Review by Winter Swan -- We are Voulhire: A New Arrival ...

[Rita Baadom]

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

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4 out of 4 stars

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Galen Bray, a refugee from the war-tone Island of the Prince arrives in Voulhire to inherit his dying uncle’s small fortune. His desire to do his uncle proud and to take care of the blacksmith business left to him causes him to embark on a journey with his executor-turned-friend Rowan in search of white iron that can be smelted into the beautiful white steel used by the Mianoran Knights. This single and simple journey of discovery turns into much more as that mission branches into another and another that ultimately causes the paths of the dynamic duo to cross with our ever stoic and serious-faced monk Demetrius Waters. This encounter will be known as the start of a very beautiful friendship as will be seen in the We are Voulhire Series.

Meanwhile, Lord Meldorath, the former lord of Hillport and a mage who holds tremendous power and commands magic at the twitch of an eyebrow bids his time in the dark, awaiting the moment to reannounce himself. He is waiting for the perfect time to wreak the much-anticipated terror on Voulhire.

We Are Voluhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies is the first of the nine books in the We Are Voulhire series. As the author says, this book can be likened to the first episode of a series whose job isn’t to tell a story with blood-pumping action, but it is to act as an introduction of the series. And true to the author’s words, this particular book focuses solely on establishing characters, letting the readers know their background story, and creating a sense of anticipation for the things to come.

I must praise Matthew Tysz for the wonderful job he did with this piece. The character development was nothing short of splendid. Matthew Tysz did well to pay attention to every single detail that needed to be talked about in the characters’ lives and in so doing, he expelled every question as to the background story from my mind.

As it is the usual style of Matthew Tysz, he employs two points of view – the first-person point of view and the third-person point of view – to narrate the events that happened in Voulhire in this book. Some chapters were written in some characters’ points of view while others were given a third-person narrative. I have grown to love this style of writing as it allows me to understand events and things from these characters’ perspectives. As usual, I was made privy to these characters’ fears, emotions, and feelings, a fact that endeared them to me.

The suspense in the book is real. Although the only real action is found at the beginning of the book – where Lord Meldorath made a rather gory appearance and we got a glimpse of how much power he truly has – it is peppered with little bouts of suspense-causing scenes that kept me flipping the pages. In addition to this, I must add that the read was quite interesting. Of course, I will be lying if I say that I didn’t find some parts boring or confusing. One of such is the part where Bawler made an appearance and gruesomely murdered some Voulhire guards. I didn’t quite understand the motive behind that criminal act of his. I didn’t, but I believe that more of that will be explained in the next book in the series.

My least favorite thing about the book is the fact that the pages aren’t numbered. I do not understand why authors refuse to number the pages of some of their books. Thank Zeus that my ebook-reader automatically numbers pages and this made keeping track of my progress easy. I cannot imagine how I would have managed if I got the hardcopy of this wonderful book only to find out that the pages aren’t numbered.

Oh well, apart from the single dislike mentioned above, I loved everything about We Are Voluhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies. The story told is interesting, the book is professionally edited as I didn’t see a single typographical or grammatical error, the main characters were properly developed, and the end of the book had me demanding for more. This leads me to award the book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I also recommend this interesting novel to lovers of magical fictional and fantasy. I also believe that Harry Potter fans will love this as Lord Meldorath may just be the Lord Voldemort of this series.

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We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
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[Mariana Figueira]

I agree, this book is incredible. Thanks for sharing

[Rita Baadom]

I agree, this book is incredible. Thanks for sharing

You're welcome