Today I’m talking about a book written by Indie author, Lindsay Schopfer. I enjoyed the first book in the series, The Beast Hunter, and Into the North is a fitting sequel to Keltin’s first adventure. Both are stand-alone novels, so you don’t have to have read The Beast Hunter to know what is going on.
But First, THE BLURB:
Professional beast hunter Keltin Moore is returning home a changed man. With a new apprentice and a lifetime of experience gained in faraway Krendaria, he prepares to settle into his old life of being a small town hero. But when gold is discovered in the far north, Keltin must again leave his home in order to protect the prospectors from the beasts ravaging the gold fields. Arriving in the boom town of Lost Trap, Keltin soon discovers that there are dangers beyond beasts in the frozen north. A local gang has established themselves as the resident Hunters Guild and will not tolerate any competition. Meanwhile, a specter haunts the gold fields. A legendary creature known as the Ghost of Lost Trap stalks the snowy countryside, testing Keltin and his friends to their very limits as they try to hunt their most dangerous beast yet.
MY REVIEW:
Like Schopfer’s other work, this novel is well-structured, with creative environments, good tension, and deep characters. It is a complex tale, layered with political and ethical themes. As in The Beast Hunter, the technology is all that which we would find available in any late 19th century steampunk tale, but there the similarity ends. Keltin is a beast hunter, and the Ghost of Lost Trap is not your average Edwardian creature. The creatures in this series are some of the most horrific things I have seen outside of an RPG, all of them fun and dangerous.
Keltin Moore is still slightly flawed, and still intriguing. He still has family troubles and will likely always have trouble getting along with certain members of his own species. He lives in a world of diverse sentient races of people, and the prejudice and political intrigue stemming from that diversity is central to their culture. One of my favorite characters is Bor’ve’tai, a member of a species called the Loopi, and he makes a return.
A bounty hunter, Keltin is used to working alone, but now he has an apprentice—Jaylocke, the Weycliff Wayfarer. Jaylocke is, at times, hilarious, and is a good foil for Keltin’s intensity. The people they meet along the way and the relationships they forge with other species are the core of this story. Lindsay Schopfer’s knack for showing a good story really shines, as the action driven plot, rather male-dominated but multicultural society, and solid, well-drawn characters of many different species make this novel a good read.
I received an advance copy of this book as a Beta reader. I enjoyed it very much in that incarnation, and liked the finished product even more. I highly recommend it as an action adventure.
I will be a guest author participating in the official online launch party on Facebook, Saturday April 15, beginning at 4:oo p.m. Pacific time. Four other wonderful authors will also be participating, helping to boost the signal so feel free to log into Facebook and join in the conversation. Some awesome prizes could be yours!
Into the North Online Launch Party
Log on and engage with some fantastic fantasy and steampunk authors as we celebrate the release of Lindsay Schopfer’s latest novel, “Into the North.” Our lineup of authors is as follows:
4:00 to 4:30 pm PDT – Pembroke Sinclair (7:00 EDT) (US) Pembroke Sinclair is a literary jack of all trades, playing her hand at multiple genres. She has written an eclectic mix of fiction ranging from horror to sci-fi and even some westerns. Born in Rock Springs, Wyoming–the home of 56 nationalities–it is no wonder Pembroke ended up so creatively diverse. Her fascination with the notions of good and evil, demons and angels, and how the lines blur have inspired her writing. Pembroke lives in Laramie, Wyoming, with her husband, two spirited boys, a black lab named Ryder, and a rescue kitty named Alia, who happens to be the sweetest, most adorable kitty in the world! She cannot say no to dessert, orange soda, or cinnamon. She loves rats and tatts and rock and roll and wants to be an alien queen when she grows up.
4:30 to 5:00 pm PDT – Terry Persun (7:30 EDT) (US) Terry Persun’s books have taken readers to the uncharted worlds near the edge of the galaxy (“Hear No Evil”), to lands where shape shifters battle humans (the “Doublesight” series), to the near future in both technology (“The Killing Machine” and “Revision 7:DNA”) and shamanism (“The NSA Files” and “The Voodoo Case”), all while keeping the pace with thriller/suspense novels. He’s also ventured into history (“Sweet Song” and “Ten Months in Wonderland”), contemporary crime (“Man by the Door” and “Mistake In Identity”), and mainstream novels (“The Perceived Darkness”, “Wolf’s Rite”, and “Deception Creek”).
5:00 to 5:30 pm PDT – Katherine Perkins (8:00 EDT) (US) Katherine Perkins lives wherever the road of a Visiting Assistant Professor’s family takes her, her husband, and one extremely skittish cat. She was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and will defend its cuisine on any field of honor. She is the editor of Jeffrey Cook’s Dawn of Steam series and serves as Jeff’s co-author for the YA Fantasy Fair Folk Chronicles (beginning with Foul is Fair) and various short stories, including those for the charity anthologies of Writerpunk Press. When not reading, researching, writing, editing, or occasionally helping in the transcription of Braille songbooks, she tries to remember what she was supposed to be doing.
5:30 to 6:00 pm PDT – Connie J. Jasperson (8:30 EDT) (US) This is ME!!! I bill myself as an author, blogger, and medieval renaissance woman. Feel free to join the conversation on Facebook–I will be talking about the Tower of Bones series and giving away 2 eBook downloads of book one in the series, Tower of Bones.
6:00 to 6:30 pm PDT – Nicole J. Persun (9:00 EDT) (US) Nicole J. Persun started her professional writing career at age sixteen, when Booktrope Editions published her novel A Kingdom’s Possession. Her second novel, Dead of Knight, won Gold in Foreword Magazine’s 2013 Book of the Year Awards. Aside from novels, Nicole has had short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and essays published in a handful of literary journals. With a Master’s in Creative Writing, Nicole lives in Washington State.
6:30 to 7:00 pm PDT – Lindsay Schopfer (9:30 EDT) (US) Lindsay Schopfer is the author of The Adventures of Keltin Moore, a series of steampunk-flavored fantasy novels about a professional monster hunter. He also wrote the sci-fi survivalist novel Lost Under Two Moons and the fantasy short story collection Magic, Mystery and Mirth. His short fiction has appeared in Merely This and Nothing More: Poe Goes Punk from Writerpunk Press and Unnatural Dragons from Clockwork Dragon.
All the participating authors will share tidbits about their work, and some will have games. Several are offering prizes to participating visitors. As I mentioned above, I will be talking about the Tower of Bones series and giving away Kindle downloads of Tower of Bones to two lucky winners.
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 