The Saturday Morning Post (No.15)

This week we have three fantasy books that I sampled and decided that they were not written for me. The first is War Bunny, Book 1 of The War Bunny Chronicles by Christopher St. John, the second is The Way of Edan, Book One of the Edan Trilogy by Philip Chase, and the third is Perseus Kills His Grandfather by Richard L Pastore.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

War Bunny by Christopher St. John  DNF

War Bunny is a fantasy story using animal protagonist, similar to Richard Adams's Watership Down, which I have not read, Brian Jacques's Redwall series of which I've read the first book, and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, which I've read, plus ten thousand similar books written for kids. It came to my attention via Berthold Gambrel's excellent book review blog, A Ruined Chapel by Moonlight, and his review here. To get a fuller idea of the story, read his review. The book was free at the time so I picked it up. (See how that works?)

The story appears to be set in an post-apocalyptical world where humans are missing and the animals uplifted. The rabbit talk and have an oral tradition of books and a religion. There is probably a fuller explanation of the world in the books, as it is the first of a three book series, but accepting talking animals is the price of admission. I had no problem doing that, though I like some consistency, i.e. the rabbits are not tool using creatures - they seem to be pretty much like your garden variety rabbit, but with speech, a hierarchy, and a religion. On the other hand, an itinerate trader water rat uses his paws as hands and carries his goods in a backpack, i.e. he is given a much more andromorphic treatment. A minor quibble, since Grahame in Wind in the Willows has Mr Toad, a toad, driving not only a horse drawn caravan, but a train, as well as interacting with humans. But still, I like consistency.

My problem with this story - and it is my problem, not the author's - is not those apparent inconsistencies, but rather that, one, it starts with the now seemingly obligatory action scene; the title bunny being chased and just escaping being eaten by a fox. I really don't like that type of opening. Next it has too many point of view characters, jumping from one to another just in the first 8% of the book. I am not a fan of multi-POV stories, which are so popular these days. It also has a violent weasel attack on the rabbit warden in the first 8% of the book, so it's not a kid's book. Finally, there was all this talk about the rabbit's religion. Books heavy on religion are a non-starter with me. I've never read Dune, having passed it up when it first was released, as the blurb mentioned a hero as a messiah. It just turns me off - 12 years of Catholic education can do that to a fellow.

So, as I said from the beginning, all of the reasons I stopped reading this story are my own bugaboos, not the author's. You can't please every reader and shouldn't try, so after reading Berthold's review, and my thoughts, if you think you might like it, give it a try, especially if it is still free.

The Way of Edan by Philip Chase  DNF

Dr Philip Chase is a medievalist, with a PhD in English Literature who teaches college courses on writing, medieval literature, and fantasy literature. He also has a YouTube channel where he reviews fantasy books. This is the first book in a trilogy. I picked it up for free (yes, that's how it works) when he had it on sale for five days to promote the release of the second book in the series. I wouldn't have picked up this book if I had to pay for it, as I didn't think it would be something I'd like. I was right.

Once again, the story starts out with an action prologue in which three disciples, one of whom is the point of view character, of some religion, desecrates the temple of another religion for some reason and they get killed for doing so. Am I hooked? No. Next we start the story proper with a new point of view character, a boy and his dog going out to herd his family's flock of sheep. A page or two later - page 18 to be exact, he gets killed by some sort of creature, a "nightgangers or pucas, as most folk called them," along with all 42  of the poor sheep. So at the 3% mark we have four people killed (two of which are point of view characters) 42 sheep, and his dog. Well, I can't say for certain about the dog, he may've lived, but I doubt it, since he took off after the pucas. Do I like reading about people being killed? No, I don't. Plus, we have that religion thing again, something that I gather from the reviews I've seen on YouTube, plays an important role in the story. Being one of the YouTube content creators' gang, Chase's story has plenty of reviews on YouTube if you are interested in finding out more, since he gets reviewed by all the fantasy BookTubers. 

Now, I must admit that this book was a long shot with me, so it is no surprise that I didn't care for it. I was, however, surprised at how bloody it was out of the gate, given that it was written by a college professor in English literature over the course of 18 years. Basically it started out like a bog-standard grimdark fantasy. I think I would've expected something a bit more, I don't know... literary? classical? original? - not the me-too grimdark fantasy trilogy this seems to be. Maybe if I read further, I might come to a different conclusion - but I'm not going to. He released the third book a couple of weeks ago as this is posted, so if you are interested, you might be able to snag this book at a good promotional price, or for free, if it sounds like something that might appeal to you.

Perseus Kills his Grandfather by Richard L Pastore  DNF

I bought the book along with his The Devil and the Wolf (My review of that book here.) when I saw on Berthold's blog that they were on sale for free. (See, another sale, and a sale is a sale.) I started with this book, but to be honest, I haven't had anything to do with Greek mythology since high school some 60 years ago, and had then, and still have now, no interest in Greek mythology, or anything Greek. I am happy to say that the story does not begin with a violent action scene to hook me, so that didn't put me off. However, due to my lack of interest in the subject, I switched to reading his The Devil and the Wolf instead, and while I enjoyed that book, I have yet to return to this story due, as I said, to a lack of interest in the subject. Maybe some day I will, since I didn't actually dislike it as I did the previous books. But don't hold your breath. I'm just not into the mythology or the era, and consequently, this story. Pastore writes humorous stories and this story is no exception. As with all these books, not finishing this book is on me and my tastes, not the author. If this sounds like your cup of tea, give it a sip.

Next week I return to a Furrowed Middlebrow book, and then it on to a new 12 book epic. Stay tuned.