Deck Matthews

Firstly, I appreciate the author for giving me an ARC copy to enjoy, thank you!

This novella delves into 3 main POV's (with an additional supporting 2 POVs for brief moments) with initially separate stories that converge into the mystery of the same magical artifact on the nicely portrayed cover.

The first POV belongs to a mysterious wanderer who goes by the moniker Shem. A very dangerous demon that infects corpses named Faceless has been hunting him down for several weeks. Shem is a skillful swordsman and fire magician, but so far he has only been able to destroy the temporary vessels without permanently destroying the demon. He is badly wounded and reaching his limit. The temptation to give up and give the demon what it wants seems tempting, but he will not falter. He just hopes to remain alive and ask a mysterious woman from his complicated past for her help.

The second POV focuses on a blind and very wise sage named Tiberius. He is heavily respected among the Sanctum religious sect, and he spends his time researching the oldest and most elusive forms of magic and keeping a close eye on dangerous artifacts that are safely hidden in the city he inhabits. His life turns upside down when he is somewhat coerced by someone important into assisting a lower ranked military officer named Avador and discover if a string of strange deaths of men blessed with imbued soul magic were truly suicides... or something more sinister.

The final POV stars a crippled teenage boy named Caleb who has a permanently damaged left leg and walks with a limp. He works as a rope master at a northern port where he's arguably the best in his profession in the whole area. The man that got him his job named Arn Aln treats him with great respect, but while he enjoys living in this sleepy village with his mother Tamara, a boisterous ship captain named Dev has offered to take him to a city close to where his sister Anya inhabits for his safety. The only condition was that Dev's crew was leaving first thing tomorrow morning, so if he was unable to convince his mother to join him by then, the deal was off. After being punched in the face by a bitter and dangerous middle aged man named Kharl because he tattled his poor rope work to Aln, his life is going to get even stranger from now on...

I think the first thing that struck me really fun about this story was the fact that two POV's have some distinct disability. You live through them as they cope with their weaknesses both physically and emotionally. Tiberius doesn't seem to mind his blindness too much, in part because his reputation allows the government to supply him with escorted carriage rides and braille books and due to the fact he has an insanely acute sense of hearing. Caleb on the other hand, feels frustrated that he is unable to live a fully normal life. He doesn't particularly want adventure, but he is concerned about the risk of invasion from barbarians. Kharl's ruthlessness further tempers his patience.

I like it how this book features several forms of very different magic, where humans have a somewhat good grasp on some forms, and others remain a complete mystery. Shem was forced to perform a ritual blessing long ago and after being branded with soul fire magic, he was capable of surviving the fever that comes along with the process. This sort of sorcery is granted to a lot of people in Vantas if they are physically strong enough and possess sufficient money. Caleb has magic of his own. He has a crude rune tattoo on his leg calf where a type of magic known as melding has allowed him to summon an owl familiar named Azental. She helps him search for poorly made knots on the ships and gives him company. While everyone can see her when she is summoned, Caleb is the only person capable of mentally communicating with her. Melding magic is somewhat common, but religiously shunned in certain parts of the world. Palawan is a female supporting character and she uses a sort of elemental wind magic. The final important supporting character of the story is a mercenary named Tanner who posesses a wolf familiar.

The pacing in the beginning of the book is a bit disjointed, mostly because of the fact that we have 4 POV chapters running concurrently, and you are not sure if the stories will mesh at the end or not. Palawan as the sole female POV in the story is not as well developed as the 3 main characters, so you feel like she is only being dragged along the tale.

Furthermore, the story overall is heavily entertaining, and I sincerely believe the author should be in the lookouts in case the annual SPFBO indie fantasy contest is going to be held this year for a 5th time and try to include this novel. I am certain it will have a good chance of at least reaching semifinalist status because it checks a lot of the right boxes for a well-developed world building and enjoyable tale.

Due to the rather slow start, I award the book 4 1/2 stars.… (més)

Once again Deck surprises us with yet another riveting chapter of his exciting Riven Realm series. This book continues right where the previous one ended with pretty much 4 separate stories: Caleb gets to learn more about his sister's mysterious but good hearted husband Carvesh while he still wants to learn what to do about the purple agiestone stuck on his hand, the inquisitive captain Avendor and the series of mishaps he suffered as a criminal and ultimately forced to serve the queen as a soldier over the death penalty, the blind priest who continues to do research on the mysterious series of events happening while some thugs want to kill him, and a new POV that I enjoyed a lot who is a female criminal named Shade who has returned to Taralius to steal a mysterious phial. Much to our surprise (and enjoyment), we get to discover Shade and Avendor were once coworkers... and maybe something else.

The writing is definitely spot on and all in all, I have been enjoying this series very much and will definitely read the sequel whenever it is released. If there is anything stopping this book from getting the full 5 stars, it is mostly due to the crushing shortness of each chapter.

Deck was obviously pinned to the wall and forced to make a hard choice as a new and upcoming writer: release a full-fledged 300 page novel that nobody will ever read or cut it down to a series of bite sized treats that will leave readers eager for more? The amount of readers Deck has attained in such a competitive market is proof that the decisions he made to cut the story into short parts moneywise made a lot of sense. On the other hand, this was sadly done at the expense that this book doesn't truly feel like a standalone and more of a connection with some character development here and there that will ultimately be left to the side once more secrets of the story are released in future novels.

I would believe that Deck should consider releasing a longer book that wraps a lot of things up. If a reader has stayed this long with his story, they will likely finish any 300 page turner he churns out.

And that is it for today! 4 1/2 stars!… (més)

Once again, I wish to thank the author for an ARC copy!

The sequel continues right where the first book ends into separate storylines: Caleb and the blind sage Tiberius from book 1, and two new POVS: Carvesh (Caleb's brother-in-law) and Captain Avendor who takes a more important role in this book from the first.

The eccentric white haired sea captain Sherik Dev accomplished his part of the deal of delivering Caleb and his new friends safely to Timberford, only to discover the peace in the village has been ruined by the looming threat of dangerous supernatural beings that have killed some of Carvesh's cattle last night for no apparent reason. It seems like trouble only follows Caleb who takes a mostly supporting role in this book.

Meanwhile, captain Avendor is given a lot more screen time in the book and we start to learn a few things about his murky past while he continues to research the Soulblaze murders alongside Tiberius and a very nasty man known by everyone as The Questor Navarus. Not every detail about Avendor's past life is revealed, just enough to pique your curiosity and see if he can use his resourcefulness to locate clues to solve the crime despite lacking enough personnel... and awful tasting brandy. I personally enjoyed Avendor's chapters a lot, along with Carvesh's own voyage of self-discovery that was so reminiscent to Caleb's personal growth we saw in the first novel.

An additional POV is briefly offered: the mysterious assassin Sheev. Hired to murder a prominent merchant, things go a bit wrong, and now she ends up accepting a too-good-to-be-true job that could make her filthy rich. The only problem is that the object she has promised to steal is in the city where Avendor and Tiberius live...

The book is very, very well edited, and if there was only one real fault with it, I think it would be for the fact that it feels more like a connect-the-dots type of book. A huge portion of the book is about solving the mystery of the shadow monsters that have attacked Timberford, but the other part of the story regarding Avendor's mission to solve the Soulblaze murders only offers a few clues without resolution.

It is possible the shortcoming of being unable to truly fulfill a mission for this book lies in the fact that at less than 150 pages and 5 POVs to focus on, the book focuses more on the characters while the voyage takes on a supporting role. In a strange sort of way, I feel like focusing the book on Carvesh and Avendor makes it a stronger and better read because both characters are quite interesting, but many readers may feel like the book could have been 30 pages longer and solved a few more of the many mysteries along the way.

All in all, the series continues to be quite enjoyable to read and I am curious to know where it is heading. Oh, I would have liked it if the nation's map had been at the very start of the book instead of the end.… (més)

Since I read the first of these three novellas a year ago, I have a very spotty memory of it. But I read the last two within the past two weeks, so I can at least review those. And I can say that the second and third books do a good job of reestablishing what happened in the previous stories, so I didn't feel too lost coming back after an excessive break.

On the other hand, there are a lot of characters and plotlines to keep track of. I was able to orient myself with the plot fairly quickly, but if I recall correctly it's a little harder in the first book since the different threads haven't connected with each other yet and thus they feel more like reading three different stories at once. They start to come together more in the second novella, and they're easier to follow from that point.

The characters are a bit harder to keep up with. There are some side characters I haven't kept completely straight in my head because I just only have the brainpower for but so many characters and I'm prioritizing the most critical characters (which is as much a "me" thing as a book thing). That said, I did enjoy the characters (even those I couldn't consistently keep straight). I especially like Caleb and his family, Tiberius, Avendor, and Shade. And the themes of family and community that we see in Caleb and Carvesh's plotline, in particular, are among my favorite parts of the series!

My thoughts on the worldbuilding in The Riven Realm are... interesting. There's a lot that's casually mentioned about the world, and some specific points that are delved into more deeply. Generally that's how I prefer my worldbuilding, and it's done fairly well in The Riven Realm, if with a bit more "telling" than I might prefer. But somehow I'm left feeling like it was overwhelming and I didn't follow chunks of it, while also wishing I knew more about the world. Which I suspect is another "me problem."
That said, I do enjoy the world. It has a classic fantasy flavor (as I was reading the first book, I remember likening it to the early Shannara books), but it also has plenty of unique elements to set it apart (the rukshar, the religious system, and the magic systems, for example). It strikes a nice balance between the familiar and the new.

Overall, my thoughts are oddly mixed, but it's a solid series and I do look forward to reading further installments!

Content warnings: Mild language throughout and some minor gore… (més)