Tag Archives: Fantasy

Review: Before

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Before
Before by Cambria Hebert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heven’s life was perfect. She is beautiful, popular, and just got voted cheerleading captain – all things that any teenage girl would dream about.

Then her world falls apart.

Sam’s life is dark. His only shining light is Heven, and the monster has forbid him to see her again. Even though he is anxious to escape the clutches of the monster, Sam can not forget about Heven. In his desire to see her ‘one last time,’ Sam inadvertently leads the monster right to her.

Before is the prequel to Masquerade and sets up the characters beautifully. The mystery surrounding Sam, and thereby Heven’s fate, captures the reader and draws them into the world, leaving them desperate for more.

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Review: The Measure of the Magic

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The Measure of the MagicThe Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Take the staff.

Those words haunt Panterra Qu at the end of Bearers of the Black Staff. Alone, surrounded by enemies both known and unknown, and doubtful, Panterra finds it within himself to take up the black staff from the fallen Sider Ament. Faced with the task of learning how to use the staff to save his people, Panterra travels from his village to the Elves to the outside of the valley to seek out and eliminate the threats that close upon the Hawk’s heirs.

Meanwhile, Prue Liss is far from safe at home. Trapped in the ruins of Deladion Inch’s hideout, Prue finds herself not only a target for the trolls outside, but also for the ragpicker, a demon hunting the black staff. In her desperation to return to and help Panterra, she makes a bargain with a reoccurring Shannara character, and gives up more than she bargained for.

Picking up where Bearers ended, The Measure of the Magic concludes the duology of the Legends of Shannara in true Brooks-fashion: innocent youth struggling to cope with and rise above challenges that the unbelieving adults cannot surmount. The characters of Pan and Prue are finely crafted, bringing them to light in a way the reader grips the pages and can’t let go.

Husher

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He stepped out of the shadows, dark cloak hiding his face and hands.  He walked slowly towards the little girl, her blonde curls still springy in the summer heat.  She began to tremble, backing as far away from the man as her tiny hiding place in the store room would let her, pressing her back to the women behind her.

Kinley took the young girls’ head, stroking her blonde curls back from her face.  She didn’t know the girls’ name.  She would have liked to know, to mentally be able to keep track of every such instance such as this.  Such beautiful curls, such a calm face, to know such suffering.

Kinley looked up at the man in the dark robe.  No, she couldn’t let this man take this child.  Couldn’t bear the pain of this small girl growing up to be used by this withered man, no matter how much potential she had shown.

Kinley stated to chant under her breath, hoping the old man was too intent on his apparent capture of his new ‘apprentice’ to pay attention to his old one.  As he reached forward, the girl screamed, Kinley stood and gripped the old man’s arm, and his memory was gone.

The Hunted

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My life hasn’t turned out how I wanted it to.

I had dreams.  I was going to be someone.  I studied hard, worked long hours training to be the best.  I was the youngest of my family to ever attend the University.  I was the only of my line to complete the long coursework.  But I wanted more than that.

I wanted love.

I wanted love in the cliche way that young girls dream about.  I wanted to come home to my dinners made fresh, with a handsome face smiling at me as if I was the only person in the world.  I wanted his strong arms to wrap around me, holding me every time like it was the first and last time he would hold me.  I wanted that spark, that romance to last deep into the years we would spend together.  I wanted a sweet proposal, a full-tilt wedding, a house on a hill and bundles of joy.

But it wasn’t to be.  That’s ok, I told myself.  One can still live a full life, while dreams live on in the places where we hide them.  So, I continued my training far past the time where I had mastered it, striving to make some other meaning out of my life.  Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time, I said.  It will happen.  But days turned into years, and in one swift sword strike my life changed.

I’d become one of the Hunted.

Xandra (Guardian of Mankind)

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“It has good bones.”  That phrase stuck in Xandra’s head, rolling around in the corners with the cobwebs.  Looking up at the small house sitting back from the road, with it’s trees covering the front windows and the 1-car garage’s roof pealing up, she wondered how far down she’d have to dig before she got to these bones.  The bricks were good, red and grey interspersed with ivy growing up the side.  The railing that lead to the tiny alcove leaned to the left and the porch itself wouldn’t save anyone from the rain.  The walk was cracked, tiny weeds sprouting out of the concrete like yellowed zits.  And speaking of weeds, Xandra took in the knee-high grass covering the entire 2-acre property.  I should just buy a goat.

Walking towards the front door, Xandra climbed the three steps to the front door, hoping that the lock wasn’t rusted or the wooden frame swollen, making it harder to gain entry.  Setting her travel bag down, she dug out the ancient-looking key from her pocket.  Note to self, get a locksmith.  Sliding the key into the lock, she shoved her weight against the door.  Though her build was slight and lean, she did keep in shape, but no amount of slamming her shoulder into the door would make it move.

Xandra sighed.  Good bones, my ass.