Book Review-The Umbral Storm: Magic, Not Mundane (Author-Given Copy)

Author: Alec Hutson

Genre: Fantasy

Medium: ARC Apple iBook (physical copies are available),

TW: teen endangerment, mentions and depictions of violence towards teens, child death, mentions of animal abuse, enslavement

Overview:

At first blush, this book feels familiar. There’s a ‘generic fantasy world’ with a caste system where most of the population is not magically inclined aside from the nobles. Each part of the world is either hostile or indifferent towards one another, seeking power. The main character discovers he can use this magic, and gets whisked away. The dark powered ones are spooky, and their boarding school/familiar stronghold is hell. We’ve seen this before. But not really.

The devil’s in the details and boy does he deliver.

But with any good book, there are some flaws, although for a debut novel, not as much as I expected. It’s a wonderful first outing, with some slight missteps.

The Good:

Pacing: Let’s start with this book’s greatest strength; the pacing. From the first few pages, I was enraptured, and the book never let me go. The prose definitely helps with this, as action scenes are blisteringly fast, while scenes at rest still carry an undercurrent of action. I could not find any dead scenes, which is a marvel for a fantasy tome. (It was such a marvel that it kept me up past 3 am reading.)

The Setting: The prose communicated a vivid sense of place, and of history. I could see the places where the characters were going, from the shadow house in the mouth of an active volcano, to a forest with skyscraper-tall trees.

Magic System: The magic system is as mysterious and vivid as the setting, which is a positive here. I find myself wanting to dive deeper in to it, and I hope that there is more experimentation with it in the next volume.

Side Characters: I absolutely adore the side characters in this book. I was ensnared by them, because they felt real. Sometimes, characters feel as if they exist only for the story they are in. This is fine for some stories, but in larger works, it makes the world feel thin. I am happy to say that The Umbral Storm and the world it introduces does not have these paper doll characters, for the most part. Each side character with any prominence has a life outside of the story. They feel as if they each have their own adventures to go on. As this is a book with an ensemble cast (with Deryn being the main point of view character), this bodes well for the rest of the series.

This extends to the main characters of the ensemble cast like Heth and Alia. Their stories could fill up a book from before they met Deryn, and I would read it.

The Representation: Although ambiguous, there is queer representation here, between two main characters, which is appreciated. (Happy Pride everyone!)

The Ehhh:

The Main Character: Now, the main character Deryn has his own depth, but he seemed a bit too naiive at times, when he shouldn’t be? For example, (minor spoilers) again and again, he is told that the Shards (this world’s magic enablers) were enough to kill for. He then allows himself to be alone with someone who is immediately shifty. However, this is not immersion breaking.

Abrupt Ending: (Spoilers for the rest of this section.) The ending felt abrupt. There is peril and it is resolved, and the characters get a power up, a tincture is used and not questioned. There are some large plot points that have not been resolved as well, and I hope they will not be discarded.

The Bad:

I legitimately do not believe that there were any ‘bad’ parts of this book. Again, it’s quite a marvel.

Sequel Worthy?

Yes. I desperately want a sequel, and hopefully won’t have to wait too long (the sequel is supposed to be out this summer). I can’t wait to be caught up in the rest of the world, even if sometimes there are small stumbles.

Final Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Drink Paring: Iced dark black tea (for Shadow Magic) and a rich shortbread cookie

Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Umbral-Storm-Sharded-Few-Book-ebook/dp/B09ZBGFFYP

Book Review-Od and Ed: An Odd Read

 

 

 Author: Shanti Leonard

Genre: Horror 

Medium: Kindle e-book (although some really cool physical editions are available）

TW: child endangerment, mentions and depictions of violence towards children, child death, mentions of animal abuse

 

When I first opened the book on my Kindle--I had no idea what to expect. The excerpt was vague, and the premise was well, odd. A child who lives in a real haunted house with his adopted sister gets the soul scared out of him, and his sister has to find a way to reconnect his body and soul. This deceptively simple premise serves as the skeleton for a very surreal experience. For example, right at the start, we are treated to a chapter where the cousin of the titular Odd and Ed has a fantasy of opening Od's underwear drawer with his mind, and the book only gets more disturbing and fascinating from there. It's definitely not meant for the faint of heart, (heed the trigger warnings, people!) but the further I got into the book, the more I felt like I couldn't put it down.

 

Sometimes, however, it is painfully obvious that this book was written by an adult trying to re-create a childhood from the late 80's . (A Commodore 64 features in the plot heavily, and there are references to the original He-Man and She-Ra, for example.) This childishness was definitely at odds (ha!) with the way that the narration described the children's bodies (the word ass and certain other swear words being used comes to mind). I understand that children do swear, (and Od and Ed are 12-13, so this would be their primary time to start) but to hear the narration engage in this as well was a bit jarring. The narration is in limited third-person singular, so we only truly see the perspective of these characters one at a time which does heighten the tension, but the perspective shifts are confusing if you are not expecting them. In addition to this, the plot can seem a bit out of left field sometimes, and some of the elements of the plot are not fleshed out at all (to possibly leave room for a sequel?), and that ambiguity sometimes hurts the story as a whole.

 

Another thing that may give readers whiplash is the amount of graphic imagery that the book contains, which I alluded to above.  There are dead bodies dragging around their intestines, many eyed souls grasping for release, needles being stuck into children to drain their souls, and permanent child death. There are terrible, ghoulish adults and shadows around every corner. Some of the imagery will undoubtedly stick with me for a while, which includes the setting. The town doesn't seem safe, and everything is almost haze-like (including the house which caused this trouble).

 

Aside from the imagery and setting, the child leads are relatively believable, and Od and Ed have a genuine sibling relationship, which is rare. (I do wish they fought a bit more, but maybe it's because I fought with my sister a lot.) Odd in particular is my favourite, with her ability to roll with the punches, so to speak. The antagonist is suitably terrifying, and deadly, along with her grisly children.  However, the book also does not have any characters of colour. The two main characters are two explicitly white and blonde children, and so are the people that help them. I only wish that there was more diversity in the cast.

 

All in all, I recommend the book if you like slightly ham-fisted 80's nostalgia, dead bodies, interesting death mechanics, well-written sibling bonds and scares. Just be warned, this isn't a light story.

 

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 

 

Drink Pairing:  Anhui Black Tea (2020) with a tiny spoonful of sugar (for the wholesome sibling bond)

 

Travelogue 2: An Examination of Beijing Airports

(This was originally going to be published in 2017, before COVID, but since I’m resurrecting this blog from the ashes, I’d figure I’d finish this. I’ll get back to the Travelouges when I can travel again.)

Before the Beijing airport, there was the flight to Beijing. Air China is no joke. When I finally got on the plane, after being raced up the plane ramp, I was floored. The plane itself was quite large, and looked like it could seat about 150 people. There were about ten seats in first class, and the rest were all for economy. They were all filled in record time. I had to help a lady work her screen. Their airline food came in 2 different flavors, a ‘Chinese’ style and a ‘Western’ style, and they were decent. They definitely have better food than United. 

When I finally got off the plane from Jersey, I was shuffled into a wheelchair after a wait of about 10 minutes while everyone else got off the plane. The stewardesses were kind of awkward around me. I knew little Chinese at that point (something that has been slow to change, even while I'm here) and trying to reassure them and keep my own cool was a bit of an ordeal. Luckily, I was able to leave the plane without much incident, besides a few stares.

The Beijing international airport is beautiful. Honestly, it could be a city onto itself. There are myriad shops and even tourist spots right outside of the international flights entrance. There are hundreds of people around the floors and it’s so loud. However, I could feel the air outside of the lane, and it makes me tear up every time. 

I don’t really get much of a chance to explore, however. The agents that helped me stayed with me, and that made it different. I suppose it was their jobs, but I was definitely chafing at the bit. Overall, the experience was exciting but limiting, which was like a lot of my time in Chengdu. Hey, foreshadowing! 

Thanks for reading

—TRR

Travelogue #1: Airport Chaos - Part 1

So, this is my first travel post. Thank you for reading this far.

I began my travels on January 12th, when I left home for the Cleveland Hopkins airport. It was raining hard that day,  and it seemed to reflect my mood.

Rain, far from being depressing, always scared me a bit. Rain put me on edge, because where there was rain there were often storms. A storm was happening on that night too. I was put on the edge. It didn't help that my mother was beside herself when I left. She was trying not to cry, but I could tell that she was breaking down. That was really the moment that it hit me. I was leaving.

When I got inside, my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't  give the counter woman my passport, so my sister did it for me. I bought her food, she finally got me on Snapchat and then she left. It was mundane, and didn't have the 'gravitas' I was thinking it would have. I didn't feel like I was changing my life, or doing anything special. (I still don't really.)

The first plane ride passed by in a blur. I remember being in a fever-like state, staring out of the window so hard that I through my eyes were going to pop. This is where I had my first taste of a german caramel waffle cake. It was pretty good! Very sweet, but cold.

Once I got to Newark, it was chaos. A harried agent helped me onto a large cart, and I went off to my resumed gate. Except, it wasn't my gate. I found that out about a half an hour before my plane was going to leave. So, I was rushed headlong to the new flight by a really nice South African woman, who stayed with me until I got to the international gate. She made my trip so much easier, and with her help I was ready to face the next leg of my journey.

In my next post, I will describe my experience going through customs, my exchanging of international money, and my first flight out to Beijing. Thanks for going on this trip with me!

-TRR

Introduction

Welcome to my review homepage! I have a few older posts on here, and I’ll leave them up for posterity’s sake, but from this moment on this blog will be exclusively book reviews and travelogues. Have a seat, and I hope that you’ll be able to find a new book or two.