A Sword for His Women by A. Jacob Sweeny is an episode in the Pulse Historia series. These are shorter pieces of fiction relating to his trilogy The Pulse Myths.
I picked this up because it recieved excellent reviews. I should know better by now, "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson also recieved excellent reviews and I couldn't get past the first couple chapters. A Sword for His Women involves immortals, war, bloodshed, and a blood drinking Vlad. It should have been good. Better than this anyway...
My biggest concern is that it makes no attempt to engage the reader at all, it covers events in a very removed kind of way. They engaged the enemy, there were boats, it looked bad. Two years later... I was reading a list of events (one that didn't actually tell me what happened most of the time) and not reading a story. It was like being in History class, except that in class I got more of a feel for who Napoleon was than I did for any of these characters.
This is a book I should have passed up, and I recommend you look elsewhere too.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare 5/60 towards goal
I had honestly never heard of this book until a writer's group meeting with the Cape Coral Creative Writers. A couple of the girls were chatting excitedly about the release of "Clockwork Prince". I decided to look into the novels, and on Christmas I ordered "Clockwork Angel." It would be over a month until I started it because, frankly, I was somewhat concerned that the book might be more chick-lit-ish. Considering the girls in my writing group I should have known better.
Now yes, there is some juvenile romance in the novel, but that is certainly in the background. The novel is about... Nephilim. My spell checker on this computer doesn't like the word, which is a horrible shame. Considering what I write, this is a word that comes up often.
Nephilim are angel/human hybrids. In Genesis angels left heaven to procreate with human women. Nephilim are their children. Different books treat them differently, speculating on what they might be like. Alivia Andder's book, Illumine, reveals that the main character is a nephilim, and that they are powerful weapons. In Clockwork Angel the nephilim are "shadow hunters" that maintain a kind of balance between humans (they call them "mundanes") and things not-so-human.
When Tessa is kidnapped by a pair of warlock sisters known as the Dark Sisters she learns that she has a mysterious power. The Dark Sisters planned on teaching her how to use it and then giving her to the secretive "Magister."
Tessa is rescued by Will, a shadow hunter, just before the Magister can take possession of her. Tessa is brought to "the Institute" where she learns that her entire life was little more than a dream, and she has only just awoken to the reality of who she is and how the world works.
Clockwork Angel was an amazing novel. Highly enjoyable. My only complaint is that on the Kindle version the formatting is a little off. On occasion the text of the story will be interrupted with the title of the book or the chapter. The first time that happened I was very confused.
I highly recommend this novel, and I am looking forward to reading Clockwork Prince.
Now yes, there is some juvenile romance in the novel, but that is certainly in the background. The novel is about... Nephilim. My spell checker on this computer doesn't like the word, which is a horrible shame. Considering what I write, this is a word that comes up often.
Nephilim are angel/human hybrids. In Genesis angels left heaven to procreate with human women. Nephilim are their children. Different books treat them differently, speculating on what they might be like. Alivia Andder's book, Illumine, reveals that the main character is a nephilim, and that they are powerful weapons. In Clockwork Angel the nephilim are "shadow hunters" that maintain a kind of balance between humans (they call them "mundanes") and things not-so-human.
When Tessa is kidnapped by a pair of warlock sisters known as the Dark Sisters she learns that she has a mysterious power. The Dark Sisters planned on teaching her how to use it and then giving her to the secretive "Magister."
Tessa is rescued by Will, a shadow hunter, just before the Magister can take possession of her. Tessa is brought to "the Institute" where she learns that her entire life was little more than a dream, and she has only just awoken to the reality of who she is and how the world works.
Clockwork Angel was an amazing novel. Highly enjoyable. My only complaint is that on the Kindle version the formatting is a little off. On occasion the text of the story will be interrupted with the title of the book or the chapter. The first time that happened I was very confused.
I highly recommend this novel, and I am looking forward to reading Clockwork Prince.
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