RANTS AND RAMBLES

• • DISCLAIMER: When I review books, weaknesses and inconsistencies tend to dominate my discussion; therefore, I will emphasize that any particular rant (and, yes, they can be long-winded) does not have special bearing on my unified opinion of the book. For this, please refer to my overall star rating. Additionally, this review is my personal opinion, intended to help like-minded readers navigate the plethora of available options. Use it as a tool but do not assign undue importance to it (i.e. feel free to disagree with me).
  • The political scale of the book is massive including competing druid factions, at least two forces vying for control of the country, a villain who I’m still not sure where he fits in, druid culture with a high council, local culture pulling away from the druids, and much more. The sweeping political landscape makes the world feel important and lived in, like a fully fleshed-out milieu, but an improper balancing of these aspects blunts the impact of the central storyline. There is so much to keep track of here that it lessens the significance of Grahme’s quest and muddies his struggle with the central antagonist.
  • The book ends with a slight nod toward the future, but with the protagonist’s goal complete, the antagonist dead, and no clear villain to carry the story, it would be easy to stop reading here and never complete the series. I am not a fan of cliff-hanger endings or obvious bait to entice a reader to pick up the sequel, but this novel wraps up the story a little too nicely for being the first installment of a series.
  • Prepare for exposition dumps galore. These take the guise of teaching or tests from the protagonist’s mentor and various other characters. This methodology of providing exposition can work if executed properly, but in this case it feels clunky. This is due to two things. First, there are a lot of these dumps early in the story when the reader should be getting hooked instead of reading about the various druid lords and their holy sites. Second, the exposition focuses heavily on facts, lists, and historical events recited from rote memorization. This makes them feel sterile and less interesting than if the information had been accompanied by reactions or perspectives of the characters, which would have further developed the cast and could have set the stage for things to come.
  • What follows is not an imprecation of the author or the book but is simply intended to set expectations. As this is the first book from a newer author, methods and means for things like editing may be limited, so errors are bound to sneak through. They do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the book, but be aware that you will see the occasional error such as “The huge empty stall in the back is empty.”
  • MINOR SPOILERS: There are more than a few instances of plot contrivances, a main offender being Grahme lucking into solutions to problems. An example of this is when he must transform into a dog before entering a city to avoid detection as a druid. Because of this, he is able to befriend the guard of the vault he is trying to break into. Interestingly, Grahme plays up this relationship as if it will help him and his companion gain entry to the city keep, but they end up sneaking in using different means. The dog thing only factors in to sneaking past this particular guard later on, a task they could have easily accomplished using alternate methods.
  • SPOILERS: The minute-to-minute plot of this story is engaging enough that it kept me reading, more or less excitedly, until the end. For a younger reader, this might be enough, but since the subject matter of the book leans toward the mid teen age range, I feel obligated to analyze it as such. The overall plot of the book is haphazard and not escalated properly. Grahme is assigned a quest and completes it quite quickly only to have the object of it slip through his fingers. He doggedly continues his quest, accomplishing it twice more only to have it stripped away each time. These failures could have been used to propel him on a larger adventure or develop his character as he resolutely continues despite the odds in a two-steps-forward-one-step-back dynamic which tests his resolve. Unfortunately, each success of the quest is relatively unrelated to the previous setbacks, making the whole thing feel repetitive, like a treadmill rather than an arc. While this is the biggest problem with the plot, there are other weaknesses including a mini boss who is defeated incredibly easily, too many problems solved by conveniences, Grahme defeating the main villain at their first encounter, and myriad other storytelling niceties.
  • SPOILERS: In the third act of the book, characters die left and right. At the very end, Grahme learns that one of them managed to cheat death this time. These are all side characters who are not well developed, and their deaths mostly if not all occur off screen, so there is no demonstrated reaction to their deaths by the surviving characters. The relatively cavalier manner in which this is handled means their deaths don’t carry much impact, nor does the reveal that one of them survived. There is a single character whose death is a bit more meaningful, but their arc up to that point doesn’t really justify the death, making it feel unnecessary.
  • SPOILERS: The villain of a story is as important if not more important than the protagonist. Unfortunately, this book’s villain has some serious problems. First, I am not sure how he fits into the overall world. He is a powerful mage who is intent on conquering Pretanni, but with so many factions vying for control, I’m not sure where he fits in. Secondly, he is supposed to be a big, imposing antagonist, but his abilities are fairly muted over the course of the book. Grahme beats him in their first encounter, making the villain feel lame and under-powered. Their other encounters are peripheral at best, so no real sense of threat or dread is developed. The villain’s full power is on display in the final battle, but he is still beaten so quickly that he barely represents a legitimate threat. Finally, he gets practically no page time, and his development is basically non-existent, making him a caricature of the imposing figure he is supposed to be.
  • SPOILERS: One type of magic which significantly factors into this book involves encouraging or outright controlling others through the use of mind control. It has the potential to be interesting, and in some cases it is used to create exciting paths for the story to tread. Unfortunately, it is also used on occasion to get the main character into trouble he would have otherwise easily avoided. It is pretty easy to tell when Grahme is being controlled because he starts making very stupid choices. With more rules, this mind control magic may have been better, but as it is, it sometimes feels like little more than a fabricated explanation for why characters sometimes behave stupidly, forcing the story down paths it would not otherwise go. I have begun to read the second book in the series in which the protagonist is a practitioner of mind control magic. The whole system works a lot better in this setting because it puts the agency with the protagonist whereas, in the first book, it felt like agency was being stripped away from the main character every time mind control magic was used.
  • MAJOR SPOILERS: I do not like Grahme’s love interest, Ysella, nor do I understand why Grahme likes her. They meet first at a druid gathering and he is smitten. It is implied that they hook up at this time. Grahme encounters her later on his quest and finds out she is courting another druid. What exactly that means to her is unclear as she immediately attempts to hook up with Grahme again. This whole dynamic made me dislike the character and wonder why exactly Grahme likes her (other than the fact that she is a pretty girl and he is a young man, I suppose). Overall, the relationship makes Grahme appear to have low self-esteem, something not consistent with the rest of the book, paints Ysella as a self-centered person, and makes her sacrifice later on feel pointless.
  •