Heya folks! I’m back today with something I haven’t actually done before on this blog – I’m part of a blog tour!
Or, more specifically, the biggest blog tour EVER.
If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably seen all the retweets for the #thewritereads gang – this is a part of that!! We’re holding a blog tour for not just one book – we’re touring the author’s ENTIRE COLLECTION.
Since there are so many people, I’m just doing a first chapter review!!
His name is Farden.
They whisper that he’s dangerous.
Dangerous is only the half of it.Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options.
Entangled in a web of lies and politics and dragged halfway across icy Emaneska and back, Farden must unearth a secret even he doesn’t want to know, a secret that will shake the foundations of his world. Dragons, drugs, magick, death, and the deepest of betrayals await.
Welcome to Emaneska.
Review
The first chapter of this novel is intriguing – it sets up who are presumably our protagonist and antagonist, shows the initiating incident, and introduces us a little to the world of the book (yes, there are dragons.)
Not gonna lie, I’m not a huge fan of the writing style. It feels disjointed, and there’s a lot of ‘telling’ as opposed to ‘showing’ which pulls me out of the narrative. There is a consistent third person narrator, but the amount of description they do wound up getting on my nerves.
Also, there’s one particular moment that just straight up made me roll my eyes because it relies wholly on coincidence, a pet peeve of mine in novels (unless it’s kid’s fiction, because y’know. They’re kids.)
For the ideas, I’d say that this is an engaging fantasy novel – unfortunately, I’ll probably give it a miss, as the writing style just isn’t for me. If it were written in a slightly more sophisticated way, I’d devour this tale within a matter of hours.
About the Author
Ben Galley is an author of dark and epic fantasy books who currently hails from Victoria, Canada. Since publishing his debut The Written in 2010, Ben has released a range of award-winning fantasy novels, including the weird western Bloodrush and the epic standalone The Heart of Stone. He is also the author of the brand new Chasing Graves Trilogy.
@BenGalley
Lots of love,
