It should first be noted that I am emphatically not the target audience, being neither young, nor some would argue, particularly adult. That being said, this is an action packed saga full of never-fully-rendered characters (who blend together confusingly) and none of whom I found particularly sympathetic or agreeable. The book is absolutely *full* of the sort of draaaaaaaaaamaaaaa which I generally avoid wherever possible, and I spent most of the read wanting to bang their heads together, and shaking my own. The writing is competent, but full of the sort of stream of consciousness info dumping which makes books more difficult to read and parse in my experience. There are infinitives split thither and yon along with sentence fragments aplenty. I stopped making notes around page 30 because there were simply too many. The book really does have good bones underneath. The author seems to have a real story to tell, but the narrative needs a ruthless editor (or three). I normally have no trouble with multiple PoV narratives, but with this one I didn't sense any change in style or any demarcation, making the whole quite confusing. (It's also in 3rd person omniscient, which is a strange choice for an multi-PoV book and which never felt like a good fit for the story). There are no chapter-length chapters, just huge rolling sections which go on for what seemed like forever.
I did finish the first volume, and I do love cross realm fantasy and epic fantasy (probably my favorite genre). It was an uphill slog. My epic battle was finishing the book. I do not find myself motivated to seek out the second or (upcoming) third book. For fans of the author, or of young adult drama filled fantasy, it could be a good fit.
Two and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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