Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A thoroughly generic assembly of tired fantasy tropes played straight without a trace of irony or originality, including but not limited to: -A good kingdom endangered by an evil empire on the other side of a physical and magical barrier. -A prophesied Chosen One (complete with magic sword that needs to be lifted) whose identity is painfully obvious. -The ignorant farmboy hero who desperately wants to be special and badass (and whose value is overlooked by his dull relatives). -The "spunky" teenage princess rebelling against her authoritarian mother but loved by her understanding father. -Love at first sight between the above two characters. -The collection of super-helpful friends and unpleasant bullies in the organization the protagonist joins. -The supposedly wise magician who speaks in cryptic utterances and natters on about destiny. The appallingly cliched plot aside, the book is also poorly written. It makes far too much use of superlatives in describing things (e.g. characters being "the most beautiful person" or "the biggest man" the protagonist has ever seen), continually drops in redundant descriptions or information that could be shown rather than repeatedly told, and can't decide whether the characters are speaking Ye Olde Standarde Fantasye Englishe or Generic American Highschool-Speak. The plot happens at breakneck speed, our hero going in the space of seemingly a few days back and forth between anonymous peasant, mysterious magic-wielder, honorary-royal squire, feted hero of the day, unhappy military pariah, boyfriend to the heir to the throne, ignored Cassandra and prisoner. Finally, it doesn't seem to have a consistent target audience - the simplistic, seen-it-a-million-times plot and black-and-white characterization suggest perhaps a pre-teen audience (assuming the author has a low opinion of 10-12-year-olds' intelligence, reading ability and genre savvinesss). However, the book also has occasional vague flashes of Song of Ice and Fire-style "grittiness" which might be expected to deter paranoid parents from giving it to their precious impressionable offspring, like alcoholism, brothels and gay characters (evil ones, of course). In short: a total mess, the kind of thing that gives the fantasy genre a bad reputation. Avoid except as something to point and laugh at (this book is available for free in e-book format, presumably to promote the numerous sequels).