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The Sword of Solonus
Human life is a struggle in the medieval kingdom of Orenelle, and the high elves promise King Ceron and his people an escape from this struggle. Only by embracing the Light of the Elwan, (the forest spirit and life force of the elves) will the population achieve everlasting life- whilst leaving behind famine, disease, and death. When the day of salvation arrives, mankind will undergo a metamorphosis and will join the high elves to live in the sacred woodland paradise of Sera Norem, but at what cost?
Only a few dare to question the real implications of elvish immortality, but among them is the king’s sixteen-year-old son, Prince Cebril. Young, curious, and impatient, Cebril yearns to explore life outside the palace walls… and outside of the Elwan Faith.
When the prince is exiled due to circumstances beyond his control, his prayer for freedom is answered. With nothing but a broken compass and his soul to guide him, Cebril starts out on a quest of self-discovery; a far ranging journey that will reveal the true nature of man’s heralded transcendence, the value of love, and the perils of war.
Cebril’s travels will inexorably lead him to uncover a powerful weapon… a legendary sword with the power to change his fate and his world- the Sword of Solonus.
Only a few dare to question the real implications of elvish immortality, but among them is the king’s sixteen-year-old son, Prince Cebril. Young, curious, and impatient, Cebril yearns to explore life outside the palace walls… and outside of the Elwan Faith.
When the prince is exiled due to circumstances beyond his control, his prayer for freedom is answered. With nothing but a broken compass and his soul to guide him, Cebril starts out on a quest of self-discovery; a far ranging journey that will reveal the true nature of man’s heralded transcendence, the value of love, and the perils of war.
Cebril’s travels will inexorably lead him to uncover a powerful weapon… a legendary sword with the power to change his fate and his world- the Sword of Solonus.
- GenresFantasy
505 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 13, 2012
1 person is currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Adam Matthews
7 books35 followersMy name is Adam Matthews and I enjoy writing in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, and more recently romantic comedy.
I welcome you all to my author page. I'm looking to connect with people who enjoy reading and/or writing any type of fiction.
I urge you all to check out my book and let me know what you think!
I welcome you all to my author page. I'm looking to connect with people who enjoy reading and/or writing any type of fiction.
I urge you all to check out my book and let me know what you think!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 16, 2015
Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews
With The Sword of Solonus, Adam Matthews has taken on the herculean task of taking a traditional fantasy world (medieval-like) and traditional fantasy races (elves, humans, etc.) and re-imagining all of it – including each race’s philosophy. And I must say that other than a few issues, Mr. Matthews did a great job of giving this longtime fantasy reader something fresh to dig his teeth into.
The tale itself revolves around an array of conflicts in this fantasy world. Here humans, high elves, dark elves, and the arkalorians are each distinct societies with their own unique religions, culture, and agendas; a situation that natural breeds misunderstanding, revulsion, and – ultimately – conflict along multiple fronts: social, economic, religious, and military.
Indeed, the conflicts in The Sword of Solonus are numerous, from minor annoyances to sweeping persecutions to clashes over societal norms to ecological altering events. There are religious conflicts with the persecution of those of a different faith; civil war-type conflict between different sections of a kingdom; more than a hint of global destruction of the environment; and the antagonism toward different sexual roles in society, where the immortals have outgrown their need to reproduce.
There are lots of ideas explored in this novel that were quite interesting. My favorite being Mr. Matthews’ look at the issue of immortality and sexuality. Because ask yourself, if a race could live forever and had no need to reproduce for the race to survive, would they ultimately evolve into sexless creatures?
Quite possibly, given enough time. And here the author tackles that question, delving into it as well as the companion issue of how other mortal races might reject such androgynous beings as alien and unclean, wishing them destroyed.
With all that being said, I did have some issues with the novel that I’d feel remise if I didn’t point out.
First, this story was long and, unfortunately, read that way. Everything seemed a bit too wordy, perhaps in need of some careful editing to cut repetitive descriptions or prune away the unnecessary verbiage to allow the story itself to flow organically from page to page. And this was especially true of the dialogue, which, at times, was very stiff, formal, and unnatural in its leanings.
Second, the narrative covered over two decades worth of story, a great breadth of time and narrative to squeeze into one novel. And this was an issue as events and characters did not develop so much as they were just said to exist a certain way in order for the plot to proceed – an issue that might be rectified by splitting the story into a duology.
With my criticisms voiced, I’d like to commend Mr. Matthews for writing such an ambitious fantasy story that mixed in so many new ideas and intriguing philosophy into the traditional fantasy vehicle. All in all, I enjoyed reading it and would recommend other fantasy aficionados to give it a try.
With The Sword of Solonus, Adam Matthews has taken on the herculean task of taking a traditional fantasy world (medieval-like) and traditional fantasy races (elves, humans, etc.) and re-imagining all of it – including each race’s philosophy. And I must say that other than a few issues, Mr. Matthews did a great job of giving this longtime fantasy reader something fresh to dig his teeth into.
The tale itself revolves around an array of conflicts in this fantasy world. Here humans, high elves, dark elves, and the arkalorians are each distinct societies with their own unique religions, culture, and agendas; a situation that natural breeds misunderstanding, revulsion, and – ultimately – conflict along multiple fronts: social, economic, religious, and military.
Indeed, the conflicts in The Sword of Solonus are numerous, from minor annoyances to sweeping persecutions to clashes over societal norms to ecological altering events. There are religious conflicts with the persecution of those of a different faith; civil war-type conflict between different sections of a kingdom; more than a hint of global destruction of the environment; and the antagonism toward different sexual roles in society, where the immortals have outgrown their need to reproduce.
There are lots of ideas explored in this novel that were quite interesting. My favorite being Mr. Matthews’ look at the issue of immortality and sexuality. Because ask yourself, if a race could live forever and had no need to reproduce for the race to survive, would they ultimately evolve into sexless creatures?
Quite possibly, given enough time. And here the author tackles that question, delving into it as well as the companion issue of how other mortal races might reject such androgynous beings as alien and unclean, wishing them destroyed.
With all that being said, I did have some issues with the novel that I’d feel remise if I didn’t point out.
First, this story was long and, unfortunately, read that way. Everything seemed a bit too wordy, perhaps in need of some careful editing to cut repetitive descriptions or prune away the unnecessary verbiage to allow the story itself to flow organically from page to page. And this was especially true of the dialogue, which, at times, was very stiff, formal, and unnatural in its leanings.
Second, the narrative covered over two decades worth of story, a great breadth of time and narrative to squeeze into one novel. And this was an issue as events and characters did not develop so much as they were just said to exist a certain way in order for the plot to proceed – an issue that might be rectified by splitting the story into a duology.
With my criticisms voiced, I’d like to commend Mr. Matthews for writing such an ambitious fantasy story that mixed in so many new ideas and intriguing philosophy into the traditional fantasy vehicle. All in all, I enjoyed reading it and would recommend other fantasy aficionados to give it a try.
August 29, 2013
First of all, the author offered this book as a free download for a short period of time, and I would like to thank him for giving me the opportunity to read his book. Most of the books you pick up as free downloads are short little books, but this one was quite large. It is a fantasy novel and revolves around different human-like species and the conflicts between them. There are true humans, high and dark elves, orcs, and arkalorians. The author did a good job of world building and the book spans a period of over 25 years. From the title you can guess that it is about a sword that has magical properties and Prince Cebril’s quest to find it. The magic in the story is unique. There is magic of plants and magic of animals with the high elves and dark elves each able to control different elements in nature. There also is a fictitious religion, the Elwan religion.
There were conflicts in book that had many comparable situations in real life. We have the unjust persecution of a group of people, the tinkerers, which reminded me of the persecution of the Jews, although it was not to the extent of a holocaust. There were also creatures similar to vampires in the book. The conflict between the North and South reminded me of the Civil War to the extent that the South was even called a Southern Confederation.
There were hints of destruction of the environment for the advancement of mankind, and implications of religion not always being used for good. Should we base everything on blind faith and never question anything? I recall one statement, “Most men who adopt a fundamentalist view of religion do so for all the wrong reasons. They are either running from deep seeded fears, or are using faith as a means to channel their anger.” The transcendence spoken of reminded me of Christianity, similar to going to heaven. Their transcendence took them to an immortal paradise. At times, however, these similarities to real life situations seemed to be a little too close and unoriginal.
As I mentioned before the book was much larger than I expected. It covers a large span of time and many different settings. I felt it could have been broken up into 2 or 3 smaller books or even a series. Many of the characters didn’t have enough depth to them, and the dialogue at times seemed stiff, unnatural. Secondary characters, especially, were not given enough depth. Regarding editing, the book was pretty well done. Commas were used a little more than necessary, but I didn’t feel this detracted from the book in the least.
One of the goals for the humans was a quest for transcendence and immortality. Of course, wouldn’t most of us like to be immortal and live forever? But if we lived forever, wouldn’t we quickly overpopulate? So to control the population, reproduction and sex becomes unimportant. And if sex becomes unimportant, is there any need for differences in male and female, and we all soon become androgynous beings. Would it be worth it to live forever if the joys of intimacy are taken away forever? Some might think so, yet some would yearn to be human again even if death were the price we had to pay.
I enjoyed reading this book. The most original character in the book and the one I personally liked the best was Zeerbane, a general who was half human and half alkalorian. The book covers quite a lot: persecution, religion, separation of church and state, environmental destruction, wars and conflicts, political alliances, and sexuality. I felt the author almost tried to cover too much by ‘covering all the bases.’ I noticed a few inconsistencies in the book. For example, in one place Prince Cebril and Zeerbance are fighting. Both are seriously wounded and “Death was close for both warriors now.“ Yet Cebril seemed to miraculously recover and nothing more was mentioned of his ‘near-death wounds’. I would also like to see it broken into smaller books. For example, give much more detail on Cebril’s life when he was assimilated into the world of the dark elves. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to those who enjoy the fantasy genre.
There were conflicts in book that had many comparable situations in real life. We have the unjust persecution of a group of people, the tinkerers, which reminded me of the persecution of the Jews, although it was not to the extent of a holocaust. There were also creatures similar to vampires in the book. The conflict between the North and South reminded me of the Civil War to the extent that the South was even called a Southern Confederation.
There were hints of destruction of the environment for the advancement of mankind, and implications of religion not always being used for good. Should we base everything on blind faith and never question anything? I recall one statement, “Most men who adopt a fundamentalist view of religion do so for all the wrong reasons. They are either running from deep seeded fears, or are using faith as a means to channel their anger.” The transcendence spoken of reminded me of Christianity, similar to going to heaven. Their transcendence took them to an immortal paradise. At times, however, these similarities to real life situations seemed to be a little too close and unoriginal.
As I mentioned before the book was much larger than I expected. It covers a large span of time and many different settings. I felt it could have been broken up into 2 or 3 smaller books or even a series. Many of the characters didn’t have enough depth to them, and the dialogue at times seemed stiff, unnatural. Secondary characters, especially, were not given enough depth. Regarding editing, the book was pretty well done. Commas were used a little more than necessary, but I didn’t feel this detracted from the book in the least.
One of the goals for the humans was a quest for transcendence and immortality. Of course, wouldn’t most of us like to be immortal and live forever? But if we lived forever, wouldn’t we quickly overpopulate? So to control the population, reproduction and sex becomes unimportant. And if sex becomes unimportant, is there any need for differences in male and female, and we all soon become androgynous beings. Would it be worth it to live forever if the joys of intimacy are taken away forever? Some might think so, yet some would yearn to be human again even if death were the price we had to pay.
I enjoyed reading this book. The most original character in the book and the one I personally liked the best was Zeerbane, a general who was half human and half alkalorian. The book covers quite a lot: persecution, religion, separation of church and state, environmental destruction, wars and conflicts, political alliances, and sexuality. I felt the author almost tried to cover too much by ‘covering all the bases.’ I noticed a few inconsistencies in the book. For example, in one place Prince Cebril and Zeerbance are fighting. Both are seriously wounded and “Death was close for both warriors now.“ Yet Cebril seemed to miraculously recover and nothing more was mentioned of his ‘near-death wounds’. I would also like to see it broken into smaller books. For example, give much more detail on Cebril’s life when he was assimilated into the world of the dark elves. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to those who enjoy the fantasy genre.
January 5, 2013
It’s always refreshing to read a fantasy novel that takes a creative approach to the fundamentals of setting, in particular the rules or laws of magic. Matthews has done a remarkable job creating a pretty unique magic system that pushes beyond conventional bounds in its limitation, raw power, and its need for a humanoid passion to really add the wow-factor. A good story needs conflict and the The Sword of Solonus has one that pits a centuries-old peace and multiple races against one another in a quest for the truth.
The writing was sharp, particularly during action scenes and surrounding dialogue where characters are uncovering facts. I also appreciated how Matthews handled time between major branches of the story. On the flip side, there were moments where elements in the setting were rehashed too much and some characters, particularly the antagonists, lacked the complexity they needed for real depth and texture. This is a solid 3.7 star novel where the good far outweighs the negatives and is a novel fans will enjoy for its unique qualities.
Get your copy of The Sword of Solonus today.
Tom Clementson The Motley Chronicles
The writing was sharp, particularly during action scenes and surrounding dialogue where characters are uncovering facts. I also appreciated how Matthews handled time between major branches of the story. On the flip side, there were moments where elements in the setting were rehashed too much and some characters, particularly the antagonists, lacked the complexity they needed for real depth and texture. This is a solid 3.7 star novel where the good far outweighs the negatives and is a novel fans will enjoy for its unique qualities.
Get your copy of The Sword of Solonus today.
Tom Clementson The Motley Chronicles
February 21, 2013
I think Adam did a wonderful job creating this beautiful world. I can't wait to see what Matthews will show his readers next. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews