Fierce: Sixteen Authors of Fantasy

[Zoe Mackay]

This thing looks quite interesting, and is a limited-availability collection on Kindle for only a pound (in the UK).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00U5CAAZS/?tag=brite-21

The authors are:

Mercedes Lackey, Terah Edun, Michael G. Manning, K.F. Breene, Morgan Rice, Michael James Ploof, Daniel Arenson, Kate Sparkes, David Adams, Amy Raby, C. Greenwood, David Dalglish, K. J. Colt, Shae Ford, Endi Webb, Michael Wallace

 

[Brian G Turner]

I'd seen that in the bestseller lists and presumed it was self-published. Looking again from your link, it looks like a clever way to introduce readers to a range of authors at little expense.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

One hopes so. Well, it was delivered today.

Moving Targets - Mercedes Lackey. A short story, rather than a novel. It feels rather perfunctory, and one suspects it is there mostly to bring more readers to the bundle. Well, so be it, though it would be nice if it had more spark and energy than this does. It's a story of four Herald trainees on their first circuit, and it's hardly un-likeable, even if it feels like every element has been nicked from a better source, whether that's other Valdemar novels or Hanna-Barbera cartoons. In the end, it's a readable contractual obligation, and nothing more.

 

[tinkerdan]

I read my epic fantasy rather sparingly so I only recognize two authors here but K.J. Colt- though new is very good and I'd buy this just based on her work alone; except I've already read a majority of hers. And Bear Heart is one I've read.
I see there is another bundle:
Epic
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q5MDCJS/?tag=brite-21
Her Concealed Power is in that and if the entire text is there it's a very compelling read though it's quite gritty and will take most readers out of their comfort zone. Well she at the very least took me out of mine. If I hadn't read either of those yet I'd be tempted to get the sets and become exposed to the other writers there.

The second set has Lindsay Buroker who I've read once; the first of her Emperors Edge series. That was a good book but not as striking and memorable as K.J.Colts work.

The other reader in my house tends to do a lot of these sets and from her I glean that they range from short stories-to novellas-to full novels and often only excerpts from a full novel. From that description I've decided to shy away from them.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

Having had a little sidetrack into Foxglove Summer and Abendau's Heir, I got back to this.

Michael G. Manning - The Blacksmith's Son
A journey to discover the secrets of his past reveals a magical heritage and embroils Mordecai in a deadly battle for the future of mankind.
A full (though not long) novel, and a completely by-the-numbers young-man-discovers-he-has-magical-powers story. A self-published debut, originally, and with a fairly crude literary style. I note some reviewers hate that the characters speak modern English at each other - actually, I quite like that. Certainly more than I like overblown and ornate cod-medieval English, anyway.

For all that it's so predictable you could set your watch by it, all the things like characterisation and prose style are at best functional, and there's the obligatory attempted rape scene, I actually rather enjoyed it, in a popcorn-y kind of way.

K.F. Breene - Chosen
Prophecy has foretold that when war threatens the world, the Chosen will appear to help the Shadow Warriors reclaim their stolen freedom and lead them out of the Land of Mist.
Oh look. A prophecy. Been a while since one of those came along. And a Chosen, one girl in a generation who... wait, no. The numbers are slightly filed off, and there's an interesting enough world here, but it's hardly ground-breaking in any way. I quite liked this one, too, though there's an opacity to the writing that's periodically irritating and distancing. It's also got the whole modernish English thing going on, rather more effectively than in The Blacksmith's Son.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

I've kind of been working my way through these slowly, for reasons that will become apparent.

Morgan Rice - A Quest of Heroes
Thorgin, an outsider and a dreamer, fights to become a warrior in an epic quest that finds him at the center of a maelstrom of royal plots and counterplots that threaten him and everyone he loves.

Look. I love a bildungsroman as much as (if not more then) the next person, but this is getting silly. If there's a single original or different thought in this book, I couldn't find it. The writing is OK, the characters are rather flat but not actually cardboard, even if they keep tripping over the used furniture that's been left scattered around.

Michael James Ploof - Whill of Agora
When Whill learns the truth of his lineage, he sets out to face his father's murderer, but what he learns along the way will change his life--and the realm--forever.

Whill is the biggest Gary Stu I've ever met. Really early on we learn that he has a) learnt everything about herbs and remedies b) trained to be an amazingly good fighter c) read loads about elves d) read loads about dwarves ... oh, and he has magical powers too. I laughed all the way through this, regrettably at it rather than with it. In the end, it's moderately competent amateur fiction and nothing more.

Daniel Arenson - Requiem's Song
Weredragons, men call them. Monsters. Cursed ones. People who can turn into beastly reptiles. Together they will forge a nation.

This is a distinct cut above the previous books. There's a nice, if heavy, metaphor where the people who can turn into dragons are being persecuted by just about everyone. It gets a bit messy towards the end, there's some very shonkily told battle scenes, and the characters are a little one note - it could do with focussing a bit closer on one or two, rather than having a significant number of point-of-view characters. The writing is functional but decent, and it gets huge bonus points for trying to do something different.

Kate Sparkes - Bound
When a young woman accidentally saves the life of an enemy Sorcerer, she finds herself drawn into a world of magic that's more beautiful, more seductive, and more dangerous than she ever imagined.

Oh looky here! Bildungsroman! A young girl with magical powers! Fortunately, this continues the upturn in quality - I really enjoyed it. It's got a clarity of world about it that's interesting, and the two main characters are really well drawn. It's a romance as well as a coming-of-age tale, and I'll probably go and buy the next book in the series, and that's the first book in this collection that's really drawn that response from me. It's not going to change the world, but as an unchallenging fantasy-romance thing, it's not at all bad.

David Adams - The Pariahs
Two sellswords--a half-elf and a half-orc--find their war over before it even begins. But trouble is stirring on the home front, conflict which threatens more than just their lives.

A novella, maybe even a novelette. It's kind of fine and rather funny in places, and I like the two main characters, but it all feels rather inconsequential.