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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.75/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
THE ECHOES OF FATE, A PROPHECY UTTERED UNTO THE WORLD A THOUSAND YEARS AGO, CANNOT BE DENIED…
Mankind has lorded over the land of Illian for a thousand years, building on the ruins left by the elves, as if it were their birthright. A thousand years is a long time for an immortal race to see the truth of things, a truth that has remained unsaid for a millennium – elves are superior. They are faster, stronger and connected to the magical realm in a way that man could never grasp. Illian should belong to them.
Unaware of the shadow that looms in the east, the six kingdoms of man are fractured, unallied, and clawing at each other’s gates for more power.
This isn’t just war set to ravage the land, but a slaughter – the world of man cannot hope to survive.
Thrown into the heart of this war is a man known by many names; an Outlander of the wilds, an assassin, a ranger. Asher was born a thousand years ago, to a life he doesn’t remember. Forty years of brutal training and killing for money has beaten the earliest years of his life away, leaving his ties to the oldest of evils a mystery to all…
MY REVIEW
Rise of the Ranger has been sitting on my TBR for a while, I had planned to read it last year but wasn’t able to get to it, so I made it my mission to read it this year! Wow, what can I say about this other than that I have been missing out on some excellent writing and an amazingly well thought out story, I saved so many good lines from this story that just resonated with me on another level. The pacing of the story was nice as it had its well timed moments of slow down while it had several moments of intense nail-biting action. The story was all over the world of Verda with its 8 POV’s, as it takes you through the jungle, a magic academy, and many other places. It also has some unique characters and creatures like gorgons, hydras, imps, child eating mermen and of course DRAGONS!
With that said, if you’re a fan of The Bound and the Broken by Ryan Cahill, then this is right up your alley. It’s got that same Tolkien-like lore of classic adventure fantasy but told in a new age way that makes it that much more exciting and easy to read. This is gonna sound a bit weird with how I’m going to describe this, but while reading this I had a few things come to mind of what this reminds me of. It’s Skyrim with a blend of Star Wars and Batman. Yes, you read that right. No there aren’t “laser swords” and no caped crusader, but the characters and a few of the orders have a very distinct feel to them. There’s a sith, Ra’s al Ghul’s league of assassins like feel to several characters but also a little Jedi/Bruce Wayne, not to mention a little daredevil action as well. I couldn’t shake these feelings and they only grew as the story went on, and it made me invest even more into the story, whether it’s right or wrong.
“It shocked him to find that he didn’t fear death, but instead feared the unremarkable life he left behind him. With no children to take pride in and no great love to mourn him, the ranger would leave nothing but a trail of bodies to speak for his life.”
With a book sitting at 554 pages and having 8 POV’s, you’d think you might have an issue connecting with any of the characters, but you’d be incredibly mistaken. Asher is easily the favorite, mainly because he’s the main character of the eight pov’s. There is a lot about him that I just really liked and the more the story unfolded, the more intrigued I was by him. One that kept growing on me the most though was Gideon, I wasn’t too sure about him at first, but as his story went on, I just couldn’t help but look forward to seeing him again. The others I liked, but those two really stood out to me the most, though I do sense another one will be growing more on me as well with how this story tragically ended. On top of the protagonists of the story, the antagonist stays a bit mysterious throughout, but Quaintrell did such a good job of really making me not like the guy that I can’t wait to see his demise.
The only part that really threw me off my game while reading this was the whispersync version of this. The narration by Steven Brand, who also does every Anthony Ryan novel did a phenomenal job. The issue comes at part 3 of the story, which is around the 60% mark. The whispersync gets off somehow and doesn’t keep up with the audio so it’s basically highlighting a page behind where the audio is, so I had to switch to audio only at that point. I’m told by the author that they’ve tried to fix the issue before to no avail, and the issue is not in the other books. So at least on this one, I would recommend doing the audio only or reading it… or do I like I did and do whispersync up until it does this and switch to audio. I’m not taking away on my grade because of post production issues on the audio, because it didn’t hurt anything and I was still able to stay engaged.
Wolfmantula.com 