From A Far Land By G. David Walker | Book Review

Hey Guys! I am Max and I will be manufacturing a book review for a novel christened “From A Far Land” by G. David Walker today. From A Far Land is the first book in the Jaben’s Rift trilogy and I would like to take this section of the article to thank the author for sending this novel to me for review. So, without further ado, let us get into the review section of this article!

Disclaimers:

All thoughts and opinions are solely my own,
The review for this book is spoiler-proof. So, feel free to stay until the very end of this article!

Synopsis:

Jason Bennett never intended to change the world, his own or anyone else’s. But when an ordinary family vacation sends the teenager to Teleria, an extraordinary world of might and magic, his arrival sets the wheels in motion on events that will change that world forever.

In Teleria, Jason is thought to be Jaben, a paradoxical figure from ancient prophecy destined to save or doom the world. Through half-truths and misunderstandings, Jason gets caught in a dangerous tug of war between the ruling Circle of Nine and one of his own ancestors from three hundred years in his past. Adding to his dilemma, he finds himself at the centre of a conflict between two of the Altered, a small group of godlike beings, one of whom is secretly aiding Jason’s ancestor, violating a Covenant that has kept Teleria safe from their influence for over a millennium.

Unable to return home, Jason must learn to use the power he isn’t convinced he has, keep from triggering a war between the Altered that could devastate the planet, and survive the plans of some among the Circle who believe the prophecy calls for his death.

Not quite the summer vacation he had in mind.

My Introspection:

While I was reading this novel, the mutated human beings bore some semblance of another series from my childhood called “Beast Quests” which I did not particularly enjoy. I was reminded of that series because of how the mutated human beings are described in the novel. For Example, “The Manarach Species are human/spider hybrids, with human torsos, arms, and heads on hairy, pony-sized spider bodies.” (From the appendix of the novel). I thought the mutants were not entirely original, however, I truly enjoyed the addition of these species or races in the novel as it gives the novel a little flavour by sprinkling around different types of species with different cultures and behaviours.

The pacing of this novel is tremulous and it dangles on a precarious thread of going too fast and going too slow. The beginning of the novel has a consecutive progression in terms of pacing and I thought it was flawless but when the protagonist reaches Teleria through an antiquated portal, I could not help but notice a radical transformation in the pacing as it begins to slow down and the pacing crawls when the novel reaches the war scenes which I will comment on later in the review. It picks up its speed again when [something] happens and crawls again when the war scenes occur. Thus, I did not enjoy the pacing of this novel.

I did not derive satisfaction from the war sequences in this novel. I thought the sequences did not have the right balance of atmosphere and the writing style in this section feels like a chunk of words bundled up in a knot. I thought that these segments of the novel could have been better if the politics that have played a role before these sequences have a wider and more complex structure to its core as I was not particularly intrigued by the politics instituted in this book.

The characters in this novel are charming and each of them outshines one another. I thought the protagonist and Lenai have the best character growth throughout the novel as they have more page time. There are a couple of characters in this book that I wish did not exist as they are not really essential to the plotline but it is pleasant to see how they view the war and the politics in this novel. I particularly enjoyed the dialogues between the characters because the author did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of youth and the banters between them are hilarious. Heck, even the thoughts that they have are witty. Thus, I really enjoyed the characters and the amazing dialogues that the author has established in this novel.

Next, we are going to converse on the world-building and the atmosphere formulated in this novel. I thought the world-building was not described as vivid as it should be because I still find myself questioning some objects or histories of the world. For example, why did the humans mutate differently when they were exposed to the same radiation or whatever that blast of energy was? In addition, the atmosphere in this novel is mercurial at segments such as the war sequences but other than that I thought it was well-situated, for example, when the characters are bantering or conversing, the atmosphere is either blithesome or iniquitous and I thought the author did a great job on setting the mood.

The plot twists that are bestrewed throughout the novel are predictable as they are revealed a little too early in the novel. However, I thought the ending of the novel was phenomenal.

In conclusion, I am proferring this novel with a verdict of 50%. I thought this Young Adult Fantasy novel was moderate at best as it does not have anything remarkable to it. However, I recommend you to pick this book up if you are in a mood for a Fantasy novel that contains charming characters with great dialogues.

This is the end of my spoiler-free review for From A Far Land By G. David Walker! I hope you all enjoyed it and follow me with your email/Wordpress account to get notifications when I post a new article! Bye!