Blood and Iron was a fun sword and sorcery romp, built upon the foundations of a complex, magic-filled fantasy world. While some of the character development disappointed, the novel itself never failed to entertain, flashing glimmers of potential greatness. And in Storm and Steel, Jon Sprunk goes a long way in fulfilling that promise.

Two story lines develop in tandem throughout this novel. One is the continuing journey of the former slave Horace, who ascended to the halls of power in Blood and Iron through the revelation of a magical talent he never suspected he had. Now, his life is one of constant doubt, fueled by his own inner feelings of inadequacies: lack of control over his magic, lack of friends in a hostile court environment, lack of experience handling political situations and lack of understanding regarding his attraction for two very different women (Queen Byleth of Erugash and the western slave Alyra). The second is the tale of Horace’s friend Jirom. This black, homosexual ex-mercenary finds himself neck deep in a slave uprising against Queen Byleth; his every instinct warning him to escape this madness, but his heart demanding that he remain beside Emanon, the man with whom he shares a strong romantic bond, even if it puts him at odds with Horace himself.

For those that loved the immersion of Horace into Akeshian politics and its constant machination, this installment of The Book of the Black Earth will take a bit of getting use to. Here Jon Sprunk spends a great deal of time focusing on Jirom and the slave rebellion, developing the characters, showing their diverse motives, and laying out the growing conflict. A conflict that slowly draws in Horace and takes him away from the royal court, as Queen Byleth orders him to destroy this threat to her reign or find himself without her continued support. But even with that being the case, never fear, because there is still lots of shadowy subversions going on within the Queen’s court and outside of it. Inside, there is a rash of mysterious murders. Without, the Sun Cult priests (Those who escaped Horace’s wrath in book one and fled to neighboring city-state of Akeshia) have gathered allies, planning an invasion of Erugash to cast down Byleth and her puppet wizard. And lingering over everything is a growing sense that there is a diabolical presence pulling the strings of everyone, waiting patiently for the perfect time to reveal itself!

On the whole, this second installment of the series is a better book than its predecessor; Jon Sprunk evolving the characters, the world around them, and introducing a deeper, darker plot that has been simmering right below the surface unnoticed. Now, there really aren’t any black and white characters in the series, only gray. The “heroes” beginning to show moments of true humanity, where they doubt themselves, are callow, selfish even, or ruthlessness, while the “villains” have times of introspection, explaining the reason for their seemingly evil actions and unveiling the desires and plans which drive them forward, even when they wonder if these choices might be wrong. Meanwhile, the world around these people becomes much more diverse, as Akeshia herself is explored, and different members of this fascinating Babylonian/Egyptian-inspired society reveal themselves. And that “deeper, darker plot” is partially unveiled at the end of this novel, promising even higher stakes for Horace and Jirom going forward.

All in all, if you enjoyed Blood and Iron, you definitely need to put this novel on your reading list. Storm and Steel is a great chance to experience a good, old-fashioned, sword and sorcery tour de force; one that perfectly mixes a sweeping fantasy world with non-stop action. And just when you begin to believe that is all it is (As if that weren’t enough!), Jon Sprunk pulls the rug out from under you at the end, unveiling another twist in the tale that leaves you wanting more. For with Storm and Steel, the author has delivered the next stage in the evolution of The Book of the Black Earth, tantalizing readers with the prospects of what is to come.

I received this book from Pyr in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Where Ice Forged (Book One of The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga) was an interesting fantasy twist on post-apocalyptic fiction, Reign of Ash is an entertaining but forgettable story that spends far too much time focused on familiar fantasy tropes and vampires.

What does one do when a whole civilization built upon magic sees magic vanish completely from the world? It is a very novel question that Gail Z. Martin set into motion in book one and which I assumed would be the focus of this second novel in the series. So as Reign began, I envisioned gritty stories of those left behind’s struggle to survive as well as the spotlight being focused on the main character of the novel, Blaine McFadden, desperately trying to discover a way to return magic to the world. Unfortunately, Reign of Ash was not the novel I expected it to be.

Oh, Gail Z. Martin does focus much of the story on Blaine McFadden, but here he spends as much time trying to deal with his growing attraction for his female friend from Edgeland as he does dealing with the horrors of civilization crumbling. Sure, there are chapters that detail food shortages or pay lip service to the lawless state of the world, but it never seems that the harshness of life ever really touches Blaine or his companions. At every turn they find a former friend to help them or an ancient scholar leaving them clues or – God forbid – another cell of vampires wanting to serve and protect his important ass. So very quickly, it becomes fairly unbelievable that Blaine is living and traveling in a war torn and devastated land.

And as for our hero’s quest to restore magic back to the world, it soon turns into a connect the dots journey. One where all he and his friends have to do is go to Point A and find a marked book that then leads them to Point B where their benefactor has left instructions to Point C where they will find the sacred items needed to lead them to the hidden, magic city. Because there is a hidden, magic city. A place filled with mages, scholars, and an order of knights who are merely waiting for McFadden, or someone else of royal lineage, to connect the dots on their clues and arrive so they can begin the ceremony to reignite the flame of ordered magic in the world. Wham, bam, it’s over, man!

Well, actually it is not over; my review that is. I forgot to mention another problem with this novel: vampires. Let me just go ahead and admit it: I am not a vampire aficionado. Perhaps I have Twilight hangover or whatever, but they have lost their luster for me. Not that I hate them or dislike that other people adore them, because I don’t on either point. It is just that a little vampire goes a long way for me, especially in my fantasy stories, so when it became apparent in Reign that the vampires were going to play all the main roles in the story from all-knowing benefactors to Blaine’s primary protectors/guides to the villain trying to kill him I went into a diabetic-like coma from TOO MUCH VAMPIRE. My vampire level was way over the too much mark. Hell, it was almost to the death by vampire mark, and I had to quickly inject myself with some zombie gore from The Walking Dead to get my phantasmagoria level back in line. Once again, nothing inherently wrong with all the vampire love in Reign of Ash, but it wasn’t for me.

With all that critique aside, I want to be fair and say that – for all its missteps, in my opinion – I still enjoyed the novel. There were many fine moments throughout where the interaction between the characters was well-written, sincere, and heart felt. Especially entertaining were the times when Blaine and his friends journeyed out alone to discover this or that clue and surveyed the wreck of the world or stumbled into adventures that showed me firsthand the state of the world.

So, as you ponder whether to try Reign of Ash, just be aware that this is a novel about vampires, connect the dot quests, a very fortunate hero, and a post-cataclysmic world that seems pretty tame in comparison to other writer’s vision of the end of civilization. It is still an enjoyable read, but it does not stray far from the familiar, fantasy formula that longtime readers of the genre are accustom to.

I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank both of them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

I’m one of those readers who actually likes being thrown straight into the action. Immerse me in a deluge of strange names, exotic places, magical races, or warring kingdoms, I love it. Nothing entertains me more than trying to decipher the strangeness of a new world. So when I stumbled upon The Leopard, this novel seemed to be right up my alley.

You see, K.V. Johansen does indeed drop a reader into a massive world in this novel. There are many different things going on beneath the surface of the story. Gods and demons are stirring in the world. Kingdoms are going to war with one another. And along one lonely highway, a wayward daughter of kings is on a divine mission to find a legendary assassin named The Leopard.

In fact, the story really begins when Deyandara actually finds Ahjvar (aka The Leopard) and his manservant Ghu. Naturally, he has to be persuaded to become involved in the task that Deyandara has come calling for, but it is not as simple as The Leopard is retired or needs a certain amount of gold or anything so trite. Rather he does not wish to return to a land where something horrible happened to him and changed him forever!

The why, how or when of The Leopard’s change are what made his story so compelling. So when Ahjvar and Ghu finally head off toward this city and the goddess that needs The Leopard’s services, it suggested big excitement and revelations ahead.

But things developed a little slow. Not glacier-like but still really slow. That was fine with me, because it is hard to get an epic fantasy off the runway, so to speak. And frankly, I will willing to wait, because Ahjvar had began to have all the tell-tale signs of being a formidable anti-hero, Ghu the loyal and trusted friend, trying to steer his benefactor away from evil, and Deyandara playing the role of young, naive girl soon to grow up into an assertive and dangerous queen to be reckoned with. At least, that was my initial take on the story, but then a couple things in the novel derailed my enjoyment of it.

One, the writing style. I have no problem with epic fantasy novels that dump loads of lore down on your heads. As I mentioned, I actually love that sort of stuff. What I do have a problem with is when the massive amounts of information have no importance to the actual story. And here, Johansen transformed the simplest of human endeavors into over analyzed page burners that would cause a single paragraph to run pages in length. Way too much info dumping for even me, especially since this was the norm for most of

the book.

Two, the pacing of the story was very, very slow then - with almost no transition - it hit overdrive in Part Two before slamming on breaks at the end. Just a roller coaster ride and not in a good way.

Three, Johansen choose to tell this story in two parts with each being distinctively separate from the other – including having different stories and characters. I realize some fantasy novels have done this (Tolkien’s The Two Towers comes to mind), but in those novels, there was a distinct and very apparent connection between the two sections. At least in the Tolkien example, the two parts had the same core characters introduced in The Fellowship of the Ring as well as Tolkien providing a perfectly clear reason for the narrative to diverge into two, distinct paths. Here, Johansen did neither of those things, and one minute a reader is following along behind The Leopard and his group before they disappear and a whole new group of faces come on stage with no real introduction. The transition is so jarring that I felt as if I had started reading a different book by accident.

Four, I really felt as if I should have read Johansen’s novel Blackdog before I read this one. It seemed that, over and over again, the second part of the book was mentioning things that I assume were explored in depth in that novel, but which I had absolutely no idea about. If Blackdog was required reading for this novel that would have been fine by me, but I would have been nice to have been placed on notice of that fact.

With those things being said, it is fairly evident that The Leopard and I did not hit it off, if you will. It is not a bad book by any means, just not for me. Still, even I can admit that it has a good foundations to develop into an entertaining series. Johansen has crafted a huge world with immense lore and history, and The Leopard himself was shaping up to be a really nice anti-hero – before he disappeared from the story. So if the next book in the Marakand series can get back to those subjects, I believe it will, without a doubt, be a fantasy must read.

The publisher provided this book to me for free in return for an honest review. The review above was not paid for or influenced in any way by any person, entity or organization, but is my own personal opinions.

If Robert Jordan, Glen Cook, and George R.R. Martin had ever written a fantasy book together, Chasers of the Wind would be it. The book is fun, engaging and action-packed, mixing assassins, massive world building, vile necromancers, and ancient mysteries to create a damn fine fantasy novel. I can’t recommend it enough for lovers of massive worlds and epic fantasy.

As this tale begins, a reader is thrown into a centuries long conflict between the Empire and its neighbor, Nabator, as a simple soldier named Luk is caught up in a sudden attack on the Gates of Six Towers. However, while the attack itself is shocking since peace has reigned for years, what horrifies Luk is that among the Nabatorians soldiers walk the risen dead. Something that means only one thing: the Damned have returned to the Empire!

You see, the Damned are the most feared and reviled people in history. Eight great Walkers (the Empire’s term for magic-users) who used their power to rise the desiccated flesh of the dead to do their bidding, and with this vile magic, they brought fire and death to the whole of the lands until their defeat sent them fleeing into the remote south beyond even Nabator. Ever since, the Damned have been the stuff of legend and myth; their names used to frighten small children into behaving. But no one thought they were real or that they would ever return to their old home, the Empire. So when the impregnable Gates of the Six Towers is breached and the enemy hordes unleashed upon the unsuspecting Empire, Luk’s fear of the Damned is so great that all he can do is flee into the wilderness, desperate to hide himself from the ancient evil.

Not too far away from the gates, the tiny hamlet of Dog Green is utterly ignorant of the goings on in the rest of the world. That isn’t unusual nor bothersome to the simple people who live there. Actually, they like their peace and quiet, which is a good thing since – surrounded by forests and swamps – the few travelers who do pass through the town usually only do just that: pass through without ever stopping. So when four men show up in town looking for a man and a woman named Gray and Layen, it is out of the ordinary and raises a few eyebrows, but no one in Dog Green could ever have guessed why.

For you see, more than six years ago in the far off city of Al’sgara beside the Oyster Sea, two Giijan, or master assassins if you will, did the impossible. These two – called Gray and Layen – assassinated an un-killable Walker (sorcerer). Someone so powerful – both magically and politically – that it rocked the foundations of power. Before these two could be found and punished, however, they were themselves murdered. A fire destroying their home and their bodies.

Some few called the conflagration a clever subterfuge by the two Giijan. A way to conceal their obvious escape from Al’sgara. But no one – not even the practitioners of magic – could ever find any trace of them. So finally, people accepted that Gray and Layen had really been killed.

Now, however, these four men show up in Dog Green, asking about the two infamous Giijan or any couples who only appeared in Dog Green during the last few years, and this eventually leads the strangers to a certain house on the edge of town. A place where the two, dead assassins ae found living a life of marital bliss, eager to not be pulled back into the underworld they left behind. Yet now Gray and Layen might not have a choice, because they discover that a huge sum has been placed upon their head, and they must either go back to Al’sgara and kill those hunting them or attempt to flee yet again.

While Gray and Layen grapple with their discovery and their choices, the vanguard of the Nabatorian army reaches Dog Green. With the invaders covering the town and a necromancer sniffing out any magic users, there seems nothing left for Gray and Layen to do but sit back and wait it out – until one of the Damned enters the township looking for a powerful Walker (Empire’s name for magic users). A Walker that could only be Layen!

From this beginning, Alexey Pehov crafts an epic fantasy that has it all. If you love world building, it is here. Evil villains with centuries old axes to grind? No problem, the Damned fit the bill. Clever assassins? Check. Empires clashing? There is a war going on here, even if it is in the background in this book. Unique, inventive races? Mr. Pehov has them in the story. How about a married couple who actually love and care about one another? Wow, it is here. And we must not forget the mysterious sorcerers of the world: the Walkers, whose society is only teased a bit but promises to be further delved into in the next book. Honestly, Mr. Pehov has included all the necessary elements to make this a page-turning epic in my opinion.

With all that being said, there are a few issues with the novel. Nothing that unduly affected my enjoyment, but rather, things which other people have complained of. Allow me to explain.

Mr. Pehov is Russian, so naturally, this novel was written in Russian and translated into English, which is the language I am reading it in. While I felt that the translator did an excellent job, there are sections of the book which seem a bit wordy or do not read smoothly. So keep that in mind.

The book moves slowly. I would make the analogy of a heavy object rolling down a hill and gradually picking up speed until it is moving at warp speed by the bottom. To me that is how Chasers of the Wind reads. Mr. Pehov meticulously starts off the book setting up the story, introducing people and filling in lore. It reads slow, because there is so much foundation being laid. Once that is done, however, the story pace picks up until by the end of the novel things are moving along rapidly. At least, that was my feelings.

As I mentioned, I really enjoyed Chasers of the Wind and would recommend it to anyone who likes grand, sweeping epic fantasy that has lots of characters and plot lines going on. So if that is you, give this one a try.

I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank both of them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Just posted my interview with James Moore.  Stop by my BLOG and take a look.