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Adopt an Indie Author month
I signed up for this a while ago as a reader so now it's time I posted my review:
The Sable City by M. Edward McNally
Available from Smashwords
This book is the first in a series of four, the second and third of which are already available. I was provided with a copy by the author as part of the Adopt an Indie Author project.
Blurb: The Trade Houses of the Miilark Islands control the shipping lanes linking four diverse continents across the blue vastness of the Interminable Ocean. The Houses are represented abroad by the Guilders; men and women skilled in business and burglary, salesmanship and swordplay, merchandising and musketry. Tilda Lanai has trained for years to take her place among them, but now the House she is to serve is imperiled by the sudden death of the House Lord. Scenting blood in the water, rival Houses begin to circle. The desperate search for an exiled heir takes Tilda across a war-torn continent and to the gates of the Sable City, where centuries ago dark magic almost destroyed the world. Along with a sinister sorceress, a broken-hearted samurai, and a miscreant mercenary long on charm but lousy with a crossbow, Tilda must brave the demon-infested ruins to find the heir who may yet save her House.
Review: As you can see from the above this is epic fantasy on a grand scale. The books are mammoths, Sable City is over 180K words and I suspect that the others are equally weighty. The premise is engaging, lifting the usual there and back again scenario with some entertaining differences. For instance, the main protagonist is female - Tilda Lanai - and is soon joined by three other young ladies, all of whom have their own sphere of influence and levels of expertise. These girls were refreshing in that McNally avoided the D&D trope of having them as scantily armoured eye candy but allowed them to hold their own with the boys.
This isn't to say that he was skimpy with male characterisation. Some of his male characters are excellent and I'm very keen to see what happens to them. Zebulon, a half hearted mercenary soldier with limited abilities yet boundless good humour was my particular favourite.
McNally writes fantastic action scenes. It is during these that his prose really soars. But the violence is not poetic. I got a sense of the cost, in terms of pain and tiredness, and how grim and terrifying killing hand to hand can be.
I was less pleased with the world building. Not so much the quality of it but that the author felt I needed to know so much about it. I've always preferred to get to know a character first, to come to care about him or her, and then get to grips with the world he inhabits and how it impacts upon him. Instead the author started with very large amounts of information that while informative weren't entertaining enough for me to remember. The first chapter, in particular, was hard to read and if I had not been on my honur to read it I might well have not bothered. But I'm glad I persevered. After the first few chapters the info dumps became less obvious as the author got into the swing of letting the reader know enough to be going along with - a very important skill. There is a website for the books so anyone who wants average rainfalls, primary imports/exports, derivation of languages etc, can find it all there.
Other niggles are the occasional typo - but nothing out of the way. I have seen more in traditionally published paper books - and a slightly wandery point of view that brought me up short a couple of times s I had to re-read to check who was speaking.
On the whole it was a good and entertaining read and I will certainly follow up the rest of the series.
But not until Nanowrimo is over.
The Sable City by M. Edward McNally
Available from Smashwords
This book is the first in a series of four, the second and third of which are already available. I was provided with a copy by the author as part of the Adopt an Indie Author project.
Blurb: The Trade Houses of the Miilark Islands control the shipping lanes linking four diverse continents across the blue vastness of the Interminable Ocean. The Houses are represented abroad by the Guilders; men and women skilled in business and burglary, salesmanship and swordplay, merchandising and musketry. Tilda Lanai has trained for years to take her place among them, but now the House she is to serve is imperiled by the sudden death of the House Lord. Scenting blood in the water, rival Houses begin to circle. The desperate search for an exiled heir takes Tilda across a war-torn continent and to the gates of the Sable City, where centuries ago dark magic almost destroyed the world. Along with a sinister sorceress, a broken-hearted samurai, and a miscreant mercenary long on charm but lousy with a crossbow, Tilda must brave the demon-infested ruins to find the heir who may yet save her House.
Review: As you can see from the above this is epic fantasy on a grand scale. The books are mammoths, Sable City is over 180K words and I suspect that the others are equally weighty. The premise is engaging, lifting the usual there and back again scenario with some entertaining differences. For instance, the main protagonist is female - Tilda Lanai - and is soon joined by three other young ladies, all of whom have their own sphere of influence and levels of expertise. These girls were refreshing in that McNally avoided the D&D trope of having them as scantily armoured eye candy but allowed them to hold their own with the boys.
This isn't to say that he was skimpy with male characterisation. Some of his male characters are excellent and I'm very keen to see what happens to them. Zebulon, a half hearted mercenary soldier with limited abilities yet boundless good humour was my particular favourite.
McNally writes fantastic action scenes. It is during these that his prose really soars. But the violence is not poetic. I got a sense of the cost, in terms of pain and tiredness, and how grim and terrifying killing hand to hand can be.
I was less pleased with the world building. Not so much the quality of it but that the author felt I needed to know so much about it. I've always preferred to get to know a character first, to come to care about him or her, and then get to grips with the world he inhabits and how it impacts upon him. Instead the author started with very large amounts of information that while informative weren't entertaining enough for me to remember. The first chapter, in particular, was hard to read and if I had not been on my honur to read it I might well have not bothered. But I'm glad I persevered. After the first few chapters the info dumps became less obvious as the author got into the swing of letting the reader know enough to be going along with - a very important skill. There is a website for the books so anyone who wants average rainfalls, primary imports/exports, derivation of languages etc, can find it all there.
Other niggles are the occasional typo - but nothing out of the way. I have seen more in traditionally published paper books - and a slightly wandery point of view that brought me up short a couple of times s I had to re-read to check who was speaking.
On the whole it was a good and entertaining read and I will certainly follow up the rest of the series.
But not until Nanowrimo is over.