[caleb72]

Over the last few days I've finished two books:

Game of Souls by Terry C Simpson (an MR member) is the first book of an epic fantasy trilogy. It was a pretty good start I think although I wasn't quite as impressed as I wanted to be. It could have had a few more proof-reading passes as a few too many errors seemed to slip through and there was the odd occasion where I felt the story wasn't flowing the way I would have liked. However, I liked the attempt the author made to come up with a magic system. I liked the way he didn't feel the need to explain it all in detail within the narrative itself and I liked the darkness of the story. I liked the political machinations and the idea behind the Game of Souls itself, although at times I felt that those machinations didn't resolve in a clear way for me as a reader.

Basically, although this doesn't go to the top of my list of loved books for 2013, I will hang around for the second book when it comes out. 3.5 stars

The Long and the Short Swords by Gary A Ballard (also an MR member) is the fourth book in the Bridge Chronicles. I've really enjoyed this series so far, mainly because I love the main character, Artemis (aka Amoral) Bridge. The author does tend to push believability as he progresses through this series and I'm wondering if he went a bit too far in this one. Additionally, it lacks some meat at only 164 pages. However, if you love Artemis from previous books you'll enjoy getting another fix from him in this one. 3.5 stars.

Now I'm taking a break from indie to read The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck. It's been on my "to do" list for this year and the desire to read the 1932 Pulitzer Prize winner has achieved critical mass.