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The Pheonix Blade Trilogy
Conflagration
The Phoenix Blade, a mystical blade of power, has been stolen while the city of Danlor slept. Valus must go in search of the mystical Phoenix Blade which has been taken to the far reaches of the Realm of Clendorin.
The Warlock Junai threatens all of the free races and only with the aid of the sword can they defeat him and his wicked army.
Join Valus and his friends as they challenge the dangers of the Eclipse Mountains, the perils of the Drimm Mire, and the evil lurking within the Banewood.
Can they retrieve the sword in time? Or will the realm fall to the vile warlock.
The Warlock Junai threatens all of the free races and only with the aid of the sword can they defeat him and his wicked army.
Join Valus and his friends as they challenge the dangers of the Eclipse Mountains, the perils of the Drimm Mire, and the evil lurking within the Banewood.
Can they retrieve the sword in time? Or will the realm fall to the vile warlock.
- GenresFantasy
312 pages, ebook
First published February 2, 2013
60 people want to read
About the author
D.R. Racey
4 books108 followersD.R. Racey has served on active duty in the U.S. Military since 1998 and spends much of his time off writing, developing his next story, and designing his own cover art. He has been married since 2000 and has three children.
He started writing in 2008 as a hobby and published his first book in 2012. His first published book is Blood Rites which a paranormal novel about a werewolf on the run from his former pack master. D.R. Racey has also published a historical fiction novella about an Army National Guard unit stationed in Baghdad, Iraq during the surge (War - 8000 Miles From Home). He has also completed two fantasy novels as part of the Phoenix Blade Trilogy (Conflagration and Lineage).
All D.R. Racey novels are available from Amazon.com in Paperback and for Kindle.
I hope you enjoy your reading.
D.R. Racey
Author
Books by D.R. Racey
Blood Rites
The Phoenix Blade Trilogy
Book One - Conflagration
Book Two - Lineage
Book Three - Impasse (Available 2016)
War - 8000 Miles From Home
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DR-Race...
He started writing in 2008 as a hobby and published his first book in 2012. His first published book is Blood Rites which a paranormal novel about a werewolf on the run from his former pack master. D.R. Racey has also published a historical fiction novella about an Army National Guard unit stationed in Baghdad, Iraq during the surge (War - 8000 Miles From Home). He has also completed two fantasy novels as part of the Phoenix Blade Trilogy (Conflagration and Lineage).
All D.R. Racey novels are available from Amazon.com in Paperback and for Kindle.
I hope you enjoy your reading.
D.R. Racey
Author
Books by D.R. Racey
Blood Rites
The Phoenix Blade Trilogy
Book One - Conflagration
Book Two - Lineage
Book Three - Impasse (Available 2016)
War - 8000 Miles From Home
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DR-Race...
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 3, 2013
Personally I liked the first cover on this one, although I would have made the title lettering match the gloss effect on the shield and flames. It gave it a bit of a plasticy feel, though it seems to be an attempt to mimic an embossed glossed paper cover on the ereader. The second cover is much better though for my Nook Color, and I really like the inclusion of the sword to give us a visual.
The storyline so far is the typical quest for a lost object. The different types of characters encountered in the fantasy role play world are all well represented, so this scores points for equality. Although so far it is the usual plot line, it is worth seeing the interactions between the characters as characters and the characters as their roles. Something that I did not expect was the not-fully-willing leader archetype to have a little of a hot head.
There is a fair bit of humor which got some chuckles at points. There is a lot of assumed history between several of the characters, and some of them talk to themselves, which I find quite believable as I have been known to voice my thoughts to myself from time to time and have walked in on my kids doing similar.
I appreciate the level of description. It certainly helps set it apart from the generic fantasy setting in being able to have details of what the area looks like.
The language is a little clunky in places if you are reading with a modern eye, but it flows very well for medieval styled speech. The whole book is written with that feel and sentence structure which leads to a bit more believable experience for me as a reader. You have a definite separation between the speech of their world and the speech of our wold and time. Even with this, there are at times some innuendos, but they are tasteful and not bawdy.
There is one character who sticks out greatly, although not in a bad way. Wenxo the gnome has an interesting speech pattern, wherein all of his dialog is in lower case. I personally found that to be intruiging, and it reminded me of how e.e. cummings (please not the lowercase) experimented with capitalization and punctuation in his poetry. I thought that helped to set Wenxo apart from the others, as he has to speak in Common to be understood, has a smaller voice, and gnomes tend to be thought of as generally different than elves, dwarves, and humans. I like this character and his hand darts, the speech treatment produces a "root for the underdog" reaction in me.
A few scenes were particularly powerful for me, but first I'll give a spoiler warning:
***
1. The death of the blind druid particularly effected me. He gave his all, but he did it with STYLE and I liked his parting gifts.
2. The scene where the dwarven King gets to meet Torg after it having been gone for generations, and being introduced to Biter. As symbols, these axes are fascinating. I'd love to see someone with a gift at drawing weaponry reder these.
3. Wenxo with the crossbow... and what he was having to shoot into to aid his friends.
***
Moving on, I liked the circular treatment of the tale, how it begins in one point of time, and then returns to it or nearby... then continues on. I had hoped that was what would happen since I so rarely find anything that uses that sort of time flow.
The end makes me want to know what happens in the rest of the tale, so I look forward to the other books of the series when my studies allow me the time to read them.
The storyline so far is the typical quest for a lost object. The different types of characters encountered in the fantasy role play world are all well represented, so this scores points for equality. Although so far it is the usual plot line, it is worth seeing the interactions between the characters as characters and the characters as their roles. Something that I did not expect was the not-fully-willing leader archetype to have a little of a hot head.
There is a fair bit of humor which got some chuckles at points. There is a lot of assumed history between several of the characters, and some of them talk to themselves, which I find quite believable as I have been known to voice my thoughts to myself from time to time and have walked in on my kids doing similar.
I appreciate the level of description. It certainly helps set it apart from the generic fantasy setting in being able to have details of what the area looks like.
The language is a little clunky in places if you are reading with a modern eye, but it flows very well for medieval styled speech. The whole book is written with that feel and sentence structure which leads to a bit more believable experience for me as a reader. You have a definite separation between the speech of their world and the speech of our wold and time. Even with this, there are at times some innuendos, but they are tasteful and not bawdy.
There is one character who sticks out greatly, although not in a bad way. Wenxo the gnome has an interesting speech pattern, wherein all of his dialog is in lower case. I personally found that to be intruiging, and it reminded me of how e.e. cummings (please not the lowercase) experimented with capitalization and punctuation in his poetry. I thought that helped to set Wenxo apart from the others, as he has to speak in Common to be understood, has a smaller voice, and gnomes tend to be thought of as generally different than elves, dwarves, and humans. I like this character and his hand darts, the speech treatment produces a "root for the underdog" reaction in me.
A few scenes were particularly powerful for me, but first I'll give a spoiler warning:
***
1. The death of the blind druid particularly effected me. He gave his all, but he did it with STYLE and I liked his parting gifts.
2. The scene where the dwarven King gets to meet Torg after it having been gone for generations, and being introduced to Biter. As symbols, these axes are fascinating. I'd love to see someone with a gift at drawing weaponry reder these.
3. Wenxo with the crossbow... and what he was having to shoot into to aid his friends.
***
Moving on, I liked the circular treatment of the tale, how it begins in one point of time, and then returns to it or nearby... then continues on. I had hoped that was what would happen since I so rarely find anything that uses that sort of time flow.
The end makes me want to know what happens in the rest of the tale, so I look forward to the other books of the series when my studies allow me the time to read them.
April 13, 2013
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Valus the hero is locked in mortal combat with the villain Junai in the opening scene of the story, and then we find out gradually the events that led to the final confrontation. I understood why the climactic scene was at the beginning of the story, as a hook, but it worked much better near the end where it was supposed to be.
I thought there was too much background in the early part of the story, and while it is important to set the scene, this could perhaps have been tucked into other scenes or dialogue for a smoother flowing story.
I'm a stickler for words and names, and the story is full of named characters. Most of the names fell a bit flat for me, but the words that appealed to me the most were Shendari, Bharuk, Jaladar, Iluan, Mar'del, and Kaldun. Many names appeared only once, as surnames to peripheral characters, so that much of the detail seemed unnecessary. I was sad that I couldn't tell the race of the characters from their names, which made it seem that they all shared a common culture or heritage, even though they were elves, dwarves and humans.
And I have to mention that there were a number of small errors, from typos to improper use of words, to the utterly disorienting use of the word "ok" in dialogue, which completely pulled me out of the story.
Despite the problems, the plot was nicely put together, and the lead up to the next instalment was interesting. I just can't help feeling that with a bit of an edit and some proofreading I would have enjoyed this much more than I did.
Valus the hero is locked in mortal combat with the villain Junai in the opening scene of the story, and then we find out gradually the events that led to the final confrontation. I understood why the climactic scene was at the beginning of the story, as a hook, but it worked much better near the end where it was supposed to be.
I thought there was too much background in the early part of the story, and while it is important to set the scene, this could perhaps have been tucked into other scenes or dialogue for a smoother flowing story.
I'm a stickler for words and names, and the story is full of named characters. Most of the names fell a bit flat for me, but the words that appealed to me the most were Shendari, Bharuk, Jaladar, Iluan, Mar'del, and Kaldun. Many names appeared only once, as surnames to peripheral characters, so that much of the detail seemed unnecessary. I was sad that I couldn't tell the race of the characters from their names, which made it seem that they all shared a common culture or heritage, even though they were elves, dwarves and humans.
And I have to mention that there were a number of small errors, from typos to improper use of words, to the utterly disorienting use of the word "ok" in dialogue, which completely pulled me out of the story.
Despite the problems, the plot was nicely put together, and the lead up to the next instalment was interesting. I just can't help feeling that with a bit of an edit and some proofreading I would have enjoyed this much more than I did.
April 24, 2013
What a great book! When I picked up Conflagration, I was looking for the next great epic fantasy. What I found was that and so much more.
With the theft of their mystical Phoenix Blade, a journey begins. Valus and his team travel earnestly to retrieve their relic, aware of the danger, but more aware of the danger of not finding it. Their journey begins with sights of destruction, skirmishes, dark creatures, a mystical hermit, and death.
With an epic battle of the dark versus the bravery of the good that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and full investment in the characters this is a story that you will read over and over. There is a full resolution which brings about a satisfying close, and a new hope for the next in this series.
If you are looking for a traditional epic fantasy, complete with all the bells and whistles, this is it. D.R. Racey has skillfully combined the magic of the realm, history, range of characters, that you have come to expect and more.
With the theft of their mystical Phoenix Blade, a journey begins. Valus and his team travel earnestly to retrieve their relic, aware of the danger, but more aware of the danger of not finding it. Their journey begins with sights of destruction, skirmishes, dark creatures, a mystical hermit, and death.
With an epic battle of the dark versus the bravery of the good that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and full investment in the characters this is a story that you will read over and over. There is a full resolution which brings about a satisfying close, and a new hope for the next in this series.
If you are looking for a traditional epic fantasy, complete with all the bells and whistles, this is it. D.R. Racey has skillfully combined the magic of the realm, history, range of characters, that you have come to expect and more.
July 18, 2013
This was a really good book. It is not the genre that I usually read, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading it. It turned out to be an excellent book. I loved the characters and the plot. I was never sure which direction the book was going to take, so it was always a surprise. I couldn't put it down!
DISCLAIMER: This book was gifted to me by the author (through the Goodreads) website group "Lovers of Paranormal"in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own, and no money or other compensation was provided for this review.
DISCLAIMER: This book was gifted to me by the author (through the Goodreads) website group "Lovers of Paranormal"in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own, and no money or other compensation was provided for this review.
March 31, 2013
As I read this story, the first thing that popped into my head was the "Lord of the Rings" triology. No readers, that is not a bad thing at all. I personally loved that series as millions of others.
I found D.R. Racey to be an extremely talented artist. I say artist because he painted a mental image of each beast, character, and setting flawlessly which isn't an easy task. I highly recommend reading Conflagration and look forward to reading your thoughts on it as well.
I found D.R. Racey to be an extremely talented artist. I say artist because he painted a mental image of each beast, character, and setting flawlessly which isn't an easy task. I highly recommend reading Conflagration and look forward to reading your thoughts on it as well.
May 31, 2013
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a good book! I wished the ending hadn't been at the beginning. That being said, the author paints a wonderful picture, very vivid and clear. The story is epic, the characters deep enough to enjoy traveling with them. There is plenty of conflict between them which is something I look for in a story. It's well worth the read!
This is a good book! I wished the ending hadn't been at the beginning. That being said, the author paints a wonderful picture, very vivid and clear. The story is epic, the characters deep enough to enjoy traveling with them. There is plenty of conflict between them which is something I look for in a story. It's well worth the read!
June 3, 2013
DR Racey did an excellent job of setting the stage and background for the story- its the main reason I was drawn right away to Conflagration. Stellar story development made this book a pleasure to read, and I really enjoyed the freshness of the plot and the direction the story took from the first page. Easy to read with the story being enhanced with rich details of the people and their individual strengths. A good read... can't wait to read the next book.
August 25, 2013
Epic in scope this is a book where worldbuilding is imperative and the author is well aware and able to do this!
typical of fantasy the book is rich in detail and this for me had it's pro's and cons. At times it got a bit much. At others it served the intent. i would have preferred the start up scene of the book later as I think this would have had a better impact that said the current arrangement hooked me as I am sure it will others.
A trult epic read.
WaAr
typical of fantasy the book is rich in detail and this for me had it's pro's and cons. At times it got a bit much. At others it served the intent. i would have preferred the start up scene of the book later as I think this would have had a better impact that said the current arrangement hooked me as I am sure it will others.
A trult epic read.
WaAr
April 13, 2013
You had me at elves !!!
I am a big fan of D.R. Racey and this book put him over the top it have that Lord of the Rings feel, but with it own style to it.
It gives you enough backgound to know the characters, but not enough to get bored at the same time.
This is a fun and exciting read for the whole family.
Once again Racey did not disappointment.
A must read ..........
I am a big fan of D.R. Racey and this book put him over the top it have that Lord of the Rings feel, but with it own style to it.
It gives you enough backgound to know the characters, but not enough to get bored at the same time.
This is a fun and exciting read for the whole family.
Once again Racey did not disappointment.
A must read ..........
March 22, 2013
Fabulous story, full of great characters, mystery and magic!
February 26, 2013
very good book. love the chacters
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews