I am so busy writing and editing my own nonsense and committed to reading two books a month for two book groups in which I poke and mutually laugh, cry and enjoy novel, that I rarely find time to read extra.However, I couldn’t help myself be drawn into buying The Collar by V.G, Bratt. Why? Because I am kind of distantly related to the author. She is the wife of the ex-husband of my son-in-law’s wife. Got that? I’ve never met Mrs Bratt and had no idea there was another crazy writer even distantly in the family. One exception is Ben Bamber, my nephew, who writes science fiction and thrillers. To be found here Ben Bamber, Author | Website | Books | Interview | Quotes – AllAuthor
I have met Mrs Bratt’s stepson and stepdaughter a few times. Rebecca Gregory (nee Bratt) who alerted me to The Collar and urged her facebook pals to buy it. So I did.
The Collar by V.G. Bratt
Art by Mike Gregory
ASIN : B0D4RYPJWT
Here is the Amazon UK link to the kindle (FREE on Kindle Unlimited). Paperback also available https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D4RYPJWT/
Cover art is kept in the family, superbly done by Rebecca’s feller, Mike Gregory
A fun fantasy adventure.
They’d banished magic but magic happened anyway. In many ways The Collar is a classic quest to rescue a princess, but it is much more. A delightful read for this hard-nosed scifi author. Dare—short for Dairen—is a locksmith who’s developing lockpicking skills and earns drinks and coins with illusions in his local Oak Barrel inn. He’s recruited to find Princess Lilyanna and is soon drawn in along with other colourful characters. There’s terror, laughter and evocative wordcraft: “…yet chilled to the bone as she as, when Lilyanna caught sight of Greystone Fortress…the shiver that ran through her was not caused by the cold.
I loved the Dread Wood with its wolf-sized termites in tunnels in which our hero, Dare, acted with “bravery, stupidity or sheer stubbornness” all in trepidation but with relief moments. I also wished when I leaned back against a tree to “let all tension drain away” I would experience the “magic of the Dream Wood settle like a fine mist” and hear “the soft sounds of the forest with her skin sparkling with light blue magic.”
How did the author know that squirrels taste like rodents? Hah, or at least to a dragon.
Well written, a page-turning easy read at any age but especially young teens.
Nelder’s Writing News
Malta Library Services are publishing a revised ebook version of my Xaghra’s Revenge, retitled Vengeance Island, which will be distributed free to library members in the Maltese islands as an EPUB book. (summer 2024)
The Clockmeister’s Revenge: a true horror telling of the designer of the Prague Astronomical Clock in 1410. Published by Peasants Magazine issue 2 Here
Or the printed 8.5×11 version available at:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D33HCF8L
Dizzy But No Wormhole: a surreal SF short in Aphelion Magazine March 2024
Dragut’s Divergence: a time travelling short to be published by LL Publications as an ebook Summer 2024
Opi’s World, sequel to Vanished Earth in the Flying Crooked SF series to be published by LL-Publications (who published my award-winning ARIA TRILOGY) in 2024
Geoff’s UK Amazon author page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
And for US readers http://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
