Game of Changes by Harry Connolly Book 2 of The Twenty Palaces Series

 

In this book, Ray Lilly is picked up at his working class job by Catherine because the twenty palaces society has work for him to do.  She is not impressed to drive an hour out of her way to pick a wooden man.  A big auction is happening for a predator in the tiny town of Washaway and Ray and Catherine are tasked with finding out the details of what is going on.

As to be expected, the situation quickly escalates and Ray becomes a one man rescuer once again.  Someone has to save the town from the sapphire dog who has made pets of most of the town's residents causing them to kill each other so that it can feed on them.  The sapphire dog creates feelings of love and adoration in its victim when you look at it and marks you as belonging to it when it licks you.  Because of the power the sapphire dog wields a primary - a powerful sorcerer,  who has actually been on the hit list of the twenty palace society for quite some time will stop at nothing to possess the sapphire dog and has used magic to make it impossible for anyone to leave town or call for help.

We do briefly see a return of Annalise towards the end of the book.  Ray is relieved to see her because he knows that he is in over his head and yet once again, Annalise is not around for the final showdown.  Though all he has is his ghost knife and known of her power, Ray is able to defeat the primary that Annalise lost to.  Uh huh.  I don't understand the point of repeatedly suggesting that Annalise is this all powerful being, only to have Ray save her again.  If you don't actually follow through with a display of power, telling us about her power is pointless.  It feels at this point more like Annalise is Ray's wooden man than the other way around. This theme is somewhat relieved by Catherine who when kidnapped does manage to rescue herself before Ray can do his prince charming to the rescue routine; however, once again when the action happens, Catherine is nowhere to be seen.  Ray sends her away because she is a mother of two small children. 

Fangs for the Fantasy: Episode 67

We discuss Game of Thrones and the amount of seemingly unnecessary scenes this week and Catelyn the Spunky’s endless spunkiness as well as the role of mothers in the Game of Thrones. We discuss our new series, the Almighty Johnsons.

On books we discuss 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James, forever known as Tami’s porn. We talk about Charlaine Harris’s various book stories, Harry Connolly’s Child of Fire and we pass the buck for American Horror Story to Tami, who didn’t suffer through The Secret Circle

We also discuss out book of the week, Eat, Slay, Love by Jesse Petersen.

Review of Child of Fire By Harry Connolly Book 1 of the Twenty Palaces Series

 

The book opens with Ray Lilly driving Annalise Powliss, who is a member of the Twenty Palace Society - a group dedicated to eradicating demons and stopping the use of magic in the world,  towards a small town.  Ray knows that when Annalise is finished using him as her wooden man that she intends to kill him.  Though Annalise is the least powerful member of her society, there is no doubt that she can easily kill Ray.  

The children in this town are disappearing and even more alarming -- once they disappear -- no one remembers them, not even their parents.  At the center of this mystery, is a strange doll factory that was created specifically to give jobs to the locals, because the mining industry has fallen apart.  As with all small towns, the community is extremely tight knit and very protective of the Hammers, who are the richest family in town.  The police are completely corrupt and actually demand 100 dollars protection money a month from local businesses.  

As Ray and Annalise investigate, it is clear that some sort of evil is at work in this town, but when Annalise gets horribly burnt, Ray is left to his own devices to solve the mystery and attempt to find a way to restore the children. He is armed with a magical knife made out of paper, which has the ability to cut through anything, eradicate magic and comes to him on command.  His body is marked with several tattoos that render him somewhat immune to harm.

Ray is a touch of a Gary Stu and regardless of what the situation is, or how fantastic the odds, he manages to escape.  Interestingly enough, though we are told that Annalise is the powerful one, it is Ray who ends up feeding her raw meat in an attempt to heal her, and it is Ray who ultimately saves her life. Ray also has a complete and utter aversion to guns, even when people are shooting at him, he refuses to fire back because, "someone might get hurt."  No matter how many bullets the bad guys fire, Ray never gets shot.  Uh huh...this is a pure action and adventure trope that is boring.