Review: Tevinter Nights

Ancient horrors. Marauding invaders. Powerful mages. And a world that refuses to stay fixed.

Welcome to Thedas.

From the stoic Grey Wardens to the otherworldly Mortalitasi necromancers, from the proud Dalish elves to the underhanded Antivan Crow assassins, Dragon Age is filled with monsters, magic, and memorable characters making their way through dangerous world whose only constant is change.

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights brings you fifteen tales of adventure, featuring faces new and old, including:

“Three Trees to Midnight” by Patrick Weekes
“Down Among the Dead Men” by Sylvia Feketekuty
“The Horror of Hormak” by John Epler
“Callback” by Lukas Kristjanson
“Luck in the Gardens” by Sylvia Feketekuty
“Hunger” by Brianne Battye
“Murder by Death Mages” by Caitlin Sullivan Kelly
“The Streets of Minrathous” by Brianne Battye
“The Wigmaker” by Courtney Woods
“Genitivi Dies in the End” by Lukas Kristjanson
“Herold Had the Plan” by Ryan Cormier
“An Old Crow’s Old Tricks” by Arone Le Bray
“Eight Little Talons” by Courtney Woods
“Half Up Front” by John Epler
“Dread Wolf Take You” by Patrick Weekes

Like all anthologies, it’s hit or miss.  The main appeal of the book comes from not just being a return to Thedas, but the range of adventures and information it gives.  Set after the events of Inquisition, we get a glimpse of what the Venatori have been up to, insights into how the Mortalitasi function in Nevarra, a little Grey Warden-ing, some Crows in action and a few cameos from some favorites like Dorian Pavus and Cassandra Pentaghast. 

It’s a mixed bag, but it adds to the lore & mythology of Dragon Age as well as a few teases into what might be coming next.  Good stuff.

4/5 stars.

Technorati Tags: Dragon Age,Tevinter,Thedas,Grey Wardens,Dorian Pavus,Cassandra Pentaghast,Blood Magic,Red Lyrium,New Release,Book Review,Fantasy,Anthology,Dread Wolf,Qunari

The 1619 Project

The New York Times- ostensibly known as “the Paper of Record” for decades due to the select few it gave bylines to helped shape the consciousness and conscience of the United States and even sometimes the world- offered up a rarity in their neon decline into fence-straddling in the Trump Era.

The 1619 Project.

Things have been written about this subject before, but never presented on the scale and with the exposure this project has.  More importantly, it’s by people who’ve lived & experienced these effects and not the abstract view from the glass penthouse.

In a nutshell, this magnun opus on the effects that Racism- manifest in both the Trans-Atlantic African Slave Trade and Native American genocides and often euphemised as the “White Man’s Burden” or “Manifest Destiny“- had on all aspects of American society, particularly in Economics & Politics.  Pop Quiz: how rich do you think you’d become if you ran a business where you didn’t have to pay your employees for a year?  Five years? Ten?  Two Hundred?  And like the spare parts you treated them as, when they wore down (as in got sick, injured, died or sold off) you simply replaced them by buying new ones or plugging in their children and grandchildren?  Kinda sounds like the attitude of a few bosses or CEOs in some places you’ve worked, doesn’t it?

If you were unable to snag a physical copy, don’t worry: the Times has been gracious enough to make a pdf available for download.  Check it out.  As the free-thinking, politically-conscious, freedom-defending, Democracy-loving American you feel yourself to be, you owe it to yourself to have your mind expanded and your biases & beliefs challenged by the materials presented in it.

And that’s as diplomatically as I can put it.

 

Review: Avatar, the Last Airbender- the Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee

F. C. Yee’s The Rise of Kyoshi delves into the story of Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom–born Avatar. The longest-living Avatar in this beloved world’s history, Kyoshi established the brave and respected Kyoshi Warriors, but also founded the secretive Dai Li, which led to the corruption, decline, and fall of her own nation. The first of two novels based on Kyoshi, The Rise of Kyoshi maps her journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar.

Review: Sophia, Princess among Beasts by Emily Raymond

 

A princess who has lost her mother and father finds herself in a terrifying world that urgently needs a queen.

Sophia is smart, beautiful, and accomplished, a beloved princess devoted to the people and to reading books. The kingdom is hers, until she is plunged into a nightmarish realm populated by the awful beasts she read about as a child.

The beasts are real. And so is the great army marching on her castle. The people look to Sophia for protection. They will all perish unless she can unlock an ancient secret as profound as life and death itself.

Reading Progress: Pg 80/203 of The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull

 

An alien ship rests over Water Island. For five years the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a race of super-advanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose. They are benevolent in many ways but meet any act of aggression with disproportional wrath. This has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders and a peace that cannot last. A year after the death of a young boy at the hands of an Ynaa, three families find themselves at the center of the inevitable conflict, witness and victim to events that will touch everyone and teach a terrible lesson.

This one’s a slow burn so far.  We meet the protagonists in the few years before the arrival of the Ynaa and immediately delve into the consequences after.  Lots of introspection and tension amongst the island community, and yeah- the aliens have more going on than meets the eye, problem is we don’t get to see any of the impact that aliens arriving would have.  The story is so insular, it’s like reading about an ant farm from the perspective of the ants.  There’s no hint of any of the actual reprecussions aliens appearing on Earth would have: no sign of a military presence- or any explanation why it’s lacking, not a whiff of any international interest from other nations, nothing.  Oh, aliens have landed, they share their superior technology and all they want is to be left alone and hang out in the Virgin Islands while waiting to teach Humanity some sort of lesson.

Ok.

While the affect alien arrival would have on the locals is always an interesting subject, the lack of anything else going on is what’s dragging this one down.  We’ll see.

 

eReader Apps Review Series: Prestigio Premium

Next up on the queue…

eReader Prestigio: Book Reader is a multi lingual, multi format text and audio books reading app. Intuitive interface in over 25 languages and an in app store library with over 50,000 text (for children and adults) books and Text-To-Speech (read along) functionality.

☆ Prestigio ebooks reader is cool – book and text reading never been simpler – you can read text files in multiple formats including epub, html, fb2, fb2.zip, txt, pdf, mobi, epub3, djvu and multiple other text and audio book formats.

☆ Tired of reading? Switch on Text-To-Speech and let the application read the text book file for you! Kids books read along – let us read the best bed time stories for you.

☆ Personalize your reading:
✔ Material Design and simple navigation – its cool
✔ Multiple Shelf Themes and in book backgrounds (add your own)
✔ Scan library for specific file and text book formats
✔ Inbuilt dictionary with Color Dict
✔ Text-To-Speech for reading books aloud in multiple languages
✔ In-App Store best books in epub & fb2 formats
✔ Home screen, Recent books, In book Menu, Android Home Widget
✔ Multiple fonts, sizes and styles for best and cool reading
✔ Night mode
✔ Books Collection – create, edit and store your books, organized by desired criteria (genre, author, added time or series) and view them in covers or list views
✔ File Manager – easily find your ebook or text file and set of enjoying reading your stories
✔ Synchronize your books and text files from cloud services such as Google Drive, One Drive & Dropbox directly into books collections

☆ Create ebooks My Prestigio account to
✔ Synchronize books between devices library (only synchronize text files where you left off, not full library)
✔ Download free books (adult and children) and texts from In-App ereader book store
✔ Buy new books from in-app ereader book store
✔ Keep downloaded books in the Prestigio Cloud
✔ Create wish lists
✔ Book Purchase Vouchers

☆ Smart ebooks search function on your device
✔ Scan your library to quickly find text files and books

☆ Multiple book formats support
ereader supports the following ebooks formats:
✔ Text files: epub, djvu, html, fb2, fb2.zip, txt, pdf, mobi, epub3
✔ Audio books stories & video files in books

☆ Multi lingual User Interface Support
25 Interface languages supported and growing: English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Greek, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Belorussian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Kazakh

☆ Online epub book store
✔ Over 50,000 books – start reading and enjoying your stories
✔ Just two click book purchase with ereader vouchers
✔ Discover best and cool book releases, but also best free children & adult books and texts

‘Batwoman’ Trailer Review — The 17 Waverly Podcast

The first trailer for the latest installment in the Arrowverse, Batwoman, just dropped! Let’s talk! Congratulations: First of all, before even getting into the meat of the trailer, I want to give a huge congratulations to the CW and to Ruby Rose. This is a live-action comic book series with a (unapologetic) gay lead. Batwoman’s there, […]

via ‘Batwoman’ Trailer Review — The 17 Waverly Podcast

Where will the MCU go with Phases 4 through 6? — Binge Sequence

In the wake of Avengers: Endgame, big changes and interesting prospects seem to be awaiting the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A few movies and Disney+ shows have been announced here and there; Endgame also ended with a few hints to a possible path ahead. Let’s take a look at what we know, what […]

via Where will the MCU go with Phases 4 through 6? — Binge Sequence

Why You Should Have An Agent And How To Get One — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Originally posted on K.M. Allan: If you’ve been following my blog for the last few weeks, you’ll know I attended the KidLitVic writers conference. There, I gleaned many a tip on the publishing industry, including the following about snagging an agent. Alex Adsett from Alex Adsett Publishing Services and Jacinta Di Mase from Jacinta…

via Why You Should Have An Agent And How To Get One — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Originally posted on No Wasted Ink: It is Monday and time for a new top ten writers links. Most of the links are to articles with general writing tips, but a few will be of interest to speculative fiction authors. Enjoy! What If Your Novel is Losing Steam? 4 Challenges of Writing for a Modern…

via No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog