Nina blushed, then cut the man’s head off . . . . Or at least, mostly off. In her haste, she slopped the follow-through and failed to completely sever the neck, a lapse that did nothing to improve her mood. The end result, however, was much the same, and the remains of her would-be suitor slumped to the floor.

In a recent interview, Ellis talked about how the first line of the book stalked her until she started writing the book.

The book is about Nina, the teenage daughter of Marcus the Merciless, is a heroine like I have never seen before. She sets off on a heroic quest, with a dimwitted king who thinks he is in love with her. Along the way, she encounters (of course) a dragon and a handsome rouge. Their adventures take a humerous trip through many fantasy tropes, giving them the humorous treatment that tropes deserve.

For example, Nina is on a quest to find a wizard give her magical aid. She eventually finds the wizard, who, of course, helps her understand several problems she has been encountering. When she leaves the wizard, she tries to offer him some compensation. In response, he says:

“No please.” He waved his hands and walked forward to take her hand. “I need nothing in return. It has done my heart good to play a small and primarily expository but nonethless critical role in your larger story.”

Another humorous aspect that I love about the book is the number of people who refer to Nina as “Miss the Merciless.” For some reason, I found this really amusing.

In addition to the novel succeeding on a humorous level, it also works well as a story. Sure the book is not War and Peace. Then again, I have never had anyone put a copy of War and Peace in my hand tell me that I had to read it because it was such a fun book. Here, I will tell you that with this book. In a nutshell, Nina Kimberly the Merciless by Christiana Ellis a fun and clever read. I am putting it in your virtual hand and telling you to read it.

Since Every Dead Thing, I have been a fan of John Connolly. His Charlie Parker books are great detective/thriller novels with just a twist or hint of the supernatural. In fact, Connolly has specifically said that he leaves it to the reader to determine whether Parker’s “psychic abilities” are real or whether they are Parker’s mind getting away from him. With The Book of Lost Things, Connolly steps outside of his previous mythos and takes us on fairy tale about a boy (David) who gets transported from his world (England during a world war) to an alternative world.

Unlike most fairy tales, however, this alternative world is not bright and cheery. It is dark, depressing, full of monsters, and ruled by a king that has less and less power. Much of the book concerns David’s travels throughout the land to reach the king. He does this with the hope that the king will be able to help him return to the real world. In the meantime, David is shadowed and, at times, protected by The Crooked Man, who needs David’s help in order to live.

Connolly is a great storyteller and that shines through in this book. On his trip to find the king, the boy encounters several people from familiar fairy tales. However, those fairy tales have been twisted. For example, Little Red Riding Hood is willingly responsible for the half human, half wolf creatures that spend most of the book chasing the boy.

Despite the darkness of the world, Connolly manages to inject some humor into the scenes in which the boy meets Snow White and the dwarves. In Connolly’s world, Snow White is a lazy, overbearing, taskmaster that is hated by the dwarves and who scares off any potential prince who might marry her. In fact that best exchange of the book occurs when the boy is leaving the dwarves. The dwarves are retelling the Goldilocks story and they volunteer the information that the bears ate Goldilocks. David says that Goldilocks just ran away. The dwarves then say:

“That’s what ‘ran away and was never seen again’ means in these parts. It means ‘eaten.’ ”

“Um, and what about ‘happily ever after’?” asked David, a little uncertainly. “What does that mean?”

“Eaten quickly,” said Brother Number One.

As with his other books, Connolly takes what we know or what is normal and then twists it in a demented or unexpected way to keep his story fresh and interesting.

Although this book is different from Connolly’s others, I would not hesitate to recommend it.

Three books comprise the he Age of Discovery Series by Michael A. Stackpole: A Secret Atlas, Cartomancy, and The New World. These books comprise an epic story centered around a family who had a magical skill in making maps.When I use the word epic to describe this series, I do not use it lightly. These books are truly epic. They span different times, a variety of locations in the known and unknown world, the nine hells as well as the realm of the gods. The characters vary from the most important people in the world, to a high class prostitute, to a young boy with a withered arm. Each of the characters plays an important role in molding the future of the world (sometimes literally).

One thing that I loved about this series was that it got stronger as it went along. Book 1 (A Secret Atlas) mainly set the stage and got everything in place for the conflict that was coming.

I thought that book 2 (Cartomancy) had some great character development. Further, two revelations at the end of book 2 are both unexpected and fantastic. Finally, book 3, while also filled with significant character development, was a great action book as well. The series leads toward a climactic battle between good and evil.

Stackpole has handled this battle brilliantly by showing it as a series of battles, with lots of twists, turns, successes, and defeats.

Stackpole has also created a complicated suite of characters who are anything but one dimensional. The characters have flaws and fall victim to them. Further, just as in real life, some people are deceptive and are not quite who they appear to be. I for one will admit that a couple of the characters had me completely fooled until their aspects were revealed.

If you look epic sweeping fantasy, with interesting and unusual creatures (but no elves), great character development, complex story lines, and some great story telling, I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

The only reservation that I have about the books is that sometimes it was difficult to keep the names of some of the people straight. Stackpole has a list on his website in which he provides pronunciations for the various unusual names. I suggest printing this list and keeping notes for yourself about who the people are.

In terms of the complex nature of this work and keeping everything straight, I can compare it only to my experience reading Cryptonomican by Neal Stephenson. Although the books have no story features that are similar, to me they seem similar in terms of their sweeping epic nature.