Surely he made a mistake. These can’t be the right people.
Dranko is priest-turned-pickpocket, expelled from his church for his antics. Kibilhathur is a painfully shy craftsman who speaks to stones. Aravia is a wizard’s apprentice whose intellect is eclipsed only by her arrogance. Ernest is a terrified baker’s son. Morningstar is a priestess forbidden from daylight. Tor is a young nobleman with attention issues. Ysabel is an elderly farm woman. Grey Wolf is a hard-bitten mercenary.
None of them are qualified to save the world, but they’ll have to do. Even Abernathy himself seems uncertain as to why he chose them.
What starts with a simple scouting mission soon spirals into something more far-reaching and sinister. The heroes will contest with dream warriors, evil cultists, sentient gemstones, and a devious yet infuriatingly polite gentleman with a perfect mustache, on their way to a desperate encounter with the unstoppable: The Ventifact Colossus.
Holy shit! This epic fantasy is completely captivating! There’s an interesting collection of characters, magic, an evil villain, and an eccentric old wizard who sends them out on quests. Ok, maybe not quests per se, but more like fact-finding missions. While reading it I am reminded of Lord of the Rings, the tv show Supernatural, and every group project I was ever forced to endure. You know what I’m talking about, right? If you’ve read the book, see if you can match the character to my description.
The smart ass.
The know-it-all.
The one who makes you use all the proper citations and frowns upon plagiarism.
The one who isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, but is enthusiastic.
The one who drops out suddenly.
The highly involved one who suddenly disappears for a while due to unforeseen circumstances leaving the group to flounder a bit.
The goth chick.
The quiet one who comes up with the brilliant project-saving idea.
These people have no idea why they’ve been summoned. On the surface only one has a true skill, the magic-wielding apprentice Aravia. But whether they believe it or not, they all have what is needed to save their world. They just have to trust that Abernathy’s spell picked them for a reason they haven’t figured out yet. And they need to dig deep within themselves, have faith, and trust each other. Yeah, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
I love this world so much. The one drawback is my confusion over how Emperor Naradawk is imprisoned and all the artifacts. I’m not sure I quite understand this bit. But that’s ok. This story has some awesome characters who grow over the course of their quests and I love the different chapters where I get to see this tale through their eyes. There’s a balance to the fantasy as well. It’s not all dark and gory, but it’s not sweet fluffy pancakes either. There’s danger and action, but humor and downtime, too. The characters are my absolute favorite. I love them. They are perfectly flawed. I want to bring them out of the pages to live with me. Do I need to state how much I’m looking forward to continuing this series? Because bring it!
Dorian Hart is the author of the Heroes of Spira epic fantasy series, which currently includes The Ventifact Colossus, The Crosser’s Maze, and The Greatwood Portal. He also wrote the interactive science fiction novella Choice of the Star Captain for Choice of Games.
In a bygone century, Dorian graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in creative writing. This led circuitously to a 20-year career as a video game designer, where he contributed to many award-winning titles including Thief, System Shock, System Shock 2, and BioShock.
Now he writes books in his Boston-area study, serves as the stay-at-home dad for his two daughters, and happily allows his wife to drag him off on various wilderness adventures.
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