Chris A. Jackson

Weapon of Flesh: Accessible, Well-designed Dark Fantasy: The back-cover blurb is concise and has no spoilers, and captures the book well (copied/pasted below).

This book is saturated with oppression, violence, and murder but none of that is gratuitous. Like his assassin characters, author Chris A. Jackson balances several tight-rope acts: (a) have the protagonist, Lad, commit evil acts while being innocent at heart; (b) present the coming of age of three characters with burgeoning romance show more without being cheesy; (c) dole out humor (mostly through Lad's dialogue) while shedding blood; (d) present mature themes of identity and life-purpose with an easy-to-read style (suitable for YA or adult audiences).

Each chapter blends into the next with a carefully scripted, enjoyable plot with just the right amount of tension. All the main characters (Lad, Mya, Wiggin) grow while establishing strong character motivations. There are five more in the series and this is solid introduction. Before I jump into #2 Weapon of Blood, I will read Chris A. Jackson's Deathmask since I already have the paperback and I'm a sucker for necromancers.

Most (if not all) are illustrated by Noah Stacey:
Weapon of Flesh (Weapon of Flesh, #1) by Chris A. Jackson Weapon of Blood (Weapon of Flesh, #2) by Chris A. Jackson Weapon of Vengeance (Weapon of Flesh, #3) by Chris A. Jackson Weapon of Fear (Weapon of Flesh, #4) by Chris A. Jackson Weapon of Pain (Weapon of Flesh, #5) by Chris A. Jackson Weapon of Mercy (Weapon of Flesh, #6) by Chris A. Jackson

Weapon of Flesh Series
#1 Weapon of Flesh 2005
#2 Weapon of Blood 2013
#3 Weapon of Vengeance 2014
#4 Weapon of Fear 2015 *
#5 Weapon of Pain 2016 *
#6 Weapon of Mercy 2017 *
(* with Anne L. McMillen-Jackson)

Back Cover Blurb to Weapon of Flesh:
"Forged from flesh… and magic. Made to kill… but not to feel.

He was made for one purpose: To be the most efficient killer, the most lethal assassin the world had ever seen. But something has gone wrong with the plan.

The Master is gone… The weapon is free… And in a dangerous world, a weapon does what a weapon is made to do. Or does he?

Without even a name, the weapon chooses one: Lad. And so the weapon begins to become a person… All he has been told is that his destiny awaits him, so he seeks it out, though he knows not what that destiny is.

But the one who paid for the weapon to be forged awaits his prize…impatiently. The Grandfather of Assassins has invested nearly two decades and a fortune in his perfect weapon, and when it does not arrive on time, he begins to search. His hunters are seeking Lad, and Lad is seeking his destiny.

There is only one problem: No one thought a weapon of flesh would fall in love." show less

This has been my favourite Pathfinder Tale to date - and I've read all of them bar two.

Jackson has a written a piratical/nautical/revenge/heist novel. Torius Vin, swashbuckler and captain has been tricked by one of his former victims, and is determined to take revenge. But when that revenge involves his naga lover pretending to fall for the mark, things start to get messy...

I was really impressed with how much tension Jackson got out of this narrative - and it wasn't from the physical show more struggle, but the internal emotional danger his characters were in. I was genuinely excited and ripping through pages as fast as I could.

It is, ironically, a ballsy writer that makes the lynchpin of his RPG novel a romance, but Jackson does so, and he does it so effectively the book gets more mileage out of its central romance than any of the derring-do amongst the rigging.

Not that the derring lacks do, far from it. Pirate's Honor has some great show-stopper scenes that call to mind Captain Blood and the like. Jackson's experience on actual boats is clear and his prose is comfortable and confident on the high seas.

His characterisation is equally assured, which is critical due to the nature of the story. I really loved reading a sword-and-sorcery novel where the writer isn't afraid to invest so much time and plot into the characters and their feelings. I thought it worked brilliantly, and is a real sign of maturity in a genre that often lacks it.

I'm very keen for a sequel to this one. show less

The Arkham Horror novella for "investigator" Silas Marsh teams up the alienated sea dog with Miskatonic University librarian Abigail Foreman. She's in the throes of a manic episode trained on apocalyptic oracles in a sixteenth-century tome. Marsh is of course kin to the Innsmouth Marshes (of Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth"), and the Deep Gate of the title unsurprisingly proves to be at Devil Reef off the Massachusetts coast.

Author Chris Jackson is an old hand at nautical show more storytelling and fantasy, but an admitted greenhorn when it comes to horror writing, and this experience base shows in the final product. While there are a few apt touches for purposes of horror and the yog-sothothery is all faithful enough, it's more a quest-and-challenge sort of story than a genuinely creepy one. It is a fast read, as the books in this series generally are, and it does go a little ways to fleshing out Silas as a black sheep of the hybrid Innsmouthers.

The full-color "documentary" pages at the back of the volume show as much variety as these have in any of the other books, including correspondence, news clippings, a medical report, a scientific abstract, and a page or two from the Prophesiae Profana. The correspondence, while designed with appropriate old fonts for manual cursive and typewriting, is all anachronistically set up with headers in e-mail format: "From: ... To: ... Subject: ..." above the body text. Also, the pages from the old tome are in English, although the story described them as being in Latin. Still, all this material does provide some entertaining supplementary perspectives on the main story, particularly the Arkham Advertiser story commending the "fine citizens" of the Marsh family.

The Silas Marsh promotional cards for Arkham Horror: The Card Game introduce this character to the game for the first time. I expect him to be fun to play, and I have already designed a deck for him to join with Ursula Downs in my first go at the latest campaign cycle The Forgotten Age. show less

I would like to thank Goodreads first-reads and the authors for my free copy of Zellohar in exchange for an honest review.

One sign of a really good story is if the characters continue to roam through your mind long after you have closed the book and are supposed to be asleep.I found this was the case with Zellohar . The characters were very engaging. Avari wasn't the usual reluctant hero/ine ("I have to save the world but I'm just a poor farm boy/girl" scenario) she goes in head-on all guns show more blazing.
I just loved all the characters,the little messengers,the orcs, the dumb ogres. I even felt a little bit of sympathy for Iveron.
Overall a great adventure laced with little bits of dwarvish humour.Really looking forward to reading the next book in this series. show less