Skip to main content

Iron Will by James Maxwell

Brief synopsis (no spoilers)
Kargan is the King of Ilea. Dion is King of Xanthos and the Free Men. Amos is First Consul of Phalesia, with a bunch of help from Chloe. Palemon is King of a city, but wants to rule the world, and he will do whatever needs to be done to get his people back from the Necropolis. That's a large stack of big names, all working against each other. Oh, and Eiric is King of Sindara, but his people are basically neutral.

Category
Fiction, fantasy

Why I chose this book
Next in series

My personal opinion (the review)
This was my least favorite of the series. The romance got a little too descriptive to allow my kids to read. There was still no bad language, and the rest of the story was generally clean and engaging. But that one scene... I don't recommend this one as highly as the rest.

Warnings
Language: None
Violence: Frequent fighting
"Adult" situations: One scene of passion, including description of a naked woman
Death: Yes, and of major characters

Movie rating equivalent
I'll go ahead and round this up to R

Protagonist description
Chloe is a strong magic-user. Dion is a competent king and protector of his people

Point of view of story
Third, focused on 4-5 main characters

Book length
Medium-long

Story flow
Excellent

Grammar and spelling issues
None

Character connection (no spoilers)
Several- too many to list

For series:
Independent or integral (stand-alone or back story dependent)
Integral

Series review as a whole
Now that I have read the whole series, here's what I recommend: read just the first book and stop there. It was the best, and it leaves you thirsty for more. It's a cliffhanger, so that will wear away at your soul, but get over it. Each book after the first was progressively less awesome. Speaking generally, it's a good series and probably worth some money. But I will not be buying the fourth book, and I will probably only reread the first book someday.

If you only have time for one, read: (which one)
Start at the beginning, Golden Age

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Game by Terry Schott

Brief synopsis (no spoilers) What if this life is just a simulation? What if our bodies are in another world, plugged into a virtual reality game, and our entire life is just one play in that game? What would our real life be like, if we could experience several full simulated lifespans, in our teen years, and then enter adulthood? That is the premise of this story. Category Sci-Fi Why I chose this book It was either free or discounted on Amazon, and sounded interesting My personal opinion (the review) Too many inconsistencies. For example: The real world is able to view the players in the game in "real time", but time in the game is sped up, so that a week in real life is worth a decade in the virtual world. How do real world people have enough time to experience the virtual world, in real time, while still being accelerated? Danielle enters the game 3 days behind Trew, but she only ends up being 1 year younger. If a week is a decade in the game, then 3 days should have be...

Mark of Fire by Richard Phillips

Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Two main stories: Carol, the daughter of Lord Rafel, wants to be a magic wielder. As she learns magic and grows in strength, she is unaware that she is being hunted by the greatest wielder in the world. The second story is about a ward of Rafel's, named Blade, who becomes an infamous assassin and works for the king. The king sends Blade to kill Rafel and Carol, but he warns them to flee instead. Blade wanders, to escape the king's justice, but finds himself in his own adventure. Category : Fiction, fantasy, possibly YA Why I chose this book : Kindle First My personal opinion : I really enjoyed the story line, the world the author created, and the depth of the characters. It was easy to lose myself in the story. I also really appreciate that the story is "clean" - no bad language, no sexual situations, etc. I feel comfortable recommending this to my teenage children. Warnings Language: none Violence: fairly frequent fighting "Adult...

The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

This is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series Brief synopsis (no spoilers) Artemis continues his adventures, leaning farther and farther away from the villain role, and closer to the hero role. He's quite the teenager, with all the hormones of that age. He has discovered another group of the People (demons), and they need saving. Artemis Fowl to the rescue! Category YA Fiction Why I chose this book Next in the series My personal opinion (the review) Artemis is typically flawless. His plans execute perfectly, and when they don't, coincidence saves him. This time, he fails a bit. He loses some time, his body is a little less perfect, and not all of his plans go through perfectly. I like that- it makes him more real, as a character. Warnings : Language - none Violence - mild "Adult" situations - none Death - yes, but temporary Movie rating equivalent PG Protagonist description Artemis is a genius beyond description. He tends to be prideful a...