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Queen Of Wands (2012)

by John Ringo(Favorite Author)

3.97 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1451637896 (ISBN13: 9781451637892)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Baen

series

Special Circumstances

review 1: First off, of all The John Ringo's Books, this is probably the one that is most "acquired taste." It's Contemporary Fantasy with a Christian protagonist in an All Myths Are True universe. Barbara Everett is a fun lead. Competent and yet not really knowing why she is. Earnest and faithful without being pushy and self-righteous. And yet, not perfect. The supporting cast is interesting as well. But some of them just don't strike me as deep when they are sent to the fore. As is the case with the "Janea" story in the middle. Parts of that are quite good. The beginning is a tad bewildering, and if it had been the 1st story of the book, would've been complete off-putting.That's another thing about this and its predecessor, "Princess of Wands." It's not a full novel. It's 2 almost... more novellas and a short story. All of it bound together by common characters. It's a throwback to the serial stories of Fafrhd and the Gray Mouser and Conan rather than true novels. So sometimes when you think the story is just getting ramped up, BOOM, it's done. Or as in the Janea story above, just when you *finally* figure out what's really going on, well...it's done. In the end, this isn't as good as the 1st book, IMHO. But if you liked Princess of Wands, there's no reason you shouldn't like this one as well. It's not Ringo's best. But even 80% of his capacity is better than 100% from 90% of the writers on the market.
review 2: In Princess of Wands, John Ringo introduced the world to Barb Everette, a soccer Mom who discovers the hard way that the occult and the supernatural are very deadly perils in the world today. Fortunately, Barb is both a devout Protestant and a military brat with extensive martial arts and weapons training. The combination makes her a very effective warrior of the light in this enjoyable urban fantasy series.In Princess of Wands, Barb joins forces with a secret organization composed of an eclectic group of wiccans, devotes of the Norse gods, Buddhists, etc who for centuries have been trying to protect society from supernatural evil. They are secretly assisted by government teams investigating cases they euphemistically term “special circumstances”. In Queen of Wands, the supernatural forces (both the light and the dark) up the ante dramatically threatening the secret nature of the war. Barb, of course, is on the front line of the battles. It’s an exciting, action-packed pair of novellas (plus one short story), with a little important character development thrown in. Uncovering the nature of the supernatural threats is a major focus of the two novellas. In the first, this is very similar to a classic mystery as Barb attempts to find the bad guys. The second is more action oriented including two very exciting adventures in a tight and winding environment of cave networks. The novellas are completely satisfying and the second (a about fifty pages from the end of the book, throws a particularly unexpected curve at the reader. There are also hints dropped throughout the book that are both subtle and unsubtle hints at storylines to come. I was less pleased with the short story in the middle of the book than I was with the two novellas. Ringo attempts to show us an adventure on the astral plane and I suppose it was well done, but I found it less gripping than the other two books.Over all, I enjoyed Queen of Wands, reading it in a single weekend. I don’t think it was quite as strong as the first novel, mostly because the things that made that book strikingly original were being taken out for a second viewing here. Three and a half stars. less

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