Tag Archives: Jennifer Fallon

October 2017

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October 2017

October has been a super weird month, I’ve had a tonne of assignments due (finals here we come), quit a job and just generally felt a little lost and aimless. It’s meant a bit of reading since I tend to read when I’m overwhelmed, but I’m still feeling a little lost…

Image source: Van Vorst Park Association

The Magic Word by Jennifer Fallon

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Overview

The Magic WordTitle: The Magic Word
Author: Jennifer Fallon
Series: Hythrun Chronicles #9
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: I mean… he may not even be aware of what’s going on.

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

Synopsis

A fabulous story of what happens when certain worlds collide! Princess Adrina, Damin Wolfblade, the High Prince of Hythria, and Tarja, the Lord Defender seem to be experiencing a time loop … reliving the same day constantly. In the dungeons being held prisoner is a young man by the name of Dirk Provin from the world of Ranadon … he has an alarming message about the breakdown of the veil between their worlds. And when they set off to find the truth, they also find a crashed machine and Tide Lords … and a leipreachan. All they have to do to make everything right is find the ‘magic word’ …

Thoughts

Have you ever wondered what happens to the characters when you close the pages of a beloved book? I always imagine them living their happily ever afters, going on more adventures and just generally enjoying the life that they’ve been granted. But, what if it isn’t like that? The Magic Word is Fallon’s way of looking at what happens to the characters after you turn the last page of the book, after the author stops writing their story.

I loved the concept of this story, and even the way it was told, but some of the repetition throughout it got to be a little tedious. Although, I think that that was kind of the point of the storyline. I felt that it was a little boring just reading it, imagine living the same introduction to your day again and again and again!

This novella took me nowhere that I expected to go. And for that I’m grateful. It also made me think about all of the many, many literary characters I have loved over the years and question what could have become of them (in the imaginative sense).

 <- A Captain of the Gate Review The Enchanted Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins NZ

Legends of Australian Fantasy edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan

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Overview

Legends of Australian FantasyTitle: Legends of Australian Fantasy
Editors: Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan
Authors: Garth Nix, Trudi Canavan, Juliet Marillier, Isobelle Carmody, Kim Wilkins, Sean Williams, D.M. Cornish, Ian Irvine, John Birmingham, Jennifer Fallon & Cecilia Dart-Thornton
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Fantasy, Short story collections
Pace: Fast
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘And… and from the Charter, milady.’

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

Synopsis

From two of the best editors working today … These are the legends of Australian fantasy – eleven of Australia’s best-loved and most widely read writers … Gathered together by equally legendary editors Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan to produce an entirely original compilation … Celebrate the legends of Australian fantasy. Extraordinary voices … extraordinary worlds. Come to Erith, to a faerie tale with a sting, or to Obernewtyn, long before the Seeker was born. Revisit a dark pocket of history for the Magician’s Guild or get caught up in the confusion of an endlessly repeating day in the Citadel. Cross the wall, where Charter magic is all that lies between you and death. A trip with a graverobber can be gruesome, and it’s hard to share the fear of a woman who must kill her husband if her child is to rule … A mysterious tale plays out in Sevenwaters. Catch up with Ros and Adi as they prepare for the greatest change of all. Other twists in these fabulous tales bring us to demonic destiny and an alternate WWII.

Thoughts

I love pursuing Australian authors – after all, I would love to be one one day, and they are my people. So, discovering that there is a book that features not one, not two, but nine of these phenomenal people made me break out in a huge grin. And I wasn’t disappointed. Actually, the main disappointment came when I finished the last novella and had to find a new anthology to go and read.

The pace of each of these nine novellas was entirely unique and, in most cases, quite unexpected. The only tie that they had to one another was that they are all fantasy stories, and they tied into a series or world created by the author. Which, ultimately means that I have another seven series to go out and buy (I already owned two). Sometimes, this kind of variety doesn’t really work. The stories don’t flow well and it is really just feels haphazard in how they’re collected. But, the short author introduction at the beginning of each story and the rationale behind the story worked brilliantly and made it a cohesive whole.

If you want a taste of the brilliance that some of Australia’s finest fantasy authors have to offer, I’d definitely recommend that you buy this book. Or borrow it, whatever tickles your fantasy. It was a fantastic welcome to a few new worlds and I’ve got a couple of new books to add to my shelves now.

 <- The Enchanted Review To Hold the Bridge Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins Australia