3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Sovereign's Pairing by E.L. Glenn is a fantasy novel stretching across multiple universes, or the “multi-verse.” Retired army officer Lance Corpral has seen plenty of war. He fought in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. At ninety-seven, most people would expect him to be nearly on his deathbed, but instead he is still healthy and fit due to his ‘ability.’ He never suspected other universes existed, let alone that he might be a key element to the fate of them all.
Mariah comes from the nexus universe, the central universe from which all the others derive. She is aware of the other universes and has been searching the prophecies for years, looking for clues to help them find the ‘Sovereign,’ a figure that will wield the ‘Crystal Sword’ and confront the ‘Antithesis’ to determine the fate of the multi-verse. When she stumbles upon the key prophecy that provides the answer to their questions, she also discovers that she is to be the Sovereign's ‘Pairing’ and must bring the Sovereign back to the nexus universe to fulfill his destiny.
Many traditional fantasy elements, such as wizards, elves, dwarves and dragons, exist in Sovereign's Pairing, but Glenn uses them in a somewhat unique manner by using them to help explain angels, demons and alien encounters. The fantasy races are moderately stereotypical, but I get the impression that Glenn does this to make his world seem more plausible and not out of laziness or from lack of creativity.
I really appreciated how Glenn wove his story together from beginning to end. By the end of the story, I felt that all of the loose ends had been neatly captured. Plot holes were plugged and characters developed through their adventures. I really felt like I understood Lance and Mariah well by the end of the story. Even the secondary and minor characters of the story had enough motivation exposed that I could understand why they made their choices and have at least some sympathy for them. Glenn took to heart the writer's mantra, “show, don’t tell.” He used plenty of dialog between characters to explain his world and kept the action going through the novel.
Even though this is a fantasy novel about a battle between good and evil, there is surprisingly little violence detailed. The battles are described with very little blood or gore. There are some sex scenes in the book, though they are not raunchy or gratuitous. Readers that have issues with religious undertones may wish to consider that there is a ‘Maker’ element and much of the battle between good and evil stems from this entity. While the religious elements do not proselytize, they do influence much of what happens in the story.
The biggest issue with this novel was the technical editing. Punctuation marks, particularly commas, ran amok throughout and need to be corralled. Questions frequently ended with periods instead of question marks. Homonyms also seemed to be an issue, and I found several instances where the wrong one was chosen. Some formatting changes would be beneficial to help readers understand when a scene changes or when a character is thinking something instead of saying it. I would also have liked to see the special terms, such as ‘Sovereign’ and ‘ability’ indicated with something other than the single quotes.
Overall, I really enjoyed Sovereign's Pairing and would give it 3 out of 4 stars. I appreciated how well Glenn developed the plot and characters and I found myself eager to turn each page. With a solid grammar edit, this book could have easily been four stars.
******
Sovereign's Pairing
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Like Kendra M Parker's review? Post a comment saying so!
