Cover Image: Tales of the Lost Horizon

Tales of the Lost Horizon

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Member Reviews

I enjoyed the beginning but about half way trough it began to turn into a typical teen fiction with a boring love triangle that didn't add anything

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I always have difficulty reviewing anthologies, because there's usually one story that outshines - however, I found most of these stories and poems very basic and whilst they played to tropes I enjoy, they didn't feel like original works and that left an overall feeling of disappointment in my reading experience.

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I am a little late reviewing this.
This is a collection of short stories and poems.
I have a complicated relationship with short stories, and usually like some and like someone less. Especially if I don’t have a relationship with the characters from the story.
I liked some of the stories in this, and some less. But overall I liked it.
I still recommend 3 star books.

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I really enjoyed reading this collection of stories and poetry, they were really well done and interesting. It had a lot going for it and it was a pleasure to read.

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I didn't actually realise that this was poetry and some of these stories and poems were unconnected whixh meant I sort of had to adjust to each setting. Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a review copy of this book

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This books consists of multiple short stories and poems that are not connected with each other. Each one is also a different genre.
I didn't really get into this book or feel engaged in the stories. I don't usually read poems so am unsure if they would be classed as good or not.

I have mixed feelings about this collection as I only enjoyed about 1 of the stories, the others fell a bit flat.
I did like the illustrations throughout and think that Eging has some great ideas however as I only enjoyed 1 of the stories I can't give it a high rating.

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Way too chaotic and random for my taste.
This book consists of a few different short stories and poems which are not connected with one another. Each one represents a different genre or sub-genre of fantasy or sci-fi (such as mythology, arthurian fantasy, high fantasy, apocalypse sci-fi etc.). Those genres follow 'chronological' order - for example the book starts with an Indian(?) myth, the next stories are all in different fantasy settings, and finally there are the sci-fi ones.
I liked the illustrations in the book but they even further contributed to book's chaotic feel - every illustration was drawn by different artist. Therefore there wasn't any feeling of aesthetic, atmosphere or even consistency present.
Writing style itself was okay, but I just couldn't immerse myself in any of the stories because they were so short and because I knew there will be no greater development of the characters or the worlds created.

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This book is the first time I read Michael Eging, and I have to say I enjoyed it. This is a compilation of short stories and poems. 

The poems are vivid and fantastical, and there was more than one that reached me deeply. Meanwhile, the sort stories are so different one from the other, and it made me feel more than once like I was reading old myths. 

It was easy to enjoy and keep up, since the stories keep changing. There is no continuity to them, so reading them is a breeze.

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To be honest, I really enjoyed about 1/3 of the stories included in this volume. 1/3 I didn't finish after tge first paragraph and 1/3 were not enjoyable upon finishing. However, in a collection of short stories not every one is going to like every tale.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book.

"Any time spent in a book is never wasteful." (Sadly I cannot remember where I got this quote.)

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Mixed feelings about this book, a collection of short media, poems and stories by Michael Eging. I like some of them, it was nice to read little parcels of literary beauty in fantasy writing but some of the pieces fell a bit flat.

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Tales of the Lost Horizon is a collection of short stories and poems by Michael Eging and I have mixed feelings about it.

All the short stories in this collection were unique, so I never felt I was reading the same story twice. Furthermore, the stories are either fantasy, sci-fi or horror, so there is quite a lot of variety. Eging’s includes some poems in this book, so Tales of the Lost Horizon is undoubtedly a unique collection. My favourite short stories were “From Beyond the Grave, " a horror story and “Stardusted”, a sci-fi story. In these two stories, Eging’s does a great job at building tension. There are also some illustration in this collection, which was a pleasant surprise. The cover of this book is stunning as well! The artist did a fantastic job on the artwork.

Unfortunately, I did not feel immersed in any of the other short stories. I am unsure if Eging’s writing style is difficult to read or if the stories just weren’t good. I didn’t care for the plot or the characters, which made the reading experience for the other short stories unpleasant. I do not read poems, so I cannot assess if Eging’s poems are good or bad.

Overall, I am feeling mixed about this collection. I did enjoy two of the short stories, and the illustrations were lovely, but I did not care for the other 85% of this book. I would recommend this short story collection to anyone looking for a collection that has a blend of sci-fi, horror and fantasy stories and includes poems. Eging has some great ideas and interesting plots in this collection, so he has the potential to become a great author. Unfortunately, since I did not enjoy most of this collection, I can’t give it a high rating.

2 / 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

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eARC provided by NetGalley.

Decent collection of Science Fiction/Fantasy works.

I'm torn as to how to describe this properly, but it boils down to: Some works where enjoyed, others I glossed over.

The poetry, I felt, was relatively boring but I'll admit that I'm not the largest fan of it, so take that as you will. I enjoyed the short stories more, but they were all wildly different from their presentation and prose, to their ideas and source material. The Lost Spell was definitely my favorite of the bunch.

I felt like it took some slogging to get through the entirety of it, but I don't think that I wasted my time-- despite not enjoying some works as much as others, I'd say it was worth a read.

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this collection of short stories and poems has a gorgeous cover, but the actual stories fell flat for me. i enjoyed two of them - the lost spell and what's in a name?, but the others didn't entertain me as much. the illustrations were a nice touch! really enjoyed them!

my problem was definitely with the length of the stories, since they were pretty short, they felt a bit like an info-dump at times. the worldbuilding was lacking as well and it's pretty noticeable in every story. the characters

the poems i didn't enjoy at all, but that's definitely a me problem. i did, however, enjoyed the last one - touch of the poet's pen, a lot more! it was pretty short and i liked the pairing with the illustration.

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This is a hard one to review as I have so many mixed feelings. My rating is based on my own feelings towards the book but would definitely be different if I was reading to a child.

I really enjoyed the poems. I have never read fantasy ones before and I enjoyed them immensely. I almost wish the book was all poems and not a mix of poems and short stories.

The short stories for me were a bit flat. There was very little character building or backstory for things which for me detracted from the impact they may have had and sadly felt a little bored.

This being said, I can see a market in these short stories for reading to younger children. For all I wasn't won over by them, they are something I could consider reading to my nephew when hes a bit older.

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Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a review copy of this novel

It really wasn't my thing.

But the stories and poems in this novel were intriguing, and I would recommend for fantasy and science fiction fans.

Final rating 3.5/5 stars.

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A decent selection of a few poems and short stories. Not to my liking but doesn't mean someone else will like them. A variety of image types (illustration to computer)

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Great easy read of a gamut of short stories & poems, am sure you will find a jewel or more in this to hold dear. My notes on this collection though odd will add.
Indras indulgence makes weak Visnu to set straight
pawns or players everyone has a role & few come out on top for long thus is the Romans
oh father I beg thee, may I always be fair in your eyes & stay in your grace to always ride by your side & ne'r find myself fleeing & be that of the hunted
old elven mage off to find his stolen grimoire find a youth of folly on the road to town by the Thames. Too eager to meet his death by far for a knighthood the mage stays a bit on the trail with him. the mists are heavy & stories changed in time
from the blood of Gods the strongest swords are formed
beauty is beauty inside out though mangled & dead it still lives & becomes the beast & the hero
mad kings need to taste earth before they destroy all in greed & lust
fireflies up in smoke when vainglory grasp instead of precautions
the simple & the strong can be dead from loss though alive & live after death through honor of actions & love

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This one if for the fantasy lovers without a doubt, it's really entertreaning and I did enjoyed the mix between prose and poetry, but I think it wouldn't be for every fantasy lover who looks for more intrincated stories.
The illustrationswere a pleasant surprise, it's always nice to have illustrations inspired by the stories.

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This collection of sci-fi/fantasy short stories and poetry was really intriguing to me and i would say i enjoyed a lot of the poems on here. Despite the different settings and themes what i really found unique; and appreciate is the fact that a lot of the stories end in tragedies. Ive been pleasantly surprised by some of the plot twists on here and i do recommend certain stories a lot!! I especially enjoyed The Lost Spell, From Beyond the Grave and The Cyborg’s Heartache. The former for how accessible the writing style was and just the way story was told and me being a sucker for anything Arthurian, i ate it up. I cant give enough praises for From Beyond the Grave not for just the plot line but also the way the story was set and how atmospheric the writing was in it.

My nitpicks would be that i did not enjoy the characters on some of the stories, sometimes the pacing didn’t allow me to get invested and of course these are short stories but then again some of these had really well written characters that i just got truly invested in too!! On top of this some of the plot lines were very “tropey” and that took away from me personally enjoying them.

All in all, the author truly shows how versatile he is with these stories and poems and i think people should check it out because some particular stories on this are truly hidden gems!

Note: i got an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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eARC provided by Netgalley.

I wanted so desperately to love this book, because it's right up my alley -- poetry and fantasy/sci-fi are my favorite genres. Unfortunately, this book just didn't land. The only story I enjoyed reading was The Lost Spell, which was an incredible Arthurian/Merlinian tale. I struggled to get through everything else and ended up skimming most of the longer short stories because I just couldn't take it anymore. I struggled not to DNF the entire thing, especially after I finished The Lost Spell. I'm glad I stuck it out long enough to read The Lost Spell, but everything past that felt like I waste of time. I couldn't tell you what happened in any of the other stories or poems, and I feel like the author struggled with proper worldbuilding in essentially all of the stories and poems.

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