apersonfromflorida's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0


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lectrixnoctis's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

"The Octunnumi" is the debut and prologue of the upcoming series by Trevor Alan Foris. We follow the story of 18-year-old twin brothers called Regious Sedwint Eniexous (Reig) and Tradien. Everwick Thivimus (Trad) who are "Tarelens". These are beings who can regenerate. Also, their consciousness is passed on from regeneration. "Talents" have created "The Octunnumi", an organisation that monitors and protects the gateways between the different universes called "Innesomids". In this book, you will read about many other species and magic living in each other's universes.

This novel was my first high-fantasy book, and I have to say sometimes it was pretty confusing. The main characters interact with different species and visit other worlds throughout the book. This novel also connects this magical world to our human one. Furthermore, we learn a lot o about new characters and different species, which can lead to brain error. Thankfully, the little booklet, which has all the pronunciations of the names of the places/species, helped me a lot. Still, it would have been better, in my opinion, to integrate these definitions more into the story itself. 

The book is pretty funny at times, but I disked how Trad stated that "knitting is only for girls" since it is for "weak beings". Throughout the whole novel Trad who openly misogynistic and was not exactly my favourite character, to be honest. However, I did like his twin brother much better. The humourous side was portrait perfectly and was witty and sarcastic, which can be hard to write. These humourous scenes were mainly between the well-developed relationship between Trad and Reig.

"The Octunnumi" was highly fast-paced, which also sometimes led to confusion since you were sometimes thrown into a scene/chapter. The novel is quite complex with all the incredible world-building and its various characters, and sometimes it felt a bit too much. I would have liked it more if we had learned slower about this world and different characters' powers. It felt a bit rushed at times and as if the author wanted to give us as much information and storylines as possible.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Do not get me wrong, three stars is a rating for a solid book, and I believe it; it was not so confusing and all over. At the time, I would have rated it four stars out of 5 stars. The book was funny, and the writing was relatively accessible, although I sometimes struggled with various characters and worlds. I would recommend this book for all my high-fantasy lovers out there, and I am sure that this book will be a start to something fantastic. I am already excited about the following books! Additionally, Can we appreciate the appearance of the book for a second?! It's amazing!

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