Review: Servant of the Lich by Chris Wilmsmeyer

Hi guys!

I'm not even going to say anything about the fact that I've been missing. Sorry, was a kind of block...

SERVANT OF THE LICH - Chris Wilmsmeyer

I got this book directly from the author on an e-book form. This was before I decided to cut off completelly on ebooks, since I can't seem to read them on a timely manner - takes me twice the time of a paper book, because of eye-sight and computer time issues.

SoTL caught my eye because of the name of the land, Andora, which is the same for a few Fantasy-like and RPG-based books. So I knew I'd like it, it had those common elements I just love - magic, undead, vampires (the badass kind), elven people, more undead badass people, dwarves... All that stuff.

Hannibal (I know.) is a mage, a necromancer actually, and a servant of the Lich who wishes to conquer the world, even though Hannibal only wants to live peacefully with his love Elanor. The Lich is creepy, as a Lich must be, and has all those "conquer the world" thing, as usual.

The descriptions of the Necropole, the Lich's city, are vivid and pretty creepy aswell - stay away from it, it says, and I definitly wouldn't want to be there.

The story isn't much complicated, but with the amount of main characters - at least 6 or 7 - it gets complicated to tell a story from many sides. We have Hannibal, on the side of the baddies, but we can't help but to cheer and hope that he doesn't do anything TOO bad, and gets his love in the end. Faelar Illistyn and his daughter Taeles, elves, Greygor and Beodin, Faelar's companions, Dwarf and human raised by priests. Also Aaron, a halfling sort of a thief, gambling addict, but a good guy, friend of them all... Those are the ones whose story is told, but there is also the misterious man at the beggining of the book (Knotus) - we know he's a major demon creature, but not much is revealed about him-, the Lich himself, Arvol and Nevira, also servants of the Lich and several secondary characters who influence the story a lot.

See, Lich. Bad. And creepy.

Heroes and villains get mixed up on this fantastic story, where no one is 100% good or bad, they all have their reasons, though. Ok, the Lich is 100% bad. but's just because he's been alive (or kind of) for a thousand years or so... He kind of lost it in the meantime.


This book is part of a series, so of course, not everything is finished and explained, but the main plot is and a few characters get their "finale" and won't be around on next books, at least as it seems. The author said this is a Quintet and "if I can't write 5 books, it'll make me look real bad".

I really enjoyed it, it does NOT have a romantic part, except for Hannibal and his wife, but then again, she's already his wife, so it's not one of those "main characters fall in love thing" but it reminds me more of the sorts of Lord of the Rings, where some characters have their romantic interests but it doesn't REALLY has much to do with the story - and I like it.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed the mix of undead, religious and human plots... Also the dragon. Oh yeah undead dragons! Creepy things are sort of my thing ;)

You can buy both the e-book or the paperback version directly with the author: BUY HERE or at Amazon, HERE.

10 book giveaway - Results!

Thank you all for participating and helping me promote the giveaway, your support means the world to me!

And the following people will be receiving their Jessica Inclán e-book, as soon as I manage to talk to Jessica, since she is on a very well deserved week-long trip ;)


Gabriel Arruda Burani
Juliana Barbosa Piovani
Lilian Silva
Alisha S.
Todd Wallace
Dee
Yasmin Trindade Machado
Thais Ortega
Annanda Sousa
Liêvin Faustino Virginio

Thank you guys, for your love and support, I'm sorry for those that did not win this time, but I plan on hosting a new giveaway soon! :)
Keep an eye here, and you'll know ;)

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox - January Edition (or, has it really been two months since I last posted an IMM?)

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi over at The Story Siren! In My Mailbox is a way to share the books you received each week.

Yes, this is the pile of all I received since last IMM. Not as big as most bloggers, but still huge to me.

Pink Noise by Leonid Korogodski - It just got here last week and I'm sad I couldn't capture everything on the picture. It is BEAUTIFUL. With special paper, shiny one, all over the book, beautiful pictures - drawings, a ribbon bookmarker, even a QR Code on the back, taking to a Twitter account, it's one of the most well-thought artistic book design project I've seen.

Summary from GoodReads: One of the best brain doctors of his time, Nathi lost his own brain five centuries ago when he became a posthuman. He is now called upon to save a comatose girl. The damage is extensive, so he decides to map his own mind into her brain in order to replace the damaged part. But something unexpected awaits him within the girl’s brain. She is a carrier of a Wish Fairy, an enigmatic sentient cyberbeing whose only purpose is to kill the Wish, a virus used to enslave all posthuman minds, including Nathi’s. Liberated, Nathi forms a symbiotic union with the girl, discovers the true cause of her brain


 injury, and finds a way to break out of the Castle, their high-tech prison, and into the Martian polar night. But once outside, the real chase begins. It is a battle that must be fought both in the physical world and that of the mind.

Being With Him by Jessica Inclán - I've finished this one already, it's a sci-fi romance. I've fell in love with the world-building and the characters... Read my review clicking here. 

A Besta dos Mil Anos by Ilmar Penna Marinho Junior - A brazilian author, it's some sort of Dan Brown-ish book, with a tapestry from the 1300's that was chopped into pieces and sort of lost.

Ossos de Deus by Leonardo Gori - "The Bones of God" by Italian author Leonardo Gori is a historical Dan Brown-ish fiction, with Machiavel and Leonardo da Vinci, along with other historical figures. A very interesting book - review soon.

Blackbringer by Laini Taylor (Faeries of Dreamdark #1) - Summary from Goodreads: When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she's devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself—the creator of the world—she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?

At a time when fantasy readers have an embarrassment of riches in choosing new worlds to fall in love with, this first novel by a fresh, original voice is sure to stand out.

Strange Angels by Lilith Saintcrow - I got this one from my secret santa which, by the way, I still don't know who is.                                                      Summary from Goodreads: Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.) Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (#1 and #2) - Not quite sure what's the american equivalent, aparently they chopped the book #1 - The Withching Hour in two, since the american version has a whooping 1200 pages (ouchies!).

Summary from Goodreads: In this engrossing and hypnotic tale of witchcraft and the occult spanning four centuries, we meet a great dynasty of witches--a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is haunted by a powerful, dangerous and seductive being.

Also, don't forget! 

Click the image for the giveaway!

 

Review: Being With Him - Jessica Inclán

Hey there guys!
Been a while since I posted something really book-ish, so there we go!
First, a remindal of the giveaway I have up:

 

Click the image to go to the giveaway post

Jessica was a doll, not only by offering 10 books fo a giveaway but she also sent me a paperback copy of her latest Mass Market book, Being With Him**.

Being with him is a lovely sci fi romance, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not much for lovey dovey romances, that show a couple just sooo in love that they can't see anything, they can't find flaws on eachother, they can't be funny or disagree. It's just annoying. And sci fi is one of my favorite genders, one that I haven't read in a while - at least no good books - so this was very refreshing and I ate it up, as quick as possible.

Mila is an upper class, young girl who dropped her job on finances to paint. Which drives her mothe crazy, why can't she get married, why can't she "settle" "like a normal person". And well, there is a good reason for that, no one knows except for her, but she can shift time forward.

Garrick is a very handsome and successful young man, with more girls than he wants, trying to live through life without a serious romance. A lot like many men around, with a twist: he can move time backwards. He told that to his parents, when he was little and that was a major mistake as he ended up being taken to doctors and forced into electro-therapy and stuff like that.

Mila and Garrick meet and they feel it, something they never felt before: they are for eachother. The are doubles, two parts of a whole. Together they can move in time, wherever they want, and then come back. And they complete eachother, both romanically, sexually and spiritually.

After a while, we find out what the are (and, well, since I already told you it's a sci fi book, I'm pretty sure you kids can guess, right?), where the came from and why. We find out who the baddies are and why they want Garrick and Mila, but not only them, everyone like them. All of the Doubles, those with powers so grand they can scare off higher and most developed civilizations into separating them and putting them into some sort of induced coma.

I actually think Porter is my favorite character. He's snarky, sarcastic and he grumbles. But, like Garrick does, sometimes I like him - he's not all cheesy, his relationship with Stephanie is strange for Doubles... I'd like to read more about those two.

In the end, nothing is decided, but everything is decided... It's strange actually. Mila and Garrick will stay together and that's pretty much what matters for them, and I think I know something about Mila's brother's role, but they still have to figure out where are the other "Abandoned Ones" and where they will go to from now. I do not agree they should go to Earth or anywhere else that has people already. Come on, with all those powers, they can most definitly build something fom scratch in a few days! Oh yeah and the bad guys? Totally creepy.

Sure the love-making could be a bit more.. hm... long and described instead of so often, but hey, I'm not one to complain. And Mila ad Garrick sort of annoy me sometimes with their "OMG I'll be alone" thing, but it IS understandable, with the Doubles thing and all.

Overall..... When will #2 be published? *big grin*

Edit: Intimate Beings, (Book #2) and The Beautiful Being (Book #3) are published already. Book #3 tells the story of Mila's brother Edan while Book #2 introduces new characters, Claire and Darl.**

And if you are interested in reading some of Jessica's books, you can win one at the giveaway being hosted here! Click the image below:

 

**All links to Book Depository contain an affiliate link and all funds from comission go torwards funding of giveaways.