Ann Marston

An enjoyable book with a distinctive character. It has the detailed emotional narrative style of a romance novel with a modestly masculine pace, plot and character development. This difference from other novels is refreshing. Some readers drawn to the title, though, might prefer faster action. Marston appears to be playing to two very different reader genders simultaneously which entails some risks. On balance, she pulls it off though the fusion of the protagonist's hyper-emotion and super show more speed behind the joystick at the very end gets a bit unwieldy.

In an unconventional sense, the main character seems narcissisitic. He is not arrogant or unable to have empathy in any traditional sense of how we use the term. Rather he seems to be trapped at the boundary of past and present trying to determine who or what the reflection he sees really is deep in the past. He is Narcissus staring into a reflective surface but uncertain of who actually stares back. Unlike the mythical figure, however, he becomes unstable. The instability ultimately emancipates him.

I know nothing about aviation, but I suspect readers who do will find Marston's use of detailed pilot culture engaging, especially her male readers. show less

I am not a big fantasy reader nor do I read a lot of "series" material, but I was intrigued by my husband's conversations about this series. Now I wish I had read the first five. This one was a bit confusing not knowing a lot of the history of the series, but my husband did a lot of filling in and it made the book more enjoyable. Now on to the story. The two big heroes Acaren and Rowan and two fun brothers to get to know and you quickly realize they have a huge destiny. Time travels pretty show more quickly as they are children in the beginning of the book and well into adulthood by the end of the book. The mystique of the stones of Nemeara was fun and the frequency of divine intervention is disturbing. Having all those gods showing up so often would be very disconcerting for me.
The story comes to a Tolkien ending with all the help arriving in the nick of time and good soundly smacking evil. All in all for a genre that I am not too crazy about, this was a fun read. I begin to understand why my husband has so much fun with it. show less

I very much enjoyed this once I understood what it was: Not a straight fantasy story, but one of the most original King Arthur retellings it has been my pleasure to encounter.

The opening of the first book is a bit confusing, and reads almost more like historic fiction/romance for a few chapters before becoming a fantasy series.

This book and this series is for someone who enjoyed Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain/Watson's retelling of the Mabinogi, and also enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin show more trilogy. It is a wonderful companion to the others. show less

First of 3 [The Rune Blade trilogy]

Sword and sorcery story. Nothing really groundbreaking here, but a lot of fun to read. Worth noting that it's told from the first person perspective by the warrior hero, though it's written by a female author, and it also features an equally strong warrior maiden.

The protagonist has a mysterious past, hidden even from himself.

4****