This post is a long time coming and I hope fellow blogger Jeremy will excuse me for that! : ) But I’m always ecstatic when any of my friends create something out of their bare hands and I always try to support them when and however I can. So, of course, I’m going to spread the word whether I’m asked to or not, and I wasn’t in this case. Of course, this is not a sponsor and I’m not getting paid in any way for this.

The book is called Eglathia, the first book written by Jeremy Noel Johnson, and it is the first of a series. It is a young adult fantasy genre about a seemingly average, basketball-toting young man named Liam who is actually not so average at all. He is transported to a troubled world where he slowly finds out things about himself and his family that he always had questions about, such as why he has trouble controlling his inexplicable anger.

I enjoyed the book a lot. I could easily relate to Liam, the main character, and I felt for some of the difficulties he faced in the story. He wasn’t perfect and was easily swayed a few times by his own emotions, but he remained humble. The story itself started up a bit slow, but picked up the pace about halfway through and the ending has a few interesting twists to them. Like most people, I really like a book that’s not so predictable and a few questions are left hanging so the reader can ponder on it. The creativity is definitely there and the only negative I would say about that is the creativity isn’t expounded on enough for my liking.

When reading books in general, and fantasy / sci fi in particular, I tend to like my books on the meatier side with lots of details and descriptions. That’s where the  bulk of the creativity lies in these type of books, as opposed to another genre like plays where the creativity is channeled into wordplay and the like within the dialogue. Eglathia, however, focuses a bit too heavily for my liking on dialogue to convey the story and all the mysteries surrounding Liam’s arrival on the new world. If you prefer meatier books with more details, then Eglathia may be a little too lean, but everyone is different. Liam’s character kept the story engaging for me, but the lean details made it a little difficult to connect with the surroundings of the new world and caused me to become somewhat frustrated with and suspicious of some of the supporting characters.

The supporting characters would repeatedly bring up little details or hint at certain things when questioned by Liam and then retract them, leaving the reader hanging, probably one too many times. Again, this does create a great build-up which I like and it is good for creating mystery, so it made me want to read more to find out what the characters were hiding. But I personally enjoy it much more when a story twists with very little warning.  It’s that more scandalous that way, if you know what I mean, and scandal sells.

That said, Eglathia is not lacking for any story twists and I found the ending to be a very satisfying ending, in that it wasn’t predictable and it left me wanting more. Towards the end of the book, I simply could not put it down and tore through the last few chapters within a couple of hours. For a first book, I think this is a great accomplishment and it takes a lot of courage to not fall into the same formulaic templates that most new authors settle for.

In summary, if you are looking for an easy read with a punch of creativity to it and an unpredictable ending, I highly recommend Eglathia. It is available on Kindle for quick and easy access. Go on, now!

{ 0 comments }