Review by arshia_jagtap -- We are Voulhire: A New Arriva...

arshia_jagtap · Post by **arshia_jagtap** » 18 Aug 2020, 09:36

[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies" by Matthew Tysz.]

3 out of 4 stars

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The first instalment of the Voulhire series, We Are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies was everything I would expect out of the first book in any series. The synopsis included by the author, Matthew Tysz, said that it would be slower-paced than the rest of the books in the series since it was meant to lay the foundation for the story to follow. It was interesting to see an author almost implying that his book wouldn't be interesting and so I felt quite drawn to giving it a read.

A fantasy novel, we are introduced to Galen Bray, a young man coming into his own after escaping his war-torn home to find a new life in Voulhire - a kingdom filled to the brim with wealth, joy, and happiness. Or at least, that is what it appears to be on the surface. As the story unfolds, we see the darker secrets intricately woven into the history of the kingdom, and begin our journey of wondering how these secrets will affect its future.

It was a good thing that the author mentioned the slow pace because I went into the book with just that on my mind, but came out feeling highly satisfied with how he had told the story. As a foundation, this first book was excellent. It struck the right balance between giving information about the world itself and getting us invested in the characters' journeys. The world-building was beautiful (my favourite part of the book). I could clearly picture everything the author was describing, and I felt the same awe that Galen felt as he went around discovering more of this new world he had become a part of.

Coming to the parts I didn't enjoy, the one main element that put me off was the inconsistency. The book was inconsistent in many ways. Firstly, with the time period. The beginning of the story and the general theme (political systems, speech, titles for people, clothes, architecture) lead me to believe that the story was set in the past. But there were several times throughout the book that a simple sentence would whip me out of that narrative and place me in a time that felt very "present-day-ish" and it wasn't the most pleasant.

Second, the story kept shifting narratives between Galen and a bunch of other characters, and while that was easy to deal with, what wasn't was the shift in the perspective as well. It kept shifting from first-person to third-person, and the changes were a little jarring and took time to get used to.

Apart from those slight problems, the writing itself was very engaging and there were times when I was absolutely hooked to the story. The editing was good for the most part, apart from a couple of spelling mistakes and subtle grammatical issues that, instead of being evident, made me want to reread the sentence to see if it sounded right.

I would rate We Are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies 3 out of 4 stars . I think it really is a good read, and I am genuinely looking forward to reading the next book in the series. The only things keeping me from giving it 4 stars are the editing issues sprinkled here and there, as well as my issue with the inconsistency.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys some good world-building action or the fantasy genre in general.

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We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
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