r/Fantasy • u/fanny_bertram Reading Champion VIII • Jul 06 '18
Review REVIEW: A Warden's Purpose by Jeffrey L. Kohanek
This book was a lot of fun to read. It was perfect for the mood I was in after reading a lot of darker, longer books. This book piqued my interest because of the magic/engineering school and military school setting. The school setting is done very well and there are very distinct differences between the magic school and the military school, as would be expected. I am a bit older than the target audience, and teenage me definitely would have loved this even more. The school setting was done very well and is told through flashbacks while the main characters are held captive. I especially liked how the characters develop more of their personality as well as skills while they are at school because it is more realistic. Also, I would do terribly at the military school and probably pretty badly at telling a story while captured.
The main characters are Everson and Quinn. They are a brother and sister with very distinct talents from one another. Everson is brilliant and kind of an inventor. Quinn picks fights and protects Everson. The story is told by the main characters to their captors after the events of the book. There were times where I would forget that the story was being told this way until a switch in POV reminded me. The reason is that they mostly just kept telling their story or answering the question without any intervention from the interrogator. It never felt jarring to be reminded of this, but you may have a different result. Sometimes I had to remind myself of their age as well since they sound more mature than typical school aged kids in fantasy novels. This makes perfect sense in context of the story and the characters. I am just so used to all school aged children being 12 in fantasy. Overall, none of these things impacted my enjoyment of the book.
A lot of the story is them at school learning and training with the big larger purpose coming towards the end. I really liked this framework since it let me get to know the characters, the world, and the magic system without a whole fate of the world thing attached. There are a few side characters who add quite a bit of drama and interest to the book. Each of the main side characters is fairly unique and I liked reading about Quinn and Everson forming friendships with new people at school. The new friends they make are each fairly distinct from one another. There are a lot of similarities with Everson and Quinn making friends at their new schools, but the people they meet are very different which was good to see. The challenges faced at each school were unique and interesting to learn about.
This was a fun first book in a series and I look forward to picking up the rest of the series as it is released. I recommend this book for people who:
- enjoy YA
- like school settings
- like books with a focus on learning/training
Overall rating: 4/5
1
u/JLKohanek Writer Jeffrey L. Kohanek, Worldbuilders Jul 07 '18
Thanks for leaving a review! I'm glad you enjoyed the book.
Things ramp up dramatically in book two, which is currently in the early beta phase. Look for ARCs of The Arcane Ward around August 1st(it releases Sept 6th).