Reviews

It was just fine. Started off better than it ended. Look, it was mostly kind of dull. A review by Carol, who I follow on GR, summarized it well. I don't expect a ton of growth from a 14 y.o. protagonist in the first book in a trilogy. However, there is quite a page count, and I felt like he matured more physically with his red whiskers than he did mentally. Frankly, he was a whiny kid who was unprepared to go where the wind took him, but most of all he was just wasn't that interesting. Which is the worst thing you could do with the main character in a book. A lot of things just happen to him, like people helping him out and he just happening to be someone with important abilities and ties to powerful figures. I understand that this is a book that bridges the gap between old school and modern fantasy, but perhaps I haven't read enough to really make a proper comparison because I thought this was didn't contain anything fresh. Anyway I didn't find the world building interesting, Josua was disappointing and incredibly dumb at points, too many songs/poems. I won't be continuing on.

changes's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

itsatraaaaap's review against another edition

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4.0

Re-reading this now; haven't re-read since I was a teenager (I think). I'm glad to say that while it's not the most amazing thing ever, it holds up fairly well.

andersls's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

madders3's review against another edition

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3.0

DNF

jobinsonlis's review

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3.0

This is a well-written, completely serviceable epic fantasy novel about an orphan boy hero and an assortment of fantasy creatures trying to save an embattled land while royal politicking goes on, and the fact that it was just okay to me might just mean that I’ve discovered I’m not actually a fan of that sort of fantasy novel. That could be true. I feel like I am but this did almost nothing for me, not helped by the first 200+ pages where we just follow Simon around the castle. Josua was a much more interesting character to me and I think I would have been more invested if we were stuck tighter on him but then this book wouldn’t be about a magical orphan hero boy and it would have been in a slightly different genre.

michaelmarshall's review against another edition

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4.0

This is great fun: some really vivid characters, a complex world and a solid buildup to a terrific cliffhanger. I knocked off a star because it’s a little too long (you could shave 50-100 pages out of the 900+) and the female characters are both under-drawn and thin on the ground. Still, a solid read and I’m going straight onto part 2.

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