Thoughts and Images

  9/27/2022 Book: Might and Magic the Dreamwright. Author: Geary Gravel Pages: 248 Hard Core Scale: 2.5/4 Normal Scale: 7/10 Publish Date: 1995 About: The girl Diligence is sent with an Entourage to visit her mother and the mighty Dreamwright who rules the lands for advice on how to deal with the problems affecting the world. She is joined by the boy Hitch and a man who fell to earth in a giant egg. Mysteries abound and such a journey is perilous. Review: What the hell did I just read? Might and Magic is my favorite video game series. The author was contracted to write a book trilogy for the 6 th installment. This was written after Xeen. Might and magic always has a WTfuckery and that SF edge reveal. This had both. The WTF was way beyond the norm. One can applaud the original fantasy world design. So many terms were dropping and never explained or shown that it borderlines on pointless fantasy name drops. On the other hand it spurs the imagination. THE SF reveal In the...

  Book: The Quest for Lost Heroes Author: David Gemmell Pages: 291 Hard Core Scale: 3/4 Normal Scale: 9/10 Publish Date: 1990 About:   Chareos and other Heroes of the final battle of Gothir against   the Nadir are stunned. The opposing army just turned and walked away with a warning from general Tenaka that they are ghosts to be. Now they walk with their guilt trying to find purpose until a farm girl is kidnapped by a Nadir raid and a young farm boy seeks these old heroes' aid to get them back. Review: A book way too long to finish due to retroactively putting it down and starting the series from scratch. Great plot and adventurous fantasy ideals far more than the previous work. In ways it escapes its patterns and escalates them.   Not a direct sequel in the sense of character picking up the pieces where the last leaves heart wrenching, but of the time long after with characters who are later in their lives. The look at life in character depth is a strength ...

  Book: The King Beyond the Gate Author: David Gemmell Pages: 307 Hard Core Scale:   4/4 Normal Scale: 10/10 Publish Date: 1985 About:   The Tyrant Ceska has taken over the lands of the Drenai with an army of animal hybrids and dark sorcery. Now survivors of the former crushed military plan to assassinate their former master. However, dreams can change and blood is often thicker than   water. Review: More solid writing then the first one. The world now has its identity. The fine moving philosophy and melancholy of his style shines. One can argue about the letdown of the ending, but this book is the one that is directly tied to a sequel. At the same time, that ending is not a letdown, but a fantastic nature of the world from a lens of empires and promises of a time. I am content with it in this lens. A haunting and poetic ending in a world that can be debated left behind for mankind. Cover Comment: No dragons in this work, just a notion and a fake out cover...

  Book: Harmony Author: Flash Kitterson Pages: 247 Hard Core Scale: 1/4 Normal Scale: 3/10 Publish Date: 2022 About:   The girl Harmony has spent her whole life with her father taking special medicine. One day she stops and with it comes the voices and the powers when all she wanted was a best friend and find out what happened to her mom. Review: Was pulled and returned to Amazon after a manuscript splice at my door. Powerful ideas shimmer under the surface. Yet they become marred in potholes and odd decisions. There is a lack of purpose in the work elements spiraling out from world design and setting problems. Plenty of growing room in the simple style. Nothing in the work goes anywhere worthwhile with sequel in tow.   It was not ready. Lots of learning with a first book and that is what it is. Still Kudos and onward gallant youth.                               ...