Three Book Reviews

The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids

By Michael McClung

4.5/5 stars

This was a super entertaining fast-paced novel. Part fantasy, part murder mystery, the entire novel is set in a single city. I found Amra to be a great protagonist – she’s a thief with a code. A cat burglar rather than a killer, she still very good in a fight. There are demons, magic, and a very cool wizard sidekick as well. I thought the writing was very good. It never bogged down and moved along at a nice clip. I will say that the first half of the novel was stronger than the second half. The first half the novel blew me away. Still, it was an excellent read and I highly recommend it. I think fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora would really enjoy this novel.

Prince of Thorns

By Mark Lawrence

5/5 stars

I’d never read a Mark Lawrence novel before and thought I’d give this one a shot. I was very confused when I started the book. I thought it was supposed to be about a prince trying to recover his throne. However as I read the first chapter it seemed to be about a murderer and rapist. I thought that maybe I was getting a chapter from the antagonist’s point of view. Then I started chapter two and it was the same POV from the same villain. I stopped reading part way through chapter two when the protagonist described a rape he’d participated in. I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to read 300 pages about this @#$#  @#$%$.

If it had been an unknown author, I probably would have stopped at that point. However, Lawrence as a terrific reputation as an author, he’s hugely supportive of other authors, and I’d just spent money on a book and was ticked off that I’d only read a chapter and a half. So I kept reading.

And it kept getting better. And better. And better. As it turns out there a reason why the protagonist is a murdering @#$#%.

The writing is excellent. The story is engrossing. The world building is intriguing. Lawrence writes terrific action scenes to top it off.

Be forewarned, the book is very grim and very dark. If you can get past that, I think you’ll love the novel.

Senlin Ascends

By Josiah Bancroft

5/5 stars

Wonderful. Start to finish a terrific book.

A steampunk fantasy set in an unknown era, the novel follows bookish Thomas Senlin as he attempts to locate his missing wife in the Tower of Babel. Each level of the tower is its own unique world that poses new challenges to the completely ill prepared Senlin.

Senlin Ascends is a super-unique, super-creative work of fiction. I loved the characters, the writing, and the world. Buy it. It’s fantastic.