Posted by I am getting down to the very last of my books. There’s just one more in my batch after this, and then I’ll need to finish Runelight (I’ve started) and then we can figure out who the finalist will be!
Unfortunately these books just bounced off me a bit, each for their own reasons, but that’s not to say others wouldn’t enjoy them. If any of these sound good to you please consider picking them up!
Legend of Elberkhan by Yuxiao Chen
This one starts off letting you know you’re in a classic epic fantasy, there’s talk of elves, castles, oil lamps and quills, and other backdrop stuff that sets the tone for a high epic fantasy. It also just so happens it’s “fall/autumn” as the book opens. This is the third book that I’ve started since fall began a few days ago that’s set or based around fall. I didn’t do it on purpose.
This is a story, I think, about a half-elf and a human making friends after an initial rocky encounter. They run into each other out in the woods and at first the elf thinks that the human wants to eat him, but later finds out he’s really just looking for a friend.
There’s a LOT of world building and emphasis on wide spread epic themes… however, it was delivered in the form of a really long info dump. There’s an entire chapter where the elf goes into his backstory, which started before he was born, and he’s 100 years old or more. He even kind of declares that’s what he’s going to do, I assume to let the reader know to settle in and get ready for a long life story, but I don’t tend to click with world building being done this way.
It was the when the human character declared he was going to tell his life story to the elf and that it was going to take even longer to tell than the elf’s full backstory that I set the book down knowing it was not going to be a semifinalist, which was around the 16% mark.
The Heir by Claudia Klein
This story was a little all over the place for me. There are a bunch of different POV characters and what’s going on in their chapters didn’t always make sense to me. There’s a scene in the beginning where a scout finds out that his country is about to be invaded. However, they are all about 50 miles from the city. So, one would assume he’d slink off into the woods and try to make it there before the army does. With him being a single dude and the army being at least 200 people, he should be able to get there faster. Instead, he sort of yeets himself onto his horse and out in front of the scouts trying to run his horse as fast as it can go…. for 50 miles???
The story then cuts to a princess who’s country is being invaded, probably the same country as the scout, and her father told her that she’s not to fight in the battle because she’s an important part of the royal line, she’s the heir to the throne and needs to stay safe. Not even like 30 seconds later she’s like, yeah, no, fuck that, I’m going to cut my hair off, pretend to be a boy, and ride off into battle. When she gets to the battle though apparently the other side has guns and she seemed completely unaware of what guns were. The narration said that the character had never heard of the word rifle… but then when they started firing there was talk about bullets taking out her fellow soldiers and I was confused as to whether the character knew the word for bullets but not rifle, or how much exactly she knew about guns before this particular battle. I’m also kind of confused why a king would rush off into battle so ill-prepared. How did he not know about the capabilities of the invading army?
The princess’s younger sister was the only one with any common sense, I think. She was wondering why her sister wasn’t running away with her to this island castle to wait out the war in hopeful peace, but is worried that even there she will be found. She’s definitely thinking to herself that the heir to the throne should have evacuated the city with her (yes) and that she could be the only one left in her line if no one else comes with her.
I set this down around the 15% mark knowing it wasn’t going to be a semifinalist.
Counsel of the Wicked by Elizabeth Schechter
So, this is the second erotica in my batch this year. As I mentioned in that review, I’m not really a great audience for erotica. It’s not that I have some kind of moral aversion to sex scenes, I honestly just find most of them to be boring. Whatever the reason is, when a book relies really heavily on sex scenes I become disinterested because most of the page time bores me. Or I giggle because sometimes I’m like a 12 year old, “he noticed a bulge in Balthazar’s trousers.” I’m sorry but I did giggle a little. Maybe it’s the word trousers.
This is a male-male romance and it seems to be between two people who are star crossed lovers. There’s talk about how one of them is engaged since his father set up a marriage and how it’s impossible to stay together and this and that. The blurb for the book is, “Matthias has spent his whole life on the edge of a very small world. The bastard child of a fallen woman, his magical talents as still unseen, he’s known nothing but judgment and hatred from the harsh, religious people of his enclave-except for Balthazar. The son and heir of the High Elder, Balthazar shows Matthias kindness, and love…and desire. When the High Elder discovers what his son has been doing, Matthias is arrested and sent to an isolated prison known simply as “The School.” There, and in the wastelands beyond, Matthias learns the secrets behind the hypocrisies of the Council of Elders, and discovers his true heritage, true power, and true love.”
Now, I didn’t get far enough into this one to get to these scenes, but if you look at the Goodreads reviews for this one, apparently there are some rape scenes in this as well? Which may involve a straight female trying to/or actually raping a gay character? This one may not be for everyone, but if you’d like a male-male romance/erotica with a classic epic fantasy background this one could be for you!