M. Edward McNallyRecensioni

The stories in this anthology were okay, but nothing impressive as I didn't find nothing scary here. The only story that was close to being spooky was OR 13, other than that the stories kind of dropped off for me. I went into the book thinking the stories were going to be scary and they weren't.

The only other interesting thing about the book is an introduction to authors that I have never heard of before reading this book. Some of the stories had characters that continue in other books, so if I want to read more about certain characters in these stories then I will have to check out the other books out there by these authors. Giving this book three stars.

Very good story and as a DnD based book it's excellent. Very tempted to buy the next ones in the series.

Sadly, they never did run into Tucker's Kobolds ...

This was a very enjoyable fantasy/adventure with colorful and well defined characters. The action was intense and described in a way that made it feel very genuine. It felt as if the author was very familiar with the weapons and tactics.

A very entertaining, immersive read.

Death of a Kingdom is the second book in the Norothian Cycle (preceded by The Sable City).

Again we meet Matilda Lanai, Zeb, Phinn and many others as they proceed on their journey through the Lands under the Code and those who want to be. As new friends appear and new emotions develop and deepen, also new dangers and problems arise. The problems in Chengdea and Daul increase and boil down to war, a kingdom dies and is left without a ruler. Phinn plays with a forbidden toy and an acquaintance from the Sable City reappears for a moment, and the remarkably strange and dangerous, yet intriguing lady Nesha-tari has a revelation from a side she had not expected.

Death of a Kingdom is a wonderful sequel to the first book. The characters come more to life, and the lands they travel through are depicted in a very image-rich way. The way Mr. McNally has used cultural elements from our world and added them into this series of books, using a nice twist to them, is very appealing and makes the story all the more wonderful.

From Lilac Wolf and Stuff

I'm a huge fan of Rex Jameson and I've known M. Edward McNally for ages on Facebook. I've never gotten around to reading his stuff until now.

I truly enjoyed all the stories. Saving Suzanna by Rex Jameson was so very dark and scary, especially given the political climate right now. I literally took the rest of the night off to digest this one. Gay people were being hunted like animals, and they all knew it would be a matter of time until other "undersirables" would be hunted as well. I'm straight, but as a pagan this was quite sobering.

That was followed by "Shero: Glam, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am!" by Jack Wallen, at first it seemed a strange placement. But having something so light, funny and LOUD was great. It lightened the mood considerably.

The rest were fairly serious but not overly so. I had never read such a story of fantasy as "Moon Blossoms" by P.J. Jones. 2 female sprites that find love, even at the cost of losing their homes.

Another funny one was "Be Careful What You Wish For" where Branwen grants a cross-dressing man his wish of being a woman for a day. Do you think he is happy and enjoys every minute of it? Us women know better. ;)

It's only 99cents at Amazon, and the entire book is in recognition of LGBT Pride Month.

I'm surprised to say I haven't read many epic fantasy books as of late, somehow I seem to have been thrown a lot of YA books my way (both in work and in reviewing), which is odd for me since YA does not tend to be a genre I normally enjoy. So it was kind of nice to find an epic fantasy book come up on the review list, I very much so have missed reading them. Well that and my husband will listen to me talk about epic fantasy books I like a lot more than YA books I like ;)

Anyways, before I started reading a lot of epic fantasy for reviews, I had this preconceived notion that a lot of the stories take place with male leads. And while there are a lot more male leads in epic versus say urban fantasy, there are still plenty of epic with a strong female lead. And this book was one of those such books. The lead in this case is Tilda, she really is kind of an awesome character. She is strong and can certainly hold her own against pretty much anyone. In fact I have to mention of all of the women characters I have read I don't know that all of them have had the command that she does over so many weapons.

I think that in general the writer did a really good job of putting together a world and a situation that captivates the reader. The plot is quick moving and kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I thought the the author did a really good job at world building. I think that is one of the harder parts for epic fantasy because they literally get to create a world completely from scratch, however they want to make it to fit their imagination. I think the author did a pretty good job with world building. I think the thing I enjoy most about the book though the author's ability to mesh together elements of different genres and put together a cohesive and enjoyable read.

There is certainly a lot to be said about the book itself, but it's kind of hard to do it without revealing a lot of spoilers. That being said the book is really a good read. I do have to mention the book is a bit on the longer side of books, so this is probably going to be a book that you get invested in as well as maybe take a couple of days to read the book. But in general I think the book is a pretty good one and anyone who likes epic fantasy but is looking for an epic fantasy with a bit of a twist, you should check out this book.