Scan barcode
A review by kevinscorner
The Oracle Stone by Talli L. Morgan
3.5
The Oracle Stone is an epic fantasy that I would describe as Lord of the Rings meets Avatar: The Last Airbender. Jekku is a studious man on the run from the mage who cursed him with the ability to see all the threads of life. Lilya is a fire mage who dreams of a legacy greater than the mistake she made in the past. Taja is a man who has lost his magic and exiled from his people in search of redemption from his god. They are brought together by a prophecy as each seek to unite the four artifacts of the Oracle Stone for their own ends.
This book has great bones its story, and while it does mostly succeed in telling it, there was just so much room for more. The narrative doesn’t flow smoothly with an unnatural quality to the storytelling that don’t hold up when you think about it. The story just kept going and moving forward without adequately justifying the hows and the whys.
Each of the main protagonists have these fantastic backgrounds that never quite seem to be shown or manifest in their characters and we are just rather told about how it has impacted them. When they meet each other, their interactions never quite feel natural and mostly feel like it’s how the author needed them to interact for her story to work. Thus, their eventual relationships with each other don’t feel quite earned.
The Oracle Stone is an epic fantasy with a lot of charm, but it just needed quite a bit more work on the storytelling.
*I read this as a judge in the first Indie Ink Awards. My rating here may not directly reflect how I scored it there.
This book has great bones its story, and while it does mostly succeed in telling it, there was just so much room for more. The narrative doesn’t flow smoothly with an unnatural quality to the storytelling that don’t hold up when you think about it. The story just kept going and moving forward without adequately justifying the hows and the whys.
Each of the main protagonists have these fantastic backgrounds that never quite seem to be shown or manifest in their characters and we are just rather told about how it has impacted them. When they meet each other, their interactions never quite feel natural and mostly feel like it’s how the author needed them to interact for her story to work. Thus, their eventual relationships with each other don’t feel quite earned.
The Oracle Stone is an epic fantasy with a lot of charm, but it just needed quite a bit more work on the storytelling.
*I read this as a judge in the first Indie Ink Awards. My rating here may not directly reflect how I scored it there.