Season’s greetings and Merry Christmas to you all

I hope this finds you well.    

Wow, this year seems to have flown by and here I am facing mince pies and Christmas turkey once again. I wonder how you are all doing? It’s been tricky (or as Gollum would say tricksy) times for so many people and the world looms ever deeper into darkness with war still in Ukraine, the Gaza conflict and the ongoing climate crisis and cost of living crisis.

Sorry, this is meant to be a pick-me-up newsletter, not one filled with doom and gloom. So I will try with some cheery news, news I am proud to announce because I have really loved writing this third book.

Yes, you saw before anyone else the cover reveal for Book 3 Darkness Resides and now it is finally here….

BOOK LAUNCH DAY

Darkness Resides is available on Amazon, in eBook, Paperback and Hardcover editions. It is also free to read for Kindle Unlimited members. It is available in every Amazon marketplace and below are the links for the UK and US my 2 biggest markets.

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNGHWVDC

Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNGHWVDC

It has been a lot of work and I have had great support along the way. I would like to especially thank my editor Michelle who has had to listen to my ideas and plans and then edit my manuscript and slap it all into readable shape. I would like to thank Ian, Jordan and Martin my beta-readers, your feedback was awesome and made the book better so thank you. Finally, special mention to my wife Lynne who, whilst not a devourer of fantasy, was a great enabler. She gave me the time and freedom to pursue my dream and without her none of this would have been possible (look at her – grabbing all the glory! Oops, that was the Smeagol in me, I’ll just put it back in it’s box).

For those who have pre-ordered – blessings to you. You have given the book the best of starts.

BOOK GIVEAWAY PRIZE WINNER

As promised you, my subscribers, were all entered into my Darkness Resides book giveaway draw. I used a number randomiser on google to randomly pick the winner and I can announce that winner was…

Charlie from York, England. Charlie wins a signed paperback edition of his choice of either Rivers Run Red, Shadows Fall or Darkness Resides. Congratulations Charlie.

BOOK REVIEWS

This newsletter is not all about me ( although it is mostly) but also books that I have been reading. The observant among you will have noticed I have not sent a book review since the 11^th November which was for the rather good historical maritime novel ‘A Certain Threat’ Book one in the Merriman Chronicles. Well, I have been reading, never fear. A good writer needs also to be a good reader!

I decided to try my hand at some more LitRPG and started with:

Re-Roll by Robyn Wideman. It started okay and I found the story mildly pleasant. There was a quaintness about it I liked. The story was clearly aimed at a YA audience which is fine, YA books can be a great read, but this one just didn’t hold my attention. There was too much mundane to go with the action and whilst I liked the main character and wouldn’t rule out revisiting the book my interest in it waned and I stopped reading 60% through. So no formally rating.

Next up….

The Realm Between by Phoenix Grey – this was a 3 book boxset. The writing was solid and the premise, whilst still a cookie-cutter, typical LitRPG start, was somewhat more promising than most. I enjoyed the start but by interest struggled and I only finished the first of the 3 books in the set. The world building was okay but the characters were, just stupid. Made poor choices, were dumb as a wall and just too disjointed for me. I think the quality of the writing is there just not the story for me. I found I did not care for Will the main character at all and it all seemed a little underwhelming to me. Others may love it and indeed it seems many do, but it wasn’t my taste.  Again – DNF’d so no rating given

I was despairing at this point so I turned to a classic that I had not read before…

The Lensman Super Pack by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith – One of the founding fathers of Science fiction. Okay, I know I will love this series but the superpack is big…and the concepts are brilliant, however, I will need to read this over a larger timeframe. At least initially. The first part reads like a science fiction Silmarillion and is quite cerebral. No main characters, more main civilisations and concepts. I know it will intrigue me but…I need something less deep so this will be a slow read for me.

So then I went to an old favourite of mine I had not read for a decade or more…

Amoung Thieves, A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick – Fantasy, old school and simply awesome. This book is an old friend and is a thrill ride from start to finish with some amazing characters in it. Really, if you are looking for a fun; edge of your seat; you can’t get any deeper in the mire; fantasy book. Then do yourself a favour and pick this bad boy up. The story is clever and twisted and Bronze Degan is the man! Say no more.

Finally…yep almost done….what am I reading now…

The First Wizard (Dawn of Wizards Book 1) by Jeffrey L. Kohanek – Quite an enjoyable fantasy read. I am 60% in and will post a full review when I finish it.

That’s it. It just remains for me to say. Merry Christmas. Enjoy your friends and family, eat plenty, walk lots and read!

Thank you all for your support and I will be back in the New Year.

Hello everyone,

A short, sweet newsletter to let you all know about my upcoming book release and you lot are the first to read about it! Or should I say, see it?

Darkness Resides, Book 3 of the Morhudrim Cycle will be out on the 15^th of December just in time for Christmas and you get an exclusive first peek at the cover. Let me know what you think (as long as it’s positive because I’ve already paid!).

The ebook is ready to go and I hope to have the paperback and hardback editions available as well (if Amazon will let me load the manuscript without telling me it is too big!)

In Other News

Shadows Fall hardback edition is now available on Amazon and like Rivers Run Red is now out in all formats apart from audio (Audio is still a dream at this point in time).

Chaos Reigns book four – This manuscript is moving along. Writing has been slow in the past month or two since I have been focused Darkness Resides, edits and getting it ready for release.

Website – Check back I am often updating news and adding book reviews (which you all get emailed to you). The Maps section has just had a few updates added.

I told you – short and sweet. That’s It…the end…until the next time.

Take care and I wish you a great festive season.

A D Green

5/5 stars – A great read. Historical naval fiction done well

I have been looking forward to this book for a while. I read some of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower and an awful lot of Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series in my late teens and early twenties and I loved the vivid pictures of naval life both depicted and was swept away by their adventures. So, a pretty tough act to follow but Roger Burnage meets the challenge admirably. The book has an interesting author’s note at the beginning which I found quite fascinating and it was a good lead into what was to follow.

The story centres around Lieutenant James Merriman. Injured in the line of duty and having lost his ship, he is travelling by carriage from the Admiralty to his home in Chester. Nursing his wound, Merriman is uncertain of his future with peace between England and France, but he is soon called into action. Given a new sloop to command with orders to patrol the Irish Sea and assist a Treasury Agent called Mr Grahame in the uncovering of any plots between Irish dissidents and the French, things soon take a dramatic turn and it falls upon young James Merriman to sort things out.

The story was written in a very engaging way. The narrative is sharp and punchy and does not dawdle between scenes with wasted exposition, and it is told with a flare for life in the late 1700s. The language and places, shops and inns all reflect life in that period and I love historical books (even fictional) that teach you a little something.

Merriman cut a stoic Britishness that made him very likeable. He is quite no-nonsense outwardly but as the reader you get to see all his doubts and worries. I loved the shipboard life. The integration of the ship’s crew and officers, working out the strengths and weaknesses of each. The language was spot on and I must say that Roger Burnage knows his ships-of-the-line. The sailing and handling of the ship were well done and the battle scenes were abruptly brutal and non-discriminatory in their carnage.

Overall, a thoroughly engaging book and I am looking forward to reading about Commander Merriman’s next adventure. If you are a fan of O’Brian, Forester or Kent and are looking for a new author in this vain then I highly recommend these books to you.   

4/5 Stars, A light read and a fun space adventure.

I fancied a sci-fi story that was not too cerebral, so as much as I love Alastair Reynolds I wanted something lighter and more, dare I say it, yes I dare, something more Disney-like by which I mean soft on the science and full-on the adventure, even if it made no sense at times. I picked this up because the premise of it had a hint of Elizabeth Moon’s Serrano Legacy. Big billing and as it turns out nothing like those books. Ah well, as Meat Loaf would say, two out of three ain’t bad.

Lost Souls as it turns out was a pretty good read. The story was fast-paced and flowed quite naturally between the perspectives of Maurice ‘Moss’ Foot, our space captain and Hel, our stowaway. Both characters were likeable and fun. The meat and bones of it are that Moss has hit rock bottom, he has scraped back together his old ship before it got turned into junk and sets out to rebuild his name and fortune. Hel, well she is not sure what she is. She thinks she is an escaped slave but her head isn’t wired right and things don’t add up. A junk-yard rat, she escapes on Moss’ beat-up old freighter and so starts our adventure.

One of the book’s selling points was that it is Sci-Fi with a sense of humour and it is true that it is light-hearted with witty banter thrown in, but there were no laugh-out-loud moments for me, the odd wry grin at best, which is no bad thing. I mean it is not trying to be an episode of ‘Red Dwarf’ nor pay homage to ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. In fact, Moss comes across as a Han Solo’esc grumbler, with a dry wit and a pessimistic slant to life in general but who always manages to pull something out of the bag when the going gets tough.

The bad guys unfortunately did not hold my interest. I never felt any real threat from them until the closing finale when things did lift and get pretty hairy. But Roy ‘Hellno’ Herzog our evil villain was fairly beige on the scale of villainy.

So yes, I enjoyed the book. The adventure was linear and simple to follow, easy to put down and quick to pick up without getting mired into remembering what it was all about. It held my interest and I read through it in only a few sittings which speaks for itself. So, if this sounds like the type of book you are looking for, read the sample and give it a try.  

4/5 stars, A fun new fantasy with some great characters

A very enjoyable read. A tale of four mercenaries for hire who take on a job that might just get them all killed. Their adventure (or commission) is concluded so there is no cliffhanger ending, which is satisfying. However, the story is just beginning and I just know our heroes are going to get mired ever deeper into trouble in book two following the events of Blade and Bone.

The book is well-written and told in the third person with each chapter being from the perspective of one of our four heroes. The story is a bit of a fog of war in that Kanar, our mercenary leader, takes on a job he cannot turn down but the why and what exactly it means and what it is all about is not clear to the reader, a mystery not just to us but to the other members of Kanar’s band, who all have their own secrets. Secrets that are tantalisingly revealed the deeper into the narrative you get.

The pace and the storytelling are great but what carried the story for me were the characters. The four mercenaries, Kanar, Lily, Jal and Honaaz are well-fleshed out, unique and they are fun to read and that is what I found most enjoyable. Jal in particular was contradictory and mysterious and I have my ideas of what exactly he may be but I will have to read book 2 to see if I am right.

The fight scenes and violence were a little too peripheral for my liking. These I found a bit sanitised and in some cases, the descriptive narrative seemed unlikely e.g. Honaaz head butting the back of the head of someone he was fighting which was clever considering they were facing each other, or Lily gathering her prizes mid-battle which I found unrealistic. There was plenty of opportunity for Holmberg to paint a bloody canvas with some of this action but it was glossed over (what I call disneyfied) and maybe for good reason because it means the book is suitable for young adults. There is no swearing either which affirms this.

Overall a great read if you are looking for a new author to try. The storytelling is great, the characters fun and interesting and you will have a favourite. Even Honaaz who, although a bit ambiguous, grew on me the deeper into the story we got. Read the sample, chapter 1 jumps you right into the action and gives a real flavour of what is to come.

4/5 stars, A well-crafted fantasy with some great themes running through it

I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited, one of the many on my to-read list. Right off I knew I was in safe hands, the writing was accomplished and error-free for the most part and it was clear to me, after looking at the author’s back catalogue, that JDL has honed his craft and polished it to a sparkly shine. At least judging by this offering. That is reassuring but it is not always a guarantee of a great tale.

The story revolves around Leiyn, a ranger who patrols the Titan Wilds, whose oath it is to perceive, preserve and protect the people of the Wilds. A great start, who doesn’t love a ranger? Sauron, put your hand down!

What was interesting for me though was the first and greatest of the themes running through this story, and the great irony of their oath because the Rangers are there to protect against Titans, magical creatures of sizeable proportions that lie dormant most of the time unless roused, but also against Gasts. Gasts, being the indigenous peoples of the wilds. They hold the wild magic that can summon Titans and are a threat to the new colonies. It all felt very native American Indian to me, at least that is how I perceived the Gasts in my mind’s eye but equally they could be Maori, Aborigine, Inca,  Maya, Aztec or Olmec or any of the multitude of other ‘colonised’ peoples. So yes, I found this quite intriguing. In actuality, I was rooting for the ‘bad guys’ from the very start who were, it must be said, sorely misunderstood.

Another theme I liked was the magic system and in particular the portrayal of each Titan. Mystical giants that conjured Japanese Monster Anime to me, from a Tortoise so large trees grew from its huge shell to a river snake the size of a London Tube train. Good stuff.     

Leiyn herself is an interesting protagonist. A woman with a dark secret (which I will not reveal – no spoilers here). She is as fiery as her mane of red hair and hard to reason with, forged as she was from a hard childhood and the travails that seem to follow her. Taken in by Tadeo, Lodge Master of the Rangers she was trained in the ways of the wilds and thrives in them.

The story itself is engaging. There is treachery and when tragedy strikes the rangers’ Lodge it sends Leiyn on a path of vengeance, not knowing who to trust. No one apart from Isla her best friend that is. Isla is the reasoning voice. The calm to Leiyn’s storm. Along the way, there is plenty of magic and splendour. The Titans, the few we encounter, are each of them unique and unfathomable. The Gasts were fierce, the different colonial factions full of intrigue and treachery. All the ingredients for a good yarn.

My final observation, and I write this with tongue firmly in cheek, is that Isla was also a Ranger and the book is called ‘The Last Ranger’. I keep adding it up in my head and get two every time <input smily face> so I am making a case for Isla to not be forgotten.   

So, the big question. Was it a great tale? Did it grip me enough to rip through the pages to get to the end? Truthfully, no. But I did enjoy it and some tales are better savoured than blasted through. I feel there is scope for this story and the themes (not just those mentioned above but others as well) to play out and grow. Certainly, I can see why this book has been so enjoyed and well-reviewed.

As ever, if you like the sound of all this, why not read a sample of the first half dozen or so chapters from Amazon’s Look Inside feature. It will grip you by then or it won’t. Click on the cover below to go to the book on Amazon UK.

4/5 Stars,  A Breathless action-packed thriller

 A great start to a new series.

The opening scene is singular, involving just our hero Ryan Kaine but is no less riveting for it, the tension building as you know something bad is about to go down. And it does (literally) when an act of betrayal throws Kaine into a fight not just to survive but to clear his name.  Only who will believe him? Set up for an act of terror so abhorrent he is on his own and ‘on the run’.

There is a lot to like about this action thriller. The story travels at a helter-skelter pace where Kaine is pursued and hunted at every step by the authorities and by a shady organisation that will stop at nothing to silence him. A former Royal Marine, member of the SBS and a top-grade sniper, Kaine is a veritable killing machine, but one with a moral code and a heart of gold. That is to say, he is a ‘good guy’ and the reader is left in no doubt that this is the case. If this was a Western, Kaine’s hat would be so white it would dazzle!

So, we like Kaine, he seems like a nice guy but dangerous if provoked and provoked he is. Lucky for him he is good at killing, with his hands, knife or gun it makes no difference. He is also good at taking a beating, which it turns out is also very handy.

I enjoyed this book, it is a good read but I preferred the opening half more than the closing half where the fight turned from one of escape and survival to hunt and destroy. I found the premise and story less compelling the further I read, which is not to say it wasn’t still highly entertaining. It’s just that I grew less worried for Kaine and I felt there was a certain artistic license taken where one minute our hero was trapped, dead-ended in a Bond’esc villain kind of way. ‘Vel Mr Bond, I vill strap you to zis table und this laser vill cut you in two, only I ‘ave this appointment with my chiropodist and can’t stay to vatch you escape, I mean die.’  

Okay, that is a little tongue-in-cheek from me, I am exaggerating, it wasn’t entirely like that but there were a few scenes where his escape was a little on the miraculous side. Also, he had wounds, which seemed pretty severe that would lay a normal person up or at least have them hobbling, which seemed to be glossed over in times of duress and which did not seem to impede his performance when fighting or firing or doing pretty much anything.

Also, Kaine was a decent guy. He had no flaws to speak of. He was intelligent, moral, tough as iron in mind and body, a deadshot with any weapon, a supreme fighter and an all-around nice guy. In other words, a massive cliché. Kaine has been compared to a British Jack Reacher by many, only Reacher had flaws and character traits that made him difficult and unsociable as well as possessing a forensic mind to detail. Reacher was interesting whilst Kaine has none of this flavour. I also found the end a little underwhelming, although I accept it had to be this way, especially if you are writing a series. What I mean by this is that our moral, upright hero was always going to hand himself in at the end to account for his part in what happened, only he jumped at the first opportunity not to do so on, what I thought, was pretty flimsy reasoning. This would have played better if there was some moral ambiguity about Kaine because then it would have made sense character-wise.

So, wrapping things up, a great fun book full of action especially if you like your heroes and villains in vanilla. I enjoyed the read and I liked Kaine and there is plenty of room to grow and add layers to his character as the series progresses. If you are intrigued by my review, then why not use Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature and read the opening scene? You will know by then if the book hooks you in or not.

4/5 Stars -Great fun, and a lot of story

An oxymoron of a book. The story is full-on, nonstop and long and it held my interest for all of it because I hovered through all 1200+ pages in a week. It’s incongruous, paradoxical and inconsistent. Our protagonist, Damien, is aptly named (think back to that 70s film The Omen). I will explain all.

Damien is a librarian, handsome, carefree and avoids commitment and yes, a self-confessed womaniser, which is easy to see because the opening scene starts with him ‘pulling’ a gorgeous woman (I already didn’t like him). Alas for Damien the woman is more than she appears and before he knows it he is sinking through a portal in the floor. It seems his ‘date’ is a lesser goddess and Damien has been chosen as her champion.

Pretty predictable LitRPG stuff so far, the handsome knight on the front cover he is about to become….erm not exactly, which Damien soon discovers when he awakens in the body of an old dead man. So begins the story of our fledgling hero as the body of the man he has inherited is on a different world, Nordan, one full of Zorta (Z), magic that inherits every living thing. With the help of a bunny rabbit named Sprinkles, he gets some Z and finds it reduces his age and the dilapidated body he is in starts to change and reverse its ageing. Now starts his adventure.

I don’t like to give spoilers, but trust me I have barely scratched the surface. This is chapter 1. Now, it turns out Damien’s transition did not go smoothly on account he panicked and tried to escape his fate. Everyone on Nordan gets one school of magic and due to his panicking, he ended up in the old man who happened to be a healer. A healer is a bit rubbish he thinks for a swash-buckling hero. Only it turns out, Champions get a second school of magic and Damien’s turns out to be Necromancy. Yep, he has the power over life and death. Suffice it to say, it takes a bit of adjustment for our hero. It is not an easy start and it turns out you can’t trust anyone.

The story is gloriously long (a bit like this review). I mean it is great value for money (the book not this review) and I raced through it which says a lot for the story. The characters, especially the undead ones, are a load of fun. The world of Nordan feels suitably large and epic and is filled with every fantasy race imagined, from Minotaurs to Naga. There are some gripes, grammatical errors and a pet peeve of mine, the excessive use of the word ‘snicker’. It is used so much that after a while I just snickered when I came across it (see what I did there?) which made my wife think I was a bit touched since sometimes it occurred two or three times on a page.

Also, when I think about it, Damien is pretty evil. I mean he jumps in with both feet. Wipes out whole villages of people whether they be Brownies (not the girl guide variety that would be a wrong too far!), Naga, Centaurs. You name it, Damien will kill it. Think about that. Whole families, male, female, their young all to fuel his growing needs. It is pretty sick and yet spoken of with such flippancy. I guess Damien is an anti-hero, yet he wants to be good and retain his humanity but then does everything counter to that. He is loyal, but only to his minions it seems to me, the rest can go holler. This uncomfortable facet of the book is counter-set by the fact everyone else seems just as bloodthirsty as he is but he does take it to another level. Damien seems at times overpowered, yet other characters are vastly more powerful. He is a genius at tactics (who knew?). He can raise the dead and the living with his Necromancy and Healer abilities and indeed he does. It all created a lack of jeopardy with Damien which is not so good but then there was enough to go around for all those other great characters that this was offset to an extent.

So, I will wrap this up. Engaging read, long and not without its flaws but I have to give the author a tip of my hat because I enjoyed it on many levels. A cookie-cutter (anti)hero maybe but it was a fun ride and great value. The last third of the story had more to offer as well, elevating it which it needed. The Amazon ‘Look Inside’ will give you a feel for the story and writing style. If you like LitRPG then give it a try.

4/5 Stars, A Great Family Friendly Fantasy

I tried this fantasy offering from R E Palmer an Indie author and have to say I found the book enjoyable and easy to read.

It is a family-friendly fantasy with no gratuitous violence, the fight scenes being non too graphic but enough to convey the threat and horror required, there is no profane language and both protagonists are engaging and likeable.

The story centres around Elodi the Lady of Harlyn, whose father died in tragic and dubious circumstances in the capital of the five kingdoms Archonholm, and Toryn, a farmers son who dreams of more, seeing more of being more, who suddenly finds he is more than he thought he was, that his past, his origin, is shrouded in mystery.

Underpinning both Elodi and Toryn’s story is the Archon, ruler and grand protector of the Five Realms, whose word is law, even to the rulers of the Five Kingdoms for he guards against the growing enemy in the south. The Archon makes more and more demands on the people and resources of the Five Kingdoms, his farsight showing him that the enemy attack is imminent. But the Archon is not all he seems and against this threat in the south, Elodi must find a way to counter the Nordruuk clans of the north who threaten the borders of Harlyn.

The premise holds much promise and delivers on most. The story is well-written and constructed, and fast-paced enough that it kept me engaged. It can be tricky sometimes for an author to balance the story with two main characters, often I find one is more engaging than the other but I felt here that both protagonists held their own and I enjoyed each shift in narrative.

Overall, the story built nicely, epic battles were fought and mystery and magic grew with each chapter reaching a suitable finale with the promise that the story had only just begun. I tend to prefer my fantasy a bit grittier and darker than this tale and grander in plot and scope but that doesn’t take away that this story was a good read and it is suitable for young adults and adults alike.

Hello, everyone

It has been a while since I did a post or book review. On the latter, I have had two DNF’s on a fantasy and a Sci-fi book which did not warrant a review. They weren’t for me.

I am however reading T.C. Edge’s The Fetters of Fate – Book 4 in the Bladeborn Saga and the book is a bit of a beast in size and a monster of a story. All of which I love, because I am absolutely gripped. I will probably not post a review for it, however I will rate it. I reviewed book 1 and if that didn’t grab you a review on book 4 in the series won’t either.

Darkness Resides

Speaking of books in a series, Darkness Resides, book 3 in the Morhudrim Cycle is with my editor for review still. She did have a bit of a ‘mare when her first round of edits were all lost when her hard disk failed to load. I have a meeting with her later this month and I have some PC knowledge and hope I can recover it for her but if not it will be back to square one for her edits and unfortunately that will likely mean a delay. Bad news, but these things happen and lets face it, in the scheme of things it is nothing (other than onerous).

When Darkness Resides is finally released, I will be running a free competition to win an ebook or paperback edition of Darkness Resides (or gasp…if you’ve not read it yet, Rivers Run Red, winners choice). This will only be open to my subscribers, all you will need do to enter will be to reply to my competition newsletter when I send it in a few months time. NB I don’t have that many subscribers so you have decent odds!

So that is really it, sorry I have nothing more enlightening to tell you all but I felt I should at least send a post so that you know I haven’t forgotten you. The next month I am away so the website updates will be pretty limited but please feel free to check back and as ever, if you have any comments or feedback on my books or website that can help me improve what I deliver, please let me know. Or just to say hello!

Be safe, have fun, read a book and have a great summer

A D Green