Rate this book

Horns Of Ruin, The (2010)

by Tim Akers(Favorite Author)

3.49 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Pyr

review 1: Well, this is a completely non-literary four, because we're all allowed our guilty pleasures from time to time. No, this book is unlikely to blow your mind with it's wonderful style and deep explorations of human nature and societies. No, you probably won't find much to say about the character once you scratch the surface. But it still was tons of fun.One thing I often regret about steampunk is that, while I love the idea of it, and I usually enjoy steampunk worlds, there are few books so far that held my attention all along. There's usually a place where I feel like skipping, or where I carry on because I don't like to leave books unfinished. This wasn't the case at all here. Even though I mostly understood this novel as having no great literary ambition, it made sense fr... moreom start to finish. Yes, the characters were a bit flat, but they were consistent, likeable and above all, not lazy (meaning that I never felt that the author had yielded to the temptation of substituting easy stereotypes for characterisation). The world is uniformly cool, and while I got very little sense of the social order, ecology or even technological level of the setting, the parts it focused on (mainly, the gods and their followers) were extremely satisfying and consistent. The core story is quite conventional, with a bit of apocalyptic stuff thrown in for good measure, but it holds water.Also, part of the fun for me was that it's so relaxing to read a story set in a world where gender is not a factor, for once. The protagonists are ladies, plural, not just one token female in a men's world. They have very different personalities and a complicated relationship, none of which hinges on anything related to masculinity and femininity. Men and women interact without bothering with seual tension (which is only logical when taking into account the fact that they have an apocalypse to prevent and all). There is no bullshit sexism, like "A lady with a sword??? Wow, what a freak!", or comments on the female characters' looks (it was really cool to realise that I didn't actually know if the heroin was supposed to be pretty or not, and that it took me until the end of the book to realise that, because it simply wasn't relevant to the story). It was a nice change.A strongly recommended read.
review 2: Just because a book has steampunk looking cover and has automaton like creatures in it does not make it steam punk. Looking for steampunk fiction? I would look elsewhere. There wasn't a corset or bowler to be seen for miles and scandal of scandals not a single spot of tea was served! However, this IS a book that I would highly recommend to someone looking for high fantasy fiction. Looking for warriors, magic, monks, incantations and the like? Then this is a book you might be interested in. less

Download links for: Horns of Ruin, The

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