jbronderbookreviews

The Hero’s Brother by M. Scott Anderson

It’s hard enough being barely above average when your brothers include the deadliest swordsman of the realm, a saint, prodigies – and the greatest hero of the Middle Ages. But what if you haven’t seen your queen of love in years and she’s imprisoned by a one-armed religious zealot and lethal librarians? Even worse, your only allies are vicious killers with rather bad manners and outsized appetites who all want to murder your heroic brother.

The result – in a world of pedantic misrule, feckless magic, and courage both dauntless and daunted – is either high adventure or an identity crisis. Or both.

Amazon     Audible     Goodreads

Author’s Bio

Scott is a 66-year-old software developer, who in olden times spent six years not getting a Ph.D. in medieval literature. Before that, his only discernible accomplishment came when he played on the Reed College baseball team, which was routinely thumped by Bible colleges and small seminaries; M. Scott was twice the winning pitcher for Reed, which made him the only person to win a game over a fourteen-year span. This accomplishment is perhaps tempered by the fact that the Oregon school’s entire fourteen-game schedule had been rained out in at least one year.

He is the father of three game-playing sons, whose remarkable mother died in August 2017.

He lives in Oak Park, Illinois.

Website

My Review

4 stars

It is the Middle Ages and we are following Frith, the sixth son out of seven kids. All of his brothers succeed in various areas from being heroes, clergymen, magicians, and such. Poor Frith has spent his life in the library around books and is the odd man out in this family. The story starts with his oldest brother Alexander is magically stuck in a cage at the top of a tree. Everyone has been trying to help him and he is stuck there until Frith finds the key which leads to the next adventure.

It seems that there is some issue with who rules the land. Alexander is planning on taking over control and he is going to need Frith to lead an army of his enemies to create a diversion. Frith knows this is not going to go well but Alexander talks him into it. Of course things go wrong from the start and Frith doesn’t know how he is going to get everyone to cooperate long enough to be a help to Alexander.

This was a wonderful world and is very easy to get into this story. I felt for poor Frith, the little nerd of the family with his dashing other brothers. I had to laugh at several of the events he gets himself into and the creative ways to get out of them. I did hope that things would work out for him and that he could be with his Queen.

I have to admit that the pacing of the story was slow for me and there were times that I had to struggle to stay focused. Mark Bramhall was the narrator and he did a wonderful job. But I did enjoy the story and recommend it to anyone that likes stories based in the Middle Ages. (This is an audiobook so I am unsure of the proper spellings of names. Sorry about that.)

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

I would like to thank Michele Cobb at Forte Business Consultants  for the opportunity to listen/read and share this book.

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The Architect’s Key by Edward Evans

Leo Katsaros, an ambitious architect, goes on a series of trips to the past on a quest to learn from history’s great master builders. Instead, he finds himself enmeshed in a messy family dispute between two Greek Gods.

In this whimsical take on time travel the architect discovers not only surprising things about the world’s most famous monuments, but also the secret of his own peculiar origins.

This tale blurs distinctions between past and present in a romp through some of the more perplexing aspects of time.

In 1927 the Greek gods were still among us, living on after the Olympian diaspora, and the wisest Goddess of them is building a Utopian community on the Southern California coast. And, incidentally, the goddess of Wealth, Wisdom and Weaving is also a time traveler something Leo discovers to his cost.

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Author’s Bio

The author grew up on Point Loma, in southern California. The hidden coves and caves of Sunset Cliffs were his children playground. Farther out on the point he also wandered among the exotic ruins of a utopian community founded in the late 1800’s and wondered what it was. Later he found out that a flamboyant woman named Madame Catherine Tingley had established a community called Lomaland based on the teachings of the Theosophical movement, which draws on range of occult traditions. The Architect’s Key is a reimagining of what might have happened if the founder of Lomaland had been a time traveling goddess who was intent on hiding a secret.

Website     Blog

My Review

4 Stars

Leo Katsaros works in his father-in-law’s architectural firm and hates it. He has a dream to start a new style of architecture and finds himself with an unusual invitation to fulfill his dreams. This includes time travel, meeting gods throughout time, and family relations.

This was an interesting story. I admit that the family bickering was a bit annoying at the beginning and I didn’t know where the story was going to go from there. But it quickly picked up and kept me on my toes. I loved where the gods would pop up and how Leo would find family members throughout time. Of course the gods and goddesses were a wonderful addition. I admit that I was looking some of them up for more information on them.

This is a great story that was a great read, I was surprised at where it went. I know at some point we have all felt like Leo and would have liked to go on a similar adventure. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from Edward Evans.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

I would like to thank Author Marketing Experts for the opportunity to read and share this book.

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