CSFF Blog Tour: The Realms Thereunder

No of course I haven't finished it. There's no review here. Except to say that I'm getting a whiff of Narnia, mixed with Alfred the Great, and the map in the front is showing just a little hint of Arthurian legend, although I've not seen him mentioned on the tour, so maybe that is for later in the series.

There are plenty of reviews you can read though (although, I haven't in much detail because I'm still reading the book):
Janeen Ippolito's character assassinations summaries;
Rebekah Loper's possibly technical review;
Nissa's Rune Poem review;
Shane Werlinger does it in three parts; and
Jason Joyner doesn't enjoy it.

It seems from the quick look through the reviews and posts on the tour, that opinion is divided by whether the reviewer likes the dual-timeline narrative device. I like it, when done well. I tried to use it during NaNoWriMo a couple of years back, and it's tricky to do well (at least in 30 days!). The chunks in each time period are quite short, especially as compared to something like Stephen King's It, which used the same  childhood/adulthood split but for far bigger chunks of story, and I can see how the frequent changing could be disorienting, although it hasn't bothered me yet.

A few people on the tour have noticed some little editorial mishaps in the book; I noticed a couple of things as soon as the story started that got under my English skin (we don't call them MDs, and there's only one 'b' in Abingdon!). Good job I'm running late, or I'd have ruined the book for the rest of you, who had no idea if Abingdon was even a real place. I've only seen the place mentioned a couple of times, but it irks me that the author can spell Nidergeard properly but not Abingdon...

Anyway, do please venture on into the rest of the tour, or visit the author's website.

Gillian Adams Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Jeff Chapman CSFF Blog Tour Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Rebekah Loper Margaret Marzabeth Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirriam Neal Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Joan Nienhuis Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Nicole White Rachel Wyant

CSFF Blog Tour: An Apology in Advance

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Realms Thereunder courtesy of the publisher, Thomas Nelson, for review. Unfortunately, the time at which I received it was last Wednesday, just a couple of days before receiving a delivery of a rather different type (Bryony Hope, 5.30am last Friday, 7lb 14 because somebody was bound to ask).

All of which somewhat elaborate excuse-making is to say that there may or may not be a full review of the book on this blog this week, but it will appear at some stage.

In the meantime, the blurb tells of an army of knights that will remain sleeping until the last days, a homeless man stalked by a pale, wraithlike creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, and a Scottish police officer who specializes in hunting mythical creatures.

It also tells of a mythical world bleeding into our reality, a dark spiritual evil manifesting itself in forgotten corners of the British Isles, and the ultimate threat to humanity.

It doesn't tell of spaceships, aliens or time travel, so might not be quite my usual genre, but I felt I should make the effort to give a view from the right side of the Atlantic.

However, should I fail epically in this mission, you can find more comment and reviews of the book in question at these blogs:

Gillian Adams Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Jeff Chapman CSFF Blog Tour Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Rebekah Loper Margaret Marzabeth Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirriam Neal Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Joan Nienhuis Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Nicole White Rachel Wyant