About This Blog


This blog was started as a place to post book reviews. The books reviewed here will be mixed. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, General Fiction, NonFiction and more. Both positve and negative reviews will be posted, as well as reviews for books written for all ages and all reading levels.

Many of the books reviewed here are ones that I have purchased for my own reading pleasure. Some, I receive free in exchange for reviews. Beginning in December, 2009 you will know which are the free ones if you read the final paragraph of my reviews.

Also of note: I choose what I will read, attempting to avoid the books on which I would end up writing a negative review... but I have been known to make mistakes. Thus you see some one and two star reviews here. Since I don't enjoy writing negative reviews, I only write them if the review was promised, or if the book was so exceedingly bad, I just had to say so. Regardless of the percentage of positive to negative reviews on this blog, I give my honest opinion each and every time, and have never received financial compensation for posting my reviews.

Note that, except for fair use portions quoted from some of the books reviewed, all copyright in the content of the reviews belongs to Lady Dragoness.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bardic Adventures

Storyteller
G. R. Grove
Lulu.com (2007)
Pdf Format, 252 pages
Rated 4 stars of 5 possible

Storyteller is a series of interlinked short story/chapters set in 6th century Britain, each of which forms but a small part of the larger tale. This novel is the first of a trilogy featuring young Gwernin, a fine story teller with dreams of becoming a bard. Some of the chapters are the tales Gwernin tells, others describe what happens to him on his travels as he learns and improves his craft. Storyteller is historical fiction, yet it also has elements of magic and adventure which appeal to fantasy readers.

Since each shorter tale interlocks with those that come before and after, they create a complex, inter-woven story within the story format which keeps the reader turning pages. It's not a "light and fluffy" read, but Storyteller is well worth the time spent reading. Thanks to the appendices at the back of the book, understanding the Welsh words incorporated into the story was not a difficult task, even one who happens to be ungifted in languages.

Watching Storyteller slowly unfold as the chapters fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle is a pleasurable experience that's not to be missed.

Recommended to readers of historical fiction and also to those who like a bit of fantasy in their reading. This review is based on the pdf document given to me free by the author, and has been simultaneously posted on Dragon views, LibraryThing and Amazon.com

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