3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
End of the Last Great Kingdom is a fantasy novel set in Sulphurium, a realm full of creatures like orcs, trolls, elves, and dwarves. In this kingdom, we follow the adventures of Leaf, a young boy trying to earn the respected title of ‘Mage’ by proving he possesses some magical ability. He has enough to worry about with graduating from school when he is involuntarily dragged into the politics of the world he inhabits. This eventually takes him on a journey of self-exploration and a quest to discover more about his powers, identity, and legacy.
The author also gives a brief history of the kingdom and the different groups and individuals who have been in power and ruled the kingdom over the past thousands of years. This is at the very beginning of the book and gives us context about this completely new world. The story is essentially a coming-of-age story. It explores themes of friendship and loyalty. The main characters are children and they show remarkable development over the course of the book. The primary character is likable and I did end up rooting for him.
The book is a real page-turner. I finished the book in two days and I am looking forward to reading the sequels. The book ends on an interesting cliffhanger which did seem a bit abrupt. However, this is because I got so engrossed in the book, I didn’t realize it was nearing the end. It left me immediately looking up the sequels online to check if they have been released.
I will definitely recommend this book to someone who likes the fantasy genre. It did have some resemblances to the Harry Potter series because of the magic school with a close group of friends who learn and grow during their adventures. In spite of that, I wouldn’t classify this as a children’s book. It does have its fair share of violence but is not very graphic.
The only thing about the book that I didn’t like was that the book is clearly set in a fictional world filled with magic and no modern technology, and yet, the characters all speak like they live in twenty-first century America with the slang of teenagers today. This almost feels like an anachronism to me.
Overall, I would give this book 3 out of 4 stars, taking one star off for the point mentioned above and some basic spelling errors I found while reading.
******
End of the Last Great Kingdom
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like prenaramesh's review? Post a comment saying so!
