Fidelity

Lia Black
VineDark/BlackHouse Press
Reviewed by Nancy
3 out of 5 stars

Summary

How far would a man go in the name of faith?

Fydelis was once worshiped as the Angel of Fidelity, but his love for Gareth, a mortal knight, caused him to fall from the heavens. He has now become the demonic aspect of Regret, and the unwilling plaything of the Sunderer, the darkest of all dark gods. His only hope is for death, but first, he must find someone to take his place as the Sunderer’s favorite toy.

Father Gareth De'Aubyn is a man tormented by his past and ready to sell his future to save the souls of his flock. Questioning the wisdom of war, he’s traded his Crusader’s armor for a cassock, and now ministers to the very people his army sent fleeing for their lives. When his church is attacked by unknown assassins, Gareth is mortally wounded, and with his dying breath, he calls out to the Creator for help.

But his god does not answer.

Instead, the demon, Fydelis, heeds his call, cajoling him to promise his soul to the god of the underworld for a chance to tap into the powers of dark magic, and set everything right.

A stranger to Gareth, the man who once swore to him his honor and his love, Fydelis is forced to make the dying priest an offer he can’t refuse: in return for sparing the lives of those under his care, Gareth must collect several very stubborn souls.

Together, they’ll begin a journey that will test everything they thought they knew about faith, love, and fidelity.

My Review

Father Gareth De’Aubyn, former Crusader, is wracked with guilt for his part in the destruction of innocent lives. Now a priest, he has an opportunity to repair some of the damage he caused and atone for his sins. When Gareth is gravely wounded during an attack on his church, his pleas to his god are answered by the demon, Fydelis.

In return for Fydelis’ help in saving his life, protecting his followers, and seeking vengeance against his attackers, Gareth must sacrifice his soul to the Sunderer god, Malaketh, a nasty piece of work and Fydelis’ master. Fydelis isn’t just any ordinary demon, though. He was once Gareth’s guardian angel, and just because he now possesses cloven hooves and a forked tail doesn’t mean he stopped having feelings for Gareth.

I’m watching Supernatural now (yeah, I know I’m late to the party) and was keen to read a story about a regretful priest and the reluctant demon that turns his life upside down.

The story went down as smoothly as a mug of cheap lager, pleasant tasting and drinkable.

What I liked:

- The slow-burning romance between Gareth and Fydelis, two broken men who must overcome the difficult hurdles of loneliness, regret, and grief.
- The humorous banter between Gareth and Fydelis that offset the violence and despair.
- Gareth’s unshakable faith and kind heart.
- Gripping and well-paced story.

What didn’t work so well:

- One-dimensional villains. I would have liked some insight into the minds and motivations of Malaketh and General Karathis.
- Fydelis’ telepathic ability was interesting, but not fully explored or utilized. Similarly, his ability to enter Gareth and direct his actions.
- Interesting minor characters, like Yeol Havram and Paetrik, deserved far more page time.
- The graphic physical and sexual torture of Fydelis by Malaketh felt distracting more than disturbing. Because Malaketh lacked any depth and Fydelis did not appear to be permanently affected, these scenes failed to have any impact on me.
- Errors, plot holes, and incoherency in places made this a sometimes frustrating read.


For example:

Does Fydelis have a soul?

“He felt himself shatter; his heart, mind, soul, and spirit breaking into a million pieces. He collapsed on top of Gareth, kissing his throat as tears ran from his eyes and he sobbed like a child.”

Or doesn’t he?

“They ignored both Gareth and Fydelis, for neither of them had a soul for the taking, but something else seemed to draw their notice.”

By the time I finished reading, I was fast forgetting details in the story. It felt just like getting to the bottom of that mug of cheap lager and yearning for a richer, more full-bodied beer.

A Painted Goddess

A Painted Goddess by Victor Gischler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rina Veraiin's friends are scattered searching for more ink magic tattoos to protect Helva. The threats Helva is facing are more dire than initially believed and ink magic may be Helva's only chance at survival.

A Painted Goddess was a strong story. The entire A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy caught me by surprise. The story picks up directly after the cliffhangers in The Tattooed Duchess. The author Victor Gischler spent a lot of time setting the enormity of the events the protagonists faced. I had come to care about a lot of the characters and it was hard reading at times because not everyone survives their ordeals.

I'm still loving the idea of ink magic bestowed through tattoos. It presents one of my favorite story aspects of incredible powers in a way I've never witnessed before. Unlike The Tattooed Duchess, new tattoos emerge of incredible power. I'm floored by the creativity needed to envision such powers and how they'd be utilized.

My complaints, which in truth are minor, are that the booked wrapped up too quickly and chose not to explain what everything meant at the end. Perhaps it was simply left open for the potential of sequels and that's easier to swallow if that's the case. I hope there wasn't any other reason to leave the reader guessing.

A Painted Goddess and it's predecessors were truly a pleasant surprise. I hope the author Victor Gischler chooses to revisit the world in the form of prequels or sequels because I really enjoyed the A Fire Beneath the Skin series.

5 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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In the Field Marshall's Shadow

In the Field Marshal's Shadow: Stories from the Powder Mage Universe by Brian McClellan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the Field Marshall's Shadow is a collection of short stories from the Powder Mage Universe.

The stories are from varying times in the past and have different protagonists in each one. The Girl of Hrusch Avenue and Return to Honor revolve around Vlora, The Face in the Window is Taniel's story, Hope's End is told from Captain Verundish's perspective, and Green-Eyed Vipers is from Lady Petara's point of view. I have already read and reviewed Hope's End, The Girl of Hrusch Avenue, The Face in the Window, and Return to Honor so this review will revolve around Green-Eyed Vipers.

Green-Eyed Vipers tells a predator's tale, but not in the way you'd imagine. Lady Petara is on the hunt with one prey in mind and that's Field Marshall Tamas. This takes place after Erika's death so it's easy to imagine that it's good for Tamas to get some intense interest from an aggressive woman, I certainly had that thought. Unfortunately Petara attraction goes well beyond what any sane person would deem appropriate. The hunt is on and what is done is done.

I liked Green-Eyed Vipers and it was good seeing Tamas again in a new story. The story left a small smile on my face when I finished it.

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The Man Who Was Thursday: Centennial Edition by G.K. Chesterton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”A man’s brain is a bomb,” he cried out, loosening suddenly his strange passion and striking his own skull with violence. “My brain feels like a bomb, night and day. It must expand! It must expand! A man’s brain must expand, if it breaks up the universe.”



Gabriel Syme attends a dinner party of his friend, the poet Lucian Gregory. He is there under a pretense of friendship, but his true intention is to find out if his friend can be his entry into joining a group of anarchists. You see, Gabriel Syme ”was not merely a detective who pretended to be a poet; he was really a poet who had become a detective.” There might be some assumptions that the best way to infiltrate an anarchy group is by hanging out in dive bars, brothels, and dens of inequity (my favorite) where the disgruntled, unwashed masses would gather, but Syme is much more suited to mingling with the intellectual set. These men of high ideals might see anarchy in a romantic light and prove to be as dangerous in their naivete as the man, scarred by life, looking to get even with a government for ill treatment or with a society who chose to ignore him.

”The ordinary detective goes to pot-houses to arrest thieves; we go to artistic tea-parties to detect pessimists.The ordinary detective discovers from a ledger or a diary that a crime has been committed. We discover from a book of sonnets that a crime will be committed. We have to trace the origin of those dreadful thoughts that drive men on at last to intellectual fanaticism and intellectual crime.”

Syme, purposely, pushes his friend. Traps him really, into feeling a need to prove to Syme that he is a true anarchist and not just a man of radical thought incapable of deed. Syme tries to reassure Gregory’s pretty sister that all will be fine. She feels her brother may have said too much. ”Now, sometimes a man like your brother really finds a thing he does mean. It may be only a half-truth, quarter-truth, tenth-truth; but then he says more than he means---from sheer force of meaning it.”

I’d like to know how many times I’ve said something that sounds clever, but logically is full of holes. Someone pops off with some dismissive comment, and the next thing I know, I’m scrambling to defend a thought that was barely a concept to begin with. I’m bailing water out of the boat and trying to patch the bottom at the same time, but I’m too stubborn to just let it go because I know the seed of the idea was something worth defending. So we do wonder if Gregory has any real idea of what true anarchy is or is he just a bored poet who finds the whole idea of belonging to a bomb throwing organization... exciting.

In other words, is he a true believer or an annoying, bombastic, romantic moron?

For the purposes of our hero Syme, it may not matter. The young man turns out to have a legitimate connection to a group of anarchists who each go by a name of the week. Gregory is intent on becoming Thursday, but Syme convinces the group to add him to their network instead of his friend. He deftly gets what he wants and at the same time puts his friend out of harm's way.

Syme is a ”rebel against rebellion” which is really, if truth be known, what I am as well. I don’t want the general social order to be disrupted. Usually the people who die when a bomb is exploded are just normal, hardworking people who are picking up food for dinner, or dancing with some friends, or going to work. Their deaths are meaningless, except for the fact that their death provides a number that will have terrorists giving each other high fives and politicians wringing their hands. So I’m against anarchy because all it does is destabilize society in an attempt to replace a government with a new government that would quickly resemble the old government.

Besides bombs, gunfire, rape, murder, and all that screaming tends to disrupt my reading time.

G. K. Chesterton was a serious man passionately interested in the occult, theology, and philosophy. Usually when I see those three branches of study all attached to the same individual, I think to myself that this was a person questing to understand the mysteries of life. The interesting thing about this book is you can read it on a multitude of levels and still enjoy the book. You can see it as a metaphysical thriller or as sarcastic political intrigue or as commentary on a society searching for god in all the wrong places.

The power in the anarchist group rests with the man Sunday, who intimidates the rest of the members. He is a large man or does he just seem to expand when he needs to make a point. His eyes are blue, blue as the sky. His hair is snow white, like the peaks of the highest mountains. As the plot turns fantastical, he takes on a supernatural aspect that leaves this reader wondering if he was the god, or a god, or just a man touched by god.

Of course, it all becomes comical as one after the other, the members of this anarchist society, turn out to be someone other than what they pretended to be.

I mentioned philosophy; how about this for something to ponder?

“‘Listen to me,’ cried Syme with extraordinary emphasis.’Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front -.’”

There is also intrigue. Syme is finally relaxing in the belief that he has lost a man who has been tailing him all over the city.

”When he had been seated for about half a minute, he heard behind him a sort of heavy asthmatic breathing.

Turning sharply, he saw rising gradually higher and higher up the omnibus steps a top hat soiled and dripping with snow, and under the shadow of its brim the short-sighted face and shaking shoulders of Professor de Worms.”


Chesterton was a large man standing 6’4” and weighing 286 pounds.

There is no doubt in my mind that G. K. Chesterton was brilliant, quite possibly a renaissance man in his desire to understand everything. His prose is at times exquisitely glistening with honey dipped poetry. The book can be confusing with twists and turns made more difficult with an overlay of nightmarish fantasy. I wish I’d been able to read it in one sitting so I could keep the reins of the many divergent thoughts firmly held in my hands like a team of prancing Lipizzan horses.

This is a fascinating book that deserves to be read more than once, and without a doubt I’d be closer to understanding exactly what Chesterton was intending the more times I read it. My copy of the book will be slid back on the shelf very gently in case there are any bold ideas or a stray piece of dynamite that could roll out on the floor at my feet. Both are equally dangerous, and I’m simply not as fast on my feet as I used to be.

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Outriders By: Jay Posey

Outriders by Jay Posey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ok, Mr. Posey...

I liked the Duskwalker series alot, but now..damnit...now you got me. You reached into the depths of my cobweb and comic book addled brain, took my love for scifi and military action and put it on paper.


Great action, cool characters, great setting and to quote the Joker, wonderful toys to play with! I offically add you to the increasingly large list of authors I buy on sight. (and I got a ARC from the lovely overlords at Angry Robot, and yes I did order it after)

buy this book, buy it now. 23 stars out of 5.

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The Silent Army By: James A. Moore

The Silent Army by James A. Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this series, I will not lie about it. It has ALL the things that make a great fantasy read. Mr. Moore steadily ups his game with each new installment.

I call this "dark" fantasy, it does have epic leanings, great characters, great action and an awesome world, that pretty much wins me everytime. I won't gush much more, but if you like the fantasies and you like sword swinging and heads flying through the air like so much dust in the wind, give James A. Moore all your money! (and sacrifice goats or whatever, make him write more and faster)

22 stars out of 5, and a goat.

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Trident's Forge (Children of a Dead Earth 2) By: Patrick Tomlinson

Trident's Forge by Patrick S. Tomlinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have so far really enjoyed the Children of a Dead Earth series. It did not realllly suffer from the middle book slump most trilogies have, Mr. Tomlinson nailed in the first book the setting of a mystery on a ship, even though it was a spaceship. However, although I felt the characters on the new world were interesting, I don't feel the actual world was fleshed out enough, and YOU GOT BUILD the world for me!!!

All that nonsense aside, it was a good read, and the series is fun. Grab both books and throw them in your whatever you carry stuff in for the beach, because you KNOW you aren't gonna do anything but drink under an umbrella and read anyway



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Sharpe's Devil Finishes Sharpe

Sharpe's Devil by Bernard Cornwell
Reviewed by Jason Koivu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A surprisingly sharp-written later novel in the long-running Sharpe series!

Stop, stop...I need to apologize for that horrible previous line.

I'm sorry.

Okay, continue:

I didn't expect much from Sharpe's Devil, because the war is over. The very basis for these novels' existence is gone. Napoleon has been defeated and it's time for old soldiers to go home.

That's just where former British Army officer Richard Sharpe is when duty calls yet again. The wife of an estranged friend desperately wants to know what's become of her husband and Sharpe agrees to be her errand boy. And of course his sidekick Patrick Harper comes along too, because why the fuck not.

Okay, so the premise isn't rock solid, but Cornwell's writing is sharp (damn it!), the plot is engaging, the history accurate and the action is on point (just be happy I didn't say "on fleek"). Following history, we're off to Chile, where post-Napoleonic War Spanish and British warmongers are tearing up the country amongst the poor natives.

Many a bored ex-serviceman of the European theater took his talents to South America in the early-ish 19th century in search of gold, power and adventure. Lord Thomas Cochrane, the famous/infamous British naval captain writers like Forester and O'Brian based the heroes of their stories upon, played a big roll in the Chilean rebellion of this era. Cornwell teams Sharpe up with Cochrane and even develops a nice scene with his fictional hero and Napoleon himself. Pretty daring of him to attempt a version of such a famous historical figure! Not only that, but to take Cochrane, use him and then reveal a damning bit of his personal history takes balls!

Perhaps most impressive of all is Cornwell's ability to crank out yet another exciting adventure from a series that by all rights should've been put to rest books ago!

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The Hellsblood Bride

The Hellsblood Bride by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nora Pearl is stuck in Hell and the only way out is to marry a demon. Her father, Mookie, has other ideas...

The second Mookie Pearl book is just as bad ass as the first. When the book starts, Mookie has one foot in the grave and a daughter that's all the way there. From there, things just get worse.

The book shifts viewpoints between Mookie and Nora and both threads are full of awesomeness. Mookie is like a human battering ram and Nora is much more subtle, making their viewpoints very distinct. The powers tugging the strings behind the scenes give the book a touch more conflict and unpredictability.

Chuck Wendig's writing is even crisper than ever, full of unique similes perfect for the novel's noir flavor. Just as in The Blue Blazes, I really enjoyed the inventiveness of the setting and creatures Wendig has crafted, largely free of the usual urban fantasy staples.

The Hellsblood Bride has more twists than one of the god-worms of the Deep Downstairs. I lost count of the number of times I found myself grinning in amazement. The ending was the biggest surprise of them all. I'm definitely on board for the third book in the series, whenever that drops.

If you want urban fantasy that doesn't feature the tired tropes, the Mookie Pearl series might be up your alley.


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Way Station

Clifford D. Simak
Gollancz
Reviewed by Nancy
5 out of 5 stars

Summary

Enoch Wallace is not like other humans. Living a secluded life in the backwoods of Wisconsin, he carries a nineteenth-century rifle and never seems to age—a fact that has recently caught the attention of prying government eyes. The truth is, Enoch is the last surviving veteran of the American Civil War and, for close to a century, he has operated a secret way station for aliens passing through on journeys to other stars. But the gifts of knowledge and immortality that his intergalactic guests have bestowed upon him are proving to be a nightmarish burden, for they have opened Enoch’s eyes to humanity’s impending destruction. Still, one final hope remains for the human race . . . though the cure could ultimately prove more terrible than the disease.

My Review

This spare little story is set in a small Wisconsin town. Despite the pastoral setting and the narrow-minded, clannish inhabitants of the town, Enoch Wallace, keeper of an intergalactic transport system known as the Way Station, is a very likeable and open character.

This wonderful, thought-provoking book is a fast and easy read. There is no action, no alien battles in the stars, no government agents surrounding the Way Station and bundling Enoch off in an unmarked van. Way Station is a very quiet book that explores war and violence, racial tolerance, friendship and loneliness and what the definition of home is.

One of my all-time favorites!

"For years I've tried to understand and to conform to the ethics and ideas of all the people who have come through this station. I've pushed my own human instincts and training to one side. I've tried to understand other viewpoints and to evaluate other ways of thinking, many of which did violence to my own. I am glad of all of it, for it has given me a chance to go beyond the narrowness of Earth."