Heather’s Bookshelf: The Lords of the Summer Season
Author: Peter W. Blaisdell
Released: 11/8/20
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
“A beautiful sunset looked like the gates of Hell. Cumulus clouds fat as the sin of gluttony spewed into the sky from infernal foundries. And, high up, elongate cirrus clouds were witch’s fingers reaching for a soul.”
“The Lords of the Summer Season” introduces Bradan, a wizard and disciple of Merlin who finds himself hunted by the Gods from the times of King Arthur in Camelot through California in the 1960’s.
The story follows Bradan (and Tintagel- his supernatural wolf companion) throughout various points in time including his training and gifts received from Merlin while dealing with common enemies. He trains in Florence, Italy with Botticelli and helps paint Primavera while advising Lorenzo Medici. In the 1960s, he’s a professor at Berkeley, a protestor, and a rock musician.
Bradan uses his wizarding skills to help himself along the way including using spells to open locks, But his feud with Medraut also carries throughout the ages and threatens to end his adventures.
Trigger Warning: adult language, sexual situations, violence, death/murder
Overall, this story was an interesting combination of many book genres all mixed together. There’s a lot of fantasy, some historical fiction, and facets of random others including romance and action/adventure. As such, this tale will not be for everyone. There are a lot of characters (some using different names depending on timeframe), different time periods, and lots of supernatural entities that can make parts of the tale a little confusing. The main protagonist of Bradan is intriguing, but not exactly likable. His rival, on the other hand, was absolutely despicable and hateful- a great bad guy. Parts of the plot move more quickly than others and I personally enjoyed the historical timelines more than the 1960s snippets. I wish that more was done with Bradan’s gifts and spells as I felt this was kind of a missed opportunity that could have been really interesting and tied back to his relationship to Merlin. The ending had me a little torn- it was a lot of the music festival- logistics, band interactions, etc. I could tell the author really enjoyed this part, but it felt a little out of place even from the rest of this mixed up tale. However, I did like how the author wrapped up the main characters and set them up for present day. The evolution felt natural and a satisfying way to complete the tale.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
Mixed genres lead to an interesting combination of timelines, characters, and fantasy.
Want to learn more about the author?
Check out my interview with Peter W. Blaisdell
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Find it for purchase here or Kindle Unlimited
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