Jhonate’s reprieve from her father has been cut short. She is forced to return home to Malaroo, bringing Justan along with her. The journey she has avoided for so long has become all the more difficult because someone wants Justan dead.
The rogue horse Esmine, a mythical beast of remarkable power, has been captured by a troupe of dwarf smugglers. They are taking her to the nation Alberri where a gnome scholar awaits with a vicious plan to sacrifice the beast and bind its powerful soul to make a weapon of mass destruction. Tarah Woodblade must gather a group of warriors and rescue Esmine before she is taken to Alberri.
Evil stirs. Darkness is building. But can anyone trust Xedrion, The Protector of the Grove?
So I said in my review of the previous books in this series that I would willingly ignore the many little faults... then they are in the middle of a raging battle and what do our protagonist do? Stand there, as if she has all the time in the world wondering whether to kill the unconscious enemy at her feet or not, while her friends are dying and being beaten up all around her. Annoying to say the least... WTF! It makes me wanna smack Tarah upside the head for being too stupid to live (TSTL)! Sometimes being an avid fan does not preclude blindness, even if done so willfully...
Now Fist is my favouritest character. And there is someone who is notTSTL, thank god! That shows us that the character development is really not that bad. It's just certain characters that is annoying. But do they have to be one of the protagonists??!
When I said that this series is like Robert Jordan's never-ending series, The Wheel Of Time, where the author died before the ending was ever written, it was not quite true. Sure, The Bowl Of Souls is likely to go on and on and on forever, but the author does end a story arc after about five books and begins another. So there is ending in sight. Aha! Kudos for endings!
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5
Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats.
He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee.
His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer.
The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years.
Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
The war is over, but there is a void of power that must be filled and no shortage of souls eager to fill it.
Tarah Woodblade was the best guide and tracker in the land, but she ran away from the war. She returns to Dremaldria expecting to be labeled a coward, but finds herself lauded as a hero. It seems a hero is needed too, because someone is hunting rogue horses . . .
Here we are introduced to a totally new character (Tarah Woodblade) that this book seemed like a tangent series to The Bowl Of Souls, which of course it can be viewed as such, but it is at the same time a continuation of the old one, which to me is great! So new character and all,... reading this book was kind of anti-climactic after the big war in book 5, Mother Of The Moonrat. However, these books are also sequential so I have to read this book if I want to read the rest of the books in the world of Sir Edge. The other reason I wanted to read this book is that I was hoping to know what happened to Talon but there was no mention of her whatsoever in this book. (Bummer!) Fist however is still my favourite character. Of course by now I am a big fan of Edge's world and quite forgiving of it's many little faults. In fact, I don't see them anymore... faults? what faults?...
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5
Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats.
He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee.
His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer.
The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years.
Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
Justan's dream of entering the Dremaldrian Battle Academy has been put on hold. His burgeoning magic powers have been deemed too dangerous to go untrained and he has been sentenced to two years at the Mage School. How is he supposed to fit in amongst the mages and wizards, a physically weak group of people he has never identified with? Can he learn how to control his new powers without losing his identity as a warrior? Can he stick to his plans while the mother of the moonrats tries to destroy the school from within?
Fist, the ogre who was estranged from his own people, has now found a home next to a friendly human settlement while Deathclaw, the raptoid who was changed into humanoid form, has left his homeland in search of his destiny. They escaped the wizard Ewzad Vriil's grasp before, but his secret army grows as does his influence in the kingdom. What will they do upon coming face-to-face with The Messenger of the Dark Prophet once again?
Ewzad Vriil’s keep has fallen and Justan has been reunited with his friends. But the kingdom remains in turmoil. The mother of the moonrats still builds the Dark Prophet’s army of monsters in the mountains and the Battle Academy’s forces are weakened.
Justan’s bonds with Fist and Gwyrtha have made him stronger and faster, but the more he learns about his powers, the more questions he has. He seeks out the bonding wizard Master Coal, hoping that the man can teach him what he needs to know about his magic before he hurts his bonded and himself.
Deathclaw has freed Talon from Ewzad Vriil’s power only to find that she is no longer the sister he used to know. Meanwhile, a new creature is born; a beast designed to hunt dragons. Will they survive the Hunt of the Bandham?
The Battle Academy has been besieged by an army of goblinoids under the control of the mother of the moonrats. They bide their time, keeping the academy out of the fight while Ewzad Vriil prepares to unleash a force of mutated monsters.
Jhonate and Faldon the Fierce have begun to unravel the mystery of the mother of the moonrat's identity, while Justan and Master Coal have learned the secret of Ewzad Vriil’s powers. Both groups scramble to find a way to help the academy, but neither of them knows the full extent of the forces they are up against.
Will they be able to gather the strength they need to win The War of Stardeon?
The Battle Academy and Mage School forces have joined, but they are outnumbered by Ewzad Vriil’s army of mutated men and Mellinda’s forest of monsters.
There are spies on both sides, assassins on the hunt, secrets to be revealed, and Justan’s magic will be unleashed. But there is one thing they haven’t considered. Even if they can somehow overcome Ewzad Vriil, will they be able to destroy The Mother of the Moonrats?
And of course, I have my favourite character, the ogre. No, his name is not Shrek, it's Fist.
At this point this series is beginning to look like Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time series, as in, there is no end in sight. Having said that, the Messenger Of The Dark Prophet seems to have the best ending in all of the books in this series thus far. At least it ended on a positive note, well, until Book 5, that is. Mother Of The Moonrats ended the first 5 books' story arc. My advise would be not to start reading this series until you have all 5 books because you would want to dive into the next book as soon as you hit the cliffhanger ending.
I was looking for an epic fantasy read, I was glad that I stumbled onto this one.
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5
Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats.
He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee.
His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer.
The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years.
Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
