Child of the Daystar by Bruce O’Conner, ebook, Lulu Publishing, 11-16-2015, 280 pages, fantasy, Wings of War series, book 1 of 4.
In the mood for fantasy, which you may recall I said in this blog in January that I planned to read more of, I turned to this, the first of a four volume fantasy series in ebook format.
Raz I’Syul Arro is a male atherian, a sort of giant humanoid lizard, but of the rarest variety because he has wings. As an infant, he is rescued from slavers by a nomadic clan living in the Cienbal desert. The clan adopts and raises him as human, teaching him human language and in particular to keep his savagery in check.
However, following the death of his adopted “parents” he vows revenge, becoming a ruthlessly efficient killer for hire, bent on vengeance and murderous retribution against all slavers that he can lay his hands on. He is known as the Monster of Karth (one of the Fringe Cities of the desert) and is stronger, faster, more ferocious and more agile than humans, adding his tail, claws and teeth to his sword, dagger and armor.
While there are battles, sometimes somewhat gory, the best aspect here is Raz I’Syul Arro’s personality. Also the world building, the mostly desolate desert and rock world, is well done.
There is a secondary plot, which will no doubt meld with the first in the next books, involving a peace-centric cult, one of whose members Raz saved in a battle.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, and intend to get back to the series soon.
Tip the Wink 
Whoever that is on the cover looks like my ninth-grade homeroom teacher.
No books read this week (my FFB was one I had finished at the end of the previous week), just short stories. I’ve got about twenty more stories left in THE BIG BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES. I’ve really enjoyed this book so far. I’ve also finished all of Henry Kuttner’s Pete Manx and Hollywood on the Moon stories — light, smooth pulp SF in both cases. I’m currently reading one of Arthur Barnes’ Gerry Carlisle stories and will probably follow that up with one of Murray Leinster’s Bud Gregory tales. My pattern has been read a couple of Holmes stories, then read a couple of pulp SF stories.
Coming soon from the library: RICOCHET JOE by Dean Koontz and SCARFACE AND THE UNTOUCHABLE by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz. Looking forward to both.
Enjoy your week, Rick, and tell Barbara to heal faster!
I have all 4 of the volumes in ebook, bought as a set. Sounds like some good stuff coming your way from the library. What would we do without them? Barbara has pronounced she’s all better, so she’s on her own today with her quilt group except for me going out to pick up lunch stuff for them.
Reading CARELESS LOVE by Peter Robinson. Have to reread MAISIE DOBBS for my book group. Reading shorts from some anthologies: STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND, DOWN AND OUT BOOKS MAGAZINE>
STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND is an anthology, not the Heinlein novel? Robinson is always good.
Nice cover. Not my usual fare, but it sounds interesting. It’s always good to start a series when you enjoy book one.
Reading mostly short stories (as usual, lately), namely WEST OF GUAM, the Jo Gar stories by Raoul Whitfield, which I am coming to the end of at last. I know I read the large majority of these years ago in the Crippen & Landru collection, but other than Gar and his antagonists in the police and the settings, I don’t remember the specific plots so can enjoy them again. I also read a straight fiction collection, Elinor Lipman’s INTO LOVE AND OUT AGAIN.
I did read one mystery, Martin Walker’s BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE, first in a series of a dozen or so books set in a smallish town in Southwestern France, It was a pleasant read, but not sure I will read another.
Currently reading Allen Eskens’s THE SHADOWS WE HIDE, bringing back Joe Talbert from his first book. Talbert investigates the death of his father, an SOB he never met, who seems to have died under mysterious circumstances. All of Eskens’ books have been well worth reading. I also have a Charlie Jane Anders book waiting on the Kindle (another library download, as was the Walker and the Eskens), and a big collection (AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES: TERROR AND THE UNCANNY FROM POE TO THE PULPS) to start next.
It seems I’ve been reading series lately, the Civil War books, a mystery series by Claire Booth, this fantasy series, and another fantasy series of 4 volumes. Whew.
That Booth series has been on my radar for a while, as you are the third person to recommend them. I have a list somewhere, for when I whittle down my library piles.
They’re not bad. I read the new, third one, A DEADLY TURN first, after reading a review, and liked it well enough to get the other two (all library books). Right now I’m reading the first Posada County mystery, HEARTSHOT.
I really like that cover! I have stacks of fantasy novels waiting to be read. My latest inclination is to wait until the trilogy of volumes have been published and then read them rather than to read them one at a time as they are published. Diane is eagerly awaiting the latest book in the MAISIE DOBBS series. A couple Edward Marston books arrived last week. When does that guy sleep??? He pumps out a new mystery every few months!
I always try to wait for a series to be complete, if possible. Not mystery so much, but fantasy. I bought this as an ebook set, all four books. Same with the Seven Realms series I bought and have now read.
I do like that cover also.
My reading is picking up. After finishing TURNCOAT by Aaron Elkins, I read REMEMBERED DEATH (aka SPARKLING CYANIDE) by Agatha Christie and SMOKE DETECTOR, the second Charlie Salter mystery by Eric Wright. Now I am reading DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY, and enjoying it much more than I expected to. I cannot decide if it is fantasy or science fiction or a blend.
Two of those I’ve read, the Christe and the Wright. As for Dirk Gently, I’m not sure how to categorize it either, and haven’t read it.