Book Reviews

Book Review: Prophet of the Pentacle

“A powerful ancient evil returns with only one thing standing in its way…”

In ancient times, a great battle was fought between a ruthless evil, named Lord Jarden and a powerful sphinx, named Berecynthia. She defeated and imprisoned this evil, but was mortally wounded, so unable to vanquish it. After the passing of five ages, a royal advisor named, Randye of Corpus, sets out on a mission for the king of the Shandel, to investigate a mysterious and lonely isle named, Ice Isle. Unknowingly the advisor sets free the ancient evil and becomes its host. Now the only thing that is able to save the beautiful realm of Andora and her people from this ancient evil is a sacred alliance of prophets called the Osarian Knights. Trained by a mysterious sphinx known as Farro, ages earlier, these prophetic knights struggle to stop the ruthless creature from turning the mystical realm into a wasteland of burning ash and hell on earth, which would only be the beginning…

–From Goodreads)

Cover Inspection:
Looks just like I think an epic fantasy cover should!

First Thoughts:
I’d forgotten how involved fantasy novels are.

***

My Review:
My first thought when I picked this book up was that it was so very short. I really don’t think I have seen another book this short since I started a review blog. That in itself initially threw me off. My mind kept wandering to how an epic fantasy story could be told in such a small set of pages. Still, I cracked open the book and read on.
As I started to read, I realized very quickly that the reader is thrown straight into the story from the first page. No explanation, no character development, just thrown straight into the overall story. I’ll admit, I have seen this done before and sometimes it works well! An author will throw you into the action, then rewind to give you more of a back story to help you understand what is going on. In this case, there was no rewind. The story went straight on with no explanation of what was going on. It leaves you to fill in the blanks yourself, which in this case was very difficult.
Long story short? I was confused. The book is just so short, that there is really no time to get to know the characters. I loved the setting so very much, but it was so rushed in description. Unfortunately there just aren’t enough pages to really become invested in the concept. I was disappointed, and ultimately felt unfulfilled. In retrospect, I do believe that the premise of the story is wonderful and that Prophet of the Pentacle has great potential. As a longer story, I would read it again in a heartbeat.

Book Details
Title: Prophet of the Pentacle
Author: Marilyn D. Privratsky
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Pages: Paperback; 58
Source: Received from author.
FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Final Rating:2 Keys to My Heart

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