I got an ARC copy of this book from the author via LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

I feel torn about this book. It mainly follows the path of two opposing characters: the archetype hero Arkin who discovers his mild mannered father Levi was a prominent member of The Order, a mysterious society of trained warriors and erudites that maintain stability in his nation while being the devoted servants of King George.

The second main character of the story is a mysterious assassin with a powerful drive named Lucian who has a love/hate (well, mostly hate) relationship with Levi. After Lucian murders Levi with a magical stone in front of Arkin's eyes, the meek 18 year old stumbles into the care of a man named Torin who is a prominent member of The Order and brought to their headquarters to train and solve the mystery of the Soul Stones.

Meanwhile, the embattled Lucian bows before his master, the archetype villain Victor that uses his self-hatred to attempt a coup. Victor orders him to embark on a suicide mission that will inevitably drive the story forward...

There are obviously a lot of things going for this tale, you can read it reasonably quickly and the story while resoundingly similar with other epic tales will keep you interested. However, the book has some problems that other people have already mentioned.

The first is the language in some chapters. The book truly feels like the characters were born only 40 years ago. Words like gonna and ain't sound a bit off in a medieval setting. The most oddly misplaced one of all was the word "genetics". I find it rather strange that someone would casually use that word in a world that is still so absurdly patriarchal that it doesn't allow women to study medicine unless they join The Order.

The pacing in the first 30% of the book is a bit slow for me. I mostly blame it on the fact that I just didn't care for most of the characters. To be honest, the real story of this book is the twisted love/hate story of Lucian, Levi and Sarie. How did two best friends fawn over the same woman and end up choosing different paths? Lucian's drive is so powerful, so much hatred, so much talent. He could rule the world if he wanted and yet he bows to Victor who only uses him as a commodity.

I would really enjoy learning about this ill-fated trio, this is definitely the story I would have loved to see.

Arkan unfortunately doesn't carry the same weight on his shoulders. You quickly understood his character within the first page where he appears. He's 18 years old and bored out of his mind as he absently sweeps the floor to his father's curio shop. His lack of drive continues throught the story and while he seems like a decent guy, I felt like Levi was a far more fascinating character even though he barely appears in a handful of pages.

Lyla was also sort of a wishy-washy character. She wants to be a doctor, cool. And then she sorta wants to learn how to use an arrow... and she's hot and um... some bandits show up (cuse every epic story during a road trip needs some stock character bad guys to want to keep a pretty lass for the sake of it), and well, I just found her to be rather boring. Sarie on the other hand, she's complicated, troubled and still draws a lot of attention despite her age. I want to learn more about what drives her and what is she like.

The book fortunately picks up speed after the 50% point and a planned assasination will move the story forward. One thing that sort of confused me in the plot was the whole new religion thing. They make it important at first, but it doesn't seem to carry any weight in the final battle.

While most of the characters from The Order didn't draw me in, I am curious to know what will happen to Cain. A sort of Darth Vader in the making? I'm actually very curious to know what is inside those little wooden puzzle boxes. I am certain there is something mysterious and utterly useful inside of them.

A flawed book for the reasons I already mentioned, I will definitely read the sequel sometime mainly because I just loved Lucian's character and want to know his story. Could he still be saved? That's the story I want to know! ( )