5/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started with the main character, Boyd, riding a Humvee while fighting in Iraq. They were attacked, and most of his squad was killed. He and the other survivors entered a building to clear it out, and a grenade was thrown. The main character jumped on the grenade to save his team. Some smoky humanoid figures appeared, and Boyd tried fighting them. His attacks did nothing though, and he died. His spirit was flung into space where he met a being that gave him another chance to live.
After that, Boyd woke up in a cave with no memory of meeting with the god. Looking around the cave, he determined that the inhabitants were a threat. He heard them returning and got ready to eliminate them.
After he killed the monsters, he found civilization, and found a man who was willing to talk to him about what was going on, and train him.
Boyd got another quest. This time to kill a changeling that had been stalking the city. Boyd did some more training, and cleared out a fairy ring. He sold the loot, then started thinking about the quest he got to kill a changeling that was stalking the city.
Boyd was woken in the middle of the night by the mark on his forehead burning, and he heard a scream. He knew that the changeling was hunting and hurried to go meet it. He was slapped down by the changeling and would have died if people hadn’t come to his rescue, making him realize that he needed to strengthen and improve himself.
Boyd went in pursuit of the creature, following its trail to some abandoned mining tunnels.
When Boyd and company entered the mine, they discovered that someone had secretly reopened it and was digging.
They killed some monsters in the mine, then found a clue about the changeling. Boyd discovered that it actually wasn’t a changeling, but a type of fae.
At the end, Boyd was in an epic battle with the creature, and eventually defeated it. Then he dispensed justice to those who caused the whole mess in the first place. One of Boyd’s companions brought him a letter telling him to turn himself in.
Review
I enjoyed the similes and metaphors in the book. They were very effective when describing things.
I really enjoyed the loot system in the book. The Soul Vault. It was unique and a cool way for the character to store items and upgrade himself.
I enjoyed how the character was developed. His actions were consistent with how the author portrayed him. He was true to himself.
I enjoyed seeing the try/fail cycles in the book. The character would try something and fail, and he would then realize that he needed to improve himself in order to be successful. And example of this is when he tried to fight the changeling the first time and almost died. He knew he messed up, he knew he needed to get stronger, so he immediately started working on that. The try/fail cycles happened multiple times throughout the book. It was nice seeing Boyd have to struggle.
I did not like how focused on sex with one of the other characters Boyd was. She kept trying to entice him too. I felt like it didn’t do anything for the story. Although it was nice that Boyd restrained himself. His reasoning was that in too many films on earth, bad things happened to people who decided to screw around when there was danger near, and they ended up dead.
I liked how the book had foreshadowing, and how random encounters and information in the beginning of the book tied neatly to the ending. And editor once told me that in writing, you need to leave little bits of information, little breadcrumbs, throughout the book so that when the reader is done reading, they can look back and see how all of the little breadcrumbs led to the final moments in the book. I feel like the author did a very good job with that in this book.
I liked how the main character was portrayed as a hard, tough man, and the writing reflected that. It wasn’t overly flowery. It was short and to the point.
The leveling system in the book was a little hard to understand, but other than that, I felt like this book was well done.
Fireheart Books 