The Eyes of God by John Marco

The Eyes of God is a sprawling, medieval fantasy novel. The seed for the next book (The Devil's Armor) is planted well in the first, and I hope more of the good than the bad from the first book carries over.

The Eyes of God consists of three parts. (And before that, a beautiful cover — one of its very best features.) The first is basically a rehashing of Camelot's love triangle. The book does open very well indeed with excellent, fresh introductions of the scholarly King Akeela the Good; his handsome champion, Lukien the Bronze Knight; and his new bride, Cassandra, the beautiful seal on a peace treaty. However, even with the twist of Cassandra's mysterious illness and Lukien's quest to heal her, the first part fails to escape Camelot's shadow — it simply starts too squarely within it.

The second part begin... Read More

The Forever Knight by John Marco

The Forever Knight is a follow-up novel that takes place after John Marco’s BOOKS OF THE BRONZE KNIGHT, but Marco does such a good job of filling in the gaps for new readers that it’s meant to be able to be read separately. If you’re interested in a kind of brutal, really tragic fantasy, then this is worth a read.

Lukien is the Forever Knight. He has betrayed his best friend and the love of his life is dead, but he can’t follow them into death because of Malator, a symbiotic spirit who has imbued him with powers, including virtual immortality. For most people eternal life would be an amazing gift, but for someone who has lost everything he held precious, it’s a curse.

Lukien is living a sort of half-life while seeking combat against dangerous monsters that infest the local environs of the city he has claimed as home. Among the people who Lukien calls friend is an o... Read More

Starfinder by John Marco

Starfinder is the story of Moth, an orphaned child obsessed with learning how to fly, and Fiona, the granddaughter of the Governor of Calio, an outpost on the edge of civilization. Calio borders on the Reach, a featureless miles-wide expanse that is supposed to be impossible to cross, covered in an impenetrable mist that conceals and confuses the traveler. The Reach separates the human lands from the mythical Skylords, angelic beings who jealously guard the skies to keep any other race from achieving flight.

Moth is given the Starfinder, the most powerful magical artifact of the Skylords, by his dying guardian and is charged with crossing the impassible Reach and returning the Starfinder to the wizard Merceron. Fiona accompanies Moth, and the two are relentlessly pursued by her grandfather, intent on acquiring the Starfinder for his own purposes.

Starfin... Read More

We move back to the fantasy genre for this week's edition of Why You Should Read... Bryce Lee, from Only the Best Sci Fi/Fantasy and his personal blog Seak's Stamp of Approval, brings us compelling reasons as to why you should pick up your first book by John Marco.

I was first introduced to John Marco a number of years ago by a good friend of mine through the first book in his Tyrants and Kings Trilogy, The Jackal of Nar. After that I was hooked. To this day, years later, I can vividly see the cathedral of Nar being frescoed, hear the din of each battle, but most of all I can still feel e... Read More