BOOK TITLE: Shardfall
ISBN: 9789491730030
AUTHOR: Paul E. Horsman
GENRE: Fiction - Fantasy
NUMBER OF PAGES: 142
FORMAT: Digital (PDF)
SERIES / STANDALONE: Shardheld Series #1
REVIEW BY: Shree Janani
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The writer contacted us via mail and mailed his book for a review
REVIEW:
The story beings with a “lighting ball” falling over a sacred mountains. The holder of Eidungruve (analogous to a chief of that particular village) sends his son,Kjelle along with his slave, Muus to investigate that peculiar occurrence.
When the salve, Muus touches the “lighting ball” stone, the stone bonds with him and he is essentially freed from being a slave. When Kjelle grabs the stone from muus,an avalanche occurs causing the mountains to collapse and blocks the search party's return path forcing them to use tunnels and what not to find their way back to their village.
On the way back they meet asgisla, a female magician who tries to find out who really Muus and why the gods choose him to be the shardheld (The holder of that “lighting ball” stone). In an unfortunate turn of events Asgisla is murdered and Muus along with Asgisla's disciple Birthe and Kjelle escape from the murders.
They finally find their way to the village of Eidungruve only to find it massacred and the holder dead. What follows is the story of a Jarl trying to overthrow his king and muus getting entangled in the mess thanks to the fact that he is a Shardheld.
I have no qualms with the plot as such. It's a good book with a great story line. The writer has managed to keep the plot alive by throwing in adequate suspense elements.The emotions are beautifully portrayed. Especially when Kjelle treats Muus badly.
One thing I found slightly annoying was the lack of proper introduction of characters. Such narration tends to confuse the reader. It took me a while to understand who is who. Also given that the names are offbeat (Read not English, probably Dutch as the writer is dutch!),it makes things even worse.
The book is set in Viking era. Not many are aware of that history (Implies I don't know a thing about Dutch history or Viking era).Thought the writer has given a glossary of all those “technical viking terms”, it doesn't help much because I still don't really know who or what a Nord is (Yes. He missed out what that means! Rest is pretty much covered).
Overall, the book needs a bit more of polishing!
VERDICT: A great story line that could have been narrated better. Pick it up if you can manage being slighlty hazed at times.
RATING: 3.5/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Paul E. Horsman is a Dutch and international fantasy author, Born in Bussum, a quiet little town in the Netherlands (1952). After finishing school and doing a stint in the army in tropical Surinam, he served for thirty years as a Scoutmaster. In his spare time, he earned his bread in various business capacities.From 1995 to 2012 he was an instructor at a large educational institution - where he explained to foreigners the wonders of the Dutch language and customs - until Governmental budget cuts terminated the school. Since then he is a full-time fantasy author.His first books have been traditionally published in The Netherlands by Zilverspoor Publishers: Rhidauna (2012), Zihaen (2013), Ordelanden (Summer 2013). Now he is determined to bring his stories to other parts of the world.In June 2013 his first international book appeared: Shardfall, Book 1 of The Shardheld Saga.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback, Digital
PRICE: $8.99
BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/Shardfall-The-Shardheld-Saga-Volume/dp/9491730037
Note : This review was first posted in Readers' Muse
Note : This review was first posted in Readers' Muse
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