Starlight by William Stacey. Finally, a book I really enjoyed. I haven't reviewed in a long while, at least not any indie author requests, and I have hundreds waiting, so to get back into things I went through my long list of queries and picked one I thought I would like. I picked well.
First of all, I want to thank Mr. Stacey for getting back to me so quickly with an e-copy. I had about 30 books to review, none of which really interested me, and the one I had chosen had a mishap in the formatting about half-way through. So, late last night I was scrambling to get a book I would enjoy because I'd have to marathon read it today. I sent out 3 e-mail responses to 3 book review requests which interested me, and Mr. Stacey was the first to respond with an e-copy of his novel. I'm normally a lot more organized, but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things.
Now, on with the review. Starlight is like Stargate meets R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden. This was both a wonderful thing, and a terrible thing. You may not make that connection, but I did, and as a result I found myself routing against the human race in favor of the invading Maelhrandia (the antagonist). I had to switch my mindset and picture Maelhrandia as one of Drizzt's sisters, or his mother to get over this. Mr. Stacey humanizes the dark elf woman, though, so I found myself sympathizing with her more often than not. The Dark Elf hierarchy is like that from the Drizzt series, and I couldn't help but feel like Maelhrandia was just being used by her mother, like Drizzt was by his.
The military is playing around with interdimensional travel(Operation Rubicon), and send a special ops group to a strange new world. The world is home of the banished Dark Elf race, who attack, capture or kill, all but one of the soldiers (Buck). In a hasty retreat, the team slips back through the portal, but with their limited understanding of how the gate works, they don't fully close the door. The queen of the Dark Elves sends her daughter Maelhrandia (a scout-mage) through the gate to see what has become of the "Old World" they were banished from.
Upon breaking through to our world with her large, wolf-like minions, and her basilisk, Maelhrandia unintentionally awakens a dormant power in a small portion of the human populace. Less than a dozen people fall into comas from the event, but only three ever wake up: Cassie (a misfit, orphaned, college drop-out), Elizabeth (Religious nut from a broken family), and Duncan (A nerdy, doof). The rest are too weak to withstand the change, and die.
With hellhounds, basilisks, and dark elves on the loose, the combined U.S. and Canadian governments turn to these three young mag-sens (magic sensitive humans) to help them fight off the invasion.
Pressure for positive results from the military hierarchy result in the worst circumstances and the elite force finds itself mired deeper and deeper in the dark elf woman's cunning trap. One elf woman with her pet basilisk tear through the army like paper, and you can't help but wonder what would happen when the matriarch dark elf mother invades with full force.
The story is well-formed, paced, and intriguing. I read it in about 12 hours, so it was a bit of a marathon read, but it was one of the most enjoyable indie books I've read since I started this project. This could easily be picked up by the big five if the author so wished.
I give it
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