The Eye of Divinity by Robert E. Keller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Knights: The Eye of Divinity by Robert E. Keller is a fantasy novel that follows the story of Lannon Sunshield, a young boy from a poor home, who is taken on as a squire by the knights of Dremlock in a time of trouble.
The Cover: This book comes with a typical fantasy cover that is well suited to the genre. It is not a spectacular cover, but the artwork is professional and conveys the type of story between the pages. It would sit comfortably on the shelves of any bookstore alongside other fantasy novels.
The Good Stuff: I enjoyed this book. The characters are likeable and have their own individual personalities. The dialogue is done well, it seems natural and lends towards building the characters individuality. The world is believable for a fantasy world. And there’s magic, fantasy creatures, magical weapons and an array of character classes you would expect to see in a fantasy novel. The story runs smoothly enough and Mr Keller has provided a fun, creative read.
The Bad Stuff: I had some issues with the authors writing. Firstly, there are comments in parenthesis sporadically throughout the book, which pulled me out of the story. I feel there was no need for the parenthesis and in some cases, the comments. The majority of the story is told to us, I would much have preferred to have been absorbed in the story through more showing. There are big information dumps. I like it when the description is fed seamlessly into the story so that you don’t even notice it, but in this book you have to pause the story each time a new character or location is introduced while you read through lines of description. There is also a problem with the Goblin Lords in my opinion. Maybe I just didn’t get it, but the reasoning for their ‘invincibility’ doesn’t make sense to me at all. If they are what we learn them to be, they would not be a harm to anyone and the knights would not waste any time on them. Another thing that disappointed me was the lack of female characters. There are squire trials and mention of female dorms, yet we hardly see any female students at all. There are a couple of female characters, but they always seem to lurk in the shadow of their male counterparts and are never really given the opportunity to shine.
Overall, despite the issues I had with the writing, this is an enjoyable fantasy novel with a solid story that the author has put a lot of thought into. On that basis, I’m giving it a goblin crushing 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks.
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Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.
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