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cameronkobesauthor's review
4.0
The world in this book is close to something out of J.R.R. Tolkien or R.A. Salvatore, with humans living in alliance with elves and dwarves while threats to their world manifest in the forms of ogres, trolls, and demons. It’s a familiar epic/high fantasy type of world, but it was well executed here.
The protagonist of the novel is Lorace, a young man who awakes one day with ritualistic scars on his body and no memory of where he’s come from. In this world many people have a particular ‘gift’, which could just as easily be called a ‘power’ or ‘ability’. As the story progresses Lorace discovers his own gift, which he calls ‘sight’, the power to see within his mind places far from his location. In the context of the fictional world these gifts are said to be given by various gods, worshipped by the humans, dwarves, and elves together. Lorace is in possession of a mystical artifact called the godstone, sacred to the gods (naturally). With the aid of humans from the city of Halversome and dwarves from the city of Vlaske K’Brak, Lorace works to recover his memory and discover why it was lost. Along the way he becomes drawn into a war between the peoples of this world and demons from the realm of Nefryt, whose ravages threaten to destroy the world city by city.
The strongest aspect of this story is the quality of its worldbuilding. Within the first few pages, the amount of detail and complexity to the setting blew me away. The details of the world came out naturally, through character interactions and through comfortably brief narrator’s exposition. I was impressed with it, and I hope that I can come close to doing as well in my own work. The plot was at some points plodding and it took some time to get set up to certain key events, but I wouldn’t say I was bored with it. The book is relatively short, just over 200 pages, so for me it was a quick read overall.
There were several typos throughout the book, such as using “–ing” when “–ed” is meant and misusing apostrophes frequently. Given the overall quality of the rest of the story, this was strange to me. Apart from that, the story ends on something of a cliffhanger. Lorace’s main story arc is completed, but the arc of another character, a demonic entity called the Devourer, is left unresolved. This book is the first of three, so I may well get the next in the series to see what becomes of the Devourer. Cliffhangers are an annoyance to many readers, but the fact that the main arc of the story was resolved satisfied me in this regard.
The last comment I want to make on this book is that it fits one fantasy category that I’ve been hearing a lot about lately: Noblebright. The opposite of GrimDark fantasy, Noblebright is generally positive and optimistic. Heroes are heroic and villains are defeatable. This may make for more predictable storytelling, but it also provides some comfort for many readers who’ve felt lost with the recent trend that’s been popularized by ‘A Game of Thrones’ and its imitators. Fans of Noblebright fantasy and fans of more tradition epic fantasy will enjoy this book, and I’m pleased to say that I did.
The protagonist of the novel is Lorace, a young man who awakes one day with ritualistic scars on his body and no memory of where he’s come from. In this world many people have a particular ‘gift’, which could just as easily be called a ‘power’ or ‘ability’. As the story progresses Lorace discovers his own gift, which he calls ‘sight’, the power to see within his mind places far from his location. In the context of the fictional world these gifts are said to be given by various gods, worshipped by the humans, dwarves, and elves together. Lorace is in possession of a mystical artifact called the godstone, sacred to the gods (naturally). With the aid of humans from the city of Halversome and dwarves from the city of Vlaske K’Brak, Lorace works to recover his memory and discover why it was lost. Along the way he becomes drawn into a war between the peoples of this world and demons from the realm of Nefryt, whose ravages threaten to destroy the world city by city.
The strongest aspect of this story is the quality of its worldbuilding. Within the first few pages, the amount of detail and complexity to the setting blew me away. The details of the world came out naturally, through character interactions and through comfortably brief narrator’s exposition. I was impressed with it, and I hope that I can come close to doing as well in my own work. The plot was at some points plodding and it took some time to get set up to certain key events, but I wouldn’t say I was bored with it. The book is relatively short, just over 200 pages, so for me it was a quick read overall.
There were several typos throughout the book, such as using “–ing” when “–ed” is meant and misusing apostrophes frequently. Given the overall quality of the rest of the story, this was strange to me. Apart from that, the story ends on something of a cliffhanger. Lorace’s main story arc is completed, but the arc of another character, a demonic entity called the Devourer, is left unresolved. This book is the first of three, so I may well get the next in the series to see what becomes of the Devourer. Cliffhangers are an annoyance to many readers, but the fact that the main arc of the story was resolved satisfied me in this regard.
The last comment I want to make on this book is that it fits one fantasy category that I’ve been hearing a lot about lately: Noblebright. The opposite of GrimDark fantasy, Noblebright is generally positive and optimistic. Heroes are heroic and villains are defeatable. This may make for more predictable storytelling, but it also provides some comfort for many readers who’ve felt lost with the recent trend that’s been popularized by ‘A Game of Thrones’ and its imitators. Fans of Noblebright fantasy and fans of more tradition epic fantasy will enjoy this book, and I’m pleased to say that I did.
malexmave's review
4.0
I guess it is mean to compare this book with the "Triple-A" titles in Fantasy, since they are usually written over several years with the help of editors and assistants, while this is an "independent" book written by one guy, but I cannot really help it.
I was actually surprised how much the story pulled me in. In the beginning, I was expecting a piece of "generic" fantasy with perhaps one cool idea to distinguish it from the other fantasy books. I also expected it to be predictable in large parts. Well, I'm glad to say that both fears were unfounded. The story is interesting and well written, and while it objectively cannot hold up against the likes of Sanderson's [b:The Way of Kings|7235533|The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316131688s/7235533.jpg|8134945] (my reference in High / Epic Fantasy against which all others are measured) it was still very enjoyable to read.
The characters are interesting, and while some of the "usual" Fantasy tricks of lost memories and mysterious abilities are employed, I still found it refreshing that Lorace (the hero of the book) always immediately began testing out what he could do with his abilities (something which I personally would always do with a cool new magic skill I just found out I posessed, and something I want to scream to do at all the fantasy characters who only ever find new ways to use their skills in the most dire of situations).
The lore of the book is also well written, and explains enough to make us understand what is going on while still leaving enough mystery for us to wonder about. The same goes for the magic, or the gifts, as they are called here.
A special commendation needs to be given for the fact that this eBook is not only available on amazon.de, but also part of the currently rather lacking lineup of eBooks in amazon.de's Kindle Lending Library. Thomas, thank you! I was beginning to think that I would never be able to make use of that library.
Now, to mention the one thing I found rather irritating: I found several typos and grammatically questionable sentences in the book. I understand that Thomas is an independent author, but some of the worse ones should have been found by any decent spell check program, be it Word, OpenOffice Writer or the integrated Spell Check of Scrivener. It's a small thing, but I found it irritating. Sadly, I neglected to mark them in my ebook, so I cannot report them to the author (sorry, Thomas). I promise to do this for the next part of the series, which I will begin to read now.
4 of 5 stars, but don't let that discourage you. I still recommend this book, and it is neither expensive nor does it take too long to read. I am always in favour of helping new authors earn some money from their hard work.
I was actually surprised how much the story pulled me in. In the beginning, I was expecting a piece of "generic" fantasy with perhaps one cool idea to distinguish it from the other fantasy books. I also expected it to be predictable in large parts. Well, I'm glad to say that both fears were unfounded. The story is interesting and well written, and while it objectively cannot hold up against the likes of Sanderson's [b:The Way of Kings|7235533|The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316131688s/7235533.jpg|8134945] (my reference in High / Epic Fantasy against which all others are measured) it was still very enjoyable to read.
The characters are interesting, and while some of the "usual" Fantasy tricks of lost memories and mysterious abilities are employed, I still found it refreshing that Lorace (the hero of the book) always immediately began testing out what he could do with his abilities (something which I personally would always do with a cool new magic skill I just found out I posessed, and something I want to scream to do at all the fantasy characters who only ever find new ways to use their skills in the most dire of situations).
The lore of the book is also well written, and explains enough to make us understand what is going on while still leaving enough mystery for us to wonder about. The same goes for the magic, or the gifts, as they are called here.
A special commendation needs to be given for the fact that this eBook is not only available on amazon.de, but also part of the currently rather lacking lineup of eBooks in amazon.de's Kindle Lending Library. Thomas, thank you! I was beginning to think that I would never be able to make use of that library.
Now, to mention the one thing I found rather irritating: I found several typos and grammatically questionable sentences in the book. I understand that Thomas is an independent author, but some of the worse ones should have been found by any decent spell check program, be it Word, OpenOffice Writer or the integrated Spell Check of Scrivener. It's a small thing, but I found it irritating. Sadly, I neglected to mark them in my ebook, so I cannot report them to the author (sorry, Thomas). I promise to do this for the next part of the series, which I will begin to read now.
4 of 5 stars, but don't let that discourage you. I still recommend this book, and it is neither expensive nor does it take too long to read. I am always in favour of helping new authors earn some money from their hard work.
adelaidemetzger_robotprophet's review
5.0
Well, if I hadn’t written a review to explain how awesome this story is the 8 pages of annotations and highlights on my Nook Simple Touch should give you an idea. These characters and concepts are—awesome!!
It was a slow start for me when I started reading this but I’m gunna say that that wasn’t my fault because it was the end of the semester with finals and graduations and family members visiting. But when I was finally able to sit down and put just a bit of my concentration on this book, I couldn’t put it down. That’s a book review cliché, but I really mean it. Thomas Cardin’s writing is fluid and captivating with a style that hones the fantasy atmosphere with his great artistry and it’s done with just the right texture. What I mean by that is the fantasy genre today is expected to be a big thick book made up of 400+ pages and written in such a thick style it takes great concentration and even translation to read it as if one was trying to learn a new language (it dates back to the fantasy icon Tolkien, but we won’t blame him because he was awesome anyway). Cardin doesn’t do that. It’s a quick, understandable read but it’s crafted with a delicate and satisfying style.
The other reviews for this first in a trilogy complimented greatly on “character value,” and “character development,” and they’re absolutely right—100 times so. But I didn’t hear a lot about what made these characters important to the reader and that was THE EMOTION! God, I haven’t read a (sci-fi/fantasy) book that made me this emotional since Star Wars: Republic Commando (and it didn’t hit me as hard as Republic Commando, but it had emotional scenes worthy of Karen Traviss’ praise). Traviss’ ‘Commando books made me want to throw my Nook at the wall, but Cardin’s book made me want to clutch my Nook to my chest so tight that it would break out of its two-year warranty all the while reenacting each heart bleeding moment with as much luster as Jimmy Stuart in every single one of his movies (but we all know no matter how hard we try, we can never be as good as Jimmy was). I’m working on my first film degree, so I can’t help it when heavy moments like these in the story inspire me to see it as a film. Trust me, with the right actors and passion, this would be THE next blockbuster franchise (think Michael Fassbender’s superb performance in Prometheus but in a fantasy epic style like LOTR’s only on a smaller scale with more emotional characters). I’m just saying, that’s how good it is.
Besides the great emotional quality that plugs you into the characters as if they were your own children, the concept of each character having an ability unique to themselves was really cool; things like super speed, control over the weather, and telepathy worked well because X-Men powers haven’t been done before in a setting like this.Also, the whole a-darkness-has-taken-hold-of-me-and-all-I-can-do-is-watch thing totally flips my interest up the scale a couple notches. Great kicker with the main character being the murderous assassin this whole time and yet his spirit is pure. Love it. And did I mention the emotion when you got that unbreakable, to-the-death friendship in the mix. Makes my mouth water.
Usually I’d say something like, “So, definitely give this one a chance,” “You’ll like. I know I did,” or “Bring it on (author’s name),” but all that needs to be said is, “Buy it. Read it. Now.” You’ll thank me.
(MU-VEE! MU-VEE! MU-VEE!)
It was a slow start for me when I started reading this but I’m gunna say that that wasn’t my fault because it was the end of the semester with finals and graduations and family members visiting. But when I was finally able to sit down and put just a bit of my concentration on this book, I couldn’t put it down. That’s a book review cliché, but I really mean it. Thomas Cardin’s writing is fluid and captivating with a style that hones the fantasy atmosphere with his great artistry and it’s done with just the right texture. What I mean by that is the fantasy genre today is expected to be a big thick book made up of 400+ pages and written in such a thick style it takes great concentration and even translation to read it as if one was trying to learn a new language (it dates back to the fantasy icon Tolkien, but we won’t blame him because he was awesome anyway). Cardin doesn’t do that. It’s a quick, understandable read but it’s crafted with a delicate and satisfying style.
The other reviews for this first in a trilogy complimented greatly on “character value,” and “character development,” and they’re absolutely right—100 times so. But I didn’t hear a lot about what made these characters important to the reader and that was THE EMOTION! God, I haven’t read a (sci-fi/fantasy) book that made me this emotional since Star Wars: Republic Commando (and it didn’t hit me as hard as Republic Commando, but it had emotional scenes worthy of Karen Traviss’ praise). Traviss’ ‘Commando books made me want to throw my Nook at the wall, but Cardin’s book made me want to clutch my Nook to my chest so tight that it would break out of its two-year warranty all the while reenacting each heart bleeding moment with as much luster as Jimmy Stuart in every single one of his movies (but we all know no matter how hard we try, we can never be as good as Jimmy was). I’m working on my first film degree, so I can’t help it when heavy moments like these in the story inspire me to see it as a film. Trust me, with the right actors and passion, this would be THE next blockbuster franchise (think Michael Fassbender’s superb performance in Prometheus but in a fantasy epic style like LOTR’s only on a smaller scale with more emotional characters). I’m just saying, that’s how good it is.
Besides the great emotional quality that plugs you into the characters as if they were your own children, the concept of each character having an ability unique to themselves was really cool; things like super speed, control over the weather, and telepathy worked well because X-Men powers haven’t been done before in a setting like this.
Usually I’d say something like, “So, definitely give this one a chance,” “You’ll like. I know I did,” or “Bring it on (author’s name),” but all that needs to be said is, “Buy it. Read it. Now.” You’ll thank me.
(MU-VEE! MU-VEE! MU-VEE!)
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