Here’s a review I wrote for an author friend of mine.
Ever leave a review of a book on a website like Amazon or Goodreads?
Authors look forward to getting good reviews from readers and promos from influencers.
Last year I worked on the cover of Nicola MacCameron’s Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1. She’s a friend I met through the Nestbuilders community at Siretona Creative, my publisher.
For the cover, I developed the RAW photo of the painting by Anna Pederson used in the background, and I designed the fantasy font that is used on the cover as well as in a number of places in the manuscript. Finally, I proofread the book.
So there’s a good possibility that I’m biased.
That’s okay. Write what you want when reviewing a book. Here’s the text of the review I posted online for Nicola.
Travis
Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1
Nicola MacCameron
Few books stick with me from the opening scene to the final pages the way Leoshine: Princess Oracle has (her name is pronounced “Leo-sheen”). That’s probably because MacCameron’s words manipulate every sense and emotion. The emotions run high and are just as real as the visuals and smells.
Her rich prose weaves a story that consistently denies any information other than that which the character’s themselves can know. If you’ve been wondering what is meant by the advice to writers, “show don’t tell,” this book is a masterclass in showing without telling.
Every character, and every moment in the book is a study in contrasts. Advanced technology mixes with a something like medieval feudalism. Tenderness and generosity are contrasted against violence and greed. Characters with great philosophical understanding contrast with those having dull incapacity. MacCameron can zoom in on a single drop of sweat or describe vast vistas.
The world building is so complete, the reader is dropped into a far future environment with its own technology, customs, architecture, multiple conlangs, and even an alphabet with its own orthography. Dog ear the map and glossary at the front of the book, you’re going to need it little Tassanara.
It’s science fiction, and while there aren’t any aliens, the humans are all too real—full of fears and angst, anger, vengeance, and love and mercy. If you like your protagonists heroic and your antagonists villainous, remember the old saying, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” You think you know who the bad guys are, but don’t ask Leoshine. Perhaps the horse knows. He seems to have figured things out.
And then there’s Iliana, or should I say, ao Kenan Iliana, she whose arrival is greatly anticipated.
MacCameron manages to keep Leoshine’s name on the cover of the book, but she only does so by not introducing Iliana into the story until it’s almost half done.
And it is a show stopper.
Cleopatra’s cinematic entrance into the Roman forum has nothing on Iliana’s arrival. Tens of thousands of soldiers arrayed on their horses welcome her “shuttle.” No spoilers here, but it is one of the most epic depictions of a grand entrance in all of literature.
True to style, in this scene MacCameron contrasts Leoshine’s individual experience with the massive crowd’s collective welcome.
Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1 is the prologue to a six-book epic science fiction fantasy that you have to see to believe.
Buy Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1
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