Shadow of the Wraith Blog and Review

Howdy Folks,

Just me with yet another Bandit Book Blog, this time it's a book I've actually read, enjoyed thoroughly and have read again since, which is a pretty good indicator of whether a book rates a thumbs up from me, I read it over and over again.

The Book is called Shadow of the Wraith, by an ever so nice gentleman who lives on the Emerald Isle, by the name of Ross Harrison, I reviewed it for my friend Sammy HK Smith, the publisher of my own work, for her blog when she interviewd Ross for her blog, and I'm going to put it up again along with everything else you need to know to purchase a copy of this fine piece of fiction.

Shadow of the Wraith (by Ross Harrison)

Review by David Muir

Right, Sammy asked me to do this review for her, maybe because she thinks I've got loads of free time (which I do, but don't needed reminded of) and I had only thus far read the Book in bits and pieces, Up on Authonomy and while not distracted by boobs and booze, I read a couple of the chapters after the parts on the site, but had enjoyed it so thoroughly I gave it a 4 star rating on good reads without actually reading the whole thing).

Anyway did finally read the whole thing and did most of it today, in fact I read 75% of the book today, and while there were bits missing from the draft that I had seen part of and bits added, it still holds on to it's essence. Which is frankly, (stealing a Castleism) is So Awesome! Great characters, most of them completely looney tunes. There's a main character who is more than he seems (which by the way I never saw coming and I normally see these things coming, until it was right in my face), who seems to live half in the real world half in the movies, hero complex much, along with his trusty sidekick, a relationship much like a certain Mr Reynolds and Mr Cobb, it has a wisecracking Android who throws off one liners that even Bender would be proud of (but sadly not as rude) along with the odd movie quoute (though the Arnie one was wrong), an assassin that learns to play nice with others, a bad guy who isn't a guy at all, intrigue and plot twists that makes your head spin a bit.

Anyway the story starts with Travis Archer, the focal character of the story, former Terran Alliance military operative, now bounty hunter who is chasing a mark he's been after for a bit, he finds him only for his bounty to be nicked by the Krathan Assasin Juni Lien. Mr Archer not so happy about this so when he goes looking for her on the ethernet (galactic internet) he finds his old team mate Jay Miller, has a bounty on his head, Archer feeling nothing but a sense of loyalty, and probably a good dose of his hero complex. This precipitates into an investigation for the alliance to find the Star Wraith, big honking ship that's been running around the stars knocking ships off left right and centre for years. They get the old team back together and add a number of aliens, including the Krathan Assasin eventually the aforementioned wisecracking Android.

There is intrigue abound as they are ordered to blow the Star Wraith, find out that it's actually built by the alliance, and basically steal the ship until they find out what is really going on. Now I'm sure I could reveal the whole plot to you, but that would be a waste, because you wouldn't get the enjoyment out of reading the book, so hopefully this should wet your appetite.

I did find the book awesome but there were also not so awesome parts to it, while the wisecracking robot was great at times it did feel as if some of the earlier witty spark between Archer and Miller which I found quiet interesting was transferred between the android and the guy who now owns him, and the too and fro between the team-mates wasn't used as well after that pint, and it felt like sometimes his jokes and one-liners were there just for the sake of it.

I felt that possibly it was a little too short. I think that sometimes it was too easy to get from a to b, the end hook was a little contrived and the author will know which bit I'm talking about, but maybe that particular character is the hook for the second because I understand the book is meant meant to be part of a series and while a lot of authors do that leave a hook (I do) so you know there's more to come and also leave it with a proper ending (which there is), I felt that the book itself is that hook and there wasn't any need for it to be that easy to get the information they needed to get to the end bit. I felt at times the author wanted to get his story out on the page (digital as mine may have been it's still a page) it maybe just felt a little too fast, though nominally the first book in a series is the shortest one.

I liked the way the parts of the book were broken up with the headings, but sometimes and I don't know if this is just the way it was formatted on my Kindle but on the same page without any spacing you had two different perspectives for characters in the same bit, but again maybe the formatting on my kindle.

All in all I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Science Fiction, Space Opera or as Ross put it Space Fantasy. It is all in all a good first book, and the fact that it is self-published shouldn't put you off because I have seen writers who actually got a book deal nowhere good as this.

Purchase Links:

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZBK6QA

ePub: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210824

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0957592906

Also available from a variety of other retailers.

 

Blurb:

It sounds like a simple assignment: track down the mysterious Star Wraith and put an end to its rampage. But when Travis Archer and his team of inept soldiers find themselves the most wanted people in the galaxy - hounded by assassins, terrorists and their own military - they realise the Wraith is just a symptom of a much larger problem... Finding war raging between one army intent on destroying an entire species, and another that will destroy the galaxy, Travis must put aside his fears and his past to uncover the truth behind it all. To become the hero he's always imagined.

Shadow of the Wraith is the first book in the NEXUS series.

Kindle ASIN: B007ZBK6QA

£2.49 $3.79

ePub ISBN: 9781476390390

£2.49 $3.82

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0957592902

£7.99 $12.10

About the Author:

Ross Harrison has been writing since childhood without thought of publication. When the idea was planted by his grandmother to do so, it grew rapidly, and after a bumpy ten years or so, here sits the fruit. Ross lives on the UK/Eire border in Ireland, hoping the rain will help his hair grow back.

Links:

http://www.ross-harrison.com

http://www.facebook.com/StarWraith

http://www.twitter.com/AuthoRoss

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ross-Harrison/e/B007ZSUY06/

Healer's Touch

As part of the bloggers tour that brought you Seasons of the Dead, it now brings you Healers Touch, unfortunately this is a couple of days late, because I finally replaced my PC (yay) and spent the first twelve hours after replacing it minus time for food consumption and other things that we won't name I played Star Trek Online (withdrawal from Gaming much?) also apart from that I've been busy writing my own stuff, and I'm going to stop myself from ranting and droning so without  further ado.

HEALER’S TOUCH

by

Deb E Howell

For Llew to heal, something must die.

Llew, a young pickpocket who lives as a boy on the streets of a wild-west mining town, finds her real problems begin when she survives the gallows. Forced to run, she persuades a group of fighters escorting a young girl to her wedding to let her travel with them across the badlands. On the journey Llew faces hostile tribesmen, desperate bandits and, the enmity of her own companions should they find out who and what she is: a girl, a fugitive, and a feared Healer. One of the fighters, Jonas, possesses superhuman prowess as a warrior, and carries the knife able to ‘kill the unkillable’; the knife that can kill Llew. Despite being of races at war for centuries, they are drawn to one another.

During the journey, they encounter Braph the magician, Jonas’ half-brother and potential nemesis. He pursues them as they journey across the sea to the continent of Phyos and at the moment Llew finally feels safe, he abducts her. He begins to take what is most precious to him: her blood.

Healer’s Touch is a mesmerising mix of fantasy, steampunk and Wild West adventure – and even a dash of romance!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bio:

Deb E was born in New Zealand’s North Island, but her parents corrected that within months, moving south to Dunedin and staying there. Childhood nights were spent falling asleep to cover versions of Cliff Richard and the Shadows and other Rock ’n Roll classics played by her father’s band, and days were spent dancing to 45 LPs. Many of her first writing experiences were copying down song lyrics. She graduated to scientific reports when she studied a fungus in the Zoology department of the University of Otago, trading all traces of popularity for usefulness... then traded both for fiction.

Deb lives in Dunedin, New Zealand with her family and a menagerie of pets.

Links:

Website/Blog: http://deberelene.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deberelene

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/deberelene

and many more...

REVIEWS

REVIEW BY JO TOON,

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

Healer's Touch is set in a fantasy world where magic and the Wild West era have combined. Llew is a street girl with the ability to heal herself, whose life is changed beyond recognition when she tries to steal a knife from a stranger. Disguised as a boy, she is forced to leave her home, the gold-town of Cheer where she has lived all her life, and accompany the stranger, Jonas, and his companions on their mission, crossing country and continents. Along the way she learns more about Jonas, and the ancient emnity between the two races, the Aenuks and the Kara. She also discovers where she fits in in this battle and that her ability to heal herself and others is more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

Healer's Touch is Deb E. Howell's debut novel, and is an absolute page turner of a read. The setting of a Fantasy book against a Wild West era background provides a novel viewpoint to the quest story. The world which has been built is intriguing, and the history of both the races and the main characters is very well written.

There isn't a dull moment in the story, with the action starting from the first page. Deb E. Howell has a great knack of building the tension up subtly without ever making it seem forced, and mixing it with moments of calm and sudden bursts of energy. She draws the reader in to the world and brings it to life, allowing us to discover the landscape, people and history along with Llew as she starts her journey from the small frontier town of Cheer, Aghacia, to Rakun in Brurun and beyond.

The principal characters are very much frontier town folk and are very well rounded and realised. The secondary ones could have possibly done with a little more fleshing out, to give us a bit more of an insight into their history and motivations, and I am hoping that this will come in the second volume of the series.

Overall, this is an excellent read, and a very promising start to a series; I am now eagerly awaiting the next book!

REVIEW BY ELISA NEVILLE (blogger/reader)

lostinsidethecovers.wordpress.com/

This is an epic fantasy adventure and is a tiny bit reminiscent of an Eddings book or something similar. Llew is a healer, but knows nothing of her people, history or abilities.  She has to get out of town fast when she heals herself in public and the townsfolk come after the “witch”.  She hooks up with a girl and her guards who are going across the countryside to meet her new arranged husband.

Llew has been hiding in plain sight as a boy since her father disappeared when she was 11.  She hasn’t had an easy time of things, and even though she makes friends in her new travel companions, things aren’t that easy.  Her abilities are a double-edged sword, sure she can heal, but she pulls the life force from living things and can kill people, animals and plants using her healing powers.  Because she is so dangerous to living things, her kind is not popular in many countries and she will either be killed, studied or sent to a breeding program to make more like her.  Not good options.  Llew starts to find out who and what she is, a bit of a coming of age and taking responsibility for ones actions - I always love stories like that!

Jonas is also gifted, but with strength and speed and is the mortal enemy of the healers.  So guess what happens…

Llew is a strong heroine I loved reading about.  She is pragmatic, women aren’t treated very well but she has learned some tricks and stands up for herself physically and verbally.  I wanted to cheer her on a few times when she stood up for herself.  I was also embarrassed for her a time or two when she couldn’t control her mouth.  Double edged sword.  It is funny, I was reminded of the fairy tale Ring of Consequences while reading this story, because the ring grants wishes, but you never knew what the result of the wish would be: something good and something bad, that dang double edged sword again!

This story does have a little romance in it, but it is pretty PG13 and stays fairly clean even though there are definitely adult “situations”.  There is a lot of death, some curse words and they have to deal with rape.  Nothing violently written, and it was “well done” but it was still a bummer and the characters struggle with it – as they should.

Ok, so this is an epic fantasy, and there are three books planned for the series and I was super worried it would end with them in the exact middle of a quest on the trail or something, and while there is more story to tell, it was ok.  Shew!  It wasn’t one big book cut into three parts (cough, LOTR cough).  But I want the next book NOW!  There are some things, and some decisions, and what will happen and somewhat about that guy questions I would really like to get some answers to.  So this is a rainbow day (happy yet sad) I am happy to have read this early, but I read it early and now have longer to wait!  My life is so tough. I give this book 4.5 glowing stars (out of 5).

SHORTER REVIEWS/SNIPPETS

“There isn’t a dull moment in the story, with the action starting from the first page.” — Jo Toon, Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ)

“It has been a while since I rated a book 5 stars for more than the fact that I liked the story… but I have to say Healer’s Touch was definitely a truly well earned 5.” — Miz Reader (Book Blogger).

“Deb E. Howell comes out swinging!” — Craves the Angst Book Blog

“Howell is only scratching the surface of her writing talents and worth watching as the series develops.” — Noor A. Jahangir

“Healer’s Touch brought very real, very wet tears to my eyes on several occasions, and this is one of the signs that let me distinguish between good authors and great authors. …I really felt this book.” — Hypervorean Book Blogger

“From the first chapter Llew grabs hold of your heart and you are there fighting with her.” — Eclipse Reviews

“…an epic fantasy adventure and is a tiny bit reminiscent of an Eddings book…” — Lost Inside The Covers Review Blog

“Healer’s Touch Delivers Transfusion of Originality to Fomulaic Fantasy Genre” — Author Dean Lombardo

“…a must read for all fantasy lovers especially those looking for a new slant on the genre.” — Amazon Review

An Excerpt from Healer’s Touch—

“Llew!”

He gathered her to him. So alive moments earlier, now limp. All he could see was blood. It covered her hands, soaked her shirt and pooled on the ground. He clasped her chin, turning her to him. The touch sent a tingle through his fingers even as more blood gushed from her open throat and he jerked his hand away, letting her head fall back. His eye was drawn by movement in the grass. One of Llew’s hands had fallen to the ground and the grass around it was dying in an ever increasing circle.

Jonas swallowed down his revulsion and dumped her unceremoniously on the ground, jumping to his feet. In a daze, he reclaimed his knives from the corpses, taking them to the water’s edge to clean with vigorous sweeps of his fingers down the blades. He berated himself for even toying with the idea of getting involved with her. What did he really know about her? He knew her name. And now he knew all he needed to know.

He wiped the half-clean blades on his thigh, sheathed them in his vest and drew the big knife at his hip. He cradled it in his hands, watching the moonlight fly off as he tilted it back and forth. There was one purpose to this knife’s existence: to kill the unkillable. And there was no safer time to make an attempt on the life of an Aenuk than when they were already half dead.

Jonas turned from the water. The meadow was now like a hayfield. Each blade of grass, each leaf of clover, each dandelion had given its all to provide but a tiny fraction of the energy – jin, as it was known in Turhmos – needed to bring a person back from near-death.

She lay unconscious, but her breathing was steady now. He had limited time to act. He crouched beside her, knife hovering over her back right where her heart should be, assuming Aenuks had a heart. But this was Llewella. She wasn’t like the Aenuks he had faced on the Turhmos killing fields. She wasn’t trained to fight, to continue to fight, and to take the enemy with her when she faced final death. She was merely a girl doing what she had to do to survive.

PURCHASE LINKS

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/323265

Amazon US (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJE8NSK/

Amazon UK (Kindle): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Healers-Touch-ebook/dp/B00DJE8NSK/