The Bee's Knees

Petal Storm by Paul Kidd

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I have always been a fan of Kidd's writing style, and I own pretty much his entire collection of books - almost all of which are self-published. Kidd certainly makes one appreciate the true glory that can be found in these somewhat quirky, speculative works of fiction - the likes of which your typical publishing house won't touch - not because they're poorly written, but because the concept is just slightly too risky for them to take. Well, their loss.

"Petal Storm" is a story of bees. Rather, anthropormophic bees that ride hornets and live in a very matriachal society. Kidd has carefully captured much of general bee nature and habit here - the bees are led by one female, a queen, and the other workers are all neuter-females - incapable of breeding. The drones largely stay away, except when required to fertilise her many eggs. They behave in a manner that is quite believable if you were ever given a world in which bees were the sentient lifeform. He has also taken careful consideration of things like water droplets, and other such things, that on such a minute scale are rather different from how we humans perceive them.

Around this exciting and original premise, he has spun a story of manipulation and politics - of a Hive with not only one Queen, but two princesses, an unheard of situation. The two princesses are set on destroying each other, so that one can take the throne when their mother dies - as is the bee way, but events are conspiring that might make traditions have to change. The main characters - most of them neuter-females, are lovingly crafted. Kidd can often be commended for creating characters with the sort of personality that means you remember them, relate to them and feel like you know them a little bit.

There are a few minor bugbears - the occasional typo or missing word, and the fact that the bees have hair (why?). And the cover of the paperback version seems to depict a human girl with bee wings. I have chosen to perceive the characters rather truer to their intended identity.

This is an exciting story, and may well become one of my top 5 picks for books I have read this year (not ones released this year).

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And here's my interpretation of the bee girls:

Fairies of the Dreamdark

Purchased on ebook via Amazon for $7.99 - not cheap, but this is definitely one I would read again and will likely cherish for years to come. I just wish there was a way to share it.

I already own book two.


Blackbringer by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before she penned the amazing "Daughter of Smoke and Bone", Laini Taylor wrote some other novels - most noteably the Dreamdark books. There are two books in the series so far, and this is the first. The Dreamdark books are populated with faeries - delightful winged people such as you might like to find in your garden. Magpie Windwitch is a particularly fierce faerie. It is her duty to rid the world of devils - djinn that have escaped their bottle and are wrecking havoc. Her latest endeavour brings her up against a devil more terrible than any she has ever seen before - a beast of darkness that does not appear to devour people but to rip them from existence entirely. With the help of her seven crow friends (who add comic value as well) Magpie must destroy this beast before it destroys everything she knows and loves.

The lyrical writing style and evocative descriptions make this a delicious and engrossing read. With fun, somewhat quirky characters and a delightful and well conceptualised setting; I fell in love a little with this book and can hardly wait until I next venture into the Dreamdark. A charming delight to read.

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And this is Snoshti - an adorable little Hedge Imp:

Strong build, but failed to climax

Available here on Amazon for $0.00. Can't beat that price!

The Golden Bell by Autumn Dawn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really did enjoy this book. Although it is the fourth set in the un-aptly named "Dark Lands", I found myself instantly hooked, and although I did feel rather like there was a little more that I was missing, I was certainly never lost nor confused in the plot.

The characterisation was good. The two main characters - Rain and Fallon, were both well developed. Particularly Rain, with her occasional feral streaks and quick temper. Also, one has got to love a genius engineer. She did seem to fall a bit too easily into Fallon's bed, but that can be forgiven. He was rather sexy, and although you could sense that he wanted to be controlling, he also allowed her freedom and did not pressure her. All good points in a man.

The sex scenes were quite steamy, and well written, and not too prevalent in the plot. Sexual tension was also kept to a relative minimum, allowing more room for the plot to be established.

Now, about the plot... It started strong - Rain being rescued from a Charmer, exiled to the Dark Lands and trying to establish a place for herself amongst the Haunts, as well as uncovering her father's murderer.

That's where it fell down. It almost feels like the author ran out of steam. Like she had a certain word length she wanted to finish it in and didn't wish to exceed this. There was no build - the murderer was unveiled and defeated, without being an apparent threat to Rain or her new way of life. What's more, despite the fact that the evidence was shaky and that Rain took matters into her own hands, there were no serious repurcussions of what she did. No climax, no threat, no tension. Very frustrating - and left me feeling cheated.

On the other hand, I liked the writing style, enjoyed the characters and found the setting intriguing, so I would be interested in reading more by this author - at some point.





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The Eyes of Sandala by Cathy Benedetto

To celebrate my acquisition of a kindle, and my desire to read and support self-published authors (being one myself), I have decided to rekindle (hehe) this blog to help support these authors. Now - this does not necessarily mean that I will be writing nice things about the books! If they're poorly written, or weak, then I will not lie, but I shall hopefully find a few pearls for anyone seeking something a little bit different.

This particular book is available here on Amazon. Ebook is $4.99.


The Eyes of Sandala by Cathy Benedetto

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


At first, I somewhat enjoyed this book. It did seem to follow rather traditional plotlines - involving invading armies against the kingdom. Character development, particularly the relationship between Ariann and Tahjeen could have been stronger. As it was, many of the characters came across as somewhat flat and I had trouble remembering who was who and the romance was somewhat unconvincing. A bit more dialogue might have helped. With the male declaring soon after their meeting that they were "destined to be together" it all seemed rather predictable and cliched from there on. There were no surprises, and after the first 60% or so, I started to get bored of it. I set it down. I read another couple of books. I picked it up again. I read a few pages, put it down, and then finally decided I should just finish the jolly thing.

What a waste of time. The ending felt flaky and incomplete, like the author was trying for a cliff-hanger but didn't build up enough to make the reader care. Because the characters were flat and two dimensional, I could barely remember their names, let alone who did what and where. Added into that, was the editting - or lack thereof. I can cope with the occasional spellnig mistake, and the split compound words, whilst odd, was fine. What I did not understand was the lack of line spacing between some of the paragraphs. One minute you'd be reading about the bad guy and what he was thinking/doing, the next it would suddenly shift to the good guys - somewhere else entirely, in the same block of text, this compounded the confusion already garnered by having too many characters and too many names without having enough developed personalities for you to remember who was who. I would suggest that the author takes the time to read through her story at various font sizes in order to pick up on this structural errors.

I liked the concept of the Shala - especially the colour-changing eyes, but the zoologist in me would like to point out that big cats cannot purr.

At $4.99 - a complete waste of money. I'm going to stick to freebies from now on. At least when they suck, I don't have to angst about wasting money on them.


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And another Top Pick for 2011

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Enter the lyrical and haunting world of the Night Circus. It will draw you in, entrance you and wisk you away to a different time and place. With its evocative language, and gently flowing plot, it reminded me rather of "Jonathan Strange" and some of Neil Gaiman's work. The descriptions are lush and vivid, the characters entrancing. It haunted me long after the final page. However, there is a blemish to every jewel and in this one it was the constantly shifting time periods - each chapter would jump back or forward some years, which left me feeling a little disorientated. It was to good purpose though, to aid the ebby and flow of the tale.



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One of my Top Picks for 2011

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is beautiful. It is dark and haunting and eloquently written. With an interesting quirk to the traditional demons vs angels. The Angels in this point are terrifying beings with eyes of fire, the "demons", chimerical hybrids. One of the many things I loved about this book is that there is no real good or evil - there are two sides at war - both with reason, and one innocent human girl stuck in the middle. I cannot say much more without giving too much away, but this is a wonderful and engrossing read. I HIGHLY recommend it.



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The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An excellent follow-up to "Name of the Wind" and one that has filled me with the desire for more, more, more! Rothfuss is a skillful writer, he creates a colourful world filled with a diverse range of cultures and with a rather charasmatic hero. Kvothe makes a fine progtagonist - his sharp tongue and impulsive answers make for a lot of rather interesting, if not entire pleassant (for him) situations.

I can't wait to see what comes next, and am especially intrigued by Bast.



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