Monthly Archives: June 2016

Enter The City of Pillars

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City of Pillars 1000x1600The City of Pillars
Joshua P. Simon
Paperback $11.99
ebook $2.99

I’d like to thank Joshua P. Simon for the review copy of The City of Pillars as well as his patience. I should have read the book and gotten the review up sooner.

The City of Pillars is the second volume of The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel.  You can read the review of the first volume, The Cult of Sutek, here.

The story takes place not long after the events of the previous book, approximately a year later if my memory isn’t failing me.  It opens with the pair trying to steal a flute from a museum.  Things don’t go well at all.  Instead of the flute, they’re set up and wanted for a number of killings they aren’t guilty of. Continue reading →

The Latest From Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

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timthumb.php (2)The latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly (#28) has been out for a little while.  I’m playing catch up after traveling for a great deal of the past month, so apologies for this being a little late.

As I stated the last time I reviewed HFQ, there were two serials in the previous issue that I would deal with here.  There are also two poems (by Mary Soon Lee and David Sklar) and two more short stories in the current issue.  Let’s deal with the short stories first. Continue reading →

Report on Howard Days 2016

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Howard House 2016Yes, I know this year’s Howard Days was nearly 2 weeks ago, but we left for New Mexico on family vacation right after I got back.  (Other than no AC in the car when the temperature was 105F, we had a great time.)  I’m playing catch-up catch up on blogging.

Howard Days has grown, something that was emphasized since this year marked the 30th anniversary of the first Howard Days.  While things officially don’t start until Friday, people are showing up on Wednesday evenings.  Space is becoming a consideration, with events this year moved from the library to the high school auditorium or the Senior Center across the street from the library.  There were a number of new attendees, which is always a healthy thing for an event, and I’m not referring the 10,000 or so mosquitoes that showed up. Continue reading →

Fall Under the Spell of The Conjurers

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the conjurersThe Conjurers
David Wade
Deadlock Publishing
Kindle $3.99

I’d like to thank David Wade for sending me the review copy of The Conjurers.  I quite enjoyed it.

There are some writers who can tell a good story but whose prose is rather flat.  Other writers can string pretty words together but aren’t really storytellers.  David Wade doesn’t fall into either category.  The man not only tells a gripping tale, he does so with an elegance of language that’s several cuts above what you find in your typical fantasy novel.

The Conjurers is a tale of sorcery in 14th century Europe.  In Ireland, Eamon and his younger sister are pursued by brigands under the control of a local sorceress, Shairshee.  In Genoa, Teresa suspects her older brother has been killed by the magician to whom he’s apprenticed and sets out to seek the truth.

All three of the young people are fated to experience hardship and the loss of family members before they discover their true heritage. Continue reading →