The God Tattoo: untold tales from the Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have a confession to make – I’m not the biggest fan of Tom Lloyd’s books. It isn’t the mythos, or the violence, or even the characters. There is something in the way that Lloyd constructs sentences that hurts my brain.
I realize that sounds petty and weak, and it is, but it makes reading a full length novel of his difficult. I’m sure listening to a narrated version would be fine – I’ve learned that lesson with a few other authors lately – but something in the word to brain translation breaks down and I begin to develop a book induced migraine. My internal critic screams at what seem like run-on sentences devoid of punctuation.
Which is why I’m as surprised as you now are to know I’m going to recommend the God Tattoo so highly. This collection of “Untold Tales from the Twilight Reign” follows the same universe as his other Twilight Reign novels, replete with White Eyes and magics and forces both terrible and dark. But somehow, distilled into these short vignettes, each chapter a story in itself, it was actually a really fun and entertaining read.
Of course, like any story collection, not all stories are created equal, and some are better than others. Fans of Lloyd’s will enjoy the collection, and fantasy readers interested in a collection of fun fantasy adventures will find something entertaining here as well. This companion book contains a well rounded collection of mysteries, gothic fairytales, and classic adventure stories – set in the world of the Seven Tribes.
Enjoy!
