Lost Gods Series -- Megan Derr (Maderr)

Book One: Treasure
Book Two: Burning Bright
Book Three: Stone Rose
Book Four: Poison
Book Five: Chaos

Rating:

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This is a series I have re-read a few times now, I find it very enjoyable. There are a few formatting errors, as well as other errors that I think have just come from transferring a manuscript to a web page format. However, the story itself has always been enough to overcome these errors, at least for me, and I have always been a little asinine when it comes to mistakes in text.

This series undertakes the daunting task of creating a unique and complex world. Although Derr doesn't take it nearly so far as Tolkien (and really, few do; moreso that much detail is not necessary to tell a good story, with most authors it would merely complicate it excessively), there is more than enough detail to bring it to life. Each of the individual countries has inspiration from real life places (if you don't see it, look at the names, because that's where it is mostly), and it's part of the fun (for me) to discover these little references.

The basic plot is not necessarily anything new to fantasy, but really, almost everything has been done before, it's all in the execution these days. The story is about the revival of the gods in Derr's world that fell 1000 years in the past. Although the endings are usually somewhat predictable (but not from the very beginning, and every so often there are some truly magnificent plot twists), it still makes for an enjoyable read. They're the type of predictions that just make sense.

The series is mostly lighthearted in the beginning, but becomes more tragic as it progresses and more of the story of how the gods fell to begin with starts to unfold. Although the ending is a far cry from being "sad," the tone of the later stories is definitely more . . . bittersweet.

Recommended for those who like fantasy, but have the time for a long read. This is the type of story for light, leisure reading, however. Not the type suited for complex analysis and debate. Things simply are what they are. Relax and enjoy. And sometimes that's just the sort of thing one needs :).


(And Cassie. There is a unicorn "god" in one of them ;)).

The Magic of the Story

I've wondered from time to time, as a reader and especially as someone who likes to write, just what makes a good story.

Is it the plot?

Is it the writing itself? (The tone, or all the other tons of small technical details that we use to pick apart and describe our own language.)

Is it just something about the writer that comes through somehow in a bunch of printed characters on a screen or a page?


Or maybe it's some magic that comes from the reader themselves.



I think it's probably all of these. And it's interesting, because if you look closely enough you can tell which writers pick up on this and which ones don't. Which ones take these things into account; especially the last, realizing that the story belongs to the reader just as much as to themselves.