Piers Anthony has reviewed Elf Righteous for his upcoming newsletter. Here is what he has to say:

I read Elf Righteous by Briant Reil. This is the third in a series, following Elf Mastery and Elf Doubt in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Despite the light hearted titles, these are increasingly complicated, serious, and hard hitting books, with sometimes dismayingly thoughtful characterizations. The protagonist is Kyla, a girl elf, for all that elves live several hundred years. She is trying to do what's right, but in the complex social and political setting it can be challenging to know what is right, let alone managing to accomplish it. She has some magic of her own, plus some magic items that others want, notably Empress Aethelwyne, who is unscrupulous about obtaining them. At one point Kyla swallows them, and the Empress, unwilling to wait for them to emerge naturally, starts to have the elf girl cut open for them. No anesthetic, no threatening, just hold her down and slice her gut open. The Empress is straightforward about her designs. Kyla manages to get away, injured, but is pursued, and she barely escapes several times. She learns more about her own powers, such as being able to use her mind to read the minds of others, and edit out key memories or sights, such as herself, so that she in effect disappears. To simply considerably, the essence is that the power Chaos has been awakened, and is destroying whole planets. He can perhaps be stopped by the artifacts Kyla has, if they can figure out how to use them. But just stopping Chaos isn't enough; they need also to prevent the Empress from achieving her ruthless conquest of the several dominions that make up the larger society. There seems to be no perfect answer, and indeed, this fantasy is realistic in its refusal to provide an unrealistic solution. Read this for adventure, not laughs.

Piers Anthony


​Bryant

I have a limited number of Giveaway codes if you are interested in a free audio version of Elf Mastery! Contact me by June 30, 2020 and I will send you a code if there are any left. There should be a contact button on the right side of this page. Only redeemable in Canada, US, UK, EU, Australia.

Have a great day!

​Bryant

First, the paperback version of Elf Righteous is now live on Amazon!

Second, the audiobook for Elf Mastery will be available at Google Play on May 15. I think the discount is pre-order only? Not sure, as I'm not in charge of that. It can be found at 
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Bryant_Reil_Elf_Mastery?id=AQAAAEDsckkytM&hl=en

It is narrated by Merphy Napier, whose booktube channel can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7FW6FYqPLeQIXMSulBfOLw

​Bryant

The ebook for Elf Righteous is now live on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088GVMSGH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=elf+righteous&qid=1589311840&sr=8-1

Just got the covers and ready to upload! Will do the ebook first as I'm debating altering the back text on the paperback. Here it is:

This is the paperback cover in its full spread. Kyla is five years older here, and her hair has grown out. Ebook version is similar but my name is above the book name, and we've pulled the shot back a bit to see a bit more of Kyla.

I will post the link for sale as soon as it is approved by Amazon.

Bryant

Getting closer! Still waiting on the final cover but hoping to have the book out on May 15 (which is also my birthday!) Due to have the final cover May 13 and then probably a couple days to approval for sale on Amazon.

​Bryant

Just thought I'd let you all know I've completed Elf Righteous! I'm just waiting on the cover so I can upload everything to Amazon. It has been very exciting and I loved writing it! I can only hope you also enjoy reading it.

Finally received my first paperback copies of ELf Righteous! These are proofs only, and lack any artwork/design, but will make further editing much easier as I prefer reading and annotating paper copies. Interestingly, it is far cheaper to have paperback books printed, bound, and shipped than it is to print a book on my own printer.

​Bryant

I just had a most fascinating dream and don't know where else to record it. So here you are.

I am sure we have all had dreams in which we became aware that we were dreaming. I have, and have often be frustrated that, on realizing I was dreaming, I tried to fly and could not, and became frustrated that I couldn't as I felt I should be able to do anything I want in a dream. Now I have an answer to that problem.

I actually went through a series of dreams. My dream-self became aware, at some point, that I was dreaming. I knew I had had lucid self-aware dreams in the past, but I was also aware that this was by far the most lucid. My dream-self thought my degree of consciousness was equal to my waking self, though I realized this to be false as soon as I woke up. It was, however, quite a high degree of self-awareness and level of consciousness for a dream.

When I realized my degree of awareness, I began to analyze the nature of dreams. Once I woke up, I also compared my waking thoughts to my self-aware dream state. Here is what I learned.

1) Each dream had parameters, and I intuitively knew them. For example, in one dream I could fly. I changed dreams and immediately checked to see if I could still fly, and I couldn't. I understood that flying was outside the parameters of the dream and trying to do so was fruitless. Each dream had its rules, and I could do whatever I wanted within those parameters, but I couldn't go outside them.

As another example, in another dream I was being hunted by someone (I think Storm Troopers)? First off, I knew I was completely safe, whatever happened in the dream. It occurred to me to whisk my pursuers away with a thought, but immediately understood this was outside dream parameters. I could, however, hide from them, even in plain sight. They couldn't see me unless I let them.

If this happens again, I will investigate how parameters to dreams are set. I was not consciously part of that decision in these dreams. I also couldn't direct the flow of the narrative, though I had freedom of will within the narrative.

2) Speaking of narratives: again, they were self-driven, but didn't always exist. In my final dream I ended stuck in my living room with my roommate and eventually decided to wake up because it was clear nothing was going to happen. I did not seem able to create my own narrative and act it out. I said goodbye to my roommate, told him it was time for me to wake up, and I woke up. (I don't have a roommate - more on this in a moment).

I do think it is possible that there might be dreams where the ability to control the dream's narrative fall within the parameters of the dream, but I didn't have any of those last night.

3) My dream-self had an important cognitive shortcoming: I thought some people and the events we discussed in the dream were real, and our discussions would carry over into real life. In one dream I was discussing a job competition I'm in with my cousin. The job and cousin are real. My dream-self thought I was getting helpful advice on this very real job competition, until I woke up and realized the advice was nonsense.

In this vein, I knew some people in my dream from real life, but there were others who were strangers that I thought were from real life. My roommate in the previous comment is an example. I knew this version of my roommate was a dream, but I thought he was also a real person. When I said good-bye, when I was ready to wake up, he asked me not to go. I said, "Don't worry. I'll see you as soon as I wake up."

Then I woke up, and that roommate does not exist.

So not only did the dream make up a person and convince my dream-self they were real, I also thought the people I spoke with in these dreams would also be aware of our conversations in real life (ie. I thought they were shared experiences).

That said, I didn't think EVERYONE was real. I was aware that 'side-characters' weren't real people.


Anyway...turned out to be one of the most interesting dreams I've ever had. (Really, it was a series of several dreams in which my dream-self kept analyzing the different narratives and parameters.) Would be curious to know if anyone has had a similar experience.

Bryant

I have the first version of the paperback on order! It's still an early copy as I still have a fair bit of editing I want to do, but I prefer editing on paper than on the computer. Ended up a bit over 150,000 words, so a bit longer that the previous two books, as expected. I will start on my 5th draft when the book arrives this week.

Bryant