Three is the magic number. That is how many rooms Theo Saint has ever seen. Three is how many people he knows in his life. Three and Zero and are the amount of minutes he is allowed outside of his designated area per year. Theo has a deadly disease. He wears gloves constantly and is monitored day and night. He has to get treatment in the ‘Mercy Tube’ or the disease gets worse but one day someone kidnaps Theo!

I’ve been reading quite a few children/YA books lately and I think I’ve found a recurring theme. A good children/YA fantasy book contains the following: a young boy or girl, they have powers, it is set in a relatively modern world, it is fast paced and it has strange creatures. Candle Man by Glenn Dakin contains all of the above.

A couple of girls in my class said that the book was very good so I put it at the top of my TBR pile and was I in for a great treat. Theo for a boy who has been sheltered from the outside world for all of his life was never dull, never self loathing but took everything in his stride and everything was a great interest to him. This is a testament to Dakin himself. He wrote the story with a few subplots but never did they get in the way of the major story and in the end he tied it all up perfectly.

What I also liked about the story were the creatures that gave the book a fantasy feel to it. Gone are the usual dwarves, orcs and elves; they are replaced with smoglodytes, extinct creatures and the forgotten gargoyles (with a twist).

I can’t wait to see how much attention this book will get because it is right up there in terms of quality with books like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Review written for Best Fantasy Books by Enchanté (a.k.a) Jon Snow from Sleeping With Books

*I wrote this review before I read Ben’s interview with Janet Lee Carey*

Kipp, a 17 year old boy is robbed of all his family except his baby sister to a deadly fire. On that night he saw Death come for his family and steal their souls with Kwaja, the soul sack. Kipp vows to get his family back and that means confronting Death himself.

Stealing Death is a novel by Janet Lee Carey written for people 12 and up. This book was a very action packed book and there is always something happening. Carey writes with a startling pace and describes her world with much flare. We are thrust into a world where people still believe in dragons and the worthiness of a man are determined by the length of their hair and the many different coloured beads in them. Slavery is still rife in this world and the punishment for crime is worst than slavery. Carey’s strongest suit is probably in her characterization, especially of Kipp. She has made Kipp in every way a 17 year old boy would be like. Young love, rash decisions, thinking what he thinks is the best for those around him are just little tidbits of Kipp’s characters and Carey really did a good job of him.

Although the book was action packed and the world intriguing, this book felt like an adult fantasy book that had been diluted for the younger readers. A few things weren’t explained enough leaving me groping for more information.

Unpronounceable names are a pet hate of mine and although these were unpronounceable they were confusing. Gwali (Death, Kwaja (Soul Sack), Techee (Fire) are but a few names that add a little bit of flavour to the story but not enough to cover the confusion we get at the beginning of the book. For younger readers it will be even more confusing (leading to one the girls in my class to put it down because she didn’t get it.)

Janet Lee Carey has a lot of potential to be a great author. Her characterizations are strong; she is imaginative, the book is action packed (which keeps the kids hooked) and she has a strong foundation for some good world building as well. However, I have a feeling that she may be writing for the wrong target audience.

Review written for Best Fantasy Books by Enchanté (a.k.a) Jon Snow from Sleeping With Books

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Monza Murcatto a once loved and trusted general was betrayed, stabbed and thrown off a mountain. However one thing the betrayer did not plan was for her to survive. Now Monza is planning her revenge on the seven men that had a hand in the betrayal.

Joe Abercrombie first made fame with the book The Blade Itself, book 1 of The First Law Trilogy. From this series Abercrombie has gained world wide fans for his witty humour, in depth characters with their monologues, and brutal piece by piece violence.

Best Served Cold unlike the previous series is a Stand Alone book.

For those that have never read Abercrombie, you will not lose any sleep over not having read the previous series because this book is completely self enclosed and requires no prior knowledge to be enjoyed. Best Served Cold employs humour, gore, torture and *cough* romance *cough* all to the extremes. Abercrombie will wow you with great in depth characters that you will fall in love with, wince at the toture scenes when bits of flesh are seared away and be absolutely shocked as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The other great thing about this book (if you buy the UK version) is the beautiful cover (First Law covers are also beautiful).

For those of you that have read the First Law Trilogy, I think you should take this book with tredipidation. The good things about this book is that Abercrombie has worked on everything he was criticized on for the First Law. Maps have been inserted into the book. Instead of the usual ‘place at the front’ map, it is on the cover of the UK version of the book. The book is also divided into parts, each part is set in a different area. These areas are enlarged and placed before the start of each part (genius!). The creativeness of Abercrombie is also evident in how he rearranges old minor characters into this book. He almost secretly inserts these old characters into completely new characters with new roles, with new importances and that was a nice surprise. The other thing I also liked about this book was that it is a stand-alone novel. Too many books out there now are a part of a trilogy or 12 book series and it is refreshing to read a relatively new author produce a stand-alone novel.

The other good or bad thing about this book is besides the main story of vengeance, is that this book is just the First Law squished into 500 pages. The world is the same, the monologues are there, the rough sex even the types of characters are the same; a barbarian from the north, a poisoner (torturer), a mass murderer, an inquisitor and people you just can’t rely on. The fact that they are all the same (practically) draws attention away from the fact that Abercrombie’s strength is character writing.

Best Served Cold is by no means a great read, just more of the same much like a Gemmell novel. And like any Gemmell novel, it is worth reading.

Review written for Best Fantasy Books by Enchanté (a.k.a) Jon Snow from Sleeping With Books