Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey- A Review

 

        

     I first discovered M.R. Carey with his book Girl with All the Gifts.  Had I known the plot of the book, I probably would have skip it.  I was thoroughly burned out on that sub-genre, but the buzz on the book got me to read it without any prior knowledge. What I found was an innovating book that was so well written, I became a Carey Fan. The follow up, Boy on the Bridge, was a pre-sequel and a post-sequel, which again showed off Carey's writing skills. Carey followed up with the Rampart Series, three shortish books that came out all in one year.  When I first began to read Book of Koli, the first book in the series I got the impression it was going to be Carey's first foray into the Fantasy genre, until some tech flew in. The Rampart series turned out to become one of my favorite dystopia novels of all time. Later I listened to an interview with Carey, who stated his intention to write a fantasy novel, but it morphed into a dystopia almost of its own free will.  This glimpse into the creative process made me more of a fan of Carey, if that was even possible at that point. 

     So, if I am such a big fan, why did it take me so long to read to read this first entry into a new series. Frankly, I forgot.  I had so many books come in March and April of 2023, May 2023 book got slightly overlooked.  And when I got to think about my favorite books of 2023, I realized one of my favorite authors was unread. But in a way, I was glad I waited. 

    Infinity Gate is set in the multiverse, and I am glad I was able to watch Marvel's Loki.  It helped get my mind in the right mind for this novel.  There is a lot going on with this novel.  A Hot War turns into a Cold War, spies, and a wildcard all concepts that inhabit this first in the Pandominion series.  Multiple POVs spin the tale.  The Wildcard is one POV, a Watcher is another POV, a Criminal POV is added in the mix and a rabbit type student POV another.  Carey skills as a writer makes it all work. 

     After Marvel's foray into the Multiverse concept, first with Avengers, then with Spiderman into the Multiverse and finally Loki, it was really nice to have my first literary foray to be by one of my favorite authors. 

      

Napoleon- a review of Ridley Scott's Epic

     I guess my first introduction to the character of Napoleon came in the form of cartoons.  The figure of Napoleon came to represent a person who thought themselves crazy.  The hat and the hidden hand inside the vest came to represent someone who was not in control of all their mental capacity. Junior High and High School was heavy on the French Revolution and the Terror with scant lessons on Post Revolution France.  In college I got more French Revolution and even a bit of Pre-Revolution France. What I am telling you is that my Napolean Era knowledge is severely lacking. So, is Napolean historically accurate?  Who cares?  Not me. Is it a good film, that is more important. 

     The film looks fantastic.  From the get-go, the death of Marie Antionette scene, you felt like this is how it looked.  See the movie if only for the gorgeous cinematography! The two leads, Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby, carry the film. Most of the of film is about the dynamic between the two. I saw the IMAX version of the film for the battle scenes, so I was a bit surprised by the amount of the film that featured just those two actors. Did not need IMAX for that Lovey Dovey stuff,  

      In conclusion, this will get a Best Picture nomination along with Best Cinematography nomination.  Both leads will get nominations.  It is Epic film making at its finest.    

Sistah Samurai- Tatiana Obey

The Cover Art on this novella caught my eye. So, another shout out to Felix Ortiz who should get a Hugo nomination for this cover. 

      This novella took me back to the 1970s, a time when there was an era of Blaxploitation films that starred the great Pam Grier, among others.  The last samurai is fighting demons that kill and steal the souls of the dead.  Ink has become the currency of this world. Sistah fights both the demons and those who seek to corner the Ink market. Tatiana has written a "samurai anime" inspired tale, drawing on her years spent in South Korea. 

  It also has the proper price point for a novella at $2.99.  
 

Lost War- Justin Lee Anderson.

    

I read this book in 2020 when it was in the SPFBO contest.  It won the contest and was my personal favorite as well in SPFBO 6.  Barely beating out Black Stone Heart in my personal ratings. If either had won, I would have been fine with that result.  If you are wondering what SPFBO is, I will give you a brief history of the Self Publish Fantasy Blog Off contest.  Mark Lawrence started the contest way back in 2014 as a way to get more eyes on self-published books.  Mr. Lawrence convinced 10 bloggers to join him in this venture. Each contest has 300 books that in turn are slit up amongst the 10 bloggers. The next phase, each blogger will pick one out of their 30 to be one of the finalists in the contest. In the final phase has all 10 bloggers review the 10 finalists. I have mostly agreed with the eventually winner. A few times I had ties. For SPFBO 5 I had a 6-way tie. For the current SPFBO 9 it took all of 40 minutes for 300 books to be summited. It is a contest that get more popular every year.  

     Orbit Books picked up The Lost War and signed Justin Lee Anderson to a book deal. Funny thing, I remembered the very beginning of the book and the very end.  But everything in between was lost to memory, so it was like reading it new again. Orbit's editors had Justin add and delete some things from the original text, not that I could tell. Just a great read with a major plot twist of epic proportions at the end. Book 2 The Bitter Crown come out in December of 2023, so I am either going to end the year with a great book or begin the year with a great book, I hope.

Essex Dogs by Dan Jones - A Review

 

   

  Dan Jones is one of my favorite British Historian I don't know if I have read all of his non-fiction books dealing with various eras of British history, but it has been a few.  Jones puts the story back into History with his very readable, dare I say breezy, takes on various historical periods. So, when I heard that Mr. Jones was trying his hand at fiction, color me there. 

     Jones has taken the HBO's Band of Brothers and applied the concept to the July 1346 British invasion of France. It is a winning combo, as Jones takes you from a beach landing to a march inland.  It is a nice mixture of historical figures interacting with fictional characters to move the story along. Jones mostly employs First Person Narrative to spin the tale, a war weary veteran who starting to feel the pressure of being a leader of a band who are picked for all the dangerous missions. 

      Dan Jones has stepped up and enter the genre of Historical Fiction that includes some of the greatest series ever written. Dorothy Dunnett, George MacDonald Fraser, Patrick O'Brian and Richard Cornwell to name a few. A special shout out to Christian Cameron's Chivalry Series which starts with The Ill-Made Knight (Not to be confused the T,H. White's book of the same name.) 

The Will of The Many by James Islington - A Review

      Sometimes I will wait a bit before I start with a new series for fear I will be so in love with the previous series, I will not give the new series a clean slate to start. I start comparing the characters and the worldbuilding one to the other, which is not fair to the author.  I really liked James Islington's first series The Icanius Trilogy and approached this new series with a bit of trepidation.  I should not have worried. After a bit of a slow start, this tale begins to move at a pleasant pace. 

 I thought that I was done with the "Kids in School" trope, but I guess not. This book really picks up when the teenage main character goes to the "Academy."  There is a bit of a Dickensian start to the book. And a smattering of Romanesque imagery, and tech that jars you out of your first impressions. So, there is a bit of worldbuilding to this first book. I did not feel overwhelmed by the worldbuilding and there were no long paragraphs of info dumps, a big plus. The info was feed in small bites at which it seems to me, the perfect timing of info and pace. 

       The book has a First-Person narrative style, which is always my favorite style to listen to as an audiobook. The book is performed by Euan Morton, a brilliant voice actor whose work I have come across a few times. I am a big fan of audiobooks. I have been listening to audiobooks when they were suitcase like with 40 cassettes, then CDs that were a little more manageable. Love the audiobook experience while working out or cleaning.  

Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

 

     The main characters of this fabulous book are the extremely rare happily married couple with no children. There are plenty of Fantasy books that start out with a happy married couple, but that scenario normally does not last long.

There are two POV that narrate this tale Isolde and Warren. Or,  Iz and War, as they loving call each other, run a small business of Hexes for sale to get rid of curses. Isolde is added by small fabric bag left to her by her mysterious and absent father. Iz and War's world is turned upside-down when the King's secretary shows up at their door with the news that the King is suffering from a curse. 

     Bancroft uses a Jane Austin era world.  A very familiar setting, with a simple magic system that in on the wane. It is a setting that I am very familiar with, so the learning curve of understanding the magic system is very simple. At its heart, it is a mystery tale. That part of the story has the nice twist and turns you want in a mystery plot. 

This was a book I really, really looked forward to.  Bancroft's Books of Babel Series is one of my all-time favorites.  I am super happy that the originality and prose that made the Books of Babel so readable has returned in this first book of a new series.

Words of Kings and Prophets by Shauna Lawless

       Nice to be retired but sometimes, when at the tail end of my monthly budget, one can be forced into austerity measures in an attempt to make one's money last until the next infusion of funds. A good book can help these few days be more bearable. I can fall into a nice routine of sleep, read, eat, nap, read, swim, read, eat, read, sleep, over the course of 4 days and nights, and stay entertained and busy.  

      I am lucky because fabulous follow up to The Children of Gods and Fighting Men came in at the right moment.  The setting is Ireland in the year 1000 AD.  In a mixture of Historical Fiction laced with Fantasy elements, Shauna Lawless| continues the story of Gromflaith and Fodla, who are the main POVs who narrate the tale. Both hide their magical abilities, while trying to fit in a world where magic is fading and seen as a danger. While Fodla wants to heal people and Gromflaith only wants to rule people. 

     The book has a great pace to it, and the story flows in an easy manner. Most of the characters from The Children of Gods and Fighting Men return, so the learning curve for keeping the characters straight in your mind is easier. I did a short Wiki of Ancient Ireland 1000 AD to get a feel of the era. The Fantasy elements are straight out of Irish Mythologies, as the long arc plot is the Fomorians versus the Tuatha De Danann, both considered supernatural beings in the mythological writings.   

     Time flew by while I was reading this lovely book. Always a good sign how much I was engaged with the characters, the worldbuilding, and plot. Did not want to stop reading and was one of the first things each day i got back to.  One of the best books I have read in 2023.   

Crowded Room Apple +

 

  If Tom Holland does not win the Emmy for Best Actor in a Limited Series, I will be a bit mad for a good solid 3 or 4 weeks. I have liked just about everything Tom Holland has been in film wise, so a solid good job by himself and his agents in lining up a solid filmography,

    Good old Rotten Tomatoes has a 92-fan rating with a 34-critic rating for the Crowded Room.  For some reason the critics did not like this series, which kind of baffles me a bit. The lead actors, the supporting cast, and the writing are all first rate, completely different from what the critics write in their reviews. 

      Which dooms Tom's well-deserved Emmy. Unless there is a course correction from the critics. How long can a fan favorite series be dissed by a few bad reviews so out of step with the public? 

House of Odysseus by Claire North

     I jump right into this tale after finishing the first in the series, Ithaca. There is a new literary trend of taking old myths where the female characters were not fleshed out to reflect motives or agency, and rewrite the tales. The most popular of these is Cicre by Madeline Miller. I hope Claire North's book reaches that popularity level, as the books are quite enjoyable. 

   I have found neighbors to fall into three categories, The Nice, The Troubled and The Trouble. For Queen Penelope visiting neighbors falls into the latter categories. The Troubled, as represented in the characters Orestes and his sister Electra. The Trouble, as represented by the King of Sparta. Menelaus and his infamous wife Helen, who turn out to be a willing helper to Penelope. 

    The tale has multiple POVs, prominente among them is Aphrodite, the Goddess. We also hear Electra, Athena and Hera amongst other goddesses. Penelope also has a major POV, as it is her story. It all adds up to a delicious tale that more is happening on the Isle of Ithaca then just the weaving of a tapestry and holding off the notorious "Hundred Suitors,"

    Now, I have to admit I love Greek Mythologies since I took a 7th grade class in the subject.  Nearly a decade later, Penguin Classic reprinted new editions.  I was working at an independent bookstore at that time and was able to score copies of Robert Fagels translations of The Iliad, The Odysseus, and The Aeneid.  It was in one of the Forwards that I learned that the Homeric tales were oral traditions written down hundreds of years after in which the tale travelled about the then Greek World, with each area (City-States?) adding to the tale. It is now believed Homer was the GOAT of traveling orators, and thus earned the attribution as author. I am now in the mind that The Iliad and The Odyssey are the most famous Fan Fic ever. 

     I did the audiobook version of the House of Odysseus.  It was narrated by the very entertaining Catrin Walker-Booth, who in the oral tradition of Homer, nails it. 

     

 

Ithaca by Claire North

 

     After the success of Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achillies it is nice to see there is a literary market for others to mine from the mythologies of the past.  Claire North, whose The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August I found to be a fantastic read and, after many years, I still think about that tale. 

     Ithaca's King Odysseus sailed off to fight in the Trojan War, then got lost coming home, at least as told by Homer.  While Penelope and son Telemachus get a bit of attention in the great poem The Odyssey, there is a lot of room to add even more to the story.  Which is fitting, as current scholarly consensus believes that the Homeric tales had many contributors who added to the stories. (The blind performer Homer was most likely the most famous orator and had his name attached to the works.)  So, Claire North has really just continued what might be the oldest Fan Fic in existence.

    Claire North has given Penelope more than just a tapestry to make and unmake. Penelope is a Queen of Ithaca and has the people of Ithaca to look after, besides the servant of her house which is currently being besieged by the "100 Suitors of Penelope."  With help from the goddesses Hera and Athena, Claire North fleshes out the character of Penelope by giving her a slew of problems to solve.  

    I loved the performance of the narrator Catrin Walker-Booth. My first experience with the narrator, but not my last as I have House of Odysseus all lined up as my next listen. 

Location, Location, Location.

      One of the first things I did when I decided to move to Thailand was where to live. One thing I have learned was no matter where you move, make sure there is a supermarket within walking distance to make life way easier. One of the joys of the modern world is I could check google maps and determine how long it would take to walk to public transportation and a supermarket from a condo I choose to move to, from my home in Long Beach California, half a world away. The modern world giveth and the modern world taketh. 

    This is my local mall here in Samut Prakan. "Imperial World" mall is showing its age, but it has its advantages. One, it has "Big C," one of the major supermarkets in Thailand. All the stuff you need to survive is in the "Big C."  For me, that includes mostly breakfast stuff. Eggs (The eggs are not refrigerated in the store, but I put them in the fridge at home, so weird right), bacon, tabasco and coffee. I only cook breakfast; lunch and dinner options are so cheap and healthier than anything I could cook.

     One of my lunch options is in the basement of Imperial World. All malls in Thailand are set up the same way, The bottom floor is the areas where to find the food court.  You load a card from the cashier, and wander about looking for a tasty dish. I have a go to, a 60 Bhat ($1.70) chicken and rice dish that fills me up, Besides the food court, there are a smattering of chain restaurants. My local Pizza Company is in the basement. One thing to know is that the size of a medium pizza is more like a small pizza back home in the USA. A large pizza here is a medium pizza there. Now that it is football season, pizza on Sunday Nights is back in play. 

    Since my neighborhood is working class, Imperial World Mall stores reflect this economic reality. inexpensive clothing, both in the mall and along both sides of the mall. If I pay more than $15 dollars for something, I feel ripped off. The downside is that very few shirts fit me in the mall. I need the XXL, because like pizza, shirt sizes are way off too. Pants are on the tight side too. But it is still inexpensive. It just does not help my self-image now I am wearing XXL and snug pants. 

Bourgeoisie Mall 

Working Class Mall 

Tainted Dominion Series By Krystle Matar.

   My first literary genre love was "Mystery."  It started with the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J Sobol when i was just a wee one .  Then the Hardy Boys and the fabulous Nancy Drew. My Mom was a big Agatha Christie fan and I got to read those, as those were in the family's bookcase.  Yes, I was in the 5th grade and reading Agatha. To this day, I love a good mystery, although lately it has been a smattering of Scandinavian authors. 

    Which gets me to this fabulous tale. It was part of SPFBO 7 (Self Published Fantasy Blog Off or Spiff-Bo) contest, came in second but in my own personal ratings I had it tied with Norylska Groans which also did not win. (I blame one blog site, who have too many " It can't be a good book if it contains this subject" rules. In the recent SPFBOs the blog site is no longer part of the judging blog teams, which is good because their scores were way off compared to the other bloggers.)

      This book is a murder mystery set in a world in which individuals with magical talent are called the "Tainted," which gives the reader an impression of how the Government treats these individuals. This is a slow reveal type book. Worldbuilding happens without the reader noticing it is happening, which I always appreciate.  It is a Charles Dickens like setting, one the reader should recognize if they are any type of Anglofile like me. 

Two POVs narrate the story.  If you like the combination of a Fantasy/ Mystery plot this book is for you. 

                                                     

Second book in the Tainted Dominion series. I discovered the first book in the series, [book:Legacy of the Brightwash|55962500], when it was part of SPFBO 7.  Way back in 2021, and I still remember just about everything about it.  That is what you want in a reading experience, to have a book resonate with you and you think about it long after you put it down.  As with a lot of second book in the series, this is the set up for the third 'big explosive' series finale.  Sometimes, the set up second book has pacing problems, thankfully this is not a problem here. In fact, the only problem with this book is it screwed up my sleeping goals. I stayed up way too late and woke up way too early because I wanted to get back to the tale.  Needless to say, I am psyched for the finale. 

Malevolent Seven by Sebastian de Castell

 With one foot firmly set in snark-land, and a tongue firmly in the cheek, Sebastian de Castell has given us a tale about heroes with a skewed moral compass who do not give a flying fuck unless it involves a monetary payment. 

     The tale is told from the POV of Cade, a wonderist AKA a Mage, or a wizard, and a man with a bit of a conscious. The current buyer of his services has rubbed Cade the wrong way, asking him to go beyond the agreed services Cade and his companions were paid to perform. As the story progresses Cade goes from cad to hero, a nice trope that has been a winner since Casablanca. Probably other stuff before that used the trope, but nothing comes to mind as it is late at night and I am taking shots of this bottle of Korean apple flavored Soju which is not my cup of tea but I need to make room in the fridge. 

     There is a very nice pace to the story. There are some nice plot twists along the way. There are secondary characters that are fleshed out. All elements that contribute to the readability of the book. I have to admit that Sebastian de Castell Greatcoats series is one of my favorites in the fantasy genre. If you have not read that series, you are missing out. It has a nice "3 Musketeers" vibe.  So, I went into the read with an inclination to like it. I also should admit I met Sebastian at World Con Helsinki and he is an extremely likable person.    

I do not know if this is a tip of the cap to the great 1954 Japanese film classic Seven Samurai. Or maybe it just that seven has so many symbolic meanings that lends itself to being in the title that sells. I hope this is a good seller. It is a good, humorous read, perfect for summer. 

Previous books I have read and love that have the same humorous writing style as this book are Nicholas Eames' King of the Wild, David Wragg's Black Hawks, and Mark Lawrence's Wheel of Osheim series. Not to mention everything Joe Abercrombie writes, 

Woman Of the Sword. A Warrior with Child-Care Issues? Yes, and it is a great read.

 The main character is one that I, as a reader, do not run into in most fantasy books. Yes, maybe a minor character or two in a few books I have read. Lidea is a mother with two children, a recent widow and a retired warrior. Normally the children are dead. Or grown enough to take care of themselves. The story opens up on Lidea, pre motherhood, the warrior in battle. The next chapter Lidea is burning the body of her dead husband, dealing with two children, ages 8 and 5, when the world crashes in. A good portion of the book is spent with the reader in the thoughts of Lidea, whose thoughts a lot of readers will identify with. The notion that you never had any true choices in life.  You changed what you wanted, because someone you loved wanted something else.  

       Things I really liked about this Book.

      The battle scenes are told through the eye of Lidea, a foot soldier, who gets a limited view of the battle.  Lidea changes sides after each battle, some by luck, sometimes with help of others. Having read Christian Cameron's Chivalry series, it is a concept I have ran across before, that foot soldiers change sides because it really does not matter who you fight for sometimes, rather it is based on who will feed and pay you. (A shout out for the really inexpensive Historical Fiction series Chivalry by Christian Cameron, who also has a cool YouTube series on Medieval weaponry and how to fight with them.)

      Anna Smith Sparks writing style. When Lidea suffers a metal breakdown the reader suffers with her as Spark's paints the pressure of the situation brilliantly. The reader gets torn apart emotionally as Lidea is torn apart by deceit, love and responsibility. 

 I hope some Hugo voters will nominate Borodin for this fabulous cover. I like it when the cover art is from a scene in the book, a throwback to those Fantasy books covers I loved as a kid.

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence

 

"Reader 1 " Who put Romance in my Grimdark?"  Reader 2 "Who Put Grimdark in my Romance?

     Mark Lawrence, that's who!  Okay, this is the least Grimdark book Mr. Lawrence has written. Wait, that is not true.  Mark Lawrence has his self-published Impossible Times series, a time travel, "Stranger Things" inspired trilogy that starts with One Word Kill. That series too, is not Grimdark. And a great read and one of the best time travel stories I have read in the past decade.  Yes, this is a shout out for this underrated series.  Please read them, they are cheap, short and very readable. 

     This new series, as this is Book One of Three, has more twists and turns than the Ivy at Wrigley Fields. There are a lot of "Whoa, I did not see that coming" moments in this tale. A very satisfying read, the further into the book you dive, and things start to fall in place, you will fall in love with the story whose setting is a library of mysterious origins. 

      Mark Lawrence has always been a First-Person Narrative author, namely POV by Jorg, Jalan, Nona, Nick & Yaz in their respected trilogies. In this tale Mark gives the reader two POVs, his first and I hope not last, multiple POVs style narrative. 

      Mark Lawrence is one of my favorite authors and I hope this is his breakout book. This is the one that I think will get on Fantasy book bloggers and Fantasy BookTubers Top 10 reads of 2023 lists. The kind of book that at the end of the year you will be astonished if your friends have not read it.   

A Classic From 1985. Legend By David Gemmell

                                                                 

      

Two of my favorite Self-Published authors, [author:Michael R. Fletcher|7035308] and [author: Krystle Matar|20047399] are planning to write a book together.  So, they did a buddy read of [author:David Gemmell|11586]'s Legend. What better time to get one of my longest residents of my TBR?

  First published in 1985 and there are parts of the book that are very evident of being written in the early 1980s.  And yet I would still rate this a classic in the genre. The main character, Druss, has qualities that harken back to Robert E Howard's Conan. Owner of a great Battle Axe, Druss got his bones in a previous battle that saved the Empire. Called out of retirement, to once again save the Empire's bacon, Druss spends the book saying "I am not all that that," then proceeds to show by his actions "He Is" A retelling of the famous last stand of the Spartans, always a winning trope. 

     David Gemmell uses omniscient narration, a writing style which has fallen a bit out of fashion in the Fantasy genre.  This book clocks in at a tight paced 370 or so pages, which has also fallen out of fashion. Except for a couple of dated scenes and dialogue, I really liked this book. First of eleven in the series, but can be read as a stand-alone. The last 30% of the book was mostly full-on action. 

Mike Shackle's The Last War series is Epic Fantasy at its finest, in my humble opinion.

     

     Got to love a series in which the "Bad Guys" are evil in the true meaning of the word. The Last War series does not fool around with grey moral characters save for a few. But as a rule, you are going to love the good guys & gals and hate the bad guys & gals. Which give this series an "Old School Epic Fantasy Vibe." Mike Shackle's worldbuilding and magic system are well fleshed out. 

     The country of Jia is a flawed society. The Military Class, the Shulka, lords over the populace.  The Shulka have achieved this special status by being a protector against the Northern tribe, the Egril. The Egril have been united by Raaku who has declared himself a son of a god and Emperor. Never a good combo. So, when the Egrils attacked, the Shulkas were overrun and Jia was completely conquered in six days. The first book in                                                    the series, We Are The Dead, introduce the POVs as the Jains start to                                                        fight back against the invaders.                                                

The second book in the Last War series continued its Good vs. Evil theme. Again, multiple POVs tell this great, fast paced tale. Read this rather quickly as the first book sets everything up so nicely. Nice plot twist about midpoint of this second book. Sometimes the second book in the series can be a bit of a drag as its purpose is to get the characters into place for the final battle. No such problems with this novel. It jumps between the POVs and leaves to wanting more from each. I continue to enjoy the fabulous worldbuilding and magic system.  

 

The final book in the series was very satisfying. The good guy prevailed and the Bad guys got what was coming to them after 3 volumes of mostly getting their way save for a few setbacks. Every now and then I need break from the morally grey characters and need some straight up Good Vs Evil shit to feel better. 

The Children of Gods and Fighting Men: A review

 

    

     

Nice that book reviewers you follow on Twitter and BookTube liked this debut novel enough for me to pre-order. I enjoyed it too. An Irish inspired tale, Shauna Lawless has taken the reader to the Early Medieval and Viking era of Ireland.  A period where Irish and Norse beliefs systems were being challenged by the Christian belief system. The book has two POVs, both ageless and part of two opposing gods. The book opens up on Gormflaith, wife of the dead King. She scrambles to protect her son Sitric, and avoids being placed in a funeral pyre. She is also a Fomorian and can control fire, the fantasy element of the story. Floda is a healer and part of the Druid group Tuatha De Danann who hunt the Fomorians. Floda must hide her abilities or be burned at the stake by you know who for being a witch. Lawless writing style made it easy to keep all the characters straight, most who are actual historical figures. A fabulous blend of Historical Fiction and Fantasy. Hopefully this book and author will get some Hugo votes for Best New Writer, Best Novel and Best Debut Novel for 2022. It is well deserved if it happens. If you enjoy Historical Fiction or are a fan of Fantasy novels where the two main protagonists are females and fighting the system that restricts them, this novel is for you. If you like the character Cerci Lannister from the fabulous Song of Ice & Fire Series, you will relish the character Gormflaith, as she does everything she can to ensure her son inherits what is his by birthrights.