Tag: Fantasy

My name is Sephone Winter. I am a slave, but one day I will be free.

Book Review | Lumen (Nightingale #2) by JJ Fischer

Lumen is the second book in JJ Fischer’s Nightingale trilogy, based on the Hans Christian Anderson story (which I’ve never read, which means the entire story is new to me).

I read and enjoyed the first book, Calor, which introduced us to Sephone, a slave with a gift for changing (and healing) people’s memories. Calor shows her meeting a ragtag group of characters, who she falls in with as they search for a rumoured Reliquary that will help Dorian forget his past, and perhaps heal their broken world.

Calor introduced Sephone’s strange world – and the people with their strange gifts – gradually.

Lumen, as the second book, can’t and doesn’t. Instead, we’re immediately introduced to Sephone, Dorian, Cass, Bear, Bas, and Jewel, a wolf who seems to have strange powers of her own. It’s a lot to take in.

As Dorian leads the travellers through the land in his search for the Reliquary, we meet other characters. Lots of other characters. There is also a lot of politics which I found hard to follow the first time I read Lumen, and no easier when I re-read it.

It could be that I found it difficult because it’s more than a year since I read Calor, because I’m not normally an epic fantasy reader, or because I don’t know the source story (I’ve considered reading it, but that might give the plot away, and I don’t want that).

Maybe this is a series best read back-to-back (which means now is a great time to start reading).

Lumen is well-written with a fascinating premise (a world with people with strange gifts), and the story has some clear Christian images, like life beginning in a Garden (with a capital G), a mysterious group called the Three, and a possible saviour figure. I am definitely engaged in the story.

While I found parts of the story confusing, with too many characters and too much politics, this isn’t the first trilogy I’ve read where the second story was weaker than the first. The end did leave me wanting to read the final book to see how the story ends. Memoria releases in December, and I’m looking forward to it.

Recommended for young adult fantasy fans, especially those who like to see the Christian links in the story.

Thanks to Enclave Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About J J Fischer

J. J. Fischer’s writing dream began with the anthology of zoo animals she painstakingly wrote and illustrated at age five, to rather limited acclaim. Thankfully, her writing (but not her drawing) has improved since then. She is a clinically-trained psychologist but no, she cannot read your mind. When she isn’t killing defenseless house plants, pretending she can play the piano, eating peanut butter out of the jar, or memorizing funny film quotes, she and her husband David are attempting to prevent their warring pet chickens from forming factions and re-enacting Divergent. Honestly, it’s a miracle she finds the time to write any books.

Find J J Fischer online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Lumen

What if erasing the past cost more than you were willing to pay?

Having narrowly escaped their enemies, Sephone, Dorian, and Cass continue their search for the elusive Silvertongue, the only one with knowledge of the Reliquary’s whereabouts. But time is running out for Sephone, and with Dorian accused of high treason, the quest takes on a new urgency.

As secrets from each of their pasts drive a wedge between them, Sephone invests all her hopes in finding her homeland, Lethe—where her family may yet be alive. But nothing about Lethe is as she expects, and disappointment, betrayal, and danger await her at every turn.

When the truth about the Reliquary’s curse comes to light, the fragile bonds between the unlikely companions are tested like never before. Meanwhile, Dorian faces a terrible choice: to save the life of one who is beginning to mean more to him than the past he’s so desperate to forget, or to save his beloved Caldera from dangers outside and within.

Find Lumen online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #355 | Lumen (Nightingale #2) by JJ Fischer

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Lumen, the second book in JJ Fischer’s Nightingale trilogy.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

It was early morning, and I stood on a beach of broken glass.

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

 

About Lumen

What if erasing the past cost more than you were willing to pay?

Having narrowly escaped their enemies, Sephone, Dorian, and Cass continue their search for the elusive Silvertongue, the only one with knowledge of the Reliquary’s whereabouts. But time is running out for Sephone, and with Dorian accused of high treason, the quest takes on a new urgency.

As secrets from each of their pasts drive a wedge between them, Sephone invests all her hopes in finding her homeland, Lethe—where her family may yet be alive. But nothing about Lethe is as she expects, and disappointment, betrayal, and danger await her at every turn.

When the truth about the Reliquary’s curse comes to light, the fragile bonds between the unlikely companions are tested like never before. Meanwhile, Dorian faces a terrible choice: to save the life of one who is beginning to mean more to him than the past he’s so desperate to forget, or to save his beloved Caldera from dangers outside and within.

Find Lumen online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Nulla was about as close to the apocalypse as a place could get, and that was saying something, because the world had already ended once.

Book Review | Calor (Nightingale #1) by JJ Fischer

Miss Sephone Winter is a twenty-year-old slave with a gift. Not only can she read other people’s memories, she can alter them. A slave since her parents died when she was a small child, she wants to be able to remember them.

Dorian Ashwood, Lord Adamo, recently lost his wife and daughter. He can’t bear the  memories, and wants Sephone to remove them, which means finding an ancient relic from the world that was.

But Sephone is a slave, which means she has an owner … who isn’t keen to let her go.

Calor is therefore a combination of a search (for the Reliquary) and a chase, which provides plenty of tension, which kept me reading. It also has a unique concept—a post-apocalyptic fantasy world that has a lot in common with the mediaeval-like setting of many other fantasy novels, but where some of the inhabitants have strange gifts.

A lot of things happened in Calor, but there’s also a lot that didn’t happen … so I’m pleased to discover this is the first in a trilogy, which means there is a sequel on the way.

But don’t be put off. While the ending clearly implies a sequel, it does feel like an ending. No, it doesn’t answer al the questions, but it didn’t leave me hanging either (and I say that as someone who loathes cliff-hanger endings).

I was impressed by the writing. I highlighted a lot of lines that don’t necessarily make great quotes out of context, but which are great writing.

Recommended for fantasy fans.

It’s a Young Adult novel, but this not-so-young adult enjoyed it because the plot and characters were original, clever, and well developed, but the story didn’t have any of the explicit content “adult” fantasy seems to include.

Thanks to Enclave Publishing for providing a free ebook for review.

About Calor

What if you could edit memories with a single touch?

The world-that-was is gone, lost to everything except living memory . . . but remembering comes at a terrible price. Sixty-two years after the apocalypse, a new society has emerged from the ashes of the old world where highly valued memories are traded and nostalgia is worth dying—and even killing—for.

Enslaved by a cruel master, Sephone Winter is forced to use her rare ability to manipulate memories to numb the darkest secrets of the ruling aristocracy.

Then Lord Adamo appears, speaking of a powerful relic capable of permanently erasing memories and recovering Sephone’s own lost childhood. But not everything about the young lord is as it seems, and soon Sephone must choose between helping Lord Adamo forget his past or journeying deep into the land of Lethe, where the truth about who she really is might finally be revealed . . . and a long desired future restored.

The Nightingale Trilogy is a fantasy transformation of Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved 1843 tale The Nightingale, with echoes of the myths of Hades and Persephone.

Find Calor online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads | Koorong

About J J Fischer

J. J. Fischer’s writing dream began with the anthology of zoo animals she painstakingly wrote and illustrated at age five, to rather limited acclaim. Thankfully, her writing (but not her drawing) has improved since then. She is a clinically-trained psychologist but no, she cannot read your mind. When she isn’t killing defenseless house plants, pretending she can play the piano, eating peanut butter out of the jar, or memorizing funny film quotes, she and her husband David are attempting to prevent their warring pet chickens from forming factions and re-enacting Divergent. Honestly, it’s a miracle she finds the time to write any books.

Find J J Fischer online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

 

Do you read fantasy or sci-fi books?

Bookish Question #175 | Do you read fantasy or sci-fi books?

It’s Star Wars Day! May the Forth be with you …

Do you read science fiction or fantasy?

While I do read some fantasy, I’m quite picky and not good at articulating what I do and don’t like. I know I don’t like allegory, because I’ve read one too many allegories where the plot is forced to fit the allegory, or where the allegory is so obvious that the plot and character development are predictable.

I also don’t like bad writing or bad worldbuilding.

I like fantasy novels that start with a comprehensible world and build on that, rather than starting with an entire universe before we find out who the main character is and what they want. I guess I’m a character-driven reader, so I want to read novels—including fantasy—that start with a person with a problem and build from there.

I mostly read Christian fiction, and there isn’t a lot of Christian science fiction—I wish there was more. I’m more tolerant for plot-driven science fiction, although I still want strong characters and strong writing.

My current favorite Christian sci-fi author is Adam Collings, who is writing an episodic space opera series set on a cruise ship in space–think Battlestar Galactica meets Star Trek meets … well, not The Love Boat, but something set on a cruise ship.

I’m also a fan of dystopian fiction—think Divergent or The Hunger Games.

Both could be described as science fiction, as they’re set in a futuristic version of our world with some differences in technology.

Apprentice by Kristen Young is similar—a future dystopian society in which hate has been outlawed and everyone is raised to love and serve the Supreme Lover … in a society that has some awkward echoes of Nazi Germany. Apprentice is the first book in the Collective Underground trilogy, and the second book, Elite, is due to release later this year.

What about you? Do you read science fiction or fantasy? If so, which authors do you recommend?