Title: Ruins on Stone Hill
Author: F.P. Spirit
Date: 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9984715-7-0
Quote: "'Orc!'...A split seocnd later, two arrows embedded themselves nto the seat above."
Even n fantasy fction, should mortals be able to raise the dead? Does that break your suspension of disbelief? In the "Heroes of Ravensford" series, which this novel opens, a skilled "cleric" can raise the dead if someone's paying enough., Resurrection costs less than a really good battle hammer. And that odd splatting sound you just heard was my disbelief hitting the floor.
People can, of course, die and return to life in fantasy games, as different characters in different lives. They can come back from playing dead, or being thought dead. Gandalf can be merely transformed by what would have been certain death for a human, and Piers Anthony's characters can trade "souls" through the magic of the daemon Xanth, and there can be ghosts, a unique humanoid species, even at Hogwarts--but when human characters die, as was explained at length in the Harry Potter books, they have to stay dead. Even fantasy needs some firm rules.
So this episodic novel is not at the top of my list. It does have some entertaining additions to the Tolkien, Brooks, Eddings, Anthony, Dungeons & Dragons, etc., canon on which it draws. There are humanoid "bugbears," or were-bears, or bear-people, who can speak. There's a raven who speaks Elvish. There's a warrioress called Titan who's just a shy, awkward teenager when she's not using two swords at a time to cut attacking zombies into small pieces. They have a long series of adventures and learn that, in a fantasy kingdom, after surviving a few adventures you become a hero.
If you like "high" yet whimsical fantasy fiction with some potential for development into an online game, you may want to collect the whole series. Other books remain at the top of my Wish List. Still, I was amused by this one, and so will you probably be.
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