≡ Download Darkstorm The Rhenwars Saga Book 0 eBook ML Spencer

Darkstorm The Rhenwars Saga Book 0 eBook ML Spencer

Download As PDF : Darkstorm The Rhenwars Saga Book 0 eBook ML Spencer

Darkstorm The Rhenwars Saga Book 0 eBook ML Spencer

Darkstorm is an interesting novel because I can't help but think of a high school class of Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and other short fantasy novel series with Rhenwars sitting in the back as the Goth chick. It's a book which superficially has a resemblance to all the fun Dungeons and Dragons "adventure" fiction where there's a threat to the world, a misfit party of adventurers, evil villains, and a ticking clock forcing everyone to put aside their personal baggage. The thing is, in this case, the heroes fail miserably in trying to get their act together and it has a much more cynical take on human nature. There's also a good deal more sex, lies, and personal betrayals that make the story quite a bit more interesting than your typical dark elf with two scimitars tale.

The premise is Merris is a young street orphan turned mage who is trying to follow her master to get some juicy details she can use to blackmail him (due to him wanting to throw her out). She gets more than she bargained for when she discovers he's become part of a cult of demon-worshipers. This results in her hooking up with two wizard brothers, one a successful battlemage while the other is a handsome but broken drunk, as well as the beautiful lover of the former. The battlemage, Branden, is determined to stop the cult, even when he discovers that they're using demonic magic to stabilize a cataclysm that will kill all magic users in the world. It's a plan which will permanently make worshiping their equivalent to Satan as part of their religion but most wizards are apathetic about religion anyway. Personal flaws and jealousy tear into the makeshift group even as none of them, save one, really like their need to stop the cultists.

I like the characters as they're fairly well-rounded for the short time we get to be with them. All of them are suffering from some heavy character flaws while having better qualities too. The villains' motivation is arguably far more sympathetic than the primary hero's. While doubting any plan which begins with, "harnessing the power of hell for the greater good", I find the way Branden casually dismisses of thousands of magi lives as well as the destruction of civilization even more psychotic. It strikes me as coming from a martyr complex than a genuine sympathy for the multitudes (possibly also the fact he seems to be a self-hating wizard).

I was also a big fan of the character Quin. He is my sort of character in that he started with a mind full of high ideals and then decided to get drunk and laid a lot instead. He owns his flaws, which makes him a good deal more likable than his brother Branden. Merris starts as the plucky female protagonist, a mix of Harry and Hermione really, but goes down a much darker road as events show her to not possess a strong moral core. I really liked Merris' story in the book as too many people in fiction react to changing circumstances by putting their foot down. A lot of us adapt to survive in new circumstances, occasionally doing terrible things in the process. There's a bit of a "cliffhanger" in the middle of the book which is resolved with a cheat regarding her but I enjoyed it anyway.

The book is full of action, mostly spell duels, and I have to say works very well as a kind of dark fantasy version of a D&D game. It just so happens to be a D&D game full of sex, lies, betrayal, and hell worship. The ending of the book is also a great deal more apocalyptic than I expected it to be and I appreciate the author didn't pull any punches. Not everyone makes it out alive and that saddened me because I actually grew fond enough of the group that I would have read an entire series about their adventures. That's a pretty hefty endorsement right there. World-building wise, everything is coherent and it doesn't get bogged down in the minutia like so many other authors. Two rival mage empires and a Mongol culture to the North. Boom. Got it.

In conclusion, I recommend Darkstorm for someone who wants a quick easy-to-read fantasy epic. It condenses what other authors would have expanded to three novels into one and while some of the character developments feel a bit too swift, it still works enough that I wrote this review and have already picked up the second volume.

9/10


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Darkstorm The Rhenwars Saga Book 0 eBook ML Spencer Reviews

As Quin would say 'it's a honey of a pickle' and he would be right. The brothers Braden and Quin need to team up to stop a band of Master mages from opening up a portal to the netherworld. Braden sends Merris to his brother for safe keeping feeling that her life was in danger. Quin is drunk and naked in his bed when she arrives and what does he have to say for himself? "Where did you put my whore?"
Quin is totally unrepentant and certainly not hero material, as he describes himself, "My mind is sadistically warped in an artistic sort of way." I think the same can be said of Spencer's creativity, warped in an engaging, tantalizing way. Fresh, action packed tale set in the cities of Aerysius and Bryn Calazar which are part of a well drawn world. The characters are richly woven with all their flaws. Highly recommended.
Sent to Aerysius to avert a possible war, Ambassador Branden Reis of Bryn Calazar is also the lover of Sephana Clemley. Both are also mages. When Sephana's acolyte, Merris Bryar, uncovers a plot at a high level, Branden realizes there is more danger than just war between the two countries. He sends Merris to his brother, Quin Reis, to gain his aid in defusing the plot on that side.
I'll make a confession right here. Somehow I got confused in the order of these books and read DarkMage (the next book in the series) first. I liked it but realized I was missing some important backstory so now I'm reading these books in order. Darkstorm is a fastmoving epic with a lot of characters and magic, good, evil, and betrayal. The worldbuilding is excellent; the story pops with small details that draw the reader in and makes this world real.
The characters aren't realized as fully, but I was okay with that for the most part. I did wonder about motivations and emotions in some sections but I enjoyed the story too much to care much. The one exception was Merris; she was pretty schizophrenic in her motives as well as her apparent appearance. She starts out as an acolyte running through tunnels; I took her to be fairly young and untried. Suddenly, she's a femme fatale enticing all the men around. Her character does a 180 also though there's an explanation for that. But I wasn't buying the sudden confidence that apparently leads to her new beauty; if that was the case, why didn't she use sex to blackmail Prime Warden?
I also would have liked a longer book with more backstory. Maybe that's me, but I enjoyed the section about the horse people from Khazahar Steppe. I wanted to know more about them and then what happened to them. Maybe I'll get the answers in the rest of the story.
Still, there's some fine writing here. I'll keep going with the series and hope for more depth to this otherwise great story.
Darkstorm is an interesting novel because I can't help but think of a high school class of Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and other short fantasy novel series with Rhenwars sitting in the back as the Goth chick. It's a book which superficially has a resemblance to all the fun Dungeons and Dragons "adventure" fiction where there's a threat to the world, a misfit party of adventurers, evil villains, and a ticking clock forcing everyone to put aside their personal baggage. The thing is, in this case, the heroes fail miserably in trying to get their act together and it has a much more cynical take on human nature. There's also a good deal more sex, lies, and personal betrayals that make the story quite a bit more interesting than your typical dark elf with two scimitars tale.

The premise is Merris is a young street orphan turned mage who is trying to follow her master to get some juicy details she can use to blackmail him (due to him wanting to throw her out). She gets more than she bargained for when she discovers he's become part of a cult of demon-worshipers. This results in her hooking up with two wizard brothers, one a successful battlemage while the other is a handsome but broken drunk, as well as the beautiful lover of the former. The battlemage, Branden, is determined to stop the cult, even when he discovers that they're using demonic magic to stabilize a cataclysm that will kill all magic users in the world. It's a plan which will permanently make worshiping their equivalent to Satan as part of their religion but most wizards are apathetic about religion anyway. Personal flaws and jealousy tear into the makeshift group even as none of them, save one, really like their need to stop the cultists.

I like the characters as they're fairly well-rounded for the short time we get to be with them. All of them are suffering from some heavy character flaws while having better qualities too. The villains' motivation is arguably far more sympathetic than the primary hero's. While doubting any plan which begins with, "harnessing the power of hell for the greater good", I find the way Branden casually dismisses of thousands of magi lives as well as the destruction of civilization even more psychotic. It strikes me as coming from a martyr complex than a genuine sympathy for the multitudes (possibly also the fact he seems to be a self-hating wizard).

I was also a big fan of the character Quin. He is my sort of character in that he started with a mind full of high ideals and then decided to get drunk and laid a lot instead. He owns his flaws, which makes him a good deal more likable than his brother Branden. Merris starts as the plucky female protagonist, a mix of Harry and Hermione really, but goes down a much darker road as events show her to not possess a strong moral core. I really liked Merris' story in the book as too many people in fiction react to changing circumstances by putting their foot down. A lot of us adapt to survive in new circumstances, occasionally doing terrible things in the process. There's a bit of a "cliffhanger" in the middle of the book which is resolved with a cheat regarding her but I enjoyed it anyway.

The book is full of action, mostly spell duels, and I have to say works very well as a kind of dark fantasy version of a D&D game. It just so happens to be a D&D game full of sex, lies, betrayal, and hell worship. The ending of the book is also a great deal more apocalyptic than I expected it to be and I appreciate the author didn't pull any punches. Not everyone makes it out alive and that saddened me because I actually grew fond enough of the group that I would have read an entire series about their adventures. That's a pretty hefty endorsement right there. World-building wise, everything is coherent and it doesn't get bogged down in the minutia like so many other authors. Two rival mage empires and a Mongol culture to the North. Boom. Got it.

In conclusion, I recommend Darkstorm for someone who wants a quick easy-to-read fantasy epic. It condenses what other authors would have expanded to three novels into one and while some of the character developments feel a bit too swift, it still works enough that I wrote this review and have already picked up the second volume.

9/10