Saturday, January 28, 2012

Book Review: Sword in the Stars by Wayne Thomas Batson

 So... this is my first review, basically, so this will be a very experimental post. So bear with me.

Back cover summary: Haunted by memories of a violent past, Alastair Coldhollow wagers his life on the hope that a sword will appear in the stars and the foretold Halfainin, the Pathwalker, would come. Meanwhile, tensions simmer between Anglinore and the murderous Gorrack Nation, threatening war on a cataclysmic scale. The fate of all could rest on an abandoned child and the decisions of those who desperately seek to identify him. (Sword in the Stars is the first release in The Dark Sea Annals series.)

 Now, that sounds suitable epic with a grand scope, and what-not, but it doesn't capture Alastair's inner conflict. He's seeking, like all of his, for something we can't find in our world. Forgiveness, and being free from our past. He's also trying to figure out his relationship with Abbagael, the female main character.

 This book is about him, and how he changes and matures. But it's also a set-up for the rest of the series. He's not a perfect hero (Nor should heroes be perfect. It's annoying) by any means. He has doubts, guilt, and an addiction. He rages. He makes selfish decisions in the name of being selfless. But in the end, he does what's right.
The rest of the characters were similar. None were perfect, and all had motivations of their own. They were all memorable, and different than the others.

Pros: It is a well-written fantasy that focuses on the characters, doesn't have anything objectionable, and for those who like Christian symbolism, it's there.
The world building is also fantastic. It's  rings of Middle-Earth, but doesn't actually copy any of it. It's much different. There are seven races, all different. Different kingdoms, of course. The story also focused on the characters, and didn't go up in a helicopter to follow the course of a river like LotR.

Content wise, it's clean. The only exception might possibly be some blood, and violence if you're sensitive about that.

Cons:
It didn't have the sacrifice that truly great books have, but it is the first book of a series. It also doesn't expand on everything in detail.

I am fully satisfied with this book, and I strongly recommend it. It's sweet. So, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

8 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure you did a 5-star job on this review, because you convinced me to check the book out! XD Good job!

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  2. I just had to come and thank you again; I finished reading the book this morning, and I'm dying to read the next book in the series. I genuinely loved it; thanks again for putting up this review!

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    1. You're welcome!

      That's great. I should have a review for book two sometime within the next month. (Promising isn't it?) I will say that the stakes are much higher in book 2 than they are in here.

      And if you're interested, Wayne Thomas Batson is holding a contest right now to help with publicity and spreading the world. He's got all the details in this post.
      http://enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com/2011/11/seek-stars-contest-is-here.html

      If you do join, I'm in Phoenix Constellation if you want to be in the same constellation.

      What is a pain though, is that I have no clue when the third book is coming out. It's absolutely killing me.

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  3. I can't wait for the next review, yeah! And higher stakes? Whoa, that's hard for me to imagine, the stakes seemed pretty darn high in the first book.

    Awesome! I'm totally joining. Thanks for letting me know what constellation you're in.

    I can see how that would drive one mad. I'm having a crazy time just anticipating the wait for the second book to arrive at the library.

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    1. Yeah, it blew me away as well. I don't know what to do since the series is planned to be 7 books long.

      Sweet!

      Yup. That would be a hard wait as well.

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  4. Say, one more thing. Do you have an account on the "Berinfall Prophecies: The Underground" Website? I'm trying to join with the username "Keallan Brightsword", but my email is being a pain and not sending me the password.

    I was just wondering so that perhaps I can look you up on the site once I get my own account.

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    1. I don't have an account on that one. I missed a lot of the stuff that was going on for those books. The Starseekers contest is actually absed on a contest Mr. Batson and Mr. Hopper did for the Berinfell books.

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However, I do reserve the right to delete any comments I find that do not apply.