Hey Peeps!
Today I'm turning my blog over to author Shane Porteous, who in his post below recommends 7 of his favorite books. I know 2 of those on his list and wholeheartedly agree with him, so I'm sure he's right about the others! Have a read and see if any take your fancy.
Hello one and all, my name is Shane Porteous, I am an author
but this post isn’t about me plugging any of my works, rather I would like to
talk about books that I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed. Instead of talking
about the works of Tolkien, King, Rowling, Martin, Clancy, Barker and Lewis,
all of whom are now household names, I thought I would talk about relatively
unknown books that I feel are definitely worth a read. The reason for this is
rather simple, like almost all writers I love reading but rarely have a chance
to talk about books I have discovered and enjoyed.
So I have decided to indulge the reader in me, I feel that
all readers are on a quest to discover unknown gems of literature. I think this
has to do with just how rare such a feeling is. The feeling that the story you
are holding in your hands is something precious, something special, something
rare. While stories like Lord of The Rings, The Stand, A Song of Ice and Fire
are magnificent stories, their brilliance is common knowledge. When you
discover their brilliance for yourself, you’re discovering something that
millions of people have found before you. Those gems though beautiful have been
read by everyone, I personally think that if you could somehow visit every book
shelf in the world you would be hard pressed not to find at least one book by
the aforementioned authors on it.
So my hope is that I can help you discover new books for
your bookshelves (or e-reader). Keeping in mind that quality is all a matter of
an opinion. The old saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” comes to
mind. With that said I hope you feel the same way I did when reading these
books and enjoy discovering these unknown gems for yourself. So without further
to do, in no particular order I present my 7 relatively unknown worthwhile
reads.
Number 7. Woken by
Kaine Andrews
Woken is the story of Ophelia
a young woman who barely survived a savage attack at the hands of Andrew, her
sister's boyfriend. Several years have passed since that horrible night and
Ophelia is still haunted by what occurred. Relying on medication just to get
through the days and haunted by terrible nightmares. Her only sanctuary is that
Andrew has been in a coma since that night. Finding comfort in the arms of the
charming Roger, things finally start looking up, if only slightly. But all of
that is about to change because Andrew has woken from his coma and is ready to
finish what he started.
The first praise I need to give this novel is the fact that
Kaine Andrews made each of his characters matter. Ophelia is not a generic
victim whose torment is exploited for the sake of performing horrific acts upon
her. She is a fully realized character and grounded in reality. She isn’t some
supermodel looking woman with the intelligence of a scientist. She feels like a
real person, someone you could honestly meet in real life. When bad things happen to her, you actually
give a damn about it, you feel her pain, you feel her fear.
Feeding into this perfectly is Andrew, the villain of the
piece. Andrew isn’t a campy character, he isn’t a Halloween special. Andrew is
a sick, twisted monster of an individual and at no time did the author pander
or try to lighten his mood.
This is a true horror story, not something you would read to
your children on Halloween night because they want a spooky story. This is
dark, bloody and horrific; Kaine Andrews manages to show the brutality of
violence without every exploiting or relying on it to tell his story.
Beyond these points is just how talented of a word smith
Kaine Andrews is. Every word in this book feels like an ant of the same
literary colony, working together to tell this story. There are no red
herrings, no pandering and no fillers. Woken doesn’t rely on anything other
than its own strengths, a true rarity for books these days. If you like horror
that is as horrific as it is well told, you would struggle to find a better
book than this one.
Number 6. Masquerade (book one of the
Heven and Hell series) by Cambria Hebert.
Masquerade,
revolves around Heven, a high school student, who once was leader of the cheer
leading squad. Several years before the story begins she was attacked and left
disfigured by an unknown creature. Still reeling from the scars both physical
and emotional of that attack her life suddenly takes a positive turn when she
meets Sam, the handsome new stranger of her small town. But while new love is
in the air so is terror for the creature that once attacked her is back and
ready to finish what it has started.
I am bending
my own rules a little bit mentioning this story. I just checked Cambria
Hebert’s goodreads profile to discover she now has hundreds of reviews and
thousands of ratings. This doesn’t surprise me in the least for several very
good reasons that I will get to in a minute. I just need to stress the fact that
when I first read this book there were only a handful of reviews for it. Also
another point I need to make is that ultimately this list is my opinion on
things and I am not saying that people should or shouldn’t like or read certain
types of genres.
For me
normally, there are three things that will stop me from reading a book,
Romance, an Urban Setting and Young Adult. Masquerade has all three and yet I
read it from first page to last without a problem. This is because this book is
the most well paced story that I have ever read. It is amazing just how well
Cambria Hebert was able to pace this story without ever once making it feel
disjointed or underwritten.
While it is
very much a young adult paranormal romance story, I was never bored reading it,
every chapter brought a new revelation, something of value to the story. It
left me guessing for its entire run, something that very few books have ever
done for me.
It is often
said, that a good book is one that can transcend its genre and this book
definitely does that as far as I am concerned. The fact that I felt engaged and
interested the entire time while reading about things I normally could care
less about such as teenage angst, social politics and romance shows just how
great of a story is actually is.
Number 5. The Superiors (The Superiors #1) by Lena Hillbrand
The Superiors
represents a future where Vampires have taken over the world and humans, better
known as Saps are little more than livestock. The main character is Draven, a
rather unassuming vampire that has a mediocre job and lives a rather ordinary
life who one day meets a young sap called Cali, trying to run away from her
predetermine fate.
There is a
lot that can be said about an author that can take something as overused as
vampires and actually make an engaging, interesting story out of it. Reading my
brief summary of the plot you are probably thinking that such a story has been
done before and you’re right it has. But putting that aside, I found The
Superiors a story that honestly stands on its own merit. Lena Hillbrand has
created a fascinating fleshed out world.
Draven the
main character is a kind of “Joe Vampire,” he isn’t some dark shadow that
stalks the night or some Romeo who for some reason is only interested in
teenage girls. There aren’t ANY romantic overtones in this story and that is a
true rarity in vampire literary.
Beyond using
vampires, the story itself is just incredibly engaging, what I loved about it
is that the author takes her time with the story, she doesn’t rush through it
(something that quite frankly annoys me about a lot of books that are written
today). Instead she masterfully crafts every inch of this world, she doesn’t so
much tackle social issues as deals with them with the subtly of an assassin.
A perfect
example of this for me was how the vampires, who consider themselves the master
race have fallen into the same traps of the world that humans once did. The
vast majority of the vampires seem no happier than their human counterparts
whose jobs they took over. There is a hypocrisy there that most vampires are
now realizing and only the older order, who haven’t had to take these mediocre
jobs to keep the world running are not affected by this reality.
That’s what I
love about this story, it doesn’t represent a romantic or mystic vision and
this world is dark, gritty and carries an undeniable genuineness to it. The
author hasn’t tried to emulate anybody; they have told their own story and told
it well.
I read and
enjoyed the Superiors during a time in my life when I would’ve rather gone to
the dentist than suffer through another generic vampire story. I honestly can’t
give it bigger praise than that.
Number 4. Veil of the Dragon (Prophecy of the Evarun) by Tom Barczak
A High Fantasy story revolving
around a land that has seen better days and the resurrection of the fallen King
Chaelus by a boy knight called Aaron all in the
hopes of fulfilling a certain prophecy.
When writing a
review for this I gave it the title, Like Reading A Dream, because that is the
truest way I can describe this story. There is something otherworldly about
reading this, a powerful feeling that fills you from the very first word to the
last. I honestly felt like a ghost in this world, watching this world through
eyes that weren’t natural.
I am a big
believer that works of fiction need a personal stamp and from that point of
view I have never read another book before that has been told with such a
strong personal style that the author represents with this story.
It is often said
that a good book is one that is brought to life in the reader’s mind and if
that is the case this book is the very embodiment of that. I didn’t feel like I
was so much reading about this world as experiencing it. Because that is what
this story is, an experience, one that I doubt I will ever forget.
I wish that I
could say more about this book, but frankly I couldn’t do it justice. As I
stated before this book is an experience, one that has to be experienced
personally in order to understand what I truly mean.
Number 3. Reader of Acheron (book one in
the slaves of Erafor series) by Walter Rhein
In a dystopian
future, reading has been outlawed and slavery is rampant. The corrupted ruling
class of this bleak existence is on the hunt for the so called Reader of
Acheron, all hope is far from lost however as Kikkan, a slave that took his
freedom is on a journey of his own, a journey that could change the entire
world if successful.
Look I got to be
upfront about something before I say anything else. A huge reason why I enjoy
Walter Rhein’s books is that his writing style is very reminiscent of David
Gemmell’s, who is an author that I loved reading while growing up. So I am sure
there is a kind of nostalgia by proxy, if I can use such a term, when I read
this story.
With that said,
Reader of Acheron has a lot going for it that should be judged on its own
merit. Obviously as a reader I could immediately identify how dangerous of an
impact outlawing the act of reading would be. But what I liked about this story
and the author deserves a hell of a lot of credit for this, is that I never
felt like he was trying to force a morality tale down my throat, like he was
using this book to get across his own personal opinions.
Rather this was
first and foremost an engaging story with fascinating characters. It is as well
worded as it is well paced. I read the whole story in a single setting and
afterword I found myself thinking about the meaning of the tale, the points
that were so finely raised within it.
It isn’t often
that I can say this about any book, let alone one written by a somewhat non
established writer. This book both entertained me and made me see things about
society that frankly I had never really thought about before and to me that is
the mark of an excellent story teller.
Number 2. Mathion (book one in the Mavonduri Trilogy) by
Jeff Shanley
Mathion is
the story of Mathion, the prince and future heir of the Wolven people. His kind
has been stuck in a war lasting thousands of years with the Kanin (werewolves).
The story revolves around this young prince accompanied by his white wolf
companion Elekan as he risks certain death to save a friend from the clutches
of The Betrayer, the terrifying king of the Kanin.
The first thing that impressed me about this
book was its genuine depth. There is a back story, to a back story, to a back
story, to a back story. Literally tens of thousands of years that have been
thought out and known by the author and it really shows while reading this
story. It is rather quite sad, how rare this trait is among a lot of high
fantasy writers today, considering genuine depth is the strongest corner stone
of the High Fantasy genre.
But that
isn’t the main reason why Mathion makes this list; it is because how it made me
feel while reading it. While Mathion isn’t a children story by any means (it is
after all a story about thousands of years of warfare between werewolves and
medieval like warriors.) it made me feel the same way I did when I was 12 and
read the Hobbit for the first time. I felt full of wonder and excitement
reading about this world, a world that I had never quite imagined before.
I honestly
felt like getting under the covers and reading this story well past midnight,
because I was so enamored by it. Mathion is a better representation of classic
heroic traits than almost any other character I have read about. I felt sad,
when he was sad, I felt compelled by his conflict between duty and personal
friendship. His relationship with his white wolf Elekan felt so real to me,
reminding me of what I felt as a child raising a pet of my own.
With the
exception of Tolkien himself, I cannot think of any High Fantasy writer that
can embody the traits of classic High Fantasy as well as Jeff Shanley has with
this story and considering that High Fantasy is my favorite literary genre, I
think that is saying something.
It is no
exaggeration when I say that I found myself thinking about the Mavonduri world
almost every day for basically a full year after I had finished reading it.
Mathion is one of the very few books that not only have I a re-read a number of
times, it is one of the few books that I make time in my busy schedule to
re-read.
People will
often ask what is a good High Fantasy story? Some say a book that resonates
with the real world; others will say a story that represents a world that is
nothing like the real world. My answer to this question is this book, Mathion.
Number 1. Of Good and Evil by Gerald
G. Griffin
Ron Sheffield is
a former green beret, who fought in the Middle East but was discharged for his
erratic behavior. In truth it was because he possesses powers unlike any the
military has seen before. In the civilian world once more Ron becomes a hit man
for the mafia in order to deal with his powers. He soon meets Amber Ash, who
has powers of her own. Together they realize that they cannot escape their
pasts.
While I meant
what I said in the beginning of this post that these 7 books haven’t been
placed in any particular order, I am going to state for the record that this
book is my personal favorite of the bunch. While all 7 of these books are
worthwhile reading, Of Good and Evil is simply in a league of its own.
There is a great
maturity to Gerald G. Griffin’s writing, one almost never seen in MOST author’s
work regardless of whether they are well known or not.
The sheer scope
of this book is impressive, dealing with the paranormal, terrorist cells, the
mafia, government conspiracies, secret societies, doomsday plots and much more.
But more impressive than the scope is just how deftly Gerald G. Griffin handles
all of these themes. This book easily could’ve come off as muddled and
incoherent and yet nothing could be further than the truth, it is just flawless
how well told this story is.
With startling
effortlessness Gerald G. Griffin accomplishes mystery without frustrating his
reader, he deals with real world issues, but does so in a way that doesn’t
require expert understanding of the world’s politics and yet clearly shows a
great understanding of such politics himself.
I cannot stress
just how much I recommend this book to any mature reader. It truly boggles my
mind that this book isn’t on the New York Times best seller list. With that
said I am proud to say that apparently this book is going to be turned into a
movie! It makes me genuinely happy to know that this magnificent book is
finally getting the treatment it so richly deserves.
So there you have
it, those are my seven recommendations. I appreciate you taking the time out of
your life to read this post and I honestly hope that I have helped you to
discover some literary gems.
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