As promised, here is my second set of mini reviews of the books in Light in the Darkness: A Noblebright Fantasy Boxed Set. You can find the first set of mini reviews here. If this is the first you’ve seen of noblebright fantasy, you can find an overview here on my site and on Noblebright.org. In that overview post, I promised reviews of the books in this first noblebright fantasy boxed set, along with content notes and caveats as appropriate. The books are in alphabetical order by author’s last name in the set, but that’s not the order in which I’m reading them, so […]
Noblebright
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Light in the Darkness: A Noblebright Fantasy Boxed Set is back online! Find it here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble Nook | Kobo | iBooks You know what would be super awesome? If you could help us spread the word! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your reading buddies… tell everyone! Remember that while these books are noblebright fantasy and aim to celebrate the best of human nature, they are not all appropriate for Very Young Eyes™, if you know what I mean. I have written mini reviews of Pen Pal, Lhind the Thief, Six Celestial Swords, and The Emperor’s Edge and am […]
Why?! The short version is that Amazon glitched up the pricing. Badly. The problem was solved a week ago, but the Amazon’s right hand didn’t talk to its left hand and they de-listed the set anyway because the left hand thought the problem still existed. So what happens now? I’m still trying to reach someone at Amazon who can actually solve the problem – I’ve talked to people who understand and acknowledge it was their mistake but can’t fix it, and I’ve talked with people who don’t understand the complaint at all (despite copious documentation from me). I hope it will […]
Some of these I actually read a while ago, but I’m only just now getting around to blogging them. As you might be able to guess, I’ve been a bit busy. Auckland Allies by Mike Reeves-McMillan – I’ve been a fan of Mike’s writing for a while, and we’re friends on social media (isn’t the internet great? Mike is a Kiwi and I live outside Washington, D.C.; without the internet, we would probably never have even known each other existed. But I consider him a friend now, even though I’ve never met him.). He writes the kind of characters I enjoy […]
A few days ago I wrote an overview of noblebright fantasy, which you can find here on my site and on Noblebright.org. I want to make noblebright fantasy a recognized subgenre of fantasy the way grimdark is now. In a discussion elsewhere on the internet, one author mentioned to me that, while the term is great, much of classic fantasy literature fits the noblebright definition. He questioned whether there is any utility in inventing a term for something that already exists and continues to be written. I agree… many of the best-loved works of fantasy are noblebright, or at least […]
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to connect with another indie author, Mike Reeves-McMillan, who wrote a lovely review of The King’s Sword, which he described, tongue-in-cheek, as “cheerybright.” He meant that the world wasn’t perfect, but good characters exist and can make a difference in their world and society through actions defined by honesty, integrity, and self-sacrifice. While the term cheerybright certainly made me smile (and was a lovely counterpoint to grimdark), we eventually discovered the term “noblebright.” The term noblebright was originally something of a joke from the gaming community. The quintessential grimdark game Warhammer 40k (which I […]
Raven by Pauline Creeden – I didn’t realize when I picked up this book that it was Christian fantasy (it’s clear on Amazon, I had just forgotten when it came up in my Kindle); I think it will appeal to non-Christians too. I also didn’t realize it was steampunk when I picked it up, but if steampunk isn’t your thing, don’t be turned off – the steampunk aspects of the story were fairly restrained. I really enjoyed watching Raven Steele develop through the story; she was both a “strong female character” in that she was awesome at kicking tail when […]
Some of you may know that I had major surgery a while ago. Although the recovery isn’t fun, it’s going very well. Nevertheless, I’ve been forced to slow down a bit from my normal energetic pace. I’ve had more time to read, which has been lovely. Here are a few of the books I’ve been reading: Spindle by W.R. Gingell – I have discovered another favorite indie author. This was the first book I read by Gingell, and it’s a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. That was never my favorite fairytale, and I haven’t really jumped into the fairytale retelling trend anyway. But I decided […]
These are a few of the books I’ve been enjoying lately. The Worth of a Shell by M. C. A. Hogarth – This is not light reading, although it’s not “difficult” in the sense of reading level or language. It’s a story of consent and culture and the value of a person as an individual, not for the role in society they occupy but simply for existing. I discovered the book when it was included in the StoryBundle last year with The King’s Sword and only recently got around to reading it. Color me impressed. Hogarth managed to present an alien society as […]