Dragonbone Chair; Follow Me to Hell

 

A friend at work recommended this one to me, and even though Fantasy isn't usually my thing, I really liked it. Even if it got a bit complicated 😃 I'll try to sum it up as best I can. 

When good King John dies, his oldest son Elias takes the throne. Elias has a suspicious advisor named Pyrates, who is some kind of dark wizard. Young Simon lives in the castle when a civil war breaks out between Elias and his younger brother, Josua. Simon escapes the castle at the behest of his benefactor, Dr. Morgenes. He ends up traveling with a troll named Binabik, trying to get to Prince Josua's camp. They fall in with a group of soldiers for Josua who are searching for a magical sword to help him defeat his brother. It got pretty complex and ventured off into a bunch of stories about side characters. Since it's the first in a trilogy I imagine it's only going to get more complicated from here on out. I *might* not have the mental energy to read book two right now, but I would like to eventually. 

"Follow Me to Hell" was an interesting read about the rise of the Texas Rangers, specifically under Leander McNelly. They went after and caught a lot of bad guys. One story that I thought was especially good was when he led his Rangers to Mexico to arrest cattle thieves and return the stolen cattle, and of course he had no authority in Mexico, but he managed to bluff his way through it. He died very young, in his early thirties, but he seems to have been a true Texas larger than life character.