Book Review at "The Bookish Babes"
🔗 http://thebookishbabes.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-blood-skies-by-steve-montano.html
Steven Montano started writing at the ageof 18 and never really stopped. Agraduate with distinction from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Steventook his Creative Writing degree and became an accountant, instead. He still hasn’t figured out why.
Many line items and a few published Dungeons& Dragons adventures later, Steven and his family wound up inWashington State, where Steven is working on the Blood Skies series. His wife runs a popular online yarn shop, andhis kids just drive him nuts.
<p><strong><em>Have you ever awoken from a vivid dream and wondered which side of waking was real?</em></strong></p><p>Burt Higgins' retirement is not going well. His children have grown, and his wife has gone off to earn a late-life degree, leaving him alone in his sprawling suburban home. With too much time on his hands, he broods on the state of the world, obsessively following the worst of cable news and the Internet. Increasingly angry at the state of affairs, he nurtures a fantasy that a dark lord from another realm has foisted these problems on humankind. If only he could transport to that world, he'd confront the demon and use the magic found there to defeat the beast and end despair forever.</p><p>On a particularly bad news day, while housebound in the midst of a snowstorm, he retreats to his study to shut out the world and immerse himself in his books. When, on a whim, he lights a candle purchased in an obscure Prague curiosity shop, a magical guide appears and offers to take him on whatever quest he chooses. When he asks to become a hero in a fantasy realm, he discovers a more complex world than he expected, and battling evil with magic turns out to be far from his greatest challenge.</p><p><strong>EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS</strong> a specualtive fantasy adventure sure not just to entertain you, but to make you consider your life, your dreams, your goals. [DRM-Free]</p><h2><strong>Books by David Litwack:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>Along the Watchtower</em></li><li><em>The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky</em></li><li><em>The Time That's Given</em></li><li><em>The Children of Darkness</em> (The Seekers - Book 1)</li><li><em>The Stuff of Stars</em> (The Seekers - Book 2)</li><li><em>The Light of Reason</em> (The Seekers - Book 3)</li></ul><h2><strong>More Great Fantasy Fiction from Evolved Publishing:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>The Awakening of David Rose</em> (David Rose #1) by Daryl Rothman</li><li><em>Shadow Swarm</em> by D. Robert Pease</li><li><em>Kingdom in Chains</em> by J.W. Zulauf</li><li>The "Grims' Truth" Series by Isu Yin & Fae Yang</li></ul><p> </p>
<span style="color:#333333;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;"></span><p style="line-height:18px;">Posted by Jennifer Williams on <strong><a title="Amazon.com" href="http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Skies-ebook/dp/B0054GQHIY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1307332213&sr=1-1" style="color:#660000;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;">Amazon.com</a></strong> and <strong><a title="Goodreads" href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/170480321" style="color:#660000;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;">Goodreads</a> </strong>6/6/2011</p><p style="line-height:18px;">“I had the privilege of reading Blood Skies before it was released and was pretty impressed. Steven Montano has taken an old, tired vampire genre and tossed it on its head — then handed it a machine gun and a bag of grenades. I am particularly impressed with Montano’s ability to build worlds. His post-apocalyptic Earth is fresh, deep, and loaded with new ideas that don’t bore. His battles are creative. His characters are hilariously sarcastic, especially when the chips are down. I had no idea how attached I had become to the main character, Cross, until the story began to take turns that were impossible to foresee. I was never bored while reading this book. Definitely recommend.”</p><p style="line-height:18px;">5 out of 5 star review</p><p style="line-height:18px;"></p><span style="color:#333333;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;"></span><p style="line-height:18px;">Posted by Andrea Thompson on <strong><a title="The Bookish Babes" href="http://thebookishbabes.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-blood-skies-by-steve-montano.html" style="color:#660000;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;">The Bookish Babes</a> </strong>6/13/2011</p><p style="line-height:18px;">“Every now and then, I like to read something out of my “wheel house”. So, when Steve Montano asked me if I would read and review his book, Blood Skies, I happily accepted. . If you’ve read any on my reviews, you can see that Blood Skies is definitely not the genre of book I typically read. When I finish a book, I almost always write a review immediately. Other times, I like to let the book “stew” and then write a review. Blood Skies is the type of book that I needed to let stew.</p><p style="line-height:18px;font-size:12px;"><span style="font-size:11px;font-family:'Comic Sans MS';">Blood Skies is what I’ll call an “apocalyptic fantasy”. The story revolves around Eric Cross, who is a warlock and a soldier in the Southern Claw Military. Warlocks and witches have spirits, a visible being who is literally a part of them. The spirit heals, protects and fights for the person they belong to. Cross and his comrades, who includes his sister, Snow, who is a witch, are literally out to save the world. To fully explain the workings of their world would take a review longer than I want to write and definitely longer than you want to read. But here’s what I do want to tell you:</span></p><p style="line-height:18px;">Steve Montano is a writer with a beautiful, poetic style. Montano is somehow able to paint a vivid picture of a bleak world. His world building is stunningly descriptive. His descriptions of the land, the sky, the sometimes terrible creatures who inhabit this world are so consuming, I sometimes had to step back for a bit. The terror had me literally holding my breath.</p><p style="line-height:18px;">Besides world-building, the author also did a brilliant job of conveying Cross’ emotions. He gave an in-depth account of the terror and Cross’ struggles to maintain his sanity. Surprisingly, there is also a tremendous amount of love in Blood Skies. Eric Cross has such deep, sometimes shattering love for his team, but especially his sister, Snow, and his spirit. Sometimes, those passages regarding that love almost brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to share a tiny bit:</p><p style="line-height:18px;">(Regarding Snow)“…and seeing her there now, so tall, so beautiful, filled him with worry and nearly brought a tear to his eyes.”</p><p style="line-height:18px;">(Regarding Spirit) “His spirit still held him as if impassioned, and she was stuck to his skin like lover’s sweat.”</p><p style="line-height:18px;">I’ll be the first to say that Blood Skies is not for everyone. But if you’re like me, and want to step out of your comfort zone, Blood Skies is a good place to start.”</p><p style="line-height:18px;">4 out of 5 star review</p>