Barb HendeeCritiques

:rubs hands together:

Guys. GUYS. Look. Preamble these books are not connected beyond that lady and her looking Glass (and the vague European/french fantasy-esque environment).

I have my CLEAR favorite (Book 2: A Choice of Crowns) and my clear UNFAVORITE (Book 3: A Girl of Winter White), as well as the one I enjoyed but not quite as much (Book 1: Through a Dark Glass).

A CHOICE OF SECRETS KNOCKS THEM OUT.

We have Nicole, a happy, carefree not quite 18 year old who is puzzled by her older sister's forthcoming marriage but largely unconcerned. To her way of thinking her beautiful awesome older sister is a catch and Christophe - family friend and neighbor - is the best. Heck Nicole is even content with the notion she'll likely never marry and care for her parents in their old age while being a spinster aunt to her nieces and nephews. As she puts it "[she is] a daughter of White Deer Lodge" and everything that entails.

When I say this girl is happy with her life and future I quite mean it.

Unfortunately drama must occur and it comes in the form of an indiscreet affair her sister is embroiled in that has the potential to screw everyone's lives up.

Nicole's first choice is to tell her older brother Erik who is besties with Christophe but would certainly do the right thing to solve this issue. That goes as well as you'd expect when you ask a warrior to be subtle.

While the ending works out potentially the best (in terms of how it effects everyone's lives), it does leave Nicole feeling less content with her future life.

Choice 2 is to remain silent. Again this goes as well as you can expect since her sister's lover is a cad, scoundrel and downright cruel. It's okay for a hot second.

In the end a lot turns out better then it could have, mostly because Nicole (once again) puts in a lot of effort to give everyone a better ending.

Choice 3 is Nicole tells the family. Which...does not go as well as one could want. Oh at first it's mostly okay. Like Nicole knows there's not great stuff in the future but that's a LATER issue and one she's pretty certain no one will listen to her about anyhow (she's not wrong). Its also, like in Books 1-3, where she chooses LOVE for herself (though not at first, I'll get into that).

The ending is the best for Nicole since she has a life that she truly enjoys and feels fulfilled by.

Much like Olivia's choices in CROWNS this came down to two things: how much pain could Nicole tolerate for herself versus other people. Truthfully all three endings would give Nicole a measure of fulfillment in life, but it would also cause people she cares about to suffer.

For Nicole there are two people she is constantly, through all three Choices, trying to protect. Chloe, her beloved elder sister who's only real fault is she fell for an unscrupulous cad and Christophe, who she only begins to see in a new light after his desperate confession (one can make the argument she obviously cared for him a great deal more since she catered to his preferences in food and clothing but I digress).

In the 2nd Choice she says to Christophe again and again "She is my SISTER" in regards to why she (more or less) takes Chloe's side. Which I think is the important part here, especially in regards to her chosen path at the end. Nicole is the younger sister, but she is clever, determined and observant. Chloe is skilled at being a Noble Lady, but when push comes to shove she let's her fears overwhelm her innate talents at taking control of a situation. Nicole by contrast is constantly thinking thinking thinking of ways to save everyone or at the least cause the least amount of pain.

I found her choice interesting. I felt for sure she'd go a slightly harder path, but I can understand the compromises she made. They are very in line with her character and the person we see in all three choices.

For Nicole - who in every path did her best to save her sister, save her family and bring Christophe a measure of peace - she has to learn that no one is "one side" or perfect. Not her brother, not Chloe, not Christophe. People are hella complicated.

I feel with her choice she understood that. You have to take the good with the bad - understanding each day comes with it's own sacrifices.

SO WHAT IS BOOK 5 ABOUT?

I actually quite enjoyed this. The characters were varied and interesting and the vampire genre was done well, I even felt sympathy for the vampire's Rashed and Teesha.
The pace was decent and I felt the story wrapped up well enough to satisfy you yet also eager to read the next installment.

On her seventeenth birthday Megan has to choose between one of three brothers, her sister was originally promised to one but she has died and in order to save her family embarrassment she has to choose. Will it be Rolf the Elder, strong but his father's shadow; Sebastian the second son, interested in clothes and style and jealous of his elder brother or Kai the younger who is carrying a massive chip on his shoulder. She must choose and while at the dinner she fears that they will all be difficult choices and that she will have it hard. She hides from the dinner and a mysterious mirror appears and shows her the outcomes of the three choices, allowing her to make a more informed choice. All have good and bad points but in the end it's up to her to choose.
It was interesting to see the choices play out and the cascade that happened after the choices; the different ways that her life turned and how some of the choices would always be the same but some would differ. I enjoyed it.

The Dead Seekers is the first book in a new series and that is something that I'm bloody happy about since I really loved this book! And, now I will try to write a review about a book I love which I hate to do since I just want to say read it, it's brilliant. But, I will try to be a bit versatile than that.

The book starts off with Tris Vishal being born. But, he never breaths and the midwife has to tell his poor parents that the baby is stillborn. Then, the midwife notices that he starts to breathe when she carries him away, but there is something strange about him that will mark him as different from others. He has the ability to send spirits back to where they come from. But, he also risks the lives of everyone who is close to him. Mari Kaleja learns this the hard way as a child when her whole family is slaughtered by spirits. Now she first for revenge, and it's The Dead Man she is after. But, when she finally finds Tris must she be certain that he is the right one. But, traveling with him may not be the best idea. She watches him, and he is not as she had expected. Could this really be the man she has been chasing all these years?

I found myself really enjoying this book, both the setting and the characters. Trish whose gifts are a burden for him and Mari who has spent years looking for revenge. I'm usually not much for romance in books, but one can't really say it's any romance in this book since it's more two lonely people getting to know each other (with a hint of romance). And, that's probably one of the reasons I love the book so much. There is no lusting or instalove.

As for the story itself. I loved getting to know more about Tris power, and Mari's own secret is interesting and very handy. It was also great reading about how their relationship developed from an uneasy alliance to more of a worry about each other, although Mari still wanted to kill him. But, she is a bit conflicted. The last part of the story is the best when they have to figure out who is killing soldiers. Is it a spirit or a revengeful man/woman?

I loved the ending of the book. It's the kind that put a smile on my face and I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

I really didn't like book 3 in this series, but enjoyed the first one enough to give #4 a chance. And it wasn't bad. Not a new favorite, but worth having read - once, at least. I'm not sure whether I'll ever re-read it. But it did keep me going in the series to read the fifth...

I enjoyed this book, but for some reason it didn't hook me as much as I'd hoped. I wanted more of the past than I got in one chunk, so I had a tendency to flip forward until I found the next flashback, and then have to go back and read the stuff in-between.

Today, I retreated from this world into a book. I dove into this book this morning, and finished it this afternoon. It follows two protagonists in a medievaloid world, who may or may not kill each other on their journey.

Tris Vishal has is introduced first, as a still-born child who revives several minutes after birth, but is forever linked to a shadow self. Mari is introduced next, but several years later, as the child of travelers, basically a gypsy family, who is the only survivor of an unfortunate encounter with ghosts out to kill everyone they meet.

The descriptions are very tactile and rich, but not overdone. The dangers are as believable as pursuit of the undead allows, and their distrust of each other believable as well. This is Not a romance fantasy, it is an adventure fantasy.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And as this is the first of a series published 3 years ago, I plan to pick up the next book(s) in the series.

This is fourth in a pretty decent fantasy series. I like the characters and it stays away from cliches. However, at four pretty long books, I am ready for it to end and there is no end in sight. Aargh!

3.5 stars

This was a solid addition to this series but I felt it dragged a little in certain places. It took too long for them to get where they needed to go. I really like the way the love story between Leesil and Magiere is shaping up. It's not the focus of the novel, but it's easy to see their feelings for each other. The mystery surrounding Magiere's beginnings weren't too surprising, but I'm curious to see how everything is going to play out.

4.5 stars

Dhampir was quite good. It starts off a little slow, but quickly picked up and became hard to put down. Magiere is a "vampire" hunter. What she is really doing is swindling villages out of their hard-earned cash. She, along with her half-elf partner, Leesil, set up schemes to make is seem as though these villages are being plagued by vampires and she is the only one qualified to rid them of these abominations. The vampire is really Leesil in disguise. After four years of playing this game, Magiere decides she had enough and wants to retire. Leesil is not too thrilled with this at first, but eventually agrees. She purchases a tavern in a town called Miiska and wishes to live out a peaceful existence. Little does she know that vampires do exist and some currently reside in Miiska.

What follows is a tale full of action, suspense, intrigue and some behind the scenes machinations. Magiere comes to find out that she is a Dhampir, half mortal, half vampire. She has the natural skills and talents to kill vampires, but it's not something she truly wishes to do. There's a man in the village who seems to know quite a bit about Dhampirs, but is not very forthcoming with the information. I felt for Magiere struggling to figure out what was going on with her, even though it was difficult for me to like her at first because she was a con artist. The vampires did not really appear evil and we do get to learn quite a bit about them. I liked them almost as much as Magiere and Leesil. This is a story that I would recommend.

This is a fantasy about a man, basically a ghost hunter who can drive murderous spirits out of his realm and give them true death. People call him the Dead’s Man. They fear him, avoid him, till they need him, then he comes and wrangles the dead. He hunts the dead but Mari, hunts him and plans on murdering him for, well she has good reason.. There is a small doubt that drives her to be sure before she he is the one. She decides to travel with him and gather her proof just to make sure.
There is a lot of deaths, nasty vengeful ghosts, someone dark and pure evil, and no sex, no romance. Yes, you heard right, none. They stick with the program and concern themselves with the deaths, ghosts and the other thing about to kill them instead of desire. I almost got down and kissed the ground in thanks. Yes, I do hope there is a little something in the future.
There was another big thing for me to be thankful for. The main female character didn’t gasp a hundred times. This overused emotional burst of breath has been a trend lately that makes me, gasp. Ha ! Mari, is strong, even after her life was mangled and tossed, she is above gasping. Thank you again. I really should kiss the ground now. She is focused, a bit hyper focused at times but she deserves to be a little wacko here. Oh and she has one really cool talent. Read the story, you see.
I really enjoyed unique twist on the ghost hunter story. Tris, is a fascinating characters that has a lot more to do and I need to know more about his other half. Gasp, his other half ? Read the story, you’ll get no more here.

I was a fan of the authors’ Noble Dead series, which I read way back in the day (2003, probably before you were born). Now this book, the first of a planned series, has come along, set in the same world they created for the Noble Dead, but with new and exciting characters.

And I liked it. The book introduces us to Tris, unwanted son of a noble lord and able to control and banish spirits; and Mari, a mondyalitko (gypsy) shifter (think were-lynx) looking to avenge the deaths of her entire family. When Mari saves Tris’ life, she is inadvertently drawn into his business of ridding the world of violent spirits. But there is more lurking out there than meets the eye: what should have been a routine job in a remote village becomes a greater mystery when it seems that the spirit of the dead woman plaguing the village may herself have been killed by a vengeful ghost. And, as Mari begins to learn more about Tris, it seems more and more likely that he may have had something to do with the slaughter of her family.

This book, like the Noble Dead series, isn’t high literature, but it doesn’t have to be: it’s fun. One of my favorite features of the Hendees’ work is the setting. This book takes place in Stravinia, a medieval, remote country of scattered villages and larger towns hiding behind thick walls. The picture the authors paint is gothic and dark: deep, foreboding forests, poor villages consisting of hovels huddled together against the predatory creatues that lurk in the darkness. Vampires, ghosts, and werewolves roam the land, and superstition and fear permeate everything. Think of the Solomon Kane stories by Robert E. Howard (you know, the guy who wrote the original Conan stories). The world created by the Hendees breathes with malicious intent, and I enjoyed stepping into it again.

I would recommend this book for those who read and enjoyed the Noble Dead saga. Likewise, anyone who likes dark fantasy would probably enjoy this book.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Dead Seekers will be available for purchase on January 3rd, 2017.

A dark and gritty high fantasy setting with rich and scary supernatural plot. Set in the same book world as the Noble Dead series, but involving no vampires, this book starts off a new series involving killer ghosts and a man with a destiny mysteriously intertwined with the realm of the dead. If you like fast-paced, action-packed stories... this isn't really for you. Full of detail, and moving at a leisurely pace, this book immerses you and carries you along deeper into its mysteries. Highly recommended to lovers of supernatural fiction, high fantasy, and detail-oriented tales.

Magierre and Co go to the place she's been seeing in her dreams, brought upon by the black cloud thing. Get there, find some ultra-powerful artifact, leave and go their separate ways.

This sucked. It was nothing but bickering, fighting, distrust and non-hope the whole way through. There was no joy, no light, no happiness.

The group goes into Elven land to find Leesil's mom. They give up their weapons and trust" the elves, who are really bent on destroying them. [Kind of like the U.N. and the United States.]

So basically everybody acts like a complete idiot and nobody even tries to think. They rescue his mom and then leave. Chap finds out his memory has been selectively sliced, at birth, by the Fay, so he is just a tool. It was just too much with everybody reacting like they were on hair-triggers instead of actually trying to think.

And Leesil needs a good beatdown to get rid of his attitude."

Magierre is trying to find out her past. Turns out she was specifically made to serve some long dead thing that wants to be resurrected with her at its side. Chap, the fey dog, is watching her to take her out if she goes down the dark path.

a woman and a half elf scam villagers by pretending to kill some imaginary vampire threat. They settle down to run an inn and have their old business come back to haunt them, only this time there are real vampires. The woman turns out to be the daughter of a vampire and is consequently a dhampir, a human with some vampiric powers.

This was a very simple book, with many details glossed over or left out, but it was a good entertaining read. I would call it trash fantasy, but not in a bad way, more of a disposable way. I'll probably read more of this series.

Magierre and Leesil are asked to take care of a vampire in a bigger city. Turns out to be just a setup by Westiel to train her. Find out more about Leesil's past.

Very clean for a vamp novel. No graphic sex or even gore.

Everyone goes back to Leesil's home so he can figure out what happened to his parents. He is a big ball of wussiness in my opinion. Find out a bit more about his past and some about the elves. I just wish everyone in the story would stop having such emotional hangups. Get over yourself and go do what needs to be done!

Now that I finished it, I'm a little torn.

Cons:
The flashback technique, not really working for me. Didn't like how it was handled in the first book, didn't like it here.
The heroine is an annoying whiny ungrateful brat, more often than not, although she's growing on me.
The sage Wynn in this book is even worse! Good grief she's unlikeable. Even if I do continue to read the series, I won't be reading her offshoot.
I just can't help thinking each of these books would be better if 50-100 pages were knocked off. The pacing veers between brilliant and ridiculously slow, like it can't decide, and it makes them feel a little disjointed. I find myself skipping through entire sections and not, as you might think, the descriptive sections, because the world building here is spot on, but rather the multi-page descriptions of rituals being performed by Wynn who I dislike are just... boring. I don't care how she takes her tea, even though it's a plot point later, it could have been easily handled by "Wynn dropped some mint leaves into her tea, as was her habit" (and there's tons more examples like this).

Pros:
Chap!!
Leesil is interesting, and a whole lot more likeable than Magiere, even though he's just as damaged as she is.
Damaged heroes that aren't just magically over it one day - Probably the reason Magiere is growing on me, she's got some really crap baggage and it's broken her, so the more we learn, the more we understand why she is how she is. From that perspective, the character is really working, and the writing is really quite good.
The world-building is really paying off. There is a real sense of an actual world, with different countries, with different cultures, races, and even species, well thought through and planned out.

Overall: I like the series, well enough that I will try to find the rest of it, but they are on my "someday" list, rather than the "oh my goodness I have to find out how this ends RIGHT NOW" list.

tl;dr version: Better than book 1, fast easy read, still comes in a bit long, but good enough to keep me reading the series.

An improvement over the first book, certainly. I agree with the other reviewers, it dragged a little and could have been rather shorter, but it's a fast and lightweight read already. As per the first book, Leesil is much more appealing than Magiere, who comes across as angsty and self-absorbed.

There's something odd when many of the things supposed to be causing mystery and tension (ie, Welstiel) are blindingly obvious from the get go though. The elf background story is much more engaging and interesting than the dhampir one, but I do feel like this book added a great deal to the world building of the first one, it feels like a proper world now, with distinct countries and cultures - and I can see myself reading a couple more books yet to see if that worldbuilding is put to good use.

Book 4 took me three weeks to read, this one I knocked off on the train this afternoon. And not entirely because they were both due back at the library. In fact this is easily the best book of the series.That said, Magiere is still grumpy (but actually making sensible decisions and not just being Miss Stubbornpants), Leesil is sullen and confused but sort of actually has a reason now, Wynn is still annoying but actually gets useful, Welstiel and Chane... meh, who cares about them.

Chap has a major part in this, which is always good. He learns a whole lot more about himself, and finally gets to actually have a life of his own, for at least a while. I love Chap, he's a great character.

And Wynn instead of flouncing about the place getting lost and needing to be rescued, flounces about the place, gets lost, needs to be rescued, but actually makes a useful breakthrough in the plot in the process. Well it had to happen eventually, right?

But the elves. Haughty, arrogant, insular, beautiful and deadly know-it-alls, everything we love about high fantasy since Tolkien elves. Ok, maybe that's just me. In fact they are magnificent bastards nearly to a one, except for maybe Sgäile's grandpa and Sgäile's niece (I'm not even going to attempt to spell their names.) And most especially the Most Aged Father.

The Hendee's tendency to over-describe is not so bad when the environment is new to everyone, and everything is alien and fascinating, and they are reacting to that. But still, there's endless pages in the first third or so devoted to some thieving rodent thing, and it just keeps on coming up. I figured after about the fifth time, there had to be a point, it was going to be important later. But no, at some point someone says "oh that thieving rat thing hasn't been around stealing things lately, I guess we left it at the last village... ha-ha-ha, sucks to be them". Seriously, do these guys just not have an editor any more? Does it matter that the unnamed barge captain wears his goatskin vest without a shirt and fur side in? Or that Wynn saw a mushroom and two birds and a tree and another tree and....

Anyway, as I said, although they do go on a bit, it's much more readable here, because we're also seeing Leesil feeling alien in a place that should be his home, Wynn being fascinated by evvvvvverything, and Magiere being cranky (because, Magiere), and Chap feeling totally at home, and having a wonderful time. Also, I think I have a small reader-crush on Sgäile. Because I can. I have a thing for blondes, and he seems to be the only character in the whole book series who just says what's going on. (Oh and I'm on to you Hendees, nicking gaelic words and substituting random nordic letters and apostrophes, does not a new language make.)

But now we're all set up for the final book in this particular arc. Which is where I'm stopping, because even useful Wynn still sets my teeth on edge, so I'm just not going to read a whole new series about her and Chane.

Decent enough fast read, with pretty good characters, except the main characters companion and dog are unfortunately a lot more likeable and fleshed out than the main character herself. Even the enemies feel a little more rounded. But this was clearly a series opener, so filling in all the back story is like expecting to learn everything from a tv pilot, and I admit I didn't see the final page twist coming, so I'll definitely read the next one in the series at least.

Reviewing the middle books in a long series (and this is book 4 of the original series 6, and I think 12 or 15 of the expanded universe) is hard. They either settle down into a formula, like monster of the week episodes of a tv show, or the plot is still moving along but the worldbuilding is done and the characters familiar but still developing.

Except here, this is a meh filler book. The worldbuilding is still going on apace, but the characters are the same old same old. We got a bunch of new throwaway characters (who seem to get more development than the main characters, but we'll never see them again). Margiere is grumpy, Wynn is stupid, Leesil is self-destructive and sad. Welstiel is still an ass with an agenda all his own, and Chane as utterly pointless as ever. Chap at least gets filled out quite a lot here, and we learn a bit more about Leesil's heritage.

At this point, I'm going to finish this series (and admittedly, the next book is looking more interesting, it's all about the elves who have been singularly mysterious until now), but I can't see myself reading the rest of the universe books. Particularly since Wynn is apparently the main character in those.

I think my real problem with this series is they are basically good reads, but too long. Every single one of them has felt like they could have shaved a good 50-100 pages off, and tightened up the story a lot. The endless running around town in the dark, for instance, or the 3 pages it took to describe Margiere fooling the town guards by opening a window in a stable while in fact hiding in a cellar under a hatch. A cellar with two barrels in it! that she didn't see at first! that have absolutely no point, but get a half a paragraph to themselves! Or the fact that she can smell the guards as well as hear them clomping around above her. Ok, sure that could be to point out just how close they are to her, but there is description for "flavour" and there is "clutter" and these books tend to come down rather more on the latter. If you want to describe the guards aftershave, maybe skip describing the unimportant barrels in the cellar. But what do I know, I'm just a reader.

Child of a Dead God (Noble Dead series 1, Book 6) Overall: I really did enjoy this series, despite the whining. And despite Wynn. Who I hear a lot of people really love. It's got a lovely mishmash of urban fantasy and high fantasy, albeit more high than urban as it goes on. The main characters are well imperfect but overall likeable, except Wynn, the world is really well developed, and internally consistent, and the books are easy enough reads, despite the fairly complex worlds. Notably they do a fairly good job of the reminding you what happened before without taking the Dresden route of giving a precis of each preceding appearance every time a character shows up from an earlier book.
 
Best bits: Chap. Hyperintelligent fay dogwolf, with a sense of humour and a ton of snark. And stuck up elves, always the best kind. And the one funny thing about Wynn, how she keeps walking in on Magiere and Leesil having a bit of alone time.
 

 
But: Irrelevant title much? And worse, way to wrap up the series guys, by starting a new one. 
 
So, they have this down to a template now: Leesil and Magiere wander off on an impossible mission, and when they are near to achieving it, Wynn goes and gets herself lost, and/or taken prisoner, and they have to save her, and that accidentally solves the whole problem. 
 
Makes me wonder, what on earth would Leesil and Magiere do if Wynn wasn't such a twit? I mean they'd never get anywhere. Oh hang on, they managed just fine in the first couple of books didn't they. And where is my sarcasm font when I need it.
 
I did enjoy most of this book, because I love the elves. Still glorious a-holes, even the nice ones (heck, even the half-ones; Leesil needs a good shaking a couple of times in this book, although not as many as usual.) And I love the fay dog, Chap. If the Hendees wrote an entire series set amongst the Majay-hi and the elves, I would be a happy reader, as long as Wynn wasn't in it. Maybe some more of the living wooden ships too, I'd like that.
 
So why am I whining? Because I expect a major six book story arc/series to have an ending, and this one just doesn't.
 
Does everyone get to go home? Nope, they either got there and are leaving again, or aren't there yet.
 
Does everyone find twue wove? Well, sorta, Leesil and Magiere finally get their HFN, for like, a week, because they're off on another adventure instead of having a honeymoon.
 
Did any of the bad guys get their comeuppance? Well, one of them did. If you count the puppetmasters of the Aged Father and the thing that whispers in the dreams, that's one for three. 
 
Half the characters I do like are now ex-characters, but a whole bunch of new mysteries were introduced  - who really is Li-kän? Who put her to work? What happened to her two companions? Why did Leesil, Magiere and Chap all see basically manifestations of their own ancestry in the castle? Although considering Magiere's origin, there's a semi-obvious answer to that one. So why leave it hanging in the last book of the series?
 
I guess many readers are just glad the series continues, but I'm not a happy camper. I like some actual wrap-up in my wrap-up. It could have easily been done without leaving quite so many hanging threads, not least because most of these were only introduced in this last book.
 
I can handle a ten book series. Or a 20 book series. So why set me up like this? Why use the conceit of multiple series, if the same characters will be continuing the same missions, or dealing with the consequences of the same missions, in the next one?