3 out of 4 stars
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End of the last great Kingdom, a novel by Victor Rose is book 1 of the Brimstone Chronicles, a Crime/Mystery/ Thriller/Fantasy series. The novel is set in Sulphurium, an enchanting place with two full moons and peaceful habitation. Once I got the drift of the story, I found this book very captivating, with mythical magical creatures like elves, dwarfs, ogres, enlighten and demons interacting and coexisting with themselves and with non magical creature like humans in a tale of greed, conspiracy, conquest and war; there is never a dull moment.
The book begins with atrocities being committed to the families of two of the four children central to the story. These children’s beginning of life is very moving. The main character, Brimstone, is constantly ridiculed and bullied. What, with being a ward of a school for magi for years but unable to do any magic! At the critical moment when he either has to perform some magic to remain in the school or either leave or die, some amazing quality about him is discovered. This earns him a promotion to level one mage, lots of respect and a mentor. He then embarks on intense rigorous training. Soon he has to form a team, and he realizes the years of ridicule have not been forgotten as nobody comes to sign up for his team. Somehow he gets help making the minimum required team members. During team competitions, his team Crimson is doing a superb job of standing their own, when all hell breaks loose and a number of the competitors die.
After sham investigations, Brimstone is blackmailed into taking the blame for maliciously causing the student deaths, and is sentenced to life imprisonment without trial. Despite his friend’s attempts to prove otherwise, Brimstone is whisked away to prison. Two of team Crimson members, escape school in a bid to rescue him. What follows are exciting parallel journeys of adventure, escapades, near misses, combats, loses and victories by Brimstone and his two friends. Brimstone soon becomes legendary throughout the region. He also travels to other realms to collect parts of himself that were banished there by a curse. Finally the four team Crimson members reunite and have to travel back to their besieged school.
I enjoyed the suspense and anticipation created throughout the book. The characters were well developed and the plot nicely executed. I couldn’t help but empathize with Brimstone as he moved from one tight situation to another. At the very last moment, something always worked in his favor. What I did not like was children having to hand gruesome deaths to their enemies and be okay with it. The fact that Brimstone had to share his being/soul with demons was also a put off. There were a few grammatical errors which did not however interfere with the flow of the story.
Overall, the book is very captivating. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars and recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, thrill and suspense. Though it has lots of gore, there are many moments of humane actions and reactions.
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End of the Last Great Kingdom
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