Another Consolidated Review

So, here is my second installment in the Consolidated Reviews series. I think I’ve got something for almost everyone in here this time: mystery/suspense, fantasy, adventure, history-mystery, and even a picture book! I’ve already explained that I’m doing this to save on time and get as many things reviewed as I can, so without further ado, here are another five (short) reviews:

1. The Bug Man series, by Tim Downs

One of the first reviews I did on this blog was of Downs’ book Shoofly Pie, which I loved. Well, the Bug Man returns in Chop Shop, Less than Dead, First the Dead and Ends of the Earth (which just came out this year). Nick Polchak, the forensic entomologist main character, is a wonderful combination of Sherlock Holmes, Patrick Jane from CBS’s The Mentalist, and Monk—for various reasons. He’s a genius who has no social skills and loves his necrophilous insects better than most people love their dogs or furry little kittens. By the way, necrophilous means “dead-loving”. These are bugs that eat decomposing flesh—just in case you were wondering.

Anyway, as I said in my review of Shoofly Pie,

“I’ll admit that when I first picked this book up, I was a little hesitant. It looked like one of those really gross CSI-type shows, full of gory details and nasty word pictures. And while the descriptions of a moldering corpse are certainly not pleasant, they also weren’t overly graphic or disgusting.” The stories of Dr. Polchak and his mysteries are suspenseful and fun—and educational too, if you read through all the lectures on entomology—which I actually do.

Five Quills for the Bug Man, and here’s to more books soon.

2. Faery Rebels by R.J. Anderson

Knife is a young faery with an insatiable curiosity—which gets her into trouble as she starts asking too many of the wrong questions. Like, how did her tribe of faerys lose their magic? Why are they never allowed to leave the Oak—their home? And what is really so terrible about Humans?

When Knife meets a depressed, paraplegic boy named Paul, she starts making some discoveries that could change her world beyond her wildest imaginings. In the process, she brings new hope into Paul’s life, and re-inspires his artistic talents, while at the same time sparking some of her own.

This was a delightful book in the same vein as Ella Enchanted, Dragon Slippers, Fortune’s Folly…with a plucky heroine and a great story—almost bordering on a mystery as Knife struggles to make heads or tails of the confusing history of her people. I highly recommend this book—partly because I was impressed that the author (though published by the secular Harper Collins publishing house) wrote a very plain and bold thank you to God—the Author and the Word, the Beginning and the End, her Savior and her God—in the Acknowledgments.

Definitely a four-Quill book; perhaps a five.

3. The Vesper Holly Adventures, by Lloyd Alexander.

If you don’t know who Lloyd Alexander is, you probably have at least heard of his most popular books—the Prydain Chronicles, including the well-known fantasy The Black Cauldron (this one, incidentally, was made into a Disney animated movie; one of the few times Disney created an absolute box-office flop). However, besides his fantasy writings, Alexander also wrote a few books about a young Philadelphian lass named Vesper Holly: an orphan and heir to her parent’s decent-sized estate, as well as an incorrigible and intelligent adventuress. This series is unique in that the stories are not told from the POV of the main character, Vesper, but rather from that of her guardian, Brinny; which is kind of odd, but works out nicely—something like Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

The stories take Vesper all over the world in her adventures, and in each one she faces down the despicable villain Dr. Helvitius She travels to the jungles of South America in The Illyrian Adventure, the desert of Africa in The Jedera Adventure, a small European country in The Drakenburg Adventure…and more. The one word that best describes Vesper in all of her exploits is “plucky”—the “dear girl” is resourceful and clever, and always manages to outwit the villainous Helvitius.

A delightful series—four and a half quills.

4. The Cat Royal Adventures, by Julia Golding

Catherine Royal is a young orphan living in London during the late 1700s, who was brought up in the Royal Theater, from which she takes her name. She’s a wonderfully brave and captivating character, whose loyalty to her friends (as well as red-headed temper) can get her into a bit of trouble. Each Cat Royal Adventure is a period mystery, involving everything from stolen diamonds and political cartoonists to slave hunters, London street posses, and press-ganged aristocrats. I love these books, and recommend them to anyone who likes: a) historical fiction, b) mysteries, or c) just plain, good reading. lol

One word of caution—Cat’s surroundings, in 16^th century London, France, and America, are a bit…rough by today’s standards, as are her manners and the humor of a few of her acquaintances. I don’t honestly recall if there’s any language (if there is, it’s “mild”) but let it simply be said that fleas and disgusting ruffians are commonplace in Cat’s world.

5. A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce

Right now, one of my favorite movies is Meet the Robinsons—the Disney-Pixar film of a few years ago. While exploring some of the “bonus features” on the DVD recently, I discovered that the movie was based on this book: A Day with Wilbur Robinson. Curious, I checked the book out from the library, and was delighted. If you’ve seen the movie, especially, you’ll enjoy this sweet little picture book about an unnamed boy (given the name Louis in the film), his friend Wilbur Robinson, and their adventure through the Robinson household. Many of the characters from the book made it into the movie: the twins, Dmitri and Spike, Aunt Billie with her toy train, Carl the robot, the singing frogs—and, of course, Grandfather Robinson and his false teeth! I was particularly impressed by the way that Disney-Pixar kept the art from the book when they made the movie—most of the characters are completely recognizable, and even the house itself looks just about the same.

A Day with Wilbur Robinson is an “alarmingly optimistic” picture book by a gifted author/artist (who, incidentally, families with young children might know as the creator of “Rolie Polie Olie”). Given the plus that it was turned into a very cool movie, I give this book a rock-solid four quills. Keep Moving Forward!

Well, my friends: there you have it. Another five reviews carefully condensed into one (admittedly long) blog entry. Just add water! LOL—I hope you enjoyed, and that you’ll check out a few of the books I’ve mentioned.

See you soon,

~The Brownie

Called to Worship

Called to Worship, by Vernon M. Whaley

Yeah, a nonfiction review for once!

Actually, I should confess that I’ve been meaning to write this review for a long time. Some of you who have been reading my Musings blog for a while may recall that I was doing the Book Blogger thing through Thomas Nelson Publishers—where they send me a book for free, and I review it on my blog. Well, the last time I got a book, it was a big, honking-thick nonfiction book…and it’s taken me a while to get through it.

But: here is my review.

Overall, I thought that Called to Worship, by Vernon M Whaley, was a pretty decent book—I’ll even go so far as to say that I agreed with 99.9% of what he said. Every once in a while, he’d make some comment, or give some quote, and I’d think “Eh…maybe not…” On the whole, though, I think it was ok.

The premise of Called to Worship is simple: the God of the universe, who created you and all you see, deserves and desires your worship. And not just the Sunday Morning Only Worship either—genuine, heartfelt, worship. Voddie Baucham defines worship as setting your “mind’s attention and heart’s attention” on someone or something, and Whaley more or less says the same thing.

Called to Worship impressed and pleased me in that it gives its message in the framework of the history of worship: from the unadulterated worship Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden, through the Patriarchs, the Psalms and the Prophets, and up into the New Testament; then the last part of the book speaks about how we will be worshiping throughout eternity. This was very interesting, to see how modes of worship have changed over the generations though the actual principles have not. I was impressed that Whaley does not give instructions on how to make worship “a better experience” so that nonbelievers will be comfortable in church, or encourage those fighting the “Worship Wars”—actually (interrupting self here):

He made some interesting points about the so-called “worship wars”, pointing out that they’ve been going on for a very long time. The way Whaley puts it, Lucifer’s fall was in essence, the result of a worship war. Lucifer wanted the worship belonging to God for himself—and he took down a third of heaven’s host when he bit the dust. Then there were the “wars” that Adam and Eve lost in the Garden, when they chose to worship their own desires over God, and Cain’s lost war when he murdered his brother over a worship dispute…basically, it all boils down to what Baucham says: heart’s affection and mind’s attention. But I’m getting sidetracked. J Back to the review.

I did find it odd that he quotes from an enormously varied group of speakers—from A.W. Tozer to Joyce Meyer, two absolutely contradictory people. This disappointed me, and made me read the rest of the book somewhat dubiously. However, all things considered, I thought that it was a good book for many reasons. Christians need to read more about the history and Focus of our worship. I would recommend this book—but I would say to read objectively and to be sure and check everything you read against what Scripture says. After all, God’s Word will trump every time, right? Then again, that advice goes for anything—even what you hear in Sunday morning church.

The Brownie gives Called to Worship a three-quill rating.

~Brownie

Gerald Morris

I have to admit—I’m not quite sure what this series is supposed to be called. I think it’s something like The Squire’s Tales, but since not all of the books are about squires, and since the title of the first book he wrote was The Squire’s Tale, I find that name confusing. So for the sake of this review, I’m simply going to call it the Series. Yes, with a capitol “s”. Just bear with me. J

There have been many retellings of the Arthurian legends over the years—probably more than any other collection of stories on the planet. Everyone from Steven Lawhead to Walt Disney (by way of T.S. Elliot) has had a go at it, with varying degrees of success. But one of the best authors I have ever read also happens to be one of the best at retelling the legends, in my humble opinion.

Gerald Morris, of Oklahoma, (NOT to be confused with Gilbert Morris, of North Carolina) first wrote The Squire’s Tale in 1998, retelling several of the stories of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew and arguably his most noble knight. Morris takes bits of his story from a bunch of different sources, especially from Le Morte d’Arthur—though he disliked Sir Thomas Malory’s treatment of Gawain as a “rather coarse and selfish knight of only moderate skill”, and has tried to “restore the reputation of this most honored of all the knights on earth”.

He does so masterfully, telling the tale of Gawain’s first adventures as seen through the eyes of his squire, Terence. With subtle (and absolutely delightful) humor, along with skilled story-spinning and faithfulness to the old stories, Morris gives us a highly enjoyable first novel.

And the ones that follow are just as good, if not better. My personal favorites include The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, and The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady, which retells the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

For an example of Morris’ humor, and wonderful story telling abilities, here is a short selection from The Squire’s Tale, where Terence tells King Arthur of Gawain’s bravery in defeating a “recreant knight”:

“And who are you, son?” the king asked him. [Terence]

Terence gulped and said, “Terence sir—Gawain’s squire.”

“I see,” Arthur said. “Tell me about Sir Hautubris.”

…“Well,” Terence stammered, “he was the knight who wanted to take our dinner—I mean me and milord and Trevisant—that’s the Hermit of the Gentle Wood. I lived with him until milord came. And Sir Hautubris was angry because there wasn’t any left. It was stew, sir,” he explained.

“Go on,” the king said, his eyes twinkling.

“So milord went out and told him we had just finished, but he was rude, so milord knocked him off his horse. So he got mad and tried to kill milord, and almost did, because milord didn’t have any armor on—“

“You say that Gawain was wearing no armor?” the king interrupted.

“No sir, on account of being at dinner, I think,” Terence said.

“Very proper,” Arthur said, his lips twitching…

“So he tried to kill milord, like I said, but he couldn’t because milord kept hitting him with the stewpot.”

“With the what?” Sir Kai interrupted, a grin of delight spreading over his face.

"The stewpot, sir. Milord didn’t have his sword, you see, so he hit Sir Hautubris in the head with the pot.”

“Continue, please,” said Arthur, suppressing a smile.

“That’s almost everything. Milord took Sir Hautubris’s sword away from him and said he wasn’t to be trusted with it—“ Terence heard Sir Kai snort, but he pressed on. “But then Sir Hautubris got another sword and tried to kill him from behind, so milord killed Sir Hautubris.” Terence stopped, but no one spoke. “That’s all,” he added.

Isn’t that just great? I crack up every time I read it. So…maybe my sense of humor is a bit odd—but I prefer to believe that Morris is simply a genius writer.

So anyway, now that you’ve had a tiny taste, head over to the bookstore or library to find the rest of Morris’ great books. Oh—and a small word of…not warning, exactly, but…explanation. In the last year or so, Morris has released a couple of books of a similar type as this Series, but written for even younger kids—they’re still good, but not nearly up to par with the previous ones. It should be easy to tell which ones are which, but just FYI.

Enjoy! I give Gerald Morris a shining five-quill rating.

~The Brownie

The Mysterious Benedict Society Series -- By Trenton Lee Stewart

I love reading children’s books—not little kid’s books, understand, but the ones that are written for the 12-15 age range. Most of my favorite books come out of the children’s section at the library. I’m not quite sure why this is—maybe because the “teen” books are too angst-y and the adult books are…well, let’s face it. You can only read so many imitations of “Love Comes Softly” or “The Shunning”. Sure, there are a few good adult fiction writers out there—Tim Downs comes to mind—but they’re few and far between, and they don’t write fast enough. LOL.
So when we go to the library, I almost always head to the children’s “New Books” section first. One of my new-er favorites has just come out with a third book, which possibly ends the series, but it’s slightly open-ended, so…one can hope. J

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart: it’s a delicious new series reminiscent of authors like E. B. White (actually, the first book won the E. B. White Read Aloud Award) and Roald Dahl, or perhaps a cross between Beverly Cleary and Frances Burnett.

The first book features four children: Reynie Muldoon, Kate Wetherall, Sticky Washington, and Constance Contraire. Each one of them is special in some way—Reynie is a genius for puzzles and problem-solving, Sticky has a photographic memory plus an I.Q. far above that of most kids his age…you get the idea.

They meet when they all answer an ad in the newspaper for “special opportunities” for gifted children. After passing through a bewildering series of tests (one of my favorite parts of the book, actually) they meet Mr. Benedict, the creator of the tests. Mr. Benedict has a problem: a villainous genius named Mr. Curtain has invented a terrible machine called the Whisperer, which he uses to influence people’s minds in an attempt to take over the world. And Mr. Benedict is out to stop him.

This is where the kids come in: Mr. Curtain also runs a school called, simply, the Institute, as a cover-up for his nefarious deeds. So in the guise of students, Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance are sent to Mr. Curtain’s island fortress to spy on him and (hopefully) help Mr. Benedict defeat the evil madman.

But when the kids get there, they find things even more confusing than they had thought. Who is Mr. Curtain really? For that matter, who is Mr. Benedict? Can they hope to ever break through the layers of clues, puzzles and codes that surround the mystery of the Whisperer?

I highly recommend this book, even to those of you who would normally spend your time reading more “grown-up” books. I enjoy this series immensely—and I hope Mr. Stewart doesn’t stop writing, even if this series really has come to an end.

A good five quills to The Mysterious Benedict Society.

~The Brownie

A Consolidated Review

OK, so it’s been a while since I did anything new, and since I read The Last Heir, I’ve read twenty-four other books. LOL—plenty to write about, wouldn’t you say? So here are my top-five picks out of that list, along with a tiny review of each. (I’ll post another five soon. Who knows—I may make a habit of this.)

1. The Rover, by Mel Odom.

If you liked The Hobbit, this book is for you. Actually, one suspects that Odom specifically tailored this tale—about Edgewick Lamplighter, fondly known as Wick; a mild-mannered “dweller” librarian who gets kidnapped by pirates and forced into adventure after adventure in the “big world”, complete with evil wizards, goblins, thieves and a ferocious dragon—for the enjoyment of Tolkien fans. Some people might say that the author is simply copying Tolkien’s style and stealing his ideas, but personally I loved it because, 1) it’s almost like reading a continuation of The Hobbit, which has always been my favorite Tolkien book, and 2) it is original in many ways.
This is a “serious” fantasy book, unlike most of the things I’ll be reviewing around here, but I heartily recommend it as a delicious read.

A good five Quills, to be certain.

2. The Ranger’s Apprentice Series, by John Flanagan.

This is more the type of book I usually read—the children’s/young adult adventure books. The Ranger’s Apprentice series features Will, a smallish boy of no known ancestry, dumped on the doorstep of a local baron and taken in to be raised with the other village orphans. When the time comes for the castle wards to be apprenticed to various tradesmen, Will is horrified to find out that he’s too small to qualify for Battleschool, the one place he really wants to be. Instead, he is apprenticed to Halt, the local Ranger—kind of like a cross between Robin Hood, the Lone Ranger, and Sherlock Holmes.

This whole series is good, in my opinion, and as far as I know, it’s still growing beyond the six books already published. Check them out—if you ever loved the stories of Robin Hood, or enjoy books about an underdog character coming out and becoming a heroic figure, this series is for you.

Five Quills from the Brownie.

3. Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover, by Ally Carter

Gallagher Academy looks like a pricy boarding school for spoiled prima dona rich girls, but that’s only on the outside—or on the inside if there’s a Code Red, but that’s beside the point. Really, though, it’s an advanced school for girl spies: the Gallagher Girls. Featuring meals where one is only allowed to speak in Swahili or classes on Basic Code-breaking that solves ciphers the FBI can’t figure out, Gallagher Academy is the perfect place for a girl like Cammie, who is especially talented at blending in to crowds: a pavement artist. Unfortunately, she’s also the headmistress’ daughter, so she doesn’t get cut any slack. Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover is the third book in this series, preceded by I’d Tell You I Love You, but then I’d Have to Kill You, and Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy.
Look them up—though, a warning: the teenaged romance/angst stuff can be pretty thick. Nothing bad, just…sappy.

Four Quills.

4. It Doesn’t Always Have to Rhyme, by Eve Merriam (couldn't find a pic for this one)

Not often will I do a review of this sort, but I recently picked up this little book of poetry and was simply delighted. The poems are just plain good; like the title pick: Inside a Poem, which says in part:

It doesn’t always have to rhyme,

But there’s a repeat of a beat

Somewhere
An inner chime that makes you want to

Tap your feet or swerve in a curve;

A lilt, a leap, a lightning-split:—
Thunderstruck the consonants jut

While the vowels open wide as waves in

The noon-blue sea

LOL—isn’t that great? I don’t know…maybe I have odd tastes in poetry, but I sincerely suggest It Doesn’t Always Have to Rhyme—it’s just so fun to read.

A solid five Quills.

5. The Curse of the Spider King, by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper

A new adventure from two already well-known authors—Batson for his Door Within trilogy and the Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire duology; and Hopper for the White Lion chronicles—this young adult, Christian fantasy promises to be the start of a really good series. It was a bit confusing at times, because there are no less than seven main characters, the long-lost children of Elven lords, kidnapped and sent to our world by the Spider King’s cronies. However, once you get the names straight and figure out which elf is who when, this is a wonderful read. It combines Batson’s interesting stories with Hopper’s more skilled style, while managing to avoid Hopper’s tendency to be over-literary and Batson’s to be cliché. I can’t wait for the next book.

Four…and a half Quills, says the Brownie.

So there you have it, friends! Five new books to find and enjoy. Please, if you read this—or if you already have read them—leave a comment. Tell me what you liked, what you disliked. If you hated the book that I said rocked, feel free to rant. I’d like to hear some feedback.

Until next time, I remain—

~The Brownie

The Last Heir, by Shannon McDermott

So this last week, when I went to the library, I stopped by the New Christian Fiction shelf. There I saw—amidst about ten Western, historical, and/or Amish romances—a book with planets on the spine. Ooh! I thought New Christian sci-fi!
Excited, I picked it up, and was even more interested to see that it was written by a fellow homeschooler, a Shannon McDermott. The cover art was a bit doubtful, but I remembered the old adage to “not judge a book by its cover”, and took it to the check out anyway.

And boy, am I glad I did.

The Last Heir is something of a new genre, I think. It’s sci-fi, yes—but not extremely. Almost even more than sci-fi, it’s a political thriller of sorts.
Now, for those of you for whom that doesn’t exactly thrill your heart; don’t give up just yet. I, personally, do not like political fiction. I get bored very quickly with both political and legal dramas—but The Last Heir kept me interested until the last page. It did get a bit confusing for a while, before you knew who all the characters were and where they stood, but everything became clear long before the end.

The overall story is this: the emperor dies. His heir is only seven years old—way too young to rule—so they set up a regent. Well, the regent decides that he likes ruling an empire, and refuses to give up the throne when the boy emperor comes of age. So they fight a several-year-long war, with the good guys outwitting the bad guys time and again, sometimes through planning and sometimes through sheer Providence. Eventually, as we all know they will, the good guys win and depose the false emperor in a very satisfying conclusion.

Now to the review.

First off: the character names. Not that they were bad—on the contrary, I liked most of the names chosen. Empress Mareah, Regent Elymas Vonran, Adon Kereth…and especially Emperor Alexander. (I love that name…) However, some of the names were so similar that it was difficult to keep track of who was who. For example: all the way through the book, I kept confusing the character named Chief Kinlol and the soldier Kereth. I would have to read conversations between the two of them several times before I completely figured out who said what. (However, as Kereth was my favorite character, I didn’t mind this too much. LOL)

Second—the pace. I didn’t mind the subtle, arched sweep of the story; but some people might, so…anyway. The book is approximately 382 pages long (oh, and that was a con, because the pages are numbered with Roman numerals—as in CCCLXXXII instead of 382. Not convenient…) but it covers something like thirteen years. It’s divided up into Book One—year 688; Book Two—year 698; and Book Three—year 701. This works well within the context of the book, which smoothly lays out the gradual changes that take place in a realistic empire, rather then jumping right in at the action, but some might find it a bit long.

Third—and this was really the only thing that honestly bothered me—we never get to actually see the action. They sabotage a fleet of “superships”, but we see only the scene right before (where they do the actual sabotaging) and the scene after (when someone sees the drifting wreckage). Or the heroes sneak into the palace under the cover of night and enter through a secret tunnel—but we only get to see them leaving the tunnel, and they are described as being “a little worse for wear from the journey”. But we aren’t told why.

Oh yes, and lastly: the cover art. I know, I know: book by its cover and all that. But the fact is that people, including myself, do judge books by how they look. And—no offense to the person(s) who created the cover, because I can tell that they did the best they could with what they had—The Last Heir merited a professionally done cover. This is a wonderful book, but the cover art is less than marvelous.
So, for a final, to-the-point opinion: The Last Heir is a book well worth your time; a book with a decidedly Christian undercurrent that skillfully manages not to be “preachy”. The Brownie gives it a solid rating of four-out-of-five quills.

If you liked The Last Heir, you might also like these books (or, if you liked any of these, you might like The Last Heir):
The Firebird trilogy, by Kathy Tyers
The Personifid Project, by R.E. Bartlett
Saga of the Six Worlds, by Cherith Baldry
The Lamb among the Stars series, by Chris Walley
Dream Voyager, by T. Davis Bunn (or pseudonym Thomas Locke)

Slathbog's Gold, by M.L. Forman

The sign is small, tucked into the corner of Mr. Clutter’s bookshop window: “Adventurers Wanted, Apply Within.” No one but fifteen-year-old Alex Taylor even seems to notice it is there. And for Alex, who has wished for a change in his life, it is an irresistible invitation.
Alex enters the shop, and is swept up in a whirlwind adventure that makes him the eighth man in an adventuring crew; as they set off on a quest to defeat a dragon and reclaim his golden horde.

I won’t be stingy on the praise here—I loved this book. I’ve read it twice in the last several months, and I usually never read a book more than once. The only exceptions are books that either a) are the beginning of a series, and once the next book comes out I’ve forgotten what happened and have to reread; or b) I really, really like. Fortunately for me, Slathbog’s Gold falls into both categories—it’s a marvelous book, and the beginning of a new series, with book two (The Horn of Moran) set to come out in ’10.

Slathbog’s Gold reads like the archetypical fantasy. Boy falls into magical world, meets up with a party of dwarves, elves and men, discovers that there’s something special about himself, and heroically saves the day. There’s a meeting with a three-legged troll; a visit in both an elven city and a dwarven city; and—of course—a perfectly villainous dragon to defeat at the end, whereupon our hero returns home a better person, to people who may or may not be able to understand what has happened to him.

Sound familiar? I thought so. Yes, Slathbog’s Gold could be construed by more critical people as being cliché. However, I strongly dislike cliché-y writing, and I really don’t think that Slathbog’s Gold falls into that group. It’s more…more like a story you already knew, but had forgotten about. Or something you actually lived yourself, and had just picked up your old journal. It’s comfortable.

Now, that being said, there are some distinctly new (or at least creatively redeveloped) ideas. For example, my personal favorite: the magic bags.

If you’ve ever read many fairy tales, or much fantasy fiction, you may have come across this concept of a magical bag that either has a never-ending supply of money, or else can fit inside anything you call on it to contain.
Forman’s magic bags are similar, and yet wonderfully new. A magic bag can be fitted with as many rooms as the owner pleases, including (but not limited to): bedrooms, ice rooms, bathrooms, libraries, and expanding treasure rooms that never overfill.

Each bag has passwords, which are known only to the owner as his/her chosen heir, who will claim the bag and its contents in the event of an adventurer’s death. These passwords allow one to get in and out of the bag, as well as to put things inside. The bag cannot be stolen from its rightful owner, or moved from any place where the owner left it; and—best yet—no matter how full you fill it, it never gets very heavy.

So you see what I mean? Slathbog’s Gold takes some well-worn story elements—such as an enchanted/ancient sword or a marauding dragon—and builds a beautifully worked world out of it. Some people may find it cliché and boring. I find it delicious and comfortable, the kind of story that invites you in to chat for a while.
I cannot wait for The Horn of Moran to come out, and I strongly recommend Slathbog’s Gold to any fan of fairy tales or fantasy.
The Brownie gives Slathbog’s Gold a solid five quills.

If you liked Slathbog’s Gold, you might also like these books (or, if you liked any of these, you might like Slathbog’s Gold):
The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
Once Upon a Marigold, by Jean Ferris
The Rover, by Mel Odom
The Farwalker’s Quest, by Joni Sensel
The Ranger’s Apprentice series, by John Flanagan