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In This LitStack Rec – The Last Days of Magic and Extra-Ordinary Adventures
ISBN: 9780143110019
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Pub date: Mar 7, 2017
The Last Days of Magic, by Mark Tomkins
Bookmarked in a modern day mystery, Mark Tomkin’s debut novel, The Last Days of Magic, is mainly set in Medieval Ireland, where magic and religion wrestle for dominance in a changing world.
Twin sisters Anya and Aisling have been declared the living aspect of the goddess Morrígna, trained since birth to rule over both the Sidhe and Celts. But days before their coronation on their fourteenth birthday, treachery sunders them and imperils the bond between the magical and the mundane. Attacked by both the Skeaghshee (a tribe within the Sidhe) who have aligned themselves with the powerful Roman Church, and the military might of King Richard of England, Aisling and the mystical denizens of the Middle Kingdom must fight to keep from complete eradication.
The Last Days of Magic is both a historical novel, bringing in such personages as Cardinal Orsini, Queen Isabeau of France, and Geoffrey Chaucer, and a fanciful retelling of Celtic legend and mythology. Wonderfully detailed and crackling with life, the story does justice to political intrigue which spans centuries, the pull of forbidden knowledge, the corruptive force of the promise of power, and the marvel of magic that lives in the very bones of the land. Author Mark Tomkins is able to spin a mesmerizing tale bolstered by immaculate research that allows fairy tales to ring as true as church doctrine.
Jordan finally, truly understood why the Roman Church had tried to keep people out of Ireland, why they were determined to destroy its Ardor now. How could they be the exclusive voice with and for God when God was so clearly everywhere here? How could kings claim divine selection when so much divinity was in everyone and everything?
And yet, this is not a simple “us versus them” morality tale. Many of the characters in The Last Days of Magic grapple with their roles in the ensuing conflicts (while others are grimly single-minded in their purpose, morality be damned), and the ideological clashes ring just as loudly as the actions taken on their behalf. There is evil here, and betrayal and blind ambition, but there is also hope and belief and loyalty. It’s a well written, sweeping, achingly beautiful tale that should entice those who love fantasy, those who love history, and those who simply love a good read.
—Sharon Browning
Buy The Last Days of Magic Today!
ISBN: 9781250118448
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub date: Sept. 4, 2024
Extra-Ordinary Adventures, by Daniel Wallace
From the author of Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions (the basis of the lovely Tim Burton film Big Fish) comes another wonderful tale about how even the most ordinary of lives can change, given the chance to believe that something unlooked for might actually be possible.
Edsel Bronfman lives a pretty lackluster life. A 34 year old shipping clerk in Birmingham, Alabama, he’s the type of fellow who floats through his life, rarely wondering if there is more to living than what is held in his dead end job, his seedy apartment and his collection of complimentary ball point pens.
Then one day, something amazing happens. Out of the blue, he gets a call from a company called Extra-ordinary Adventures, telling him that he’s won an expense paid weekend stay in Destin, Florida at the Sandscape Condominiums, complete with complimentary continental breakfast. All that needs to be done in order to claim this prize is for him and his companion – wife, girlfriend, partner, whatever – to attend a one hour time-sharing seminar once they arrive at the beach front property.
Bronfman (he rarely goes by Edsel) takes this as a sign that his life is about to change. There’s only one problem. It’s a couples-only opportunity, and he’s never in his life been part of a couple, and currently has absolutely no potentials in his life. None, zero, zilch. Hasn’t for years – actually, not ever. Now, he has 79 days to find someone willing to spend a weekend on the beach with him. And amazingly, he decides to make it happen.
What follows is an absolutely wonderful tale of Bronfman as the days until the offer expires count down. But it’s not just his quest to secure a girlfriend – or, in fact, any woman who would be willing to share a condo in Florida with him for the weekend. It’s also a glimpse into Bronfman’s life, and the people he shares it with: his free-spirited mother who is quickly spiraling down into dementia, his shifty neighbor and the chain smoking young woman who hangs around next door, the smarmy co-worker who is the bane of Bronfman’s working life but also one of his only friends.
Then there is the quirky receptionist in the building where Bronfman works, who he thinks might be companion material, until she disappears the very day he’s worked up enough courage to ask her out.
It’s a charming, quietly unfolding tale where we see Bronfman subtly change from a forgettable man who had been content to let life slide by into someone who suddenly has potential for something more – perhaps even something extraordinary, regardless of possessing none of the skills to grasp it. Extra-ordinary Adventures is an uplifting (and sometimes heartbreaking) novel that will make you realize that even the most ordinary of lives can harbor amazing stories, if you simply take the time to listen.
Highly, highly recommended.
—Sharon Browning
Buy Extra-Ordinary Adventures Today!
Other LitStack Resources
Be sure and look at our other LitStack Reviews for our recommendations on books you should read, including reviews by Lewis Buzbee, Lauren Alwan, Allie Coker, Rylie Fong, and Sharon Browning. Also be sure and look at our other LitStack Recs for our recommendations on books you should read.
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