Not a bad story, but this edition really needs some tighter editing. ( )

Lots of twists

This book doesn't let you take anything for granted. Every time you think you understand something, another twist happens that sets your mind reeling. I'm glad I found this book. ( )

Blades of Magic is a young adult fantasy. I usually avoid young adult reads, but I picked this one up for free from Amazon and deiced to give it a go.

I was soon drawn into a world full of unexpected things, a variety of different magics, and a young character who has a backbone, a sense of honor, and strength. The writing was easy and fluid allowing me to get immersed in the story. The world is vast and we only get a taste. Their are hints of a complex political situation which created a civil war and more going on under the scene between different factions. It’s exciting, adventurous, and fast paced.

I try to avoid young adults aka teenagers; because their always seems to be a lot of drama with them. They come off selfish and immature. That was not the case here with Sara the daughter of a disgraced imperial commander. She is well developed, approachable, and likable. Her methods may not always be agreeable, but she was trained to think in a certain way. We see that the world is against her all because of what happened with her father and so she has learned to keep everyone except her mother at a distances, yet Ezekiel kinda sneaks under her defenses. I liked Ezekiel he balances Sara out. They make a nice team. It was nice to see Sara’s hard mask crack at times showing that she is a person after all and I admire her willpower.

I will say the book ends quickly and I wish their was more. The ending felt like ending in the middle of a story or chapter. That is my only issue with Blades of Magic. Other then that I throughly enjoyed the first installment in the Crown Service series and plan on continuing, just to find out what happens next.

Blades of Magic is a light, easy read with a young heroine who is tough and strong in a world that is almost entirely agains her.

Rated: 3.5 Stars

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Review Originally Posted At: FictionForesight

Review:

Blades of Magic was a book with so much potential…but ended up being a disappointment. Set in the fantasy world of the Algardis Empire, the daughter of a disgraced military leader tries to find out what happened to her father who was executed on the battlefield for a mysterious act of treason. The more the protagonist, Sara, finds out, the more dangerous and mysterious her life becomes.

The Good:

The best thing about this book was the magic! Each type of magic was well-developed and so diverse that you never knew what to expect from a mage battle, but you knew it would be good. The only other good element of the story is that the main character was relatable and easy to like.

The Bad:

Where to begin? Well first and foremost the story had absolutely no resolution! I have reviewed books before like Cold Burn of Magic, that had some resolution, but this book had none. In fact the story seems to end at the beginning of the rising action. This book felt like a 244 page teaser trailer that left you wanting so much more. If this book did not already have a sequel for it, as a reader, I would be really pissed! Nope, scratch that, still upset!

The other thing that I did not like about this book was Sara’s only friend. This guy drove me up a wall! I wanted to like him so much, but one minute he was a clumsy, ignorant, coward, and the next he was skilled, wise, and brave. Now this would not normally bother me if this change happened over time as a result of personal growth. But this was not the case. He did not learn from his experiences and become better as a result. Instead, he would frequently alternate between these two completely polar opposite personalities.

Oh and one other point. When you are under fire in the middle of the battlefield…YOU DON’T STOP TO HAVE A Q&A SESSION! Once I could forgive, but this was a common occurrence.

Overall:

Honestly if not for the main character and the magic, I would have given Blades of Magic one star. This book had the potential to be great…but the elements that I loved so much, just could not carry the bad – i.e. the rest of this book. I wish that I had been reading a first draft, that way I could have sent it back to Terah Edun and had her fix it. I just can’t get over what this book could should have been! I don’t think I could recommend this book to anyone, except as a demonstration of a literary letdown, and an awesome magic system. ( )

My original Blades of Magic audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Blades of Magic by Terah Edun is the first in a series called Crown Service. Sara is a Fairchild. Her father was a well-known family of battle mages. These are mages with the power to strengthen themselves to improve their abilities. Sara’s father was executed as a traitor and she’s determined to find out why. In the meantime, her family’s standing in the community has fallen and her friends have deserted her. To put food on the table she has to take up a job as a guard for artifacts collected by a dangerous criminal. While on the job, she meets Ezekiel, the artifact curator, and they band together as they attempt to figure out the mystery of why Sara’s father was executed.

This novel was seemingly written in the style of an epic with the main character being invincible and on a quest. However, overall, I felt that the book had a lot of potential that it didn’t live up to. The plot was interesting and there was enough conflict and mystery to drive it forward. Even the broad actions of the characters made sense and were interesting and fun to follow. However, I felt that the world building was lacking. It was hard to get a sense of the characters surroundings and when Sara said certain words like ‘wench’ periodically, it felt out of place most of the time. Sara’s complete disregard for and even relish in killing people with no remorse was difficult to understand and personally off-putting as a young adult novel. Sara also seemed to have no weakness that she admitted to and so she didn’t develop as the novel progressed. The novel ends in a rather abrupt cliff-hanger and there was no closure.

Unfortunately, I felt that the narration by Sylvia Roldn Dohi made the novel worse for me. The voice of Sara was probably supposed to be abrasive, but it came off as pout-y to me and that made me dislike the character even more. The other characters were narrated fine. The production quality was good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes young adult fiction filled with adventure, violence, and a plot centered on a quest.

Audiobook provided for review by the author. ( )