I stumbled across "Light & Dark: The Awakening of the MageKnight" on one of my websites listing free books for Kindle. The book sat in my 'to read' folder for a couple months, passed over for stories more in my genre. I do enjoy reading YA fantasy books occasionally and found myself in the mood and started reading about the MageKnight. Once I got into it, I regretted not picking this sooner. It starts out innocent enough, the protagonist, a 13 year old Danny Firoth begins another school year and instantly gets a crush on a new girl, Sabina Drake, who plays a prominent part in his future. Danny and his buddies, Matt, Chris, annoying Alonso and Doug enjoy playing a card game called Knights - although it is never explained to the reader how the game is played. When Danny is soon chosen as the school bully's next victim, he notices for the first time that he has a special "gift" which allows him to defeat the big guy, making him quite popular with the kids and others.

Danny gets an interesting visitor, who convinces him to join a special school during the summer, which is located on a magical island within the Bermuda Triangle. The stranger offers Danny a special dagger to carry with him at all times, invisible to all except those who can see the "Light". It so happens that his friends also have this ability to see the "Light", joining Daniel in the training to become a Knight of the Light. So the adventure begins!

The boys soon learn that their innocent game of Knights is for real and the characters depicted within are living and breathing Knights with special powers, magical weapons, fighting the war against the Dark Light for the last couple of centuries; most are over a hundred years old. Once this trip begins, I thought the story was going to be similar to both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings novels. There are dragons, elves, dwarfs and fearless enemies within the story to contend with, but soon evolves into its own unique identity.

The author, Daniel Fife brought a fantasy to life in this tome. I enjoyed myself immensely and recommend this story to both teenagers and adults. "Light and Dark: The Awakening of the MageKnight" is a complete story on its own and doesn't end with a cliff hanger like many of the books lately. However, there remains plenty for the author to follow up with another book or even a series. I am aware that the author has a second installment in the works and look forward to reading it when it becomes available. Great job, Mr. Fife!

John Podlaski, author

Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel ( )

Even though this book is written for i think a young teen, i couldn't put it down. Excellent character development and very easy to read! This book in itself could have easily been doubled in size for what the author has accomplished. I'm expecting a nice series and this at its start. I'm putting Daniel Fife on my short list for authors to watch for new material - thanks ( )

The plot works well in the fantasy aspect of the world. It is well researched and thought through. I loved the game aspect throughout the story and the mythology that it builds around. The rules were incorporated really well into the story and helped move the plot along.

The book does start out a little slow in the beginning and the repeated information was kind of annoying. After you get through that part and the story takes off it is more enjoyable to read. The second problem I had throughout this book was the grammar and writing style. I will be the first to admit that I am not English teacher and my grammar is usually atrocious but it did take me out of the story while reading this book.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight follows the eventful life of thirteen-year-old Danny Firoth and his friends as their world is turned upside-down by the sudden realization that creature of myth might not be so mythical after-all. After a slow start the book moves along at a nice clip. An interesting assortment of characters pepper the pages, some of them more sympathetic than others. I was particularly fond of Calador and Chris, but had little attachment to Doug or Matt. The perpetrator of the sinister plot isn't too hard to guess, but neither is he/she so obvious as to make finishing the book obsolete. There is just enough misdirection to make you doubt yourself. The writing is generally crisp and easy to follow. My only complaint is Fife's REPEATED use of the same phrases, most notably "for but a moment," "did as bid," and "kept his council." There are a couple other ones that show up too often for the repetition to go unnoticed, but they weren't as quite as frequent.

Be forewarned though, this is apparently the first in a series. Unless I know before starting that a book is part of a series I'm always a little disappointed to reach the end of it only to discover it isn't actually the end of the story. The book is already 312 pages long, so I understand why it had to be broken up. Though threads are left open for continuation it isn't too much of a cliffhanger. I'd definitely be interested in seeing where Fife goes with it. I would consider this middle grade or lower young adult, but I enjoyed it all the same. ( )

13 year old Danny is a typical boy of his age. Not the most popular kid in school, but has some good friends. Starting his new school year for the 8th grade, a new girl in school, Sabrina Drake, catches his attention. Danny and his friends like to play a card game called Knights, which had 3 factions, Light (good), Gray (neutral) and Dark (evil).

After fighting in school one day, Danny has detention and needs to stay after. Once relieved from detention, he starts to leave school but is sidetracked with an earthquake type shaking and strange noises. He could never have imagined what he saw in the schoolyard - a dragon fighting a shadow. He soon discovers the dragon is the new girl in school and the card game is actually a battle that exists in life. Danny has a special power that allows him to “see the light” and he must choose if he wants to ignore this gift/curse or help defend others. He chooses to help defend others and goes through training to learn how to fight, along with some of his school friends.

In the spirit of good vs. evil, the Light vs. the Dark, Danny and his friends learn many things in this faraway land, along with the typical who do who believe and trust and who not to. Danny and his friends learn quite a lot in their first year as squires.

Very well written, flows nicely and keeps you turning the pages to see what happens next, with a great mix of characters of all sorts, humans, elves, etc. This is a good read for young adults, as well as adults, the way the Harry Potter series was good for all ages. This is a story that may not have left you with any sort of a cliffhanger, but definitely has the potential for more adventures for Danny and his friends. ( )