The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven
Book
The 11th volume in this much lauded series with incisive and genre-defining stories chosen my...
Loki - Season 1
TV Season
After stealing the Tesseract after the Battle of New York, Loki finds himself called before the Time...
The Book of Imaginary Beings
Book
In a perfect pairing of talent, this volume blends twenty illustrations by Peter Sís with Jorge...
The Wolves That Live in Skin and Space: A Novel
Christopher Zeischegg and Danny Wylde
Book
Set in Los Angeles amidst a dying adult film industry, real-life porn star and cam model Danny Wylde...
Ross (3284 KP) rated Across the Broken Stars in Books
Feb 14, 2020
This book has a very unusual setting with plenty left to the imagination. The story takes place in a world of "discs" (I presume man-made but not wholly clear), large surfaces with a metal base and a force field keeping oxygen in and gravity working, where single multi-purpose crops ("omnicrops") provide perfect sustenance, various fungi/mosses providing building materials, luminescence and underwater/outer space breathing apparatus.
Despite this apparent sci-fi setting, the technology is at a very early stage - weapons are limited to swords/arrows and vehicles are drawn by pegasi or wind power. Space travel is accomplished by launching oneself towards your destination and hoping to reach the other, orbiting, disc. Unless you're an angel/Pegasus where your wings can apparently help propel you through space (you know, air-less space, where wings wouldn't be of any use) - but hey this is fantasy lets not get bogged down with this.
The angels have been wiped out by the ruling race during a long and nasty war. Leon, a cowardly traitorous "former" angel, is in hiding living a simple life drinking and gambling his days away after back-breaking work unloading airships. He is approached by someone he starts to believe is an angel who has tracked him down. Unfortunately she is also being tracked by an Inquisitor, and the two are forced to run.
Elena, the last angel with wings, is determined to outrun the Inquisition and find Waverrym, the mythical hidden home of the remaining angels. The two (Leon reluctantly) embark on a journey to unravel puzzles and riddles to determine the location of their only haven.
Leon is quite an annoying protagonist, being a whiney, cowardly husk of a man. His role in the story is using his angel training and knowledge to solve the riddles they uncover, while training Elena along the way.
The story is well planned out with a decent plot and well-crafted dungeon-type areas (at times it felt a little D&D/LitRPG). While there was a definite lull to my mind around the halfway mark this didn't impact my enjoyment too much.
If you can accept the fact that angel wings / Pegasus wings can allow someone to fly through space, the world is well thought out and very original, and the story very enjoyable. Some of the dialogue was a little clunky but not overly annoying.
FINAL FANTASY Ⅸ
Games and Entertainment
App
-------------------------------------------------- Due to the size of the application, the download...
The Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop: Handmade Accessories for Your Tiny Living World
Book
A not-so-mini trend. The Gardening in Miniature Prop Shop is the next big thing for the crafters and...
YuME: Alice's Dream
Games
App
Introduction: Alice is trapped in the dreamland and her memory is lost… All she remembers is a...
The Princess of Draga (Draga Court #1)
Book
Will Princess Adelina sacrifice everything for the chance at love? In a galaxy far from ours, in...
3 stars space opera slow burner fantasy/sci-fi
tonidavis (353 KP) rated A Darker Shade of Magic in Books
Jun 29, 2017
If you love fantasy good story telling magic mystery suspense then these books are for you!