Title: Lord of Thundertown
Author: O F Cieri
Genre: Urban Fantasy
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Gay, Gender Fluid, Lesbian
Publisher: NineStar Press
Pages: 263
Reviewer: Maryann
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About The Book
In the movies, Thundertown was depicted like a real town, with boundaries, Folk-run businesses, and a government. In real life, Thundertown was a block here or there, three businesses on the same side of the street, an unconnected sewer main, or a single abandoned building.
When an epidemic of missing person cases is on the rise, the police refuse to act. Instead, Alex Delatorre goes to Thundertown for answers and finds clues leading to a new Lord trying to unite the population.
No one has seen the Lord, and the closer Alex gets to him, the farther Alex gets from his path home.
The Review
I had no idea where this novel would take me but I was absolutely hooked by blurb and Prologue. I liked the plot of getting lost in the subway of NYC.
The story starts with Samantha “Sam” after a hard day of work taking the subway home. As usual the power surges but this time it doesn’t come back on. Sam and several other passengers attempt to walk through the tunnel and disappear.
With the disappearance of Sam, Alex Delatorre and David “Nails” Kaczorowski need to find their friend. Alex made the attempt at getting the City police involved but they didn’t want to be concerned. That had Alex taking it to the Day and Night Court. Senator Loisaida enters the picture and becomes involved in the disappearance because it has to do with the territory that she is paid a fealty for protection as being a Lord.
When Sam suddenly is back and contacts Alex, Sam explains that the other passengers are still in the tunnel and she has the need to rescue them. Nails eventually becomes lost in the tunnels too and Alex and Sam are determined to go into the tunnels and find him.
O.F. Cieri did quite a bit with world building and some character building for a few that were important to the story. Cieri also did some very descriptive writing in the way of creepy, crawly and fantastic creatures. But it became difficult to follow at some points with trying to figure out who was: human, tsargo, Folk and Alvar. There’s also a type of energy known as the Aether that could be manipulated and I wasn’t sure if it fit in with magic somehow.
I really wanted this to be a great story. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what was going to happen when the group went back to search the tunnel for Nails and the others left behind. I thought Thundertown would be found to be a magical place or a place of evil but it was never revealed.
I liked the connection that Alex had with Nails but it was just friendship, nothing more. Alex was a very caring character and really had concerns for his friends, Nails and Sam. I didn’t care for the ending with Alex apparently feeling guilt with the death of one of the characters in the chaos of the tunnel escape.
This novel did have some diversity with the mention of a few of the characters ethnicity. But it was disappointing that there’s very little in the way of LGBTQ characters or even a budding relationship. It isn’t until very late in the story where Alex is posed a question from his mother about Nails sexuality and Nails has thoughts that he might be attracted to Alex, and that’s it. I wanted more clear LGBTQ content.
There were some good ideas and characters to build on, but some parts were just too confusing, and the lack of clearly LGBTQ characters made this less enjoyable than I expected. I hope the author can build upon their great ideas in the sequel.
The Reviewer
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read. I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors. My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book! As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb peaks my interest I will read the book. My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading. I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended. But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.
