Greater Treasures starring Vern, DragonEye Private Eye

Welcome to the blog tour for Greater Treasures by Karina Fabian, part of the DragonEye series of novels and stories

 

Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 978-1484848296

ISBN-10: 1484848292

ASIN B00CEH934G

Create Space: https://www.createspace.com/4244586

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Greater-Treasures-DragonEye-Novella-ebook/dp/B00CEH934G  

Categories: fantasy, fantasy mystery, paranormal, urban fantasy, noir

Welcome to the world of Vern. Dragon Eye. Greater Treasures is Karina Fabian's initial foray into self-publishing and is a stand-alone story out of her on-going Dragoneye, P:I Fantasy series.

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern.  Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous.  When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure.  However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind.  Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

WORLDBUILDING—As a story, rather than a novel, we get only a glimpse of the larger world that encopampasses the bridging between Faerie and Mundane. We don't get to see much of the actual landscape that hosts the denizens of Faerie. We get a bit of the local alleys and neighborhoods from the sky, as Vern flies over. The world we do see is the usual one of power pursuits, keeping us grounded. We also get a glimpse of the magic that Sister Grace and Vern have access to. A glimpse. A hint and whiff of challenges explored elsewhere.

CHARACTERS—We get to see more of Vern, the African Faerie Wyvern, than we do any other character. I like that since I don't know him as well as I might. This is my introduction to him and his world. We meet Sister Grace briefly and also meet the ubiquitous police representatives. This is, after all, a detective story. Vern is charismatic. Not at all what I was expecting. (I won't embarasss myself by saying exactly what I was expecitng. Just say I was delighted to be wrong.)

PROS and CONS—I'm all pros here. I was expecting something more cartoony. (OK so I said I wouldn't tell). Instead, I found someone who carries the weight of remorse, responsibility and the hopw of redemption on very large shoulders. His humor comes out of a history of loss and the challenge of caring. His care for Sister Grace, a siren turned nun, drives this story.

FRESH FACTOR—Faerie Catholic Chuch? Nun mage? Yup. And if you had told me that this is what I would encounter, I'd have jumped on the stories long ago. I love the idea of taking the Mystery that suffuses Catholicism and using it to drive the “magic” of another world. Yes, there are cliche's being weilded here, but Karina uses our expectations to turn the story on Vern's wit.

OVERALL—My first response was to know what other stories I might fall into. Fortunately, Karina provies a guide at the end of this brief volume. She gives us a brief history of Vern and the opening of the barriers between Faerie and the Mundane. She also provides a couple of excerpts from her previous publications. All in all, this is a delightful introduction to Vern and his world. If you want to start at the beginning, or if you want to get better acquainted with Vern and his world, visit him at his website

http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/

Excerpt:

Given the day I was having, it came as no surprise that when I got home, I found the dogs sprawled in a drugged sleep and the sounds of things being overturned from within the warehouse. I decided not to bother with subtlety, but I did resist the urge to burst in with flames going full-blast. I had questions first.

Naturally, I walked straight in to find an automatic weapon—yep, a bona fide black-market AK-47—and I thought only Faerie lived their clichés—and six other weapons of various types pointed at me. I didn't stop, just closed the door with my tail while I strolled in slow and placid-like. My visitors had shaved heads, faces painted white with clown paint, and black t-shirts with swastikas in white circles.

"If you're the housekeeping service, you're fired."

"You stay right there, or we gonna fire you!" said one guy from the sidelines as he held his nunchucks at the ready.

What'd he think he would do—whack me on the nose? I turned to the one holding the assault rifle. "Scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one, weren't you?"

"He's right. You just stay still while we search the place."

"The place" was a ten-thousand square foot warehouse with offices on the upper floor. Boxes I still hadn't opened line the walls and made a maze in the second warehouse room. I settled myself on the floor and rested my head on my crossed arms. "Go ahead. I get half of anything you find."

They stared at me, unbelieving. I smiled back. Mr. Cooperation, that's me. Finally, Big Gun snarled for the others to get to work. As he turned his back on me, Nunchucks muttered, "I got your half. Don't think I don't." Guess he learned such witty repartee in Hitler Youth Summer Camp.

I watched and listened and waited. With eight teenage skinheads trashing my place, it was only a matter of time.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," I suggested as Nunchucks made a grab for the doorknob to Grace's workshop.

"You gonna stop me?" He turned the knob.

"Nope," I said as I closed my ears and my eyes. Even so, I saw the otherworldly light and heard the harmonious roar of Divine Vengeance followed by Mundane screams.

"The Heavenly Host on the other hand…"

I waited until the screams died down to whimpers before opening my eyes and rising.

Four of the skinheads were unconscious. Three may as well have been; they were curled up in the fetal position, whimpering. Nunchucks was actually crying for his mommy. Big Guns had collapsed to the floor as well, the gun thrown away from him. He was sitting and rocking and making high-pitched keening through the roof of his mouth.

I'd tell Grace to tone down her wards some, except that the effect is directly proportional to the evilness of the intent. Suddenly, I was feeling a little shaky about my earlier entrance.

Knights out of the armor now. I went around, collecting weapons in the office trash can and poking through pockets. I found the usual stuff—driver's licenses, credit cards, petty cash… One kid had a condom; wishful thinking on his part, I knew. Another had a report card. MLK High. Wonder if he was the one beating up Faerie kids? Honor roll grades, too. Of all the years I've battled evil, there were still some things I didn't understand.

As I was returning Big Guns' (aka Rick Matherston's) wallet back into his jacket pocket, he blinked and focused on me.

"What was that?"

"Angels, kid." Actually a kind of magical shadow of the real thing, but close enough.
"But I thought angels were—"

"There's a reason why their first words are usually 'Fear not!' whenever they meet a human."

His eyes returned to their unfocused stare. I almost felt sorry for him. Then I noticed the letters FARISLAR tattooed on his knuckles. Faerie slayer.

About Greater Treasures: Most people associate the DragonEye stories with high humor ranging from puns to slapstick, and in fact, the first stories and the novels have certainly been crazy fun. But the life of a cynical dragon PI isn’t all laughs, and Vern has had a few chilling stories to tell me. Some of these, I’ve sold to anthologies, but some are too long for that. Thus, I’ve decided to start publishing them on my own.

One thing I like to do for DragonEye stories is watch old noir films. Greater Treasures came to me while watching the Maltese Falcon. If you’ve never seen it, I recommend it. (Then, reread the story to see if you catch the in jokes.) I needed something with more “oomph” than a bird statue, and since Vern has some history with the Lance of Longinus, it made a good fit. I enjoyed looking up all the conspiracy theories about the use of the Lance by Hitler, which is where the neo-Nazi angle came in. To say more would be spoilers, so please, enjoy the story.

And if you do, be sure to check out Vern’s other tales at http://dragoneyepi.net.

E-book: Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

Grab bag: Vern gripes about the junk in his warehouse in Greater Treasures, but he and Grace have started going through boxes, and they’ve agreed to send something to one of my readers. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

About Karina Fabian--

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.

Find Karina at:

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net

Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian

Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Vern probably did some research here:

Lance of Longinus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Lance

and here:

Maltese Falcon: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/

and telling more of his story here:

Live and Let Fly: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/p/live-and-let-fly.html

Magic, Mensa and Mayhem: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/p/magic-mensa-and-mayhem.html

Book tour link with all the stops: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/2013/04/greater-treasures-book-tour.html
 

YA FANTASY REVIEW: SERAPHINA

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, YA Fantasy, 1^st in series

Cover by Andrew Davidson

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd.  Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend the court as ambassadors and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers.  As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered in suspiciously draconian fashion.  Serphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs.  While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift—one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

This is the debut novel for Rachel Hartman and it is an amazing achievement. She breaks the rules handed out to first time writers writing YA.  Don’t go over 375 pages, yet she comes in close to 500 pages.  Must have hooks and cliffhangers at the beginning of chapters and at the end of chapters, Ms. Hartman wrote a humdinger of an opening, but from there she didn’t worry about pushing the concept and just wrote an intriguing story with beautiful prose. 

The opening hook: I remember being born.

That I have to say is an awesome opening line and I had to know more.  Who is this person that remember her birth? 

Another point I want to bring up is that this book is different from most YA novels out today.  It is more intellectual and thought provoking.  Doesn’t rely on the “Oh my god, he’s to die for,” thinking and swooning from the heroine over some guy who has a body of god complete with ripped abs.  Honestly, I can’t remember any Greek statues having such developed bodies.  Here’s another pet peeve I have with most YA’s, the constant dribble streaming out of the heroine’s head that you just want to drown her to shut her up.  Sure we’re in the main protagonist’s head but do we have to hear wah, wah, wah, all the time. Ms. Hartman avoided these thankfully.

The world building:

They say a story is in the details and Hartman has created a solid medieval world and made it her own.  I can practically hear the gowns swishing in the halls and wondering who is going to clean those hems.  It is a full and believable society complete with religion, clothing, customs, different races, culture filled with books and music and more.  Plus, she has created dragons that on the most part keep their emotions in check, sort of like Mr. Spock, from Star Trek.  Hartman’s dragons can change their shape from dragons to humans and they wear a little bell signifying what they are.  I must admit although it’s a great element for the story, I found it difficult to imagine a dragon tall as a building folding down into a small human body.  But, of course werewolves do it all the time, don’t they?

The characters:

The main character is Seraphina who discovers she is half dragon and half-human with a magical power she doesn’t understand.  She takes the initiative to solve the murder of a royal personage while keeping her a secret of being a half-breed.  She’s a spunky character who sometimes speaks her mind without thinking of the consequence of her forthrightness.  A character trait of wanting to find answers is beyond mere curiosity, she will go further than most people to get to the bottom of a problem even if it puts herself in jeopardy. But she is also vulnerable, but doesn’t let that hold her back.   Prince Lucian Kiggs is her partner in the murder investigation and Seraphina falls in love with him.  The Prince is a nice enough guy, perhaps even close to perfect.  So, he doesn’t have much growth in the story.

The secondary characters are wonderful.  Princess Glisselda and the other half-dragons characters color the world with their idiosyncrasies.

Pros and Cons:

Hartman’s writing and her voice are so different from what’s out there, except for Maggie Stiefvater.  It almost reminds me of a different time when the richness of language was prime.  It was a beautiful read, but at times, the pacing was very slow.  But, this is a kind of book you want to savor the words and not devour them.  

Fresh factor:

As I mentioned above the world building is luscious, full and different. And of course the inventive unfolding of the dragons and half-breeds is very different.  I think the second book in the series will be even more exciting. 

Overall:

I would give this book a four**** star rating.  I believe both the young and the old, male or female will enjoy this book, which says a lot about Hartman's writing.  This book delivers what fantasy is about taking you to different world complete with exciting characters struggling to keep their world from falling apart.  

Seraphina was a finalist for the Canadian 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award in the category of Children's Text. On January 28, 2013 it received the 2013 William C. Morris Award, awarded to best young adult book published in the US by a debut author. In the UK Seraphina has been placed on the longlist for the CILIP Carnegie Medal In Literature 2013, with the shortlist to be announced in March 2013. Seraphina is also short-listed for the 2012 Kitchies Golden Tentacle Award.

Seraphina is available at Amazon . Also there is a short prequel to this book, which I haven’t read.  I hope you give this book a read and enjoy the story as much as I did.

Till next time,

Elizabeth