I hope everyone has had a good week and is looking forward to the weekend.
My chosen poem this week is by the award-winning poet Chrissie Gittins.
The Unseen Life of Trees
When the fraying skeins of silver birch
sway in the wind they think of
lulling water in the floating harbour.
the dried out plants on a deck,
the bespoke barge door cut to close
on a trapezium.
A sparse beech globe of yellow
holds an afternoon with two young friends,
who will walk through their vivid lives
beyond the end of mine.
A ball of mistletoe hangs
way up in spindle branches balancing
a trowel, a ginger cake,
and a framed copy of Jessop's 1802
'Design for Improving the Harbour of Bristol'.
Umber banks of oak climb the hillside
dragging children by the hand.
'There will be time,' they whisper,
canopy to canopy.
'There will be time, before
all our leaves stretch out across the frosted ground.'
Chrissie Gittins
A father and his son home has been attacked by a mysterious man, an omen a sinister presence has come about the lands of “The Deluge”, the great sun gods know as the Phrazon mur guide and protect the inhabitants who are awake during the day while the evil creatures and man alike come to fruition during the night. For that where the great evil moon gods come up out of hiding. A Religious cult known as the “Spawn” and their most prestigious leader Roland seek to extract the power of the moon gods and destroy the sun gods and plummet the world into but darkness and sorrow. Out two unlikely protagonist must go on a journey to stop them and free their lands from both the gods and the cults grasp. As somewhat reluctant they may be, they will set out on a task of many dangers and one most foreign to them. A journey of family, love loss violence and devastation, divinity and faith.
Review
Firstly, I would like to say a massive thank you to Nicholas John Powter for sending me a copy of his book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is an ambitious work of fantasy especially as it is all squeezed into just under 130 pages and could have the makings of an epic fantasy. However, for me the book just felt lacking and in places rather off.
Sven, a former warrior of Telfmare, drags his young son Fren from their home in The Deluge to embark on a quest to save a friend’s wife who’s been abducted and taken deep into the forests. However, the story soon moves along and Sven finds himself taking Fren to try and find Sven’s estranged elder son, Dason. This all leads to Sven having to defeat enemies on all fronts. Sven spends a lot of time talking about peace but he finds no qualms in grabbing his sword and killing everything in sight.
As any fantasy reader knows the key to a good fantasy novel is excellent world building, Tolkien taught us that. The world should have developed setting, social customs, history, lore and religion. The Young has some wild woods and a windy mountain and some weird and wonderful animals and an olde worlde feeling but there are also references to elements that just don’t feel right to me. References to mail boxes, mansions and silk tablecloths just stuck out from the story. Powter also uses some odd language within the book which sticks out from the rest, to suddenly have “dad” used and “Hey” just felt very out of place for the storyline and setting.
The dialogue between Sven and Fren leaves much to be desired as well. The dialogue is stilted, with the characters appearing to talk at one another rather than to one another. It was like they needed to get a huge amount of detail out for the reader but didn’t feel natural. The book had abrupt shifts in points of view mid-paragraph, sentences containing grammatical and typographical errors and awkward sentence structuring which made the text at times hard to read.
I thought this book had great potential and was really excited to read it but sadly there were just too many points I did not get along with. Overall, I give this book 2 out of 5 Dragons.
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The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello! I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have had a busy few days teaching and working on my Etsy so tomorrow I am looking forward to an adventure day.
What I am Currently Reading
I am still reading The Cicero Trilogy but I am very close to finishing. I will really miss this book as I absolutely love it but I am looking forward to reading something else as I have been reading this for quite a while now.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I took a little break to read this book as I had been sent a copy by the author. Review will follow shortly.
What I Think I will Read Next
I am so behind with my book challenges so I think I will need to start reading some shorter books to try and catch up. Hopefully I will manage to catch up.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
I have been really busy this month with my Etsy store. I have been busy making some new bookmarks and fulfilling orders and I absolute love coming up with new ideas. My last update was in April so I thought it was high time for an update. As usual links are included to the different products.
My love of the musical themed bookmarks continues and I have added a couple more instruments to the line.
Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have done some teaching and chores today but I have also managed some reading and a nice walk. I have also spent a lovely evening making some more Halloween bookmarks for my Etsy shop.
My chosen book today is a new release and one by one of my favourite authors. I really want to read this soon but first I need to go book shopping!
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
I hope everyone is well. I have had a lovely day which has involved some book shopping and an Eeyore purchase.
My chosen poem today is by the painter and poet W. J. Turner ( 1889-1946).
The Lion
Strange spirit with inky hair,
Tail tufted stiff in rage,
I saw with sudden stare
Leap on the printed page.
The stillness of its roar
For midnight deserts torn
Clove silence to the core
Like the blare of a great horn
I saw the sudden sky;
Cities in crumbling sand;
The stars fall wheeling by;
The lion roaring stand:
The stars fall wheeling by,
Their silent, silver strain,
Cold on his glittering eye,
Cold on his craven mane
The full-orbed moon shone down,
The silence was so lid,
From jaws wide-open thrown
His voice hung like a cloud.
Earth shrank to blackest air;
That spirit stiff in rage
Into some midnight lair
Leapt from the printed page.
W. J. Turner
I thought it was time for my monthly challenge update. Although I read seven books in July, four of them were Kindle books so I need to work out approximate heights for those. I will add any Kindle books on at the end of the year.
Terrible Picture Time!
The stack now measures 33 inches so not much of an increase from last month. I now have 34 inches to go.
Look at that stack grow!
I have two big books currently on the go so hopefully these will make a big difference in the height once I have finished them. I’m massively behind with my Goodreads Challenge as well so I really need to up my reading to catch up on my book challenges.
I hope your book challenges are going well this year.
Lady Book Dragon 