Archer
by Quinn Knightly
Series: Stallion’s Quest (book 1)
Age Range: 10+
Content Notice: Action and mild violence
Faith Based: Yes
ISBN: 978-1966015192
Author’s Website: http://quinnknightly.com/
PLOT SYNOPSIS (from the back of the book)
One girl. One tyrant. One kingdom about to be destroyed. Raina Swiftmain is forsaken. Her family executed in the resistance, she alone must decipher the riddle that will reveal the true ruler, while shielding it from the enemy at all costs. Desperate to succeed, she must face a warrior set on her capture.
Battling him, Raina fears her sword and bow won’t prevent her demise. When every resource is exhausted, she must find the key to the riddle which the warrior claims to possess.
With the entire kingdom in the balance, dare Raina trust the rogue warrior?
THE BOTTOM LINE
This young adult fantasy starts with a bang and ends with one too.
THOUGHTS
Archer starts with a bang and ends with one too. At the heart of the story is a land under the thumb of a tyrant and a mystery which could unravel his despotic reign. The action is thoughtful and exciting, and the pace of the plot rarely lets up. There are, however, several spots which consist of people telling stories and these disproportionately drag the pacing down. The strong plot does make up for a weaker setting. The generic fantasy-ish world of the book is serviceable but lacks much definition. The basic towns, castles, and forest locales provide little more than a place for the action to take place and the characters to interact. Conversely, the interactions more than make up for the relative blandness of the world. The main characters, Torin and Raina, are engaging and complex in their own ways. The first-person-present-tense format of the writing combined with multiple main characters did make for some minor confusion as to who “I” is, and it would probably have been better to stick with Raina as the sole focus of the book. Nevertheless, she and Torin each added something unique to the story and their personalities and arcs did not just drive the plot but added something special to the story. Overall, Archer is a fun adventure novel great for younger audiences, interesting enough that more mature readers can also enjoy it, and well deserving of a spot on your reading list.
RANTS AND RAMBLES
NOTE: Though I strive to adequately support the opinions expressed in my reviews, they are still just opinions. If you like a book I hate, I’m happy for you. Additionally, while I regularly rant about mere irritants in a novel, something must be remarkably good to garner the same level of comment. This means my rants and rambles often skew more negative than I intend my review to be, so please refer to my overall star rating for my unified opinion on this book.
- It is clear that Knightly grew up with horses, both from the story’s focus on them and how Raina interacts with them. Details like this are a perfect example of why it is often beneficial to “write what you know.” They flesh out the world in small but meaningful ways, lending consistency, realism, and depth to the story.
- The writing mechanics have a fair number of issues including formatting errors, extra letters, and loads of passive voice. This does not, however, significantly detract from the enjoyment of the book.
- At a certain point, Raina needs to utilize a disguise and uses egg whites as makeup to create wrinkles. I’m not positive if this would work, but it seems plausible lending credibility to the world. I also really like the detail of how the disguise was created, something many other stories would have simply glossed over.
- MINOR SPOILERS: The story gets a little preachy in one or two places. One story in particular reads a lot like a sermon while Raina’s arc about trusting God feels shoehorned in and is not organic to the story.
- TINY SPOILERS: At one point in the story, Raina breaks a wild horse so that she can use it in an escape attempt. How on earth does no one hear this? Not the boy sleeping in the stable loft and not the captain of the guard who is specifically looking for her. I suppose perhaps I overestimate the sound made in an activity like this, but it seems to me that there would be a bit of a ruckus.
- SPOILERS: There is a fair amount of coincidence in the novel including 1) an old man happening upon Raina to rescue her from a deadly situation, 2) Torin and Raina happen to be the children of the two most important characters to the mystery underpinning the story and therefore hold two parts to the clue, 3) if Raina had not been captured, she would have never met Torin and the whole story would have been for naught, 4) if Torin and Raina had met a mere two weeks later the who story would have been for naught, a coincidence which the book points out, but this doesn’t make it any better.