Thief on King Street: Adventures of Roger V by Alan Isom, Jason McDonald and Melanie McDonald

Listen, I don't ask for much in my entertainment. Just give me an epic story that takes place across two planets, is full of political intrigue, has non-stop action, religious conflict, a crazy amount of tension and a few unbelievably well thought out characters and I'm pretty much okay.  See? Easy peasy! Or not, as the case may be, but that's what the McDonalds and Isom delivered. Seriously, between working sixty hours a week and trying to recover from stomach surgery it took me WAY TOO LONG to read this book but that's my weakness talking and not their stories. Thief on King Street was an experience to treasure.

And great, here come the Fun Police to arrest me for enjoying myself. They've been after me for years. You've got no proof this time! It's an electronic copy! I can delete it while you're pounding up the driveway with the Murderous Miniature Dachsund Marauders! You'll never take me alive, Fun  Police. Who am I kidding? Those guys drink decrappinated coffee. There is NO WAY they'll have the energy to make it up the driveway, even with their hot dogs.

The earlier works of this writing trio have featured the "sister planets" - Gaia, the land of magic where technology is thought of as being weird and Terra - land of technology where magic is rare and feared by most of those who actually believe it exists. Some might be tempted to call this the "Real World" and, for the most part, it is. This set up should seem familiar to readers of the Cayn Trilogy as I'm sure you all are because I reviewed them previously and I know you all read what I tell you to, right?

Or sumfin'...

Thief on King Street is both awesome and kind of strange in how it subverts a trope: This isn't Earthlings venturing in a strange land, it's people from a strange land adventuring on Earth. They've done it well, too. I want to make a comparison to the 1632 Universe, but even that is kind of backwards. I mean, seriously, the reaction of the characters from Gaia to a typically dressed woman in her teens is pretty funny but it also makes an absolute ton of sense if viewed with just a touch of sensitivity to someone from a society which, while it is probably more egalitarian toward women than one would initially assume, is Medieval European in nature. They don't truly grasp modern technology and that makes sense too. I can just imagine trying to dress up a medieval knight to fit in at a hospital. Think about it in context.

The authors also do a good job of including modern magical practices in their work. It seems that there is still SOME magic left in Terra - if one knows where to look for it. That makes sense given the existence of Terrans on Gaia in their earlier, uhh, Later?

I mean, this is a prequel series but that means that the books that are later in the timeline were written first, so they've already happened even though they haven't happened yet. It's a total paradox. HELP! I guess the Fun Police better bring a Time Cop as back-up. 

Seriously though, if Ambrose Battenberg doesn't intrigue you as a character you don't have a pulse. In which case I'm honored, because I've always wanted a member of the undead to read my blog. 

*SIGH*

I'm off topic again.

Listen, Ambrose has a bit of the whiny little girl in her when the story starts. She gets his with a responsibility she never wanted and wasn't prepared for. Inheriting a throne isn't for everyone, especially since she was way down the list and came into her crown by losing several members of her family. Her kingdom is beset by attackers from outside, there are those from within who don't want to see a woman running the country and honestly, she doesn't want to deal with it. The fact that she is the last of her family and there is literally no one else to take over doesn't seem to matter to her.

Honestly, she starts out reminding me a bit of that Bella chick from Twilight (for those that aren't aware, I tried to read the first book after I made a deal with a girl I know: She would read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and I would read Twilight. I give every book a hundred and fifty pages, regardless. I got to one-forty in Twilight, prayed for God to make the next ten pages to go quickly and gave up early. I gave it to my sister and I hear my niece enjoyed it though. I hate Bella.) The thing is that Ambrose has a real character arc where she actually matures and by the end of the story she's exactly the type of woman I would want my daughters to be; Strong, proud, smart, tough, and brave. She turns into the type of leader I would follow anywhere. I love that about her.

There is a lot of a good versus evil in Thief on King Street and I can really appreciate that. Yes, I do believe that both good and evil exist in the real world. I also believe that, to paraphrase someone famous (CS Lewis maybe?) that we need good versus evil in fiction to prepare ourselves mentally to fight the battle in the real world.  The McDonalds and Isom do a good job of that. Their heroes are heroes and the villains are disgustingly villainous. Fantasy is, and always has been, at its best when you have someone to root for and someone to root AGAINST. Call them Sauron. Call them the White Witch. It doesn't matter. Just give me someone I don't want around to boo and I'm good. 

I'm really excited to see where this series goes next. I mean, it's the first in the series and it's not written by George R.R. Martin so we'll see the sequel sometime soon-ish I'm sure. I'll be there when it hits. You should be there, too.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Poisoned Arrows

Thief on King Street
Alan Isom, Jason McDonald and Melanie McDonald
Parlatheas Press, 2022

Thief on King Street is available for purchase at the following link. Please note that if you click my link and purchase literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you. 

Thief on King Street

Blood of Cayn by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald

(Author's note: I would like to take this time to apologize to Alan Isom and the McDonalds, as well as their publisher. This review was promised on release day. That was about three-ish months ago. Unfortunately, life happened and this got out late. Mea maxima culpa. Hopefully this review was worth waiting for.)

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Life is often good as a book blogger. People send you free books. You get to brag about reading them to a bunch of goofballs who think your opinions are worth reading. (No offense.) You are constantly looking forward to reading the next book and believe me there, there is a next one: You've got a bunch in your inbox. I mean, you are required to spend a certain amount of time in your pajamas with your feet up, reading. Sometimes you may even find it necessary to have a glass of Coca-Cola in hand while doing so. It's a hard life, but it is a labor of love.

The problem with being a book blogger is that you are often sent only the first book of a series and sometimes it can be hard to have time to read the stuff you pay for. There is this constant nagging feeling that you should be reading something that someone gave you because they gave it to you. So often, that one Book One of something that you read that one time is the only book of the series that you end up reading because life.

What I'm trying to say here is that it's pretty awesome to be able to follow a series through to conclusion. You actually get to see the big payoff. You're not stuck stumbling on the edge of an abyss, wondering how, and if, the heroes are going to save the world and make everything right again. And - let's face it- when you love Epic Fantasy those are usually the stakes. And now I'm happy, because I just read Blood of Cayn, the epic conclusion to The Cayn Trilogy, written by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald.

I don't want to give too much away, but this was seriously a good payoff. I mean, we've been through hell with these characters by now, right? They've revealed their true selves. They've won fights. They've lost fights. They've lost friends. As much fun as reading The Cayn Trilogy has been, I find myself relieved that I'm not one of the characters in it. They deal with a lot.

Through it all though, they're not just comrades, they're friends. Some of the risks the main characters take in Blood of Cayn fall under the heading of "inadvisable" to me. They still do it and they do it for each other. If you've got to go war, these are the people you want to do it with. It's always fun to spend time with characters you respect and admire and they live on these pages.

I love the world of The Blood of Cayn. It's a world on the edge and it's about to head over the precipice because of a plague. The entire series is, in essence, about the struggle against that plague and the war that it could cause. It's a worth cause. But it's not just the struggle I'm talking about here. I'm guessing there was some serious map drawing done for this thing. I hope it looks better than my artwork too, but no promises there. Seriously though, the authors of this series have done a great job of laying out their world and making it believable. I almost feel like there could be a geography class taught here, and that kind of created a bit of an (awesome) issue for me.

See, I'm a Dungeon Master. There were many times while reading Blood of Cayn that I felt it necessary to run off and add something to my campaign, since it's a homebrew and I can get away with that. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, but it did lead me to take longer to read the thing than I normally would have. Now, if I were one of the authors of this book, I may make sure never to mention to my players that I inspired the fight that almost led to a Total Party Kill, but whatever. It was fun to read. It was fun to play. And a little extra enjoyment never hurt anybody. Well, except four D+D characters but they don't really exist anyway. And really, the cleric live long enough to save them all, so why are my players whining?

It's weird, because I know Chris Kennedy Publishing does not have an RPG arm, but I'd pay to play in this world. Seriously. I enjoy the way that magic works. I love how well they thought out the world. I usually play a warrior, but for whatever reason, I see myself as more Chert the Cleric and less Grendel the warrior in this RPG. That could be because I have an affinity for dwarves, but I think it's because Chert is my guy. He's always there and he's a fantasy cleric the way they were always meant to be. Of course, we also have Jasper the portly mage to which I'm also partial, especially given the fact that I most likely outweigh him.  And then there's Sacha and Sehraine and Xandor and...

Yeah.

For me, one of the best parts of reading a series has always been welcoming yourmy old friends back into my life for  another go around. It's about finding the same people on the other side and getting another chance to (maybe, hopefully) see them taken down. It's about familiarity and not having to learn the seventy-three thousandth world this year. And yes, my friends, it's about a payoff. It's about seeing the crew finally live up to the potential that I always knew they had. Some things are better than money. A good payoff is one of them. That's what I got here. I got to see my people do their thing and do it well. It was a good time.

Of course, there's the let down, too: The trilogy is over and there is no sequel to look forward to. That's okay though, because I'm confident that these three will find another story to write somehow. I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. Oh, and if anyone sees Chris Kennedy, let him know I've got a Dungeons and Dragons group that would just love a chance to play-test a Cayn Trilogy related RPG. Seriously. Hit me up man.


Life is often good as a book blogger. People send you free books. You get to brag about reading them to a bunch of goofballs who think your opinions are worth reading. (No offense.) You are constantly looking forward to reading the next book and believe me there, there is a next one: You've got a bunch in your inbox. I mean, you are required to spend a certain amount of time in your pajamas with your feet up, reading. Sometimes you may even find it necessary to have a glass of Coca-Cola in hand while doing so. It's a hard life, but it is a labor of love.

The problem with being a book blogger is that you are often sent only the first book of a series and sometimes it can be hard to have time to read the stuff you pay for. There is this constant nagging feeling that you should be reading something that someone gave you because they gave it to you. So often, that one Book One of something that you read that one time is the only book of the series that you end up reading because life.

What I'm trying to say here is that it's pretty awesome to be able to follow a series through to conclusion. You actually get to see the big payoff. You're not stuck stumbling on the edge of an abyss, wondering how, and if, the heroes are going to save the world and make everything right again. And - let's face it- when you love Epic Fantasy those are usually the stakes. And now I'm happy, because I just read Blood of Cayn, the epic conclusion to The Cayn Trilogy, written by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald.

I don't want to give too much away, but this was seriously a good payoff. I mean, we've been through hell with these characters by now, right? They've revealed their true selves. They've won fights. They've lost fights. They've lost friends. As much fun as reading The Cayn Trilogy has been, I find myself relieved that I'm not one of the characters in it. They deal with a lot.

Through it all though, they're not just comrades, they're friends. Some of the risks the main characters take in Blood of Cayn fall under the heading of "inadvisable" to me. They still do it and they do it for each other. If you've got to go war, these are the people you want to do it with. It's always fun to spend time with characters you respect and admire and they live on these pages.

I love the world of The Blood of Cayn. It's a world on the edge and it's about to head over the precipice because of a plague. The entire series is, in essence, about the struggle against that plague and the war that it could cause. It's a worth cause. But it's not just the struggle I'm talking about here. I'm guessing there was some serious map drawing done for this thing. I hope it looks better than my artwork too, but no promises there. Seriously though, the authors of this series have done a great job of laying out their world and making it believable. I almost feel like there could be a geography class taught here, and that kind of created a bit of an (awesome) issue for me.

See, I'm a Dungeon Master. There were many times while reading Blood of Cayn that I felt it necessary to run off and add something to my campaign, since it's a homebrew and I can get away with that. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, but it did lead me to take longer to read the thing than I normally would have. Now, if I were one of the authors of this book, I may make sure never to mention to my players that I inspired the fight that almost led to a Total Party Kill, but whatever. It was fun to read. It was fun to play. And a little extra enjoyment never hurt anybody. Well, except four D+D characters but they don't really exist anyway. And really, the cleric live long enough to save them all, so why are my players whining?

It's weird, because I know Chris Kennedy Publishing does not have an RPG arm, but I'd pay to play in this world. Seriously. I enjoy the way that magic works. I love how well they thought out the world. I usually play a warrior, but for whatever reason, I see myself as more Chert the Cleric and less Grendel the warrior in this RPG. That could be because I have an affinity for dwarves, but I think it's because Chert is my guy. He's always there and he's a fantasy cleric the way they were always meant to be. Of course, we also have Jasper the portly mage to which I'm also partial, especially given the fact that I most likely outweigh him.  And then there's Sacha and Sehraine and Xandor and...

Yeah.

For me, one of the best parts of reading a series has always been welcoming yourmy old friends back into my life for  another go around. It's about finding the same people on the other side and getting another chance to (maybe, hopefully) see them taken down. It's about familiarity and not having to learn the seventy-three thousandth world this year. And yes, my friends, it's about a payoff. It's about seeing the crew finally live up to the potential that I always knew they had. Some things are better than money. A good payoff is one of them. That's what I got here. I got to see my people do their thing and do it well. It was a good time.

Of course, there's the let down, too: The trilogy is over and there is no sequel to look forward to. That's okay though, because I'm confident that these three will find another story to write somehow. I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. Oh, and if anyone sees Chris Kennedy, let him know I've got a Dungeons and Dragons group that would just love a chance to play-test a Cayn Trilogy related RPG. Seriously. Hit me up man.


Life is often good as a book blogger. People send you free books. You get to brag about reading them to a bunch of goofballs who think your opinions are worth reading. (No offense.) You are constantly looking forward to reading the next book and believe me there, there is a next one: You've got a bunch in your inbox. I mean, you are required to spend a certain amount of time in your pajamas with your feet up, reading. Sometimes you may even find it necessary to have a glass of Coca-Cola in hand while doing so. It's a hard life, but it is a labor of love.

The problem with being a book blogger is that you are often sent only the first book of a series and sometimes it can be hard to have time to read the stuff you pay for. There is this constant nagging feeling that you should be reading something that someone gave you because they gave it to you. So often, that one Book One of something that you read that one time is the only book of the series that you end up reading because life.

What I'm trying to say here is that it's pretty awesome to be able to follow a series through to conclusion. You actually get to see the big payoff. You're not stuck stumbling on the edge of an abyss, wondering how, and if, the heroes are going to save the world and make everything right again. And - let's face it- when you love Epic Fantasy those are usually the stakes. And now I'm happy, because I just read Blood of Cayn, the epic conclusion to The Cayn Trilogy, written by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald.

I don't want to give too much away, but this was seriously a good payoff. I mean, we've been through hell with these characters by now, right? They've revealed their true selves. They've won fights. They've lost fights. They've lost friends. As much fun as reading The Cayn Trilogy has been, I find myself relieved that I'm not one of the characters in it. They deal with a lot.

Through it all though, they're not just comrades, they're friends. Some of the risks the main characters take in Blood of Cayn fall under the heading of "inadvisable" to me. They still do it and they do it for each other. If you've got to go war, these are the people you want to do it with. It's always fun to spend time with characters you respect and admire and they live on these pages.

I love the world of The Blood of Cayn. It's a world on the edge and it's about to head over the precipice because of a plague. The entire series is, in essence, about the struggle against that plague and the war that it could cause. It's a worth cause. But it's not just the struggle I'm talking about here. I'm guessing there was some serious map drawing done for this thing. I hope it looks better than my artwork too, but no promises there. Seriously though, the authors of this series have done a great job of laying out their world and making it believable. I almost feel like there could be a geography class taught here, and that kind of created a bit of an (awesome) issue for me.

See, I'm a Dungeon Master. There were many times while reading Blood of Cayn that I felt it necessary to run off and add something to my campaign, since it's a homebrew and I can get away with that. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, but it did lead me to take longer to read the thing than I normally would have. Now, if I were one of the authors of this book, I may make sure never to mention to my players that I inspired the fight that almost led to a Total Party Kill, but whatever. It was fun to read. It was fun to play. And a little extra enjoyment never hurt anybody. Well, except four D+D characters but they don't really exist anyway. And really, the cleric live long enough to save them all, so why are my players whining?

It's weird, because I know Chris Kennedy Publishing does not have an RPG arm, but I'd pay to play in this world. Seriously. I enjoy the way that magic works. I love how well they thought out the world. I usually play a warrior, but for whatever reason, I see myself as more Chert the Cleric and less Grendel the warrior in this RPG. That could be because I have an affinity for dwarves, but I think it's because Chert is my guy. He's always there and he's a fantasy cleric the way they were always meant to be. Of course, we also have Jasper the portly mage to which I'm also partial, especially given the fact that I most likely outweigh him.  And then there's Sacha and Sehraine and Xandor and...

Yeah.

For me, one of the best parts of reading a series has always been welcoming yourmy old friends back into my life for  another go around. It's about finding the same people on the other side and getting another chance to (maybe, hopefully) see them taken down. It's about familiarity and not having to learn the seventy-three thousandth world this year. And yes, my friends, it's about a payoff. It's about seeing the crew finally live up to the potential that I always knew they had. Some things are better than money. A good payoff is one of them. That's what I got here. I got to see my people do their thing and do it well. It was a good time.

Of course, there's the let down, too: The trilogy is over and there is no sequel to look forward to. That's okay though, because I'm confident that these three will find another story to write somehow. I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. Oh, and if anyone sees Chris Kennedy, let him know I've got a Dungeons and Dragons group that would just love a chance to play-test a Cayn Trilogy related RPG. Seriously. Hit me up man.

Blood of Cayn
Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald
New Mythology Press, 2019

Blood of Cayn is available for purchase at the following link:(And per Amazon policy, I am hereby informing you that I will get a percentage of any purchase you make after clicking the link.)

Blood of Cayn

City of Cayn by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald

Every so often a sequel comes along that is as good as the original. It's not often, but it does happen. I mean, The Empire Strikes Back  was every bit as good as Star Wars, right? (Hey you, stop smirking. You know I'm right. ESB was the best Star Wars movie.) Now, I will grant you that it doesn't always happen that way. But sometimes, every great once in awhile, a blue moon appears and brings with it a worthy sequel. I don't know if it specifically takes an act of divine intervention, or if it just feels like it does. I mention this for a very specific reason:

Fans of Jimbo's will remember when I reviewed Son of Cayn awhile back and I was ecstatic about it. Well, I'm happy to say that Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald have done it again. Their latest is City of Cayn and it's pretty amazeballs. I just finished it on Wednesday and I already can't wait for the next one. Of course, this one just came out today and, by my own personal code of ethics, I'm required to wait at least a week before bugging them. Get ready guys. I'll find a way! Something annoying your way comes. I'm just not sure what it is yet. Before all and sundry I make this vow: I will pester you for the next one. And it's very obviously coming because you set it up beautifully.

The cool part is that the authors are part of the Chris Kennedy Publishing Kindle Unlimited Writing Factory. I'm pretty sure they're writing right now. They need to 

Something we didn't see enough of in the first book was magic, but it abounds this time around. Mages in the City of Cayn universe are apparently pretty badass. At one point a character who shall remain nameless pulls off a massive illusion that had me sitting there in awe. I've seen very few works where a single mage could have pulled something that big off. At another point that same character is called out for not being an archmage. Bro, if this is what a neophyte looks like, I don't wanna have to face the master. That was some straight up ass-kickery. He does other really impressive stuff too, but that was what got me the most.

I have to say, I'd love to see this one turned into a movie too. It would be a special effects extravaganza. I'm thinking of two specific scenes that would light up a screen and make me want to dance. I seriously need to see what a Hollywood pyrotechnics crew could do with some of this. It sounds soooooo impressive. I think it could live up to the way I pictured it.

Oh, and I suppose, since I'm talking about a book, I should mention the plot. I don't do spoilers so I can't say much, but damn. This is epic fantasy the way you're supposed to do epic fantasy. Good guys, bad guys and the whole world (well... maybe) in the balance and only our plucky group of heroes can save the whole world for dying... We hope. They have to figure out how first though and right now, it's not looking too good. We're all sweating and rooting for them. And, at the end of the day, that's what I love about the genre. This isn't a story about variable morals and "everything is gray." This is "someone is trying to kill all of us and we have to stop them."

I can't help sitting back and remembering a scene from The Godfather III though. (Yes, I liked it.) At one point, Michael Corleone (played masterfully by Al Pacino) sits back and says "Our true enemy has not yet revealed himself." There is a mastermind behind what's going on. I know it. I have a feeling I know at least one being that he/she/it is working with. I'm just not sure who they are. I'm sure time, and the next book, will tell but I'm straining to figure this out. If it's the obvious choice it'll be cool. If it's someone new to the stage it'll be cooler. I guess I'll just have to wait to find out which it is.

As mentioned before, City of Cayn is a sequel and I highly recommend reading Son of Cayn first. There is a lot going on in this book and a look back at where it started is necessary to knowing who all of these people are and how they relate to each other. It gets awfully complicated, especially for a cast this small. The relations between the characters, and their complications, are a big part of what makes City of Cayn fun, so you really do need to know your stuff.

Of course, there are new characters added too. The authors decided to spice this one up with some additions that just work. One of my favorite characters in the book was not featured in the first book and she's a total badass. She goes through a lot and I feel bad for her at times, but if she wanted an easy life she shouldn't have been in a novel.

As a matter of fact, that's something that really works in City of Cayn. The benefits of success are sky high. The penalty for failing is unthinkable. The route to victory is not a straight one. It's quite frankly a mess. There is no super-successful, gets it right every time person here. The one person I thought might turn into that guy is worse off than almost anyone else. This is a highly detailed, well planned-out story and the authors have pulled it off wonderfully.

Really my only problem with the book is that the sequel isn't here yet. I'm dying to find out how all of this ends. I want to find out if the bad guy is who I think he is. I want to see if somebody slaps that bitch. (She deserves it.) I want to know if the world gets saved. I want to know... when the next book is coming. But trust me, I won't bother the authors for at least a week.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Bars of Soap

City of Cayn
Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald
Chris Kennedy Publishing, 2018

City of Cayn is available for purchase at the following link:

City of Cayn

Son of Cayn by Stormy McDonald, Alan Isom and Jason McDonald

Umm...wow. I just finished reading Son of Cayn and I honestly don't know where to start with this review. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good book. I enjoyed it. I'm just not sure where to begin because there was a lot in here. I mean, I guess I expected that. It's the first book in a fantasy series and those are frequently pretty busy. When an author (or in this case team of authors) has to not only introduce their characters but also their world, there tends to be a lot of information necessary. Every fantasy setting is different and when you couple in the setting and how magic works and what fantasy races exist.. Yeah, it's a lot.

The good news is that Son of Cayn not only very effectively manages to introduce the characters and show off the world, it also manages to do so without bogging down into infodumps and leaves room for later expansion. I'm an as yet unpublished fantasy author myself. I should probably go back and take notes on how they did it because they did a damn good job. I feel like I could go on a wagon trip (Most of the story is spent on the trail, facing danger while traveling.) along the same path the crew in the book did and not get lost. I'm not sure I'd wanted because I tend to be big on not risking my hide unnecessarily, but that's a separate issue.

If you're going to read Son of Cayn, and I recommend doing so, you had best be prepared for some pretty major twists and turns. Nothing is quite as it seems. Most people are not quite who they say they are. This is a very tightly plotted story and it turns on a dime. I enjoyed that. I'm reminded of a movie I watched with my dad back in either the 80s or 90s called Legal Eagles. It wasn't Science Fiction or Fantasy, but it had a great story and an ending that worked but that you never saw coming. My dad marked out because he couldn't figure it out and he was usually good at that stuff. It's that kind of a book.

Part of the surprises are people being precisely who we thought they were, even though they're nowhere near what we thought they were. Certain things happen that only make sense in retrospect. Sometimes a new talent emerges out of nowhere. Allegiances are sometimes a little murkier than you would first suspect. Seriously, don't trust any of these characters.

The fight scenes in Son of Cayn are awesome. I have been known to play the occasional game of Dungeons and Dragons and I really want a couple of these weapons. I mean, they're pretty awesome. I have a sneaking suspicion that one or more of these authors might be roleplayers themselves and that part of the reason these characters get such cool weapons is wish fulfillment. I'm okay with that though. It's entertaining regardless.

As if I haven't already made it obvious, Son of Cayn moves. There always seems to be something going on. It may not be what the reader thinks it is, but it's happening. You may not get a chance to catch your breath, but do you really want to? What's the point of catching your breath anyway? No, Son of Cayn is a book you go through at Mach Two with your hair on fire. It's more fun that way. Slowing down is for sissies. I mean, if you want to know the truth, if I wanted boring I'd read romance. The authors of this one keep things interesting, most often in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse.

I'm also reminded of another movie when I read Son of Cayn. I know not everyone is a fan, but there is a strong leaning toward The Godfather 3 contained within these pages. It's not really all that clear who the enemy is. It's not exactly clear if our heroes really have a singular enemy. Events happen but even after reading the book I'm not altogether certain which ones were related and which ones weren't. I totally feel like Michael Corleone reading this one. "Our true enemy has not yet revealed himself."

I really did get a feeling that there are several major players still missing from the board. Somewhere out there, our true villains are hatching their plots. Somewhere out there, there may very well be someone, or maybe a group of someones, that are on our side as well. We're being led into a much larger world than either we or our heroes anticipate. It's obvious that it's there, but not how far it goes. I'm excited to find out because there is a Lord of the Rings feel here. Right now it's just the Fellowship, but there may be entire kingdoms out there that we still get to journey to. None of the heroes of the book are kings or even nobles (well, probably. I mean, given the surprises so far...) but I can't help but think that at some point in the future of this series we'll be meeting oodles and bunches of them. Or maybe I'm wrong but hey, I'm a fan I get to have my theory.

That leads me to my one complaint about Sons of Cayn. It doesn't really have a Big Bad. Our heroes are totally worth rooting for. They're honorable and they're a caravan of people off to simply sell some soap. Their goals are the everyday kind of noble: Money to be earned, families to feed, etc.
hey're normal people for the most part, at least until things start to change. But there is no one person or thing to hate as such. I'm no fan of thieves and brigands, but they just don't engender the type of ill will that a Khan Noonien Singh or an Emperor Palpatine can. That much having been said, there is a strong case for keeping the reader wondering. It's always good when an author's audience wants more. That's why it's a series, right?

Speaking of which, I published this review on the release date of the book. It's about twelve thirty PM my time. I wonder: Should I start bothering the publisher for the sequel NOW, or should I wait until after dinner?

Bottom Line:4.5 out of 5 Bars of Soap

Son of Cayn
Stormy MacDonald, Alan Isom, Jason McDonald
New Mythology Press,  2018

Son of Cayn is available for purchase at the following link:

Son of Cayn