Friday, January 3, 2014

Dreams and Shadows


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    By: C. Robert Cargill

    Genre: Fantasy

    Read if:
    1) You like Neil Gaiman.
    2) You see things you should not see.
    3) You want to know the difference between good and great.



    The Characters
    Ewan, the son of a perfect couple, switched at birth with a changeling from the world beyond the veil.  He would never know his parents fate, and discover his own far too soon. Colby, the son of a broken couple, makes an innocent wish as a child only to be haunted by that wish for the remainder of his life.

    Throw in a kingdom full of fairies with a genuine rock king (the likes of which rival Marvel's "The Thing" from Fantastic Four), a few demons shrouded in every dark corner, A wizard without a hat, apathetic angels, and bourbon. Lots and lots of bourbon. All together this makes for a truly fantastical and somewhat chaotic story, but magical in every sense of the word.

    Philosophy

    Below the facade of magical beings and all of the drama that arises between them and the human world, lies a few strong moral dilemmas and life altering questions that make a good book great. I feel a bad joke coming on: An angel and a wizard are sitting on a rooftop discussing philosophy... Alright, I have nothing, but it ends with the most selfless act is to be evil. Sometimes these evil acts must be performed for the greater good while at the same time damning the performer. To be truly selfless, there can be absolutely nothing in it for the martyr. 

    The Magic

    Yes there are fairies and wizards and plenty of magical beings and places, but the story and writing itself is something to be marveled at as well. It is not often that I discover a new fiction writer that I enjoy reading so much. Numerous books out there possess a quote claiming the readers inability to put the book down as if they have mistakenly crazy glued it to their hands, and "Dreams and Shadows" is definitely one of them. The author's style is easy to get into and extremely witty. Now if you would excuse me for a moment, I will leave you with a few cliched sayings:
    1) The story really grabs you and pulls you in.
    2) You become really invested in the characters.

    I hope that didn't hurt you as much as it hurt me but they needed to be said regardless because well...they're simply true. 

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