Lost Is The Night - Greg James

   2014; 174 pages.  Full Title: Lost Is The Night: A Grim Dark Fantasy Adventure.  Book 2 (out of 3) in the “Khale the Wanderer” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Dark Fantasy; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    Khale the Wanderer is a stranger in a strange land.  He seeks only shelter for the night, and if luck is with him, yon castle will take pity on him and let him sleep in the stable.  The castle guard that is approaching him will hopefully not try to kill him.

 

    “Master Khale, you are welcome to Castle Barneth.”  The guard somehow knows who he is?  Khale’s self-preservation reflexes go on full alert.

 

    “Come with me, if it pleases you.  The feast is begun and Lord Barneth awaits your company.”  Khale's jaw drops.  He, a lowly traveler, is on the guest list?  Surely this is a trap of some sort.  Can things get any weirder?

 

    “The feast is in your honour, and you are missed.”

 

What’s To Like...

    Lost Is The Night is the continuation of the journey of Khale, a sort of “Conan the Barbarian” protagonist.  It is the sequel to Under A Colder Sun, which I read a couple years ago, and is reviewed here.

 

    Despite the feast being already underway, there are priorities.  Khale is caked with dirt and foul odors from his journeying, and requests a bath, which the steward of Castle Barneth readily arranges.  The bathing amenities include Cacea, a beautiful maiden who will do the scrubbing of Khale.  We’ll let you guess whether other services are offered.

 

    The main storyline involves the subsequent adventures of both Khale and Cacea.  The book’s subtitle, “A Grim Dark Fantasy Adventure”, is quite apt.  The fantasy in this book, and indeed, this series, is not lighthearted, nor intended for kids.  Lord Barneth’s sigil is a red wheel with a crucified victim on it.  The tone of the book reflects that.

 

    I enjoyed the gradual evolution of Khale’s character.  He started out in this series a total anti-hero, but here we are seeing him learning to care about others and about the role he plays in the events unfolding around him.  Does he get to make his own decisions when Thoughtless Dark stands before him?  Or is he simply a meat-and-bones puppet on strings, being manipulated by a higher power?

 

    The ending is appropriately grim and dark, highlighted by an exciting fight scene.  None of the plot threads are resolved, but hey, that’s presumably what the next and final book, Hordes of Chaos, is for.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Goetic (adj.) : pertaining to black magic or necromancy.

Others: Xanthic (adj.); Foetor (n.); Benighted (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.1*/5, based on 52 ratings and 16 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.82*/5, based on 38 ratings and 5 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Good evening, Master Khale.  I am Bartell, his Lordship’s steward, and I will attend to your needs.”

    Khale looked him over.  Dressed in blue-green silks, he looked, for all the world, like an over-embroidered cushion.  The wrinkles in his face wept dry tears of perfumed powder.  When the man smiled falsely at him, the Wanderer saw familiar signs of a life spent eating too many sweetmeats and loqma cakes.

    Rotten on the inside, fragrant as morning on the outside.

    He could taste the sin hanging in the air around this one.  (loc. 180)

 

    Murtagh was speechless as the nightmare thing before him finished pouring the last traces of itself from the bowl where it had been in repose.  The elongated mass rushed at him, a tide of black quicksilver moving across the chamber in a single, sinuous motion that consumed the space between them.  Its lipless mouth opened and continued to open, becoming a gaping wound that muttered to itself in the language of decayed silt and haunted mires.  (loc. 1638)

 

Kindle Details…

    Lost Is The Night sells for $2.99 at Amazon right now.  The other two books in the series go for the same price.  Greg James has several other series and standalone e-books available on Amazon, ranging in price from $0.99 to $2.99.

 

“Slow and predictable,” Khale mocked.  “You fight with too much honour.”.  (loc. 608)

    Surprisingly, I only counted eight cusswords in the first 25% of Lost Is The Night, although five of those were f-bombs.  There are several rolls-in-the-hay and references to three variations of the act of intimacy.  The experience on the red wheel is left to the reader’s imagination but not the outcome.

 

    The editing was good; I espied only one typo, “bows” instead of “boughs”.  As already mentioned, this book takes place immediately after the first book, and there are numerous back-references to events therefrom, so I’d suggest reading this series in chronological order and gearing up that you’re committing to reading all three books in the series.

 

    Finally, keep in mind the books in this series are all short.  The longest book is the first, at a mere 214 pages, and they get progressively shorter as the series continues.

 

    Nonetheless, I enjoyed Lost Is The Night.  It’s a fast-paced action-adventure tale with no slow spots, and the “grim dark fantasy” phrase in the subtitle let me know what to expect as far as R-rated material goes.  I’m curious to see how Greg James manages to resolve all the plotlines in a mere 163 pages of the final book, and will try not to wait two years to read the sequel.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  You’ll notice “time-travel” is listed as a genre for Lost Is The Night.  When you come to the end of the last chapter, you may, as I did, wonder where the heck the Time Travel was.  Not to worry, you still have the Epilogue to read.

Under A Colder Sun - Greg James

   2014; 204 pages.  Full Title: Under A Colder Sun: A Grim Dark Fantasy Adventure.  Book 1 (out of 3) in the “Khale the Wanderer” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Grimdark Fantasy; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    By all reports, Khale the Wanderer is a nasty guy.  A brigand.  A killer.  A rogue.  A sorcerer.  A mercenary.  And some say, an immortal.

 

    Leste, a member of the City Watch of Colm, is aware of all that.  But orders are orders, and King Alosse has sent her on a mission to locate Khale, establish contact with him, and arrange a meeting between the brigand and the King.  Alosse has an errand for Khale.

 

    The King understands mercenaries, of course.  He is willing to pay Khale for his time.  One thousand golden-eyes.  That should get Khale’s attention.

 

    It does.  Khale laughs at the offer.  He’ll accept nothing less than twenty thousand golden-eyes.  It is, after all, a royal errand.

 

What’s To Like...

    The subtitle says it all.  The tone of Under A Colder Sun is grim and dark, with plenty of bloodshed, a lot of which falls into the category of “senseless”.  Khale’s task seems like an easy one: deliver King Alosse’s daughter, Milanda, to the Autarch, the despotic ruler of a neighboring city, Neprokhadymh.  Yeah, try saying that six times real fast.

     Milanda is to be wedded to the Autarch.  To get there, she and Khale will have to cross dangerous territory.  It is filled with lawless men and creatures, and two other neighboring kingdoms, Barneth and Farness, might think it in their best interests to put a stop to the marriage.

 

    Greg James is a British author, which means the book is written in English, not American.  For American readers, this entails encountering strange spellings such as humour, centre, knick-knacks, draught, foetus, and haemorrhaged.  Personally, I think it adds a touch of classiness to the narrative.

 

    The world-building is great, albeit mostly limited to the two cities, Colm and Neprokhadymh, plus the wilderness in between.  I liked the otherworldly creatures that beset Khale and Milanda, including the blood-banshees and the ultra-deadly mirror-beasts.  It was fun trying to figure out the character-alignment for Khale.  It’s quickly apparent he has both good and evil traits, but is he mostly "dark" or mostly "light"?

 

    The saga stops at a logical point, more like a pause than an ending.  It included a couple of neat plot twists, and the main plotline was wrapped up, albeit not happily.  I got the feeling the main purpose of Under A Colder Sun was to introduce the reader to the main characters in the series and set the stage for the main storyline in the sequels.  That might sound negative, but hey, it’s also the way I felt about Book One in The Lord of The Rings.

 

    My Kindle version came with two bonus short stories at the end, Timestone and Each Dawn, I Die.  They are both worth your reading time, and Timestone in particular gives you some background to the foreboding world the story is set in, although the main story also gives some hints about earlier kingdoms.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Ordure (n.) : something regarded as vile or abhorrent.

Others: Canopic (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.9*/5, based on 63 ratings and 50 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.25*/5, based on 146 ratings and 22 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Hospitality?  Is that what you call it when your men ride down my own, run them through, and toss their bodies in the marshes to rot?”

    Leste spoke before she could check herself.  “They are brigands.  They steal and kill.  They get what they deserve.”

    Khale turned on her and his face was tight with rugged lines.  “You seem very sure of dealing in life and death, girl.”

    “Those who kill without honour deserve the same fate.”

    “Ah, deserve.  There’s another word you don’t understand.”  (loc. 250)

 

    “Aye, we rode together before things in the world got this rotten.  We hunted, we pillaged, and we stole.  Don’t believe your father, the good King Alosse, could be a thief, do you?  Well, he was.  All kings are thieves; it’s how they get to where they are.  People, land, ideals: you’ve got to steal these things yourself before you can convince someone else to believe in them and fight for them on your behalf.”  (loc. 852)

 

Kindle Details…

    Under A Colder Sun sells for $0.99 at Amazon right now.  The other two books in the series, Lost is the Night, and Hordes of Chaos, cost $2.99 apiece.  Greg James has two other series and several standalone books available on Amazon, ranging in price from free to $2.99.

 

Yes, she thought, for an idiot I’m very lucky.  (loc. 1018)

    As shown above, Under A Colder Sun has garnered some less-than-stellar ratings, particularly at Goodreads.

 

    Several Goodreads reviewers were turned off by the dark tone of the storyline.  Lots of characters die, including some I didn’t expect to, and there are references to rape and sexual assault.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to a 5-year-old, but for adults, well, the subtitle does warn you to expect a story grim and dark.  OTOH, the cussing is surprisingly sparse.  I counted just 11 instances in the whole book, although that included a pair of f-bombs.

 

    Other reviewers mentioned the frequency of typos, although I only noted one, a breath/breathe miscue.  Either the book has undergone another round of editing subsequent to its initial release, or else some readers might have been mistaking British grammar and spelling for outright errors.

 

    For me, the biggest drawback was the storytelling, which I (and others) found to be a bit weak.  Our protagonists go on a quest—to deliver Milanda to the Autarch—things go awry, and that’s about it.  The plotline as a whole is rather “un-epical”.

 

    Still, the story held my interest enough to continue reading this series.  I'm anticipating Khale's character undergoing some significant changes before this story runs its course.

 

    It will be fun to see.

 

    6½ Stars.  There really is a literary subgenre called Grimdark.  Wikipedia has a page about it.  You can read about it here.

All Things True - Greg James

   2018; 102 pages.  Book 3 of “The Chronicles of Willow Grey” trilogy.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Young Adult Dark Fantasy Adventure (per the author and sounds good to me); Coming of Age.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    The Voyage of the Pale Ship is over; young Willow Grey has returned to Tirlane!  Or what’s left of it, after the evil Lamia and her unstoppable minions have devastated the fair land, killing anything and every living thing they can find.  Vibrant, green plant life has been reduced to brown-black dead fields, and the corpses of animals, large and small, lie strewn everywhere.

     A few creatures remain alive: mostly those that are fleet of foot and have found handy places to hide from the marauding predators.  Willow hopes to come across some of these, to aid her in her quest, since her beloved mentor, guide, and most of all, friend in this strange world, Henu the Wealdsman, did not make it to the end of the voyage on the Pale Ship.  Now Willow must face her Fate alone.

    Alas, only Doom lies ahead for her.  The Lamia is many times more powerful than Willow, and commands legions of fearsome and merciless beasts to do her evil bidding without question.  Yet it is Willow’s lot to face the Lamia in a battle to the death.

    It’s a struggle that Willow cannot win, and the outcome can only be her death.  Yet the puzzling words uttered by both Henu and the wise old healer Starababa keep echoing in Willow’s mind.

    “Your time with us is nearly over.  Remember, it is not death if you accept it.”

What’s To Like...

    All Things True is the final episode in the trilogy The Chronicles of Willow Grey.  The author labels it a “Young Adult Dark Fantasy Adventure”, and that seems apt to me.  The tension has been building for two books now, and it is time to face the Lamia.

    The storytelling style is the same as in the other two books:  there are lots of critters to meet and greet (most of which are deadly), lots of places to visit, zero slow spots, and lots of magical objects to ooh-&-aah over, including the thule which every creature good and evil covets.

    The amazing thing is that Greg James packs all of this, including the final showdown, into 102 pages, which my Kindle says I should be able to read in just slightly more than one hour.  That makes it a novella, but don’t think of it as a quick read for a book report that’s due tomorrow – this is not a standalone novel, and there isn’t much of a backstory supplied, so you'd have to read the whole trilogy.  Indeed, since the other two books in the series are each less than 200 pages in length, this series screams to be marketed as a bundle.

    There aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of, and since there’s a war-to-the-death going on, the mortality rate is somewhat steep.  Willow finds a couple new companions to aid her in her quest, and the lessons she’s learned during her voyage with Henu have turned her into a formidable mage, at least when confronted with beasts other than the Lamia.

    The book is written in English, not American, which I always enjoy.  So things are meagre, feathers may be moulted, and you might apologise for your lack of armour.  The 102 pages are divided into 17 chapters, and a beautiful poem that serves as the Epilogue.  This is a YA book; I recall only a single cussword: at one point an evil critter calls Willow a “bitchling”.

    There are some neat extras at the back, including a map of Tirlane and a glossary, which comes in quite handy, even for those of us who have read the earlier books.  The Table of Contents is also there, and I can't for the life of me figure out why that wasn’t at the front of the book.

Excerpts...

    “She’s still here then?”

    “She will be until the last trace of life has left Tirlane,” Nastonik said, “which could be any day now.  The Behemoths will not rest until they have consumed everything that draws breath.”

    “D’you think she can help us stop them?”

    “Stop them?  My, my, you are either ambitious, or very stupid,” Nastonik said.

    “You don’t have to be rude.”

    “I am merely blunt.  A Beorhan says what a Beorhan sees.”  (loc. 535)

    “I’m surrounded by nothing but death.  Viril and Nastonik, I fear I will lose them too.”

    “Then, you must lose that fear and let it go.  Fear is a part of life but if we live according to it, that is no life at all.  It is said our time is like a narrow sliver of light, much like this candle’s flame, caught between two kinds of greater darkness; the time before we are born and the time after we are gone.  All we have is this and so often we spend it unwisely.”  (loc. 569)

Kindle Details...

    All Things True currently sells for $2.99 at Amazon, the same price as the other two books in the series, The Door of Dreams and The Voyage of the Pale Ship.  Greg James has a slew of other novels, novellas, and novelettes available, all of them in the $0.99 - $2.99 range.

 “Were you thinking bringing home a two-legged stray would be enough of a good deed to make the rain turn to vittles?”  (loc  113)

    Ah yes, what to say about the ending without lapsing into spoilers?

    It is a satisfying conclusion to everything that’s been building for three books now.  It contains a twist that I can only describe as stunning, yet is, in retrospect, quite logical.  It is powerful and poignant; at the same time both positive and dark.  Chapters 16 and 17, plus the Epilogue poem, left a lump in my throat even as they reconciled all the strange things that have been happening since the first page of Book One.

    Okay.  I’m done gushing now.  You can read the reviews of the first two books in the series here and here.

    9 Stars.  I'm guessing, but I get the feeling that The Chronicles of Willow Grey is a Labor of Love by the author, possibly for one Natalie Kaleva, to whom this book is dedicated.  All Things True particularly resonated with me, as I have recently experienced a similar situation in my life.

    Then again, it all could be just a storyline that Greg James dreamed up, and he’s simply that skilled of a writer.

Voyage of the Pale Ship - Greg James

   2017; 89 pages.  Book 2 (out of 2, so far) of “The Chronicles of Willow Grey” series, presumably, soon to be a trilogy.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (per the author).  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    Destiny awaits Willow Grey, the Chosen One.  Sooner or later, she has to face the Lamia.  But not just yet.  For she's just a novice when it comes to magic and weapons, and when to use them and when other means of persuasion are a more prudent solution.

    It’s a good thing Henu the Wealdsman is with her.  He knows the land of Tirlane, and he has the magic elixir, stardraught to help him with his spells.  Sad to say, they’re about to leave Tirlane, and journey out into the Bound Sea, and this is new territory for both of them.

    But the Pale Ship awaits them, and it will guide them to the places Fate wants them to go to.  And since the ship steers itself (well, technically, the cerulethe does the steering but let’s not split hairs), the lack of a crew is not a hindrance.  So there’s nothing to do but get on with it, and face whatever lies in store for both of them.

    Even if it is their deaths.

What’s To Like...

    Voyage of the Pale Ship continues the chronicles of Willow Grey, a young girl who has stumbled into a strange, and sometimes brutal, fantasy world.  It is 89 pages long, so it’s really a novella, not a full-length book.  Still, it has plenty of action, and will therefore probably appeal to YA boys as well as girls.

    There’s a very handy glossary, listing both the characters and places in the tale, at the back of the book.  For a change, I was savvy enough to bookmark it before I started reading the story.  There’s also a map back there, but I didn’t use it much; the story is essentially Henu and Willow sailing along to wherever the Pale Ship decides to take them.  It would’ve been nice to have a short “The Story So Far” blurb, as it’s been a year since I read the first book.  But I went back and reread the last section of The Door of Dreams (reviewed here), and that caught me up to speed nicely.

    Willow and Henu cross paths with some kewl beasties along the way, among which are a kraken, a giant, some No Men, harpies, and a couple of blokes that reminded me of the trolls that Bilbo Baggins encounters in The Hobbit.  If curses and magic are your cup of tea, you’ve come to the right tale.

    The main storyline is Willow growing into her new-to-her role.  Besides learning what her magical short sword is capable of, Willow also has a bunch of situational ethics thrown her way, and I always like those.  Sometimes you just have to thwack the baddie, other times a bit of compassion is a much better tactic. 

    The book is written in English, not American, so you run across words like harbour, recognisably, no-one, etc.  I’m quite partial to books written in English.  There is some R-rated stuff: a few cuss words, a couple of attempted sexual assaults, and the subject of cannibalism.  I assume these are all okay for YA readers, but I’d think twice before letting a juvenile read it.

    The ending has a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming, and presumably sets up the showdown with the Lamia in the next book.  This is not a standalone book; you really should read The Door of Dreams first.

Kewlest New Word. . .

Cantrip (n.)  :  a mischievous or playful act; a trick.  (a Scotticism)

Excerpts...

    The woman was about to scream when Willow jumped on her and covered her mouth with both hands.  The sound that came out was a muffled squawk.  “Be quiet,” Willow said, “all we want is your clothes.  We won’t hurt you, I promise, okay?”

    The woman bit into the palm of Willow’s hand.  (loc. 293)

    Bhorak told Willow their story as he sharpened the mottled knives.  “An old wizard made us ages ago.  The perfect warriors, so he thought, because when we get hurt, all we need to do is eat someone else’s bits and we grow back what we lost.  See my eyes, my ears, my teeth?  All belonged to some other bugger once.  We are what we eat.”

    That’s so gross, she thought.

    Tharn laughed.  Yeah, the wizard wasn’t too impressed when we ate him.”  (loc. 654)

Kindle Details...

    Voyage of the Pale Ship sells for $2.99 at Amazon, although I snagged it when it was temporarily discounted to $0.99.  The first book in the series, The Door of Dreams also sells for $2.99.  Greg James has a slew of other e-books available.  Most of the novels are $2.99, but if it’s the first book in a trilogy it’s often free.  He also has several e-novellas available, which are in the 50-120 page range, and go for $1.99.

 “What’s with the cats?”  (loc  183)

    Full disclosure: I am not keen on novellas.  I tend to pass on any book that’s less than 180 pages long, and prefer ones that are 250-450 pages in length.  The only other novella I’ve read is reviewed here.

    The inherent problem with novellas (novellae?) is there are just not enough pages to develop any depth – in plotlines, in characters, in the tension.  For instance, here (if I counted correctly), there are 9 action-packed “trials” for Willow and Henu, but in a book with only 89 pages, each one is over before it has a chance to resonate with the reader.

    When you do the pages-per-action math, there’s simply no time for any tension to develop.  And it has to be said, if you’re a baddie facing a wizard with stardraught and a hero with a magic sword, odds are that your demise will come in a very short period of time.  I pity the fiend who  picks a fight with these two.

    To boot, being OCD, I tend to deliberately slow down my reading sessions when I’m reading a short book.  I’m a firm believer in the adage “Read a book in a day; forget it in a week.  Read a book in a week, remember it for months.”  So I read Voyage of the Pale Ship in 10-to-20-page slices.  In retrospect, I have a feeling I should’ve read it in one sitting.

    7 Stars.  Listen, despite its brevity, I enjoyed this book, and was happy to read the next segment in this series.  Add 1 star if you’re a Young Adult and have a book report due tomorrow.  Voyage of the Pale Ship just might save your bacon.  Add another 1 star if you happen to like novellas. 

The Door of Dreams - Greg James

   2015; 182 pages.  Book 1 (which is all there is so far) of the series “The Chronicles of Willow Grey”.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Fantasy, Coming of Age.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    “Curiouser and curiouser,” Willow Grey whispers to herself, after falling down the cellar steps of the house she and her dad had just moved into and hearing the sound of a door opening and closing.  Yet when she looked back up the cellar stairs, the door at the top hadn’t moved.

    So there is only one logical thing to do – explore the new, dark, creepy basement until the source of the squeaky door sound is located.  Which she finds, and is surprised to see only utter darkness beyond it.  Well, Willow is a teenager, so of course the only sensible thing is to cross the threshold.

    The pitch-black tunnel eventually leads to trees.  And moonlight.  And a small man.  None of which should logically be in a tunnel in a cellar.

    Curiouser and curiouser.

What’s To Like...

    The Door of Dreams is a YA fantasy tale, the target audience being teenage girls.  Our heroine, Willow Grey, is hampered by an inoperable brain tumor, and given 6 months to live.  Under such circumstances, exploring a new world is an easy choice to make.

    The book is short – Kindle says 182 pages – but Greg James manages to guide the reader to a number of neat settings, introduce us to a “just-right” amount of fascinating characters, and surprise us with a dozen or so species of fantasy critters, albeit a couple of which are simply mentioned in passing, not beheld.

    There is a smidgen of cussing (mostly uttered by Willow), as well as some booze (wine) and quasi-drugs (stardraught), but these are all rather mild and tasteful.  Some good guys get killed; some bad guys live to fright (sic) another day.  The standard fantasy elements of magic, prophecy, and the Chosen One are present.

    This may sound like a thousand other fantasy tales you’ve read, but the pacing is brisk, the action starts right away and doesn’t let up, the chapters are short, the storytelling drew me in, and there were just enough twists to keep me on my toes.  So The Door of Dreams is a cut or two above your average book in this genre.

    The two main questions running through the storyline are a.) is there anything to be done about Willow’s brain tumor, and b.) from Willow’s perspective, how much of this is “real”, and how much is just a dream?  The former is answered surprisingly early (there are things that even stardraught can’t cure); the latter is unresolved, and I suspect it may be a motif throughout the series.

Kewlest New Word…

Barbican (n.) : the outer defense of a castle or walled city, especially a double tower above a gate or drawbridge..

Excerpts...

    “Here we are,” he said, handing her a steaming cup.

    Willow sipped at it.  It tasted of autumn and its aroma was that of bonfires on a November evening.

    “What is this?”

    Henu sat down on a chair and beamed at her, “It is a very special brew called stardraught.  It heals.  It strengthens.  It makes things better.”

    Willow drank some more.  She could feel it making her fingers and toes tingle with warmth.  “I think it’s time for me to wake up now.”

    “Wake up?” he asked, brow creasing, “so, you think me a dream, friend Willow?”  (loc. 136)

   “Am I real?  What could it mean to me if I was not?  These are hard questions but I believe people in your world ask them also.”

    “You’ve got that right, I guess.”

    “So, if I am not here, if I am just a dream, a thought, an image then I am one which can weep, shout, be hurt, cry, and love all the same.  I am more than a word because I have a name and perhaps you gave me this name.  If so, then you are something more than just a friend to me.  You named me, you shaped me, you made me what I am and, for this, I say I will not abandon you to whatever fate in waiting.”  (loc. 1342)

Kindle Details...

    The Door of Dreams sells for $0.99 at Amazon, and keep in mind that the rest of this series has not been published yet.  Greg James has a dozen or so other e-books available, ranging in price from $0.99-$2.99, with a couple of them for free.  Most of his books are 200 pages or slightly shorter.  I think his pricing strategy is very effective for attracting readers.

 “Remember us, Willow Grey, even a dreamed world is a precious thing.”  (loc. 275)

    There are some quibbles, but they are minor.  First off, there’s a map and a gIossary, both of which have got to be very useful.  But they are in the back of the book, so I didn’t discover them until I had finished.  Yes, there are links to both in the Table of Contents, but who bothers with that when starting an e-book?  These should be moved to the front.

    Second, there’s no build-up to a climactic ending, the story just sort of stops to catch its breath after 182 pages of action.  This is way better than resorting to a banal cliffhanger.  But with the book being so short, I wonder whether it would be preferable to combine Books 1 and 2 and build the tension to a properly exciting ending.  Of course, this is speculative, since Book 2 isn’t here yet.

    Finally, the whole brain tumor thing left  me somewhat befuddled.  Does it contribute to the story?  If it were omitted from the plotline, what would change?  Admittedly, this may well take on some new, twisty importance in the next book, after which I may have to withdraw my quibble.

    7½ Stars.  Don’t let the quibbles dissuade you from reading The Door of Dreams.  I found it to be a page-turner, and will probably buy the sequels when they come out.  In the meantime, I’ll content myself with the two “Book One Freebies” that kick off a couple of other series by Greg James.