Reviews

Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson, Christopher Hopper

angelwolf45's review

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5.0

I loved this book.

It is about these Elven kids who were supposedly lost in a war years ago. But the Elves of Allyra get a glimmer of hope when tremors start to happen on a world known as Earth. They send sentinels out to bring them back. These kids are now 13 and may be realizing that the adoptive parents are not their only family. The Spider King also finds out that the task that they were suppose to do is yet unfinished and is also sending out his men to finish what was supposed to have been done. Now it is up to the Elven kids along with the Sentinels have to learn the powers that are manifesting in them and defeat the Spider King.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. I was intrigued about this book because it had elves in it and it was by one of my favorite authors, this was my first book with Christopher Hopper as an author and I am glad to read a book with these authors.

This book was a lot of fun learning about the elvish world and learning what had happened that had them be adopted by humans on Earth. I really enjoyed the story and the world and I cant wait to continue on with the next books.

faithfulgirl4's review against another edition

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5.0

http://molcotw.blogspot.com for review! Don't miss this one!

bemaline's review against another edition

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3.0

A pretty good middle reader story, nothing amazing or too problematic.

paper_queen's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Initial Response
Wow, was that INSANELY AWESOME or what?!

High Lights
- THERE ARE SO MANY CHARACTERS.
- AND I LOVE IT.
- I loooove huge casts of characters, and this book delivered in such a way that wasn't confusing or hard to keep track of. Just the right amount of people. :)
- JUST. THE CHARACTERS. IN GENERAL.
- Tommy is great, Kat is great, Jett...
- We'll see.
- But Jimmy and Kiri Lee are great too.
- And Johnny and Autumn have much sibling rivalry and banter and it's so true and I love it.
- I SO loved reading the parts about Berinfell! I felt so immersed and it was EPIC. Each time they were over, I found myself reverted back to the regular, mundane world. Well, only for a few minutes, and then chaos usually erupted, but anyway.
- I think my favorite of the Sentinels has got to Charlie.
- And can I just?
Spoiler ATTENTION BATSON AND HOPPER IF YOU KILL MY PRECIOUS LITTLE CHARLIE IS DEAD I WILL FIND YOU AND MAKE YOU REWRITE THE BOOKS. JUST FYI. O_O


Low Lights
- Hmm...None.
- Well, I guess sometimes it felt like the writing style changed a little bit, which is understandable, since it was co-written, but it still kinda threw me off.

Conclusion
This was a reread for me, and I'm SO HAPPY I REREAD IT because I'm going to writer's workshop to meet Mr. Batson, so. Yeah. Figured I should reread this and refresh my memory a little. Anywho, THIS IS AN EPIC BOOK. If you love high fantasy and elves and all that awesome stuff in a modern, technological atmosphere, than this is the book for you!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sarafloerke's review against another edition

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4.0

My rating is based on reading this with my 14 year old son. He really loved this book. It's all about the strength and cool factor of the gear/talents/skills of the characters. This one rocked.

It was enjoyable. I like how it allows space for a superior, spiritual being. I love alternate universes and believe that somewhere back in my genetic line I come from the elves...so this was a natural for me.

rmarcher's review

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4.0

May 2017 rating: 5 stars
October 2019 rating: 4 stars

havoc's review against another edition

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1.0

Found this book sitting on my shelf, left over from a few Christmases ago, so figured I should give it a read.
I am not the target audience for this series - I'm a bit old - so my opinion is most likely skewed, but "meh" is the word I'd describe "Curse of the Spider King" with. Having seven main characters is quiet a bit to keep up with, and that's ignoring that the names Jimmy, Johnny, and Tommy kinda blur together. Thankfully one of them clearly has an Irish accent. Have seven mains also requires quite a lot of set up that takes away from getting to the actually story.
There is also some heavy handed Christian throw-ins that I assume come into play later that didn't quite blend in with the story.
Once I got over/used to the meh dialogue and unbelievable actions, I got through the book in two sittings so it couldn't have been that bad. I will read the second because I already have it, but will most likely not get the third.
A younger reader may enjoy "Curse of the Spider King" but I would suggest to find something better.

melrailey's review

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4.0

The elven world of Allyra is attacked by the Spider King and destroyed in one battle. In the midst of the battle, the seven heirs of the leaders of Allyra are kidnapped and hidden on earth. There they are adopted and raised as normal earth children. They have no idea of their real heritage. Now thirteen years old, the Age of Reckoning, the elven lords are coming into their powers as teenagers on earth, learning the truth about their identityand being hunted down and attacked by the sentinels of the Spider King.

I got this audiobook during a sale on audible. It took me a long time to get around to listening to it and when I finally did, I enjoyed immensely. The narrator was good and the story was very good. There is lots of background and mythology development. It's definitely from the Lord of the Rings family tree.

I would normally recommend this book without hesitation but I learned after listening to the book that (1) it is part of a planned trilogy and (2) the publisher is dropping the series. I'm extremely disappointed that there's a possibility that I won't get to finish the series someday. Hopefully, if they can't find a new publisher, the authors will considering self-publishing as an ebook.

caidyn's review

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3.0

3.5

I really enjoyed this start. I kind of wish the story had moved a bit faster. It was like reading the same thing over and over again, although I didn't mind too much. A good start, and I'm excited to read the next one to see if it continues on in the track it started off with.
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