The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom #1)

I recently learned from my cardiologist that a procedure performed on me, a nuclear stress test, found no blockages. Thats good, thought I.

Then, he told me, We found a condition that indicated you had a heart attack in the past.

That fact has altered my view regarding life, the universe, and my place in it. Indeed, it convinced me to shorten my reviews and to give only the broad strokes. Th news also persuaded me to select the fantasy this month, instead of a thriller, suspense, mystery or an historical fiction.

The Killing Fog is an intriguing, clean, fantasy that is a cut above most books being published nowadays. Unlike the fantasy novels of my youth, though, this has a tad more spiritual element to it, but not of a religious nature.

Pretty much, this is the story of a young woman having to choose principle over doing what comes easiest or that which poses the least risk.

Of course, the great value in such a common tale is character development. Thats why I enjoyed The Killing Fog. I liked witnessing the main heroines growth. One scene that stays with me concerns her transformation when the fog envelopes her. To say more would endanger my policy to never divulge spoilers, so ai will shut up now.

Four stars out of five.

The story starts with description of semi-medieval society of people living in the fjords that are separated from the main land by Death Wall that nobody crosses. The conditions of life are harsh and made even more difficult by the constant fear of the killing fog. The teenage albino girl with unique sense of smell, a warrior in training, is the main heroine of the book. There are, as usual for this kind of fantasy; kingdoms, sword fights, magic, and journeys through exotic landscapes with a touch of romance mixed in. But none of this was really mind blowing. I have to confess that I started just scanning pages at some point.

What kept me reading was the lurking mystery of the ancient and forgotten civilization that built the wall and left behind ruined cities and a handful of magical artifacts. About 40% into the book, after following the protagonists through their long journeys and multiple chases and fights, I was finally allowed the look into the ancient word. But I got only short glimpse before being brought back to palace intrigues, exotic landscapes and descriptions of smells detected by the albino girl. There is another, very condensed burst of information later on but a little that is revealed is not exactly astounding. Then, back again to the chases and fights interwoven with the moral dilemmas of main heroine.

And then, after 400+ pages, it all ends up with a cliffhanger! The rest of the mystery will be revealed in the next two books (that I am not planning on reading).

Bottom line: the world building is an interesting one, the landscapes and fights are impressive but repetitive and original ideas are spread very thinly. On top of this, despite her unique talents, the main heroine is not very engaging. Because of that my attention often wavered. In my opinion this book is just over talked. I much preferred the Harbinger series by the same author.

This is NOT a complete book!
If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is an author who can’t manage to finish a story in one book!
Mystery writers can; western writers can; Pratchett could, Heinlein could.
Tolkien took three books…..but you’re not Tolkien!

I’d previously read another book from this Author, so when I saw this one was available as a First Reads selection, I selected it. I was intrigued by the main character, but found the World and the plot premise difficult to absorb. The Asian names and locale were not easy to mentally pronounce or remember, making the flow of reading a little tiresome. The writing style was typical epic fantasy–flowery and overly descriptive. Although a good length for a first book in a series, the ending (?) definitely didn’t resolve anything, which really left me unsatisfied.

Yes, it was interesting. There was magic, bloody action, and political intrigue. Hints of romance. Yes, I read it to the un-end. However, I’m undecided as to whether I’ll read the second book. 3-1/2 Stars for me.

This is the first in a new fantasy series by Jeff Wheeler. Here we are taken to a land that seems to have no history, and the kingdoms all seem to vary in their mythology to a certain degree, despite neighbouring each other. With magic in the world though we see that this seems to do with artefacts, things that have powers from before the people we read of started to live in the places. This as such is an intriguing idea, as we follow the main character Bingmei and others who start to get entangled in the existence of something that no historical records exist for.

This as the opening book does show promise although I think it could have been a bit meatier in places, where things seem to be quickly covered, although possibly that may be because more will become apparent in the next book. You will immediately notice the Chinese influence as you start this, and indeed in his afterword Wheeler confirms as much, but also the germ for the story, and one influence came about due to a glacier in Alaska, of all places.

Here then we meet Bingmei, who is only twelve in the prologue, then we find ourselves four years later as the main text opens up. As you would expect with something that bears a resemblance to China, Bingmei is certainly different, with pale skin but even more noticeably, the lightness of her hair. This we are told is due to the Winter Sickness, but we are never really told what this is, so we dont know if this is just a name given to someone like her, who is different from the mainstream, or whether it also is a proper sickness as such, with a lower mortality rate.

There is a lot of action and adventure here, what with treachery, deception, greed, and envy and some of the fight scenes will make you think of those old kung-fu films that Golden Harvest made, and many of us grew up with. The story offers a certain prophecy, but the question is will Bingmei fulfil her obligations, or will she decide otherwise? As we see the past coming to life, will the newer people be able to win, or will they find themselves subjugated by something that they were really unaware of?

This is a clean tale, in that there is no sex, and the violence, although with people getting killed is not done in an exploitative way, also there is no swearing, which I know a number of people will be relieved by. As I have already mentioned, there were things that I would have liked to have known more of, but then as this is only the first book, one hopes that these will be revealed as the tale continues. My biggest niggle though is the times things seem to roil, when on certain occasions it would have been more appropriate to use roll. And also, perhaps things are a bit too easy for Bingmei as we read of her special skill in detecting falsehoods. In the main though this is a good enough read and should satisfy many, and the closing of the tale is a good one to lead us into the next novel.

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