A Dark Storm Rising is an epic fantasy book published by independent publisher 3 Ravens publishing. It won an award for best novel at the imaginarium convention and is part of a series written by Michael Falciani.
I want to be as fair as I can be in this review, but as with all things I am biased because of books I really enjoy and how I write. That being said take this with a grain of salt.
The story itself was interesting and the concept hit all the marks for an epic fantasy. There is a prophetic vision, heroic main characters, mysterious backstory, and a grand quest. The world is expansive with waring kingdoms and political alliances.
The villian of the tale is evil with a desire to rule the world or at least the kingdom.
The princess of Galinese Lydia was the most compelling character with actual problems and threats to their status quo. Her kingdom was in danger her father unsafe and the oppression of being a second class citizen all added to an interesting story. Unfortunately it was barely a third of the plot.
In an arbitrary rating system I'd give the book 4 out of 10 stars or 3 out of 5.
Why so low? Overall I liked the book as an introduction for someone not use to but interested in fantasy. The characters were shallow, not obsessed with themselves, but in terms of depth they lacked anything outside of basic development. For YA fantasy thats fine. This is not a YA story however.
Kildare, Zadine, and Macklore are all to perfect. They are the absolute best at everything they do. That is my biggest pet peeve in any form of entertainment. Nothing threatens them, nothing challenges them, no obstacles can stop them. The few challenges thrown there way are overcome with ease and no time on page. This made for an unconsequencial plot.
The prophetic vision spoke of a number of days to get from point A to point B but no one was in a rush having to spend time places to get caught up on current events and wonder around. By the end the four days expired and I'm still not sure how the brothers making it to one city saved the heir in another city.
In a 600 page book I expected more put into for the main characters, instead at least a third of the book is spent with a variety of side characters that play no part in the story except to aid in the worlbuilding. Those pages would have been better suited following the characters who were central to this stories plot.
The brothers have a backstory cloaked in mystery and it is teased out pretty quick. By the fourth or fifth scene with them it isn't hard to discover their big mystery, but the author acts as if the reader hasn't figured it out through the whole book. It adds nothing to the plot by keeping it a secret.
As a last note of criticism for the story elements the random extra lines of dialog where one character or another banters on for cheap attempts at humor drew me from the story. Brotherly jokes aren't fun watching them in real life. They are less entertaining reading them in a book.
I think this book suffers from too many ideas and no one willing to stand up and give useful critiques. I will not be continuing the series but won't go as far as to tell people to avoid it.
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