A Festival of Skeletons RJ Astruc Kay T Holt Jonatan IversenEjve Bart R Leib 9781453757352 Books
Download As PDF : A Festival of Skeletons RJ Astruc Kay T Holt Jonatan IversenEjve Bart R Leib 9781453757352 Books
Ebenezer Sink is a man who knows how to color-coordinate. But when the cross-dressing mortician's deathtelling ability goes on the fritz, he takes an irresistible cook, a malcontent merkind, and a recovering addict hunting for necromancers. This darkly comedic fantasy comes from the mind of New Zealand author RJ Astruc!
"If you have no interest at all in reading a fabulous, well thought-out, engaging story, stay away from RJ Astruc's writing--you'll get sucked in and read it anyway. The moment I started reading, she dragged me along for an extraordinary, outrageous ride through a perfectly ordinary universe filled with murder, madness, mystery, magic, merfolk, and morticians. Dark humor, light humor, macabre doings, cute little outfits, deluded cops, and afternoon tea with reformed alcoholics are all just the tip of the iceberg in this story. I'm not only reserving bookshelf space for the printed edition of A Festival of Skeletons, I'll be reserving reading and re-reading time for it, too. Be careful of this one, readers; you won't want to put it down, either!"
~ Jean Johnson, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Sons of Destiny series
"A Festival of Skeletons is a character driven novel that had me cracking up left and right...there's witty banter and a wonderful flow to the novel that's reminiscent of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. The plot follows an even pace with plenty of surprises that are perfectly foreshadowed. I was kicking myself that I didn't catch on to them earlier, but I was amazed at how wonderfully put-together this story is."
- Only the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
"A Festival of Skeletons is like a love child of Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin - a pacy, intelligent comedy novel that's crazier than a cat on catnip, with excellent characterisation that doesn't take itself too seriously. Highly recommended."
- SciFi & Fantasy Books
A Festival of Skeletons RJ Astruc Kay T Holt Jonatan IversenEjve Bart R Leib 9781453757352 Books
This book is unlike any book I've read before and that's a good thing because I've read a lot of books. First the characters, the main character is a diminutive cross-dressing, death telling mortician...I KNOW, RIGHT! Then we have his assistant who is a handsome young man in a 12 step program...when you find out his addiction you might be surprised. Then his maid is a merkind, no not a mermaid, a merkind who can live to be 1000, has a connection to the spiritual realm, and has LOTS of orifices! Another character is a young, fat, pale, freckle-faced man who is irresistible to women. And last, but not least the antagonist in our book is a former protégé of said, cross dressing mortician who believes that the responsibility for his sister's debilitating head wound is the fault of said mentor. Are you still following me, okay? Well, there's a serial killer loose and necromancers setting loose hordes of the dead who are now zombies (don't worry they won't eat you)! But not to fear our characters are on the case. It's a wild and enjoyable ride on how this all gets resolved and all in all I really liked the book. However, as some have said in past reviews the dénouement left a bit to be desired.Product details
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Tags : A Festival of Skeletons [RJ Astruc, Kay T Holt, Jonatan Iversen-Ejve, Bart R Leib] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Ebenezer Sink is a man who knows how to color-coordinate. But when the cross-dressing mortician's deathtelling ability goes on the fritz,RJ Astruc, Kay T Holt, Jonatan Iversen-Ejve, Bart R Leib,A Festival of Skeletons,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,145375735X,Fantasy - General,Fantasy,Fiction,Fiction Fantasy General
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A Festival of Skeletons RJ Astruc Kay T Holt Jonatan IversenEjve Bart R Leib 9781453757352 Books Reviews
OMG, what had I gotten myself into? Yes, I had accepted to read and review a new "Dark Comedic Fantasy." My first. Actually, I didn't know the specific genre since it came to be as scifi/fantasy, so I decided, what the heck... It's not that I don't enjoy laughing, but I have found that what other people find very humorous is oftentimes just not funny to me. So, as a professional reviewer, I decided to review the storyline and not worry about whether I thought it was funny--and do the best I could...
RJ Astruc is an excellent writer and I would love to see her work when she's not on a bender. What? She says that in her bio. (Check out her web site by clicking the title of this article.) So as I started to read, it was easy to become interested in the basic storyline, even if I was not even smiling at her dark comedy...but of course, as her bio claims, her husband has six nipples, so she can't have everything, right?
First of all, most of her characters are found on the front cover of her book. I found as I got further and further into the story, I would go back to check out the character and study the individual one I was reading about--she's done an excellent job of describing them in word, but her artist, Jonatan Iversen-Ejve has also done a great job of portraying them! Ok, I admit it, the characters soon grew on me, even the "merkind."
So I found myself in Kamphor. I should let you know that there is magic there and some individuals and/or merkinds have the capability to use it. Like Mr. Sink, the one on the cover in the middle holding a skull. You may immediately think he is a cross-dresser; and he has gotten to like it now, but originally, he was advised to dress lighter to deal with an issue--being able to know when somebody was going to die. Fortunately, Mr. Sink is a mortician (or did he become one because of his ability, I'm not sure)
Mr. Sink was the only one who would give employment to his two assistants. Joshua is the hunk on the left of the cover (with the "shiny" ax). Vona Urgarth is the Merkind and is very grateful for her job, given that she eats both her own kind and...whatever... One other character I'll highlight is Percy (next to Mr. Sink on the right); he's nothing special--except that he's only 17 and he can get (and does) any woman he wants. Not very long after he had met Vona, however, Percy finds he is in love, the enduring kind...
The underlying story is a whodunit! Young women are being killed and mutilated. Most have been prostitutes; however, one of Percy's lady friends is also an actress and when she had to try out for a part, she had dressed for it and mistakenly was also killed. Although his affection was now with Vona, Percy felt he had to help find her killer.
The police, specifically, Mr. Sink's neighbor Arifia Fawles (yes, she's on the cover) believes Mr. Sink and or somebody from his household, is guilty. Actually, she's way off base because Mr. Sink is trying to solve the crimes as well! There is one man who hates Mr. Sink, but who was once his assistant. He is the brother of a woman with whom Mr. Sink was in love. In fact, she had asked him to marry her, but when she kissed him, he drew back suddenly. She was so shocked that she ran from him, out the door, and was hit in an accident. Her brother, Mr. Torvault hating Mr. Sink, became a mortician and opened a competitive business on the other side of town.
Now, I'm not even going to mention The Knife, who used to kill like the present deaths were being done and who had never been caught. Nor am I going to mention The Fifteen Step Program that was started by Mr. Sink's lover and now headed by Joshua--you'll see a step beginning every chapter--like, Step Fourteen Don't turn on those who try to help you.
I'm also not going to mention the Necromancers, the box full of skeletons, The Sentinel. I'm especially not going to go into the relationship between Vona and Percy, nor that when Mr. Sink is arrested, the members of the Step Program are brought into help...
Really, I'm not going to tell you any more. You have got to read this book to believe it. So what if I didn't laugh, it was gruesome enough and unbelievably sarcastic in other spots. Anything and everything you can think of just might be in this book...Ok, I didn't love it but I couldn't put it down--hmmm, strange...maybe the magic...
For the genre, it is an excellent addition. If you are already a fan, then ENJOY!
I've read some of RJ Astruc's short stories, and liked them a lot. So, when I saw this novel (recomended on Basement Stories, I think), I had to have it.
In some ways, it exceeded expectations. It's a cool fantastic world, and who else would have as main characters a dwarf cross-dressing mortician and a slightly dangerous merkind? or a womanizing Male-chauvinist-pig kitchenhand? Not to mention a good-looking young man whose secret I will not reveal because, spoiler.
In one way, it was disappointing. To demand several hours of my time, the protagonist(s) must be likeable as well as interesting. All the main characters in this book start out unpleasant (though by the end, that's changed). So all that kept me hooked initially was (a) the cool world and (b) belief in the author. I suspect with someone I was not confident of, I might have ditched the book.
I'm glad I didn't. I really liked the way all the characters come through in the end, and all the plot threads are pulled together.
What I'd really love to read is the next book in this setting, now that I'm good with all the wild and wacky characters that inhabit it.
This book is unlike any book I've read before and that's a good thing because I've read a lot of books. First the characters, the main character is a diminutive cross-dressing, death telling mortician...I KNOW, RIGHT! Then we have his assistant who is a handsome young man in a 12 step program...when you find out his addiction you might be surprised. Then his maid is a merkind, no not a mermaid, a merkind who can live to be 1000, has a connection to the spiritual realm, and has LOTS of orifices! Another character is a young, fat, pale, freckle-faced man who is irresistible to women. And last, but not least the antagonist in our book is a former protégé of said, cross dressing mortician who believes that the responsibility for his sister's debilitating head wound is the fault of said mentor. Are you still following me, okay? Well, there's a serial killer loose and necromancers setting loose hordes of the dead who are now zombies (don't worry they won't eat you)! But not to fear our characters are on the case. It's a wild and enjoyable ride on how this all gets resolved and all in all I really liked the book. However, as some have said in past reviews the dénouement left a bit to be desired.
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