Review: "Blood Oath No Man's Land Book One)" by Luke Atkinson

 

Calamity Cooper is a wanted man. To avoid capture by the U.S. Cavalry, he exiles himself to No Man's Land, a lawless and untamed territory home to paranormal happenings.

As the age of gunslingers comes to an end, Cal refuses to adapt to quiet life in Hexed Springs, a sprawling boomtown of humans and supernatural beings. He works as a ranger-a monster hunter for hire-but finds the job far deadlier than he expected. An exposure to raw magical energy during a job gone awry awakens Cal's spell-slinging abilities, attracting unwanted attention from mortals and immortals alike.

Cal becomes a pawn in a scheme fueled by humankind's greed when a wealthy financier blackmails him into hunting a vampire, one that happens to be connected to a prominent family. Little does Cal know, but a blood feud is brewing in the shadows, one both ancient and modern, that threatens to destroy supernatural society.

Haunted by his past and conflicted with his identity, Cal must decide between saving his own skin or protecting supernatural civilization. - from Goodreads.com

Thank you to Booksirens and the author for allowing me to read this book and share a review.

Finding this story was a bit of a surprise for me. I started reading it, waiting for the story to fizzle out, or characters lose focus. I was in for a treat! This story is one I instantly jumped into, and each page turn had me actually wondering where the author was going to go with the events happening. The story idea in itself, of a wild west gunslinger, and a supernatural community/environment was quite entertaining, and did not take away from the basic tale of personal redemption.

Character building was pretty decent - there are some places where the story breaks to go back to a memory to help explain characteristics, or references that come up. Side characters did not have much background or it was thin with no extra information. Worldbuilding was bit off - there is not much to add to a desert, old west-type town based in the 'wild west' era of the US after the Civil War. Not much was described in regards to the supernatural city except it was mish-mash of different architectural styles that spanned ages of the world. Wording was easy to understand and wasn't a strain on my vocabulary.

Overall this was a great read that reminds me quite a bit of the PI Garrett series by Glen Cook, or even somewhat of Robert Parker's Spenser for Hire books. There is quite a bit of dry humor and sarcasm throughout the story and I found myself snickering every once in awhile. Young Adult and higher would enjoy this tale.

Book Review: "The Devil Pulls The Strings" by J. W. Zarek

THE DEVIL PULLS THE STRINGS, described as The Librarians meet The Magicians is a 76,000-word epic fantasy adventure with series potential, set in modern-day Wentzville, MO, New York City, and 1813 Genoa, Italy, weaves bromance, Slavic mythology, secret societies, Paganini’s music and time travel.

Boone Daniels (22) has problems, debilitating panic attack, gut-wrenching guilt, a wendigo haunting him since age six, and now he almost killed his best friend in a joust. But when he fills in for his injured friend at a New York gig, he goes to meet the gig’s contact at his NYC brownstone and a body falls from the brownstone balcony and the place explodes with gun fire.

Boone barely escapes but uncovers a sinister plot to perform a rare Paganini piece that summons the Devil to trap Baba Yaga and destroy modern-day New York City. Then finds himself on a race through time to capture the cursed melody.

Along the way, a Romani immortal, steampunk vampires and Baba Yaga set the stage for war, and Boone shall have to risk death for redemption. Because all Boone wants is to keep a promise to a friend. The same friend, he almost killed last Sunday during a joust.

Can a small-town Missouri musician outplay the supernatural and save NYC’s soul?

The Devil Pulls the Strings is the pulse-pounding first tale in the Archivists series.

If you like when tortured heroes, epic battles, time travel, twisted history and secret societies collide, then you’ll love J. W. Zarek’s spectacular page-turner. - from Goodreads

Thanks to Booksirens and the publisher for allowing me to read this book and provide my opinion. 

*** Possible spoilers ahead ***

I'm not going to go into an accounting of the storyline here, but just jump into how I felt about the book. The story description pulled at me (see what I did there?) but left me feeling somewhat doubtful about what I was going to be reading. I was not let down by my suspicions. The story started off well, and before you know it, we find the main character rushed off to a New York City, placed in danger, constantly on the run, with hardly any idea what he is doing ... except to fill in at a gig for a band. From there, 'time displacements' and 'magical' things' happening do not surprise the main character, and everything is taken in stride like it is near normal day occurrences. There was not much background or character development. It was like, there's this guy that suddenly has to do this thing, and this thing happened, then that... with no explanation as to what this organization is, why are they better than that one, which is truly the right side to be on, or is there a right side?

I want to rant and rave about how much I didn't like this story, but I actually liked it. The storyline is a good one, and I like the mixture of 'magic cultures' (bards/druids, slavic Baba Yaga) and a classical composer that has always had stories of being involved in a pact with the Devil. The book itself was not a long read for me - finished in an afternoon. In the description above, I see it is a first in a series, which I will keep an eye for the next story, just to see what the author can come up with. I want desperately to give this a four star, but the lack of background of what is going on, who the character is and develops through the story, and just some 'out of the blue' who are these guys (the taxi drivers) events just make it so much harder for me to grasp what kind of place the author is writing about.