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bryanthomasschmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

My thoughts on books, stories, authors, and publishing

Currently reading

The Clockwork Dagger
Beth Cato
Progress: 120/360 pages
The Road to Science Fiction 3: From Heinlein to Here
James Gunn
The Road to Science Fiction 4: From Here to Forever
James Gunn
The Road to Science Fiction 1
James Gunn
A Broken Christmas
Claire Ashgrove
The Ultra Thin Man
Patrick Swenson
Progress: 174/334 pages
The Broken Eye
Brent Weeks
The Dark Between the Stars
Kevin J. Anderson
Oath of Fealty
Elizabeth Moon
The Road to Science Fiction 2: From Wells to Heinlein
James Gunn

The Black God's War

The Black God's War - Moses Siregar III This epic fantasy is a solid debut for Siregar, who has come out of nowhere to surprise a lot of people with his talent for storytelling, prose, and marketing. There's a reason this book sold 500 copies in 38 days when it was finally released. After teasing us with a novella last year, lots of people, like me, have been eagerly awaiting the full novel, and it was worth the wait. From world building to character development, Siregar rises to the challenge fully. There's interesting choices made in everything from plotting to point of view. With two diametrically opposed protagonists, their love interests and their fathers, as well as best friends and others, we have plenty of views from which to immerse ourselves in the story and world. The parallels to the Greek-Roman religious traditions struck me alongside parallels to current anti-war philosophies. I enjoyed the read and was eager to know how it ended. He surprised me with a few twists and turns and it will be interesting to see where he takes the story next.

If you're bored with the typical European medieval settings for epic fantasy, give this book a try. It's different, in a good way, and filled with action sequences, character conflict, even some romance, as well as a good pcaing of tension and wonder.