Location: United States
Member Since:
Dec. 05, 2011
Thomas Arthur
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Smashwords book reviews by Thomas Arthur
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Unleashed Fury (BloodRunes: Book 1)
on Dec. 05, 2011
This first book in the BloodRunes trilogy (I've now read all three), does an excellent job of setting up the main characters and the basic story in the first 2 chapters. An interesting story technique is the retelling of a scene several times from different-character points of view. There are many twists and turns in this world of growing magic (and evil)... and I've found it interesting to return to book 1 after finishing the trilogy to see how 'hidden' events within earlier books/chapters convey information for the later story. Book 1 ends at the boundary of a neighboring, even more magical, country... with evil growing in the world, and the main characters seeking both help and their own place in righting the situation. Lots of spy-craft, magic, secret societies, some romance. A very interesting story... which grew even more exciting with each book. Interesting concept developed over the trilogy, leading to..... see book 3 ;-)
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Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2)
on Dec. 11, 2011
Laura R Cole's BloodRunes-Book 2 continues with the introduction of several new characters, and further develops characters from the first book. Several things that we thought we knew from the first book are discovered to actually have resolved differently behind the scenes, leading to a new dimension (and interest) into the relationships among the main characters. The danger to Layna continues to grow, leading to a journey which ends this books with some puzzles to ponder... and sets the stage (and strongly drew my interest) for book 3.
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Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3)
on Dec. 13, 2011
This final book of the BloodRunes trilogy starts with a fairly detailed overview of the action up to this point... making this book somewhat stand-alone, though I feel reading all of the trilogy adds depth to book 3. A lot of the back-story becomes clear within book 3, some interesting new characters (and their role in the events of previous books) are introduced with the depth/dimensions typical of the prior books... I felt this was well done. There is some interesting interplay of good/evil/grey-area... and the trilogy ends strongly, while leaving room for a continuing story (which the author suggests within this book...). Overall, I found this to be a very engaging story, lots of sub-plots woven together nicely, and some interesting life-concepts touched upon. I look forward to a follow-on work on this story line.