Review by K_Young -- We are Voulhire: A New Arrival unde...
Posted: 29 Nov 2020, 15:49
[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies" by Matthew Tysz.]
We are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies by Mattew Tysz follows the lives of many who live in the nation of Voulhire. It follows the experience of young man, Galen, who has spent his whole life on a war torn island, but moves to the mainland after the death of his uncle. It also follows the experiences of the King of Voulhire and Lord Eldus of Hillport, as well as a few other characters, and the problems that arise in the nation that mixes magic and reality.
The first thing that struck me while reading this book is how complex and well thought out the world in which the story takes place is. I found the map at the beginning and the reference guide at the end to be especially helpful when it came to understanding the world and its inhabitants, although it wasn’t super accessible in an eBook format. The incorporation of the concept of a magical world that runs alongside reality was fascinating, and the way the two worlds blend together for many in this story kept me reading. There are also lines that take a unique approach to the nature of humanity regardless of the world they’re in. The attention to detail when describing both the world and the characters adds to the clarity with which I was able to perceive a world that was completely new to me. I also liked the exposition of the world provided as the story went on rather than including all of it right at the beginning as this made the reading experience much more fluid and enjoyable as things were being revealed in smaller amounts.
One thing that I didn’t like as much was the amount of characters which have chapters in their perspective. This made it difficult to connect completely with each of the characters, and at times made the story a bit hard to follow. However, I was able to get a good understanding of a few characters and this helped to fill in the gaps that were left by interludes with other characters.
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy science fiction or perhaps magical fantasy, however it isn’t all that suitable for young readers due to small portions of the content and explicit language. This is the first book in a series of 9 and the first book ends on a cliffhanger, making me want to keep reading the rest of the series, but for those who wouldn’t want to read a whole series, I wouldn’t recommend this one. It was professionally edited and proofread, and I didn’t find any spelling or grammatical errors. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, as I found it to be engaging and interesting, but the number of characters included made it harder to follow the story, and there were some hints of misogyny which I personally was not fond of.
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We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
We are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies by Mattew Tysz follows the lives of many who live in the nation of Voulhire. It follows the experience of young man, Galen, who has spent his whole life on a war torn island, but moves to the mainland after the death of his uncle. It also follows the experiences of the King of Voulhire and Lord Eldus of Hillport, as well as a few other characters, and the problems that arise in the nation that mixes magic and reality.
The first thing that struck me while reading this book is how complex and well thought out the world in which the story takes place is. I found the map at the beginning and the reference guide at the end to be especially helpful when it came to understanding the world and its inhabitants, although it wasn’t super accessible in an eBook format. The incorporation of the concept of a magical world that runs alongside reality was fascinating, and the way the two worlds blend together for many in this story kept me reading. There are also lines that take a unique approach to the nature of humanity regardless of the world they’re in. The attention to detail when describing both the world and the characters adds to the clarity with which I was able to perceive a world that was completely new to me. I also liked the exposition of the world provided as the story went on rather than including all of it right at the beginning as this made the reading experience much more fluid and enjoyable as things were being revealed in smaller amounts.
One thing that I didn’t like as much was the amount of characters which have chapters in their perspective. This made it difficult to connect completely with each of the characters, and at times made the story a bit hard to follow. However, I was able to get a good understanding of a few characters and this helped to fill in the gaps that were left by interludes with other characters.
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy science fiction or perhaps magical fantasy, however it isn’t all that suitable for young readers due to small portions of the content and explicit language. This is the first book in a series of 9 and the first book ends on a cliffhanger, making me want to keep reading the rest of the series, but for those who wouldn’t want to read a whole series, I wouldn’t recommend this one. It was professionally edited and proofread, and I didn’t find any spelling or grammatical errors. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, as I found it to be engaging and interesting, but the number of characters included made it harder to follow the story, and there were some hints of misogyny which I personally was not fond of.
******
We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon