{"id":267,"date":"2014-04-02T14:43:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T18:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=267"},"modified":"2014-04-02T14:43:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T18:43:16","slug":"book-review-chained-by-fear-by-jim-melvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Chained by Fear by Jim Melvin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Chained by Fear<\/i>, book two in Jim Melvin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death Wizard Chronicles, begins the story of Laylah, the beautiful sister of the evil sorcerer Invictus.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Invictus has imprisoned Laylah in a magical tower, hoping that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll one day become his queen and rule the world of Triken with him.<\/p>\n

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Laylah, however, happens to be the sane one in the family.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s repulsed at the thought of marrying her own brother, let alone spending her life with a depraved lunatic with god-like powers.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s locked away for seventy years\u00e2\u20ac\u201dher demon blood gives her long life\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbefore finally escaping with the help of Invictus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s former allies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While on the run, she meets Torg the Death-Knower, a powerful wizard in his own right.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We last saw Torg in\u00c2\u00a0Forged in Death<\/a><\/i>, after he had escaped Invictus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vile prison and made some roguish friends.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0When Laylah and Torg meet, sparks fly.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Literally.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They are drawn to each other in a supernatural passion that neither can explain.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They only know that their fates are entwined and that they will live or die together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But Invictus has something to say about this.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He unleashes his hideous minions to retrieve Laylah and finally destroy the Death-Knower, the one being in all of Triken that can oppose him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When you pick up a Jim Melvin novel, you know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in for two things:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(1) Melvin excels at world-building.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Triken\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cultures, magic, and monsters all resonate with real-world mythologies.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But Melvin adds unique twists that make them at once familiar and alien.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(2) Melvin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death Wizard Chronicles are adult fantasy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Make no mistake, this series if far more G.R.R. Martin than J.R.R. Tolkien due to its sexual content and violence.\u00c2\u00a0 However,\u00c2\u00a0I did not think the sex and violence were gratuitous, and I thought it helped illustrate either the depravity or kindness of the characters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chained by Fear<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0resolves a minor quibble I had with\u00c2\u00a0Forged in Death<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Torg was too powerful in book one, and nothing could hurt him unless he allowed it.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the challenge that Superman’s writers have dealt with for decades: how do you make readers worry about a character who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be hurt?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Melvin solved this by giving Torg cherished friends.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He may not die if he fails, but his friends surely will, and in gruesome ways.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Torg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s adventures were far more harrowing this time around, and gave him the chance to demonstrate his honor and strength while he protected the people he loves.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Melvin nicely sets up a character in Torg who is the polar opposite of the wicked Invictus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And the fact they love the same woman will make their inevitable battle viciously personal.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Highly recommended.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chained by Fear<\/a><\/i>, and the\u00c2\u00a0Death Wizard Chronicles<\/a>, are available on Amazon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[Note:\u00c2\u00a0 Cross-posted at The New Podler Review of Books<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chained by Fear, book two in Jim Melvin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Death Wizard Chronicles, begins the story of Laylah, the beautiful sister of the evil sorcerer Invictus.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Invictus has imprisoned Laylah in a magical tower, hoping that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll one day become his queen and rule the world of Triken with him. Laylah, however, happens to be the sane one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,20,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-books","category-ebooks","category-novels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robsteinerauthor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}