Title: Stiger's Tigers
Author: Marc Alan Edelheit
Genre: Fantasy, Military
Publication Date: March 23, 2015
Publisher: Telemachus Press, LLC
Pages: 315
Rating: 4 out of 5
Amazon Book Blurb:
The empire has endured many centuries but is now threatened by multiple
wars and a major rebellion in the South. A nobleman from an infamous
family, imperial legionary officer, fighter and a right proper bastard
of a man… Captain Ben Stiger finds himself reassigned from a crack
legion to the rebellion simmering in the South. Placed in command of a
truly terrible company, the 85th Imperial Foot, he is unknowingly sent
on a suicide mission to resupply an isolated outpost, the garrison of
Vrell. Along the way he must rebuild his new company, gain the respect
of the men he leads, survive an assassination attempt, fight bandits,
rebels, and an agent of an evil god. His companions on this journey of
discovery and adventure are one of the few remaining elven rangers and a
paladin on a quest for the High Father. The battle to save the empire
and the world begins here in the first book of this exciting new series!
Review: The world Mr. Edelheit has created for his book series is an interesting blend of high fantasy with a heavy dose of Roman Empire culture. It's not historical fiction since the empire in the book is not the Roman Empire nor does the story take place in a real geographical location. No, this book is mostly fantasy while relying heavily on bringing in elements of the Roman Empire's military and politics to give
Stiger's Tigers a distinct flavor from other novels of the genre. Those looking for a hardcore Roman Empire experience will probably be disappointed. I'm not a historian but I'm fairly sure that the military structure isn't quite true to form. Again, this will probably only bother the Roman Empire aficionados looking for something more historically accurate.
One of the most interesting attributes of the Roman Empire is its incessant political intrigue and Mr. Edelheit wastes no time in introducing some of his own. We're shown hints and shadows of imperial power plays taking place behind the scenes. Stiger, our stereotypical no-nonsense gruff but caring commander, has no patience for political games but finds himself in the middle of them anyway which always makes for an interesting read.
Stiger comes from a noble family that has a reputation for being overly harsh leaders. This reputation is so well known that whispers and fear accompany Stiger wherever he goes. And while Stiger is clearly a man relentless in his duty there were times when I found it hard to reconcile his caring nature, his cold pragmatism and his over-boiling anger. I couldn't quite nail down exactly what I expected of him at any given time. At times he felt the burden of the men's welfare heavily on his shoulders while at others he was eager to kill men who made him angry. But then again, I've experienced similar whirlwinds of emotion so perhaps Stiger is more real than I give him credit for.
A lot of the book deals with the struggle of military training and the difficulties it presents for not only the men that are subjected to it but also the commander who is ultimately responsible for their welfare. I was fascinated by all that that had entailed, from building a proper fortification to arms training. It kept me engrossed in the book as they struggled with their lot in the military.
 |
| Turning a bunch of dirty peasants into a cohesive unit ain't easy. |
I think the biggest issue that readers are going to have is feeling that there's a lack of conflict or plot. A great deal of the book addresses Stiger's burden of being given command of a pathetic group of soldiers and turning them into true legionaries, all of which occurs before they even begin down the road to their true objective. Given that this is a book about a military company, most readers will probably be looking forward to conflict in the form of battles and will be disappointed when the fights they were looking for are quick and towards the end of the novel. But to say that the book lacked a plot would be a mistake. The entire training section of the book is its own plot, it's own conflict. It's not military in nature. The conflict that dominates the first half of the book is the looming specter of failure. Stiger constantly wrestles with the idea of failing to make something out of his sorry lot of soldiers as well as the idea that poor training will lead to more deaths being on his already burdened conscience. There's significant conflict, it's just not in the form most readers will expect.
When there was violent conflict the book didn't shy away from the violence but it didn't wallow in it either. While talk of swords scraping past ribs might be too much for children, the average adult will probably be okay with it.
Despite the book listing a publisher, this is a self-published book (See A Note For Self-Publishers below).
I only researched the publisher after finding a considerable number of
typos, missing words and punctuation errors: quotation marks at the end
of a paragraph that preceded more dialogue from the same speaker,
misuse of semi-colons and—every author's weakness—overusing
commas. The punctuation issues lighten up considerably as the book
progresses signifying Mr. Edelheit's continuing improvement as a writer
and while these issues bothered me at first, I kept reading because I really enjoyed his writing.
I enjoyed the book immensely. I loved the Roman Empire's dominance in both politics and warfare as a youth and find myself still admiring the dedication to form and function laid out in Mr. Edelheit's pages. I'm a picky reader and so I usually have between two to six books that I switch back and forth between. Should I encounter a lull or particularly uninteresting plot point in one novel I've got plenty of backups to refresh my palate. I didn't need them for
Stiger's Tigers. It kept me engrossed throughout, which, coming from me, is quite the complement.
Also, it's the first book I've read that uses the proper measurement for wood: cord. As the son of a man who was a logger in his youth, I appreciated it.
A Note For Self-Publishers:
Telemachus
Press, LLC has made a non-fan out of me. It appears that they charge
thousands of dollars to give you a cover and format your novel into the
correct format for a number of platforms. Now, a top-notch book cover
is about $700 and finding someone to do your ebook formatting for much
cheaper is easy. The formatting is so simple though, I don't see why
anyone wouldn't spend an hour on a Saturday morning to do it themselves
for free. None of these options requires handing over your rights which
seems to be Telemachus Press's big sales pitch.
But not
only do they overcharge in my opinion, they also kinda failed in their
delivery. The font size wasn't kindle standard. It was incredibly tiny
and had me changing font size every time I went to another book or came
back. They also missed an extraneous line return. And the cover is
mostly nice but there's a glaring perspective error that immediately
drew my eye. The crests and plumes on the soldier's helmets are
crooked. They're almost diagonally positioned on the helmets, facing
too far the the soldier's right. Also, as a professional cover creator
informed me, using the same font for every line on the cover is one of
the first signs of an amateur at work. For the kind of money Telemachus
asks, they should've delivered something of a higher quality.
If you want additional editing services from them—the kind that actually improve a novel—,
those cost a lot extra. If you're self-publishing the two things to
spend money on are a quality cover and a thorough line editor. Don't
waste money to have someone do your ereader formatting for you. You can
visit Telemachus Press and view their quaint but functionally useless
menu here.
Title: Streams of Silver
, the review of which you can find 
, earlier this year, I knew I would be keeping author Maas on my radar. She has an easy, enjoyable writing style, and though her books have a home on the "Teen" shelf in my local library, they are not childish. I would not necessarily recommend A Court of Thorns and Roses to teenagers, however, because of the violence and sex. Call me a prude, but I won't let my daughter read it until she's 20 and married.
