Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski

In a fantasy realm where the races of humankind, elves, dwarves, and gnomes have ceased to co-exist peacefully, there lives a princess whose inner power, if left uncontrolled, could destroy the world. Geralt of Rivia, also known as the Witcher, and his friends, are tasked with not only protecting this girl but also instructing her so that her abilities don’t destroy her mind from the inside-out.

“Ciri had heard such reassurances in the past. … Now she believed it. Because it was Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, the Witcher, who said it. The man who was her destiny.” pg 11, ebook

But there are forces in this world who are seeking Ciri for other reasons. She has the potential to be a force for the greater good or a weapon of chaos.

“Difficult times are approaching,” she said quietly. “Difficult and dangerous. A time of change is coming. It would be a shame to grow old with the uncomfortable conviction that one had done nothing to ensure that these changes are for the better.” pg 23, ebook

I picked up Blood of Elves because I recently watched most of the Netflix show based on the video games and also these books. I thought Blood of Elves was the first in the series, but apparently I missed a short story collection prior to this book.

That didn’t lessen my enjoyment of this tale, but I do enjoy having context. Andrzej Sapkowski does a good job of dropping bread crumbs about who Witchers are, who Ciri is, and the complex interactions of the different powers in the world, so newcomers to the book-version of the story, like me, can keep up and it doesn’t feel like an information dump.

“You are not learning in order to kill and be killed. You are not learning to kill out of fear and hatred, but in order to save lives. Your own and those of others.” pg 59, ebook

A small complaint though, and I had this same comment about the Netflix show, is that the storyline bounces around quite a lot. If you’re not paying attention, or reading carefully, you’re in danger of losing the thread because this isn’t a simple world nor is it populated by one dimensional characters.

Sapkowski shines in the dialogue between these characters, especially during the action sequences. It is easy to see why a video game was created using this material.

“Remember,” she repeated. “magic is Chaos, Art and Science. It is a curse, a blessing and progress. It all depends on who uses magic, how they use it, and to what purpose.” pg 147, ebook

Highly recommended for fans of the genre, the games or show. Blood of Elves delivers.

Thanks for reading!

Aching God (Iconoclasts, #1) by Mike Shel

In the fantasy world of Aching God, a mysterious plague has emerged at the headquarters of the Syraeic League, an adventuring guild that explores the ruins of an ancient civilization. Their century-old quest is to retrieve relics from the ruins and to discover more information about its culture and gods.

Auric Manteo used to go on these quests for the League until a disastrous final foray led to an abrupt retirement and years of nightmares. But things have been looking up for the aging adventurer, until he receives a letter from the League requesting his help in banishing the plague.

“Three years of untroubled sleep, disturbed by this nightmare the very morning a summons to Boudun and the Citadel arrived? Was it a hateful premonition?” pg 28, ebook

Can Auric face the demons from his past in order to save the afflicted from the ravages of the Aching God?

“His mind flashed to images from his tenacious nightmare: the corpses, the pit, Lenda’s raggedly severed head gaping at him in accusation. He rested a shaking hand on the pommel of his sword to steady it.” pg 73, ebook

Despite its promise, I think Aching God would be a better dungeon module than it is a story. Mike Shel begins to flesh out his characters, but they never get far beyond the basics of birthplace and motivation. I didn’t feel drawn to any of the characters because of this superficial depiction.

His magic system with its secretive sorcerers who embed gems in their foreheads in order to bind themselves to their magical powers and comrades was also interesting. But, again, Shel leaves a majority of the storytelling to the reader’s imagination rather than actually writing it.

The adventure itself is linear with few unexpected twists and turns. Even the reveal of the great mystery of the Aching God leaves something to be desired.

Only recommended for readers who adore the fantasy adventure genre. Otherwise I would give this a pass.

Thanks for reading!

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente

“I gradually understood the truth of my situation: I was a secret.” pg 14, ebook.

Catherynne Valente has penned a bewildering and ultimately disappointing western-tinged fairy tale retelling in Six-Gun Snow White. Her reimagining of the classic story has Snow White as an unloved daughter of a mine speculator and an abused, indigenous mother. When her mother ends her own life, Snow White’s father marries a mysterious woman from back East, the evil stepmother of fairytale infamy, whom the narrator calls Mrs. H.

“She named me a thing I could aspire to but never become, the one thing I was not and could never be: Snow White.” pg 27, ebook

The disappointing part of the story is not the set up or general idea of Snow White as a western, both of which I thought were excellent. The trouble arrives in the magical portions of the story which are, in my opinion, not well written. They felt disjointed and tacked on.

It’s curious to me that I didn’t like this story because Valente is one of my favorite authors. There is no one like her when it comes to an interwoven story or mysterious magic. Maybe my issue with this tale is that it’s so short Valente didn’t have a chance to work her usual story telling magic? Perhaps.

The ending was an enormous let down as well.

Not recommended.

Thanks for reading!

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

“The third time she was reborn, Gullveig fled, though she left something behind: her speared heart, still smoking on the pyre.” pg 4

Angrboda, the Norse witch formerly known as ‘Gullveig’, is hiding from the Aesir when the trickster god Loki finds her. And changes her life (or in her case: lives) forever.

“Although her memories as Gullveig were vague enough, she recalled feeling like she didn’t belong – and the moment they’d turned on her, burned her, she’d felt a lot of things. But the emotion she could recall most distinctly was not fear or anger, but the feeling of being used.” pg 43

The gods kill Angrboda because of her refusal to share the secret of her scrying power, called ‘seid’. She will not look into the future and give Odin the mysteries that reside at the end of all things.

Odin does not take no for an answer.

Genevieve Gornichec reimagines the shadowy character of Angrboda in this Norse myth-filled retelling. Maybe it’s because I’m a classics major and gravitate towards mythology, but it seems to me that it has become somewhat popular to do so – think The Song of Achilles or Circe.

In this case, I feel like Gornichec didn’t go far enough in her imagining. She gave Angrboda a voice, a rare talent, and a fierce love for her children, but, beyond that, the witch remains a fairly passive character.

Part of this could be due to the fact that the Aesir are such powerhouses in the old myths. They hog the spotlight and the action. But still, I believe there’s enough room around the stories to give a figure whose mythology has been largely forgotten a new legacy.

I think the biggest missed opportunity for this is in Angrboda’s relationship with Loki.

“She would do anything for him, she realized then… And for some reason, this scared her, as if the thought itself were a promise she knew that she couldn’t hope to keep.” pg 74

Like the other major players in the mythology, readers will be familiar with many of Loki’s hijinks. He is constantly in action, tricking people or becoming the victim of his own cleverness. What readers have never really gotten to see is his interior world. What is he thinking when he pulls his legendary stunts? What are his secret motivations?

One would think this is something he might share with a lover. But the storytelling never quite got there and I found The Witch’s Heart to be rather a disappointment in that way.

That being said, if you’re a reader who enjoys mythological retellings, there is still much to enjoy in this story. It is well-written if fairly limited in scope.

Thanks for reading!

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming: Book One: Theory by Sienna Tristen

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming is a fantasy journey in which Ronoah, an introverted and anxious main character, discovers a strength inside himself that he didn’t know he had and, along the way, learns about the world outside of the regimented and ill-fitting expectations of his hometown.

It is not a simple adventure because Ronoah, with all of his hang ups, is a very unlikely hero.

“… Ronoah was not one tenth the rebel she needed him to be. Inertia had him by the throat, and its consequence was a keen pain squatting ugly at the bottom of his soul, rotting it from the roots up.” pg 9

Like other readers, I found author Sienne Tristen‘s depiction of Ronoah’s crippling anxiety and panic attacks to be one of the most insightful and sensitive pieces of writing I’ve ever had the privilege to read. Unlike most works of fantasy in which the action takes place in an external world, Ronoah’s greatest battles are in his own mind.

The anxiety speaks with its own voice and becomes a main character throughout the story.

“What were you thinking, it sneered, acting like you’re so important, so worldly, making it out like you’re some big intellectual champion when all you really are is a petulant runaway with a few bits of trivia stuck in your useless head? Talking and talking like you’re an authority on anything- who do you think you are?” pg 53

Ronoah’s interactions with the other characters from the book take on a secondary importance to the all-encompassing relationship that he has with his inner world. But they are still beautiful connections.

“… He had this way of grabbing life by the horns and refusing to let go, no matter how it tried to shake him off. You know those people you sometimes find, the ones who…” “Who shine.” pg 154

Sienna Tristen’s writing brings to light foibles of anxious people that might otherwise remain shrouded in the sufferer’s inability to vocalize their feelings. Anybody who has ever spent a sleepless night stuck in the agony of fear and indecision will understand exactly what Tristen is spelling out in this story.

On the other hand, I found the first two-thirds of the book to be extremely triggering because of this gigantic magnifying glass that is held up to anxiety. The pacing didn’t do me any favors either. As Ronoah slowly twisted in the unending spirals of panic in his own head, I hung on the hook right along with him.

It was helpful to see Ronoah’s thinking process which Tristen writes so beautifully. Almost every time, readers can feel the moment he tips from functional person with some worries to frozen anxious mess. In my own life, I’ve started to watch for those tipping points- the moments I go from concerned about the future to paralyzed by anxiety. It has actually been quite illuminating.

But all of that new found self knowledge doesn’t make for a fun read. Fiction is one of my escapes from reality. In this book, I found quite a lot of reality and it wasn’t an escape after all.

“How far do you have to push your boundaries before you can feel them stretch? How high do you have to climb before your horizon expands? Is it possible to notice your own growing, or is improvement like an eyeball- visible to everything but itself?” pg 193

Recommended for readers who don’t mind very slow pacing in exchange for gorgeous writing about anxiety. Mind the triggers.

Thanks for reading!

The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1) by Terry Pratchett

“Tiffany Aching was lying on her stomach by the river, tickling trout. She liked to hear them laugh. It came up in bubbles.” pg 5, ebook.

With those three sentences, Terry Pratchett introduces readers to one of the most beloved characters from his Discworld series, Tiffany Aching.

Young Tiffany lives in sheep raising country, where chalk from an ancient sea lies beneath the ground. When an otherworldly creature bursts out of a creek and tries to pull her and her little brother Wentworth beneath its waters, Tiffany fights back.

It is the beginning of a life or death struggle with monsters from worlds beyond Discworld, though Tiffany does not know it at the time.

But luckily for her, there are allies who will join her in this fight- the Wee Free Men.

“In the reeds, quite low down, small voices whispered: “Crivens, Wee Bobby, did yer no’ see that?” “Aye, we’d better offski an’ tell the Big Man we’ve found the hag.” pg 10

Pratchett weaves this coming of age story with humor and magic. He utilizes the best themes of the Witches Discworld subseries to do so.

Tiffany discovers headology, the importance of belief and appearances, and her own mysterious connection to a witch legacy that was hiding in plain sight in the hills.

The pacing of the tale is quick, racing from one danger to the next, and perfect for young adults or reluctant readers who enjoy fantasy.

In addition, Pratchett uses a real life painting in the story which adds another layer of ‘fairy magic’ to the telling. The artwork is “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” by Richard Dadd and you can see it here: https://bit.ly/3tW58bb

Detail of “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke”

The surreal painting captures the unsettling feel of the creatures and worlds Pratchett so deftly describes. It is also whimsical, but hints at the danger lurking in the shadows.

For the past few weeks, I have been doing a read-through of the Discworld Witches series and really disliked the last one, Maskerade. I felt like the witches’ character flaws were beginning to dominate the story, which was draining its humor and heart away.

The Wee Free Men brings magic and heart back into the equation. In Tiffany, readers discover a brave young girl who wants to do the right thing but doesn’t have any one to show her the way. We know her mentors will show up eventually, but until then, she and the wee free men need to figure things out on their own.

And how they do that is a very good story. Highly recommended.

Thanks for reading!

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (The Siege, #1) by K.J. Parker

“Orhan.” Nobody called me that. “You’re a clever man and you use your brain, which makes you unique in this man’s town, but you’ve got to do something about your attitude.” “Attitude? Me?” pg 16

Through a series of unfortunate events, Orhan, the leader of a group of military engineers, finds himself in charge of the defense of “the City”, the capital of the Robur empire. The Robur empire seems to have been loosely based on the Roman empire, which, in its conquering of the world, took diverse sets of people and organized them into useful groups under its overarching control.

Orhan is one of these conquered peoples. But he has a unique set of skills, all of which will be put into use during the siege that is to come.

“My meteoric rise, from illiterate barbarian serf to commander of an Imperial regiment, is due to the Hus, the Sherden, the Echmen and, last but not least, the Robur, who are proud of the fact that over the last hundred years they’ve slaughtered in excess of a million of my people.” pg 5

The story is told entirely from Orhan’s point of view in first-person narrative. This invites the reader to step into Orhan’s shoes and makes the tale quite exciting and immediate.

On the other hand, Orhan is emotionally bereft and runs his life through merciless logic, which doesn’t always serve him, or the people around him, very well.

“That’s one thing about human beings I don’t see the point in: love. It does nobody any good. You love someone, and either they let you down or they die. Either way, you end up crucified.” pg 55

He is an impatient and, occasionally, violent character, who literally punches people when they don’t conform to his view of the world fast enough.

In other words, wearing Orhan’s shoes for the length of the story is an uncomfortable ride for anyone who uses a modicum of emotional intelligence in their lives.

Photo by Miquel Rossellu00f3 Calafell on Pexels.com

That being said, K.J. Parker (pen name for Tom Holt) has done a brilliant job of creating an unforgettable, if unpleasant, narrator. By the end of the book, even though I didn’t like him, I found myself rooting for Orhan anyway because that’s the kind of reader I am.

But if you have trouble connecting with stories where you don’t like the characters, this might not be the book for you.

The one moment where I did connect with the narrator was when he discovers his importance in the siege that is to come.

“If, as I was horribly afraid, I was the senior military officer in the City, I needed confirmation or a warrant or something. If there was someone higher up than me, I desperately wanted to hear about him and ask him for orders.” pg 78

I used to have similar feelings when I first started working as a reference librarian at the library. Prior to that, as a circulation assistant, if I had any question about anything having to do with the library or technology or research, I’d call up whoever was sitting at the reference desk and they’d supply me with the answer.

It was my own version of chain-of-command. There was an unspoken faith that I carried- if I didn’t know the answer, the reference librarian would so there was never any reason to worry.

The day that my training was done, my supervisor went home, and I was left alone at the reference desk, that was my Orhan moment. If I didn’t know or couldn’t find the answer, there was no one else for me to turn to.

It is humbling to realize that it all rests on your shoulders, but it is also a character making moment. How you respond to the pressure says so much about you. And that is the strength of this story, the slow revelation of Orhan’s character under pressure.

Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction. Though this is classified as a fantasy too, I feel like it veers more into a parallel universe than a true fantasy world where magic is real and otherworldly creatures are running around. I’d be curious to know what other readers think about its genre.

Thanks for reading!

Die #2: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans (Artist)

Now that the main characters from Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker are back in the fantasy gaming world of Die, they are struggling to make their way back to the real world.

Part of that struggle involves delving into the past and decisions made by their teenage selves. There are lost loves, old enemies and even a few descendants to contend with- not to mention old hurts that they’ve carried for years between members of their own party.

Which is a particular problem for our intrepid heroes. They all have to agree that they want to leave “Die” in order to do just that. And they don’t all want to leave anymore.

Like most sequels, at least in my experience, the follow up to the first issue wasn’t as strong. Now that readers are in the character development section of the story, action moves a little slower and it reads less like a fantasy adventure and more like a drama.

I think the character with the most potential for growth is Ash, the Dictator, who is a man in the real world, but a woman in the world of Die, and controls people’s emotions with her voice. But all of the movers and shakers in this drama have some growing to do.

There’s Ash’s sister Angela who plays a cyberpunk named Neo. In order to power her electronics, she uses ‘fair gold’, something which readers get to learn a little more backstory about in this issue.

My favorite character is Matt, the Grief Knight, whose power is fueled by his depression and despair. Of everyone in this story, I’m rooting for him to get home the most because of the unshakable love and devotion he has for his family.

He’s also, I think, the most relatable of the group. Who among us hasn’t felt the sting of the pain and sadness that life occasionally dishes up and wishes for a way to harness that power for the greater good?

In this issue, readers get to learn about the origins of Matt’s magical sword, the outer representation of that inner voice that whispers to him about his failings and secret anxieties.

We also brush on the mysteries of Sol’s resurrection, Chuck’s astounding conflict avoidance and the awesome extent, as well as limitations, of Isabelle’s godbinding powers.

I’m interested to see where the story goes next. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy fantasy and horror-tinged graphic novels.

Thanks for reading!

Maskerade (Discworld, #18; Witches #5) by Terry Pratchett

“The huge, be-columned, gargoyle-haunted face of Ankh-Morpork’s Opera House was there, in front of Agnes Nitt. She stopped. At least, most of Agnes stopped. There was a lot of Agnes.” pg 9, ebook.

The usually charming wit of Terry Pratchett falls flat in this entry of The Witches, a sub-series of Discworld.

Having already lampooned the general idea of ‘theater’ in Wyrd Sisters, Pratchett takes a crack at ‘musical theater’, specifically The Phantom of the Opera. Besides the addition of the witches to the mix, the main gag is that Agnes Nitt is fat.

It’s not a story that has aged well.

“Agnes was, Nanny considered, quite good-looking in an expansive kind of way; she was a fine figure of typical young Lancre womanhood. This meant she was approximately two womanhoods from anywhere else.” pg 21

Agnes is not the only person in the story with weight concerns, the other being one of the lead singers in the opera, a male. But Agnes, despite her obvious talents, is forced to sing in the chorus, providing the voice for a willowy female who looks the part.

All of this is just a backdrop for the larger story which is basically that Granny Weatherwax is bored and Nanny Ogg is afraid if they don’t find another member for their coven, then Granny will turn to the dark side.

Which no one wants, obviously. Because Granny Weatherwax is one of the greatest of her age in headology and general witchy works, which vary greatly depending upon the circumstances.

And it brings the readers back around to the concern that I addressed in earlier books about Magrat (the witch they’re looking to replace) being bullied by the other older witches in the coven. In Maskerade, they’re just looking for a new punching bag.

The one bright spot in the story was Greebo, slinking around in his predatory human form. I love how he talks to people, elongating his R’s and adopting a general attitude of slightly aggressive insouciance, something which I imagine cats would do, if forced to speak English.

But beyond that, for whatever reason, this entry in the series didn’t hit the spot for me.

Here’s hoping the next is better.

Thanks for reading!

The Help Desk Book Blog

Sharing reviews and deep thoughts about life.

Category: Fantasy

Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski

Aching God (Iconoclasts, #1) by Mike Shel

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming: Book One: Theory by Sienna Tristen

The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1) by Terry Pratchett

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (The Siege, #1) by K.J. Parker

Die #2: Split the Party by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans (Artist)

Maskerade (Discworld, #18; Witches #5) by Terry Pratchett

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