Bitterwood Blog Review

James Maxey pointed me towards this stunning review of his forthcoming novel, Bitterwood.

"Calling this novel ‘ambitious’ would be a grave understatement. Maxey is working with a sweeping dragon culture, one thousand years of post-modern history, an embittered archer's grapple with faith, and the near-extermination of the human race. The story follows two disjoint timelines and includes no less than thirteen distinct POV characters...

"Maxey pulls it off with considerable aplomb. The story is not only engaging and easy to follow, but thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining. A good chunk of the POV characters are dragons, and the roles of villain and hero are occasionally intermingled. I loved it. I haven’t read a take on dragons this refreshing since I discovered Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels...

"Let me reiterate: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But don’t take my word for it. Go read the starred review it got from Publisher’s Weekly, or check out the sample chapter provided by Solaris Books. Or just buy the dang thing and form your own opinion."

See? It's not just us who think it's an amazing debut. (And don't forget the fabulous Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly reviews either.

James will be at this year's Readercon with Solaris author Jeffrey Thomas. So you know where they are if you want to hang out with the cool kids.

— Mark N