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Thrall Web #1
Forge
Warned by a Seeing…
The high king of the Scotian Realm expects the arrival of an enemy, a race of psychic predators bent on galactic conquest. The Realm’s one hope is alliance with the neighboring star domains in defense of a shared colony, Forge.
Caught in Fate’s grim weaving…
Mindblind, amnesic, Tazhret lives out his drug-induced visions of servitude on Forge. He wants to believe the beautiful woman with the nut-brown hair who whispers reassurances to his harrowed “You have a name.” But is she even real? Or just one bright thread in his dark dreams?
An unexpected hope…
Tazhret’s destiny leads him to freedom and the woman he yearns for—and to a desperate struggle against the enemy.
Tazhret can save Forge, and the clan of his beloved. But only at the cost of all he has hoped his name, his freedom, and his love for the woman with the nut-brown hair.
The high king of the Scotian Realm expects the arrival of an enemy, a race of psychic predators bent on galactic conquest. The Realm’s one hope is alliance with the neighboring star domains in defense of a shared colony, Forge.
Caught in Fate’s grim weaving…
Mindblind, amnesic, Tazhret lives out his drug-induced visions of servitude on Forge. He wants to believe the beautiful woman with the nut-brown hair who whispers reassurances to his harrowed “You have a name.” But is she even real? Or just one bright thread in his dark dreams?
An unexpected hope…
Tazhret’s destiny leads him to freedom and the woman he yearns for—and to a desperate struggle against the enemy.
Tazhret can save Forge, and the clan of his beloved. But only at the cost of all he has hoped his name, his freedom, and his love for the woman with the nut-brown hair.
377 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 21, 2012
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2014
I have no idea how to shelve this book. It's one of the oddest ones I've ever read, and I'm not entirely sure it's a good odd.
First off, this is not a romance. It's romantic, but it's not a romance. There's no watching two people fall in love and figure out how to make things work. There are no romance moments as the intimacy between them deepens and they begin to open their hearts. They go from strangers to married in what feels like two heartbeats, with none of the stuff that makes a romance a romance. If you make the hero and heroine siblings, it changes nothing about what happens.
Second, this book suffered from something I'm seeing quite a bit in small press and indie books: lack of focus on who the author claims is the main character. The main character is the main character for a reason. They're supposed to be the MAIN character, the one who drives the story. Not the main secondary character. Tazhret/Ian/Keir, according to the book description, is the main character.
For the first third of the book we spend more time in his future father-in-law's head than his. In the middle we finally get to spend some serious time getting to know Tazhret/Ian/Keir. But then in the last third he's back to being window dressing.
I'm not easily confused, but I had a hard time following what all was going on. There was too much other stuff happening, and not enough romance. It spent too much time in the villains heads when the focus should have been on T/I/K and Nica's romance. I much would have preferred that to watching the villains. It was almost as if the author was so focused on showing the cool things she'd created in her world that she sacrificed character growth and relationships in order to show the cool things. This is not okay with me, and it's really not okay when you're calling something a romance and it's anything but.
I wouldn't call it SF either. This was a fantasy set in space. Remove all of the SF elements, few as they are, and you get a Scottish, almost medieval, fantasy with a splash of paranormal that loses nothing in the setting change.
I don't usually leave reviews like this, because as an author myself I know how much they can hurt. But as a reader, I feel like I've been lied to. I went into this book expecting a romance with a conclusion of the romance arc and the set up for the next book, with at least a Happy For Now ending. I got none of that.
Had my expectations been appropriate to what this book turned out to be, it would have been a 4 star read. But I didn't get what I was expecting and I'm not happy about it. This is the third SFR in a row where my expectations have been for a romance and the book has been anything but.
And had I known what the ending would be, I wouldn't have bought it until at least the next book comes out. If it ever comes out. It was one hell of a cliffhanger. I'm okay with a cliffhanger ending for the overall story, but NOT with a cliffhanger ending on if the hero and heroine in what's supposed to be a romance will ever see each other again. That's not how you get romance readers coming back for more.
As long as you go into this book with the proper expectations, it's a great read. But it's hard to have the proper expectations when everything about how the book is described leads potential readers in the opposite direction of what the book is.
First off, this is not a romance. It's romantic, but it's not a romance. There's no watching two people fall in love and figure out how to make things work. There are no romance moments as the intimacy between them deepens and they begin to open their hearts. They go from strangers to married in what feels like two heartbeats, with none of the stuff that makes a romance a romance. If you make the hero and heroine siblings, it changes nothing about what happens.
Second, this book suffered from something I'm seeing quite a bit in small press and indie books: lack of focus on who the author claims is the main character. The main character is the main character for a reason. They're supposed to be the MAIN character, the one who drives the story. Not the main secondary character. Tazhret/Ian/Keir, according to the book description, is the main character.
For the first third of the book we spend more time in his future father-in-law's head than his. In the middle we finally get to spend some serious time getting to know Tazhret/Ian/Keir. But then in the last third he's back to being window dressing.
I'm not easily confused, but I had a hard time following what all was going on. There was too much other stuff happening, and not enough romance. It spent too much time in the villains heads when the focus should have been on T/I/K and Nica's romance. I much would have preferred that to watching the villains. It was almost as if the author was so focused on showing the cool things she'd created in her world that she sacrificed character growth and relationships in order to show the cool things. This is not okay with me, and it's really not okay when you're calling something a romance and it's anything but.
I wouldn't call it SF either. This was a fantasy set in space. Remove all of the SF elements, few as they are, and you get a Scottish, almost medieval, fantasy with a splash of paranormal that loses nothing in the setting change.
I don't usually leave reviews like this, because as an author myself I know how much they can hurt. But as a reader, I feel like I've been lied to. I went into this book expecting a romance with a conclusion of the romance arc and the set up for the next book, with at least a Happy For Now ending. I got none of that.
Had my expectations been appropriate to what this book turned out to be, it would have been a 4 star read. But I didn't get what I was expecting and I'm not happy about it. This is the third SFR in a row where my expectations have been for a romance and the book has been anything but.
And had I known what the ending would be, I wouldn't have bought it until at least the next book comes out. If it ever comes out. It was one hell of a cliffhanger. I'm okay with a cliffhanger ending for the overall story, but NOT with a cliffhanger ending on if the hero and heroine in what's supposed to be a romance will ever see each other again. That's not how you get romance readers coming back for more.
As long as you go into this book with the proper expectations, it's a great read. But it's hard to have the proper expectations when everything about how the book is described leads potential readers in the opposite direction of what the book is.
February 17, 2014
The fusion novel, by TK Anthony, was very interesting, sucked me in and kept me immersed the in world created. The blurb on Amazon does not to Forge justice, ignore it, and go to ‘look inside’ for a far better feeling of solid writing. Great characters, fantasy world building in a far-future setting for a change, although there are still moments with horses. Don’t all fantasy books have to have horses? And although the title itself proclaims Forge to be a romance, it isn’t. Yes, there is a strong romantic (sappily so, at points) sub-plot, it’s not a Romance with capital R. And the only sex occurs off stage, for the squeamish in the audience. Anyway, I recommend it. Just ignore the blurb!
April 8, 2013
Forge is old-school science fiction in a time when it seems that everyone is trying to reinvent the sci-fi wheel. In that sense it is refreshing and definitely will take you back to whatever sci-fi you read as a kid or teenager (if you are one now this doesn’t quite apply to you but you get the point).
Anthony immerses the reader into this universe from the onset. While this approach can be a bit jarring at first, especially as you try and keep up with the dialogue and learn the language (which is how it felt for me anyhow), Forge is a fascinating world that is worth the effort.
However, the one major point of contention I have with this style choice, and something that is present throughout the piece, is the overwhelming descriptions. Oh sure, creating a realistic universe is never easy and when there are so many things different from our own world it can be necessary to use a tad more explanations than say in a contemporary. The problem here is multifold, when you bombard the reader with that much information, especially with very few pauses between, it can cause them to have a disconnect from the story and where it is going since their mind is so busy trying to accurately portray the immense descriptions in their head. Furthermore, this style tends to lead to less action, and while in Forge there is a good amount it does make even the best scenes seem laden with extra words, that perhaps if they were simplified, not all the time but just on occasion, they would in fact be more intense. Finally on this point is the matter of allowing the reader to make some things up for themselves, allow them to infer here or create there, with nothing left up to the imagination it can become slightly monotonous.
While those issues are present in Forge I think the characters make up for a lot of it. Anthony jumps between a few main characters and gives us insight into their points of view which gives them more depth, and where sometimes this causes confusion or frustration because it can take time to get used to a character’s “voice” in this case it works very well. I particularly enjoyed Nica and her father, Col, which had excellent senses of humor and an instant likability about them though I can’t explain why exactly… (aren’t I just awesome at this reviewing thing? >.<)
There is romance in this book which shouldn’t come as any surprise based on what is said in the summary. No love triangle, huzzah! The kinda weird connection between them that doesn’t make any sense until quite a bit into the book is a little cop-outish but it did (mostly) keep insta-love out of the equation which is a tradeoff I’ll take. They have a very heartwarming bond and though the outcome is pretty obvious right away there was enough potential conflict with their relationship to make it interesting.
The positives for Forge, the characters, the action scenes and the romance definitely outweigh the sometimes overwhelming descriptions and overall I did enjoy it. Forge is book 1 in the Thrall Web series and I do look forward to reading the next book! I would recommend it to fans of old-school sci-fi who are used to this style of book.
Rating: 3.5/5
Anthony immerses the reader into this universe from the onset. While this approach can be a bit jarring at first, especially as you try and keep up with the dialogue and learn the language (which is how it felt for me anyhow), Forge is a fascinating world that is worth the effort.
However, the one major point of contention I have with this style choice, and something that is present throughout the piece, is the overwhelming descriptions. Oh sure, creating a realistic universe is never easy and when there are so many things different from our own world it can be necessary to use a tad more explanations than say in a contemporary. The problem here is multifold, when you bombard the reader with that much information, especially with very few pauses between, it can cause them to have a disconnect from the story and where it is going since their mind is so busy trying to accurately portray the immense descriptions in their head. Furthermore, this style tends to lead to less action, and while in Forge there is a good amount it does make even the best scenes seem laden with extra words, that perhaps if they were simplified, not all the time but just on occasion, they would in fact be more intense. Finally on this point is the matter of allowing the reader to make some things up for themselves, allow them to infer here or create there, with nothing left up to the imagination it can become slightly monotonous.
While those issues are present in Forge I think the characters make up for a lot of it. Anthony jumps between a few main characters and gives us insight into their points of view which gives them more depth, and where sometimes this causes confusion or frustration because it can take time to get used to a character’s “voice” in this case it works very well. I particularly enjoyed Nica and her father, Col, which had excellent senses of humor and an instant likability about them though I can’t explain why exactly… (aren’t I just awesome at this reviewing thing? >.<)
There is romance in this book which shouldn’t come as any surprise based on what is said in the summary. No love triangle, huzzah! The kinda weird connection between them that doesn’t make any sense until quite a bit into the book is a little cop-outish but it did (mostly) keep insta-love out of the equation which is a tradeoff I’ll take. They have a very heartwarming bond and though the outcome is pretty obvious right away there was enough potential conflict with their relationship to make it interesting.
The positives for Forge, the characters, the action scenes and the romance definitely outweigh the sometimes overwhelming descriptions and overall I did enjoy it. Forge is book 1 in the Thrall Web series and I do look forward to reading the next book! I would recommend it to fans of old-school sci-fi who are used to this style of book.
Rating: 3.5/5
September 30, 2012
Full Review Coming Soon
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews