A Realm of Shadows
Kings And Sorcerers #5
By Morgan Rice

Kyra finds herself in the midst of a burning capital, attacked by a host of dragons, clinging for life. With her beloved homeland destroyed, the Flames down and the trolls pouring in, Kyra must urgently quest to Marda to retrieve the magic weapon before it is too late.

A Forge of Valor
Kings And Sorcerers#4
By Morgan Rice

Kyra slowly returns from the verge of death, healed by Kyle’s love and mysterious power.

As he sacrifices for her, she regains her strength, at a price. She presses Alva for the secret of her lineage and he finally reveals all about her mother.

Given a chance to quest to the source of her power, Kyra must make a crucial choice: whether to complete her training or journey to help her father, who wallows in the capital dungeon, his execution pending.

The Weight of Honor
Kings And Sorcerers #3
By Morgan Rice

Kyra finally meets her cryptic uncle, and is shocked to discover he is not the man she expected. She embarks on a period of training which will test her stamina and her frustration, as she soon encounters the limits of her power.

Unable to summon her dragon, unable to search deep within, and feeling an urgency to help in her father’s wars, Kyra doubts if she will ever become the warrior she thought she was. And when she meets a mysterious boy, more powerful than her, deep in the forest, she wonders what her future really has in store for her.

Rise Of The Valiant
Kings And Sorcerers #2
by Morgan Rice

In the wake of the dragon’s attack, Kyra is sent on an urgent quest: to cross Escalon and seek out her uncle in the mysterious Tower of Ur. The time has come for her to learn about who she is, who her mother is, and to train.

There is a well used trope here of battling monsters, escape, repeat. But still all the plot threads remain interesting.

Rise Of The Dragons
Kings And Sorcerers #1
by Morgan Rice (2014)

Kyra, a 15 year old girl who dreams of following in her father’s footsteps and becoming a famed warrior, is a finer archer than all the others. As she grapples to understand her skills, her mysterious inner power, and what secret is being kept from her about her birth, she comes to realize that she is different than the others, and that hers is a special destiny.

Enquiry
by Dick Francis (1969)

When Kelly Hughes rides the favourite into second place, he gets penalised. Not only has he lost the race, but also his licence, as the Jockey Club suspends him – believing he threw the race.

Only he knows that the problem lay with the horse’s performance, not his own. Suspecting he was framed, Kelly sets about finding out how it was done, and then who might have done it.

Not the best of his books. This lacks the action of others.

Avenger
by Frederick Forsyth (2003)

Ricky Colenso travels to Bosnia to volunteer as an aid worker. A few weeks later, he disappears and is never heard from again. A family grieves and is offered little hope–the killer has vanished.

Along comes Attorney Calvin Dexter (Avenger).

There is no doubt that this is well written.  The prose flows easily and the author gets his characters and setting across vividly.

But there is so much back-story here it gets tiresome. Significant portions of the narrative are in the past. And each character, as they are introduced has their own background.

There is a story here, probably of novella length.  But I got so fed up with all the background and lack of pacing I gave up after getting 2/3 of the way through.

2024 Books in Review

Total words read:  2.3 million words. (The equivalent of 30 novels lower than the usual average of a book a week)

Total Titles: 39

Comprising
10 Short Stories
4 Novelettes
7 Novellas
18 Novels (8 were over 100k words)

Books of the Year:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Fey

The Series I started but did not finish

The Many Worlds of Albie Bright
Christopher Edge

Shark Heart
Emily Habeck

Forfeit
by Dick Francis (1968)

When reporter Bert Checkov falls to his death, his colleague James Tyrone thinks he can prove it was murder. But there’s no such thing as a sure thin.

This early story has an unusual amount of sex for a thriller. It takes some time to establish the characters and ramp up the tension. It’s not until the third act that the action takes place and we get what is expected from a Dick Francis book.

A Bad Spell in Yurt
(Daimbert #1)
C. Dale Brittain (1991)

The kingdom of Yurt is the perfect place for someone who graduated from the wizards’ school.  Daimbert, newly hired Royal Wizard of Yurt, senses an evil spell at work. But who could be responsible?

A familiar setting for a rather ordinary story of a Wizard, Demon and Dragon. It’s the writing that keeps you in the story, being more about palace intrigue than an action adventure.

But it is too long at 100k words. Edited down to novella size would have improved the pacing and added to interest for the next in the series.