What do you think?
Rate this book
Feral
Sometimes tales flow down from the mountain peaks like the snow-fed streams that bleed down their boney flanks. Strange beasts. Stranger men. Stories spun in the glow of highlander watch fires to pass the time swell and strengthen - every retelling a new tributary – until the tale becomes a legend.
But sometimes, the legends are real...
A well-traveled, resourceful warrior leads a formidable sorceress with a dark, conflicted past through a remote wilderness he once called home. When they run afoul of a dangerously unstable patrol commander as a brutal winter storm closes in, they find themselves caught between their pursuer and something far more sinister.
'Feral' is a gripping tale of adventure, horror and suspense set in the epic fantasy world of Ruine. Its rich, diverse characters are caught up in a storm of swords, sorcery, madness…and an ancient evil that even the hard-bitten mountain clans fear above all else.
But sometimes, the legends are real...
A well-traveled, resourceful warrior leads a formidable sorceress with a dark, conflicted past through a remote wilderness he once called home. When they run afoul of a dangerously unstable patrol commander as a brutal winter storm closes in, they find themselves caught between their pursuer and something far more sinister.
'Feral' is a gripping tale of adventure, horror and suspense set in the epic fantasy world of Ruine. Its rich, diverse characters are caught up in a storm of swords, sorcery, madness…and an ancient evil that even the hard-bitten mountain clans fear above all else.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 25, 2014
435 people want to read
About the author
T.B. Schmid
3 books29 followersTB Schmid lives in upstate New York with his family and two Norwegian Elk Hounds. He and author R.Wade Hodges are currently collaborating on a gritty, epic fantasy series entitled "Fate's Crucible". Book 1 of the series, "Beyond the Burning Sea", was released on 9/20/16, and Book 2, "Between the Darkness and Dust" was released 2/28/18. "Feral" was his first published work.
Lions of the Empire is an electronic publisher dedicated to delivering quality fantasy fiction. Lions of the Empire brings a lifetime love of fantasy and science fiction to all of our ebook and print releases. We are crafting accessible and affordable works that would be the kind of thing we've enjoyed reading for years. Independent and proud of it, we like to think of ourselves as a small batch craft brewery of fantasy goodness.
Lions of the Empire is an electronic publisher dedicated to delivering quality fantasy fiction. Lions of the Empire brings a lifetime love of fantasy and science fiction to all of our ebook and print releases. We are crafting accessible and affordable works that would be the kind of thing we've enjoyed reading for years. Independent and proud of it, we like to think of ourselves as a small batch craft brewery of fantasy goodness.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 2, 2015
Goodreads Win Copy
Feral takes you on an adventure in the Ruine where horror and fantasy are intertwined together. This is a journey of one woman who contains a deadly beast as she struggles to survive in the world. It is her tale of survival and the man she falls for her but ends up killing.
This is a quick read that moves along at a steady pace but left me a bit unsatisfied plot wise
Feral takes you on an adventure in the Ruine where horror and fantasy are intertwined together. This is a journey of one woman who contains a deadly beast as she struggles to survive in the world. It is her tale of survival and the man she falls for her but ends up killing.
This is a quick read that moves along at a steady pace but left me a bit unsatisfied plot wise
July 18, 2017
I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. This is a wonderful start to the "Ruine" series. Very interesting world in this story, with much more to come. A good blend of swords and sorcery; only the warrior isn't fighting the sorcerer. They are both fighting the evil spirit that lives in the mountains. This was a taut, well written story, and I am anxious to read more!
July 9, 2017
GoodReads Win:
It was about 154 pages. I really enjoyed the concept of the book. It was a twisted adventure in a snowy land where a man turns into a supernatural cannibal in order to save his soulmate from possible rapists and definite racists. Schmid throws a lot of the land's history into this book in short, little paragraphs. By the end of the book, I felt almost angry because in my head I was writing more to the story. I think he could take this book and definitely run with it. Make it three or four times longer, really take the time to flesh out the lore and it could be a huge hit, but he needs to take that time. It's definitely not suitable for kids, don't let the brevity of the novella fool you however it's also not going to challenge you intellectually.
It was about 154 pages. I really enjoyed the concept of the book. It was a twisted adventure in a snowy land where a man turns into a supernatural cannibal in order to save his soulmate from possible rapists and definite racists. Schmid throws a lot of the land's history into this book in short, little paragraphs. By the end of the book, I felt almost angry because in my head I was writing more to the story. I think he could take this book and definitely run with it. Make it three or four times longer, really take the time to flesh out the lore and it could be a huge hit, but he needs to take that time. It's definitely not suitable for kids, don't let the brevity of the novella fool you however it's also not going to challenge you intellectually.
March 7, 2018
Feral is the first book of it's kind that I have ever read and I loved it! I thought this book was absolutley amazing. I could easily read it again. There were a couple times I was completly surprised by the turn of events. I love the way the characters are revealed. Absolutely genius!
August 19, 2024
For me, this is just somewhere between a 3 and a 4. I enjoyed it but maybe not enough to recommend it to everybody, because the drawbacks were significant. Maybe if there was a second edition with some tighter editing.
That said, I do think I’d personally read more from this author.
To explain how I got to this rating, I’ll offer ratings for the various measures of this book:
Pacing/ action: 5
Character development: 4
Scenery/ descriptions: 5
Dialogue/ character interaction: 2
Themes: 3 (meh, because it was really just dark fantasy romance. I was expecting horror, but there was nothing scary here, and the romance themes kinda made me roll my eyes).
Formatting: 1
Plot:4
Lore/ world building: 4
Plot holes: 2 (all relating to character motivations)
Most of these ratings are pretty self explanatory, but I’d like to elaborate on the low ratings.
Dialogue and character interactions: sometimes the interactions between the two main characters read like a cheesy romance. The sex scenes seemed gratuitous and their flirty banter just came across as annoying. To me, their dynamic felt superficial at best and for me this broke immersion. Additionally, sometimes the dialogue from the antagonists felt a little over the top and cliche.
I think if this were read as an audio book the dialogue in many cases might feel unnatural.
Formatting: really, this may be a problem with the printing rather than the writing. Scenes would shift between several different character perspectives, but there’d be no line breaks nor asterisk breaks nor any other indication that the perspective had shifted. If this was a deliberate style choice, it really didn’t work for me. I found the sudden, undeclared shifts jarring and disruptive and difficult to follow. Also, though the writing was good enough not to really grudge this, i don’t really think seeing full fight scenes rehashed from 3 different characters’ eyes actually added much to the flow of the story. I think some careful editing could have trimmed some of the redundancy.
Plot holes: character motivations made no sense.
Spoilers below!
Why the hell did the Hunter take his lover to hunt a mammoth alone in territory that would be especially hostile to her in every single way?? It’s obvious that pretty much every resident of this north county hates people of her background, to the point of religiously: politically sanctioned violence. It’s also a region which is tough to survive even for people raised there. So why bring a newbie into such a dangerous scenario, and then why try to solo a mammoth when that’s stated to be a high risk hunt?
What was his end game for the hunt? What the hell was he thinking? Either he dies or sustains a in killing the mammoth and elebratLt i really all for sport? Even with a pack horse he’s not salvaging much meat or valuables from the carcass. Then he has to lug them and guide her back to safer territory, where they could be accosted at any time by (the elements, evil spirits, roving cannibal tribes, or the sanctioned guards). seems high investment and low returns, even in the best case scenario.
So, mainly, why? Why even go on the hunt?
That said, I do think I’d personally read more from this author.
To explain how I got to this rating, I’ll offer ratings for the various measures of this book:
Pacing/ action: 5
Character development: 4
Scenery/ descriptions: 5
Dialogue/ character interaction: 2
Themes: 3 (meh, because it was really just dark fantasy romance. I was expecting horror, but there was nothing scary here, and the romance themes kinda made me roll my eyes).
Formatting: 1
Plot:4
Lore/ world building: 4
Plot holes: 2 (all relating to character motivations)
Most of these ratings are pretty self explanatory, but I’d like to elaborate on the low ratings.
Dialogue and character interactions: sometimes the interactions between the two main characters read like a cheesy romance. The sex scenes seemed gratuitous and their flirty banter just came across as annoying. To me, their dynamic felt superficial at best and for me this broke immersion. Additionally, sometimes the dialogue from the antagonists felt a little over the top and cliche.
I think if this were read as an audio book the dialogue in many cases might feel unnatural.
Formatting: really, this may be a problem with the printing rather than the writing. Scenes would shift between several different character perspectives, but there’d be no line breaks nor asterisk breaks nor any other indication that the perspective had shifted. If this was a deliberate style choice, it really didn’t work for me. I found the sudden, undeclared shifts jarring and disruptive and difficult to follow. Also, though the writing was good enough not to really grudge this, i don’t really think seeing full fight scenes rehashed from 3 different characters’ eyes actually added much to the flow of the story. I think some careful editing could have trimmed some of the redundancy.
Plot holes: character motivations made no sense.
Spoilers below!
Why the hell did the Hunter take his lover to hunt a mammoth alone in territory that would be especially hostile to her in every single way?? It’s obvious that pretty much every resident of this north county hates people of her background, to the point of religiously: politically sanctioned violence. It’s also a region which is tough to survive even for people raised there. So why bring a newbie into such a dangerous scenario, and then why try to solo a mammoth when that’s stated to be a high risk hunt?
What was his end game for the hunt? What the hell was he thinking? Either he dies or sustains a in killing the mammoth and elebratLt i really all for sport? Even with a pack horse he’s not salvaging much meat or valuables from the carcass. Then he has to lug them and guide her back to safer territory, where they could be accosted at any time by (the elements, evil spirits, roving cannibal tribes, or the sanctioned guards). seems high investment and low returns, even in the best case scenario.
So, mainly, why? Why even go on the hunt?
August 4, 2017
Feral appears to be the first published work by T.B. Schmid.
It seems like a good warm up for the masterful works to come in the Ruine series (Beyond the Burning sea, etc...)
The story is a very good blend of fantasy and horror, with good character development and outstanding scenery and backdrop descriptions. I found a couple of the characters difficult to like, but luckily they were not the heroes. Battle scene descriptions and the characters backstories were extremely detailed and believable. When you can taste the snow in the air and feel the thuds of the beasts feet on the ground as your reading then you know the author has done his work with aplomb.
I am not sure how women readers might accept it, as its a bit racy and definitely deserves and "R" rating. But as a typical male fantasy reader I loved it. All in all a very fine work. I am a bit of a fan of this author, and have both printed versions that have been sold on Amazon. An earlier version with a different cover and the current one.
Feral whetted my appetite for more from this author, and by god he and his writing partner Wade Hodges delivered in Beyon The Burning Sea (just my opinion)
Write on good sirs ! Write on !
It seems like a good warm up for the masterful works to come in the Ruine series (Beyond the Burning sea, etc...)
The story is a very good blend of fantasy and horror, with good character development and outstanding scenery and backdrop descriptions. I found a couple of the characters difficult to like, but luckily they were not the heroes. Battle scene descriptions and the characters backstories were extremely detailed and believable. When you can taste the snow in the air and feel the thuds of the beasts feet on the ground as your reading then you know the author has done his work with aplomb.
I am not sure how women readers might accept it, as its a bit racy and definitely deserves and "R" rating. But as a typical male fantasy reader I loved it. All in all a very fine work. I am a bit of a fan of this author, and have both printed versions that have been sold on Amazon. An earlier version with a different cover and the current one.
Feral whetted my appetite for more from this author, and by god he and his writing partner Wade Hodges delivered in Beyon The Burning Sea (just my opinion)
Write on good sirs ! Write on !
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews