My Review of The Seven Forges-James A. Moore

Seven Forges by James A. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall 3.8/5

Writing 3.5/5
Imagination 4/5
Plot 4/5
Setting 4/5
Characters 3.5/5

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Angry Robot for this ARC. I really enjoyed this book. The cover is excellent; it caught my attention enough to read the synopsis. After reading the synopsis, I was even more excited to read this book. Basically, The Seven Forges is about a mercenary who is sent by a wizard to map out The Blasted Lands, an area that was devastated by some unspecified cataclysm thousands of years ago. The book starts off relatively fast, with the main characters battling monsters and then subsequently saved by a mysterious lone rider. The Seven Forges follows multiple plot lines about the Fellein Empire's emperor, the wizard, the mercenary company, and the unknown race called the Sa'ba Taalor from which the previous mentioned lone rider hails from. There is religion, political intrigue, magic, monsters, mystery, and romance. The world building is extremely good. The character building is good. There is some interesting lore about the aforementioned cataclysm as well as the gods, one for each of the seven forges scattered throughout The Blasted Realms.

This book is well written and the plot is easy to follow. I read this in 3 sittings over the course of 2 days. A lot happens in 320 pages and this is a high point for me because I don't like books that go on and on and on. I like my fantasy to get to the point in the style of Glenn Cook and Michael Moorcock, and not beat around the bush. There were very few places I was bored which is another plus as I don't last long with books which bore me for more than a few pages. Most of the locations and characters are easy to remember which is great. Too often fantasy authors use outrageous sounding names and happily here most people are easy to remember.

The ending of The Seven Forges was excellent and very surprising! I can't wait for the next Seven Forges book to be released. I look forward to the events to come and also learning more about the main characters, the gods,the Sa'ba Taalor, and what happened to The Blasted Lands. Highly recommended to fantasy readers. I wouldn't consider this Grimdark (my favorite genre) but it definitely walks that line. Fans of Glenn Cook, Joe Abercrombie, and Mark Lawrence will most likely enjoy this! Give it a try.


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My Review of The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)-Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5/5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; I believe it mostly lived up to the massive hype surrounding it. It's a large mix of fantasy genres including, historical, paranormal, dystopic, urban as well as science fiction. There are swords and guns and being from other dimensions. There is alternate history dating from the middle 1800's until the time this story takes place which is the year 2059. There are secret societies made up of the clairvoyants, of which there are 7 categories/types. The main character is a young woman who is relatively well developed as is a major secondary character, The Warden who I liked best. The book is primarily driven by dialogue rather than narration which usually irritates me but I thought it was well done in this book. The writing is well above average and also easy to read. The main character is a late teen girl and I read in several places this was considered an adult fantasy novel however this book definitely has crossover appeal for YA readers. At times this book has a lot of jargon to learn specific to its world and at times I was a bit confused about certain plot elements and powers of certain characters. I do believe some things could have been better explained. This may make this book a bit difficult for less advanced YA readers but not for the advanced readers.

To me, this book was very fresh, highly imaginative, and fun to read. I can't wait for the next in this series. Highly recommended for all fantasy readers, especially if you liked The Hunger Games which this kind of reminds me of in terms of pacing and imagination. Give this a try; its well worth your time!

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