Review: Sisters of Mercy by Yuval Kordov

The Book:

Hannah-9 is a symbiote: a child of Heaven and Hell, bred in the bowels of the Last City. Implanted into an ancient, nuclear-powered war machine—a God-engine—she stalks the wastes with Rachel-3, her sister-in-arms.

Their mandate is absolute: to wage war against the Adversary, to purify the Earth, and to endure—until the radiation consumes them.

This is her story.

My Thoughts:

I came across this novella through the Self Published Indie Novella Competition (SFINCs) which is a sister contest to SPFBO (fantasy novels) and SPSFC (SciFi novels). Several reviewers were marking it down because they didn’t like that it included religious themes and some of the contestants were calling them out on their bias. So, always curious to see what the cause of all the drama was, I decided to read the novella and judge for myself.

Well I’m so glad I did for I would never have discovered this amazing author otherwise. This book is superb. Powerful and evocative prose mixes in with amazing worldbuilding and the two tragic characters at its core. My heart bled for Hannah and her sister Rachel, the world they had been born into and the tortures they had to endure. The spiritual aspect was their way of coping with their unfortunate lives, and certainly wasn’t overegged. It was in fact a powerful part of the worldbuilding and highlighted Hannah and Rachel’s inner vulnerability.

This a powerful novella that touches on some dark and disturbing themes. It challenges as well as entertains. It’s an excellent and beautiful bit of writing and I think a book that with time will recognise its own significance. The shorter length only adds to this impact.

You really need to read this book. It’s something quite special and I haven’t read anything this good or thought provoking in a long time.

I’d give it 6 stars if I could.

Review: A Dragon of the Veil (Warriors of Spirit and Bone Book 1) by Nick Snape

The Book:

Some lies are best left buried…

Science and magic are forbidden in Brandshold, where the Seven Gods' scripture dictates daily life. When spirit-magic erupts, disrupting an alchemical experiment, fear rolls across the realm and awakens the veil dragons buried deep beneath a forest, their existence struck from memory by the Gods.

Laoch, a veteran of the crusades, and Sura, an elf disowned by her tribe, stand as warriors of spirit and bone against the oncoming tide, while a queen shackled by the demands of the Gods’ Overseer, seeks to cut through his web of deceit and find the truth about her people’s past and the threat of the awakened dragons.

Drawn into a brutal world of soul-magic, forbidden alchemy, and divine weapons, together they uncover a terrible truth: the realm is held together by lies ‒ and they hide a far greater threat to their future. For the dragons are creatures that were built for the hunt, and their creators are hungry.

My Thoughts:

What a ride! And what an opening to what looks like an amazing new fantasy series.

I’ve already reviewed a few of Nick’s books on this blog – in fact I’ve become something of a fan - but this is the first of his fantasy that I’ve read. Suffice to say it lived up to my expectations.

The worldbuilding is superb, the characters compelling and as the action picks up pace I found myself being swept along in a thrilling chase. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. But not without its moments of passion and sorrow. I became so involved with these characters that I felt their love, their tears, their terror as if I was right there with them. 

I particularly loved the mechanical dragons. What an excellent extra dimension. 

I thoroughly recommend this book and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

A solid 5 stars from me!