CSFF Blog Tour – Corus the Champion Day 3
Yesterday, in mentioning briefly some of the parallels between D. Barkley Briggs’ Legends of Karac Tor series and Lloyd Allexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, I was struck with the apparent similarities between two key characters – Fflewddur Fflam and Cruedwyn Creed.
The lines are set.
[Editor’s note: If you’re interested in reading more about Cruedwyn Creed and Fflewddur Fflam, check out D. Barkley Brigg’s post on the matter: A Character Named Creed]
CSFF Blog Tour – Corus the Champion Day 2
From inside the cauldron arose a crumbling beast of earth and bone. It was man-shaped, but faceless, bulging with nondescript features. It had a rough outline of head, torso, arms, legs. A cavity of ribs was clearly visible along its midsection. Lurching to its feet, dripping mud, it showed a gaping maw and a jagged mess of copper nails for teeth. A noise came from its mouth, a sound like the movement of wind through winter-crusted leaves – a gasping, nothing sound. The beast stood eight feet tall, looked as thick as a tree. It had no eyes. (Corus the Champion, page 15).
picture by Kinuko Craft |
The other fascinating creatures and characters of Karac Tor that we do not have time to explore include the gnomes, bird men, and the horrendously evil Horned Lord. To find out more about them, I suppose you will have to read the book!
CSFF Blog Tour – Corus the Champion Day 1
The author, however, often relied on narrative and telling to inform the reader about each of his characters. I noticed this most frequently in the beginning of the book. It is tempting to explain characters to the reader, but I found that the author’s voice interjected into the natural flow of the manuscript jarred me from the story like hitting a rock in the middle of a stream. By the end of the book, this telling tendency seemed to fade a bit and I was drawn into the story so that I did not notice it as much.
Buy Corus the Champion or view the Author’s web site.
In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book. I was not required to write a positive review.
Be sure to check out the other reviews posted by participants in the CSFF blog tour:
The Monster in the Hollows – CSFF Blog Tour Day 2
CSFF Blog Tour – The Wingfeather Saga
But Janner gets more excitement than he bargained for when a trip to town goes awry and he and his siblings end up with a posse of Fangs at their heels! Things go from bad to worse when a search for buried treasure reveals a treasure hoard that could cost Janner and Tink their fingers… if not their very lives. And from worse, things quickly approach the realm of nightmere, when the ghost of Brimney Stupe awakes, and the Fangs close in, and the Nameless Evil named Gnag the Nameless brings his search for the lost jewels of Anneria to Skree.
Janner struggles to adjust to his newfound position as the Throne Warden and protect his family while fending off Fangs, ‘scaping from Stranders, dodging enemies in Dugtown, running from Ragmen, and the fearsome ferocity of the Fork! Factory! But even more dangerous than the perils of the road, is the threat of division with his own family! Can their hearts remain true to one another in the face of such difficulties?
Each day presents new challenges as he and his siblings adjust to life in the Hollows. What is a Throne Warden to do when he doesn’t want to be the Throne Warden? And how does he protect a King who doesn’t want to be the King? Bullying classmates are the least of Janner’s troubles, however, for whispers of a monster in the Hollows threaten to bring the fear of the Fangs back into their new life.