G77 Book Review of Winter Nova by Preston Morgan
Author: Preston Morgan
ISBN: 978-0-9851918-8
Publisher: ArchMillennium
Type of book: Fantasy, faith, quests, magic, sage, different fantasy story, struggle, Light vs Darkness
Year it was published: 2012
Summary:
For over six years, the Imperial army has achieved uninterrupted success and now controls most of Gildend. Alternating between deceptive diplomacy and brute force, the crafty Empire has decimated the followers of the Light. Only the city of Greydale remains free, and the Imperial army vows to crush it within months.
In search of hope, Greydale’s Council rushes to finish rebuilding the Temple. The city sends out the Luminaires, a group of gifted soldiers, to recover the four remaining Crystals—the last pieces of the Temple which are now scattered in the wilderness. During these perilous quests, the soldiers will confront many trials and tribulations. But what will happen if they fail to recover all of the Crystals in time? And do the people really understand what would happen if the Temple is rebuilt?
Winter Nova takes readers on an exciting journey, filled with adventure, love, and revelation. Along the way, the main characters will endure many hardships, yet it is through tragedy and heartbreak that they will discover their true purpose. When the time comes, their choices will play pivotal roles in the explosive conclusion.
Characters:
The characters are all well rounded and strong. In particular this book focuses on the characters of Stefen, Arwyn, Evan and Gavin, and their trials and tribulations. To an extent the characters of Arwyn and Stefen do change throughout the book, Stefen much better than Arwyn. Stefen is best described as "Lord Grouch" who suffered the loss of his family, while Arwyn is a strong woman who seeks to find her long lost father and is one of the rare women who made it to a high command. Evan is Arwyn's paramour and he's completely devoted to the light and in making sure the missions succeed. Gavin is one of the last sages who is trying to right things before his death. There are secondary characters in there, but it will take many paragraphs to talk and describe them all.
Theme:
Anything is possible when you have faith
Plot:
This is written in third person narrative from multiple character point of view such as Stefen, Arwyn, Evan and Gavin the sage. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific character and I wasn't confused nor did I have trouble figuring out who was speaking. What I did find a bit weak was the ending. The author did a good job in having a strong beginning and middle, but towards the end I think he slightly faltered and certain things happened a little too quickly for my tastes, such as a resolution about Arwyn or the battle and the purpose of the crystals wasn't really explained sufficiently.
Author Information:
(from goodreads.com)
url
http://www.goodreads.com/prestonmorgan
born
The United States
gender
male
website
http://www.prestonmorgan.com
twitter username
PresMorgan
member since
October 2012
About the author
Preston Morgan is an emerging author with a longstanding love of fantasy fiction and history. His recent novel, Winter Nova, combines elements from these genres in addition to addressing themes of personal adversity and self-discovery. A man of simple tastes, Preston enjoys movies, sports, and good food—particularly desserts of all kinds. He is a newcomer to social media and looks forward to cyber-chatting with readers. He has lived in New York since 2002.
Opinion:
I was surprised that I enjoyed this fantasy book a lot. The characters have depth, the women aren't cut out of cardboard and they are independent and don't worry about snagging the male, for those who are feminists. Arwyn had a big role in the book and she worried far more about her missing father and of battles and fighting. Almost everything was done and written well. I can't find many things to nit pick or complain about. If I might nitpick for a little bit, the romance part and resolution and ending was a little too rushed for my tastes. I also would have liked it if the author included a map of this fantasy world. I expected for this book to be very similar to Lord of the Rings, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. Unlike in many fantasy books where everything depends only on one person or one group, this gives importance to people who stay back from the quests, either willingly or unwillingly. The story and the writing were very engaging and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. While this book contains some fantasy elements, it doesn't have multiple races like elves and dwarves and so forth.
Quick notes: I would like to thank the author for the opportunity to read and review the book.
4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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