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Book Review: The Guardian’s Gambit (The Felinity Chronicles Book 1) by JR Konkol

cover art for The Guardian's Gambit (The Felinity Chronicles #1) by JR Konkol

The Guardian’s Gambit (The Felinity Chronicles Book 1) by JR Konkol

Black Rose Publishing, 2024

ISBN: 9781685135058

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

A superbly enthralling fantasy tale of cats, magic, and alternate dimensions, The Guardian’s Gambit is an absolute must-read.  It’s the best animal-centered story I’ve read since Tad Williams’s Tailchaser’s Song came out all those years ago.  Fantasy fans, you do not want to miss this one.

 

The story is told in third person, with the reader getting the thoughts of four cats: Gaius, Ajax, Loki, and Shaman.  It’s clear from the writing the author knows cats very well: he has all their typical mannerisms and actions down perfectly.  Where the story excels is in how he incorporates these into the fantasy elements of the story. For example, we all know cats sleep a great deal.  In the book, when asleep, they enter the Dreaming, an alternate reality loosely based on the mundane world, where most of the story takes place.  It’s a fascinating place of magic and horrible monsters, where the cats fight to the last claw to preserve their own reality.  The enemies in the Dreaming are legion, from amped-up coyotes to giant mutant spiders.  There’s a good deal of world building involved, complete with many cat-centric terms invented for the story.  The author deserves credit for weaving them into the narrative in a way that avoids reader confusion, dropping little reminders when needed.  It’s a sprawling but tightly-written story that’s impossible to avoid getting pulled into.

 

With a great storyline, you need great characters that the readers will be invested in, and Gaius, Ajax, Loki, and Shaman certainly fit the bill.  They have differing personalities, physical abilities and magic powers that complement each other and strengthen the group as a whole.  Gaius is the leader and thinker, Ajax the muscle, and Loki the clever one, while Shaman’s abilities as a magician develop over the course of the tale (tail?), and are one of the central tenets of the story.  There’s also a strong supporting cast of other cats and ghosts, who help, and sometimes hinder, the four companions.  There’s plenty of excitement, but also genuine emotional heft to some scenes.  Loki’s entrapment is enough to cause reader panic, and his pondering on the merits of being a warrior at the expense of a normal life is genuinely touching.  The protagonists pull you in hard, and reader emotions will ride up and down with them as they face myriad dangers.

 

Bottom line: for fantasy readers, this is a “do NOT miss”, and one of the best of 2024.  Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on November 5, 2024 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu, art by Teny Issakhanian

Cover art for Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu

Wingbearer (Wingbearer Saga #1) by Marjorie Liu, art by Teny Issakhanian

Quill Tree, 2022

ISBN-13: 9780062741165

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Comixology

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Marjorie Liu takes a step away from horror and dark fantasy with her middle grade graphic novel, Wingbearer. Zuli, raised in the Great Tree by mysterious bird spirits, is unique. She doesn’t look at all like the bird spirits, and she has never seen anyone like her. She has never left the safety of the branches of her home. When an evil magic begins to affect the new growth of the tree and bird souls are not returned to its branches for rebirth, Zuli sets out to spread her wings with her guardian owl, Frowly, to discover the problem and return the bird souls home. Zuli is also on a quest to discover who she is and where she comes from. Along the way, she meets new friends and foes, and perhaps comes face-to-face with her biggest threat or salvation, the Witch-Queen.

 

Upon seeing the world beyond the Great Tree, she finds the land ravaged, broken ruins everywhere. Her first encounter with any other living creature is when she is  attacked by giant spiders. She discovers this world is not what she was hoping and dreaming about in the safe branches of her home. Throughout her journey, she also finds that not everything is black and white: there are grey areas that she must grapple with.  A memorable scene is when she becomes distraught after she sees other goblins in her friend Orien’s camp chopping tree branches for building materials and fuel. She does not understand why the destruction of even one branch of a tree is necessary for others to live. Zuli grapples with other philosophical and identity-related themes, as well as having to learn new things.

 

Liu’s creative power is in her world building, and Wingbearer does not disappoint. She creates a complex world without bogging down the story with too much detail, and everything is cohesive and well-constructed. As with her Monstress series, she fills the world with compelling and driven characters, each with their own motivations and personalities shining through. For instance, Zuli’s friendship with the goblin Orien progresses in a very real way, with philosophical and cultural conflict, as well as learning more about each other.

 

Teny Issakhanian, an Armenian-American artist, provides lush and beautiful illustrations. She really brings the characters to life, the emotion in their facial expressions is so powerful. The bird spirits are particularly beautiful. Her previous work includes DreamWorks TV Animation, Disney TV Animation, and the Jim Henson Company.

 

Reading Wingbearer was like revisiting past Dungeons and Dragons games for me. High adventure, magic, good and evil butting heads, interparty conflict…all the great stuff from RPGs. For parents wanting to introduce their kids to the fantasy genre, Liu and Issakhanian would be a great first read. This is the first of the series, and I am very much looking forward to the second volume. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on January 5, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Hollow Kingdom: A Novel by Kira Jane Buxton

Hollow Kingdom: A Novel  by Kira Jane Buxton

Grand Central Publishing, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1538745823

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Hollow Kingdom is literally a bird’s eye view of the apocalypse: it is narrated by a smartass domesticated crow S.T. (for Shit Turd). S.T.  was raised by Big Jim, and lives with him and his dog, Dennis.  S.T. is an independent-minded, educated bird who has watched plenty of television and is addicted to Cheetos: he has developed an admiration for humans, and affection and loyalty to Big Jim. One day Big Jim’s eyeball falls out, and he starts acting mindless. S.T. attempts to cure him with medicines he collects at Walgreens, to no avail, and on his trip to and from the drugstore, realizes that whatever has gone wrong with Big Jim has happened to the other humans as well, and it’s not looking good for the animals, either, especially pets. S.T. and Dennis leave Big Jim, braving a variety of hazards together, from angry bears and malicious crows to deadly tigers,  to visit Onida, a mysterious creature who is supposed to be able to tell them what is going on. S.T. learns that humankind has been attacked by a virus through their electronic screens after consuming more than their fair share of resources and losing touch with nature, so the world can return to balance.  He decides that it’s his mission to rescue other domesticated animals trapped in their houses now that the humans are gone. This is quite a challenge, since neither he nor Dennis have opposable thumbs, useful for opening doors.

The horrific thing about what’s happening to the humans is that they aren’t dying suddenly, or even slowly. They’re just deterioriating, still alive even when there’s nothing really left to animate, except for those who are evolving into something even more dangerous. Mostly aimless, they are triggered into action and violence by the appearance of a screen or the “ding” of a notification. S.T. can see a bigger picture than most of the other animals, but as a domesticated bird, he is not used to being in the outside world. What’s interesting is watching him balance his attachment to humans, and especially Big Jim, with his newly rediscovered relationship with nature, as trees, vines, and all kinds of animals retake the city.

In all the books of apocalyptic fiction I’ve seen, I’ve never come across one quite like this. Original, funny, and sometimes grisly or gross,  even though it takes place during and after an apocalypse it ends on a note of hope.  This bird’s eye view of the end of the world is definitely worth a look.

Contains: some animal harm and death.

Posted on December 20, 2019 by , Reply
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