how easily Catrin was able to manage the social intricacies of dealing with the Arghast. I don't recall if she had received that kind of education, if so she owes Elding an apology. If not, how was it so easy? It could be that it was all about confidence, which, throughout the book, she develops more and more of, but I'm not completely convinced.

Other than this small part of the book, though, I have to say this was a enjoyable read and I have the next one queued up. I give Call of the Herald 4.5 hoots out of 5!

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Tales of the Hidden World by Simon R. Green

I have to say, I have never read any of Green's books but if they are as interesting and diverse in topic as this collection of his short stories, I will have to start going through his archive. This collection covered so many fantasy/sci-fi sub-genres that you are almost guaranteed to find at least one story in here that you will enjoy.

There are stories in here about using science to fight magic, self-sacrifice, pirates, death, witches, demons, Satan, zombies, souls, war, cannibalism, and more. It makes it difficult to write a sufficient review of the book as a whole. I will say, however, that when you are able to enjoy reading so many different types of stories, it speaks very well of the author's abilities. Regardless of whether or not you have read Green's previous books, I do recommend this one as well. This is a great way to introduce yourself to Green's style of writing. His shorts at the end of each story also help to give you a sense of how the story came about.

Of course, there is a lot of blood and fighting in this book, but it's nothing too much and fits the needs of the stories. Many of the stories can be on the scary side, but it is no more difficult to handle than Lovecraft.

Overall, I am very happy to have this book in my collection and I give it 4 hoots.

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