Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: CIBA Grand Prize Winners

THE SCALES Of BALANCE: A Vengeful Realm Book 1 by Tim Facciola – Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Political Intrigue

The Scales of Balance opens with an amnesiac gladiator, a queen certain her husband must die for the sake of the kingdom, and a prince who will do anything to save his father. Tim Facciola’s first novel in the high fantasy series A Vengeful Realm is threaded through with plots of assassination and political intrigue, all fueled by a divine struggle for dominance.

A Vengeful Realm is a study in richness. Its characters, setting, and world-building, the vital elements for a strong fantasy, pull the reader into the land of New Rheynia where the most valuable currencies are loyalty and power.

Facciola excels at characterization, beginning with an engaging tapestry of backgrounds.

The gladiator Zephyrus’ first memories are in a temple hearing the words of a prophecy that he can’t understand. Depending on the interpretation, he could bring peace or destruction. His only guide is his iron morality, which he hopes is enough to bring him back to who he once was.

Prince Laeden discovers a Revivalist plot to assassinate the king. This splinter group is displeased with his father’s handling of mages in New Rheynia, thinking exile and banishment to be too soft of a punishment for those who would blaspheme against the Six Gods of Valencia. But the last person Laeden would suspect is his stepmother, Queen Danella, who plots against King Varros from his marriage bed. And that’s just chapter one.

Facciola’s high-fantasy world feels like a finely tuned watch. As the characters come to life, they move inexorably toward the only choice they truly have.

A study in freedom and free will, the question of what rights and choices the enslaved gladiators who surround Zephyrus have features strongly in the book. With factions vying for control, the Uprising of enslaved who push back against their torment are a prominent force to be reckoned with, and an easy scapegoat for darker and more powerful groups to blame their own enterprises on.

The disgust Zephyrus feels with being a gladiator fighting for the entertainment of a gilded cast is not shared by all of his new brothers in arms. Some resent his prowess with a blade, others ridicule him for spitting on the honor of their house, and still more are drawn to him for what his prophecy might mean for all those forced into bondage.

As the first book in a series, The Scales of Balance lights dozens of fuses that begin to burn and cross over each other. Careful readers who adore titanic fantasy authors like Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan will be thrilled at the plots within plots and intrigue behind every move.

With the fate of a kingdom in the balance, tension is sky high from the very beginning. Multiple points of view allow the reader to see how Queen Danella stays one step ahead of her stepson, and the little ways in which Zephyrus and Prince Laeden are able to subvert and close in on her machinations. Death waits around every corner for those who misstep, and each character knows it, uncertain from where the next strike will come or where it will land.

All told, Tim Facciola’s A Vengeful Realm takes its place with the best caliber of high fantasy books.

The story of Zephyrus and the world of New Rheynia isn’t one of might makes right and violence putting evil in its place. It believes a different path is possible, that hope for the future is not just a dream, but a necessary reality to push back against cruelty in power.

The Scales of Balance: A Vengeful Realm Book 1 by Tim Facciola won Overall Grand Prize in the 2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards.

November 13, 2024
A SEA Of GLASS: The Stockbridge Series Book 3 by Gail Avery Halverson – Historical Fiction, Colonial America, Slavery

A Sea of Glass by Gail Avery Halverson is a sweeping historical novel that captivates readers as it takes us from the bustling world of Colonial Boston to the shores of Barbados. But the island’s burgeoning sugar industry harbors dark secrets for those trapped there, either by circumstance or by slavery.

The colonial backdrop is brimming with conflict. Businesses struggle under British taxation enforced by the hated Red Coats. With the dangers of traveling through pirate—and privateer—infested waters, there are more than enough shifting winds to keep readers engaged until the very end.

Lady Catherine Abbott-McKensie, her physician husband Simon McKensie, and their daughter Charlotte, enjoy the pace of life in Colonial Boston, but their peace does not last long.

After a very personal tragedy, Catherine starts imagining life would be better in her homeland of England. But when a free black woman who works for the McKensie’s attempts to do something out of the ordinary, Catherine finds she has reason to stay in Boston and stand up for what she believes is right.

Catherine’s not the only soul struggling in this tenuous world of Colonial America.

Her brother Charles is planning to invest in a sugar plantation in Barbados. He soon sets sail with his wife, Arabella, to visit the plantation in person. But on their way, they are beset by pirates and are separated from each other. Eventually, Arabella makes her way back to Boston, but her trauma from the pirate attack renders her nearly mute.

News of the plundered ship sends Simon to Barbados to find Charles, and they both discover the dark underside of the “Barbados Plan to Prosperity.” A plan with dire costs to both Catherine, Arabella, and the slaves who smolder at their unjust treatment.

A Sea of Glass includes excellently researched details, but its greatest strength is the relationships between the characters.

The reader will find themselves invested in everyone’s lives, both in their successes and perils. The rich emotion behind these characters will make readers empathize deeply with them.

As the third book in the saga of Lady Catherine Abbott and Simon McKensie, A Sea of Glass artfully shares the details a new reader would need, while not frustrating returning fans.

Any lover of historical fiction will find a meaningful read in A Sea of Glass, with the preceding Stockbridge Series fully living up to it.

A Sea of Glass by Gail Avery Halverson won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Chatelaine Awards for Romantic Fiction.

October 28, 2024
THE LAST MAN: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman – Historical Thrillers, Criminal History, Great Depression

In The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman, four men in a small, depression-era Texas town lay in wait to carry out their unique plan for a holiday heist.

It’s December 23 and a man in a Santa Claus suit walks into a bank. But rather than his bag full of Christmas surprises, he’s brought a gun. With the element of surprise on their side, the robber and his two partners would collect the cash, while another partner waited in the getaway car. It all seemed so simple.

At the time, Texas bankers—in order to deter crimes such as this—promised a $5,000 reward for any dead bandits, “and not one cent” for the capture of a live one. Should anything go wrong, the possibilities for disaster were clear as a Greek tragedy, but what could go wrong?

Guns blaze within minutes of entering the bank.

Robbers are shot. Two lawmen—including a popular sheriff—die. In swift order, the criminals are captured, and Texas-style justice insures the death penalty is on the table for all four men.

But that’s just the beginning of this 20^thcentury western crime novel.

Based on a true story, we learn the sad tales of the four men who came together, mostly as strangers, to commit the robbery. We follow each of them through their individual court trials, as the prosecutors howl for bloody vengeance and the defense battles to keep each of them from the electric chair.

In the end, they all are found guilty and put on the court’s—and the public’s—“naughty” list. Two face the harshest possible punishment, and one dies at the hands of a violent mob who drags him from his jail cell and hangs him after an attempted prison escape goes terribly wrong.

However, one of the four does survive his sentence.

Despite multiple escape attempts and clashes with the law, the last of the four men avoids the harsh sentences handed down to the other robbers and instead gets a shot at a real life even with his criminal past.

This book intrigues readers with each robber’s individual odyssey, their prison lives, escape attempts, and the unrelenting searches to bring them back.

Particularly gut-wrenching are the descriptions of life for at least one of the men on Death Row. He awaits execution behind what the prisoners refer to as “the little green door,” an iron door that closes behind each condemned man as he faces the grim fate that looms just a few steps away.

One of these condemned men watches as 13 of his fellow prisoners are executed. Man after man, they take that long walk to the little green door as gospel music from an old needle-drop phonograph announces the electric chair. We feel his anxiety as he wonders how many days are left until he will walk the same path. And as he watches the others take their final steps, he is propelled to a horribly rash and dark act.

The Last Man brings readers into the center of these men’s lives through a poignant selection of details.

Goodman not only presents the facts of their lives—he delivers the quality of those lives. These are no heroes. There’s not much to sympathize with. But they all deserve better than what they got under the harsh hand of Texas justice.

Fans of true crime should put this book at the top of their list.

The Last Man by Thomas Goodman won Grand Prize in the 2023 CIBA Laramie Awards for Americana fiction.

Thomas Goodman’s The Last Man is on sale as a Kindle ebook for 99¢ until Saturday, Oct 26th, 2024.

October 23, 2024