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A review by dominish_books
Cold from the North by D.W. Ross
4.0
* You can find my full video review here: https://youtu.be/N5CdrQ-RYvk *
Cold From the North is the debut fantasy novel by DW Ross, it’s the beginning of the self-published Onyxborn Chronicles that continues with the Darkest Dusk and then book three, The Fury of Fate, which is planned for release in June 2022.
In this opening book, we focus on two friends, Ogulf and Melcun, who live in the cold north of Broadheim in a village called Keltbran. Keltbran wasn’t always so cold, it seems that there’s an endless winter at the point that the story takes place.
Their plans to escape to warmer climes are interrupted by the quite sudden invasion of their lands by a great force intent on finding a chosen one to fulfill a prophecy.
Ogulf and Melcun take on a dangerous quest through another country, this one being torn apart by a civil war, in an attempt to seek help and stop the prophecy from being completed.
I liked both the setting and the magic as far as the worldbuilding goes. The writing did a very good job at making me feel the cold North in particular. For the magic, we saw actual consequences rather than just the usual drain on the magic user, so that was a nice touch.
In terms of the characters, I liked both Ogulf and Melcun, as the main heroes of the story. There were also some interesting new additions to the cast as the book went on, and I can’t wait to see what path they take in book two and perhaps beyond.
Overall, I really enjoyed Cold from the North. I would say that some of the writing itself was perhaps a little rough around the edges in parts, and to a degree you might expect that from a debut novel. I definitely found that the combination of setting, story and characters more than made up for this though.
Cold From the North is the debut fantasy novel by DW Ross, it’s the beginning of the self-published Onyxborn Chronicles that continues with the Darkest Dusk and then book three, The Fury of Fate, which is planned for release in June 2022.
In this opening book, we focus on two friends, Ogulf and Melcun, who live in the cold north of Broadheim in a village called Keltbran. Keltbran wasn’t always so cold, it seems that there’s an endless winter at the point that the story takes place.
Their plans to escape to warmer climes are interrupted by the quite sudden invasion of their lands by a great force intent on finding a chosen one to fulfill a prophecy.
Ogulf and Melcun take on a dangerous quest through another country, this one being torn apart by a civil war, in an attempt to seek help and stop the prophecy from being completed.
I liked both the setting and the magic as far as the worldbuilding goes. The writing did a very good job at making me feel the cold North in particular. For the magic, we saw actual consequences rather than just the usual drain on the magic user, so that was a nice touch.
In terms of the characters, I liked both Ogulf and Melcun, as the main heroes of the story. There were also some interesting new additions to the cast as the book went on, and I can’t wait to see what path they take in book two and perhaps beyond.
Overall, I really enjoyed Cold from the North. I would say that some of the writing itself was perhaps a little rough around the edges in parts, and to a degree you might expect that from a debut novel. I definitely found that the combination of setting, story and characters more than made up for this though.