Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 61 Review | Page by Page Thoughts | Vegeta Reborn - Moro's New Look

 

 

Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 61 Review. We look at Vegeta's new ability as well as his morality vs Goku's morality and if Piccolo is a Vegeta fanboy. Follow along properly at https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/dragon... 

 

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Games With Gold March 2018 Disney Pixar Brave: The Video Game Review - Gaelic Hero

Developer: Behavior Interactive
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Xbox Release Date: September 25, 2012 (according to Xbox.com)

This month's Games With Gold release for the Xbox 360 was Brave: The Video Game and it's one that pleasantly surprised me with a crisp and fun gameplay experience.  I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a free Xbox game since I downloaded and played Dark Souls back when it was offered for Games With Gold back in 2014.

The first thing you'll notice when you play this game are the visuals.  Brave has the look of a budget title visually. Textures are simple, animation is limited, and the camera is pulled back greatly.  With the amount and placement of enemies, you'll be glad for the latter, but it all does give Brave the look of every other licensed title that hardcore gamers prefer to skip.  However, once you get into the gameplay, the simplistic visuals are a mere afterthought and are competent enough to not get in your way while offering a nice enough backdrop to the action.

During my initial playthrough of the game on Normal difficulty, I found the game to be a fun breeze of running, jumping, shooting, slashing, and collect-a-thon action.  The controls are simple, easy, and smooth.  Shooting Merida's bow is done with the right thumb stick.  There is no targeting reticle to deal with which works in this game's favor and the projectiles generally go where you want them to go.  Melee is performed with (X) and is standard, quick, and competent, but I always preferred to use the bow.  Jumping with (A) feels good and the level design leads to some fun and sometimes challenging platforming.

The game breaks up the standard combat sections with simple puzzles that I sometimes managed to solve in only a few seconds along with a different style of combat featuring a freaking bear -- ahem -- Merida's mom, Queen Elinor I mean.

Book Corner: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

1/3 Really Good Book, 2/3 Why Does This Exist?

This book has had me at a loss for several years now.  I've heard so many negative things about it that kept me away, yet at the same time, people whose opinions I respect all say that it was a perfectly fine or even "good" series of books.  Two of my friends, fellow authors, actually love the series highly.  So here I've been all these years, unable to reconcile this conflicting information.  How can such smart and highly creative people love something so bad?  I knew even back then when the Twilight craze was at its peak that I'd be reading the first book of the series one day to appraise it firsthand.  Here's that review.

Twilight is a mixed bag, that's for sure.  After struggling through the first 25% of the book, I was certain that I would be giving it a 1 star by the end.  That feeling stretched on well past the halfway point of the book.  This is mainly due to the spotlight here being on Edward and Bella's dull, slow, tease of a relationship if you could even call it that because it was mostly just Bella being desperate for the attention and affection of male model Edward Cullen whose appearance she couldn't go more than one paragraph commenting on.

So, we get to the major problem with the book, the two main characters.  Boring Bella, Bland Edward, and their unappealing romance.

Weaksauce Reviews (when time is of the essence): Bayonetta

Amazing visuals, super solid and fun combat, majorly overrated. 

Playstyle
Difficulty: Normal Mode
Gameplay Focus: Beat the Game, Find Secret Lore
and Hidden Items, Get Good at the Combat

Review

I love the fighting in this game.  You can really tell that the minds behind the original Devil May Cry series have conceptualized this game and taken their core ideas to the next level.  With its combat, Bayonetta exudes all sorts of challenge, fun, and creativity.  With everything else, not so much.

To give some insight into my experience with the game, I played through it on Normal difficulty once at the time of this Weaksauce Review.  I am the type of gamer who likes a good challenging game, but needs something else besides the challenge to hook me.  That something could include the game's characters, atmosphere, art style, story, but very rarely will the gameplay alone be enough to hook me.  Bayonetta had plenty of chances to hook me, but it just didn't and it actually consistently did a lot to repulse me to be honest.  My repulsion has nothing to do with anything like oversexualization.  I just think that's a style choice for the character.  My repulsion comes from some frustrating and annoying game design decisions made by Team Little Angels.

Gameplay

The overall gameplay is a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand you have tight, engaging, highly fun, and challenging combat with extremely well designed enemies.  On the other hand, you have mindless mandatory minigames and platforming sections that seem to drag on forever and constantly interrupt the most fun aspect that the game has going for it, the combat.

I'll talk about the combat first.  There are a nice amount of weapons, each with their own types of attacks and combos.  Everything feels unique from the default handgun punches and kicks to the samurai sword to the whip, shotgun, claws, and bazooka.  There's probably even more weapons that I didn't find.  You can also perform a variant of purchased special moves with each weapon.  While the combat does indeed feel near perfect, certain things hold it back as well.  The first is the fact that the game, in some ways, discourages player experimentation during the first playthrough of the game.  Every technique and weapon you can buy costs several completed levels worth of in-game currency.  The game gets around this with its techniques by having a "Try it" function available so that you can practice with the technique in a training space before buying it.  It's a great function that many other similar action games can definitely implement themselves.  But beyond that, the weapons themselves that you unlock are ridiculously expensive and so is everything else including the accessories that you'd have to save up the whole game to buy.

There's also the fact that the game introduces a new enemy to you every few moments so you don't ever really get a chance to master strategies against certain enemies before you're pitted against new ones.  The game loves to mix and match enemy types too.  One particular enemy that really frustrated me was Gracious and Glorious, two golden "super" version of two enemies you fight earlier, Grace and Glory.  Grace and Glory were difficult enough because they could each attack you through your own attacks with "superarmored" strikes and also attacked you together.  Gracious and Glorious can do that and can't be frozen with Witch Time.  This would be a tough fight regardless without that core gameplay mechanic, given how they fight.  The situation was made tougher for me because I had no clue why my Witch Time wasn't working.  There was no previous indication that it wouldn't work against certain enemies and the game gave me no clue why it wasn't working on them even after dying about six times to them.  They even introduce these characters in a cutscene so I have no clue why Bayonetta didn't at least make an effort to say that her Witch Time wouldn't work.  Situations like that made the combat a little bit less than perfect.

Graphics

Top notch visuals, especially when in motion.  But when the action slows down and you're allowed to stop and look at buildings and objects up close there is definitely a lack of details.  Sometimes it just looks like prettied up PS2/Dreamcast objects.  There's a clunkiness to many of the objects like cars.  Some of it is to do with the art style but the models themselves look pretty clunky compared to the concept art.  But when in combat you'll never notice these things.  The effects during combat are really vibrant and Bayonetta and enemy special attacks get some nice looking special effects.  The enemies (especially giant bosses) have an extraordinary level of detail put into them.  Oh and Bayonetta's transformations are great touches for her speed and flying abilities as well.  The game tells more story in its visual effects than its actual narrative at times.

Audio

Pretty good audio.  Nothing much to say.  The soundtrack is kind of catchy, but not my type of music.  The music did manage pump me up during the combat.  The voice acting was okay.  The dialogue itself was pretty hokey and purposefully cliche, but some would say it adds to the charm.  There were one-liners everywhere from just about every character.  The sound design helps give weight to much of the fighting.

Story

A hot mess, but the lore's good. There's a lot of time and attention given to characters and scenarios that don't contribute much to the overall story.  For instance, Luka's story seems superfluous to everything and the time spent on characters like him, Enzo, and Rodin seems like a waste given how disjointed the story feels with their inclusion. 

Most of the interesting backstory that's in the game can be found in the lore through scattered pages of Antonio's Notebook.  You can pick these pages up throughout each level and read them at your leisure.  Or you can wait until chapter 11 where all the lore and backstory are dumped unto you at once.  Before chapter 11 you just randomly chase bosses or Jeanne while Bayonetta's memory slowly returns the they pretty much reveal all the lore you've been reading in Antonio's Notebook beforehand in a chapter 11 cutscene which is nearly at the end. 

The rest of the time you're presented with cutscenes and character dialog that barely reveals anything or moves the story forward in any meaningful way.  It's all corny, cliche riddled dialogue and awkward character interactions.  Though I do like the characters, at the end of the day I feel they weren't utilized very well in the game.  Everything felt shoehorned in.  The Bayonetta, Jeanne, Balder, Cereza story arcs were pretty simple but good overall.  There were some neat though predictable twists and character drama.  More of that and less Luka/boss chasing randomness would've benefited the game a lot.  Of course, I didn't expect much from the story going in since story has never been this team's strong suit.

Presentation

Very clean and familiar presentation.  Reminiscent of Devil May Cry in every way except art direction.  I found everything to be easily accessible, with the exception of the item mixing menus which confused me for a while.

The Quick and Dirty

Positives:

+Great Visuals
+Amazingly Solid Combat
+Very Creative Enemy Design
+Challenging Gameplay
+Much Lore To Find
+Trying Out Techniques Before You Buy Them
+Gallery Mode With Concept Art, Music, Model Viewer, etc.
+Harder Difficulties and Hidden Challenges and Secrets For Gameplay Value

Negatives:

-Too Many Other Types of Gameplay Forced In.
-Anything Besides Combat Feels Wonky (platforming, minigames, etc.)
-Lore Isn't Shown Naturally In The Game.  It's Also a Wordy Mess.
-Story is Incoherent From Start to Finish.  Everything Feels Shoehorned In From The Mobster Guy, To Rodin, To Lucca.  Could've Been Much More Focused.
-Cutscenes Are Mostly Used For Fun Moments But Time Could Be Made To Expand The Story as Well.
-Could Use More Fighting in the Main Playthrough.
-Story Relies on Cliches and Overdoes the Cheeseball Moments, Creating Something That Feels Cheaper Than It Is.
-Boring, Chatty, Weaksauce Main Villain.
-SUCKY MINIGAMES!!!
-Last 4 Levels Bored Me to Death When I Wasn't Fighting and the Ending Dragged On and On.

What is a weaksauce review?
A weaksauce review is a review of a game, based on it's surface impressions.  Weaksauce reviews are born from me not having a lot of time or maybe interest to delve deeply into a game's deeper mechanics or systems which I do in my Deeper Look series.  So I'll do a first impressions type of review about my standard gameplay experience.

Indie Book Corner: Wick: The Spark Form Chronicles book 1 by Matt Doyle

Highly original, well written fusion of disparate ideas. Ties for the most creative book I’ve read this year along with Exurbia, by Alex McKechnie. 

Wick is what happens when you take wrestling...

...esports... 

...cyberpunk... 

...and of all things, Yugioh... 

And mix it in a blender on the highest setting. You’d think you’d get a mess with such a mix, but instead you get something quite rare and even a tad beautiful.

Wick starts in a very confusing way as we’re dropped right into the action with no explanations given. And the action we’re dropped into is...a beauty pageant...no it’s a setup for a wrestling match or something? Oh, it’s...a card game?

Though not clear at first, it’s soon revealed that all the POV characters are a part of some vast and very popular tournament style eSport called Spark Forming. This futuristic eSport uses digital cards as a medium to summon impressively dangerous and beautiful looking beasts and humanoids that do battle in digital arenas. Each of the tournament combatants has his or her own POV, with the exception of two or three characters. And there are certainly some memorable POVs and other characters in the book.

The Plot 

Here’s hoping that I succeed in not ruining or spoiling anything here. The plot revolves around several different mysteries as each character has his or her own reasons for participating in the tournament. Though what each character presents on the surface is not always their true intentions. On the surface everyone is in the tournament for fame, glory, and prize money. Though most of their goals seem to be for things outside the arena. It’s revealed that there is much more going on behind the scenes and Spark Forming may not be as innocent and fun as the world thinks it is. I think that’s all I can say without spoiling too much. It’s vague, I know, but each reveal in the plot was major to me so I reeeeeallly don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else. I’ll just add that there’s some really good character drama that heats up from the middle to the end and the plot comes together nicely as each character’s earlier behaviors are given more light.

The Arena Battles 

The futuristic eSport known as Spark Forming has several unique components to it that made it very unique to me. The first has to be the player entrances. Some of my favorite scenes in the book came from these entrances, which were reminiscent of professional wrestling to me. Each player would have their own music that was presented in this way:

“Song: Came Out Bruised (But Still Breathing) 

Band: Addicted to my Rut 

Genre: Grunge” 

And then once the player is out and ready to start the match you have EPIC summoning descriptions for the Spark Forms like:

“His scales, rippling gently as he breathes, glow a deep, fiery red, Punctuated only by the curious black markings adorning his back and tail. Dark as a starless night, they run the length of his body, forming a line of symmetry for the scimitar-like patterns that trace paths out from the spine.”

Then there are the battles themselves which are far faster, more ferocious, and bloodier than I imagined they’d be. The players themselves experienced some sort of fatigue from the battles along with their Spark Form creatures as each battle required them to be “plugged in” and to use much of their own fortitude along with physical and mental dexterity.

I liked the strategies formed for these matches and thought that the play-by-play by the announcers was a clever way to teach the reader how the game is played. I will say that this is where the book’s lack of exposition hurts it the most. These battles would be much more enjoyable if the ground rules were laid before many of these battles took place. Since I didn’t know how the game was really even played, I never had any sense as to who would win or lose until the very end, so I was never on the edge of my seat for any of the battles. It was more like watching a laser light show until the end and finally going “that was neat,” at the end of it. So I hope more is explained about the card game itself in future books. Maybe even a card list so that we can take note of potential strategies ahead of time. Even with that said, the creativeness of the battles was enough to enthrall me and those were some of the chapters I read through the quickest.

The Characters. 

Going hand in hand with the book’s uniqueness is the strength of each of Wick’s characters. As I said before there are many POVs in Wick, about five or seven if my memory serves and each character brings a unique perspective and rationale to the story. There were a few that I thought I’d dread reading in the beginning, but by the middle I must say that everyone had chapters that I looked forward to. It was mostly to unlock further mysteries in the story which everyone had fragments of, but I was surprised that a book with this many POVs didn’t really offer any weak links for me. Even A Song of Ice and Fire had those Sansa chapters that I freaking HATED, and many of the POVs in A Feast for Crows felt dry and pointless to me, but here, even with so many characters, I had a good time. If you’re anything like me you’ll really become a fan of John Forrester who’s just a fun character in every sense of the word. I kind of want to say more, but I prefer to leave some surprises.

The Quick and Dirty 

Dislikes: 

-Confusing beginning. A lot is being said without much context. You don’t know if you’re reading about a pageant, a card game, or wrestling.

-The extra POVs in the beginning only added to the confusion.

-Could use some better explanations on the cards and the game mechanics to get you more invested in the card game. -The game isn't explained clearly enough in the first few matches forcing you to pay close attention to each match to understand how its played.

Likes: 

+Cool mix of wrestling and Yugioh or whatever combat card game you like. I really liked the on-camera dramatic “promos.” It felt like the 80’s all over again.

+Highly imaginative.

+Cool characters.

+Loaded with intelligence at every turn including characters, dialogue, plot, and much more. +The wrestling references are too good.

+Brilliant creature design and fight choreography.

+eSports taken to the next level.

+Solid characterization.

+The announcers are a clever source of exposition.

+Spark form action is bloody brutal fast and intense. +In depth ideas and concepts, very well thought out, with great execution.

+John Forrester is a brilliant character. So are many others, but he is by far my favorite.

All in all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book.  It was one that I had received by the author for review, but I have to say that it's a series that I look forward to reading more of.  My interest has been piqued with the mysteries, I have come to like the characters very much, and it's a unique world that I am interested in seeing more of.  I'll definitely be reading the sequels.  Don't just take my word for it.  Check out the book for yourselves with the links below.

Author's website: http://mattdoylemedia.com/
eBook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SG7TYO
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Wick-Spark-Form-Chronicles-1/dp/1517128714/

Indie Book Corner: Fantasy of Flight: The Tainted Accords #2, by Kelly St. Clare

What a gorgeous cover!

 Slow start but amazing payoff!

Abridged for you lazies out there.

The Good

+Characters with hearts of gold.
+Olina/Frost character development
+Smooth writing/Easy reading.
+The return of some cool characters.
+Plenty of humor and heart.
+A superb second and third part of the story that I just could not put down.
+Romance and sexiness.
+Epic revelations!
+Positive book for women with many strong female characters.
+The Harness!!!

The Bad

-Very slow start
-Pit fights required much suspension of disbelief especially during Frost's fights
-The mystery of finding the killer becomes so drawn out that I lost interest in it during the pits part.

If you don't know already Fantasy of Flight is the sequel to Fantasy of Frost. Both books star a queen in the making, Olina and her dealings with two worlds: the fire world Osolis and the ice world Glacium. Spoilers below!!!! Book received for an honest review.

Review

Okay so let's just get the bad out of the way. I didn't like the time I spent in the pits so much. The setup was just fine but it was pretty slow and everything that I found appealing about the first book was just derailed. Finding Kedrick's killer was just an afterthought as were the characters we'd just grown accustomed to. It seemed like a whole other book but that's not my main gripe.

My main gripe with this part was the amount of head shaking I did at 80% of Frost's fights. You see, I'm a combat junkie and a huge fan of the Davids of the world beating the Goliaths but come on this was ridiculous. We're told over and over by Frost herself that these men are 2, 3, and 4 times her size and yet she's the dominant one in each and every one of these fights. No real strategy but dodge and kick real hard. No pressure points, joint locks, or holds believable for a person of her size to perform to beat guys of this size. Even speed only goes so far against this much of a size difference. We're also not told she has super strength or anything like that so my conclusion is that these guys are made of glass or she was just lying about how tough they are. She's a great fighter sure, but she wasn't the underdog as much as she should've been and that hurt this part in my eyes. I could believe her crazy combat victories before because the advantage of speed with a weapon is very different than the advantage of speed with bare hands

By the end of the pits I had at least grown to like the characters but I was glad to leave. Then...

We get to the superb second third of the book. From here on out the book really shines and I now have a new appreciation for the part with the pits, really because it sets up the next part so nicely. This is the part of the book that blends what I liked about the first book with the new stuff introduced in this one and it’s a joy to watch the two parts merge. Here we got to see Olina try to balance her new arena/pits persona with the Tatuma Olina persona. We see her old friends and her new friends interact and attempt to get along and are given some truly heartfelt and humorous moments here. This part also reignited my interest in locating Kedrick's killer that had begun to wane since a little after the middle of the first book and almost vanished during the first part.

Olina and Jovan's relationship reaches new heights here as I believe they have exhausted every emotion possible towards one another and all that reaches its apex. Jovan is a really cool part of this series.

There's also a lot of huge reveals here that took me by surprise and I'm excited by how they'll affect the next book in the series, Fantasy of Fire that's due to release next January. I'll just say that the flight in the title really does come into play hehe.

So all that leaves is Olina/Frost I guess and I must say that despite her many times annoying me, I have grown to like her a lot as a character. Her rashness and sometimes selfish actions do always have a good reason behind them and ultimately define her as a hero because of her will to be a force for good and a champion for those without champions. I've begun to see her for what she really is and what she really brings to the table. She is strong-willed, confident yet sometimes self-conscious, analytical, naive yet willing to learn and participate, open minded despite her conservative upbringing, and extremely big hearted despite the horrors done to her and witnessed. Good or bad this is her and she definitely sticks to her guns! And her narration seems to be improving as she opens up more to the world. I like this effect.

There's much more to say but I won't draw this out. I ended up liking all the characters from the pits so much that I was actually sad to see them go. That surprised me. I like Alzona's crusade for helping those downtrodden and thought she was a very subtle and positive character. Kudos to Ms. St. Clare for putting her in and not overusing her. And the rest of the pit fighters, even Sin, showed some great depth to them. So while not my favorite part, the pit did have some really cool moments.

Overall I believe this is a better book than the first one but the beginning nearly drags it down for me. I love the second and third parts of it so much though that I still think it’s worthy of 5 stars. Not perfection but a damn good time!

Book Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24866809-fantasy-of-flight
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Tainted-Accords-Book-ebook/dp/B00TXWVMHQ
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasy-Flight-Tainted-Accords-Book-ebook/dp/B00TXWVMHQ

Indie Book Corner: Fantasy of Frost: The Tainted Accords #1, by Kelly St. Clare

 *click cover for free download today 4/13/15*

*click cover for free download today 4/13/15*

A good introduction to a promising Fantasy series.

My Likes

+        Interesting and entertaining cast

+        Intriguing protagonist

+        Many mysteries

+        Imaginative customs for the Solati and Bruma.  They are like introvert vs. extroverts

+        Olina kicks ass

+        Olina is selfless

+        Narration fits Olina's personality

+        Detailed and methodical action

+        The author sticks to continuity really well.  (Ex. Character injuries heal realistically.)

My Dislikes

-        Plot slows down in the middle.

-        I sometimes found Olina's stubbornness and rebelliousness annoying.

-        The ending comes out of nowhere.

-        Not much is resolved by the end.

I was given this copy of the book in exchange for a review.

Full Review

FoF begins right at the start with its characters.  We're introduced to Olina, our protagonist, and the world of her people, the Solati, and the visiting delegates from Bruma.  We're also introduced to Olina's love interest, Kedrick, A Bruma prince who proves to be charming, kind, inquisitive, and madly in love with Olina.  Olina is the centerpiece of the story and Kedrick is the fulcrum upon which it all balances.  Olina proves herself to be a very interesting character with a lot of intrigue surrounding her and her past.  The story is narrated through her own first person POV.  One thing about the Solati is that they are reserved and subtle in almost all of their actions and decisions.  They find openness and familiarity very uncouth.  Because of this Olina has a very measured way of talking and it follows through with her thoughts during her POV narration.  Her thoughts are very matter of fact and measured which fits with her Solati upbringing.  That's very good attention to detail on the author's part.

Characters

Olina

Olina is a very fascinating character and lives an interesting life.  She is a Solati princess and next in line to be queen, called Tatuma by the Solati.  She lives her whole life dedicated to the goal of being a capable and strong Tatuma after her mother Avanna.  Olina has a lot of strangeness to her including the fact that she spends a lot of time helping out at an orphanage despite it being frowned upon.  She finds some comfort and solace here with these kids, more than her normal life affords her.  Another strangeness of hers is the fact that she sneaks out and trains in combat arts with an old soldier.  This is a huge secret for her but she enjoys the training and has confidence in her fighting abilities.  Olina's biggest strangeness though is the fact that she has to wear a veil at all times around others.  She doesn't know why but it's always been this way.  The only time she's taken it off resulted in the murder of an innocent child because the child had seen her face.  But beyond her strangeness Olina is strong-willed to a large degree.  She works hard to accomplish her goals and does everything possible to see them through.  Her demands and attitude annoyed me at times but there was no question that her strength of character and will were nearly unmatched.

Olina and Kedrick

They share a world crossing love but are each a part of a race that finds the other repulsive.  The Solati sly, reserved, and measured while the Bruma are brazen, brash, and impulsive.  That cultural divide is strong on both sides and yet these two find solace in one another.  They're are both kind, strong, quick-witted, and open-minded.  There is something about Olina that attracts Kedrick despite the fact that he can't see her face and Olina is experiencing feelings for Kedrick that she never thought possible in herself.  They both change in small and profound ways because of their devotion for one another but it's a sad sort of love because you know that everything is working against their union including the very rules of their cultures.

The Tatuma Avanna

Cold and cruel.  She's an ice queen that ironically lives on the fire world.  I'm surprised she hasn't melted yet.  Her ice doesn't come from her body temperature or any sort of powers but instead from her temperament.  She treats Olina like a bag of s*** each and every chance she gets.  She is less of a mother and more of a dictator.

The World

Olina's people, the Solati, live on a dangerous world called Osolis that's engulfed by flames.  Their own homeland is only a few 'rotations' from being burned away and so the Solati migrate when the heat and fire becomes threatening and build their houses and other buildings with a fire resistant wood called Kaur.  They depend on the cold from the ice World, Glacium, to keep temperatures regulated in their own homeland just as Glacium depends on their heat to keep its world from completely freezing.  There are Kaur forests and boiling lakes throughout Osolis.  The Solati wear lightweight fabrics and breezy clothing like togas to keep cool.  The Solati of Osolis are typically a subtle and measured race with customs that one could call prim.  The Solati also have strange naming conventions for their people.  Solati children are all born with have an O at the start of their names but when they get married the drop the O.  So if Olina ever gets married for instance she'd become Lina.  Just don't call her that before she's married or you'll be committing a very major faux pas unless you're closely related to her.  And let's say Olina gets married and becomes Lina, if her husband ever dies then as a widow she's now Alina since widowers get an A to start their names.  I tend to like quirky customs like this and think it's really cool.

The Bruma on the other hand live on the world of Glacium, an ice world that's the total opposite of Osolis.  Large sleds are the main transport of Glacium and most of the Bruma's houses and structures are wrought with solid stone.  Furs cover everything from people to beds in large piles and alcohol is the beverage of choice for adults for the warm and mirth it provides.  The Bruma of Glacium are a large race, even the women who tower over the average Solati.  The Bruma are prone to speaking their minds and are very hot-blooded and vulgar.  Sex isn't shied away from in Bruma culture and even open talk of it is embraced.  Though preferring to dress in warm furs and leather the Bruma women sometimes like to dress very scantily clad during festivals to the delight of the men.

The Plot

The plot points in Fantasy of Frost each hinge on a major event.  Because I can't talk about these main events without spoiling anything I'll try to be as vague as possible while giving a decent synopsis.  I said I'll try, keep that in mind.  Okay so the beginning of the book is dedicated to us getting to know Olina, her problems, her world, and the characters around her.  All of this leads to the first major event of the book, someone dies, and this changes everything.  From then on we're taken to a new place and must piece together the mystery of the person who died.  All the while new questions spring forth such as Olina's connection with her veil.  Well the decent synopsis part failed because I can't figure out how to say more without spoiling it.

Final Opinions

I really enjoyed Olina's journey in Fantasy of Frost.  I feel that she's tested so many of her own limits during her ordeals that she's become a much stronger person and that's compelling to read about.  I think the worlds of Osolis and Glacium as well as the customs of the people of both worlds very intriguing and worth exploring more.  I also really enjoyed all the other characters and the humor and warmth they brought to the story.  These are characters that really helped change Olina and they are characters that the lonely and broken need to recover.  I do feel that more resolution could have been provided at the end of the book.  None of my questions were answered and a lot was left hanging.  I also feel that the way it ended came out of far left field but at least it promises more to come.  I'm looking forward to the next book and continuing Olina's journey, just remember not to call her Lina.

You can visit Kelly at http://www.kellystclare.com/ and find some fun little snippets to hold you over until the release of Fantasy of Flight: Taint Accords #2, on May 24, 2015.

You can also pre-order Fantasy of Flight at Amazon.com by clicking the cover image below.