Literary review: Hero's End

The Blackwing Chronicles began with Sovran's Pawn, an engaging introduction to Bo Barron and Blade Devon. Bo is the fugitive daughter and heir-in-waiting to her missing father, the Barron. And despite her fugitive status Bo has assumed the role of Barron in the still-unexplained absence of her father. Blade is...well...one can never be quite sure what - or who - Blade Devon is at any given time. Is he the handsome holovid actor whom the ladies drool over, an IC Predator agent and one of the most deadly men in the universe, or something else entirely? Whoever he is, someone wants Blade Devon dead.

Hero's End, the second book in The Blackwing Chronicles series, opens with a hit being put out on Devon. I'll tell you right up front that in JC Cassels' universe, sex and violence are almost the coin of the realm. That's not to say that Hero's End is some smutty space opera; far from it. The author has simply taken a couple of humanity's worst - or best, depending on your definition - traits and magnified them. Skyhoppers and Joy Babes abound, as do assassins and other dangerous folk. However, Cassels does an outstanding job of writing about the seedy underbelly of society without wallowing in bad language or needlessly graphic situations. And don't for one minute think that the seediness is limited to those who inhabit the less fortunate strata of Cassels' universe. Just like in our own world, the predilection to sin is no respecter of bank balance or position, and is one of the many factors that keeps readers guessing. I'll tell you right from the launchpad: nothing - and no one - in Hero's End is what - or who - it seems.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, I have to say that Hero's End was both an easier and a tougher read than Sovran's Pawn. It was easier because I was familiar with the universe that Cassels has deftly imagineered. Also, the author has populated The Blackwing Chronicles with a cast of characters that is easy to care for and become invested in. The tough part, for me, is staying the course through Bo Barron's emotional journey. I'm a guy, and I've been married for almost a quarter of a century, but I still don't handle intense emotional turmoil very well. Maybe I'm just shallow; I don't know. Without providing any spoilers it's difficult for me to give specific examples of what I mean. In general, although there was plenty of emotional upheaval for Bo in Sovran's Pawn, we see a whole other level of that in Hero's End. Blade goes through his own emotional crises as well, but maybe it is because I'm a guy that Blade's torments seem to make more sense to me.

From a characterization standpoint, I'd say Cassels gets full marks. Although I don't personally care for some of the deeper exploration of Bo's innermost psyche, I can appreciate the craft with which it is written. Lest I leave out the character and bit players, it is hard to find fault with any of them. I've read several books in which the main characters, fully realized and fleshed out in living color, move around in a cardboard, two-dimensional world of almost cartoonish and clichéd secondary characters. That is absolutely not the case in Hero's End. I found each one intrinsic to the tale and employed in fitting and useful ways.

The plot of Hero's End continues apace from where we left off with Sovran's Pawn despite the passage of time between the two volumes. The intrigue, mystery, adventure, action and yes - the romance - are all ratcheted up several notches. I grew more appreciative of Cassels' writing ability the farther I read.

The scourge of everyone's Seventh Sector - grammar and usage - is very well done in Hero's End. I've included notes in other reviews indicating the downfall of many independent novels is poor diction, if not just downright messy grammar. Hero's End was a very clean read. There has obviously been a lot of love and care taken with this novel and as a reader I appreciate that very much!

Overall, I would recommend Hero's End to anyone who enjoys a good spacer. As the author personally noted, for some there is not enough romance and too much space and for others too much romance and not enough space. Personally, I found the characters, plot, descriptiveness, and tech to be spot on. My only gripe is the quantity of romance - yes, I'm one of the too much romance guys.

For my Christian readers, Hero's End is a bit stronger in some areas than its predecessor and might bring you a little pause as you make a reading decision. I will leave it up to you, but provide these guidelines: If John Boy yelling, "Darn!" on The Waltons gets the fan going, Hero's End is not for you. If you are an avid fan of science fiction, adventure and romance and you are not shocked or deterred by the programming content of network television after 8 p.m. then you'll probably be fine with the content of this novel. Anything in between is going to be a case-by-case, personal decision.

From a purely creative point of view, Hero's End is an excellent, well-written novel. It is likely one I would never have read due to that pesky romance stuff so I am thankful to have had the opportunity to read and review it.

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Boring disclaimers:

The Kindle version of Hero's End which I reviewed was provided to me electronically by the author - I received no compensation for this review, other than the pleasure of reading book two of The Black Wing Chronicles.

Literary review: Sovran's Pawn

It's been a long time since I've read science fiction. I have lived in several genres over the years: Fantasy, western and archaeological adventure for the most part. I've dabbled in Gothic (Wuthering Heights, Rebecca), suspense (Ludlum, Francis, Follett, MacLean) and others. Sci-fi has always been something that I just had to be in the mood for. I've hit some of the classics like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, and Ringworld, but anything you might term recent has been in the Star Wars universe or the excellent Star of the Guardians series by Margaret Weis, who also pens the very 'spacey' Mag Force books with Don Perrin.

You might ask yourself, "Isn't this supposed to be a review of 'Sovran's Pawn'? Why is he rambling on about all these other books?"

First, I want people to know that I'm not some yahoo that happened to download Sovran's Pawn for my Kindle, read it, and spew out a generic (and mostly useless) review. If shoppers know the kind of books I've read and enjoyed, they'll be better equipped to take my review in context and have a much better feel for whether they want to spend their hard-earned credits on a worthy novel.

I admit that noting some of the Sci-fi books I've read is also a way to try and gain a little genre credibility; further, I want to let potential readers know that I don't always read science fiction, but when I do, I like the good stuff.

Sovran's Pawn is an extremely well-written novel. As the self- and independent publishing industries have taken off, I've read a fair number of novels that are, to be nice, not very well written. Spelling and/or grammatical errors leap off the pages and, in some cases, spoil the read completely. JC Cassels does not labor under the weight of poor writing. I can honestly say that I did not catch one single error. That doesn't mean there weren't any - it just means that after the first few chapters of no mistakes jumping out at me, I could settle down and enjoy the story.

Sovran's Pawn, besides being technically well put together, shows real strength in character development and dialog. Bo and Blade - who reminds me of the line from the Talking Heads' song Life During Wartime, "I got three passports, a couple of visas, don't even know my real name," - are complex characters who live and breathe (sometimes quite heavily). These aren't cardboard cutouts but rather three-dimensional characters that live on the page and quickly begin to pull you into the story and make you care about what happens to them. Secondary characters are also introduced and fleshed out very well. Some readers might be put off by some of the more lengthy segments where in-depth characterization takes place, but I think on the whole it's time well spent as the story will continue far into the future and knowing the folks you're traveling with will be an advantage later.

Steve Martin once made a joke about attending a plumbers' convention and used all sorts of wild jargon that sounded very plumber-ish but ultimately was all bogus. At least I've never come across a seven inch gangly wrench - but I'm not a plumber either. My point is that the science part of this sci-fi novel all worked for me. I'm not an engineer or quantum physicist so I don't require pages and pages of boring explanation regarding the effects of putting an object into a ship's hyperspace wake or complex diatribes on the forces required to escape a strange planet's gravitational field. With all that said I believe Cassels got the tech right and also applied it in the right amounts. Sovran's Pawn is a novel about people that happens to be set (mostly) in space. It's not a space novel that happens to have people in it.

Lush descriptiveness is one of the things I look for in a good novel. It's devilishly hard to pull off without sounding long-winded. Sovran's Pawn isn't quite as descriptive as I would like; there are some scenes where I just couldn't visualize the setting as clearly as I wanted to. Now, that may be exactly the way it was written, but I tend to read novels in which the author spends a little more time painting the world for me so I have a deep, mental image of the landscape the characters are inhabiting. I'm not saying the descriptiveness is bad in Sovran's Pawn - it most certainly is not - it's just a little less than optimum for me personally. I don't get paid to be a critic so take it for what it's worth - an opinion.

If I had to single out one thing to pooh-pooh about Sovran's Pawn it would be that - to me - it read kind of like a romance novel in space. Sovran's Pawn doesn't have Blade running around with no shirt on, flexing; it definitely wasn't that bad but - and this may be a mandatory character building exercise - Cassels spends a great deal of time constructing the relationship between Bo and Blade. Again, that's my opinion and if you like being up close and personal as two adults get to know each other better, this is your book!

Let me clarify one other thing: This is a grown-up book. There are a (very) small number of expletives used, and those were for good effect and in no way gratuitous. But Sovran's Pawn deals with some relatively mature themes so I'd hesitate to recommend it to some of my younger or more conservative friends. With that said I applaud the author's handling of the aforementioned mature themes. Cassels obviously spent a great deal of time crafting this story and although there were a couple of scenes that made me wriggle a little (I'm getting sensitive in my old age) this would earn a relatively mild PG-13 if it were a movie.

If you've read this far you should know that Sovran's Pawn is a darn good book. And despite my delicate sensitivities I will be waiting patiently for the next installment of the Black Wing Chronicles. With apologies to the author who, having read this, probably thinks I'm a lunatic; I have tried to be as forthright in my assessment as I could be. Reading material is a very personal thing and each one of us has different tastes. While there are some things about Sovran's Pawn that I might wish were a tad different I can roundly appreciate a well-written novel.

Have a read and tell me what you think!

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Boring disclaimers:

The Kindle version of Sovran's Pawn that I reviewed was purchased by me on Amazon.com - I received no compensation for this review, other than the pleasure of reading a great book.