#and Granma Bee reminds me of my headcanon of Marie Cornel

[positivelyamazonian]

As you reminded me "The Shadow Histories" during our epic fangirling over Eric Loren's voice, I think it's the right time to read it. You said you did so... Can you comment on that? Is it good? Did Murti nailed it again? Anything pls. Thankies 💗

Hi my sweetheart! Ok, sorry for the delay, and my apologies also to @castlekriegler who’s expecting a review to Murti’s novels since I read them last October but… they are not easy to review at all :) And also, I don’t want to make any spoilers, so… I’ll try to answer your question without revealing too much about the plot, ok?

First of all, you can purchase Murti’s novels at Amazon. They’re in Kindle format and very, very cheap - just like my personal novel, Irene - so here you have the links to buy the two published titles until this day:

The Shadow Histories, vol. 1 - The Empty Land and

The Shadow Histories, vol. 2 - The Severed Twin

So, let’s talk about these novels. First to say, they are only available in English and it’s a high level of English - wouldn’t you - so if your level of English is not really good, you may suffer a little reading it. Murti uses a complex and ellaborate language and grammar and he introduces his particular vocabulary for weapons, magic objects, races and monsters, even a new language for his characters, just as Tolkien did - in this case, a mix of Latin, French and other languages to compound his particular universe.

Also, his novels are very, very long - like if they were printed, they would be really thick books. Another thing that must be said is that the novels are considered fantasy for teens, as he himself has defined them, but personally I’d say there are even maturer, for the amounts of darkness, cruelty, and sinister stuff dwelling in those pages would make most of teens feel bad - I felt bad, and hell, I’m not a softie when it comes to cruelty and darknes. I wrote Lilith’s Scepter lmao D:

Long story short, even it you can classify this novels as teen fantasy, there are other elements - gore, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic stuff - who made the plot more complex. In the end, every reader will have their vision and for that, I recommend you to review him in Goodreads and make him now - he’d enjoy it, for sure!

Now, let’s go to the plot. The Shadow Histories are placed in a nearly futurist England, after some apocalyptic events which almost doomed humanity. Starting the action in the author’s home, Chester, the main character is a 12-years-old girl named Codi Conmar, who has really special abilities from which she’s unaware. But after several events that will put her life in risk, after losing her parents and be tossed in the run for her life, she will discover those inner special skills in her and be aware she belongs to a special kind of human, a gifted individual, whose inner powers will be decisive to fight the darkness and their minions lurking on humanity and restart a latent fight, hidden during centuries for the public domain.

Creatures similar to demons, creatures similar to angels, and gifted superhuman individuals, just like her, will accompany her through this painful and challenging journey, just to discover she is not really a young teen, but that’s only an external appearance. She’s older, much older, and she’s powerful, much more powerful than expected, and she’s the only hope to her kind and all mankind actually. And now that responsibility lays on her shoulders.

The creativeness and originality of Murti when writing this story is non-limited. It much reminds me the style of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - another AMAZING teen fantasy you should read - but Murti is darker, and gorer, and terrifying. Murti’s creatures are born of a nightmare, they are brutal, they are horrid, they are merciless, they sent chills down your spine. 

I remember one passage, one atrocious passage that made me shiver - one of the main characters, a child by the way, falls into the hands of one of those evil creatures - Bella Grendelmor, by the way, such an amazing character - and his fate is far worse than death. I’m still shocked at the description of that scene… and without any gore. 

Also, the references to TRAOD storyline are everywhere. He actually wrote these stories BEFORE TRAOD, so it’s normal he later used some of the ideas you can find in his novels - and man, that’s so heartbreaking. You can see Kurtis’ powers in Codi’s skills, but also in the other character’s skills, you can see some traces of Putai and even Marie Cornel in Grandma Bee… and so on. I won’t tell more. 

I recommend these novels if you’re into this kind of genre - as a fan of Tolkien, Weis&Hickman, ASOIAF and the rest of epic fantasy since I was a child, I’m totally in. Just be prepared for the feels and the twisted imagination and tortuous ways of thiscreative, amazingly talented writer.

Finally, the first book is a bit hard to read and follow - nothing is given you for granted and you’ve to carve your way throught the plot, but the second one is definitely more enjoyable and easy to read.

So that’s all I can say, without actually ruining the mystery. Just remind you that these are only the two first parts, for he’s working already in the sequels. Be sure to check his website to find out more information - for he wants to write 6 volumes. 

I hope my little non-review is helpful to you :) I’ve enjoyed the reading, but honestly I still prefer TRAOD storyline because Lara… and Kurtis… and my feels. But they are a great work indeed. Let’s hope that, when he’s finished with these, he may write a TRAOD novel finally. He already knows we want it! :D

[positivelyamazonian]

When you’re reading Murti Schofield’s Shadow Histories and you start to find a lot of references which were later adapted and used in TRAOD...