Kenny Soward's debut fantasy book, Rough Magic (Book I of the GnomeSaga), was published in March 2013.
Information about the author:
Kenny Soward grew up in Crescent Park, Kentucky, a small suburb just south of Cincinnati, Ohio, listening to AC/DC, Quiet Riot, and Iron Maiden. In those quiet 1970's streets, he jumped bikes, played Nerf football, and acquired many a childhood scar.
At the age of sixteen, he learned to play drums, and did so with a passion. Kenny bashed skins for many groups over the next twenty years, and his musical tastes grew to include folk, alternative, bluegrass, and new age.
By day, Kenny works as a Unix professional, and at night he writes and sips bourbon.
Rough Magic is Kenny's first high fantasy novel, Book I of the GnomeSaga.
Kenny lives in Independence, Kentucky, with three cats and a gal who thinks she's a cat.
Click here to visit the author's Facebook page.
Information about Rough Magic:
Niksabella the gnome has tinkered in the shadows for years, developing an invention that might change the world, even if she doesn't know it yet. She has few friends and even fewer allies in the city of Hightower, where social and academic status is quite important.
Her brother, Nikselpik, is a cantankerous wizard who drinks too much, sings dirty songs, and makes rude passes at gnomestresses. A dark addiction consumes him, a habit called bugging, which gives him increased power and feelings of euphoria while pushing him closer to death.
Dark creatures from the ultraworlds have come calling. Niksabella must fight to protect her life and her invention, while Nikselpik engages the enemy as an unlikely guest of Hightower's military elite.
Niksabella and Nikselpik must find their true powers together, or perish apart. Will they heal the wounds of their childhood before it's too late?
A REVIEW OF KENNY SOWARD'S ROUGH MAGIC
Kenny Soward's Rough Magic is a delightfully original and entertaining debut fantasy book, because it features gnomes as protagonists. As several readers may know, gnomes are often severely overlooked in fantasy literature. This is a shame, because this book is a good example of how fascinating they are as protagonists. (To be honest, I don't remember reading any other adult fantasy novels in which gnomes are protagonists.)
Rough Magic is a pleasantly dark, but humorous book, which contains magic, action, family relationships and love. I loved this book! In my opinion Rough Magic is exactly what fantasy entertainment should be, because it's a clever, funny and original book that offers perfect entertainment for readers. It's full of heart, humour, wittiness, sarcasm and fascinating happenings.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
Rough Magic is a story about two gnomes and their lives in Hightower. Nikselpik and Niksabella Nur are a brother and sister. Niksabella is almost like an outcast among the other gnomes of Hightower, because she has been neglected and treated badly for her inventions etc. Although it's been difficult for her to get recognition and understanding for her work, she hasn't given up and her tinkering has finally produced something unique that could change things quite a lot for the gnomes and other beings. Unfortunately shadows loom in the horizon, because what she has invented can be very dangerous in the wrong hands. When beings from the ultrawords appear and gnomes are found murdered, things become dangerous for her and her brother...
Here's a bit of information about certain characters:
- Niksabella is a talented tinkerer who has become used to being ridiculed for her unorthodox methods and inventions (several gnomes think that she's a joke), but she doesn't give up easily and doesn't care what others think of her. She invents a new power source that may be dangerous in the wrong hands.
- Nikselpik is a talented necromancer who has an addiction called bugging (bugging is a bit different kind of an addiction, because it involves the usage of bugs to produce feelings of euphoria). Nikselpik is a bit rude and likes booze and women. He is being asked to investigate murders outside the city.
- Jontuk is a stonekin who's looking for a trinket that can save the stonekins.
- The First Wizard Raulnock is an intriguing character, because he has strong opinions about what's right and wrong, and doesn't tolerate gnomes who tinker with polymagic.
Kenny Soward mostly concentrates on writing about Niksabella and Nikselpik, but he also writes about minor characters (Jancy, Termund etc) in a fascinating way. Niksabella and Nikselpik are interesting and three-dimensional characters and the author writes well about them and their lives (in my opinion he writes surprisingly fluently about the differences between them). What makes Niksabella and Nikselpik especially interesting is that they're wonderfully realistic characters - they have flaws and they make mistakes just like real persons do.
I enjoyed reading about Niksabella and Nikselpik, because both characters were realistic. It was especially enjoayble to read about Niksabella's problems with her work, brother and love life (Termund). It was also nice to read about how the First Wizard Raulnock tried to cause problems for Niksabella, because she was suspected of tinkering with wrong things.
I also enjoyed reading about Niksabella's friend Fritzy and her family, because it was fun to read about Niksabella's opinions about Fritzy and her family. Niksabella's sarcastic thoughts were delightfully witty.
The events takes place in Hightower. The author reveals bits and pieces of Hightower and the world as the story progresses. It was interesting to read about the different places of Hightower and its inhabitants, because the city and its inhabitants are colourful.
Kenny Soward writes easily about the academic and social status of Hightower's inhabitants. Being different in Hightower can cause you quite a lot of problems, because what you do and what you have achieved means a lot to the gnomes. Persons who are different are often shunned and treated badly.
The action scenes are wonderfully bloody, ruthless and rough, which is good. The author describes these scenes perfectly and lets his readers fully immerse themselves in them.
I enjoyed reading about the magic system, because it differed nicely from other magic systems. It was great to read about necromancy, thaumaturgy, polymagic, three schools of gnomish magic (Beakerheads, Technocrats and Neverminders) etc. The magic system isn't fully explored in this book, so I think that the author will continue to reveal more things about it in the forthcoming books.
Kenny Soward is an excellent storyteller and clearly enjoys writing fantasy. He seems to write the story from his heart and describes fluently what the gnomes do and how they feel about things. In my opinion he's an author to watch, because he writes good fantasy.
There are a few minor flaws in this book, but in my opinion they're not really worth mentioning, because the story is compelling and the protagonists are interesting. I'll only mention that it would've been nice to read more about the world surrounding Hightower, but because the happenings take place in Hightower, it's understandable that there's no need to write about the outside world.
The GnomeSaga will continue in 2014 (the sequel is called The Tinkermage), so fans of this book will have more to read next year. I'm personally looking forward to reading the sequel, because Rough Magic is an entertaining fantasy book. I'm sure that the sequel will be worth the wait.
Before I write the final words of this review, I'll mention that the cover art painting by Michael (Mike) Gauss looks great.
On the scale from 1 to 5 stars I give Rough Magic 4.5 stars, because it's a fast read and offers plenty of entertainment for fantasy readers. Rough Magic is a wonderfully charming debut book for readers who enjoy good and well written fantasy books. It offers perfect escapism for a few hours, so make sure that you put it on your reading list.
Enjoyable fantasy!