Scott Fitzgerald Gray

I have read over 70 books this year and only two of them deserve five stars. This, obviously, is one of them.

All of the stories in this book take place in a fantasy world called the Endlands. Gray drops us right into the middle of this world without lengthy exposition on its makeup. We are left to put together the pieces with the many references to people, places, and events. This was confusing at times, but overall I felt that it gave the reader a second thread to follow in addition to the plot of each tale.

Magic is a part of everyday life in this world and each story touches on "nine weapons of ancient magic," but the focus of these stories is character. Gray's unique voice gives us a personal view into the characters' motivations and longings.

What I loved most about the book is Gray's writing style. At first, I was bothered by the multitude of participial phrases and other repetitive devices, but I quickly let go of the annoyance and read the prose in awe. Some stories read mostly like typical sword and sorcery adventures, but Gray uses some really interesting literary techniques in the rest of the book. The short novel A Prayer for Dead Kings is written in the present tense for the protagonist's point of view, even when describing events of the past. This lends to the disorienting sense of the character's feeling of being adrift in time. Another story is written from the point of view of a forest spirit, which is referred to as "he" and "him" while the humans are referred to as "it."

I also really liked that some stories had happy endings, others had sad endings, and some were ambiguous.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it, but I bought another anthology of Endlands stories the day after I finished A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales. While I've enjoyed many of the books I've reviewed, I've never before felt compelled to buy anything else by the author. Until now.… (más)

Exile’s Blade - Book One – Clearwater Dawn
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
Kindle Edition
Publisher: Insane Angel Studios
Publication Date: May 8, 2011
358 Pages (eBook version)
ASIN: B005007GHA

Due to review commitments I do not get to read as much fantasy as I used to, which is really a shame. As a matter of fact the last true “fantasy” review I did was over a year ago. But, thanks to Clearwater Dawn by Scott Fitzgerald Gray I know that I’ll be picking up more in the near future, especially since this is the first book in a planned series. I recall how much fun Raymond E. Feist’s Magician was the first time I read it. That true joy of finding a well-written, creative, and stirring piece of fantasy fiction is hard to replicate. I remember being spellbound by the depth of the characters, the unique and unusual use of magic, the truly original plot, and the new worlds fully created out of nothing more than the imaginations of the author and his audience. Clearwater Dawn had much the same effect on me and, in my opinion, is every bit as good as the stories of the Riftwar series. I cannot pay more of a compliment to Mr. Gray’s work than to compare it with that classic series. The Riftwar books remain one of my all time favorite fantasy series and one of the few that I’ve read more than once. The Exile’s Blade series will be my next.

Clearwater Dawn falls into that category of near-classic fantasy simply waiting for an audience to find it. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that this book is self-published and selling for only .99 in the Kindle store at Amazon and the Nook store at B&N. The story is clearly written by someone well-versed in the world of fantasy creation and a search of Mr. Gray’s past achievements will confirm that he is a long time author of Dungeons & Dragons manuals, campaigns, and narratives. As luck would have it, that previous experience carries over nicely into this novel. The locations are elaborate but not verbosely so and the characters are both believable and down-to-earth (including the princess who should be haughty but isn’t.) There is murder, and court intrigue, and secrets, and quests, and magic, and secret doors, and arranged marriages, and war and all the things you’d expect to find in a first-class fantasy adventure. With that said, the story is, of course, not perfect and the minor clichéd plot of a noble fugitive is trope-worthy but all-in-all the story is written well enough for that insignificant point to go relatively unnoticed. If you’re anything like me the “what’s going to happen on the next page” factor will have you turning pages furiously and the various character relationships will keep you interested until the very end. This was an enjoyable read and I’m happy to say that I’d recommend it to any and all fantasy fans (no matter age, fealty, or coat-of-arms.)

4 out of 5 stars

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin… (más)