Review: Fairy Metal Thunder by J.L. Bryan

Title: Fairy Metal Thunder (Songs of Magic #1)
Author: J.L. Bryan
Publish Date:  September 16th 2011
Pages:  134 pages, e-book
Reviewed by: Isalys
Reason for Reading: E-book provided by author for review purposes
A rock & roll fairy tale.

Jason plays guitar in a teenage garage band called the Assorted Zebras, but they have no fans, no gigs, and they're going nowhere. Even worse, Jason has a crush on their lead singer, but she doesn't seem interested in him at all.

Then Jason steals instruments from the fairy world. Soon the band is enchanting crowds, and Jason is a step closer to the girl of his dreams, but the new gear is brimming with dangerous and destructive magic they can't control.

Their shortcut to success has cost a troupe of innocent fairies their livelihood and turned Jason and his band into enemies of the powerful Queen Mab, who sends supernatural bounty hunters to track them down, including one of the most dangerous horned creatures in Faerie...a small unicorn named Buttercake.
Did you know that fairies are bringers of good luck and mischief?  They are and I'll explain why in just a moment.

As it turns out, J.L. Bryan is not only good at writing dark and edgy, but he can also write fun stories that border on downright adorable.  Fairy Metal Thunder was the latter!  It's the story of a guy who rockets to fame, right along with his band mates when he discovers absconds with some magical instruments that turn their music into an experience.

Jason, our main character is the guitarist for a garage band called The Assorted Zebras.  Like all bands, they hope to land that one gig that will launch their musical careers but it's just not happening.  One evening, while Jason is babysitting his little sister, he finds a little green man stealing his mom's jewelry.  The little green man is a goblin named Grizlemor and he led him right into the world of the fae.  While he's trying to recover the stolen jewelry, he spies a concert where kids of all ages are entranced and enchanted by the music being played by a band of Folk (fairies, ogres, etc).  When the fairy band wraps up their concert, Jason decides to take the instruments back to the human world in the hope that they will help his band.

Of course, these are no ordinary instruments.  Once he and his band mates began playing, they realized that the instruments had the ability to change according to the players needs which in turn made their music flawless and attracted an audience.  Next thing they know, their music is plastered all over Facebook and YouTube and they are rockstars!  But everything comes with a price tag?

Meanwhile back in the land of the fae, the Folk that these instruments really belong to are in pretty deep with their queen for "allowing" their magical instruments to be taken into the human world.  They contract the help of an elf and his "don't-let-them-fool-you" unicorns to locate and return the instruments.  Now Jason, Mitch (aka Mick), Dred and love-interest Erin not only have to fight off crazy fans, but now they've got a goblin, a dullahan, an elf, and a pissed off unicorn to contend with.

See what I mean about the good luck and mischief?

This is the kind of story you read in one sitting when you're in the mood for something fun and lighthearted that will make you laugh {McSlobberbooger *quietly chuckles*}.  The human characters are delightful and yet exasperate you as only teenagers can.  They are sweetly awkward and make stupid decisions that make you shake your head.  Let's face it though, if not for those stupid decisions, the story wouldn't be quite as much fun.  The non-human characters are just as much entertaining from the goblin who warns Jason while trying to save his own hide, the cantankerous elf, the timid/man-eating unicorn and the sweet and worried Aoide (lead of the fairy band).

Thankfully I have books 2 and 3 ready because I can't wait to see how Jason deals with the mayhem that they have brought onto themselves.


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2 comments:

  1. I'm halfway through. The goblin, swamp elf and unicorn are hogging the limelight. I am adoring the secondary characters hardcore!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review!! I want to just sit and read the whole thing, but I have too many other books I need to read, so just a few chapters a day is all I can do.

    ReplyDelete

 
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