Month: December 2016

End of year Brightmoon quiz

It’s that time of year again, when the newspapers are full of quizzes and best-of articles and giant crosswords to while away the empty hours until we can all go back to work again. Or something. Anyway, here’s my contribution to the mountain of such trivia – a quiz set in the Brightmoon world. How much do you remember of the books? Three questions for each book, plus a bonus question. Answers in the New Year. 1) The Plains of Kallanash Question 1: What was Dethin’s job when Mia first met him? A) Blacksmith B) Commander of First Section C) Eastern Warlord D) Skirmisher Question 2: When Mia and Hurst climbed to the top of the tower in the lake at the Ring, what did they find there? (Bonus points if you can name everything they found along the way) A) The Silent Guards B) The Nine Gods C) Mages […]

Posted December 31, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Brightmoon world / 0 Comments

Fantasy review: ‘The Ruling Mask’ by Neil McGarry and Daniel Ravipinto

One of the best aspects of epic fantasy, for me, is the way each book in a series opens out the scope of the story a little more, allowing glimpses of previously unseen locations. This book does that, too, and even though almost all the action takes place within the confines of the city of Rodaas, there is much to discover about the place. But what this series does so gloriously well is to draw back the veil concealing the mysteries of the people of Rodaas – its odd history, its religions, its swirling rivalries on the streets and the background of Duchess herself. And in this book, for the first time, we begin to get a good close-up look at the rulers of the city. This is a plot-heavy book, with multiple threads weaving back and forth, involving the many different political and economic factions of the city. Many […]

Posted December 27, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘Angela’s Christmas Adventure’ by Clara Benson

A short and sweet Christmas story for fans of the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the 1920s. There’s snow and presents and some missing jewellery, stolen in a seemingly impossible crime, which Angela and the irrepressible Barbara set out to solve in their own inventive but persistent way. There are walk-on parts for Angela’s maid and chauffeur, and of course, the delicious Edgar Valencourt. If the mystery isn’t terribly plausible, it doesn’t matter in the slightest, because it’s all jolly good fun. Four stars.

Posted December 23, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Review: ‘Brooklyn’ by Colm Toibin

An interesting story historically, perhaps, but in many ways it fell short for me. Eilis is a young woman in a small town in post-war Ireland, a place with few prospects. Her brothers have gone to England to find work, and her glamorous older sister, Rose, has a job and a social life and a worldly wisdom Eilis is entirely lacking. So when Rose arranges for Eilis to go to New York, with a job and accommodation organised by a helpful priest, Eilis meekly goes along with it. It’s never very clear to me exactly why Rose does this, especially given the later revelations of the story, but then there wouldn’t be much plot if she hadn’t, so I’ll go along with it. The section dealing with Eilis’s journey to America and settling into life in Brooklyn is quite interesting, but it’s curiously flat. We never get any real inkling […]

Posted December 17, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Authors Answer #18: Have you ever wanted to rewrite the ending of another author’s published book? How would you change it?

Wow, long time since I did one of these! The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant There are very few books that get me so mad that I want to throw them across the room, but this is one of them. The author wrote a perfect historical romance, well-written, well-researched, the era brilliantly conveyed and the characters fascinating. She then destroyed it utterly by bookending it with a prologue and last chapter which turned it into something else altogether. I suppose the intention was to elevate the book from the realms of mere romance to historical fiction or even literature, and I daresay for many, possibly most, readers that worked fine. My book group, for instance, for whom this was a monthly pick, liked it well enough and most saw nothing wrong with the ending. But for me, it ruined the whole story. It took a main character who had, […]

Posted December 2, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in AuthorsAnswer / 0 Comments