1 out of 4 stars
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After one thousand years of seclusion, the resurgence of demons roaming the earth means the world needs Delphine, the Ebony Warrior to return. Forced out of her seclusion, Delphine dons her custom ebony armor and picks up her greatsword once more. Under the guidance of Lagertha, the Wolf Queen, Delphine recruits Ragnar the Ranger to join her in her quest. Along the way, Ragnar rescues a young woman named Iris from a demon attack and begins to train her to become a demon hunter. Delphine, Ragnar, and Iris scour the earth to hunt the Daedric Lords to prevent them from bringing Satan back from hell. Will they be able to stop the Daedric Lords and the Black Elder Dragon, or will the world fall into ruin?
Micah Burkholder’s first novel, The End-Days War boasts an impressive four hundred and seventy-five pages of dark fantasy and demon-slaying, with a touch of romance. I suspect the author was inspired at least in part by J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, as there are several parallels in the characters and storyline. While some of the similarities are more subtle, such as shared characteristics between the rangers in each story, others are much more apparent, to the point where I recognized lines of dialogue.
While the premise behind the story is enjoyable, I think some revisions are necessary for it to show its potential. One of my biggest concerns is the repetitive phrasing used throughout the book. The repetition was difficult to ignore, with some sentences being used multiple times in a single paragraph. Parts of nearly every battle sequence were identical, which took out some of the excitement.
The number of errors throughout the book was distracting. For example, in the first three pages, there were over twenty instances of incorrect capitalization. I also found the romantic developments to be awkward and forced, and I think the story would have been stronger without them.
The abundant errors present, along with the redundant phrasing, predictable storyline, and awkward romance, merit only a one out of four-star rating. With editing to correct the errors and some adjustments to the writing to diversify the action scenes, I would gladly increase the rating. As it currently stands, I would not recommend this book to readers, even those who enjoy fantasy stories. The violence and sexual scenes make it inappropriate for younger readers. However, I would not go so far as to categorize this as "dark fantasy", as none of these scenes were very descriptive.
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The End-Days War
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