A to Z April Challenge 2013 ~ K ~ Knights The Eye of Divinity by Robert Keller

Knights: The Eye of Divinity

By: Robert Keller

Amazon Summery:

Strange and legendary Dremlock Kingdom is facing destruction from both within and beyond its stone walls in the form of goblins--creatures spawned by evil that come in all shapes and sizes--and the Deep Shadow, a hungry and spreading force of dark sorcery that infects people with madness.

To save their kingdom, the knights recruit a lonely and isolated boy named Lannon who lives in a wooded valley with his crazy father, who bears a dark illness of the soul, and his foul-tempered mother. Lannon is sought out because he possesses a rare power called the Eye of Divinity. The knights need Lannon's gift to see through the fog of evil that shrouds Dremlock Kingdom and give them the advantage they need to turn the tables on their ancient foe.

With the help of his friends, Lannon tries desperately to unlock the Eye of Divinity in time to save Dremlock Kingdom from otherwise certain doom. With the Deep Shadow creeping around the kingdom and infecting hearts and minds, Lannon isn't sure if anyone in Dremlock can even be trusted. Lannon finds himself, and his fellow squires, caught in a web of mystery and magic in a kingdom where anything can happen. 

My Review:

Knights is an all around solid book.  It does have a few hiccups, but nothing that would keep me from recommending this book.

The characters are interesting.  Using Lannon, the main character, the author gives us a chance to see some of their layers.  Unfortunately the author doesn’t go into that great detail on the characters to explain everything that was seen. However since this is the first book in the series I will assume that they mean to expand more in that area in the following books. Also while the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, they aren’t flat.  The good guys have their flaws and not all the bad guys are pure evil.

The world Keller has built is quite in depth.   The entirety of this novel takes place in Silverland and Dremlock Kingdom, but there are many more kingdoms that are mentioned. Again I would like to have found out more about them as well, but I am going to assume they will be explored more in future novels.

There is also tons of action and intrigue in the story itself.  It is a great starter series for middle grade teen readers who are interested in Fantasy because of this.  While there isn’t necessarily a fight scene on every page, the book doesn’t lag in between the action and holds the reader’s attention.  Even though I think younger readers would be interested I think older readers would be drawn into the story as well.  It has many layers and the world has some great potential.   

I only had two main issues with the book.  The first was some of the things that were hinted at, but never fully answered.  I do understand that there will be more novels in the series.  Maybe some of those things will be explained then, but I think I would have enjoyed the book more if those threads hadn’t been left untied. 

The second was that sometimes the main character seemed very weak willed. He would say he was going to be one way and then when the moment came to prove himself he would fold.  I can see were this gives the main character the space to grow in future books. I also know that I said that the characters having flaws and not being flat was what helped to make the story interesting, but, I personally found it mildly agitating.

It is solid writing overall and looks like a good start to a series. The issues I had with the book are mainly my own view of how I feel a book should go and, as I said above, nothing that would keep me from recommending the book. I plan in fact to give this book as presents in the near future so that says something right there.   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post is part of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2013.