Tagged: prophecy
King Callie by B. Lynch
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Caliandra, the teenage princess of Barra, is in dire straits.
Not only did her fiancé break off their engagement and leave her for a richer woman, but Caliandra’s father is gravely ill – and if her brother Valric is unable to find the cure he’s set out for, their titles and wealth will disappear. Their father had been chosen as king by a magic axe, and when he passes on, so does the crown.
Soon, the worst befalls the princess – Valric turns up dead, her father succumbs to disease, and the axe goes missing, leaving the throne open for a coup by the devious Minister of War. Caliandra and her mother decide to risk everything on a desperate bid to find the axe and oust the Minister, driven by a prophecy that the proper King will take his place – Caliandra.
But when she finds out which trusted family friend betrayed her brother, will Caliandra’s thirst for revenge sabotage her only chance at the crown?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
If I could describe King Callie (both the book and the title character) in one word it would be ‘underwhelming’. For a story with magic, prophecy, revenge and intrigue, this book is kind of boring.
Caliandra as a character is thoroughly underwhelming. She mopes around about being ditched for a richer woman for most of the book and then spends the rest of the book getting mad at the people who are actually just trying to help her (and actually end up putting her on the throne). I don’t mind characters with generally unlikeable personalities as long as they’re interesting but Callie wasn’t. We’re told she’s driven by revenge for her brother Valric’s death but you never really feel that anger and desire for revenge. It manifests itself in stupid actions like challenging her own guards to a duel but as a reader you really don’t feel that desire for revenge. And for someone who grew up at court, she’s strangely naive when it comes to plotting. Sure, I’ll go help you two mysterious ladies kill the Seer who sent my brother to his death! By the way, maybe I should ask you why you want this guy dead instead of just going along with it? Yes, I get that she’s young and inexperienced but at the same time I expect at least a little bit of a sense of self-preservation when she actually grew up at court. Courts aren’t exactly the most honest, open places in the world.
The plot seemed to be convoluted in the beginning because there were so many names thrown at the reader at once but it’s really not. It’s your typical evil General trying to seize the throne at an opportunistic moment sort of thing. The only interesting parts were with the Seer, who happens to work for a shadowy organization that may or may not be evil. We’re not entirely sure at this point and I’m not particularly inclined to find out. Really, the only interesting character that can actually plot is Caliandra’s mother, who Caliandra spends most of the time undermining or insulting for being too womanly or suggesting Callie should tone things down. Unfortunately, the book is not really about Callie’s mother. I really do love books with lots of political maneuvering and on the surface there’s plenty here but it’s actually all very shallow and follows the same old political tropes you’ve read a hundred times before.
One of the only things that I actually found on par with my relatively middling expectations was the world-building. I liked the fact that this magic axe chose the next king. (Why not? It’s no more ridiculous than relying on the dubious merits of a king’s offspring simply because they are his offspring.) I also liked the scenes with magic, particularly in regards to the Seer’s prophecies and how he chose to interpret them. One of the things I was fairly impressed with is that B. Lynch actually acknowledges that a kingdom does not exist in a vacuum and when the king dies, other kingdoms are fairly opportunistic. They really do like to kick their opponent when said opponent is practically on its knees. Of course that’s very realistic and in line with the history of almost every country in the world.
So despite the good world-building I have to say that King Callie was underwhelming. It’s not the worst book I’ve ever read and I’d even hesitate to call it a ‘bad’ book but it certainly wasn’t the most enjoyable book I’ve ever read. It really does feel like there was so much potential that was just squandered.
I give this book 2/5 stars.
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The Prophecy of Arcadia by M. H. Soars
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Would you sacrifice friendship and love in order to save your planet?
Being a teenager is tough, especially when you have to pretend to be something you’re not, and you’re in love with someone you shouldn’t. 115 years ago, a small planet called Arcadia was invaded by a vicious alien race and nearly destroyed. Cut off from their resources, the Arcadians turned to Earth for help. A group of Arcadian explorers discovered a Prophecy that claimed their salvation lay in the hands of two children from Earth. To ensure their safety, the Arcadian Council sent their most gifted youngsters to Earth to act as protectors. Samantha is one of them.
To succeed in her mission she must learn to control her Arcadian powers and keep her true identity from her best friend, and the girl she swore to protect, Alexia. But Samantha will soon realize that nothing is as it seems. Someone is trying to prevent the Prophecy from taking place and the prophecy boy hasn’t been found yet. There is also a new drug circulating at school that is turning students into freakishly strong menaces.
To make matters worse, distractions keep getting in her way. Such as her love/hate relationship with her “cousin” Matthew. Or her confused feelings toward popular and mysterious Julian. She wants nothing more than to be free to live her life. But the survival of Arcadia depends on her and her friends. Free will is not an option.
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by the author and received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
The only real problem that I found throughout the whole of this book is that the points of view change just a little too much. Of course Alexia is the main character but a few of the other characters get page time as well. Sometimes it can get just a bit confusing, particularly in the beginning and you’re struggling to name them, let alone identify their voices. It gets better as the story goes on but it did take me quite a bit of time to keep everyone’s names, voices and backstories straight. If you don’t have the patience for that then The Prophecy of Arcadia is definitely not for you.
But if you have the patience to let a good story unfold, you’ll be amply rewarded. Although we readers are kept in the dark about Arcadia and the mysterious prophecy for a bit because Alexia is kept in the dark, we get to see hints of it and the prophecy throughout the story. They’re tantalizing and combined with the massive cliffhanger ending they certainly want to make you read more to find out more about M. H. Soar’s world. From what I can tell in this first book, her world-building is fantastic and when she goes into even more depth in the second book I think it will reveal just how much time and effort she put into creating Arcadia. We get hints of this depth in the first book but it’s just enough to whet your appetite and make you want to read the second one even more.
Once you do get a handle on the characters and the unique world M. H. Soars has created for them, you realize that they’re actually very distinct and three dimensional. Alexia is pretty much your typical high school girl who comes from an upper class background and has been neglected by her widower father. She finds refuge in the summers when she gets to visit her cousins (who are actually her alien bodyguards but she doesn’t know that) but this time she’s here for her last year in high school. And when she gets there all of her cousins are suddenly acting weird. One cousin is off at cheer camp which is completely contrary to her personality, Matthew and Samantha are acting really weirdly toward each other and it seems like bad things keep happening whenever she’s around. Although her cousins seem to know what’s going on, they cannot divulge the truth to poor Alexia, no matter the personal cost to themselves.
The characters are all three dimensional and that’s in part why they drive the action of the entire plot. This is a character-driven book so there’s more drama and a little less action than you might expect but it really does work. I was never really bored by the plot and although I could predict some of the major twists, there were some that completely blindsided me. The ending in particular was surprising and pretty terrifying for poor Alexia and her cousins/bodyguards. I can’t really talk much about the plot without spoiling some of the twists but suffice it to say that while you’ll see some coming, some will completely broadside you. They make sense when you look back at the plot but they’ll certainly surprise you at the time.
If you’re looking for some YA that’s a little different from what’s generally out there, I’d recommend The Prophecy of Arcadia. Although it deals with the whole prophecy vs. free will it does it in a very unique way, particularly when the actions of one character seem to throw a wrench into the whole works. And also: aliens! That’s not something as common and overdone as vampires, werewolves and fairies. If you can orient yourself in the beginning and pick out the voices of the different characters and how they feel about each other, you’re in for a good read.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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Aegis Rising by S. S. Segran
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Over a remote northern forest, a small plane carrying five teenage friends flies into a freak storm. Struck by lightning, the aircraft crashes and the passengers find themselves cast into a life-changing adventure.
In a hidden valley, a mysterious people gaze at the stormy sky as a glowing object with fiery wings disappears behind a mountain ridge. The astonishing sight reignites an ancient prophecy foretelling the arrival of five chosen ones destined to become bearers of light against a dark storm gathering on humanity’s horizon.
In a distant city, a secretive organization led by a shadowy figure initiates a sequence of cataclysmic events designed to wreak havoc across the planet, beginning with a remote mining site in a northern Canada.
As the three worlds collide, unlikely heroes arise. Armed with powers entrusted to them by the ancient prophecy and the resilience of their life-long bond, the five teens take a stand against a malevolent foe.
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One word I would use to describe Aegis Rising is ‘solid’. Not ‘great’ or ‘amazing’, but solid. Why? Simply because it was a solid novel: good characters, a decent enough plot and fairly good world-building. However, it never had that wow factor.
As I said, the characters were okay. The five teenagers who crash in the plane are named Aari, Jag, Kody, Mariah and Tegan and they react about as well as you’d expect to suddenly being surrounded by a strange culture in the middle of nowhere. Especially since Kody doesn’t know where his dad (who was flying the plane) is. Still, they at least realize that they can’t do a thing about their situation until they’ve got their strength back up so they hunker down and make the best of things. My only real problem with the teens is that they’re just a little too perfect. They never whine, complain or angst at any point (even when an adult would be) and they’re all described as drop dead gorgeous. I like to have teen characters that don’t constantly angst, don’t get me wrong here, but you have to be just a little more realistic.
The plot was decent enough. It sort of combines elements that both fantasy and science fiction fans will be familiar with. There’s a prophecy set to come about and the teens must train to use their powers in order to save the world. Only, the water supply of the valley is being poisoned and they must stop the Big Bad from doing that. I think you can guess who the Big Bad is, especially if you watched Avatar or Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. There’s a little bit more depth to it than that, but I really would have liked for some plot twists toward the end instead of having Segran play the tropes straight.
The world-building was actually pretty good, but as I’ve said it never crossed into amazing territory. At first it seems ridiculous that people in the valley have stayed hidden for so long, but the explanations provided by Segran are reasonable enough. They build their huts for camouflage up in the Canadian wilderness, they have the Guardians protecting them (who are enormous bear-spirits) and they truly are self-sufficient. Heck, they even have their resident scientist to think up new innovations to make life in the Dema-ki quite modern. The magical powers portion of Aegis Rising is pretty typical, with no magical powers you probably haven’t seen in fantasy before. However, it was reasonably well done and I wasn’t left asking “What’s going on here?” by the end of the novel.
All of these elements (characters, plot and world-building) are good enough, but they never really crossed into ‘amazing’ territory for me. Segran’s writing was a little too simplistic for that, to be honest. I would have appreciated more in-depth descriptions of the beautiful world around them as well as how they practiced their powers, rather than their banal conversations with each other. Still, I honestly can’t think of anything that went ‘wrong’ with this novel so it is a solid book. Not good, but pretty solid for me. I think that most people out there would call it ‘good’ or ‘enjoyable’ but my problem is that I’ve read too many novels similar to this. If you haven’t, then I can’t recommend Aegis Rising enough.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
(Cover picture courtesy of Michelle Zink’s website.)
An ancient prophecy divides two sisters—one good…one evil…Who will prevail?
Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, they find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents’ deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.
Lia and Alice don’t know whom they can trust. They just know they can’t trust each other.
This book had everything possible going for it: an unique premise, mystery, decent enough world building…I should have loved it. But “should have” does not mean “did”.
I just could not connect with any of the characters, especially Lia. Lia is someone I should have connected with not only because the book is written in first person, but because Michelle Zink has made her a consistent, normally likable sort of character. But I just could not connect to her on an emotional level. I did not really feel her grief at her father’s death, her burning curiosity to learn more about the mysterious mark on her arm, her happiness with her friends…it just didn’t ring true. It felt like it was superficial, shallow, that something was missing. I don’t know if this was just me or it was the very pared down writing style, but I could not connect with Lia and since the book is in first person POV, that tends to make it more difficult to like.
Aside from the lack of emotion in Michelle Zink’s writing I was quite impressed with her world-building and the premise of the book. Prophecies are kind of old, but I love how she adds her own twist to it by making not everything as it seems. The idea that Satan (or Samael as he’s called in this book) wants to return to Earth to unleash the 7 plagues signalling the end of time is not all that new, but the way Zink handled it was. The Spiritual Plane, the different levels of the spirit world, the ‘keys’ to the prophecy being actual people…it was all very fascinating. Sure, I would have appreciated more information in the beginning rather than having massive info-dumps and needless exposition in dialogue, but you can’t have everything.
The plot was fast-paced to the point of being rushed in some places, but it did have lots of twists and turns to keep the reader interested. The cliffhanger at the end is great, but I don’t know if I really want to continue the series yet. But who knows?
I give this book 3/5 stars.