NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
January 26, 2015
Great New Fantasy Author Presents:
Maiden of Destiny & Maiden of Death
Note From Forrest Schultz:
I reviewed both of these books already under the auspices of Southside Book Reviews, which are reviews of books recently published by authors living in the counties on the Southside (sometimes called the Southern Arc) of Atlanta, GA. They are presented here as written there:
September 28, 2011
The Forming of a Champion
A review of
Lenny Fulz Maiden of Destiny, Book One of the Forgotten Gods Trilogy
(Write Knight Pubs., 2011)
184 pp ISBN: 978-0-9836922-0-1
Reviewed by: Forrest W. Schultz
The Coweta writing scene recently suffered a great loss in the passing of Vickie Kennedy. Among her contributions was her Writers Block workshop in which she trained some of Coweta's best authors. One of these was Lenny Fulz, who recently had his first book published, the fantasy novel under review here.
This book, the first of a trilogy, focuses on the forming of a Champion whose title is "Maiden Of Destiny". Actually, as noted in one of the dialogues, Indigo's training program began in her childhood in the formation of her character by her parents, which is in the backstory. The story itself begins when she is fourteen when she learns of her prophesied vocation from the emissaries who take her away from her home to the Temple, where she meets the High Priestess, passes the ordeal by the gods, and officially begins her training, which at first is mostly educational because she cannot begin the training per se until she gains possession of the Sword of Destiny, which is shown on the front cover, but which does not happen until near the end of the book.
This is a classical fantasy story but is not a copy of any previously written fantasy, and some of the characters posssess atypical qualities. A good example of this is seen in the Captain of the ship which transports Indigo and her company across the Mystic Ocean to the land of the elves, where the Sword is hidden among a group of arcane druids. The Captain is a dwarf, who is typical in not liking elves but is atypical in hating underground mining and loving sailing the sea!
He and Indigo and most of the other characters are well developed and remarkable and they all, except for the gods, have verisimiltude. These gods are sometimes depicted as fallible and finite, like the ancienct Greek and Roman gods, and other times are regarded as infinite and omnipotent, like Jehovah. This inconsistency is the only serious criticism I have of this story. In fact if the other two books are as good as this one, we will have here what could be one of the major fantasy works of our time.
The scenes in the story are varied and the action is well-paced so as to hold the reader's attention and keep him wanting to read on. While not UNputdownable, the book is definitely NOTWANNAputdownable!
Fulz is now at work on the second and third volumes of the trilogy. I look forward to reading them. Mainly because I want to see the characters again, which is an indication of a good writer. He has joined the Coweta Writers Group and is continuing his involvement in the Coweta writing scene.
January 26, 2015
The
Champion Revealed
A
Review of
Lenny
Fultz Maiden of Death [Book Two of The Forgotten Gods Trilogy] (Write
Knight Pub., 2014)
$10.48 314pp ISBN: 9780983692249
Reviewer:
Forrest Schultz
"The
Forming of a Champion" is the title of my review of Lenny Fultz's first book
Maiden of Destiny. It is not until the second book, Maiden of
Death, that the identity and the powers of this champion are revealed --
quite dramatically! -- at the opening of the war council for the kingdom's
campaign to battle the demonic forces headed by the super-sorceror Murquee, a
super-evil super-villain you will love to hate. And this battle is
super-important: if it is lost humans and gods (not to mention dwarves, elves,
etc.) will perish.
This
story is classic fantasy at its best: lots of magic spells, all sorts of exotic
creatures, great dialogue and great adventure, and even some romance. And a very
moving, very poignant and sudden appearance of two striking Valkyries who come
to take a hero to a far better place than Valhalla. And concluding with the
promise of another great tale in the sequel and final book of this
trilogy.
Fultz,
who lives in Coweta County, learned the craft of writing from the late Vickie
Kennedy in her Newnan-based The Writers Block; he now belongs to the Coweta
Writers Group, which has several other fantasy authors, including his critique
partner, Denise Tompkins, who writes dark urban fantasy. Information on Fultz is
available at www.lennyfultz.com.
