Seth Madaris (Author of Atallan Rising)

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing Journey to Torcia (Shadow Casters Series Book 1) by Jared Woodcox (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This unique and engaging book was a joy to read! My son and I slowly moved through the packed and wonderfully thought out world that Woodcox created and found ourselves completely immersed in the adventure. This first book has a lot of set up, taking ...more
Nov 06, 2025 04:52AM · like · see review
Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing Curse of the Claimed: Freewaves Saga-Book 1 by Slater Hamilton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book takes everything you love from pirates, mixes in a heavy dose of surfing culture, fantastical magic systems, fantasy and a little sci-fi and gives you a rip roaring adventure that feels like all of the things one would love from an epic pir ...more
Oct 06, 2025 02:25PM · like · see review
Seth Madaris liked Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brian Thomas's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles: "Atallan Beyond started with recap, but it was well executed, in my opinion. It felt focused on what I needed and nothing more, while launching quickly into the story style and craft jokes that I fell in love with. This story continued everything I lo" Read more of this review »
Sep 18, 2025 07:07PM · see review
Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing A Race Against Shadows: Book One of the A Destiny of Shadow and Ash Duology by J.A. Watson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is truly an impressive and beautiful debut! The fantasy world is incredibly well crafted, the story is intense and moving and the characters are all so well realized and fleshed out. In addition to this, it’s also just incredibly well written an ...more
Sep 06, 2025 11:10AM · like · see review
Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing Cello's Gate (The Sky Pirates of Imperia, #1) by Maurice Africh (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book hit every single check mark in my personal OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS box. It effortlessly combines sci-fi with fantasy with thrillers with adventure and it does it with a style and a humor that is just peak writing. The premise alone is en ...more
Sep 06, 2025 08:52AM · like · see review
Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing The Dagger's Curse: The Kotori Series: Book 1 by Riley DeSpain	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
What a beautiful and well-written fantasy adventure! This is just outside of my normal genre, as it is full of a slow burn, enemy-to-lovers romance, but it was done so well and fit perfectly within this fantastical world that DeSpain created. It has ...more
Sep 06, 2025 08:31AM · like · see review
Seth Madaris is now following Daniel Fansler and Alex Peachey
Aug 07, 2025 12:27PM
Seth Madaris liked Daniel Fansler's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles: "From the incredible landscape of Tartatallas to the deadly fight against the Darkatans, Atallan Beyond does everything possible to not just meet the bar and standard that Atallan Rising created, but surpass it. This sequel grips your attention and do" Read more of this review »
Aug 07, 2025 12:27PM · see review
Seth Madaris liked Ashley Mindykowski's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles: "This book series! For being a middle grade book, it is so much more than that. This continuation of this series was even better than the first book. You've got good action, good characters, amazing storyline, and you'll get sucked into your feelings." Read more of this review »
Aug 07, 2025 12:27PM · see review

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing

Journey to Torcia (Shadow Casters Series Book 1)
by Jared Woodcox (Goodreads Author)

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This unique and engaging book was a joy to read! My son and I slowly moved through the packed and wonderfully thought out world that Woodcox created and found ourselves completely immersed in the adventure. This first book has a lot of set up, taking This unique and engaging book was a joy to read! My son and I slowly moved through the packed and wonderfully thought out world that Woodcox created and found ourselves completely immersed in the adventure. This first book has a lot of set up, taking its time really letting us get to know our main characters, the world they live in, with its dense and violent history, its shaky political present and its mysterious future. And this is done in a way that allows us to learn the information and experience it as if we were cadets, just like our three main characters. The majority of the book begins with them undergoing a massive trial to enter into the ranks of the Shadow Casters, and there is a slight dark academia feel to some of the proceedings. Here, we get to see the intricacies of each personality, with Kaito's impulsive arrogance wrapped in a likable and playful character, Sumi's superior abilities shining over a painful and mysterious past and Nigel's academic obsession mixed with insecurities and self worth issues. The three characters interact with each other well, with all of the tension and fun that comes from teenage friend groups. There are crush's developing, personality's clashing and mixing and all of that is under the cover of a richly developed world and magic system full of intrigue and danger. And that is where the book really shines. The shadowcasting idea is absolutely brilliant. Casting shadows that manifest as actual creatures and weapons AND creating specific bonds with these creatures to use in battle, as companions, and as helpers is so cool. It definitely has Pokemon' vibes in that regard and every new creature that appeared was a joy to imagine and read about. And this magic system will allow our young MC's to continue to grow and get better and better and that will be fun to experience. The action is a little more limited, since the majority of the book happens in a controlled environment, but when we finally see shadowcasting unleashed toward the end, it will definitely get you pumped up for the next book. In the midst of all of this is mystery, false identities, corrupt officials, and more. And while the book doesn't move our MC's very far, it establishes them in such a way that you are beyond excited to dive into book two to keep the suspense, action, and wonder going. And my son loved it! ...more

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing

Curse of the Claimed: Freewaves Saga-Book 1
by Slater Hamilton

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This book takes everything you love from pirates, mixes in a heavy dose of surfing culture, fantastical magic systems, fantasy and a little sci-fi and gives you a rip roaring adventure that feels like all of the things one would love from an epic pir ...more

Seth Madaris liked Mr. and Mrs. Robert Brian Thomas's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles:

"Atallan Beyond started with recap, but it was well executed, in my opinion. It felt focused on what I needed and nothing more, while launching quickly into the story style and craft jokes that I fell in love with.

This story continued everything I lo" Read more of this review »

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing

A Race Against Shadows: Book One of the A Destiny of Shadow and Ash Duology
by J.A. Watson

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is truly an impressive and beautiful debut! The fantasy world is incredibly well crafted, the story is intense and moving and the characters are all so well realized and fleshed out. In addition to this, it’s also just incredibly well written an This is truly an impressive and beautiful debut! The fantasy world is incredibly well crafted, the story is intense and moving and the characters are all so well realized and fleshed out. In addition to this, it’s also just incredibly well written and truly fun to read. I enjoyed myself the entire time! We are given multiple POV’s and all of them really shine with their own distinct personalities, traumas and scars, all of which help them move, very realistically, toward deeper friendships, broken bonds, healing and even more scars. Here is why that is so fascinating… this book has a realness to its characters that is very refreshing. Often times, friendships can grow too deep, too fast or things can heal a little too quickly between individuals, but what I loved about this book is that it carries a true human realness to its relationships. There is no cheating here and some of the relationships remained broken and strained and this is vastly okay, because this is real! I loved the magic system and I loved how it was utilized in the action scenes, which are all cinematic and epic, from the smallest skirmish to the climactic battle at the end. Now, what I absolutely adored in this book was the LORE. The world building is massive and so well done. There is TONS of complex history here, with gods, mortals, elves, fae, monsters, watchers, and more. I loved every single bit of it and I loved how just enough was teased out to let us know that we are in for a wild ride going forward. Watson lays out the history of this world with a beautiful prose, poetic and flowing, full of incredible visuals that jump off the page. I particularly loved how she weaves dreams and visions into the story, effortlessly creating images full of horror, intrigue and romance, all of which are utilized wonderfully in pushing our characters forward. I am beyond intrigued by what Watson has created here, and like the Watchers, I could enjoy eons of stories from this vast and beautiful world. I loved all of the characters, but of course, I was drawn immediately to Istra, the witch, and her physical and emotional journey. Her fierceness, mixed with her youth, her desire to protect, made her one of the most formidable but also most vulnerable characters on the page, and this tension is fascinating. Watching slowly become who she was destined to be is so very well crafted and I truly connected with her. This book has some twists that will rip your heart out of your chest, some action that will leave you breathless and some lore that will having you wanting to crack open history books in an seemingly abandoned castle to catch up on everything. If I had a critique, there is some physical spacing issues in the final battle that made me wonder where a few notable characters were during the action and, this one is 100% the way my mind differentiates words, the similarities in two characters name took me a moment to get them locked into my brain, but these are most likely my reading style, as this book just knocks it out of the park. I cannot recommend it enough and cannot wait to read more. ...more

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing

Cello's Gate (The Sky Pirates of Imperia, #1)
by Maurice Africh (Goodreads Author)

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This book hit every single check mark in my personal OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS box. It effortlessly combines sci-fi with fantasy with thrillers with adventure and it does it with a style and a humor that is just peak writing. The premise alone is en This book hit every single check mark in my personal OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS box. It effortlessly combines sci-fi with fantasy with thrillers with adventure and it does it with a style and a humor that is just peak writing. The premise alone is enough to make the kid in me just laugh with glee, as I grew up on all things sci-fi and fantasy in the late 80s and early 90s and this book delivers in spades. It would be tempting to write out comp’s, kind of like Space Pirates meets Guardian of the Galaxy meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Atlantis: The Lost Empire, with some Indian Jones mixed in and perhaps even a little Romancing of the Stone (Yeah, I said it), some fight scenes reminiscent of The Matrix meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and a good sprinkling of classic fantasy like LOTR, and then a dash of Predator over the top of all of it… and that would be accurate… but it wouldn’t do the unique, originality of this story justice. Africh has created a motley crew of colorful individuals that you love immediately. And each new character that is introduced, no matter what you think you may know of them, completely upends expectations and joins the pantheon of just larger than life people that you just love. And what is so impressive is the originality of this vast world Africh created. The lore here is breathtaking in its scope, full of magic and mayhem that wouldn’t normally fit well into a more classic sci-fi story, but here, it just works so well, which I attribute to some really impressive writing. I cannot wait for more of this world to unfold before our eyes. It’s in the lore that the more fantastical elements arrive, full of mythology and god-like beings, immortals and magic, all of which fit wonderfully into a very sci-fi type world of space ships and rail guns, weaponry and tech. I laughed a whole bunch (this is a beautifully snarky book and I loved every second of it) and I deeply felt the friendship and the camaraderie from each individual character, all of which were so deeply realized on the page through, again, the amazing writing of Africh. If I had one note of critique, I never felt the weight of the villain, and though he was ominously talked about, somehow his arrival felt a little subdued given the level of epic action we had seen, though the final battle is impressive. However, I believe we are going to see much more of a variety of villainous characters as the story progresses, though in this world, good and bad is far from simple and that makes each character a little volatile and I adore that. All in all, this book was just perfect for me. Cannot wait for more and definitely go check it out! ...more

Seth Madaris rated a book it was amazing

The Dagger's Curse: The Kotori Series: Book 1
by Riley DeSpain

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

What a beautiful and well-written fantasy adventure! This is just outside of my normal genre, as it is full of a slow burn, enemy-to-lovers romance, but it was done so well and fit perfectly within this fantastical world that DeSpain created. It has ...more

Seth Madaris is now following Daniel Fansler and Alex Peachey

Seth Madaris liked Daniel Fansler's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles:

"From the incredible landscape of Tartatallas to the deadly fight against the Darkatans, Atallan Beyond does everything possible to not just meet the bar and standard that Atallan Rising created, but surpass it. This sequel grips your attention and do" Read more of this review »

Seth Madaris liked Ashley Mindykowski's review of Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles:

"This book series! For being a middle grade book, it is so much more than that. This continuation of this series was even better than the first book. You've got good action, good characters, amazing storyline, and you'll get sucked into your feelings." Read more of this review »

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	Atallan Rising: Book One of the Rhinehart Chronicles by Seth Madaris (Goodreads Author), Brian D'Herde 4.89 avg rating — 38 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Atallan Beyond: Book Two of The Rhinehart Chronicles by Seth Madaris (Goodreads Author), Brian D'Herde 4.63 avg rating — 8 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Seth’s Friends (7)

Seth Madaris

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