Osric's Wand: The Wand-Maker's Debate....A quick peek

So this post will be a little different.  I am going to do a review on a book by a couple of authors named Jack D. Albrecht and Ashley Delay.  The name of their book is Osric’s Wand: The Wand-Maker’s Debate. 

I went into reading this with no expectations; I was going to give it an honest look with no preconceptions.  I’m going to talk about the overall setting first. 

I’m not sure what expectations the authors had for the setting in this book, but let me put it simply; the world they created for this book was spectacular.  The way that magic was approached was really intriguing.  The ways that the various races of people interacted was great, and there are a lot of races of people, more than I expected.  The world itself, was vibrant and full of life.  It was easy for me to picture, in my head, the places that were described, and let me tell you, I’ve got a crowded head!

The characters I like a lot, especially a prairie dog named Gus and a dwarf named Machai.  These characters’ sarcasm made me smile, which I suppose gives a little away about my personality.  The rest of the characters were equally interesting.  I genuinely cared about the characters for the most part.

The plot revolves around Osric, and his efforts to stop a war that may break out after an attack on a treaty signing.  Along the way he is accompanied by Gus, and prairie dog wand-maker, his son Pebble, whose innocence I loved, Bridgett, a young woman who spent years living among unicorns, Kenneth, Osric’s right-hand-man and a grumpy dwarf (big surprise) Machai.  Of course, things get a lot more difficult for Osric very quickly, when he discovers an old plot concerning the dragons, he must deal with also.  I’m not going to say any more about the plot, I don’t want to give it away, but trust me, it’s good.

The story line was excellent and it was easy to follow.  The story flowed well for me and there was very little if any, “down time” as I call it, in the plot.  The way that the different subplots blended in together was great.  I really hope there are more of these books coming, or maybe they are out there and I’m not smart enough to find them.  I’d love to follow these character’s more, and see where their adventure takes them.

To put it simply, I loved this book. It was easy to read and quite enjoyable.  I found myself caring about the characters, especially Gus and Machai.  I was always interested to see what was going to happen next.  In short if you like a good novel, give this one a look, you will not be disappointed.

I do feel I should say one more thing.  This is my first book review, so if seems kind of choppy and amateurish, well that’s because I am an amateur, but this is my honest opinion!

A Scribe's Work III

This is yet, another continuation of another story from my first book: Atonement.  Just as before if you want to know what happened in my first story, pick up my book(shameless plug #2). 

Anyway, the story centers around a young drifter who is searching for something.  As he is traveling by night through a forest he hears the scream of a young girl.  He investigates and finds a camp of outlaws holding both the young girl and her father captive. 

He moves in to rescue them, but once he does he is astonished when the father asks their rescuer to do even more, to stop an attack on a convoy.

The father is vague, at best, as to what is being carried by this convoy.  He reluctantly agrees and goes off in search of the convoy, with both the young girl and father in tow.  He finds the convoy and ultimately stops the attack, but a  black robed figure appears in a field of magical energy, just after the attack, and once again kidnaps the young girl. 

He will hold the girl for ransom, and the price will be the very thing in the convoy that the young man was asked to protect.  This story ends with the protagonist heading off to the nearest town, where the black robe man said to make the exchange.  He asked the father to stall in hopes he can rescue the girl.

I made this character into somewhat of a troubled soul, though it is not yet readily apparent.  He has a strong sense of justice and will not kill, or even attack unless provoked.  He is a skilled warrior and carries with him many surprises, which the first story in this series explains.  He has a troubled, secret past, which will be revealed in future stories, along with his motivations and goals of his travels.  Right now I am simply trying to establish the overall personality of the character.  While he may appear to be harsh and maybe even cruel at times, he is always playing both ends against the middle tyring to do what is right.

Of three Short stories that are serials this one is probably my favorite, due to the emotional factor and angst I plan to inject this character with.  I hope you will enjoy it too.  The next "Scribes" entry will be the last of my continuing stories, and from what I'm told it is the best of three. 

Thanks to all for your support!

A Scribe's Work II

The next story I am going to talk about is actually a continuation of a story from my first book.  I designed this one as well as two others from my first book to continue from book to book,

Anyway, this story centers around a Terran (human) battleship, the Lexington as she goes on in her duties.  The Terrans are at war with a group of star systems called the Coalition.  The war is essentially at a stalemate at the moment, as the Lexington and another ship are on mission trying to track down a coalition raiding party that attacked a convoy.

The small coalition ships stand no real chance against a Terran battleship(the first story in this series goes into this further) so they flee into a nearby star system.  The two Terran ships pursue it and just when they seem about to close in on them to destroy them, a new Coaltion weapon that the Terran's knew nothing about is unleashed on them.  The two ships now must fight a new, superior foe. 

The name of the story is called Island Universe.  There will not be a lot of back story in this, as I have already dealt with a lot of it in the first story in the series.  If you want to know what happens in the first story you'll need to pick up a copy of my first book (shameless plug)

I'm still currently working on the second book, but I am far closer to completing than I have been.  I go a lot done today and managed to get a rough e-book version done.  All it needs is cover art (which I am currently working on) and some final editing and formatting stuff.

I hope to have it done soon, maybe before I get all these done.  I know I will probably never get rich from my work, but that's not my goal, I just want my work to be appreciated by readers.  Thanks for all your support!

A Scribe's Work

As promised here is a little peek at one of my new short stories that is coming in my next short story book.  I don't really remember how I came up with the idea for this, but once I did I liked it so I ran with it.  It took me a long time to get this one ironed out.  It seemed that my brain wanted to take this in several different directions and stupid me let my brain do this. 

Anyway, the story centers around a warship that is sailing to investigate the disappearance of trading ships.  The lone survivor told a tale of that no one could believe, so the crew brought with them a mage to investigate the more fantastic parts of the survivors account. 

I really enjoyed working on this one, even though it gave me a headache on more than one occasion.  Below is a piece of it that I thought you might enjoy. 

Spread the word about my blog and my work!  I would love to see more people enjoying my work and hearing back from you.

The Isle of Cascade was used as a way station for years.  Ships stopped there often to restock their food and water supplies; it also gave a place for weary crews to rest and relax.  A sudden, short war changed all of that.  The enemy attacked the Isle in a sudden strike.  Only one ship was stationed at the isle to protect it.  The way station was destroyed and the ship disappeared.  It was presumably sunk; though wreckage was ever found.  The war ended soon after with the enemy being easily defeated.  That was when the trouble started at the isle.  The admiralty sent ships to rebuild the way station, they promptly vanished.  More ships were sent, they too vanished.  For a time it was thought that pirates or maybe a privateer were to blame.  Then ships that were passing near the Isle began to disappear.  After a time things quieted down, and the admiralty lost interest in the isle, until a few months ago when yet another ship was attacked.  This time however, there was a survivor, another ship that was traveling a few hours behind rescued the lone sailor from the wreckage.  He told a terrifying tale of a ship whose hull was full of holes, but it would not sink.  The sails were rags, but they harnessed the wind as though they were perfect condition, but that was not the worst part.  The worst part was that none of the crew that the sailor saw was alive, yet they were not dead either.  That was why Adiel was here.  He was to investigate the more fantastic parts of the sailor’s story.  Captain Gagen was here to investigate the rest of the sailor’s story; which Gagen thought odd, because all of it was a fantastic tale.

Current Novel

So I am closer to completing my first novel.  I think I have gotten enough done that I can yap a little about it and kind of throw the general idea and plot for it out there and see what happens.

I set the book about 100 years from now.  During this time the United States has fractured into three different nations and two of those nations are now at war.  I go into what brought on the split in the book, but its too complicated to put here or this thing would be longer than anyone would be willing to read.

Anyway, the story centers around a character that I have named Grunt for the time being but i think it's going to change.  He is a soldier of one of the warring nations and he is the quintessential hard-ass soldier.  He is outspoken and doesn't care to tell anyone including his commanding officers what he thinks, but he's the best so his superiors let him get by with it.  Despite this he is an honorable man, he can be a jerk but he is honorable.

Grunt finds out about a weapon, created by the other warring nation, that could devastate the entire continent.  He tasks himself with stopping it, of course.

Even though the setting is about 100 years from now, I still kept a lot of the technology from this era (though updated) in an effort to make it seem more real.  I also threw in a couple of new elements, one of which I didn't even think of until I had started writing it. 

I could go into more detail, but I haven't finished the book so editing is no where near ready to start, so many details I could put here may change.  I just wanted to throw it out there since I keep bringing up novel and my projects.  I

I hope to have it done by June (fingers crossed).  Ill post more about it as it becomes more and more concrete. 

Thanks to all for your support!