Review of Kantara
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Kathy-Smith
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Review of Kantara
[Following is a volunteer review of "Kantara" by Mary and Stephen Weller.]
Reading Kantara: The Traveler was rough. The chapters are short, but I struggled to read more than one at a time. The story is non-stop action with little plot or character development. The summary indicates the book is about a 21st-century young adult, Keiji, who is thrown back in time to when an alien invasion occurred and must find the Kantara Scrolls to save the world and the future. What the summary does not mention is that he is thrown thousands of years into a past that includes tribal warriors, giants, military units with guns, planes, modern cities, dragons, space giants, space dragons, space dragon eggs equipped with defensive lasers, blue humanoid aliens, reptilian aliens, cyclops, dinosaurs, coliseums equipped with microphones and speakers, dwarves, telepathy, no moon, battles in space, underground planets, personal force fields that translate all languages, and hovercrafts. It is too much.
Keiji wakes up in the desert with an additional voice in his head explaining his situation and why he was sent back in time. The voice, who calls himself “the doctor,” is a constant presence in Keiji’s head throughout the rest of the book. Keiji first meets a tribal warrior woman named Hazi, and the doctor provides him with a personal force field or aura that provides two-way translations so they can understand each other. At first, I could understand using this translator as a means of communication since it would not have made sense for everyone to understand each other. However, the translator’s power is not well-defined. At first, it’s as if only Keiji and the person he’s talking to can understand each other. Later during a fight, Keiji, Hazi, a reptilian, a giant, a half-alien/half-human prince, and other humans can suddenly communicate because of the localized translator on Keiji. The fighting stops, and they band together to help Keiji get the Kantara Scrolls. Their sudden acceptance of one another just because they can talk to each other does not feel natural. Hazi previously stabbed and removed the giant’s eye in the coliseum. The reptilian was part of the invading army that killed the king and billions of humans and was part of a group that tortured and ate giants.
The doctor appears to have limitless powers from inside Keiji’s head. The band of heroes all have computerized bracelets that allow them to walk through defensive laser grids. While the heroes, including the “good” reptilian, are being hunted by reptilians, the doctor instructs, through Keiji, all members of the party to put their bracelets, still on their wrists, on Keiji’s head so he can update the software in them to hide their vital signs from the reptilian scanners. They do, and immediately the doctor makes this happen through Keiji’s skull. He later has Keiji put his own wrist and bracelet on the good reptilian’s head so he can instantly progress the reptilian’s evolution process to make him more humanoid.
In Part I, before the protagonists flee the city, the soon-to-be-dead king gives Keiji a mysterious message. He tells Keiji he will meet someone specific, and when he sees him, “tell him not to take the grant. All he needs is endurance.” This message is cryptic and makes the reader wonder what it means. But there is no payout because Keiji does not meet this character in this book to give him the message. Keiji never thinks about the message again, so the odds of remembering it during a subsequent book are slim without a miraculous flashback.
I give this book 2 out of 5 stars despite the excessive amount of science fiction/fantasy attributes and lack of plot or character development because the editing was flawless. I could not find any grammatical or spelling errors.
******
Kantara
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Reading Kantara: The Traveler was rough. The chapters are short, but I struggled to read more than one at a time. The story is non-stop action with little plot or character development. The summary indicates the book is about a 21st-century young adult, Keiji, who is thrown back in time to when an alien invasion occurred and must find the Kantara Scrolls to save the world and the future. What the summary does not mention is that he is thrown thousands of years into a past that includes tribal warriors, giants, military units with guns, planes, modern cities, dragons, space giants, space dragons, space dragon eggs equipped with defensive lasers, blue humanoid aliens, reptilian aliens, cyclops, dinosaurs, coliseums equipped with microphones and speakers, dwarves, telepathy, no moon, battles in space, underground planets, personal force fields that translate all languages, and hovercrafts. It is too much.
Keiji wakes up in the desert with an additional voice in his head explaining his situation and why he was sent back in time. The voice, who calls himself “the doctor,” is a constant presence in Keiji’s head throughout the rest of the book. Keiji first meets a tribal warrior woman named Hazi, and the doctor provides him with a personal force field or aura that provides two-way translations so they can understand each other. At first, I could understand using this translator as a means of communication since it would not have made sense for everyone to understand each other. However, the translator’s power is not well-defined. At first, it’s as if only Keiji and the person he’s talking to can understand each other. Later during a fight, Keiji, Hazi, a reptilian, a giant, a half-alien/half-human prince, and other humans can suddenly communicate because of the localized translator on Keiji. The fighting stops, and they band together to help Keiji get the Kantara Scrolls. Their sudden acceptance of one another just because they can talk to each other does not feel natural. Hazi previously stabbed and removed the giant’s eye in the coliseum. The reptilian was part of the invading army that killed the king and billions of humans and was part of a group that tortured and ate giants.
The doctor appears to have limitless powers from inside Keiji’s head. The band of heroes all have computerized bracelets that allow them to walk through defensive laser grids. While the heroes, including the “good” reptilian, are being hunted by reptilians, the doctor instructs, through Keiji, all members of the party to put their bracelets, still on their wrists, on Keiji’s head so he can update the software in them to hide their vital signs from the reptilian scanners. They do, and immediately the doctor makes this happen through Keiji’s skull. He later has Keiji put his own wrist and bracelet on the good reptilian’s head so he can instantly progress the reptilian’s evolution process to make him more humanoid.
In Part I, before the protagonists flee the city, the soon-to-be-dead king gives Keiji a mysterious message. He tells Keiji he will meet someone specific, and when he sees him, “tell him not to take the grant. All he needs is endurance.” This message is cryptic and makes the reader wonder what it means. But there is no payout because Keiji does not meet this character in this book to give him the message. Keiji never thinks about the message again, so the odds of remembering it during a subsequent book are slim without a miraculous flashback.
I give this book 2 out of 5 stars despite the excessive amount of science fiction/fantasy attributes and lack of plot or character development because the editing was flawless. I could not find any grammatical or spelling errors.
******
Kantara
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Brandy, Dame of the Caribbean by Dan E. Hendrickson
