Thursday 24 October 2013

FANTASY REVIEW: The Elemental Wars 1: Heartwood - Freya Robertson

Release Date: 29/10/13
Publisher:  Angry Robot

SYNOPSIS:

Chonrad, Lord of Barle, comes to the fortified temple of Heartwood for the Congressus peace talks, which Heartwood's holy knights have called in an attempt to stave off war in Anguis. But the Arbor, Heartwood's holy tree, is failing, and because the land and its people are one, it is imperative the nations try to make peace. After the Veriditas, or annual Greening Ceremony, the Congressus takes place. The talks do not go well and tempers are rising when an army of warriors emerges from the river. After a fierce battle, the Heartwood knights discover that the water warriors have stolen the Arbor's heart. For the first time in history, its leaves begin to fall - The knights divide into seven groups and begin an epic quest to retrieve the Arbor, and save the land


REVIEW:

This is a book I heard about fairly recently and to be honest I was not only intrigued by the premise but as I started I was taken back to my first reading of Edding’s Sparhawk Sextet. The characters felt real, they were a whole lot of fun to spend time around and when you add personal challenges to the various quests it soon becomes obvious that its going to be a great ride. That’s not to say that its not a book without problems as parts of it do feel a little simplistic, but if you were looking for something to help bridge the gap between YA and Adult I’d definitely recommend this.

There’s a huge scope for the story, some wonderful imaginative thoughts into the world development and of course with a whole set of challenges to meet it’s something that fantasy readers will love. All round a great start to a series and one that I’ll be sticking with alongside each subsequent release. Great stuff.



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