Dragon’s Web / Lynne Cantwell

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Urban Fantasy / World Mythology / Coming of Age

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Availability

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: YES Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Lynne Cantwell is a contributing author at Indies Unlimited where she shares her knowledge about Indie publishing and promotion. She has a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University and is a former broadcast journalist who has written for CNN and Mutual/NBC Radio News, among other places. Ms. Cantwell currently lives near Washington, DC.

Ms. Cantwell is the author of The Pipe Woman Chronicles, which includes five books, The Land, Sea, Sky series, which includes three books, and other works of fiction and non-fiction alike.”

You can connect with her at her website or on her Facebook page.

Description:

“Sage Curtis, reluctant Savior of the Earth, has been yanked around by the gods her whole life. Even though the Native American spirit Thunderbird has given her certain magical gifts, all she wants to do is finish her engineering degree so she can fix Earth’s climate with science. Not with laser eyes. And definitely not by flying.

Then Veles, the god of the Slavic underworld, invades her dreams. He intends to battle her until the Earth is no more, in the belief that it’s the only way to reboot the planet – never mind the collateral damage.

Even avoiding this battle will require the use of magic, and Sage is woefully unprepared. But a lot of people have her back: her parents, whose interactions with the gods are the stuff of legend; her brother Webb, who knows the future, mostly; and Rafe Orloff, transfer student and Trickster in his own right. Together, they have a chance of saving Earth from this crazy dragon god. But their success rests on one thing: whether she wants to or not, Sage is going to have to fly.”

Appraisal:

Sage and Webb, her younger brother, are Naomi and Joseph’s children who were born at the end of The Pipe Woman Chronicles. Since Sage was born she has been told she is destined by prophecy to save the world. That is a huge weight to carry around and she has developed a sassy spiteful attitude where the prophecy is involved. All she wants to do continue her education majoring in environmental engineering at the University of Colorado. Her goal is to solve the problem of climate change with science, not magic. Sage wants a normal life, which isn’t likely to ever happen.

I loved Sage’s sassy attitude as she brings us up-to-date in her life. It made me grin, she is smart, competent, and a bit naïve. She has a can do attitude until it comes to flying in her Thunderbird form. Her classmates are well developed with the newest roommate being a bit mysterious. Sage and I both found Rafe intriguing and as his character is slowly revealed, even more so. Naomi and Joseph try to step in to protect Sage and handle this new situation with the Gods, as any parent would. However, they are quickly relegated to a support system backup with Sage leading the protest.

Webb, Sage’s younger brother, is a heyoka, a sacred clown. Heyoka’s can speak truths, they see the future and try to teach using satire. Webb, however uses art to convey. So, in a sense they have to do things backwards knowing the outcomes and having to figure out how to get there with the best possible results. The future is not set in stone and can be changed with the correct actions. Webb is an enigma to me, I need more time with him.

The story has several interesting twists that I didn’t expect. Some new Gods are introduced and several members of Rafe’s family take on major roles. I also felt like the story moved at a nice pace considering the problems that arose. Ms. Cantwell has done an excellent job weaving this timely story together with several players. She also sets up possibilities for the next book as well. I am looking forward to the next installment.

FYI:

There a couple or three F-bombs dropped.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant proofing or editing errors.

Rating: ***** Five stars