Horded - Frances Pauli

   2013; 251 pages.  Book Two (out of five) in the Kingdoms Gone series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Romantic Fantasy; Fairy Tale Fantasy.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    There are no gobelins anymore.  Everybody knows that.  They were wiped out years ago in the Final War.

 

    So imagine how shocked the citizens of Ramstown were, including Maera, when one of them popped out of thin air (literally!) into their fair city.  Worse yet, he was obviously a warrior gobelin: big, built, armed, and ugly.

 

    Well, there’s only one of him, and a whole village full of humans, so if the gobelin's spoiling for a fight, he’s going to lose before he kills too many townspeople.

 

    Unfortunately, Maera's the first person he heads for.  He’s muttering something in gobelin-speak; it sounds like “tir talus”, whatever that means.  And then, before anyone can stop him, he does the unthinkable to her.

 

    He kisses her.

 

What’s To Like...

    Horded is the second book in Frances Pauli’s “Kingdoms Gone” series and is pretty much equal parts Romance and Fantasy.  I read the first book, Unlikely, a couple years ago; it is reviewed here.  There are two main plotlines to follow: a.) the gobelin/human love angle, highlighted by Maera’s (and the reader's) quest for the meaning of “tir talus”, and b.) the fate of the gobelin clan that Tal belongs to as it struggles to coexist with humans and rival gobelin tribes.  

 

    We follow two protagonists: Maera, the human outcast whom most Ramstown folks dislike to varying degrees, and Tal, who is not the gobelin introduced above, but rather that one’s younger, less-respected brother.  These are not the same protagonists from Book One, and after peeking at the Amazon blurbs for the rest of the books in the series, that pattern holds true for all five novels.

 

    There’s a smattering of fantasy critters to meet and greet: gobelins, gargoyles, and an imp or two, plus, of course, an abundance of humans.  The main form of magic here involves “pockets”, portals that allow instant movement to faraway places, maybe even parallel worlds.

 

    I presume the target audience is YA girls who enjoy fairytale romance tales.  Horded is a “clean” story: I counted only 17 cusswords in the entire text, and there’s no sex or drugs or rock-&-roll.  There is some fighting, some blood spilled, and a death or two, but the gore is minimal.  I liked the clever use of “alternate cussing” phrases, including “unicorn dung”, “blood and magic”, and “humping unicorns”.

 

    Things close with a decent ending.  Tal and his fellow gobelins fulfill a prophecy, or at least I think they do.  The romance angle does not end how I thought it would, and frankly that’s a plus.  Some of the plot threads remain unresolved, including the fates of Olin and Old Gutra (who and who?), but perhaps these get addressed later on.  There’s a great twist at the very end which serves as a teaser for the next book in the series, Forgotten.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 5 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.38/5 based on 13 ratings and 4 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “You fight like a woman.”

    “You bleed like a pig.”

    Torg groaned and leaned back on one hand.  He used his other to catch some of the blood, winced at the puddle in his palm and then laughed again.  “You only have that one move?”

    “It seems to work … every time.”

    “I just want you to feel what it’s like to be a real gobelin.”

    “Unicorn dung.”  (loc. 3321)

 

    “Maybe it was all supposed to happen like this.”  She thought of the tir talus then.  Gobelins believed in Fate, at least a little.  They had to.  “Maybe everything we do is what we’re supposed to do, even the mistakes.  What Torg does, what you and I do, even what Rulak does, who knows what the purpose is or where it will put us all in the end?”

    “The end may be sooner than you imagine.”  (loc. 3575)

 

Kindle Details…

    Horded presently sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  The other four books in the series range in price from $0.99 (Book 1) to $4.99 (Book 5), or you can pick up the whole series bundled together for a mere $6.99.  Frances Pauli has lots of other books and series available for your Kindle, in varying genres, ranging in length from short stories to novels, and in price from $0.99 to $9.50.

 

“I.  Want.  A.  Bath.”  (loc. 3020)

    Most of the quibbles are the same as for Book One.  The backstory and world-building are minimal, which means the reader is left with lots of questions about things like the Final War and the magic castle,  I couldn't tell the difference between the Tinkers and the Skinners, ditto for the Granters and the Goodmothers, and if you’re a human but not part of the Gentry, does that make you a Muggle?  Finally, the fact that it appears there are different protagonists for each book makes me wonder if Maera and Tal exit the series here.  If so, that would be a shame.

 

    There are a lot of typos in Horded, to the point where it became distracting.  Almost all of them are spellchecker errors, such as aide/aid (four times!), Genrty/Gentry, site/sight, Rultak/Rulak, nauseas/nauseous, gate/gait, forth/fourth, and my favorite, nosily/noisily.  Another round of editing/proofreading is in order, but it’s possible that this has already been done, since the current version of Horded features a different e-book cover than the one I read.

 

    Keep in mind that for Horded’s target audience, teenage girls, the above quibbles probably won’t matter one bit.  They’ll likely be looking for a  plotline akin to Beauty and the Beast, and in that respect, Horded does just fine.  Male readers, no matter what age, need to remember that this story gives equal status to both the romance and fantasy aspects, and tailor their expectations accordingly.  It may not be Lord of the Rings, but it’s still a pretty good read.

 

    7 Stars.  Oh yeah, one last thing.  Any book that has a beast named Henry in it will always get a thumbs-up from me.