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A review by nick_borrelli
Frozen Rage by Steve McHugh
4.0
Have you ever been to one of those murder mystery dinners? You know, the ones you pay to attend and at some point during or after the dinner the lights cut out, someone gets "murdered", and it becomes an interactive experience from then on to try to find out who the killer is. Well, this book is kind of like that except way bloodier, it takes place in a medieval wilderness, the main players are werewolves and werelions, and it's way more satisfying in the end.
FROZEN RAGE is technically a standalone novella that falls between books 6 and 7 in Steve McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles series. And what a hard and quick-hitting bloody fantastic story it is. I was reminded of a few fantasy books that I've read before and loved while reading this novella. The one in particular that I couldn't help but draw parallels to is Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die. For some reason this story and the characters in particular had that feel and made my enjoyment of FROZEN RAGE only that much better.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that everything happens so quickly and there's no time to ponder too long over something before another revelation smacks you upside the head. The benefit of novellas, and this one especially, is that there's no real room for tortuous dialogue and slow spots. I'm happy to say that FROZEN RAGE does not dilly dally in the least and the murder mystery unfolds at a breakneck pace.
I don't want to give too much away, and the blurb did a pretty good job of laying out the plot. Suffice it to say that you won't be disappointed by Steve McHugh's brilliant novella FROZEN RAGE. It hits you from the jump and then rushes you through a quest to find the possible murderers with nothing short of an all out war being the result of failure. These are the best types of books to read, where the stakes are high, and everyone is a suspect. I really did like this one a lot and it makes me want to start at the very beginning of this series. It was that good!
FROZEN RAGE is technically a standalone novella that falls between books 6 and 7 in Steve McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles series. And what a hard and quick-hitting bloody fantastic story it is. I was reminded of a few fantasy books that I've read before and loved while reading this novella. The one in particular that I couldn't help but draw parallels to is Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die. For some reason this story and the characters in particular had that feel and made my enjoyment of FROZEN RAGE only that much better.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that everything happens so quickly and there's no time to ponder too long over something before another revelation smacks you upside the head. The benefit of novellas, and this one especially, is that there's no real room for tortuous dialogue and slow spots. I'm happy to say that FROZEN RAGE does not dilly dally in the least and the murder mystery unfolds at a breakneck pace.
I don't want to give too much away, and the blurb did a pretty good job of laying out the plot. Suffice it to say that you won't be disappointed by Steve McHugh's brilliant novella FROZEN RAGE. It hits you from the jump and then rushes you through a quest to find the possible murderers with nothing short of an all out war being the result of failure. These are the best types of books to read, where the stakes are high, and everyone is a suspect. I really did like this one a lot and it makes me want to start at the very beginning of this series. It was that good!