Besprekingen
I loved the first story in this collection but am a bit saddened about how it ended I mean it leaves too much to the imagination that I feel like there must be another section of it? It can't just end with her being carried away. When I finished Mr. Koevari's section I must say I love this story!!! It was very intriguing about how it had a man speaking in the background. I couldn't put this down!!! The Imagery was amazing as to be expected from Peter. His Characters felt so alive and wondrous. I wish we could have gotten to know his parents a bit more but it was so worth the sacrifice to grow the story more. For such a short story so much action and adventure was created. This would make an amazing movie to watch as well. The Witch's Song was also another favorite of mine. It was well written with varying sentences and believable characters. It follows true to the story it was inspired by and of course was hard to put down!!! All In all I must say that this book was a great collection of writers and was hard to put down. The transitions were a little rough and I feel the order could have been bettered but it was in all a great book and worth the read.
In the aftermath of the Battle of the Elven Woods, the two legends of Marithian prophecy are both dangerously close to the dark grip of death as Marithia suffers under the powers of the Blood Red Moon. Vartan, prophesised to save Marithia, lays spellbound under the protection of the mythical dragons. The vampire sorceress Kassina, prophesised to bring about their Armageddon has been moved to the underworld by the demon lord himself, Shindar. A seed of the gods has grown and their greatest gift to Marithians, Anakari, makes her fated journey to discover her purpose. A former shining jewel of Marithian peace, castle Greenhaven, remains in ruins after its defeat under Kassina’s forces and the elves rebuild their war torn city of Veldrenn. Talonsphere must be found before Marithia merges with the Underworld and Shindar brings about the world’s end.
Opinions:
Darkness Rising is the second book of the Legends of Marithia series. The book begins where the first leaves off. If you never read the first book, this review might contain spoilers. You have been warned! Now back to the review. After the attack in the Elven Woods, both sides are nursing their wounds. Vartan was left near dead, but eventually heals to be reunited with Helenia and the Marithians. Kassina was in a similar fate as Vartan. Both sides need to boost up their armies and prep for another war, but a few things happen along the way. There is betrayal, magic, and gods/goddesses.
The story is written in third person, following multiple characters with opening chapter quotes like the first book. Old characters are reintroduced. If you haven’t read the first book in while, you should be fine. There is usually a brief summary of who (and what happened) from the first book to jog your memory. There are also some new characters to meet. Compared to the first book, the second one provides more background to the characters. It helps the reader to relate better to the characters and what drives them. I would, however, liked to see a little more background with Vartan and Helenia’s relationship.
The story moved along well. The book does contain violence, sexual content, nudity, and blood, so this is for an older audience. There was a lot of prep for the ending battle of the book – such as training and securing resources. The dragons are still my favorite “species” (if this is PC for these groups) in the book. There are a few surprises along the way and a twist on what might happen in upcoming books.
If you like fantasy novels with vampires, dragons, and elves, then you might want to read this book. (But, I suggest reading book 1: Prophecies Awakening first.)
“When her sorceress mother and vampire king father are brutally murdered, Kassina makes a pact with Shindar, the Demon of Darkness. In exchange for her soul, Kassina obtains power to become the most feared sorceress in all the lands, and vows to exact her revenge on the people for the deaths of her parents. Granted eternal life, Kassina and her evil are never far away.
For many years, the humans and elves of the mystical world of Marithia have lived in an age of peace. But that peace is shattered when King Arman is slain by his own son, a pawn of the vampire sorceress Kassina. Arman’s murder sparks the most brutal and bloody war ever seen between the Forces of Darkness and the peaceful Marithians.
In the midst of the conflict, Vartan, a young knight wrongfully outcast from King Arman’s court, reluctantly discovers he is the subject of a prophecy involving the fabled weapon, Talonsphere. In alliance with the legendary dragons, he finds himself with the opportunity to rid the world of Kassina and her dark armies forever, and finally return Marithia to an era of peace."
Prophecies Awakening is the first book in the series by Peter Koevari. It is a fantasy novel that includes humans, vampires, elves, dragons, fairies, and demons. Kassina (whose sorceress mother and vampire father dies at the hands of the king) finds refuge with Shindar – the demon of darkness. She becomes very powerful and seeks her revenge on Marithia. A prophecy tells of a young man born of dragons that can use – what is called – a Talonsphere to destroy the forces of darkness for good. To defeat the darkness sacrifices must be made.
The book was written in third person and followed a number of characters throughout Kassina’s rise to power. The characters were interesting and I was rather fond of the dragons. There was not too much background on the characters. For instance, it was mentioned that the princess and Vartan loved each other and a few moments in which we see that but not much else.
The plot moved along well. There was a lot of action that kept me engaged while reading. In fact, I read the book within two days. The ending definitely leaves off for the next book, but does not stop in the middle of a climax. I’ve read the uncut, extended version, so I’m sure if all editions have this: At the beginning of the chapters is a quote from the characters – which I liked. However, almost every time I started a chapter, I assumed that the character who said the quote would be the character that I was following. This was not the case, and it would continue with someone else. The quote, instead, lead the reader to the content of the chapter rather than the person himself. [I enjoyed the few drawings included in this book, as well.]
Overall I enjoyed the story. If you like fantasy and adventure, you might like this book.
The prophesy is arising, and the dark witch is on the loose. Two opposing prophesies are at odds, and it is not yet clear whether the balance will tip in favour of the light or the darkness.
Although I was reading on a Kobo, and it's purely black and white, I really enjoyed the pictures of the various characters that were interspersed in the text. It's nice to get a view of how I should be imagining the characters in my mind, and it adds more reality to the read.
Dragons! It's been far too long since I read a book with dragons in it. This novel has dragons. Several of them. In fact, they are invisible dragons most of the time, but they are still there! I think this is another story point that could have been made more of, coupled with more details on Varten's training, and a bit more of Kassina's history. Although the prologue covers that, I couldn't really understand why Kassina had gone bad so quickly. I can understand how seeing her parents killed like that was traumatic, but not so bad that she feels the need to laugh manically at every human ideal and set fire to things after draining the blood of innocents.
This novel reminds me a fair bit of Mercedes Lackey's Obsidian Mountain trilogy. The elves and their forest, the dark demons who feed from the living, and the man who must save them all against the odds. The notion of the special device is different though, and I wouldn't say the styles of writing were at all the same.
This novel does sentences/paragraphs at the start of the novel in the right way. They add something to the story that you wouldn't otherwise realise from the point of view. Often they highlight a character's perspective that you don't actually get in the rest of the text.
Ah! There was one point where I was sure they were about to be uncovered, and then bam! It was something else! Koevari really sprung it on me, and I was really unable to put the book down in anticipation. he does this cliff-hanger technique in such a sneaky way lots of times, and it really gets things going.
Sadly, I wasn't at all convinced by the dialogue or scenery in this novel. The dialogue again felt a bit stilted to me (although I know that getting dialogue right is really very difficult) and I felt like occasionally the characters were having monologues. The scenery was often described in similes, and it was just too much detail. For example, the elven forest is guarded by faeries and special elven guards. And this is stated basically like that, with a bit more detail. I feel that a better way of doing it would have been to have the queen and her daughter enter the forest and come across each of these things. Perhaps it would have used up some more words, but I feel like it would have been really valuable. Another thing was the epithet of 'hot spurting blood', it just came up so many times!
I found it interesting to read, and I certainly wouldn't say no if I won the second book in this series from Goodreads this time around. I likely wouldn't buy it for myself though, simply because I don't think it's a reread, and also because I have so many other novels on my to-read list.
I'd recommend this novel for adults only due to the erotic mixed with horror content of Kassina's rituals - a particular episode with a virgin still sticks in my mind uncomfortably. A decent read, quite compelling towards the end. I only had those minor complaints, and it certainly wasn't a trial to read the novel - I enjoyed it. Probably three stars from me.
I received this ebook free after missing out on a hard copy through Goodreads: First Reads. This did not influence my opinion in any way.
If you are looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend reading about this book that is an epic battle between good and evil. I look forward to reading the second installment in this series.
Legends of Marithia: Prophecies Awakening has all the hallmarks of epic fantasy -- distinct lines between good and evil (sometimes too distinct, shades of grey would have been appreciated), great battles, powerful magic, elves, dragons, and humans. Plus vampires and demons. It's rather as if the author took the tropes of every major fantasy sub-genre, mixed them all together, and then pulled a book out of the mix. Buyers should be aware that this is not intended as a children's book. There are graphic descriptions of violence and sex.
Mr. Koevari has written that it is a dream of his to see the story adapted into a movie, and it shows: as the plot moves very quickly from beat to beat, often with little context in time or space. If we were viewing the story on the screen, I'd expect captions or a training montage (We as readers know that apprentices need time to train, but acknowledgement of this is still needed from the author when the former apprentice appears on the next page as a full-fledged master.)
These quick scene changes also mean that there is very little time for character development or dialogue. What dialogue we do get is usually stilted, leaving us with flat characters that seem pretty interchangeable. (There are one or two exceptions, but one or two distinct characters does not make an entire book, and certainly not when the genre includes the word "epic.")
Despite these negatives, the writing is excellent when it comes to the action sequences. Here, Mr. Koevari shines. The action takes center stage, and we barely notice that it's on the page instead of right in front of us. The prologue is simply brilliant as is the description of the trade town of She’Ma’Ryn. I am left wishing for a co-author who can do more in character development or (better) an experienced editor who could help Mr. Koevari improve.
I have not yet read the second book in this intended series, but I will be looking forward to it.
Each chapter starts off with a quote from various characters, some known, some unknown until they appear later, and sometimes simply "unknown". Each one is interesting. It doesn't really have to relate to anything in particular of the chapter, more to the story itself. I really loved each quote and got excited everytime a chapter ended just because I knew I'd be getting a new quote!
Which brings me to the things I don't like. The biggest reason I love the quotes is because it's the one time when characters seem to speak with their own voice. If I wasn't told who was talking, I'd have no clue. There a few moments here and there where it seems like a character might finally be developing, and then it disappears again. It's a major disappointment.
Another is that there isn't much flow to the writing. It's like chapters, or even just scenes (since it's more of a subjective POV with different characters being the point of interest at that moment), are all written seperately and then thrown together to make a book. There is hardly any transition. There are a few instances where it does flow from one event to the next, but it's rare.
Even more confusing with the lack of flow is how the scenes/chapters are thrown together. I wondered for half the book if they were simply put out of sequence. It feels like it. It goes from present day to a childhood memory back to the present and back to the past. Finally we discover that they're all visions later when a "future" scene is thrown in, but there isn't any explanation at all and it all feels wrong when it happens. Even finally finding out what's going on doesn't help how confusing going from one thing to the next without any indication makes you feel.
Despite it's problems with writing, it was amazingly creative and thoroughly interesting. I'd recommend reading it just for the story itself if you adore fantasy. This is one of those instances where the story more than makes up for suffering through not so great writing.
Book One of Legends of Marithia is your standard tale of good versus evil, though it is a little more graphic and dark than many other epic fantasy novels (read: sex and violence). The story moves at a quick pace, and readers are quickly sucked into the fight. Admittedly, there aren't too many surprises when it comes to the plot. Even so, it manages to feel fresh and interesting, and I was eager to see how everything would turn out. What I discovered was that the author tends to kill off characters just as they start to pique my interest.
In general, I had some trouble connecting with individual characters. Part of the issue is that there were many opportunities to show character development, but they were skipped over in favor of moving the plot along. For instance, Vartan's training with the dragons could have been fascinating. Equally interesting would have been Kassina's descent into darkness, or an expansion upon Tusdor's turn from thievery. I liked these characters well enough, but it was hard to invest in them on a deeper emotional level. Perhaps it would have been easier had the line between good and evil not been so cleanly drawn.
The writing itself was, for the most part, good. It successfully faded into the background, giving center stage to the story that it was meant to convey. There were several short, descriptive passages that were lovely. With that said, some of the sentences were stilted, awkward, or grammatically flawed. I had to read through them several times to discern the author's intent.
Overall, Legends of Marithia: Prophecies Awakening is an entertaining read for more mature audiences. I look forward to seeing what happens in Book Two.
Hide and Read
(Review copy provided by the author)
Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.
To preface this review, I will note that I selected this work as it seemed to be a complete series, it was on audio, it was performed by the voice actor who is working on my series: The Caeteran Tales, and I thought it would be a “Meaty Fantasy” To date, I have completed two of the three books in the Legends of Marithia trilogy, and the hook at the end of book 2 will likely push me to continue through the third. Although…there is a bit of a salty taste in my mouth after having read a couple of other reviews on Amazon and Goodreads where I learned that the 3rd book does not complete the series. (I shouldn’t be, because that’s how The Caeteran Tales go, but…I am.) In my case, I'm all for a good series, but I felt deceived about this one. It might have something to do with the fact that the word FULL is in the title.
What I liked about Legends of Marithia
I enjoy fantasy, and this book had all the stuff I normally love from a character and species standpoint. It met most things on my checklist, with the exception of vampires.
The blurb claims to be a mixture of Underworld (loved), GOT (salivating), and Eragon (DRAGONS! need I say more?). I will give the author this much, I can really see Underworld within his story. Heck, Kassina is the evil form of Selene in my mind. And I will give him Eragon, so much so that I almost felt like some aspects strayed too close!
Game of Thrones? I simply don’t see it!
David Swanson, the voice actor, is amazing. He handles a wide cast of characters with ease and makes them really come to life. He is the reason I’ve continued through this story.
What could use improvement
There were instances where I felt violently ripped out of the story because the writing blatantly stepped outside of the action to tell me what someone was feeling. It just didn’t come off as natural.
Too light on worldbuilding. This claimed to be an epic fantasy. As such, I have expectations that align with many of the great worldbuilders: Tolkien, Rothfuss, GRRM, you get the point. I felt like the author was too busy putting in different races (elves, demons, vampires, dragons, golems, etc.) to focus on really bringing Marithia to life. This is probably my biggest woe with the work!
Another small complaint is sex for the sake of sex. When reading with my eyeballs, I can skim this and forgive the author. While listening, I do not have this opportunity. There were times when I was driving and I flat out rolled my eyes at certain phrases. It’s so often simply not necessary.
Verdict: Worth the listen, but not sure I'd continue reading if it wasn't on audio.