I've had my copy since Tree City ComicCon - that was October of 2014 and I finally got around to reading it. In part because of something else I'll tell you all about in a few.
But I apologize or my reading/review pile being kept up with so terribly. Jason is a friend of mine and I never meant to take so long getting to it but life...
Valcoria is an epic fantasy world that is strangely enough devoid of a lot of the tropes we expect with epic fantasy and that helps make it so interesting. Instead of rampant magic and monsters we have a mysticism that is finding its way back into the world as old legends are found to have truths worming their way to the surface. Buried ancient forgotten technology is coming back with horrific consequences.
King weaves great characters together across the countryside and we get to see a lot of that epic side of fantasy wherein the plots and struggles are told from various sides. Kings prose and pace is exciting and fun.
I liked that King has so many cinematic type scenes and we feel for different characters in different ways: You have the noble hero Sitrell, the coward Yuiv, the honorable solider Jalek, and the conniving villain Rayome and even the duty-bound princess Ashra - yet all in fresh new lighting. This is a great take on epic fantasy that is quite a bit different from King's other series (which I also greatly enjoyed the Lure of Fools)
I am reminded of the old Indian tales of great technology in the distant past like Vimana's and the like (stuff that gets referenced on Ancient Aliens a lot) The technological aspect along with the mysticism brings new flavor to this fantasy.
Highly recommended.
Now about that other news: Valcoria 2 is being written and polished right now and among the projects King has going, there is going to be an anthology of fantasy stories bridging books 1 and 2.
I am contributing a tale and thusly had to hurry up and read. Most of the Space Balrogs (my writing guild) will have new tales set within the Valcoria world and right now I am in the process of finishing up my own pulpy offering. I haven't settled on a title yet but the premise, while still fantasy, is very detective noir. I'm quite enjoying it. Hopefully it will be published by the end of the year.
Get Valcoria here
3 comments:
"that was October of 2014 and I finally got around to reading it."
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this kind of thing.
This sounds interesting. Post-apocalyptic even, the way you describe it. I'll have to keep it on the radar for when I make some progress on the backlog.
I'm almost afraid to look at my kindle to see how much work from friends is backed up there.
Keith, yep I haven't been able to keep up with all my reading, not even close. I admire how well you can keep up n reviews etc.
I hear ya Charles, I was doing Ok on a kindle fire I had right before the divorce, I had several books I was partway through when the Ex took it and I have never gotten back to those half-finished books. Which is a shame considering I remember enjoying them.
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