Magic

All posts tagged Magic

THE BIG REAP – Chris F. Holm

Posted by Daniel on February 17, 2014
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, MAGIC, MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Part action/adventure, part dark fantasy/horror, part thriller, with a touch of history and literary allusions and mythology makes for one spine-tingling, leaves-you-breathless book!

Sam Thornton collects souls as an agent for a dark force.  In this book, he is sent to collect the souls of ‘The Brethren’ –  former collectors themselves.  He can hop bodies and inhabit a living soul, or recently dead one.   Or, if the body he is in is destroyed, he will re-establish himself.  He’s the perfect collector.

Author Chris F. Holm has given us a heroic character, completely, humanly flawed, despite the fact that he is no longer human, and makes him incredibly like-able!  From the comic-superhero-patter dialog, to the shrug-your-shoulders-and-do-your-job attitude, we can’t help but like and root for Sam Thornton.  He’s a bad-ass reaper without the bad-ass attitude (most of the time).

it’s hard to say what I liked most about this book without giving too much away.  I liked the location near the end, with his finally realizing … how do you find someone who doesn’t want to be found…do the opposite of what everything points to and ultimately you’ll get to where you want (and the others don’t want) you to be.  And the characters there — one expected, when you know the location and the others a surprise — are also well sullied.  We can feel their exhaustion yet their instinct and fight to remain ‘alive.’

Although a book three in a series, I never felt as though I were missing a big piece of the picture.  I picked this up and started reading and was immediately immersed in the story.  Anything I needed to know about what happened previously, I was enlightened in the natural flow of the story.  This easily stands alone as its own novel, though I can’t wait to go find the first two books, and I’ll quickly pick up any new books that might come out.

A little bit of back story is interspersed throughout — Sam’s first ‘reap’ is told (it’s quite the job!) as a side (parallel) story, and there’s just enough of a hint of a romance that we can wish for something more to happen, even though it seems forever unlikely.

And if you’ve read many of my reviews, you know that I like a high-stakes game.  I want obstacles that challenge our protagonist, and I want the stakes to be high.  Given what Thornton experiences at the end, The Big Reap gives us both.

Looking for a good book?  This is top-notch, high quality adventure/dark fantasy at it’s finest.

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The Big Reap

author: Chris F. Holm

series: The Collector #3

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857663429

paperback, 378 pages

THE OLD MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS – Linda Raedisch

Posted by Daniel on February 10, 2014
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

With a sub-title such as this, “Yuetide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year” we know that this is not going to be a rousing, cheerful, typical Christmas book.  And if you’re not completely sure what this is about, reading the introduction lets you know what sort of voyage this book will encompass.  Take for instance:

“Few of the spirits you encounter will make your blood run cold, for the aim of this book is to capture the mystery of Christmas, not to evoke full-blown horror.  Still … you’ll be looking out for the Wild Hunt instead of Santa’s sleigh, and as soon as you turn your calendar page to December, you’ll be on alert for the thump of a broom, the rustle of straw or the brushing of birch twigs against the window pane.”

This all made me a little skeptical to get in to the book, but it was in my queue and I was determined to give it a read.  And I’m glad I did.

While this is in no way going to convert me to paganism, and maybe not even give me a greater appreciation of the pagan background, it did give me a greater appreciation of the history and mythology of the Scandinavian culture (as most of the information provided is historically linked to our Norse neighbors), and for that, I am grateful.

Author Linda Raedisch has clearly done her research, is passionate about the topic, and writes on her subject very well.  I found the information wonderful and easy to absorb.  There was so much content that I was not familiar with (I’ve done a great deal of research on Scandinavian mythology actually) that I took regular notes and devoured her bibliography.

Each chapter included some cooking and crafts related to the information in the chapters.  This was over-kill for me, but clearly I was looking to the book for mythological content and not how to enjoy a non-Christian Christmas (which seems to me the initial intent behind the book).

Over-all, I got much more out of this book than I anticipated, and enjoyed it for that.

Looking for a good book?  This non-Christian look at the history of Christmas is full of wonderful information and mythological history.

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The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year

author: Linda Raedisch

publisher: Llewellyn Publications

ISBN: 0738733342

paperback, 312 pages

THE LORDS OF SALEM

Posted by Daniel on June 15, 2013
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, MAGIC, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

So I have to admit that I am one of those people who is not familiar with the works of Rob Zombie.  I had heard the name, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of his films or listened to his music.  I am, however, a fan of the horror literature genre, so this book looked fascinating to me.

In this book, radio DJ Heidi Hawthorne, in Salem, Massachussetts, is fighting depression while also fighting to stay clean from alcohol and drugs.  She can’t help a nagging feeling that there is a stranger in a nearby apartment.  A rather spooky, stranger at that.  Meanwhile, a CD of music comes to the station from a band named “The Lords.”  The DJs play the CD, mostly as a gag, but soon they get calls from rabid listeners that they MUST keep playing the music.  Elsewhere, upon hearing the music, women lose their minds and savagely rip apart their lovers.  Evil is let loose, and the devil pays a visit.

It’s not a particular original idea…setting a horror story in Salem, MA and connecting it with the infamous witch trials.  But still, Zombie and Evenson manage to do a good job making the connection, but not dwelling on it or beating us over the head with it.

The psychological terror that Heidi Hawthorne goes through is well developed, making the reader constantly look over the shoulder.  But where Zombie and Evenson shine is in the graphic horror of the killing and the pure evil which lets loose about half way through the book.

I enjoyed my time in Salem with this wicked story, but at the end of the day, it’s not so memorable that I’m telling everyone I know it’s a must read.

Looking for a good book?  If you enjoy dark horror, this will make you shivver!

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The Lords of Salem

author: Rob Zombie with B. K. Evenson

publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 1455519170

hardcover, 336 pages

WILLIAM AND THE LOST SPIRIT

Posted by Daniel on April 22, 2013
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this graphic novel.  At times it was strong; at times weak.  Sometimes it was intriguing; other times dull.

My first impression upon finishing was actually, “Hmm…that didn’t seem typically ‘American.'”  It didn’t read like most of the graphic novels that I’ve seen today.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  But I couldn’t place just what it was that made it slightly unusual.  Mythological aspect of the story seemed more ‘old-fashioned’ (and again, I don’t mean that in a bad way).  It read like Edgar Rice Burroughs, or Robert E. Howard, or the Tales of King Arthur or Robin Hood, or … like something someone from France might write?  Ok…so I didn’t immediately pick ‘French’ as the flavor for this book, but it didn’t surprise me to learn that the author and artist are French.

Let’s start with the art … it’s exactly right for a graphic novel.  More than just comic book art, but not full-out paintings for each panel.  The art tells a story … you could probably tell most of the tale without words, based on these visuals … and it’s never embarassing (please… there IS art in comic books and graphic novels that I find embarassingly bad).  The story needs the art to become complete.

And so the story….  A simple journey.  A boy in medieval England (?) decides to leave home to follow his sister, who doesn’t believe their father is actually dead, but trapped between the Earthly realm and another world.  Along the way, the young boy encounters unusual characters and magical beasts.  Unfortunately it too often feels like the boy is about to wake up from a dream, or he faces another unusual fantasy and you can’t help but wonder what the purpose of it is.

I wanted to like this more than I did.  I stopped and started from the very beginning when the journey wasn’t making a lot of sense to me.  it still didn’t make a lot of sense, but I did get to the decision that maybe that was okay.

The story needed the art to be complete.  Without the art, purely as a story, this would have been too fantastical and childish to appeal to most.  With the art, it became almost fun, but at the close of the back cover, I’m still left thinking I didn’t get much out of this, nor did I relish my time here.

Looking for a good book?  If you like your stories full of art, this might work for you.

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William and the Lost Spirit

author: Gwen De Bonneval

artist: Matthieu Bonhomme

publisher: Graphic Universe

ISBN: 1467708070

paperback, 152 pages

THE NIGHT CIRCUS

Posted by Daniel on February 13, 2013
Posted in: MAGIC, ROMANCE, SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

Mood. That’s what this book does well — it creates a mood that is enticing, exciting, and entrancing.

As readers, we want to keep reading, not so much to find out what the characters are doing, but because we are ‘rêveurs,’ circus groupies who enjoy spending our nights exploring the tents.

For this, novice novelist Erin Morgenstern is somewhat brilliant. The atmosphere here is unlike anything I’ve read. Darker and more mysterious than Harry Potter. Sexier than The Magician.

But we have to be thankful for this mood, because without it, the book is empty.

There is a very nice twist to the story (no spoilers here), but of course it involves the circus directly.

The basic plot involves a pair of magic-touched lovers who are pitted against one another by their guardians, ancient magicians who play some cruel game against one another using real people.

The set-up is fun, but the game gets boring and the characters, at best, two dimensional. Still…there is the circus, and anytime Morgenstern brings us back with all that is magical, we’re sucked in and settling down among the sawdust, waiting for daylight.

In case you can’t tell, I liked the circus. I liked the characters that inhabited the circus. I even liked Celia and Marco, our love interest — at least I liked them when they were macigians, planning and practicing for their competition. I liked them much less when they were Romeo and Juliet clones, defying their destinies and families to come together.

The mood was the great. The atmoshpere. But when all is read and done, I’m not left with anything remarkable. I’m not hanging on to the story, and I’m not wishing or waiting for the inevitable sequel. It was a fun read at the time because I enjoyed the magic of the book.

Looking for a good book?  This one just might work for you.

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author: Erin Morgenstern

publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: 0385534639

hardcover, 387 pages