Chris Turner (3)

Early in the book, one of the characters proclaims to another, "“An eloquent remark for one so vulgarly inebriated." Indeed, the tale is plagued by eloquence - in fact it is an eloquence that is seemingly out of place among such a plebeian, common-placed folk. The author has a vast command of vocabulary, but while his language skills are impressive they are out of place among the commoners that occupy the wharf town of Heagram. I admire the writer's command of vocabulary, or thesaurus, but show more they interfere with the story and perhaps the best development of the characters. As I began the book, I thought that perhaps it was his intention convey a sense of the archaic, but if so, he has perhaps gone too far. The language overpowers the characters. It also overpowers what plot there is - which is thin. I was fully three-quarters of the way through the book before the plot made any sense at all, and then it was weak. Between his use of language and the length of time it took to develop his plot, I found the book tedious to read and struggled to get through it. I would like to give the author the benefit of the doubt, but found very little in this book to regard or recommend. show less

Chris Turner presents us with a short story about a warrior named Taar looking for his master's murderers but finds something else instead.

Turner did an amazing job creating a spectacular world with its own rules. Descriptions were vivid and rather poetic. Characters speak in a formal ancient dialect which adds to the feeling of being in another world. Turner starts off slow, to ease you into his world, and then the pace quickly picks up speed once we meet the Enchantress.

The characters are show more a bit flat. It's always either you're good or you're evil. However, it's forgivable since it was so short. The Enchantress was an especially interesting character and it was too bad we didn't learn as much about her as I would've liked. One thing that I was a bit miffed about was the abrupt switch from one conflict to another. We spend most of the story dealing with the Enchantress and then we jump into a final battle and then the story is over. The author manages to pull it off without really affecting my reading experience but, if you're a stickler about these things, this book might not be for you!

Pro: fast-paced, interesting plot, intricate and poetic descriptions
Con: somewhat flat characters, abrupt transition scenes

It's definitely worth reading but you'll be done with this story before you know it and will be wanting more! Thus, "Fantastic Realms" might be a better choice since it would include this story and many others like it.

If you want to "test the waters" and see what this author has to offer, then this is a good cheap way to check out Turner's style. If you're the diving-in type, you'll want to get "Fantastic Realms". It's an excellent book from a great author! show less

You know that a story is good when you become emotionally invested; by the time the real conflict occurred in this tale, I found myself muttering at my Kindle! I enjoyed where the story went, and felt that it ended just as it was really beginning. I'd love to see the adventures of Kolbe and Ekissa, because it seems like the directions this story could go are endless. There were some holes in completely filling out the far and recent history of Phane (I felt like I barely understood the show more cultures that came before the current one in the story) so it all went really fast; I was able to finish reading this story inside of two days, just reading here and there when I could. If this was fleshed out a bit more, and the tale continued beyond the current ending, I would definitely consider buying the sequels to this story. show less

Taar, a warrior, sets out to avenge the murder of his master but is waylaid by a seductress who has her own plans for him. This is a very short story with an interesting premise. However, since my taste in fantasy runs to Brent Weeks and Steven Erikson, I found the writing just a tad too flowery. Still, that is a personal prejudice so, given the brevity of the story, you might want to give it a try for yourself - even if you share my taste in language, the story, itself, isn't half bad.