The Raie’ Chaelia by Melissa Douthit
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When
Chalice sets off for Branbury in the middle of the night with her grandfather's
instructions, she has no idea of the dangers that await her. The King's men
have destroyed her home village of Canton and she is suddenly thrown into a
Terravailian world that she does not know. Lost and alone, she is hard pressed
to evade the iron grasp of the madman who rules the land. With the help of a
friendly Chinuk, an old man, and a book that she discovers along the way, not
only does she find true friends and true love, but she also finds her true self
and what it means to be the Raie'Chaelia.
This was a complimentary copy given to me by the author for
an honest review. It seems I had the 1st edition so perhaps some of
my comments have been addressed in the newest version.
This book would be classified as High Fantasy which happens
to be my favorite genre. I like the world building that high fantasy offers.
Here are my thoughts:
This book is about Chalice and her journey to learn who she
really is and whom she meets on the way and what she must accomplish to save
her people. She finds out about mystical powers that she never knew she had.
She journeys with several people, one of them being Jeremiah and a little furry
creature named Bunebab. There are several mystical and spiritual messages in the
book that I really enjoyed.
I agree that high fantasy should have world building but
this book goes a little overboard. The author describes everything in minute
detail every other paragraph it seems. It downplayed the story and I found
myself putting the book down quite frequently. I like the concepts that she
brings about in the book but the end result is hard to figure out.
Honestly it took me a good while to read this book and I
found myself wanting to skip past a lot of the descriptions.
I did enjoy the parallel world references and I think they
need to be explained further in future books. I am reading Book 2 and so far I
like what I’m seeing.
As well as the extensive descriptions, the use of elaborate
wording made me struggle to figure out what was trying to be said and I had to
use the dictionary a lot which discouraged me and at times made me want to stop
reading the book due to the interruptions this caused. I don’t think it was
really necessary and think it could have been explained simply without the long
words.
Due to the above reasons, I am giving this book 3 fairies
for the story concepts and would recommend this to high fantasy readers who don’t
mind extensive descriptions and elaborate wording. It definitely wasn’t a bad
read, just a difficult read for me.
I also found that there were a lot of unfamiliar words and
had difficulty following along because of that. Perhaps a glossary of terms in
the back of the book next time would work much better and give the readers the
information they need without feeling like they are lost in a sea of confusion.
Too much description ruins a book for me. Great review.
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