K. Dzr

I wanted this book to be so much better than it actually was. It just... wasn't. It clearly wasn't edited before publication, if at all. It has LOADS of grammatical errors, changes in period-language, and spelling and punctuation errors. And worst of the worst, it had plot holes for days.

The book is broken up into three part. The first focusing on the beginnings of the legendary, Demetrius. The second introducing the main protagonist, Tahir. And the third part focuses on the events leading up to, and including, the final battles.

The book started out with a really compelling Prologue and Part 1. I was really intrigued by the storyline and unique idea of how wizards came to be. Unfortunately, the flow of the story gets interrupted in the transition from Part 1 to Part 2 - I wasn't sure what was going on because all of the sudden the main character disappeared, we had a new main character, and the setting was on a completely different continent and in a different time. I muddled through it.

Part 2 is where the book really shines. The story of Tahir and his journey to becoming a knight was so well put together. It had great flow, good imagery, and good character development. The action scenes that were set up were also well done. If the book consisted of just THIS part, I probably would have given a 4-star review because this section actually drew me in and made me want to read more.

Then we get to Part 3, which is where everything fell apart. The theme changed from adventure to religious allegory - no mention of religion AT ALL until about the last 250-ish pages, and then it was about the religious persecution of Muslims, and in the final 50 pages it changed focus again to the eradication of of all magical beings. This completely changed the tone of the book from one of optimism and adventure to one of prejudice and persecution. There were other sudden shifts in the story that came out of nowhere - The primary antagonist flip-flopping between Artemisios and Francis, and then Kraven at the very end; the protagonists going off to magic school without any follow-up; the wizards basically becoming useless in the climactic-but-not-really battle; the disaster that destroyed Tahir's village and killed his mother, originally seemed/implied as a natural disaster, but all of the sudden it's Francis and the Crusaders, but THEN it's because of some mysterious magical attack.... ummmm... wut? And the most disappointing shift was how there was so much put into preparing for this huge battle with Artemisios, but the battle itself barely covered one chapter and it was anticlimactic and nonsensical - Tahir's battle with the wolves was sooo much more put together, and just better overall.

Another issue I had with Part 3 overall was how everything became SOOOO rushed. The kids going to magic school didn't get covered at ALL, the battle with Artemisios was barely a blip on the radar, the ordeal with Francis became an unfortunate hiccup, and the mini-war with Kraven was like a passing thought. All of these events took place in less than 100 pages!! When you've got an EPIC as long as the Lord of the Rings, then a single battle scene better have just as much space dedicated to it as the chapters on training up for them -Training with Gavin was 50 pages, whereas the battle with Artemisios was mere 20, the battle with Kraven a trifling 12 pages, and the issues with Frances barely covered 5 pages because the protagonists just gave up and left without a fight.... I'm not siding with Kraven on the whole destruction of humanity thing, but COME ON!!! An entire team of magic beings who literally just saved the world can't figure out a way to show Francis the error of his ways? Huge cop-out.

There were so many plot holes I started yelling at the book - Destiny brutally killing a butterfly, but never revisiting that again; how Tahir's village got destroyed; Tahir and Destiny getting married out of nowhere - like literally, just got hitched at some point in the year they were off in magic school, which BTW, why wasn't there at LEAST a chapter on magic school, especially when there were chapters on Ellic going off to basically-Dragon-school, and how is the wedding between a magical princess and a magical pauper not a huge event?!?!; how destiny became mega-powerful (like almost as powerful as Demetrius) in such a short time; who in the world is Destiny's mother, and why was she so special; what's up with Destiny's/Tahir's pendant necklace; why Oraden is so special; what happened to the three bonkers magicians/wizards that spoke strangely; why did the King just sit back and let Francis abuse his "precious" daughter for a lifetime; also why the King didn't do anything to destigmatize magic in his kingdom despite having had a magical wife(?) and daughter; were Francis and Destiny only half-siblings? - not explicitly stated at any point, but would have greatly helped to explain some of the animosity between the siblings; how Tahir was able to go from a dual-edged sword to a scimitar so easily without training; how Tahir forgot to use his magical powers to escape torture from Francis when he LITERALLY just came back from magic school; why these all-powerful-all-knowing wizards decided to put ALL their eggs in one basket with Tahir in the battle with Artemisios - Seriously, everyone gets only one attack, but Tahir has to pull off 13 in a row, and only after everyone else has gone?!?! That's just dumb, especially when you have an entire TEAM of magical beings engaging in the battle, INCLUDING these uselessly powerful wizards. UGH. I could continue going on for days, but I think you get the idea.

I can usually say that there are enough redeeming parts in a book I didn't enjoy to be worth reading if you like certain elements or can get past its less appealing parts. This book, however, does not hit that balance. Even though there was a section I really enjoyed, there were just too many parts that were poorly written to make it worth the read, especially since it's a major time investment at 645 pages!

Two stars because it has a really interesting premise ( 1) and a pretty decent Part 2 ( 1), but I 100% do not recommend. I TRULY wanted this book to be so much better than it turned out to be, which is why I stuck through it, but I was just disappointed.… (plus d'informations)