Saturday, July 19, 2008
REVIEW: Serpent's Quest: Lycan Blood Volume ONE ~ Dark Fantasy
Title: Serpent's Quest Lycan Blood: Volume One
Author: Janrae Frank
Website of Author: http://www.janraefrank.com/
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0-9816-6260-2
Length: 210 pages
Format: eBook, Paperback
Reviewer: Lucille P Robinson
http://www.lucilleperkinsrobinson.com
The Red Wolf Clan led by Chieftain Claw Redhand is the target of Malthus Tyrins, a bloody killer who brings Lord Daemon's enemies under his power then destroys them. Malthus is out to destroy all the wolfweres known as lycans. The Red Wolf Clan uses tests to determine whether an individual is a human, a wolfwere, a vampire or a Nibari, "the genetically-altered humans created by the vampires and sa'necari as slave cattle. Malthus is pleased to have passed all their tests.
The wolfweres are satisfyingly deceived and Malthus is able to gain control over one of the female wolves and use his fangs to taste her blood while his mind takes control of hers. After a few days, he makes a deal for a horse to go the a place called Hell's Widow and obtain a chest containing "jars of powers and bottles of liquids in strange colors." His mother sent the chest and she works as a bio-alchemist for Lord Daemon. Between her and Malthus many of Lord Daemon's enemies have been destroyed. Malthus is now targeting the Red Wolf Clan. When Malthus had most of the camp under his power, he thought himself capable of hitting on the one young wolf that irked him. The young wolf beat him in a mock fight, and the camp members, male and female alike, stoned Kynyr Maguire.
The rest of the story tells of Malthus killing several of the Lycan here in Wolffgard, but no resolutions have occurred. To read a book without any resolutions is like telling the reader that they can't have what they want unless they read all the stories in the series. This is a fine way to do installments in a newspaper or magazine, but it shouldn't be done in a novel.
Serpent's Quest Lycan Blood is a good story as far as it goes. I'm amazed at the imagination of the author who dreamed up the character names, settings, various bits and pieces of background information and other story elements; everything seems to tie together. Be on the lookout for the rest of the books in this series, I know I will be.
AUTHOR BIO:
At age eight, while Janrae Frank was hospitalized with polio, her grandmother gave her an expensive pen and pencil set with the admonition to go out and "whip them with a pencil." Janrae interpreted this as "get good grades and write books."
She was first published in 1979, in AMAZONS (edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson), the volume that went on the win the World Fantasy Award for best anthology of 1980. She sold a handful of short stories and then a trilogy to Donning/Starblaze before leaving fiction for a 15 year stint in journalism which included pieces published in Movieline and the Washington Post. During that same period she worked as an outside editor on new age and metaphysical books for Newcastle and Jeremy P. Tarcher Inc., among others.
She currently has four series out in ebook, Journey of the Sacred King, Mother Damnation, Lycan Blood, and Dark Brothers of the Light. Daverana Enterprises has released a print edition of the first book in the Lycan Blood series, Serpent's Quest. The new edition includes 10,000 words of new material.
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