I am Phyllis Wheeler, Editor
The kingdom of Er’Rets is pretty hard on its orphans. It calls them “strays” and beats them up. So Achan grows up a stray in the household of a minor nobleman, picked on and beaten regularly…
All you Christian fantasy and sci fi lovers out there, it’s time to nominate a book for the annual Clive Staples award. Clive Staples being, of course, what C.S. stands for in C.S. Lewis. The award, administered by several major players in Christian fantasy-sci fi, is nearly new–the first award went last year to Dragonlight by Donita K. Paul.
I had a bit of trouble getting into this book and identifying with Auralia, who seems somehow otherworldly. But once I got into the book, I had trouble putting it down. The characters are well drawn, the plot has wonderful twists and turns, and many subplots with a variety of characters weave together to create a cohesive whole.
This book is really about the complexities of the human heart, and how it is capable of changing for the better. It has a nice solid moral groundwork, memorable characters, and a literary flair. For lovers of action, this is a great book.
On the home page, one of the trilogy’s characters, Cap Hillis, speaks to the reader as if the reader is a tourist and provides a list of entities to beware of, including pirates and firefish. This is pretty cool. It gives you a good idea of the general lawlessness of the place, and also the idea that in this world, nightmarish monsters can be real. In addition, it gives you a taste of the colorful characters that fill Polivka’s books.
With the story of heroics in response to piracy in the news, it’s interesting that our next Blog Tour review will be a fantasy book about pirates. This is Blaggard’s Moon by George Bryan Polivka, and I’ll tell you all about it starting Monday.
Because the protagonist is a typical 17-year-old girl who is eventually enabled to do brave things, I expect girls will like this book. There is also a minor love-interest, which may widen the appeal. The book also has plenty of action. Sherry Thompson is working on a sequel, Earthbow. I’ll be looking forward to reading it.–Phyllis Wheeler
The Book of Names has a nice transition from our world to the Hidden Lands. First the characters are introduced in our familiar world, and then they move to the Hidden Lands where everything is of course unfamiliar to the reader, except for the two characters of Hadyn and Ewan. This is a nice way to draw the reader into the story, instead of dumping the reader into an unfamiliar world where it takes some work for the reader to get oriented.