Bundle of Holding 3+ Reviews

Mon 08 July 2013 by pj Tagged as book reviews

My friend Allen Varney just spearheaded Bundle of Holding +3, and I just finished reading them all, so here are some brief reviews:

  • Oathbreaker (Books 1 and 2) by Colin McComb - nice high fantasy, with lots of backstabbing and intrigue, though a bit heavy on backstory. And while the backstory was certainly interesting, I enjoyed the latest bits of the timeline the most. (Note the careful phrasing to avoid spoilers)

  • Tales of the Far West by Gareth-Michael Skarka - a great genre mashup that I'd love to read more of! That said, some of the short stories were too short, more like vignettes than actual stories.

  • Switchflipped by Greg Stolze - Unlike Oathbreaker, there's not enough backstory here - I was left wanting more information on the world in general, the Bells and the Fords and other highly idiomatic clans, and the end seemed more like it should be the midpoint of the actual story than the end. Is this part of a series and I missed that note?

  • Delta Green: Strange Authorities by John Scott Tynes - Reminds me a bit of Larry Correria or P.N.Elrod, with an extra dose of espionage. Also left lots of world-details out that I would've liked to read.

  • Dangerous Games 1: How To Play by Matt Forbek - How can a book where Allen dies be bad? A nice straightforward murder mystery.

  • The Afterlife Series by Mur Lafferty - Great fun! Being a god isn't all it's cracked up to be! Also: unintended consequences with a chaser of steampunk!

  • New Tales of the Yellow Sign by Robin D. Laws - Some horrific, some sick-making. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of either of those, so this one got a solid "okay" from me.

  • A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales by Scott Fitzgerald Gray - One part Fafrd and the Grey Mouser, one part Saberhangen's Swords with a dash of Moorcock. Fun but not amazingly memorable.

  • Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom by Tim Byrd - If Indiana Jones and Lara Croft had Tom Swift as a kid, their present-day descendants might be the Wildes! A family-friendly adventure romp that I've put on the list of books to read to my kids... with notes to go look for more.