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jenniferrpovey

Jennifer's Blog

I am a writer of science fiction and fantasy and also an avid reader of (mostly) the same. Expect to see reviews from me of speculative fiction books from well known and less well known authors. (Many of my reviews WILL be cross posted from Goodreads).

The Free

The Free - Brian Ruckley Not bad at all. I prefer, on the whole, Elizabeth Moon's tales of life in a mercenary company - the Free come over as more like an adventuring party.

This is a dark epic fantasy, more Game of Thrones than Tolkein, and Ruckey pulls no punches on the violence and gore. His magic system is intriguing - and comes with a very heavy price. Magic is based not off the elements but off the seasons. One of the interesting things about the world is that it appears to be atheist - no gods of any kind are mentioned and the world is woven out of basic stuff connected to magic - an unusual approach (And I'm not sure a realistic one - if there were no gods, people would just invent them).

Still, it was a fun read, if you happen to like the darker kind of epic fantasy.