I picked up this fantasy book to use as a light evening read
and landed up enjoying it a lot more than I expected.
Meet Kade-the young apprentice training to be one of the
Chosen who are able to use the power of the divine to achieve feats of magic.
Taken from his family at an early age, Kade has a soul destined for one of
either extreme poles-become the greatest Chosen or be their ruin. When tragedy
strikes the bond of master and apprentice, Kade must use what he has learnt to
begin the vengeful journey he must take. An unexpected relationship is formed
between him and a dragon, who is thought to be a creature of myth. Helped by an
Essence Guardian, Kade's parents and a loyal little animal, Chance, Kade must
stretch himself to learn and develop more of his talents to fight all manner of
beasts and find the evil one who wants him destroyed.
The storyline itself is very interesting but the execution
very stiff. Kade as a character is a little underwhelming, but his interactions
with the other characters serve to flesh him out more solidly. I enjoyed the
growing mind bond with Rayden the dragon, and as for Chance-I am interested to
find out more about what he is and his full connection to the story. Our introduction to Darcienna, the Essence
Guardian, is one of a feisty, good-hearted woman who will make a very suitable
partner for Kade in both heart and adventure. Her son Marcole seemed a bit of a
waste of space in the book. He had no dialogue and was just used as a
"crying distraction" in dangerous scenes. Maybe all will be revealed
in subsequent books. We only briefly meet Kade's parents but his mother's character
is beautifully and gently written. I enjoyed meeting the monsters that Kade
must battle and learning about the different types of callings.
The language to introduce us to all of this however, had me
constantly grating my teeth. You could tell that the author was relatively new
to this by the formality of the writing. As though one was back at school
instead of just writing the way a character would speak and think in everyday
life. I lost track of the amount of times that Kade "chastised
himself"-lots more synonyms were needed throughout the book. I was hoping
the start of the second book would show the author's relaxation in his writing
style but was hit with: "Judeen complied immediately while maintaining an
air of confidence". Far too polite. Much of the dialogue didn't seem real
to me-inner or verbal. Kade was grievously injured a number of times, yet
bounced back remarkably quickly-the timeline to the extent of the wounds was
dodgy. And the emphasis on the amount of hours spent learning the nuances of
the moves and words to the callings became annoying as they were repeated over
and over. I also found that jumping back and forth between different
character's points of view in consecutive sentences really made some parts
confusing to read and cut into the flow of the book.
Apart from all that, a very entertaining read with a good
idea and great promise.
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