Before I begin, I must be clear: not only does everyone who finishes and publishes a book deserves kudos to begin with, there is nothing actually wrong with this book. Quite the contrary. The writing is good, the descriptions are lovely, and if you’re in the mood for the type of fantasy it appears to be, then by all means: it’ll be perfect for you. And for the love of God if you’re the author, you shouldn’t be reading these anyway.

So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, time for some good-natured ribbing. Because holy tropes, Batman. I read the prologue and Chapter One of this book, and we have mysterious hooded (hissing!) figures, a MacGuffin child being hunted (turning thirteen, no less), a secluded peaceful village called Veiled Gorge, and a Summer Solstice festival all about peace and goodwill. I am a lover of fantasy, it’s true – but the main character even has a dead mother.

Now, obviously, tropes are not bad. They’re the building blocks of stories. And fantasy tropes are so common that one just accepts them after a while. That said, this is a staggeringly high density for a first chapter – and the ratio of trope to non-trope is not what it should be. Part of me wants to keep reading just to see how the tropes slot together, but I’m not someone with a high cliche tolerance to begin with. (Sort of the opposite, actually. I am the uniquely worst audience for this type of book, so I endeavor to write the kind of bad review that will interest the right person.)

All of that said, though, the writing quality is excellent; the prose is a pleasure to read, if slow-paced and lingering on descriptions; but it’s a stylistic choice clearly inspired by Brian Jacques and Tolkien. The book’s also both aimed at a middle-grade audience and apparently self-published, so I’m quite pleasantly surprised at both the quality of the prose and the book itself. Self-publishing middle-grade fantasy is a thankless job and as much as I tease, middle-grade fantasy runs more on tropes than any other kind of fantasy does. So if you love this kind of high fantasy, with mysterious strangers and boys with hidden powers — or you have a kid in your life who does — I definitely recommend maybe eyeballing this one. I just can’t say it’s up my alley.

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