Intriguing urban fantasy
By BGHilton, author of Trilobite Park
Aug 13, 2017: Silversmith is an urban fantasy. June, a young magician who specialises in warding spells shares an office with detective Kath, and unwittingly gets caught up in a mysterious death. At present, it's only one short arc in, but I'm enjoying the characters and I'm very interested in knowing what's going to happen next.
The opening chapters are a little rocky, but that seems to be true of about 90% of web novels so I don't think that's much of a complaint. Once the story gets going, the pacing improves and there are some genuinely exciting scenes.
But even in those early chapters, I enjoy the relationship between the two main characters. Thinking about the characters now, it occurs to me that almost all of the named players in the story are female, which I didn't even notice while reading.
I enjoyed the way the world building is done gradually, rather than just ladled out in big infodumps. The mysteries are connected to the way that magic works in this world, allowing the author to build the magic system indirectly.
Since we aren't very far into Silversmith yet, it's difficult to say more about it, but I definitely recommend checking out the story so far.
Disclaimer: Silversmith is set in Brisbane, Australia. I live in Sydney, Australia. You might think that biases me in favour of this story, but any Australian will tell you that the opposite is the case. If I am willing to admit to liking a story set in Brisbane, it must be a pretty good story.
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THE SOULREAPER CHRONICLES
Thieftakers & Faeries in a dark renaissance world…
By Pietroschek, member
May 8, 2016: A worthy reading with atmosphere & interesting characters. Somewhere between a Warhammer Fantasy Witchhunter & Solomon Kane I would hint to roleplayers.
The first French author, whom I have read in a decade, came as a positive surprise and in full book length! Thanks to James Monaghan for sharing this freely.
The prose is easy to understand, detailed enough to imagine the scenes, and the chapters are kept short, so the flow never stagnates nor does boredom overwhelm us readers.
The protagonist works for the Thieftakers guild at start, and has his own familial secret to hide from all the world. Villainy and Betrayal lurk in the world his profession has to investigate, and the political demands of arranging with the wishes of superiors are just one more mature streak to the fiction we get!
A really interesting fantasy fiction, and sure some less cute faeries along with it! 😉
AARON FLINT
Aaron Flint: First Thoughts
By unclepulky, author of Jolt
Apr 10, 2016: I've only read a few chapters of Aaron Flint, but so far I've found it pretty enjoyable. At its core, it's a classic noir story, but various sci-fi elements help to make things more interesting. And if you're a grammar snob like me, you'll appreciate the mostly correct grammar.
Overall, I recommend reading Aaron Flint, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.