I’m back again on the blog, and this time with a review of Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell, the first book in his four-part Greatcoats series. Review Traitor’s Blade is a swashbuckling adventure, filled with clever mysteries and thrilling swordfights, in the spirit of Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. Falcio val Mond, First Cantor of the Greatcoats,…
I’m glad to be back after a four-month hiatus from the blog! Writing my next novel is what’s kept me away, but I promise there’ll be several more posts before the year’s end. I’m kicking off my return with a review of a wonderful novel I just finished: Storm Glass by Jeff Wheeler. Review Imagine a…
We’re just a month into 2019, but the best book I’ve read this year is The Night Crossing by Robert Masello, who is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. The Night Crossing is a suspense-filled historical fantasy about the events that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Review The Night Crossing follows in the wake of Masello’s…
I can’t remember how many times friends have told me I should read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I was aware of the book’s popularity, but for one reason or another I avoided tackling the 662-page tome for years. Now that I’ve finished it, I finally appreciate what everyone was talking about….
The second book in Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion Sequence, Phoenix in Obsidian, isn’t as good as its predecessor, but still adds to the mythology of the Eternal Champion. This is particularly true with the reemergence of the black sword Stormbringer. Without a doubt, it was the best part of this novel. The story picks up…
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today I’m re-posting an article about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began my research for Enoch’s Device. The novel tells the story of two Irish monks who try to prevent the apocalypse at the end…
This past Saturday I started reading Breaker of Bones, the second novel in David Penny’s Thomas Berrington series. By Sunday, I had devoured the book. It was that good. Breaker of Bones is a gripping medieval mystery that, at times, places its hero in extreme peril at the hands of a truly diabolical villain. I…
As anyone following the blog this year knows, I’m experimenting with writing more short fiction. I haven’t given up on novels by any means, but short fiction will allow me to produce more content at a quicker pace. To this end, I’m also reading more short stories, and the most recent ones brought me back…
This past week I found myself stuck on a short story I’ve been trying to craft, and then I learned the news that Ursula K. Le Guin had died. So I stopped writing, and started reading. I’ve not read as much of Le Guin’s works as I had hoped to at one time, but I…
One of my goals for 2018 is to explore more vintage fantasy, so I’m kicking off the New Year with a review of The Eternal Champion, one of the lesser known novels from British author Michael Moorcock. Michael Moorcock is one of the godfathers of fantasy fiction. He found fame in the 1960s as part…
While I’ve been reading more medieval mysteries these days, I always go back to Dan Brown whenever one of his books comes out. He’s the godfather of the religious thriller, and while we write in somewhat different genres, I’ve always admired his mastery of pacing and building puzzle-like plots. His latest novel is titled Origin,…