3 out of 4 stars
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Mandren and Irien is a fantasy novel and the first in a series by Paul Hoisington. This sweeping saga incorporates hope, the testing of morals, standing up for the underdog, revenge, and ultimately: betrayal.
A farm at the foothills of Mount Arkejann is under attack by Wild Kridos; creatures who live to kill and consume their victims. Just before the family residing on the farm is attacked, a mage and warrior named Darius enters the valley from a terrible battle where his army were slaughtered by Kridos, and helps them to escape. Darius was once of the Realm of the Conquerors; an army that succumbed to evil beliefs and torturous methods. Now he wishes to join the rebellion and unite the rebel factions into one great onslaught to obliterate the Realm. Faced with the unenviable task of uniting centaur foes to join the rebellion, Darius must prove that his alliance now lies with the rebellion and that he is willing to lay down his life for his new friends; some of whom include human-size hawks and lizards. What awaits Darius and his trusty comrades might prove too much: portals into other worlds, a demon called Vitho who is immune to magic, Shadow Hounds, and the return of someone he once considered a friend, now out to kill him. Can Darius unite age-old enemies to create a common ally or will ancient feuds and rivalry prove too much for the mage?
I enjoyed the saga-like quality to the story. The worlds' and characters' physical qualities are well described and many battles allow you to easily envisage the action. I liked the fact that the author used facts of nature when it came to the animal characters; for instance when a hawk lost a pinion feather he was unable to carry on flying. Sometimes a humanlike animal character can test believability but small things like that help the reader to believe the character's role in the story.
A couple of things struck me as slightly odd about the novel, however. The tone of the writing is exceptionally formal and the majority of the characters are incredibly polite to each other. It becomes difficult at times to feel part of the action when the formality supersedes what you would perceive to happen in a real life battle. Some of the hawk-like beings have speech which has an "olde worlde" feel to it, and mixed in with the "krr" that crops up in their dialogue makes them sound like pirates, which is rather awkward to read. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters as many of their actions seem to test even literary belief. Darius (who is incongruous as a hero traitor) walks away from an army of thousands being killed and mourns only one man, Siria (who is nineteen) packs up her entire life to join Darius and a host of characters (who are not all human) to find others to join the rebellion and Garien (the head of the household on the farm), just moves his whole family on Darius's say so, apparently unperturbed that they will be moving through different worlds, are just some of the anomalies that stuck out. The editing and spelling mistakes became progressively worse towards the end of the book which was annoying, considering the longer than average length of the book.
While I enjoyed the story I didn't love it, as the formality was not comfortable to read. It's difficult to critique a book when nothing really stands out as great or terrible and it just feels as though it was middle of the road. Even though there is a slight twist at the end, I don't really have any interest in finding out where it's headed. Due to my ambivalence I rate the book 3 out of 4 stars and recommend it for young adults and up.
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Portal: Mandren and Irien
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