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reasonpassion's review
3.0
Grate potential, but unfulfilled waiting for the rest of the series. The usage of the "life force" as a form of cognitive magic is interesting and worth exploring. However, the supportive characters are poorly filled out and largely exist simply to move the plot along as it focuses on the key people, leaving the reader with a desire to skip forward but hesitating to do so because they do serve a purpose. Still, the dialogue is decent and the romantic element, while bordering on teenage absurdity, is in line with the characters involved and serves well to effect others connected to them.
christinamcguire's review
5.0
Miss Smythe's extraordinary ability to set a scene and build suspense through the point of view of numerous characters is unparalleled. One element of fantasy that I enjoy is getting to know a secondary world; a new culture, new magical abilities, and religion. So far, Miss Smythe has offered all this and more, combining world-building and character development into each chapter.
khawk89's review
3.0
I'd give this 3 verging on 4 stars.
I found the start extremely confusing. I like prologues, especially mysterious prologues, but this one was a little too mysterious to be interesting. Once I met the character Kae, however, I found the story to be much more enjoyable.
I like Kae, although he came across as a bit cocky to me sometimes, and I find myself reading for his and Issa's relationship conclusion (or at least I hope.) He also seemed to come by things too easily. (Winning fights (physical or otherwise), finding the princess, blocking out intruders etc. I would have liked to see him struggle some more.
I might sound picky but I love fantasy books. While the whole term fantasy pretty much says an author can make up whatever the hell they like, the food choices didn't sit well with me. Fried chicken just isn't fantasy.
I found the dialogue repetitive at times, resulting in, me as the reader, feeling a bit clubbed over the head with certain points. I feel some of the dialogue would have been better phrased another way or written in prose, as in some cases a character is telling another something they already know. Normally a person would say "Continue as normal" or something and not explain in such detail and have the character nod since he already knew this. Not a major criticism for most people, but I feel this is what stopped this book from being so much greater in my eyes.
Overall very enjoyable. Now onto the second!
I found the start extremely confusing. I like prologues, especially mysterious prologues, but this one was a little too mysterious to be interesting. Once I met the character Kae, however, I found the story to be much more enjoyable.
I like Kae, although he came across as a bit cocky to me sometimes, and I find myself reading for his and Issa's relationship conclusion (or at least I hope.) He also seemed to come by things too easily. (Winning fights (physical or otherwise), finding the princess, blocking out intruders etc. I would have liked to see him struggle some more.
I might sound picky but I love fantasy books. While the whole term fantasy pretty much says an author can make up whatever the hell they like, the food choices didn't sit well with me. Fried chicken just isn't fantasy.
I found the dialogue repetitive at times, resulting in, me as the reader, feeling a bit clubbed over the head with certain points. I feel some of the dialogue would have been better phrased another way or written in prose, as in some cases a character is telling another something they already know. Normally a person would say "Continue as normal" or something and not explain in such detail and have the character nod since he already knew this. Not a major criticism for most people, but I feel this is what stopped this book from being so much greater in my eyes.
Overall very enjoyable. Now onto the second!
cindyc's review
4.0
This book caught me by surprise. I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this, as this is one of the first self-published books I’ve ever read. But I liked the cover and the description I got about the book, so I thought: why not? And boy, am I glad I took this opportunity!
The characters are easy to relate to and very diverse. The worldbuilding is fabulous and although it contained a few of the classic Fantasy elements, these were used very well and created a wonderful new world that was richly described and came to life through the author’s words. I really liked the idea of the Veil that separates the two worlds and the role it plays in the book. It’s original and imaginative. The notion of the Life Force has been used before, but that didn’t bother me, I liked the use of it here and the way it was described.
The writing style is very fluent and makes the reading experience extremely pleasant. I read this book in mere hours, I just couldn’t put it down. Every time I did put it down, I kept thinking about what would happen next to Issa en Kae, so naturally I had to pick it up again and read a bit more.
The Head Priest has the same cunning and ambitions as Waleran Bigod in “Pillars of the Earth” and the relationship between Issa and Kae made me think of the electricity crackling between Raisa and Han in the Seven Realms books. Those are two of my favourites and the fact that this book reminded me of certain aspects of them, means this novel is GOOD! I always like a book where I have to think twice about the characters and their true intentions. The conflict between good and evil, between several people or as an internal struggle always fascinates me.
The only real negative thing I can say about this one is about the first few pages. The Prologue was very confusing. We’re dumped into the middle of a ritual that has been a critical turning point in the history of this new world, without much explanation. All I have to say about this is: don’t stop reading because of this, because you’ll miss out on an extraordinary story! Throughout the story the meaning of those first few pages will become more and more clear and will play an important role.
Conclusion: really, really good! I can’t wait to read the second book and dive back into this fascinating world! 4,5 dragons!
The characters are easy to relate to and very diverse. The worldbuilding is fabulous and although it contained a few of the classic Fantasy elements, these were used very well and created a wonderful new world that was richly described and came to life through the author’s words. I really liked the idea of the Veil that separates the two worlds and the role it plays in the book. It’s original and imaginative. The notion of the Life Force has been used before, but that didn’t bother me, I liked the use of it here and the way it was described.
The writing style is very fluent and makes the reading experience extremely pleasant. I read this book in mere hours, I just couldn’t put it down. Every time I did put it down, I kept thinking about what would happen next to Issa en Kae, so naturally I had to pick it up again and read a bit more.
The Head Priest has the same cunning and ambitions as Waleran Bigod in “Pillars of the Earth” and the relationship between Issa and Kae made me think of the electricity crackling between Raisa and Han in the Seven Realms books. Those are two of my favourites and the fact that this book reminded me of certain aspects of them, means this novel is GOOD! I always like a book where I have to think twice about the characters and their true intentions. The conflict between good and evil, between several people or as an internal struggle always fascinates me.
The only real negative thing I can say about this one is about the first few pages. The Prologue was very confusing. We’re dumped into the middle of a ritual that has been a critical turning point in the history of this new world, without much explanation. All I have to say about this is: don’t stop reading because of this, because you’ll miss out on an extraordinary story! Throughout the story the meaning of those first few pages will become more and more clear and will play an important role.
Conclusion: really, really good! I can’t wait to read the second book and dive back into this fascinating world! 4,5 dragons!
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