The Ethereal Squadron’s riveting fantasy world will fuel readers’ imaginations and leave them crave for the next book in the sequel…
It’s 1916—almost cusp of World War I. While millions of military personals from Europe and other countries of world are engaged in the great war, the legendary Ethereal Squadron: a joint US-UK division of the allied powers’ mightiest sorcerers is up against the powerful ruling sorcerers’ families of Germany and Austria-Hungary in a secret war. Florence Cavell is a woman sorcerer disguised as a man and acts as the team lead of the Ethereal Squadron where she’s known as Geist. After losing her whole team to the Grave-Maker gas: a fatal technology invented by the Germans that can melt bodies of powerful sorcerers and humans alike in an instant, Geist takes lead of a new team. While desperately trying to hide her true identity from her team members, she sets on to search the source of this deadly new technology before the enemy sets it loose upon the world. The story is somewhat a tempered version of World War I with the secret sorcerers’ organizations at work on both sides of the war. The World War I backdrop for a fantasy book is always a risky idea considering it can render the plot a bleak, dim look. But Stovall handles the concept gracefully; in tense, precise prose that skillfully conveys detailed descriptions, Stovall delivers this engrossing story of fantasy adventure to utmost precision. Geist’s struggles over hiding her gender identity and abandoned blood relations get sufficient emphasis and will satisfy cravings of serious readers. The book is slow to get in, but by the one third, non-stop action fills the pages and makes the story highly absorbing. The descriptions of the Grave-Maker gas victims and the antagonists are incredibly evocative; the particulars of fatal gas’s after-effects are haunting and cleverly and convincingly imagined. There is a hint of a budding romance between Geist and one of her team members, but Stovall places the emphasis mainly on action-adventure rather than romance, keeping the book’s pace fast and the characters dynamic. The Ethereal Squadron holds a solid, all-round appeal to lovers of dark historical fantasy with its elements of history, dark imaginative fantasy, and action-adventure.
The Ethereal Squadron: A Wartime Fantasy (The Sorcerers of Verdun)
By Shami Stovall
Buy on Amazon
PUB DATE December 22, 2018
ISBN 9781631610677
PRICE $14.99 (USD)
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