Everything Opal had ever wanted was now within her grasp. After years of training under the High Council of Mages she had finally been given the opportunity to show her skills and to earn the respect of her teachers. She would help her paramour, Karn, defeat the invading warlord, Mustaffa, who threatened to destroy the entire kingdom.In other news I started shopping for an agent last night. Now to be fair, I'm not very good at shopping in general. And while the idea of having an agent and someday getting published is exciting, it's also very frightening!
But though Karn was a mighty warrior and wanted nothing more than to defeat the evil invader, he also knew something inside him was missing. The memories of his past seemed broken and twisted, as if they had been lived by someone else. And has he and Opal worked to bring down the rising darkness, Karn was sure that there was more evil afoot than just the enemy army. Someone else was pulling the strings and a deeper conflict set in motion years before was about to overtake them all.
* * * * * * * * * *
Soul Born by Kevin James Breaux is the first book in a three book series. It is a classic epic fantasy full of elves, wizards, and fairies. I actually won an ecopy of the book in a giveaway on Fantasy-Faction forums that Kevin was good enough to run a few weeks back. Kevin is also a Fantasy-Faction staff member and can be found on Twitter as @KevinBreaux.
I have to admit that the first thing that attracted me to this book was the awesome cover art, and I found as I began the story that the beautiful woman depicted was the main character Opal. Opal is a mage and one of my favorite things about this book is the way magic works and how it is depicted. Magic in this world is full of color and movement, with each type of spell represented by a different color. Magic is also very scarce and can only be performed by a select few.
The characters in this story are also unique, and even after getting three-quarters of the way through the book there is still more to learn about each one. The story itself twists and turns as it progresses, keeping you guessing as to who is on the side of good and who is on the side of evil. At the end of this book there are still questions to be answered, making the reader wonder which way the story will continue in book two.
I think the story and perspective at times seems to jump around a bit, and I would have liked to know a little more about some of the side characters. I give Soul Born 3 stars, but only because I’m not a big fan of stories where the point of view switches back and forth a lot. If you don’t mind that type of story, then it’s probably more like a 3-1/2 to 4 star book. Overall, I think this was a good quick read and I would recommend this to those who like classic sword-and-sorcery style fantasy stories.
For disclosure purposes, I won a copy of Soul Born from the author in a giveaway contest, but chose to review it on my own. Winning the book did not influence my opinion in this review.
So far I have a list of about ten people who represent the fantasy/scifi genre. The next step is to get my query/pitch setup for each person and send them out. I can honestly say that I haven't been this nervous/excited in a long time. Hopefully I'll be sending out my first batch of queries by the end of next week. If any of you have an suggestions or hints or warnings for me, please let me know. I can use all the help I can get!
Hope you all have a great 4th of July weekend, even those of you not in the US. Because technically it will be July 4th for you as well. ;)
Stay safe! And happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment