Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 4: Rain Wilds Chronicles (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 4: Rain Wilds Chronicles (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. Also, reading my previous appraisals of subseries in the umbrella series The Realm of the Elderlings will foster understanding about certain facts that are required to make full sense of things included in this particular review. 

Robin Hobb is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings. Within this aegis, if you will, she's written five "miniseries" and numerous short stories. In previous Alien Romances Blog reviews, I covered The Inheritance & Other Stories, which contains a couple Realm of the Elderlings offerings. I also reviewed the first three trilogies within this series, The Farseer, The LiveShip Traders, and The Tawny Man trilogies, along with two miscellaneous novellas in the series, "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" and "Words Like Coins". 

The Farseer Trilogy was focused on Fitz, the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry of the royal line presiding over the Six Duchies. In that first subset, we learned something of the Elderlings (including dragons) and their ancient cities and settlements around the world, especially in the Rain Wilds. In the second subseries, The LiveShip Traders Trilogy, we moved away from the royal Farseer lineage and problems within the nobility to focus on "liveships", which are the outer cocoons of sea serpents that were in the process of transforming into a dragon. These logs were buried in the destroyed city of the Elderlings in the Rain Wilds and found by traders who excavated the ruins for valuable, magical artifacts. The Tawny Man Trilogy returned to Fitz and the Fool (who has remade him- or herself in many ways, shapes and forms in appearances in the series). 

In Rain Wilds Chronicles, we at last return to what first interested me in this series--the dragons and their elderlings as well as their principle city that has become a ruin within the Rain Wilds. The very first story I read in The Realm of the Elderlings was "The Inheritance". I was utterly enchanted with the mention of an ancient race of beings that lived together with dragons. All throughout this series, I've wanted to get back to these specific things. While I did come to love Fitz and the Fool stories, in the back of my mind, I wanted more--more elderlings, more dragons, more of their ancient city. In fact, I was so excited for those things, I purchased paper copies of Rain Wild Chronicles before any of the other subseries. 

Before we begin, it must be noted just how ponderously long each of these books are. Each of the trilogies boasted nearly 5000 pages total. Despite that I ultimately did love them, it was nowhere near easy to get through any of these. The author populated the series with so many characters and settings and plots, it was all but impossible to keep everything straight. In addition to those crucial elements, there are absolutely endless details that are better suited for fan encyclopedias for the series or for moviemakers who want to create every visual and miscellaneous aspect necessary for a vibrant recreation. I'm going on record as stating that every last one of these books are just too darn long. I've had to take months off in between trilogies just to get through them. As a result, when I finally got to this most-anticipated subseries (which was months after the last), I felt drained almost from the first book, especially in light of the fact that there were four books instead of three. However, I did manage to get through the first three faster than ever before since they were, more or less, only (I'm laughing sarcastically as I write that) 500 pages long, as was the final in the tetralogy. Book 4 did take more effort to get through, but I will say it was the best in this particular bunch. 

The gist of this subseries was to chronicle the re-emergence of dragons in the Rain Wilds. While a few (sadly, very few) of the characters from previous subseries made appearances here, they were, for the most part, brief and, for me, unsatisfying. Instead, we're given a whole new, cumbersome set of characters--many of them with too-similar names that got confusing and totally derailed me so often while reading. In the past, even those players I didn't like and certainly didn't root for kept me enthralled from one scene to the next. I didn't quite find that to be the case in this series. 

The main characters in Rain Wild Chronicles are associated with Alise Kincarron, who's a daughter of a poor but well-respected Bingtown Trader family. Her life-long friend Sedric Meldar encourages her to marry the handsome son (Hest) of a wealthy, renowned Bingtown Trading family, the Finboks. Little does Alise know that Hest and Sedric are lovers and Hest only married her to gain the heir his father insists on him having. Alise loves dragons and has devoted her life to studying the elderlings that lived in Rain Wilds ruins. 

Another important character in this subseries is Thymara, a 16-year-old Rain Wilder with strong elderling features. She's chosen by the dragon queen Sintara to help the deformed dragons not only survive those many who are set on destroying them but to find the elderling homeland of Kelsingra within the Rain Wilds, where they can be healed and empowered once more. 

In addition to these, a whole host of dragons have point-of-view scenes in Rain Wild Chronicles. Normally, I might have enjoyed that but, in this as well, sadly, I found I didn't enjoy the outcome as much as I might have anticipated I would. 

Before I get to the full review, let's start with summaries of each installment: 

In Dragon Keeper, Book 1, we're introduced to Alise and Thymara (et alia mentioned above), along with the weak and floundering dragons and those seeking to destroy them instead of protecting them, per the promises and pact made in the previous subseries. Alise and Thymara, along with many others,  are entrusted to escort the dragons to a new home--if only the ancient Elderling city could be real and not a myth.   

In Dragon Haven, Book 2 continues the group's trek through dangerous and threatening wilderness that none have seen in their lifetimes. During this time, the humans and the dragons are changing in disturbing ways, becoming something else, something more and,, in many ways, something terrifyingly less. Bonds are forged as well as broken, and many won't survive. 

In City of Dragons, Book 3, Kelsingra is finally within reach, but the enemies of the dragons (one of note being Hest, Alise's husband and Sedric's former lover) are closing in. Additionally, in order to reach the ancestral sanctuary with Kelsingra, the dragons first need to learn how to fly. 

In Blood of Dragons, Book 4, everything comes to a head. The silver wells that made the dragons powerful in times past are all but dried up and no one alive remembers where they might find others. The dragon keepers risk "memory walking" by immersing themselves in the memories of long-deceased Elderlings. Doing so is dangerous because it's addictive and they may become lost to these in time. Additionally, the dragons may simply not be strong enough for the final task. The Duke of Chalced from The LiveShip Traders (knew this slimy creep would rear his ugly head again!) is dispatching his forces to the Rain Wilds because killing a dragon is the only way to save himself from what's plagued him since the previous subseries. What's at stake is that, if the dragons succeed, they'll rule the world again (not necessarily a thought that will give ease to all); if they lose, they'll become extinct for all time, which would be a tragedy as well. 

Books 1-3 were, as I said, easier to get through than previous trilogies in large part because they were much, much shorter. Hobb may have heard readers who were vocal about how overwhelmingly large her books are. Though, I must say, that's probably not the case. She simply found a good place to stop each of the books at 500 pages, more or less. In any case, I came into the final book after learning all about the plight of these characters that didn't quite endear me. I didn't find them as compelling as the previous casts of characters in The Realm of the Elderings. Alise and Thymara (along with the large cast of other players) were okay, but just okay. Hest was so foul, I had a Joffrey (Game of Thrones) reaction, and I couldn't have been more pleased with his comeuppance if I'd written it myself! Ha! Beyond that, I found the dragons to all be conceited and, frankly, kind of annoying for all their self-importance. It's hard for me to imagine humans and dragons could live in harmony unless--as this subseries proves--the dragons change the humans significantly so they're more willing (yes, and able) to serve them. That's not exactly flattering or laudable. I wish dragons commanded the respect they deserved instead of demanding it through threats. I think there were many opportunities lost with the way Hobb presented the dragons in The Realm of the Elderlings. Ultimately, that came as a great disappointment to me, despite enjoying the books and the series. That said, I believe that part of my let down had to do with the way I read them. 

I wish now that I'd forgotten my commitment to following a series in the order the author writes it (because I feel it's the best way to understand it). Instead, I regret not reading "The Inheritance" first, following it with The LiveShip Traders Trilogy and finally Rain Wild Chronicles. I think I could have enjoyed it a hundred percent more that way instead of being overwhelmed with too many subseries that didn't focus on the particular theme at hand--the very one that I've been looking for since the beginning with The Realm of the Elderlings. 

I also wish that the author had separated Fitz and the Fool trilogies from the Rain Wilds installments. If I'd read them as two separate, connected series (one of them focused on the elderlings and Rain Wilds; the other focused on Fitz and the Fool adventures), I think they would have been so amazing and much less exhausting. 

My advice is to not follow the series as the author wrote it (and had the books published), but to separate them as Rain Wilds and Fitz and Fool. Specifically, read them in this order:

Rain Wilds:

1.     "The Inheritance"

2.     The LiveShip Traders Trilogy

3.     Rain Wilds Chronicles 

Fitz and the Fool:

1.     The Farseer Trilogy

2.     The Tawny Man Trilogy

3.     Fitz and the Fool Trilogy 

Other The Realm of the Elderlings shorts can be read in any order, as well as stand on their own. 

All this said, I think those who aren't as burnt out reading massive tomes as I am would find Rain Wild Chronicles a thrilling installment within The Realm of the Elderings, maybe even the most exciting of all. At this time, this is the last Rain Wilds installment, so this part of the tale seems to be complete, and Rain Wilds Chronicles is the perfect finale for it. 

Next up is the final subseries, Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (which makes it obvious what the focus will be). Book 1 was immediately available on my library app, so I'm jumping right in instead of waiting a few months to recover. Fingers crossed that, as this is the last, I'm not too sapped to enjoy it. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Review of Miscellaneous Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Review of Miscellaneous Selections by T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon

by Karen S. Wiesner 

T. Kingfisher (the pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a versatile author, illustrator, and artist. She has a page on her Red Wombat website labeled Short Stories that includes links to her short stories and articles, some of which are included in a variety of different anthologies. From this page, you can read them free on her website and/or from online magazines. 

https://redwombatstudio.com/short-stories/

Nearly all of these freebies have won awards, too. The genres run the gamut. There's a little of everything, as you'll soon see in the reviews below. I went into this endeavor not entirely sure what I was getting into, but I was pleasantly surprised for the most part with the majority of these selections that are worth seeking out. As they'll cost you nothing, you have everything to gain, nothing to lose! 

Beware: May contain unintended spoilers! 

"Jackalope Wives" and "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon: Although these two, connected stories are contained in T. Kingfisher's collection Jackalope Wives and Other Stories, they were written under the author's real name. Go figure. The duo features Grandma Harken, a clever old woman who is far more than who…and what… she seems. She lives in a house with its back to the desert, and she understands this harsh environment much better than most. Her biting humor and compelling way of looking at the world around her make both stories irresistible.

In "Jackalope Wives", Grandma Harken's daughter Eve has a very foolish son who's, unfortunately, much beloved by the females. However, he's only attracted to a jackalope wife. This shy being has the capability of removing her skin to dance under moonbeams. The boy does something stupid to obtain one, and Grandma Harken has to set things right. This very unusual folktale has an interesting message: "You get over what you can't have faster than you get over what you could. And we shouldn't always get what we think we want." Strange things happen in the desert, indeed!

In "The Tomato Thief", Grandma Harken is determined to find out who's daring to steal her famous, homegrown tomatoes. The answer surprises her and forces her to act. If she doesn't, those living in the desert will be in grave danger. It's very hard not to fall in love with a story with lines like these two gems: "Sometimes the best cure for life was a ripe tomato" and "…there was no telling how low a body would sink once they'd started down the road of tomato theft."

I loved both of these stories. They were my favorites of all included on this webpage.  I'm left wanting more of Grandma Harken and her hilarious wisdom. 

"Metal Like Blood in the Dark" by T. Kingfisher: Artificial intelligence identifying as a brother and sister lose their creator and have to fend for themselves in a universe their Father has warned won't be kind to them. Soon, Brother and Sister are discovered by an alien creature that kidnaps and forces them to work for him.

What an unexpectedly moving tale. I've never read anything quite like this tale that postulates the idea that lying is something like an error code in formatting and computer processing. "Lying was to be deliberately in error, and to express that error in others. Error without correction. Error entered into by choice." Further: "What did a lie do, once you let it loose? Did it sit still…or did it go spinning off into a chain reaction…" In a computer, processes and subprocesses might learn to "lie", which would wreak falsehoods and cause them to report back that something was fixed when it was still broken and vice versa. More than this, once you lie, you realize others could lie as well. With this knowledge, could a person or even a computer go back to how they were before learning the truth? In this story, Sister learns that knowing others lie could very well be the only way to keep from falling into error. But, oh to be ignorant of such darkness! 

"The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" by T. Kingfisher: Be prepared for raucous hilarity! Fairy man, bull selkie, and horse fae--three paranormal paramours get their comeuppance in a human woman with a taste for exotic lovers. While each has treated human females badly, they've never been on the other end of such ruthless seduction. They take to meeting regularly around a campfire to discuss the state of lingering wounds to their pride. This was quite a twist on Casanova stories. I'll be darned if I didn't burst out laughing nearly every sentence while reading this brief but very vivid sojourn into unexpected territory. Talk about perspective. 

"Sun, Moon, Dust" by Ursula Vernon: This story clearly came to T. Kingfisher as a precursor (or a lingering leftover) of the days when she was writing Swordheart (do a search for my recent review of it on this blog). A farmer boy gets a magic sword from his dying grandmother. She instructs him to call forth the magic--three warrior spirits that are bound inside the sword--who will teach him. But his grandmother is wrong about who will be teaching whom. Sometimes the learned ancient can discover something new from the young and simple. I enjoyed the twist in this story. 

"Elegant and Fine": This one wasn't ascribed to either T. Kingfisher or Ursula Vernon. It was probably the only one I didn't love. The author puts Susan from C. S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles as the main character and has her pining for a Dwarf lover she never knew the name of when she has to return to the real world--and her life as a child. I don't like it when a writer takes someone else's work and does things with it that the original author probably would never have wanted. I wish this story had cast a wholly unique character from the author's own imagination into the thought-provoking scenario she presented here. Sigh. But enough said about that.

"Godmother": Another entry not ascribed to either author name. According to the author, it was the catalyst for T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone (which I've already reviewed on this blog). There's something poetic about this flash-fiction that evoked lovely images cast in shadows and equal amounts of confusion for me. 

"Bluebeard's Wife" also doesn't have an author listed but it was included in the T. Kingfisher Toad Words and Other Stories collection. Pirate Bluebeard's notorious, bloodthirsty reputation with women doesn't faze Althea. She believes the best of her new husband and no one can speak a bad word about him in her presence. I won't ruin it completely, beyond saying, sometimes rumors have a basis in truth. I enjoyed the story written very vividly in Althea's point of view--with her rose-colored glasses on…until they're rudely knocked clean off her face. 

"Origin Story" by T. Kingfisher: This story was also included in the Jackalope Wives and Other Stories collection. In this disturbing tale, a fairy works in a charnel house, taking apart dead beasts and creating something new. Not surprisingly, the humans find her creepy. You'll need a strong stomach and solid backbone to get through this one. I would be surprised if you don't get a chill, as I did, at the end of the story. 

"History, Discovery, and the Quiet Heroics of Gardening" by Ursula Vernon: Those who have read a lot of this author's stories know she's an avid gardener and her experiences have made into to many, many of her fiction projects. I'm a new convert to gardening, so I was fascinated. Whether or not you have any personal interest in gardening, this essay will teach you something new. I've never thought about how heirloom vegetables may have come back from the edge of extinction because of the aggressive actions of a few fearless and utterly tenacious gardeners. Kingfisher says that this has influenced her writing, as she's found herself writing about unlikely heroes intent on saving one small but important thing. 

~*~

There's really no way to go wrong here. If you haven't previously read any of T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon's work, most everything included on this page would be a great introduction that won't cost you a penny. If you're a fan, you might find something here you haven't read before. In any case, I think you'll want to read more. This prolific author and extremely talented illustrator are well worth your time and money--I fully expect, as I have, you'll be happily willing to pay to read much more of her fine work. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Trapped by Michael Northrop by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Trapped by Michael Northrop

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware unintended spoilers! 

In the past year, I've been trying to incorporate a lot more audiobooks into my reading. Listening to them fills up time I'm doing mundane daily chores with something productive, and the two library apps I've been using offered them free. This allows me to experience books and authors I'd probably never try otherwise, especially if I have to pay for them. In the process, I might find some hidden gems. 

In January 2026, two things happened: 1) My favorite library app became blocked because of a virtual traffic jam and 2) winter has become very confused. In the first instance, I had to finally email the library to find out why I kept getting an error message that essentially meant I couldn't check out books (e- or audio-). Apparently, libraries have always or just recently started enforcing (I don't know which; only know that I'd never had it happen prior to 2026) a "daily lending budget". What that means is that the library has to control spending and budgetary needs and, therefore, after a certain time of day, they shut off the ability for anyone to borrow books the rest of that day. The suggestion from the library was that I try to check out books as early as possible after the ban lifts each day--in my case, the time for reset is midnight! In other words, I have to be awake at or just after midnight so I can scramble to check out a book while I'm half-asleep. This is not good. When did it become normal for libraries to, you know, stop lending books? Isn't that their primary function? A sad world indeed when it's become too costly for both readers and libraries alike to get books. Say it ain't so, Joe! Update: Last night I woke up just after 2 a.m. and groggily fumbled around on my nightstand for my iPad. I logged onto the library app and located the book I hoped to check out. Luckily, there was no one to see me in my pjs with disheveled hair, blurry-eyed and dazed, scratching my bum (okay, maybe not) as I waited to see if I was one of the lucky few allowed to check out a book that early, early morning (or dead of night, whichever you prefer). Yes, I was lucky. It worked. And now this is what I have to look forward to when it comes to checking out books from this library app from here on out. Well, chin up! I still consider it worth it. 

The second thing that happened was the weather didn't know what in the world it wanted to do in Wisconsin (and I believe for most other states in the country as well). For three days in a row, we were getting dumped on with snow galore. The initial mountains on my lawn became veritable peaks. This was followed by spring for a day, maybe a week, circling back to more snow, or rain (which melted the mountains, at least), ushering in perilous icy conditions, or a combination of all those things at the same time. At one point, a beautiful spring day in our town led us to decide it was a great time to travel, but, after barely an hour on the road, we drove into a blizzard. Seriously, sigh. 

At the convergence of these two January 2026 tricks-or-treats, I had no choice but to utilize my least favorite library app (which has hardly any selection) in order to get my audiobook fix. I happened upon a fitting young adult suspense novel, Trapped by Michael Northrop (published February 2011), in which a winter blizzard traps a bunch of high school kids inside the aging education building for more than a week while the rest of the town scrambles to survive, too. I don't think I've ever read anything by this author before, though he's won a bunch of awards. I liked the cover that displayed how I felt, and, for once, it was nice to hear a story about a bunch of teenagers who weren't foul in speech and deed. Lately, when I check out YA audiobook material, I get a bunch of kids who substitute swear words for any hint of intelligence and who are only thinking about their next lay in between being absolutely obsessed with their cell phones and social media. I mean, maybe this is realistic view of the world we live in, but it's more than a little disheartening to think this might be the direction our future is heading. That last bit could be the winter blues talking… 

Anyway, in Trapped, we get basically nice, decent kids for a change, none of whom are particularly bright or preppy (i.e., superficial as all get out). I actually kind of liked that. Instead of D&D nerds, Mensa level, top-of-their-classer Chalamets and Swifties, we have Scotty, a jock who gets average grades and pimples here and there, his two friends Pete and Jason, Krista and Julie, and Les and Elijah, a couple of misunderstoods. Although school had let out early because of the storm, they'd stayed behind for various reasons and no one knew they were there, leaving them trapped--and seriously screwed as a result. None of them seemed smart enough to figure out how to save themselves, though they did figure out how to get enough to eat and stay warm. It isn't until someone decides to venture out to make sure someone in town knows there are kids trapped at the school that everything changed. While I did find the conclusion very abrupt and mildly unsatisfying, this atmospheric little gem fit perfectly into my January blahs and woes with the right story with the right amount of tension at the right time.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Reviews: Three Fantasy Horror Selections by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Reviews: Three Fantasy Horror Selections by T. Kingfisher

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Beware potential spoilers! 

I read a tremendous amount of T. Kingfisher (who also writes and illustrates under her real name Ursula Vernon) books in 2025, and I've been reviewing them for my Friday column here on the blog for much of that time. Because there are so many, I've been trying to do combined evaluations of her works according to series, genre, and/or theme. This week, I'm grouping three of her stories under the category of adult fantasy horror. 

Before I start, I have to lament about the fact that library apps tend to be insufficient when it comes to following prolific authors. I have two different library apps (Libby and Hoopla) and cards from two different physical libraries, yet I find that, even with all of that, I can't get everything I'd like in order to read/listen to everything by Ursula Vernon and her alter ego T. Kingfisher. Libraries should really commit to an author--all or nothing. If I like something by an author, I want to read her entire body of work. I think most true readers feel the same. In the case of this particular author, I wasn't able to get everything via the library apps or at the actual locations themselves. I ended up purchasing new trade paperbacks of each because I couldn't get them from the library. Of Kingfisher's body of work, these are probably my least favorites. Sigh! 

After reading so many of her eclectic selections, I've deduced that this author is uniquely her own--whether she's writing adult or kids' fiction, whatever the genre she writes in. She has her own style that flouts all conventional definition, and these are no exception. I like that, but it can also be an issue when you're reading a lot of her titles at once. In some ways, it's like the fact that Julia Roberts is always Julia Roberts in all her films. As an actress, her own personality bleeds into her work so it leads to her being typecast. She's tried to get out of that by doing different genres, including several unflattering roles, but the end result, unfortunately, is that Julia Roberts is always Julia Roberts. If you like her and think she's a great actress, as I do, then that's fantastic for you and her. If you don't, then probably not so much. In the same way, T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon seems to me to be, basically, the main character in anything she writes. Most of the time, that works for her; rarely, it doesn't quite make it. 

Note that I'm reviewing these selections in the order I read them, not the order they were published in.  

The Hollow Places is an adult fantasy horror novel published in 2020. Kara is the main character. Newly divorced, she's invited by her uncle to live at his unusual museum featuring weird "natural wonders" while she gets her bearings. While she's there, wanting to keep busy and avoid the melancholy of her situation, she stumbles upon a mysterious portal. She and her old friend Simon from next door enter it and become trapped in a nightmare, alternate universe. 

By all definitions, this one sounds like everything I'd love in a book. Yet I didn't. The protagonist and her companion didn't seem as well fleshed out as the characters in the previous stories I'd read of this author's. Additionally, it reminded me a lot of Alice in Wonderland and Gaiman's Nevermore, both of which I want to love but ultimately just don't. Too many insane events take place in stories like these, and, in my opinion, simply don't form a cohesive whole that I can connect with. It all just strikes me as random, unappealing crazy- or silliness. For fans of Wonderland and Nevermore, I imagine this one could be an amazing, upside-down adventure. 

A House With Good Bones (clever title) is an adult horror novel with a touch of modern gothic thrown into it. It was published in 2023. The heroine Sam takes an extended vacation from work as an archaeoentomologist (she studies insects and arthropods recovered from archaeological sites) because her brother is worried about their mother. Sam quickly realizes he was right to be concerned. Her mother seems different. While investigating why, sometimes with the help of her mother's handyman, Sam stumbles onto a lot of family secrets and peculiarities within the house and outside, in the rose garden. As usual in these kinds of stories, sometimes it's better to leave the past buried. After all, curiosity always tries to kill the cat. 

I expended tremendous effort trying to get into this story. I read a plodding chapter, took a break for a few weeks, read another slow chapter, went on to something else for a very long while. At that point, I knew I was going to have to buckle down and work really hard to force myself to read it. I'd purchased the trade paperback, brand new, so I didn't want it to be for nothing. 

There were a lot of interesting parts to the story. Sam is a well-constructed character with Kingfisher's typical big personality chock full of unique humor. My problem with all of Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher's work is that her main characters are constantly uttering little "asides" in introspection that can take over so they're no longer amusing injections but annoying blockades to plot development. There are so many of them, it became like I was reading someone's stream of consciousness journals! Each one is a detour from the main story, and that can get boring and overwhelming when trying to get into a particular story. 

Combine that problem with the fact that this story was such a slow burner. Having read The Hollow Places first, I got an inkling of where the faults in this particular genre were for the author, but here I was really slapped in the face. My crux issue is that the author seems to have a problem developing horror. Every time things got scary, it was as if she herself jumped onto the page and jarred us out of the story with off-putting and off-piste commentary that detracted from the action. It really broke up the tension and left me deflated and disappointed. I read horror because I want to be scared out of my pants. I want to chew my nails. Why would an author pop that balloon of rising terror when it's the whole purpose? 

As contradictory as this is going to sound, I did end up liking A House With Good Bones. You know, despite itself. It was an unusual story with creepy roses and bugs and a compelling twist on the obvious villain. In general, I liked the main character, but the over-excess of personality did get overwhelming sometimes. I wish it hadn't been so hard to get into, such a challenge to make it all the way through. But I was glad to have read it despite its slow and uneven pacing and the author self-sabotaging when it came to developing the horror. If you can stick with it, as I forcefully did, I think you'll be glad you did. 

The Twisted Ones is an adult horror novel published in 2019. While between editing jobs, Melissa, aka Mouse, accompanied by her loyal, sweet but dopey coon dog Bongo, ends up clearing out her so-not-beloved grandmother's house crammed with everything imaginable hoarded over the course of a lifetime. Early on, she finds her step-grandfather's journal and begins to be pulled into the crazy world he lived in in his final years. Local folklore combined with the old man's rantings about incoherent dreams of the woods and its bizarre, creepy creatures mingled with her own intrigue with the journal could lead her down a path there can be no return from. The local neighbors are certainly colorful and full of not-quite helpful information and support.

As in the previous two stories, we have what I believe is T. Kingfisher's fictional counterpart playing the starring role with the specific details like job, friends, and names, etc. being slightly changed up. Again, we have a male "protector" who doesn't quite live up to the role of hero, doesn't become a love interest, doesn't actually feel all that necessary to the story one way or the other. Instead, a new friend takes on the role--foolishly and unbelievably--of accompanying the heroine when she has to go against all sense and reason to confront the evil stalking her. Once more, there are way too many asides distracting from the plot, and the author defuses all the tension every single time before it really comes to a head. 

It was so hard to get into the story in the first place, and sticking with it was a daily struggle. The Twisted Ones wanted to be scary but it wasn't. Instead, it was just weird--probably as weird as her inspiration for it (mentioned in the Author's Note), apparently an Arthur Machen found manuscript called "The White People" that was published in 1904. I haven't even heard of it. While I'm glad I finished it because the core story was worthy, I didn't love the execution of this tale any more than I did the previous two. 

I hate to say something like this, but these three books seemed disturbingly similar as I read them. It was almost as if they were one book and the author just swapped out miscellaneous technicalities to make them slightly different. A House With Good Bones and The Twisted Ones, in particular, felt way too much alike. At least initially, the "Scooby Doo" lovable dog made this one much easier to read because at least the main character wasn't just talking to herself. Now she was directing her nervous tension onto her pet, which made everything a lot more palatable. I also wasn't a huge fan of the "past story told in journal entries" plot advancement. I won't lie to you--those were extremely hard to get through. In my opinion, it was a lazy way to tell the backstory, almost like those cabbagehead-isms from Star Trek, where characters are wont to say, "As you know…" before launching into important information about the plot that the viewer needs to know. 

~*~

I was looking for pee-my-pants chills from these three books, but I got novelty weirdness instead. Alas, I expect a lot of readers who like freaky, strange tales rather than true horror might like these three vastly more than I did. In general, I'd say the core narrative of each was good and pushing through to get to it was, at minimum, rewarding. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog and her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

 

Robin Hobb (who also writes as Megan Lindholm) is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings, which I've been reviewing here on the Alien Romances Blog. Soldier Son Trilogy is a separate, unrelated, fantasy series set in a fictional place called the Kingdom of Gernia. Resembling the 19th century American frontier, this post-colonial secondary world has several interesting historical counterpoints. In this series, Gernia is a strange combination (to someone like me, who doesn't care for war dramas) of civilized and war-like. Having lost to a vastly superior naval force, Gernia's military moves inland, conquering the natives called Plainsmen (natives) and Specks (powerful magic users who have all but been driven out of the frontier and now only exist in the Barrier Mountains). Racial and culture tensions are in full force, as it's only been a generation or two since Gernia conquered the indigenous tribes. 

In this world, Gernia has a distinct patriarch hierarchy. Sons of nobles inherit according to their ages. The eldest assumes the father's title, a second son serves as an army officer, while the third becomes a priest, and the fourth an artist. Daughters all fill submissive roles with arranged marriages that increase social standing. The main character in these books is Nevare Burvelle, the second son of a newly promoted Lord. 

The first book, Shaman's Crossing, was published in 2005. It's focused on a soldier son, Nevare's, education. Every aspect of Nevare's life in the opening has been on his future career as a soldier. Still a teenager, Nevare's father passes him into the hands of his greatest enemy for training. His logic in doing so is to teach Nevare "things he cannot learn from a friendly tutor". During this torturous tutelage that nearly kills him, Nevare experiences a vision in which he meets Tree Woman, a Speck. His trainer urges him to kill her but instead Nevare makes a pact with her and becomes a weapon of the magic to help halt Gernia's destruction of the forest. While this encounter was deeply profound, Nevare manages to escape and resumes his life, heading to the military academy to begin formal preparation in becoming a soldier. Near the end of the book, Dark Evening, an annual carnival, brings the first Specks to Old Thares. Tree Woman influences Nevare, compelling him to use the magic she instilled in him during his first vision. This results in a widespread plague overtaking the town and those at the academy. Caught between two worlds, Nevare attempts to sever his ties to Tree Woman, realizing this one who's become his lover in the fever dreams, has enchanted him to do her bidding. 

Book 2, Forest Mage, was published in 2006. It pretty much picks up where the previous left off. The academy is recovering from the Speck plague that killed so many. The students who've survived, for the most part, have been forced to leave the academy. What's happening to Nevare is unthinkable though. The plague has done the reverse with him than with all the others. Instead of leaving him weak and thin, he's become fat and is rapidly becoming fatter. While he left Shaman's Crossing believing he'd conquered the magic and destroyed it, the opposite is the case. He's now filled with the magic and he doesn't realize the visions he's been having are actually happening to him as he gives himself over to the magic. No one in the world he's always known believes he's anything but a big, fat pig who's now unworthy to be a soldier son. His father, especially, is monstrously cruel, dismissive, and ashamed of him, eventually all but disowning him. 

It was hard not to laugh about how ridiculous this plotline was. It was like reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King, in which flatulence became a plot device. At first, I was laughing in shock, but the farting became so absurd, it was impossible to take the book seriously. (Apparently King wrote it while under the influence of Oxytocin and now no longer cares for the book at all. I don't blame him.) While it's sad when overweight individuals are unfairly ridiculed, as if there's nothing else to them but their size, this book was an apt portrayal of superficial judgments by superficial people. So much more was going on below the surface here. However, I felt Nevare's character was rapidly revealing itself to be wishy-washy. In Book 1, he seemed loyal to the beliefs he was raised with, not merely trying to gain his father's approval. Here, he's questioning everything yet going back and forth between his world views. Other people's bad behavior (his worthless father's, for instance) more often than not turn him into a rebel who acts out simply because he wants to hurt the person who hurt him. The magic compounds this in ways he could never have anticipated and quickly regrets. This installment concluded in a way that made it clear Nevare can no longer straddle two very different worlds, as he's been trying to since the magic took him. Sooner rather than later, he'll have to make a choice.

Renegade's Magic, released in 2007, concludes the trilogy. Navare is dealing with a disjointed, dual personality when his body is taken over by a Speck spirit intent on wiping the Gernians out of all thought and mind. Navare's consciousness remains intact within the body, horrified by what his body snatcher is doing through him, but he's occasionally able to dream-walk in order to talk to his cousin, sister, and father. Eventually he realizes that the war inside him is mirrored in the war outside between the Speck people and the Gernians. If some compromise isn't made, they'll destroy each other. Long story short, Nevare undermines the Gernians' goal to clear the forest in order to build the King's road by capturing royalty's greedy interest in a gold mine instead. I thought that was fairly clever as a wrap-up to a plot that didn't seem possible to end in a happily ever after. I also felt like it spoke to real-life history, in which war may be temporarily averted by selfish greed, but inevitably violence comes back around. 

Instead of reading this trilogy, I listened to the audiobooks. I'm not sure I would have found the trilogy compelling enough, even from the first book, had I not taken this route. The last, especially, was painfully long (768 pages in the mass market paperback; 29 1/2 hours for the audio). I started skipping chapters here and there, which allowed me to get the gist of the plot development without having to be bored with the author's excruciating "glacial pace" (Publisher's Weekly). Undoubtedly, the books are extremely well-written, despite being padded with every possible, boring indulgence on Hobb's part. While Navare was a well-rounded protagonist, as were most of the other characters, I didn't feel the same connections with the characters nor were they as captivating as the Elderlings cast. Also, much of Book 1's content is focused on Navare's King's Cavalla Academy education, where Old Lords and the King's New Lords engage in society-status rivalry, which held little intrigue for a reader not enamored with war stories or rich/snobbish people who consider themselves superior to all other humans for little or no reason. The "fat, magical Navare" plot was also hard to take seriously in Book 2 but made a bit more sense in Book 3. (Note: In this book, magic uses fat as a conduit, so the more blubber, the better.) While I felt like the native people versus usurper and their progress theme was a bit heavy-handed, I found the magic aspects interesting enough to put up with three bloated volumes in order to reach a satisfying conclusion. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Saint of Steel Series by T. Kingfisher by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Saint of Steel Series by T. Kingfisher

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Beware potential spoilers! 

To describe T. Kingfisher's medieval fantasy The Saint of Steel series as romance is a bit off the mark. No doubt it has lateral shoots toward it but those tendrils into the genre are anything but conventional. The language and love scenes are unexpectedly crude, the way erotica can sometimes be, though all volumes frequently dip into the (frequently eye-rolling) tender mawkishness of traditional romance offerings. I suspect strongly that the author intended exactly this unorthodox straddling of categories when she was writing it. 

Whatever its classification, for the most part, I found it to be a breath of fresh air. Full disclosure: For all intents and purposes, I stopped reading romances (other than the young adult variety) about twenty years ago. I can't really say that was a conscious decision. More that I'd expanded past the romance-heavy books that dominated the reading of my twenties and early thirties. And, admittedly, I no longer cared for the requisite love scenes that were so much a part of this genre. I discovered another nice thing about audiobooks is that you can fast-forward past sections in 15-second intervals. I did that a lot with these. In any case, it was a bit strange for me to take up a romance series--unconventional as this was--again after all this time away. 

Once I'd finished with Kingfisher's audiobook of A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking (I reviewed it recently on this blog), the only available audiobooks by this author on my library app were these four books in The Saint of Steel series. Weirdly, all of them were available to check out there and then, so I was able to listen to them back-to-back. The fact that they were readily obtainable when none of her others were made me wonder if they weren't any good. Luckily, I found that wasn't the case. I also learned that when something is "DRM free", as I think this series is, it means that unlimited electronic copies are distributed. No waiting lines! Nice for readers, probably not so much for the author or publisher. 

The premise of this series is that an order of berserker paladins loses the Saint of Steel they serve when he dies. Unthinkably--to me anyway--in this fictional medieval time period the series is set in, these saints are venerated as gods; in fact, the words "saint" and "god" pretty much mean the same thing here. After his death, his followers go on a mad rampage of death before they're broken. That's covered in a short prologue in Book 1. Years later, the seven survivors have been taken into the service of the (irreverent but amusingly so) Temple of the Rat, made up of lawyers, healers, and other community service workers. Here, they can again do good. 

By nature, paladins are selfless, chivalrous, and honest to a fault. However, these knights are forever in danger of losing themselves to the berserker rage (called the black tide) they can't control once its unleashed. I loved how natural the world building in this medieval setting is in the author's hands. She does medieval effortlessly, as if she herself actually lives in that time period. 

There are four books in this series:

Paladin's Grace, Book 1 (2020)

Paladin's Strength, Book 2 (2021)

Paladin's Hope, Book 3 (2021)

Paladin's Faith, Book 4 (2023)

 

In Paladin's Grace, the knitting paladin Stephen is the focus. Grace is a perfumer he rescues one night and then the two become embroiled in a conspiracy plot against the crown prince as well as investigating necromantic serial killings in which the victim's heads are chopped off; black magic clay heads are then implanted into the corpses to make an army of monsters. 

This story had some clichéd romantic elements. Stephen was such a do-gooder he was always worrying about losing control whenever he and Grace found themselves in a compromising sexual situation. Frequently, that led to sex between them being tabled, which got a little stale after a while. Grace is also the victim of a philandering husband who made her believe she was frigid and so she spends a lot of wasted time pushing Stephen away on that premise. The first actual love scene was a little icky for me--as far from romantic as it gets. I wanted to shout, Please, close the door! I believe the author wrote it the way she did to avoid all potential for purple prose or swooning. She may have gone a little too far on that point. I learned after that to fast-forward to get past these excruciating scenes. That said, the rest of the romance and suspense plotlines were, at turns, fun, funny, sweet, and even heartwarming. The happily ever after between Stephen and Grace was, fittingly, out of the ordinary for a romance novel as well, in that the couple didn't have a picket fence and 2.5 kids in their future. They would both continue as they had been, only now they were together. I really liked that Grace's best friend Marguerite was a very avant garde character. The reader didn't know what she might do next. I also liked the introduction of a race of talking badgers that are a part of human society in this medieval world. 

Book 2 in the series, Paladin's Strength, takes up paladin Istvhan's (mentioned in Book 1) story. He's paired with Clara, a very large (nearly his own considerable size), capable woman who's a nun from a secretive order. Clara is hiding something shocking and intriguing that really adds something to the story. Her sisters have been kidnapped. She doesn't know why, but she intends to find out. Istvhan's company--that she originally thought was a band of mercenaries--helps her and, along the way, finds out that the necromantic serial killer from Book 1 is still on the loose. 

There's also a gnole in this story, as there was in Book 1 (I don't think it's the same one) who accompanies Istvhan's company. I loved this interesting, unexpected character. Additionally, we got to revisit Stephen and Grace's happily ever after, which was nice. I liked the main characters, their amusing repertoire, and the romance that seemed joyfully inevitable despite their circumstances. However, as in Paladin's Grace, the angst that Istvhan and Clara go through about whether they should be allowed to fall in love and have sex with each other gets really annoying with such a long book. Teenagers are less angsty than Kingfisher's couples in this series. At one point (64% into the 16-hour audiobook), Clara thinks to herself, What's wrong with me? I should have been riding this man until we both walk funny. That about sums it up. Just do it already! The author also has far too many albeit plausible (but still annoying) interruptions getting in the way of sex. The overwhelming build-up tends to make the actual event disappointing when it finally comes. I'm beginning to fear the entire series might suffer from this particular malady. 

In general, I enjoyed this story and its characters very much, though it was far too long. There were two external plotlines and both got the full treatment. While I think they were both well done, the book seemed nevertheless excruciatingly endless. The angst could have been blessedly cut and taken with it a good one or two hundred pages. 

The gay paladin, Galen, mentioned in Book 1 and having played a large role in Book 2, is in the spotlight in Paladin's Hope. In the first book, we learned that he's struggled more with survival after the Steel Saint's death than the others. His nightmares used to end in a berserker rage, but he's found that being on the road helps temper the bad dreams quite a bit. He now goes weeks or longer without having one. 

In this story, Galen is paired with a lich-doctor (a physician that works among the dead, determining causes of death for city investigations) named Piper. Piper has a useful, intriguing skill that aids him in his profession. He calls it "wonder working"--when he touches a dead body, he can see what happened the last few seconds of their life before death. When a tenacious and brave constable gnole decides there are too many mysterious bodies piling up, he enlists Piper and Galen's to help him find the source. That's the only suspense plotline in this book, and that made it a lot shorter to get through, which was nice. Unfortunately, Galen and Piper are just as tormented with worry as the previous couples, so fast-forward, fast-forward, fast-forward! 

Side note: The Saint of Steel series books are also associated with some of Kingfisher's other titles set in the same medieval fantasy world. The umbrella series is referred to as "The World of the White Rat" and includes The Saint of Steel as well as Clocktaur War (with two books) and the novel Swordheart. I intend to read all of those soon and maybe review them here. The reason I mention this is because, in this story, Galen talks about how he'd had some experience with "wonder" (mechanical and possibly magical) doors and machines. The two stories in the Clocktaur War may tell this story Galen references. I'll have to see. Early in Paladin's Hope, Galen, Piper and the gnole are forced behind a wonder door, into a labyrinth filled with deadly traps they'll have to get through to escape. 

In the course of the book, readers briefly get to see the happily-ever-afters of the two previous couples, which I enjoyed. I liked the fully-fleshed out characters and the new mystery plot in this tale that's nicely focused without too much expansion from that point. 

 

The final book in the series, Paladin's Faith, features Marguerite and paladin Shane, her bodyguard. She's trying to escape a former employer who's part of a powerful organization that wants her dead. Along the way, the couple have to dodge a demon-led cult that's out to get them. Additionally, Marguerite, Shane, and another paladin--a female named Wren--go undercover to hunt for an artificer who's crafted a device that could devastate the world. Also, though I never really thought about it before, the suspicious death of the Saint of Steel that all these paladins served is brought up in this book as yet another suspense angle. 

Again, this story was far too long and overburdened with subplots upon subplot. Combine this with yet another angsty romance between two people who spend far too much time telling themselves they can't anything with the other, and it's a surefire recipe for overload. Sigh. The female paladin Wren, who's like a sister to Shane, added an interesting viewpoint to this tale. Despite the negatives, I did enjoy the overall story, the compelling cast of characters, and the multi-faceted mysteries were capably handled from start to finish. 

Note that according to the author, though there are seven surviving paladins, these are the only four stories she intends to write (well, Wren is a paladin and a good chunk of her story was told in this last book, so perhaps we can say five stories were told within the four books, leaving potentially two untold), though further entries aren't out of the realm of possibility in the future. I expect Kingfisher didn't initially anticipate writing more than a trilogy with The Saint of Steel but Marguerite probably got a lot of requests for a story of her own. I for one would have felt disappointed without finding out what happened to her after Book 1. 

To sum up, if you're looking for something unusual and unconventional in your romance reading, this series is certainly worth your time. Beware the teenager apprehension you'll get around every corner between the couples, but, alas, that's what audiobooks and fast-forward buttons are for. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/