3 out of 4 stars
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Imagine an age where everybody has magical powers! This gives rise to epic magic battles and all manner of magical creatures. This is what Kalëon by N. A. Sylla provides for its readers. This is a fantasy novel, the first in the Uroborus series. The story is written in the third person and centers on the early years in the life of Kalëon and his guardian, Silas.
Queen Romilda gives birth to a son, despite being cursed to prevent this. This infuriates Birken, the king’s brother, as he was the one who cursed the Queen. Shortly after Kalëon’s birth the King dies, leaving Queen Romilda to rule the kingdom until Kalëon is old enough to take over. Birken seizes this opportunity and stages a coup.
The opening attack of the coup was against the Wise Council at their midsummer’s day meeting. Luckily one of the 12 was absent from the meeting but the other 11 were frozen in time. Silas was the twelfth member of the council, feeling the magical disturbance caused by the attack, Silas seeks advice from one who is even wiser than he is.
Following the advice he received, Silas arrives at the palace before the coup and takes the crown prince for safe keeping. The coup succeeds in all respects, except for one, the death of Kalëon. The story skips ahead five years, during which time Silas had kept Kalëon safe and concealed. At five, Kalëon is ready for the next stage of his magical training. This inadvertently reveals his location to Birken, who immediately sets out to finish what he started in the coup. Will he succeed? What adventures will befall Kalëon and Silas? You’ll have to read the novel to find out.
The novel contains both maps and a glossary. These help tremendously as the plot is very involved. I had to read some parts twice just to understand what was happening. Although this slowed down the flow of the story, I found it invaluable to keep the story straight in my head.
This is an awesome book. Even though it has 537 pages, I was disappointed when it ended, as I wanted the story to continue. Luckily, it’s part of a series and I’m looking forward to starting the next one. It’s hard to say what I loved the most, as there is so much about this book that I found stupendous. If I were pressed, I’d say it was the massive fight scene as Silas and Kalëon flee to a neighboring kingdom on the back of a morsh’enaz, a cousin to the phoenix.
The author has created a complete world, universe really, as the setting for the story. This is very detailed, and the inclusion of a map helps the reader follow the journeys undertaken, even though with the use of portals it can be thousands of miles between steps. All the settings are well explained and can be visualised with ease. There was one exception, a tower that I’m still not sure out the internal configuration. Likewise, the characters are fully formed and three-dimensional, you can easily relate to them.
I really want to give this book a rating of 4 stars. However, I found too many grammar mistakes for that to happen, so I rate this book as 3 out of 4 stars. The mistakes don’t really affect the flow of the story, mostly they are wrong tenses and misused words. I think that anyone who loves fantasy books, magic or magical creatures would really love this book. I also think that it is a little heavy going in places so may be unsuitable someone who wants a quick, easy read.
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Kaleon
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