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A review by kitvaria_sarene
Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher
3.0
This is a really interesting debut.
It took a bit to actually take off - the first 20% felt more like an introduction and worlduilding, but the 80% rest of the book really picked up the pace and had me hooked.
I enjoyed the magic, liked the characters and was intrigued by the plot - that only showed itself bit by bit and therefore kept up the mystery. The idea of Landkist, who have different powers was something I haven't read before, and the amount of fire and rocks being flung around was a lot of fun! The different POVs and locations kept the suspense high, as you wanted to know what happened to all the different characters, and not just the one you were reading about at that moment.
There was a bit much info dumped into dialogues, that made them feel a bit stilted at times.
Also for my personal taste some of the action scenes were to "chaotic" - not in the actual fighting, but in the telling.
The writing itself was quite fluent, but some shortened sentences felt off to me - though they were correct. I guess I am a stickler for "proper" sentences, not just right ones. ;) It was only a few though, so not a big deal.
All in all it was a really enjoyable fantasy adventure that finally had more magic in it again - I miss that in a lot of current books! 3,5 stars
It took a bit to actually take off - the first 20% felt more like an introduction and worlduilding, but the 80% rest of the book really picked up the pace and had me hooked.
I enjoyed the magic, liked the characters and was intrigued by the plot - that only showed itself bit by bit and therefore kept up the mystery. The idea of Landkist, who have different powers was something I haven't read before, and the amount of fire and rocks being flung around was a lot of fun! The different POVs and locations kept the suspense high, as you wanted to know what happened to all the different characters, and not just the one you were reading about at that moment.
There was a bit much info dumped into dialogues, that made them feel a bit stilted at times.
Also for my personal taste some of the action scenes were to "chaotic" - not in the actual fighting, but in the telling.
The writing itself was quite fluent, but some shortened sentences felt off to me - though they were correct. I guess I am a stickler for "proper" sentences, not just right ones. ;) It was only a few though, so not a big deal.
All in all it was a really enjoyable fantasy adventure that finally had more magic in it again - I miss that in a lot of current books! 3,5 stars