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Emergence #1
Unwanted
In a world torn by conflict, it is the unwanted who fight for survival.
At nearly 18 years of age, Damien knows his peaceful life in the only village he’s ever known is about to change. Either his burgeoning powers of the veil will kill him, which at least would bring an end to the pain and the mistrust and fear of his friends and neighbours, or the Warlord and his infamous warband, the Unwanted, will track him down.
Though the Warlord claims to protect his domain from the persistent raids of the enemy Sylannians, that protection comes at a price. To be taken by the Warlord is to forfeit your soul. Those who join his warband are destined to become cold-blooded killers, and the atrocities they are rumoured to commit make death the preferable option.
When the worst happens and the Warlord finally comes to his village, Damien surrenders himself to save his family—and protect his younger sister, Isabella, whose own powers are already growing…
On the other side of the vast mountain range the clans of the People have lost the war against the Sylannians. As royal Sylannian Commander Jaclyn plans to return home after their victory, only two clans remain, and they face an impossible stay and risk almost certain annihilation, or flee their homeland and take their chances on the other side of the mountains.
But even as the clan leaders seek a way to save their people from genocide, the political wheels in Sylanna are still turning and the ruthless king and his wives have their own plans for his sister Jaclyn, who was never meant to succeed.
As Damien makes a new life with the Unwanted, he learns to use his powers and discovers the truth about his new “family”. But before he can decide where he really belongs, he must come to terms with who and what he really is.
At nearly 18 years of age, Damien knows his peaceful life in the only village he’s ever known is about to change. Either his burgeoning powers of the veil will kill him, which at least would bring an end to the pain and the mistrust and fear of his friends and neighbours, or the Warlord and his infamous warband, the Unwanted, will track him down.
Though the Warlord claims to protect his domain from the persistent raids of the enemy Sylannians, that protection comes at a price. To be taken by the Warlord is to forfeit your soul. Those who join his warband are destined to become cold-blooded killers, and the atrocities they are rumoured to commit make death the preferable option.
When the worst happens and the Warlord finally comes to his village, Damien surrenders himself to save his family—and protect his younger sister, Isabella, whose own powers are already growing…
On the other side of the vast mountain range the clans of the People have lost the war against the Sylannians. As royal Sylannian Commander Jaclyn plans to return home after their victory, only two clans remain, and they face an impossible stay and risk almost certain annihilation, or flee their homeland and take their chances on the other side of the mountains.
But even as the clan leaders seek a way to save their people from genocide, the political wheels in Sylanna are still turning and the ruthless king and his wives have their own plans for his sister Jaclyn, who was never meant to succeed.
As Damien makes a new life with the Unwanted, he learns to use his powers and discovers the truth about his new “family”. But before he can decide where he really belongs, he must come to terms with who and what he really is.
548 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 13, 2023
3 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Catherine M. Walker
7 books10 followersCatherine M Walker was born in a small country town in Western Australia but now resides in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. Not being interested in sports she dived into reading and writing. Determined to enter a short story competition while still in high school Catherine and her best friend started writing. Six exercise books later they both realised that perhaps the short story was a little long. Being an Author and publishing was a ‘one-day’ dream that stretched back to that time in high school. Nothing ever came of that first book, life moved on.
Years later Catherine realised ‘one day’ never happens, life will pass you by if you let it. Of all the childhood dreams fulfilled to date one that hasn’t been is to be a published Author. Of course, flying an X Wing Fighter and blowing up the Death Star hasn’t either, but one dream at a time. Right?
Shattered Dreams is Catherine's debut book in The Being of Dreams.
Years later Catherine realised ‘one day’ never happens, life will pass you by if you let it. Of all the childhood dreams fulfilled to date one that hasn’t been is to be a published Author. Of course, flying an X Wing Fighter and blowing up the Death Star hasn’t either, but one dream at a time. Right?
Shattered Dreams is Catherine's debut book in The Being of Dreams.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 8, 2023
I read this for SPFBO. To find out more about the SPFBO contest and to see the participating bloggers/authors and reviews follow the links below
It’s no secret that I love these mpov plotty stories, so I was very excited to get this one in my group (there was also a fair amount of horse-trading behind the scenes to ensure I did). There is a lot to unpack in this book so my review gets a little long and this is the cut down by a mile version. There were also quite a few things in the story that I didn't even address, in an attempt to shorten this up a little; hopefully I was able to keep my train of thought clear enough to make sense to anyone reading.
The Unwanted had a lot of the elements that I love- interesting world, great characters that I can root for, mentor relationships, and magic that wasn’t too hard but not too soft either.
*
Between the three countries we end up with a pile of characters, but being that they were in separate groups and quite different socially- it went a long way in helping to keep them straight in my head.
So, let’s start with the main group who are The Warlord’s soldiers called The Unwanted-
Led by Michael- the Warlord’s most trusted soldier (and thought of as a son by him). Michael and his group of soldiers, travel around striking fear into the hearts of man with their presence alone.
The Unwanteds’ reputation as heartless killers have the dual purpose of keeping order and protecting the people. But part of the reputation comes about because they also find any person who is strong in the Veil (magic) and take them as their own- whether they want to come along or not.
On one of these scouting trips, they take Damien, who up until this point has managed to escape the notice of the Warlord by hiding himself away in the Veil. The Veil’s magic can be used in multiple ways- everything from defensive/offensive uses to mind-speaking or even hearing others who have talent in it.
Michael, Damien, and the rest of the Unwanted, were my favourite part of the story. They have this brother/sistership thing happening and you know they will jump in front of a truck for each other. I love the dynamics in the group and even the bratty Aiden (The Warlord’s real son) who put some much-needed tension here and there, with his jealousy and nasty temperament.
The other characters that give us a look at the rest of the world:
Second up, we have the Hallaran clans who are fighting the Sylannians.
Tarkhan and Khalium are coleaders of the Kallth. They are losing against the Sylannians and make the choice to flee over the mountains into the Warlord’s territory to try and save what is left of their people.
And lastly the Sylannians with Jaclyn and her unit who are part of the invading force.
The Sylannian units are the coolest- like a spider and web. Their family/unit is made up of a male with many female fighters protecting him. Their use of the veil allows them to mind speak to others in their unit and they have a silk they can harden into armour among other things. They’re kind of scary in how effective they can be as a unit.
I thought Jaclyn was the most interesting, socially. She’s Sylannian, and the King’s sister. She also has more going on in her homeland with her family who are trying to rid themselves of her as a threat by sending her on dangerous missions they hope she will die doing.
The story does this omni rolling pov at times, to help round out the world but there were some pov’s that were unnecessary- for instance Steven’s, because we learn everything we need to when Michael arrives anyway.
*
There was so much I loved about this book but there were a few things that stumbled me up.
Occasionally I found things to be overly complicated. I understood what was trying to be shown but it also resulted in mixed signals on some things. The biggest being the Warlord himself who was supposed to be reigning the public in with his fierceness, but almost seemed quite agreeable- taking some of the fizzle out of the biggest decision of Damien’s arc. I felt no urgency in the decision because I didn’t feel the Warlord was a force to be reckoned with for most of the story but also up to this point Damien himself, was fitting in pretty well on his own- without being forced.
The clans disappeared from the story for long enough after arriving in The Warlords territory, that I forgot about them. I will say though the initial show of force by The Unwanted at their first meet was pretty darned cool. Which btw is something that I found with all the battle scenes- they’re all very cinematic and movie worthy.
Jaclyn: I never could decide if she was the big bad or not. We see enough of her to feel sympathy and understand her situation and for awhile I even thought she would end up banding together with the Unwanted against a greater threat, but by the end I wasn’t so sure.
I assume that over the course of the series some of these things I mentioned will all come together to create a larger picture and I can eat my words. But as a singular story, I do think that it could have used more tension all around, and a bit of editing to clean-up some of the odd things here and there.
Tldr:
I loved this story. The world was cool; mostly because of how creative the clans were- particularly the Sylannians and Jaclyn, in the way their family units worked.
The magic with the Veil that can be shared between them or just for themselves is neat and can be used in a multitude of ways.
But the biggest sell for me was the characters were all ones I wanted to spend time getting to know. The whole troupe of the Unwanted were so much fun. I loved the family feel to them. And Jaclyn, though I didn’t love her as much as Damien, I was still curious about her story and seeing how it pans out.
So my only real gripes were to do with lack of tension, and that about halfway I started wondering where the story was going. Even so, it says a lot that I loved the characters so much, that I would happily return for book two just to spend time with them.
Learn more about the contest here-
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/...
Phase one is here-
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/...
It’s no secret that I love these mpov plotty stories, so I was very excited to get this one in my group (there was also a fair amount of horse-trading behind the scenes to ensure I did). There is a lot to unpack in this book so my review gets a little long and this is the cut down by a mile version. There were also quite a few things in the story that I didn't even address, in an attempt to shorten this up a little; hopefully I was able to keep my train of thought clear enough to make sense to anyone reading.
The Unwanted had a lot of the elements that I love- interesting world, great characters that I can root for, mentor relationships, and magic that wasn’t too hard but not too soft either.
*
Between the three countries we end up with a pile of characters, but being that they were in separate groups and quite different socially- it went a long way in helping to keep them straight in my head.
So, let’s start with the main group who are The Warlord’s soldiers called The Unwanted-
Led by Michael- the Warlord’s most trusted soldier (and thought of as a son by him). Michael and his group of soldiers, travel around striking fear into the hearts of man with their presence alone.
The Unwanteds’ reputation as heartless killers have the dual purpose of keeping order and protecting the people. But part of the reputation comes about because they also find any person who is strong in the Veil (magic) and take them as their own- whether they want to come along or not.
On one of these scouting trips, they take Damien, who up until this point has managed to escape the notice of the Warlord by hiding himself away in the Veil. The Veil’s magic can be used in multiple ways- everything from defensive/offensive uses to mind-speaking or even hearing others who have talent in it.
Michael, Damien, and the rest of the Unwanted, were my favourite part of the story. They have this brother/sistership thing happening and you know they will jump in front of a truck for each other. I love the dynamics in the group and even the bratty Aiden (The Warlord’s real son) who put some much-needed tension here and there, with his jealousy and nasty temperament.
The other characters that give us a look at the rest of the world:
Second up, we have the Hallaran clans who are fighting the Sylannians.
Tarkhan and Khalium are coleaders of the Kallth. They are losing against the Sylannians and make the choice to flee over the mountains into the Warlord’s territory to try and save what is left of their people.
And lastly the Sylannians with Jaclyn and her unit who are part of the invading force.
The Sylannian units are the coolest- like a spider and web. Their family/unit is made up of a male with many female fighters protecting him. Their use of the veil allows them to mind speak to others in their unit and they have a silk they can harden into armour among other things. They’re kind of scary in how effective they can be as a unit.
I thought Jaclyn was the most interesting, socially. She’s Sylannian, and the King’s sister. She also has more going on in her homeland with her family who are trying to rid themselves of her as a threat by sending her on dangerous missions they hope she will die doing.
The story does this omni rolling pov at times, to help round out the world but there were some pov’s that were unnecessary- for instance Steven’s, because we learn everything we need to when Michael arrives anyway.
*
There was so much I loved about this book but there were a few things that stumbled me up.
Occasionally I found things to be overly complicated. I understood what was trying to be shown but it also resulted in mixed signals on some things. The biggest being the Warlord himself who was supposed to be reigning the public in with his fierceness, but almost seemed quite agreeable- taking some of the fizzle out of the biggest decision of Damien’s arc. I felt no urgency in the decision because I didn’t feel the Warlord was a force to be reckoned with for most of the story but also up to this point Damien himself, was fitting in pretty well on his own- without being forced.
The clans disappeared from the story for long enough after arriving in The Warlords territory, that I forgot about them. I will say though the initial show of force by The Unwanted at their first meet was pretty darned cool. Which btw is something that I found with all the battle scenes- they’re all very cinematic and movie worthy.
Jaclyn: I never could decide if she was the big bad or not. We see enough of her to feel sympathy and understand her situation and for awhile I even thought she would end up banding together with the Unwanted against a greater threat, but by the end I wasn’t so sure.
I assume that over the course of the series some of these things I mentioned will all come together to create a larger picture and I can eat my words. But as a singular story, I do think that it could have used more tension all around, and a bit of editing to clean-up some of the odd things here and there.
Tldr:
I loved this story. The world was cool; mostly because of how creative the clans were- particularly the Sylannians and Jaclyn, in the way their family units worked.
The magic with the Veil that can be shared between them or just for themselves is neat and can be used in a multitude of ways.
But the biggest sell for me was the characters were all ones I wanted to spend time getting to know. The whole troupe of the Unwanted were so much fun. I loved the family feel to them. And Jaclyn, though I didn’t love her as much as Damien, I was still curious about her story and seeing how it pans out.
So my only real gripes were to do with lack of tension, and that about halfway I started wondering where the story was going. Even so, it says a lot that I loved the characters so much, that I would happily return for book two just to spend time with them.
Learn more about the contest here-
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/...
Phase one is here-
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/...
Want to Read
March 11, 2024This is not a full review. I read through the beginning of all 300 SPFBO9 contest entries. This was a book I wanted to read more of.
Soldiers of the Warlord who can speak mind to mind prepare a surprise counter-attack on their unsuspecting enemies in this inventive sword-and-sorcery fantasy
The reader is dropped right into the calm before the storm or this story, as our protagonists wait in the dark before the clash of their forces on the unsuspecting Sylannian troops raising a village.
The prose is well grounded in sensory details, and gives the reader a viewpoint MC right away. In addition to his psychic communication abilities, he also has contact with “the veil,” from which he can draw and shape magical powers.
I’m slowly getting to know the magic in this setting amidst the action, and I think that makes for a good read. There’s intriguing details about the enemy Sylannians that I’m waiting to learn more about.
For instance - their attack force is entirely female, with a single male Sylannian who, if killed, will leave the attackers in disarray. I’d like to know how. I’d like to know if the Sylannians are something other than human, too.
I almost stopped reading this after the first paragraph or so (they were lackluster and confusing … village something or other), but I’m glad I didn’t. This finds its voice quickly once we meet our MC.
The action is just crashing onto the pages, and this has more than enough setting details to keep me interested. I’d like to know just what the story is going to shape up to be. I’m in.
Soldiers of the Warlord who can speak mind to mind prepare a surprise counter-attack on their unsuspecting enemies in this inventive sword-and-sorcery fantasy
The reader is dropped right into the calm before the storm or this story, as our protagonists wait in the dark before the clash of their forces on the unsuspecting Sylannian troops raising a village.
The prose is well grounded in sensory details, and gives the reader a viewpoint MC right away. In addition to his psychic communication abilities, he also has contact with “the veil,” from which he can draw and shape magical powers.
I’m slowly getting to know the magic in this setting amidst the action, and I think that makes for a good read. There’s intriguing details about the enemy Sylannians that I’m waiting to learn more about.
For instance - their attack force is entirely female, with a single male Sylannian who, if killed, will leave the attackers in disarray. I’d like to know how. I’d like to know if the Sylannians are something other than human, too.
I almost stopped reading this after the first paragraph or so (they were lackluster and confusing … village something or other), but I’m glad I didn’t. This finds its voice quickly once we meet our MC.
The action is just crashing onto the pages, and this has more than enough setting details to keep me interested. I’d like to know just what the story is going to shape up to be. I’m in.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews