I can’t think of many things more exciting than the privilege of reading the final product of a hard-working writer friend. Y’all remember how loud I was when it came to promoting books written by my friend Ellie Di Julio, and the cheerleading I did for Chase Night‘s debut novel Chicken. These days I’m writing book reviews (what!?) and I’m honored to get the chance to review this novel: Kindling by Angel Blackwood. I am also thrilled to be in the line up for beta reading the second installment. Pretty Hot and Awesome Gang featured posts about Kindling. Here’s what I said for my Goodreads and Amazon review:
Epic fantasy meets splatter punk for high gore adventures
The scope of this novel is wide, clearly intended for a series. Rather than a single main character, readers are treated to a cast of significant characters who end up traveling in various combinations. Good and evil are clear forces at work but there’s plenty of room for gray as the main characters struggle with themselves, each other, and in many cases the dark of their pasts. Bloodthirsty readers with be sated as legions meet excruciating ends. And an interesting paradigm shift at work here is the power of magic which places women in the strong, dominant roles and men as the weaker sex. Not to be missed, Kindling is clearly the start to a series which is not to be missed.
Woohoo! Are you excited yet?! I really loved how this book flipped the script on traditional gender roles, from a main male character of small stature—Zahir—to the impossibly strong magicks of the Matron herself. There is even a scenario where men can go mad (any woman might confirm how irritating it is to hear that all women are crazy). There are two main forces at work, one led by evil men in power and one led by evil women in power, but the primary force for good as far as deities go is the essential Mother goddess. The language in this book is evocative, and those who’ve grown up on comic book movies will have no trouble at all vividly seeing how the magic in this world works. I think my favorite male character is Zahir, while my favorite female character might be Dejanira, who is a baddie! Who are yours?
Reading Challenges
Here we go for reading challenge updates:
- PopSugar 2017 reading challenge No. 32 a book about an interesting woman. While this novel doesn’t have one main character so much as a large and varied cast, readers will notice from the very beginning that the female characters don’t mess around, mean business, and are strong, powerful, and decisive. Definitely one for the feminist pile.
- Book Dragon’s Lair Audiobook challenge Nope.
- Book Dragon’s Lair Pages Read challenge This 358 pgs brings me to 8,640 pgs.
- Read It Again, Sam Nope.
- My Reader’s Block Mount To Be Read (TBR) and Rock My TBR challenge Nope.
- Diverse Reads challenge (here and here). Yes! While the novel does not have any clearly trans characters, the novel is written by a trans author, and I’m happy to support him in his endeavors (and to know him personally and know what a cool dude he is).
- The Book Date Full House challenge I think I can shuffle some things around. Lamb could be “books about books” bc it’s definitely a book about a book (fiction novel about the Bible). That would free up my Free Space for Kindling.
- The Book Date Read the Books You Buy challenge Yes!!! A glimmer of hope here?
- The Worm Hole’s What’s In A Name challenge Nope.
Hashtags for the challenges that had them:
#popsugarreadingchallenge
#rockmytbr
#diversereads2017
#whatsinaname2017
That’s my last read for July, stay tuned for my crazy August crash plan!
Jobe
J. Jobe 