The Academy by Zachary Rawlins

Stories written around the idea of a bunch of teenagers at a school for the supernaturally gifted have been around a long time. From the original X-Men to the Jedi Academy and onward toward Harry Potter, it has been a repeated theme and that is even discounting the number of times that the idea has been used in anime. Since Harry Potter, we've seen a large number of these come out, some with unique twists on the scenario and others being somewhat formulaic.

This certainly falls into the former category. It is clear that Mr. Rawlins takes a number of queues from anime and manga in his story telling, but the setting itself is a very dark work filled with grim, frightening people (many of the most frightening being the "good guys") and punctuated by occasional relaxing rays of normality.

The first novel takes you through two simultaneously developing and closely related storylines, focusing the majority of the time on the life of one Alex Warner while the subplot storyline occasionally gives peeks at the more brutal world surrounding where he finds himself.

The metaphysics and mythos of the piece are intriguing and seem well thought out. Definitely an engaging read.

http://www.amazon.com/Academy-Central-Book-1-ebook/dp/B005LIBM30

Book Review: Faerie Tales: Revelations Trilogy

Faerie Tales is a fun piece of reading for anybody who finds Urban Fantasy an appealing subject. There are werecreatures, vampires, witches and, of course, the Fae.

Shadowed by Ken Hughes

One of my brothers has often stated that enhanced or extra senses are the most dangerous and powerful abilities that a superhero could have.  This story lends credence to that statement.

Cowboy Ending by Adam Knight

An excellent story all around.  I wasn't even aware of just how long it was until I checked it's length bar on my kindle after the fact.  The story reads quickly and maintains a high degree of interest throughout.  It is somewhere between a superhero origin story and an urban fantasy.  Though I tend to include superhero fiction as a kind of urban fantasy.

Djinnx'd by Nicola Rhodes (Dead Link)

The adventure follows along a number of familiar themes in an original and pleasing manner.  I found myself halfway through the book almost before I realized it.  There were a number of things that I expected and a number of things that took me for a pleasant loop.

Legacy by Jon Davis

I had a lot of fun reading this story. It is a superhero story that has blended classic elements of Gold, Silver and Iron Age comic stories quite nicely. A protagonist with a clear moral framework and strength of character and the initial threat of the meteor are both very much Gold Age in nature. Later on we start to get shades of the Silver-Age with its growing moral complexity. Meanwhile, the seriousness of the battles and the collateral damage and death of innocent bystanders is very much something out of the Iron Age. These elements don't develop one into another like some representation of the development of comics in micro form. No, these elements exist side-by-side as a coherent whole. There are other, specific elements that I could mention, but not without spoiling the story.

The Prodigal's Foole by RB Wood

The Prodigal's Foole strikes a chord with me as one who is a non-practicing Catholic and yet still a firm believer and a fan of science-fiction and fantasy. A trace of the disillusionment I felt as I learned more and more about the history of the church seems echoed here, but at the same time the people involved are, for the most part, generally of good morale fiber. It really does bring home the fact that Faith is not an easy matter of simply believing what you are told. It takes work, it requires active effort and it can be tiring. I have said to people before that I have felt that at least my path to Faith was through skepticism, that you have to actively test and question your beliefs constantly in order to make sure they're real beliefs and not just repeated propaganda. The main character seems to be taking that same route, though it seems that initially he chose simply to forget the whole idea for some time.