Book Review: Feast of Darkness Part 1 (Four Feasts till Darkness, Book 4) by Christian A. Brown

Feast of Darkness Part 1 (Four Feasts till Darkness, Book 4)

by Christian A. Brown
September 25, 2018
Publisher: Forsythia Press
ASIN: B07HD7KLWB ISBN: 9780994014436
“The end of the world begins at the far end of the world”

Throughout the world of Geadhain, for mortals, Immortals, and Dreamers alike, the tides of war have ebbed and flowed for eons. For Morigan and Caenith and their courageous companions, that tide has become a tsunami as they continue their treacherous journey into the strange shifting land of Pandemonia—where they are near to discovering a mythic relic to use against the Black Queen. Meanwhile, the citizens of Eod and the surviving elements of Menos ready their shaky alliance in a last stand against Death and her ghoulish unliving hordes; while King Magnus, Queen Lila, and Erik abandon humanity’s last bastion and venture north into a hostile world scoured by shrieking blizzards and walls of ice en route to their own confrontation with the enraged spirit of Winter herself and a historic evil embodied by the monstrous Kinlords.

Across sundry fantastical landscapes, familiar heroes are edging toward individual destinies that even the Sisters Three are unable to fully discern, as Fate continues to weave and reweave its murky tapestry. Nothing is certain except that should the Wolf and the Fawn fail in their looming apocalyptic clash with the mad king himself, all will be lost for the people of Geadhain.
In this fourth book in the fantasy series, we continued with Morigan’s story, adding new characters, not in the first three novels. It begins with a recap, to catch you up or remind the reader of events in the past books.

Kinlord sacrifices a captive seeking a bargain with the spirit of Winter. Swears the lives of his first three sons, their blood spilled in the same chamber his ancestors first outwitted the original keepers of the North. From there, the novel goes on to the Sisters of Fate in the middle of the assault on Camp Fury to defeating Amunai in the end. Most of all, we get the thread of Morigan and her mate, Caenith, as they search for a weapon to stop the Black Queen. So many subplots within the pages to get lost in, all that are part of the main story.

Christian A. Brown mixes fantasy with science fiction, steampunk, and even horror, so this book, like the others, is a complex mixture that keeps you on your toes. It is not boring. I do warn, even with the glossary in the beginning and the recap, you should read the other three in order.

If you enjoyed Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and George RR Martin’s fantasy series, along with the science fiction series of Dune, you will enjoy this series. With winter almost here, this series will make for great reading.

Review: Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 1)
Review: Feast of Dreams (Four Feasts Till Darkness #2)
Review: Feast of Chaos (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 3)


I give Feast of Darkness (Part 1) 5 sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Feast of Fates, Christian A. Brown received a Kirkus star in 2014 for the first novel in his genre-changing Four Feasts Till Darkness series. He has appeared on Newstalk 1010, AM640, Daytime Rogers, and Get Bold Today with LeGrande Green. He actively writes a blog about his mother’s journey with cancer and on gender issues in the media. A lover of the weird and wonderful, Brown considers himself an eccentric with a talent for cat-whispering.

Book Review: Feast of Chaos (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 3) by Christian A. Brown

Feast of Chaos (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 3)

by Christian A. Brown

September 23, 2016
Publisher: Forsythia Press
Pages: 698
ASIN: B01M1ESQ3Y ISBN: 9780994014429
Menos has been destroyed. No corner of the realm of Geadhain is safe from the Black Queen’s hunger. Zionae—or the Great Dreamer, as she has been called in ancient tongues—has a thirst that cannot be quenched until all of Geadhain burns and bleeds. She preys on the minds of weak men and exploits human folly for an unhuman end. She cannot be defeated in her current state, but the answer to her downfall may lie in the land of her past.

It is with this aim that a Daughter of Fate, Morigan, and her brave and true companions venture to the mysterious Pandemonia, the land of chaos itself. Ancient secrets and even older power lurk in its swamps and deserts. Life itself becomes uncertain, but the Hunters of Fate have no choice: Pandemonia must give up its secrets if they want to find the Black Queen’s weakness.

Elsewhere in the realm, alliances form and break. Dead men rise and heroes fall. Eod prepares for war. In hiding, Lila, the bearer of its destruction, will be given a chance to atone and answer for her sins. Will her actions save Eod, or has she damned it with her crimes?

This is the third book in the dark, gritty, epic fantasy series. Christian A. Brown continues the delicate dance of progressing the possible destruction of Geadhain with the struggle to save it. Daughter of Fate, Morigan is back with Caenith as they lead their pack into another round of excitement, battles, success and emotional revelations. It grows more complicated when they’re split into two packs and their goals switched up. No matter, they forge on to stay ahead of the Black Queen and her followers.

But theirs isn’t the only arc in this novel. There is Lila (Magnus’s queen) and his adopted son/her lover, Erik. Also, the immortal Everfair king, Magnus, Gustavius, the Iron Queen, Gloriatrix, and many others. 

Besides a wolf shapeshifter, Caenith, there are blood eaters, who normally look terrifying and horrible, but can disguise themselves as human women. There are other monsters too. The story begins with the three sisters (crone, woman, and child) and it ends with them. There are several sub-plots, just like in the previous two books, that the author sums up in the finale, concluding all the plots into one. And yet, we sense there is more to this story—that it hasn’t ended.

The characters are well-developed and drive this fantasy series. There are battles, quests, heroes, and villains. Romance, death, betrayal, and new beginnings. Everything a fantasy fan looks for in their books. If George RR Martin had a child with JRR Tolkien, this series might be the result.

Review: Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 1)
Review: Feast of Dreams (Four Feasts Till Darkness #2)

I give Feast of Chaos (Book Three of The Four Feasts Until Darkness Series) 5 sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Goodreads-G+

Bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Feast of Fates, Christian A. Brown received a Kirkus star in 2014 for the first novel in his genre-changing Four Feasts Till Darkness series. He has appeared on Newstalk 1010, AM640, Daytime Rogers, and Get Bold Today with LeGrande Green. He actively writes a blog about his mother’s journey with cancer and on gender issues in the media. A lover of the weird and wonderful, Brown considers himself an eccentric with a talent for cat-whispering.

Book Review: Feast of Dreams (Four Feasts Till Darkness #2) by Christian A. Brown

Feast of Dreams (Four Feasts Till Darkness #2)
by Christian A. Brown

Paperback, 576 pages
June 29th 2015

by Forsythia Press
As two queens plot each other's destruction, a small band of adventurers continues its quest for the knowledge needed to defeat the mad King Brutus and his unearthly parasite, the Black Queen. Their search brings Morigan and the Wolf to the perilous forests of Alabion, where they and their companions will face the darkness of their pasts-and discover equally dark destinies.

Meanwhile, far from Alabion, the queens of the East and West continue their deadly dance. One seeks a relic of great power, while the other puts her faith in a mix of military and technomagikal force. Both are aware they have a slim window of opportunity to settle their power struggle-after all, Mad Brutus's recent defeat is at best a setback. The mad king is already amassing a new army of soulless husks in the wastelands of Mor'Khul.

Unknown to the great powers struggling for control, a father and son wander those same wastelands, scavenging what they can as they weather Brutus's gathering storm. They too have a role to play in Geadhain's fate-a role which may just provide a last remnant of hope.

Excerpt

“Fine playing,” said Maggie.

The Silk Purse’s proprietor sat down at the table where the night’s entertainment fiddled with his lute’s strings. The bard glanced up and smiled at her with his eyes, although he kept on tinkering and tuning to the pitch of his voice. Maggie watched him for a spell. The man was mystifying. He was as distant as a dream one forgot and so far into himself, his music, or some secret obsession that she might as well have been elsewhere. He was certainly handsome, though, and in their short conversations today, he’d proven a capable and witty talker. She wanted a bit more of his talk.

“Will you be staying on another night?” she asked. “Before heading back to…”

She realized that in all their discussions, the man had never told her where he had come from—or where he was headed. Or much about himself at all. Even stranger, she couldn’t pin down how she’d made his acquaintance. Had he come knocking at the tavern door yesterday? Had he smiled a dashing hello with a lute over his back and a promise to play for coin? That seemed right.

“Would you like me to stay?” he asked suddenly.

He grinned from ear to ear and displayed his offer of companionship as confidently as the fox he reminded her of strutting around the henhouse and picking its prey. She could see him evaluating her body—her full breasts, strong hips, thick, wind-tossed hair, and comely face. She was as chipped and beautiful as a sculptor’s favorite piece. She wore her hardship plainly, but it had not dulled her beauty, and he seemed to appreciate her weathered self. As for the fox’s proposal, Maggie was a sensible self-made woman without need for a man. Once or maybe twice a year, she took one to her bed, but she never asked him to stay or even to break a morning fast with her. Whatever her hesitations, when the fox smiled—fiery and daring—she lit up and felt as warm as a woman sinking into a bath. A decision was made. A little outside of herself, she slid his hand over hers. She reinforced her agreement by standing up from the table and leading him past her tired staff as they cleaned up the night’s mess and rolled the drunks outside. The trip up the stairs and into her chambers was fuzzy. Suddenly, they were alone and kissing in the dark. He whispered of her beauty. “Like a cameo of Diasora,” he declared.

She wondered who Diasora was while he plucked his fingers upon and within her as though she were his lute. They tumbled into chairs, onto the carpet, and onto the bed. She wasn’t sure where they were half the time. She swallowed his hardness just as he ate and kissed the mouth between her thighs. Together they rolled and tumbled about in the dark and moaned in ecstasy. She rode him against the wall and swallowed his gasps as he spilled himself inside her. It was careless, and she should have known better. Apologetically and with a perverted grin, he cleaned out with his tongue what he had done, and passion carried her mind away again. Through the haze of their sex, she would remember his handsome smell—vanilla, subtle incense, and sweeter herbs such as marjoram. Sometimes he sang to her ears while playing the instrument of her body. She would most remember this—his passion and musicality.

When they finished, dawn had come. It cast its hard rays though the curtains and into their humid nest of sin. Maggie should have felt embarrassed or shamed even, but instead she snuggled into her lover’s taut flesh while he continued caressing her breasts. Milk drops, the bard called them, for their pendulous whiteness and succulence. She chuckled as he said it. She would have slapped any other man who made nicknames for portions of her anatomy.

“Where will you go?” she asked.

She knew this was a fleeting encounter. Men as artistic at loving as he were called to greater passions than women.

Alastair kissed her breast. “Well, I shall stay in Taroch’s Arm a while longer. I have another task to which I must attend. One more meeting after this.” He sighed and looked off with his multicolored stare to count the ceiling’s lines.

Maggie snuggled into him further until she realized what he’d admitted. “Wait! Meeting? Is that what this is? What is your aim?”

She leaped from the bed. Alastair went after her and backed her into a corner. He appeared stricken and white from regret. Rather brazenly, he kissed her so deeply she lost her breath. Although Maggie allowed it, she slapped him as soon as their lips parted. He grinned and rubbed his cheek. “What fire you have!” he said, adding sadly, “How much you remind me of a woman I once knew. Do understand. This is not how I had planned our parley. I am not ungrateful, though, for this turn of events. I would stay for a thousand kisses more if I could. However, my master is most demanding of my time.”

“Master?” she exclaimed.

“You are fortunate, Maggie. Most serve masters and destinies from which we cannot break. You have made so much of yourself without the hands of others. Despairingly, I must ask this of you. It’s a task you cannot refuse.”

I can, and I shall, she thought. No man, not even a roguish wanderer, could boss her around. Then the fox whispered a secret and those familiar names to her: Thackery, Caenith, Rowena, and Galivad. By the time he was done, she had no resolve to argue. She had only an unwanted urgency to pack, make quick arrangements for the Silk Purse’s managerial duties, and leave. She had no choice—not with so many lives at stake. While she busied herself about her apartment, the bard came to kiss her a final time, and they fell onto the bed. For all their grinding, they did not make love. Soon he stopped, studied her, and soaked in her beauty. Maggie closed her eyes. She would not watch him leave. When she was certain he had gone, she pulled her sturdiest boots from under her bed and put them on.

Review

This fantasy novel that continues where Feast of Fates left off. Two queens trying to find a way to bring about each other's destruction and yet they both struggle to act quickly while the king is at a disadvantage and before his army can come into full power. Morigan and her blood-mate, the wolf, as well as the rest of the group have to travel down dangerous paths and through the darkness in the land of Alabion and they each must face very dark monsters and terrors and surviving will change them all. Love and family are the central themes of this novel.

Feast of Dreams is a worthy sequel to the first book in this Four Feasts Till Darkness series. I cannot wait until the next book.

Book reveiw: Feast of Fates (book #1 Four Feasts Till Darkness)

I give Feast of Dreams 4 sheep

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Goodreads-G+

Bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Feast of Fates, Christian A. Brown received a Kirkus star in 2014 for the first novel in his genre-changing Four Feasts Till Darkness series. He has appeared on Newstalk 1010, AM640, Daytime Rogers, and Get Bold Today with LeGrande Green. He actively writes a blog about his mother’s journey with cancer and on gender issues in the media. A lover of the weird and wonderful, Brown considers himself an eccentric with a talent for cat-whispering.

Book Review: Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 1) by Christian A. Brown

Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 1)
by Christian A. Brown
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. and Createspace.
ISBN: 9781495907586
AISN: B00NMFX03Y
July 28, 2014.
Morigan lives a quiet life as the handmaiden to a fatherly old sorcerer named Thackery. But when she crosses paths with Caenith, a not wholly mortal man, her world changes forever. Their meeting sparks long buried magical powers deep within Morigan. As she attempts to understand her newfound abilities, unbidden visions begin to plague her—visions that show a devastating madness descending on one of the Immortal Kings who rules the land.

With Morigan growing more powerful each day, the leaders of the realm soon realize that this young woman could hold the key to their destruction. Suddenly, Morigan finds herself beset by enemies, and she must master her mysterious gifts if she is to survive.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/8E_RVXgpqB8

Morigan runs into Caenith who is an immortal shapeshifter and she begins to change, as the powers within her are released. She has what she calls ‘bees,’ that enable her to get into another’s head and know their past and their thoughts. This helps her, especially when she is kidnapped by a fiend from the iron kingdom of Menos. More than her own powers developing, there is her blood connection with Caenith, becoming his bloodmate. When she is taken, he goes after her with the sorcerer she had worked for, Thackery. Thackery who has connections to Menos himself and who does not want to return, but will for the girl he feels fatherly affection for.

There are other characters in this fantasy, Mouse, the Immortsl Kings, Magnus and Brutus (who are attached to each other like Siamese twins, just not skin to skin), Magnus’ wife, Queen Lila, The Queen’s Sword, and many more, both good and evil. The book is 540 pages, so you will get to know them from their point of views.

A mesh of Lord of the Rings, with flowery writing, and George R.R. Martin’s grittier, realistic high fantasy, with steampunk thrown in (the iron city of Menos plus the carriages that flew through the air even in Eod), Feast of Fates was a mixed bag for me. I admit to some issues with the story (the writer in me)—could have been edited in a few spots which would made less pages, but the story shows promise and it caught me enough at the end to want to see where Mr. Brown takes the characters in the second book.

A fan of George R.R. Martin, JRR Tolkien, and other fantasies? Add in steampunk, along with traces of science fiction, paranormal romance, action/adventure, and even a historical feel for those who enjoy that and this may be the novel for you. It will take you away from the mundane world and draw you into a fantastic adventure. Just don’t forget your sword.

I give Feast of Fates (Four Feasts Till Darkness) (Volume 1) four magical wizard sheep.

Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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“Christian A. Brown has written creatively since the age of six. After spending most of his career in the health and fitness industry, Brown quit his job to care for his mother when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2010.

Having dabbled with the novel that would eventually become Feast of Fates for over a decade, Brown was finally able to finish the project. His mother, who was able to read a beginning version of the novel before she passed away, has since imbued the story with deeper sentiments of loss, love, and meaning. He is proud to now share the finished product with the world.”