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Keptivak: A Captive Elf by Cadance Chanteuse

Fantasy? Check. Dark fantasy that isn’t just dark because it has swearing and boobs? Double check. Massive barbaric male character that is unarguably ugly and tiny pretty female character that is psychologically worse than him? Triple check.

So Keptivak: A Captive Elf has a lot of things I like in an epic fantasy action-adventure novel with twists and turns and surprises; and here I am finding it in an erotic romance novel? I hate this, I hate that my preferred genre of High Fantasy Action-Adventure is currently failing to entice me and capture my interest but random romance, young adult fiction and erotica are sending me into fits of reading frenzy!

I admit I started reading Keptivak because it was a friend of a friends’ debut novel and she just wanted a short critique and here I am, at three in the morning, thinking about the characters, how they interact and how they’ll all cope after the end of the story! I’ve not reacted like this to a story since I was fourteen and just discovering Graham Masterson for the first time.

Okay we’re two hundred words in and I’ve not even talked about the story yet; so what is Keptivak: A Captive Elf about? Well just what it says on the tin quite frankly. There is an Elf and she is captured and enslaved by an Orc Lord; a fairly simple and not uncommon or even particularly daring premise. That said like most things in fantasy the importance isn’t in the basis but in the subtle differences and a fifty shades of grey style take on the Slave master dynamic is much more believable if darker than all the stories of Master falls in love with slave and they live happily ever after.

Oleanna’s relationship with Kint�� is throughout the story always a story of a Master and his Slave who he subjugates, tortures and uses for his sexual and emotional gratification but the relationship grows within that role and both of the characters slowly reveal more of their stories and personalities. Kinté does treat Oleanna cruelly but no more cruelly than she deserves within the remit of the story and he also treats her, spoils her and cares for her in very overt if hilariously emotional repressed ways. Oleanna meanwhile works within the realms of her duties as her Masters Slave, ranging from washing him in the bath to cleaning his house as well as all the deviant tastes an Orc lords whims dictate.

There are scenes that have stayed with me for ages after reading from the homage to Beauty and the Beast, the image of a massive brute of an Orc braiding this tiny Elf’s hair for her and the more emotionally charged scenes like Oleanna measuring Kinté for clothes or his return from battle bloodied, victorious and happy to see her. But I think the most important aspect of their relationship is this; Kinté respects Oleanna’s use of the safe word and title of the book “Keptivak.”

Safe words have been a contentious and often debated criticism of the Erotic Romance genre where there is a focus on BDSM. For those that don’t know a basic understanding is it is a word for the subservient member to say that will end whatever is happening, no matter what the dominating member wants or thinks it is to be respected and followed. Failure to adhere to the safe word is considered completely taboo and tantamount to rape within the culture with “Safe word breakers” often named and shamed within the communities.

The story is well written, well thought out and has excellent pacing with a genuine growth to both main characters while not making the rest of the cast simply and ensemble for their romance. Ryla has her own business going on, Acer is raising his daughter and fighting with his brother and Kinte’s mother is having a very fun time with a much younger pixie man named Fenris and you get to see all of their stories as they unfold from the very narrow vision of Oleanna. In fact that’s something else good about the works, at no point does the author text dump the history of the world like so many fantasy authors (myself included) are want to do; instead the first person perspective from Oleanna, who is not a particularly intelligent young woman but is also not stupid so you get a real down to earth perspective on this violent fantasy world.

I would honestly say that my only real criticism for the works of Cadance Chanteuse, and unlike many of my criticisms I have said these to her face; she took it well. The book I feel is too long and would have been better as two or even three books and Oleanna is very easily controlled and lead at the start of the story though this makes sense for her growth through the story. I also found the contents page at the start very endearing and clever, a way of telling people what will be coming up for the erotica scenes while not giving away the story with chapter titles.

In the end I legitimately think that Keptivak is to be a relatively unknown gemstone for a long time as is the way with many genuinely good and all I can do is hope that someone reads this, gives her a follow and purchases a copy of her book and look forward to her next book.

Oh and because everyone will ask; yes the erotica scenes are very hot and very well written. And I do find it funny that the book went live on International Women’s Day and actually has a strong female lead which you would only realise as you finish the book.

Time to read: 30 hours

Three words: Sexy, Engaging & Action packed

Reread chance: Good – I’ll definitely be rereading parts

Score: 8/10

Amazon: Kindle $1.69 Paperback $13.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Keptivak-Captive-Elf-Cadance-Chanteuse-ebook/dp/B085GBTRSL)

Twitter: @CAD_Abaddon

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Eeeyy!!!

Well hello there good sir!

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Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey

WHERE HAS THIS BOOK BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!

Well that ruins the review there 11/10, gold star, buy this book as soon as you can and wonder at what you did so wrong as not to have heard of this author before.

I would hope dear reader that you can understand obvious sarcasm when written but if not I understand that the written word is difficult to understand without context and I think that's a fair assessment of Mercedes Lackey's work.

I'll start with the bad just to get this out of the way; the spelling and grammar need work as well as correct use of punctuation and speech marks vs quotation marks and similar issues so numerous I lost count but my copy is several pages of red ink because yes I do that and yes it pains me but I do it for you! There is also the issue of how vanilla fantasy Magic’s Pawn is, it’s like reading the love chid of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter with a healthy mix of a High school; Magical Girl anime thrown in.

I feel like such a teacher right now, all I can criticise is use of common tropes and spelling? “7/10 see me after class Lackey!”

But the good, oh crap the good! It has been a long, long time since I got so lost in a story that I forgot to eat or drink, even longer since I forgot to sleep! But that's what this did to me. It was escapism in the truest sense of the word, I was there in her world, seeing and feeling for the characters, excited for the next page and what would happen to these characters I was falling for with every sentence. It is also very refreshing seeing a characters death is being used for plot relevance and not just padding the walls of Kings Landing (shots fired Martin bring it!).

I feel there is a real trend in the fantasy genre to be more "gritty" and "dark" and that seems to mean randomly killing a character for no reason. Not meaning to sound rude but the genre is called Fantasy, not gritty war fiction with some characters that have pointy ears. You want dark and gritty fantasy let's have slavery, Mage subjugators or subjugation, blood magic and ancient gods, include slaughter, rape and death but NOT randomly killing a character for no reason and that was something I enjoyed so much about Magic's Pawn.

Another great thing that I've not seen many reviewers mention; the book is LGBTQ+ with a very positive message and characters I was surprised to learn where not heterosexual and then realised that it was because they weren't caricatures of a gay character; they were characters who were also gay once again severely missed in my preferred genre.

Being serious for just a moment; what is it about the fantasy genre that makes so many writers feel that LGBTQ+ characters should be almost mockingly over the top or painfully subversive of the subculture? And why does the first set of writers then feel offended when someone points out that their characters are borderline offensive at best and the latter act smug and superior for not really much work?

I actually get annoyed about this and tend to avoid such works when it appears but I'm glad I didn't with Magic's Pawn and will endeavour to be fairer to authors while calling out the ones that ruin it for the rest of us and it's all thanks to Mercedes Lackey! A truly great read by a great writer who let me remember how much I love my preferred genre and why after years of being let down by people trying to be smarter than need be.

So much so I've already bought the next two books in the trilogy and intend to purchase Mercedes Lackey’s entire back catalogue. So get ready for those oncoming reviews! At the end of the day there is nothing wrong with a story being vanilla to its genre and is genuinely refreshing to see something that could equal any other high fantasy while staying within it’s box to test the walls of the genre instead of just breaking them down into other genre’s.

Time to read: 11 hours

Three words: Refreshing, Exciting & Engaging

Reread chance: Very high

Score: 9/10

Amazon: Magic's Pawn (The Last Herald-Mage Series, Book 1) $7.52

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Letters between gentleman - Nimue Brown and Professor Elemental with Illustrations by Tom Brown

I'll start simply saying I am a huge fan of Professor Elemental's music, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have continued with my love of Steampunk (alongside Tab Kimpton of Kaos Komics of course) and I probably wouldn't have even given Hamilton a second look. So because of that I went in with a double bias: 

1)    I started out desperately wanting to love the book and

2)    Knowing I was going to be way more critical of it because it's a genre I love so much (steampunk not mystery)

I should also make the case, this is a crime/mystery novel after all, that if asked to number my favourite genres the Mystery and Crime genre would probably be at the lowest end of the spectrum near horror and autobiographies and it's very simple why;

I read for pleasure, the joy of an imaginative experience that few other mediums can grant and above all Escapism from the real world. The act of escaping from reality into a book (preferably with a nice rum cocktail and a small punnet of grapes) is nothing short of paradise and genres that remind me of reality tend to be low on my pile of "to read" it's a reason I'm not really a Sherlock Holmes fan and never got on with the CSI series.

So when I say that Letters Between Gentleman did not initially grip me with Algernon Spoon's case notes and diary entrees should surprise no one. I did stick it out for the hilarious badger experiments, mouse trouser-nappers/ransomers and Ipswich bashing by the previously mentioned Professor Elemental but I will say that I am glad I stuck to the story!

The clever twists mixed with interesting subplots that (mostly) get answered by the end all in the fantastic story telling method I have not previously seen done and is so brilliantly executed. Also the letters and notes penned from the infamous and notorious Professor are nothing short of gold!

My major criticism with the novel is that it is a slow burn taking quite some time to get invested in the story and, this is a rare statement, it could have done with a few more illustrations by the very talented Tom Brown of locations and less of characters. It would have done better to leave more to the readers imagination but also filling the world out as a lot of the more typically British subjects may confuse or alienate (mostly American) readers who may not know the difference between Ipswich and Norwich.

Overall a fantastic read for a genre not typically to my taste, well done and I look forward to rereading Letters Between Gentlemen many times over with fresh eyes.

Reading time: 7 hours

Reread chance: very high

Score: 9/10

Amazon Kindle £1.99 or Paperback £7.99

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The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

I am going to start out by saying I am not inherently a fan of Stephen King’s work and not for want of trying and was turned to The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by my long suffering and loving wife who occasionally tries to direct me away from my preferred genre’s. I have read a number of King’s work from his short stories to his novels and his non-horror works and I have never been able to pin what I don’t like about them even though I genuinely believe that he is a definite genius of our literary age.

King has created genuine terror and fear from his works in the past and present alike. From killer clowns to the enemy of this novella The God of the Lost, a fantastic conjured imagery of the worst that exists in the wilderness that humans are so naturally drawn to and it is all formed out of the imagination of a painfully ill, scared and possibly poisoned nine year old girl with a vivid and creative mind and love of baseball.

Let’s get the good out of the way first; the imagery, creativity and genuine emotional love of both the story and the environment he has written about is nothing more than sublime! Following Trisha McFarlane’s story of slowly unyielding insanity as she traverse’s the forest just hoping for anything of companionship from her beloved Red Sox player, apparently known as a Closer?

Unfortunately this is where my opinions turn sour on a fantastic story and highlights my issues with Stephen King as an author. Due to the continuous and almost non-stop usage of pop culture reference, many of which are very American in cultural from baseball terminology to the food she has, it was difficult to feel like I was in the story giving a serious feel of alienation from the subject and removing me from the narrative. After that the issues only mounted when the lack of consistent character image changed in the same chapter with the character going from jeans to leggings and then socks to stockings and then back to socks in one chapter. The lack of care and consistency with character imagery is only highlighted by the accurate time keeping and cartography and, as a writer myself, makes it so much worse.

There are scenes that caused great discomfort for me from the parents randomly having sex in the hotel room without any prompting to the use of racial driven terms (minstrel show) or ablest terminology (retarded person).

But!

After all that is said I thoroughly enjoyed the story as a great use of horror and timeline creating a perfect image of what this poor girl suffered and accurate research for survival in a wilderness situation and any of my gripes and criticisms eventually boil down to that I cannot get on with Stephen King’s writing style, syntax or use of language.

I heartily recommend the Girl who Loved Tom Gordan to anyone on the fence about Stephen King or just trying to get into the horror genre in general it is genuinely very good and a quick read as you could easily finish the whole read in a medium haul airplane flight.

Reading time: 6 hours

Reread chance: Medium – A good read and an excellent concept, a reread would give better insight into the story

Score 6.5/10

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The classic, the original fantasy novel written by the Grandfather of the Fantasy genre and a personal thorn in my side for over a decade!

I had never read the Hobbit until recently and before that I tried to read Lord of the Rings and had to give up around the Tom Bombadill parts and it has been a mark of shame for me, someone who grew up with the animated films and the audio books so it's not like I wasn't a fan. Anyway after spending the better part of a year convincing my wife to give it a go and watch the hobbit film I decided it was time to actually read some Tolkien and honestly I am even more ashamed that I didn't read it sooner!

The writing is simplistic for the most part though the linguistics are complex and syntax more advanced it becomes very obvious what The Hobbit is; a children's book. Now that isn't a negative that is literally what it is, a story Tolkien read to his children much the same as The Princess Bride and Truckers!

But the big difference and what I feel puts it ahead of those and other classic children's stories like Peter Rabbit and Whinnie the Pooh is simple; language!

Even compared to his major contemporary C.S. Lewis J.R.R. Tolkien (by the way what is it with English writers shortening their names to initials? I ask as my pen name is C.A.D. Mackay and waiting on my "fantasy genius" certificate to come through) refused to "dumb down" or simplify his language for children, especially his own children which is something I can fully agree with.

The problem and the reason I love his book so much is that his language is so complex and the focus of his story is still difficult to discern but readers love it when they're in it because the focus is, as has been pointed out by so many other reviewers and critics, is the journey, not the destination and barely the characters. The roles of the Dwarves is a set piece with even the great Thorin Oakenshield is nothing more than the driving force of the plot; Gandalf the Grey, such an important character in the films, is barely there in the books as he has other business to deal with and Saruman DOES NOT appear as do many other characters.

The focus is on Bilbo and his journey literally there and back again and many readers probably think that that means it is about something else but no that is literally it. It is more like a travel journal written by a very homely and scared little man who slowly enjoys his walking holidays. This may put some readers off thinking “well I have seen the film which must be better” but I can promise you that it is not and the book will take about as long as watching the Hobbit Trilogy and will be far more enjoyable and lasting impacts where they deserve.

I look forward to making The Hobbit a regular read for my future children until they can understand more complex stories like Aesop’s fables.

Reading time: 13 hours

Reread chance: very high – I have already reread it since reading it the first time

Score: 9/10

Amazon Kindle £2.99 or Paper £4.00 or Hardback £5.99

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What can be said about Tom Holt's take on the fiscal imbalance of a high-fantasy/fairy tale world? Well for want of anything else very bloody clever!

A quick background on me; I love finances and marketing theory mostly because I started out doing business studies before going into Health Care and I love any fantasy story that gives it a clever twist through overanalysing something as mundane as Finances, Politics and Sustainability and Tom Holt has hit the nail squarely on the head with his novel. I suppose the bad bits are a must; the story appears to lose direction around the halfway mark becoming more about introducing the little people affected by the characters actions rather than pulling the bits of story with the established characters together thus resulting in several story arcs I was genuinely interested in going unfinished. I don't think I'll ever get over that poor elf girls violin even if she was a pretentious and uppity bitch. And I desperately wanted to find out the fall out in the Dwarven court after the trade deal was brokered between the Dwarf King and the Goblin King. Never mind all the information about random Giant attacks and then no payoff between that and the wolves in Granny dresses; I really thought the main characters would attend to those but that whole plot point is just set to one side and seemingly forgotten about even after one of the wolves starts spewing military-esque torture survival techniques! Then there's a lot of meandering going over concepts that have already been established almost like Tom Holt is scared the reader will have forgotten something important. But what gripes and grumbles I did have are washed away with hilarious characters who are so real you can't not love the Goblin Kings brilliant solution to ending the 100 year war with the Dwarves using a rousing game of eye spy so they can both just get back to business mining the shiny stuff for the Wizard. That said finding out my energy bills call centre is being manned by a Sphinx made a lot more sense than Garry from "Scotland" which is situated interestingly in Southern Baghdad and hospital waiting music played by Elves in a glade makes it much easier to hate Celine Dion and Vivaldi. Also the thought I'm eating Kentucky Fried Dragon definitely makes fast food easier to stomach than believing that THAT was once an animal from this world.

Time to read: 9 hours

Reread chance: Low - very good but not a redraw but still worth one read

Score: 7/10

Amazon Kindle £3.99 or Paperback £8.99

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Welcome!

Welcome to The Baron, that's me, and my bookshelf; a collection of ongoing and previous reviews and critiques of books that I have been reading. This is not for profit because I love books so I only read books that I want to read and give honest reviews of both contemporary and indie authors and I do not intend to pull my punches if I dislike a book.

Why not subscribe and find out what I'm currently or plan to be reading/reviewing in the near future or get in touch via my twitter or Instagram account to recommend me a book, graphic novel or similar to read; just don't blame me if I don't like it.

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Arsene Lupine; A Gentleman Thief by Maurice LeBlanc

I recently read something online; "There are two types of books in the world; those you have to force yourself to read and those you have to force yourself to stop reading." If anyone knows who said this please direct me because I need to thank them because that quote helped me realise that a book you force yourself to read is not necessarily a bad book and that is exactly my feelings on Maurice LeBlanc’s answer to Sherlock Holmes; the master thief, gentleman and anti-hero Arsene Lupine and that is not a bad thing.

I got into Arsene Lupine thanks to the game Persona 5 and that game did its source material proud! A film, game or TV show should make you want to read the book, the way the author intended it to be received with none of the elements removed, enhanced or watered down for the different medium. This is where things like Persona, The Witcher and the Hobbit stand out while Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and The Wolf Among Us wallow in a pit of ratings and fan pandering.

I will always be the first to stand up and say I dislike short stories even if I enjoy the story written or the author themselves and it's quite simple why; a short story makes me want more but a good short story has an ending not a cliff hanger and Maurice LeBlanc like Arthur Conan Doyle before him and H.P. Lovecraft after all suffer from this issue and when you slam all those stories together in one novel where each short story is a chapter creates a very strange feeling and it's difficult to get past it.

A chapter is not a short story, a chapter builds to a crescendo for the next chapter to leap off while giving the reader a nice break point to get a drink or sleep or save a life at the hospital. Just me? Okay.

A short story can't be transposed to a chapter and treated as such and it's what made reading Arsene Lupine so difficult; the stories were fantastically written, funny and clever and I never felt stupid unlike when reading Sherlock Holmes and the characters were interesting, structured and intriguing and I wanted to read more!

Except I didn't.

Because each story was so complete and so perfect as it was even though it was leading to a larger story it felt more like a break between novels, a palette cleanser, something short to read while you mull in the miasma of the last thing you read and prepare yourself for the onslaught of the next thing to read.

Now please do not take that as a negative review! It's what the story was originally written for after all. You see like H.P. Lovecraft, my other favourite for short stories, and Arthur Conan Doyle, LeBlanc originally published each story weekly in his local newspaper and then the national before garnering international following after his short disagreement with Arthur Conan Doyle (an event worthy of an afternoons read with some hot tea for the Victorian shade throwing that went on). So although there is a larger plot going on each story is self-contained and I found it difficult to start the next one after reading the last whereas in a books that was intended to have chapters I would simply ignore the headings and carry right on through.

So that is actually my review; story fantastic, concept brilliant and reception; exactly as the author intended. After all if he had intended it to be read in one go then surely he'd have edited them into a novel not a compilation.

I heartily recommend if you are the kind of person that can read an omnibus in one sitting and see the connection between The Yellow Mask and The Red Stripe from one reading but to everyone else, read each story when you feel like, maybe space it between other readings or on a short haul flight.

Time to read: 1-2 hours (each part)

Reread chance: Medium – But I will continue reading and review each part as I read them

Score: 7/10

Amazon: Arsene Lupine; A Gentleman Thief Paperback £9.99 Kindle £3.99

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With The Light: Raising An Autistic Child

It's rare that I review something and start by saying that the story is only just okay and still think you should read it.

Well there's what you need to know about With The Light by Keiko Tobe if all you want to know is my opinion on if a story is good or not; but wait there really is more! With the light is a heart-warming and eye opening manga written on a subject I care greatly about: Autism.

It is the story of Hikaru Azuma a baby boy with very severe Autism born into a typical Japanese family and the story then goes on to show the struggles he and his family has from asshole dad coming round to what's going on, psycho bitch grandmother that only just gets better and the education system and how damaging it is for helping people with conditions like Dyslexia, ADHD and others; not just Autism.

One of the major issues the family hit on regularly is Japanese culture itself. The Japanese characters used to write “Autism” are made up of the words “To Exclude Oneself From Others” and this spells out how, at least when the manga was published, most people in Japan viewed Autistic people; they are selfish and they are faking it, two very common things in the western world as well in regard to sufferers of Autism. The characters also appear, even today, in descriptions of other more negatively associated psychosis such as Schizophrenia and Multiple personality disorders.

Criticising With The Light feels much like criticising a puppy; the story is only okay and the plot is barely there but the drama and love is obvious and beautifully written to illicit the most honest of feelings. It is slice of life in the most literal form because I can see parts of this story in the street every day and this must have been seen by others because it won so many awards when it first came out it was even turned into a tv drama in Japan receiving unanimous acclaim and bringing more attention to the messages that manga can spread. Sadly the manga will never be finished because the author lost a long and painful battle with cancer but at least we get to see the world changing for this child in ways that should be mirrored in our own world.

This manga, more than anything I have ever read out of Japan, is worthy of your time, more than the typical cultural commentary and comedy or the action packed story with a moral, it is a story that deserves your attention and deep thought, it is not a light read. I implore you give With the light a chance and when you've read it think on what you have read, mull it over, and then look around you; look around you because it does not matter that the author didn't get to finish her story, and it doesn't matter that we will never know what happens to the main character.

Because his story is being repeated, told and concluded millions of times over in Japan, America, Europe, Great Britain and the whole wide world! Children with legitimate issues told they don't matter, growing into adults that think they don't matter, and dying as people that never knew how much they mattered and how legitimate their disability is. Read this Manga, not with the eyes of a fan of manga, but accept that no country and no person is perfect and that sick people go without help to this day.

Please I implore you, as readers and as thinking, feeling, people; give this manga a try, even just the first volume. Do not be intimidated by the size of the manga as each volume is about two inches thick some even three, or be scared of the subject material. It is worth your time and attention and will absolutely push your mind to consider how you look at people with Autism in your every day life.

Time to read: 24 hours (whole series)

Reread chance: Very high - I've reread it several times at least

Score: 7/10

Amazon: Volume 1 £11.99