Quest

A World of Heroes #1

by Michayla Roth

Two powers, two quests, two fates...two mortals struggling against the very forces with which they might have aligned themselves, had they been given the opportunity to choose. Two mortals, light and dark, locked into one intense battle. A battle of which the end has already been written in blood. A blood not their own, just as the battle is not their own. And yet, they must fight.
The year is 2E739, the second millennium since Euroclydonus, the last epic battle to shake Wundyrr's foundations. Two thousand years of peace--at least between mortal and spiritual elements--and now, the hidden script of a writing called simply "the prophecy" threatens to immerse the world of Wundyrr once more in a hideous battle, the likes of which could very well rival the infamous Euroclydonus.
Tiernan Lebonn is the single last link between Wundyrr and vitality. Should he fail in his impossible quest to seal evil once more within its fiery prison, the shadow will rise up to devour not only him, but also the world he calls home.
His counterpart, Shiloh of Cheokk, has been steeped in darkness since the day she was born and is bent on winning her own glory through the very disaster Tiernan is trying to prevent.
For either one to claim victory, they must completely lose themselves within the essence of their quests and trust that the powers to which they have surrendered will bear them up in triumph.
But as with any battle, only one can claim the victory. Or perhaps neither can.

Genres: Fantasy

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2011

About the author

Michayla Baer (writing under her maiden name of Roth) is a Mennonite author from Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quest is an epic story, full of the mystery and magic of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with a strong religious overtone in the fight of good versus evil.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the story. As it is listed as book 1, I look forward to reading more. I do have a few things, however, that threw me off from truly loving it:

-the characters (especially Tiernan, our hero) were not particularly relatable for me. Tiernan is on the side of good, of God, but he is so perfect throughout most of the story, with no real weaknesses to his personality or character, that it was hard for me to really understand him. Shiloh, our antihero on the side of the Dark, was a lot easier to identify with. I felt we got more about her background, her experiences growing up, that explained how she was the way she was. It was a lot easier to read her motivations - she didn't just want to do bad things (though she certainly did), she was led to them, trained by them, tempted by them. Tiernan, through all of his trials and toils, did not have that. Where was the temptation for him? Throughout Christian religious doctrine and history, there has always been something that tempted those who tried to do right, and it was their triumph over that temptation that made them into who they needed to be. There were few moments for him where his future and his trials seemed in doubt. And that, for me, made it a weaker story.

-the story as a whole goes back and forth between the two characters, and the whole tone of the story shifts as it does, which was really interesting. Unfortunately, with the multiple character shifts per chapter (and the time notations that threw me off for the first 100 or so pages, since I didn't know what they meant), it gets a little choppy in places.

-Personally, I would have loved the addition of a map of this world. The journey takes the characters across a wide range of places, and I had trouble picturing it in my mind.

All that being said, I did enjoy it, will probably read it again sometime, and look forward to the addition of more stories in this particular world.

[Elsa Carrion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I did not see that coming! I'm talking about the ending, can there be a bigger cliff hanger!! Definitely going to have to see what happens in the next book. I had to read the last couple of pages twice to make sure I was reading it correctly! I kept thinking “no it can’t be she did not just do that!” AH!!! I really did enjoy the story. It was full of action, so if you like swords fights then this is the story for you. The story is about Good vs. Evil and takes the two main characters in an adventure together but separately until the end. Both characters are strong and truly believe in their quest, hence the title. Sometimes the story dragged just a bit but then all of a sudden it picked up and the dragging was quickly forgotten. There was a whole lot of action and not much in the romance department, I wish there was a bit more. At times I thought yes this is it; they are going to let each other know how they feel. Ha in your face, it another fight, oh well there’s always the next book! I was lost on the titles in the beginning but I caught on to them, I did the palm to the forehead thing and said duh! Thank you Michayla Roth for letting me read and reviews your wonderful story, looking forward to the next book.

[Mia Darien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: on my blog, I give this a 2.5 which equals a 2 ("it was okay") on Goodreads, rather than a 3 ("liked it").

Once again, I see the reviews of others and wonder if we were reading the same book.

This book, and thus this review, are a source of great conflict for me. There is firstly the fact that I want to say every indie book I read is spectacular, but I can't. I hate to not be able to only say great things about a book that has been entrusted to me to review, but I won't lie. That's not fair to anyone.

So. I liked the ideas of this book. I'm a sucker for a Good versus Evil tale. I like epic/high fantasy, as it's long been my first love. I liked the characters as the embodiment of these concepts. I like some of the parallels to Christianity. Big quests are great, too.

I really liked the ideas of this book, but I feel that, for me, the execution of them fell down.

Detail: in EPUB version as read on my dinosaur Sony e-reader, this book was 385 pages.

For the first hundred pages, I found it very over-written and over-drawn. Honestly, if I hadn't felt an obligation to finish this, I probably would have stopped reading it. It struck me as an epic story that was trying too hard to be epic. Every verb, every adjective, every adverb was very active and strong. Taking both "show, don't tell" and "be active, not passive" too far. It's possible, in my opinion, to do.

The characters were overdrawn. Too exaggerated. And repetitive. By page 100, I was thinking: "I got it, I got it. Tiernan is good, faithful, doubts his strength, but has to save the world, he cannot afford to fail. Okay, Shiloh is evil, has been made evil, has her own quest, hates the world, will not fail." I didn't need it repeated every other page.

Now, after that, it started getting a little better. But it wasn't really until after two hundred pages or so that the text finally settled down. Characters and exposition and dialog were still a bit over the top, but it wasn't nearly so bad and I could fall into an easier reading flow.

Unfortunately, it came a little too late. While I started falling into the story more during the final hundred pages, I'd been put off too much and I was just not invested. I didn't really care who won or who lost, or what happened. As such, the ending didn't grab me the way it should have. It didn't surprise me at all.

The pacing felt kind of odd to me, and events that should have been big and dramatic were practically glossed over while scenes that should have been simple were dragged out unreasonably. Scenes, Perspectives, events and characters come in and go out that seem to lack any real build up or point. (Maybe I'm just blind, or just wasn't reading close enough. Maybe they'll come up again in the sequel promised in the Author's Note.)

I would love to be able to say that I fall in with all the other reviews I saw and just rave about it, but it just wasn't the novel for me. Epic stories shouldn't try so obviously hard to be epic. I'm a girl who likes more subtlety in these things. I believe that Roth has talent, but just put too much into this. Had the first couple hundred pages, and some to follow, been streamlined and tightened... With impact used sparingly and with a better flow and pace, this would have been just my type of story.

But that's also just my opinion. I am most obviously in the minority on this, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are many people who won't mind the things that bothered me and will love this book, because it does have things going for it. Still, it wasn't for me and I wouldn't feel honest giving it more than a 2.5.

[Djanique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before you read this review, let I first say that English is not my first language, so I suck a little in writing it, and (it was a little harder for me to completely understand the story) So, don’t be bothered by it!!

Let I just first start with the beginning, want every book has a begin. With futuristic or paranormal book, you just got to know/ understand the writing style, new notation of years and places. I had in the begin so much trouble to understand everybody’s name and the decisions both characters made. First I thought, why doesn’t kill Shiloh him (Tiernan) right now (first time they met), on that moment but I realized the journey starts after that. I found Shiloh the most interesting character. I am definitely not religious, doesn’t believe in it either, but the religions in this story didn’t bother me.

I love the adventure and the description of forests, cribs and places. I loved the mythical characters and influences from sort of Gods and high powers. Good and bad, which decisions you have to take and destiny. Both main characters were determinate and very strong written. From the middle, it became more interesting and with lot of action. I like the way that the story is written, that you get too sides of the story (Shiloh and Tiernan). The story was not boring, with so much twists and turns. The end was nice (that they finally got together and end up on the same side), and I am interesting what happened next.

I should definitely read the next book. (and also read this book again to complete it in a shorter time period/ so I can better understand it and enjoy it more..)

I read in an other review the idea of a map, I would really love that in the next book!!!

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quest is exactly what the story is. Two powers, good and evil battling each other. One to end the world and the other to save the world.

Tiernan Lebonn is trained as the warrior and chosen one to stop the witch Marie from ending the world. He was told not to kill Marie and to save the world.

Shiloh of Cheokk has been trained in hatred to be Marie and to end the world. She has never been shown any kindness from her mentor except to be abused verbally, physically, and emotionally. She is to end the world that has never shown her any kindness. She is be harness the essence of Marie. What she didn't know was that the prophecy has lied to her of her destiny.

Through the story Tiernan has been losing every battle encounter to Shiloh. The only thing that he has is faith in the Most High. The story from the Tiernan and Shiloh met on the road without realizing that they are on opposite side, the side of good kept losing. The darkness kept winning. Every one of the enemies are awaken from their sleep. Everything was hopeless until Tiernan saved Shiloh from being killed.

Shiloh then started to question her existence and her purpose in the quest. To her, she has just left one master for another. It is something that she was happy about.

The ending is quite surprising. I thought for a moment that is where the story end and that Book 1 must have been a typo but it isn't. There is a twist to the ending and it will leave readers wondering what will happen next. Even before the ending of Quest, I was also wondering about the Shadow that seemed to be following Shiloh. Hopefully the sequel will address the Shadow. I'm looking forward to the sequel to Quest and wondering what will happen to Tiernan and Shiloh.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In this tale of good versus evil, a prophecy concerning two people, a good man and a woman full of hate, must be answered. Will evil and hate succeed or will good be able to change evil?
From the first page of this book, I was drawn into this unique world. Though the world building wasn't as in-depth as I wanted, you still get a strong sense of what kind of place it is. You get a feel for the people without really knowing about their specific customs or lifestyle. The benefit to this was that the two main characters became the focus. Many people are so bent on killing the evil from the prophecy, killing the woman who is destined to destroy them all, but not the man of good. He sees the chance for something else, a chance to change the heart of this supposedly evil woman. While the characters are very charming on their own, they also provoke serious religious questions on good versus evil. What is the best way to truly take down evil? Is it even possible? What must good do to win out? The character development for both sides in this novel showed heart and courage, as well as some great writing.
The only reason I take away a star (and it would really only be half a star if Goodreads was set up for that) is because I personally would've liked more details on their world, aside from their calendars. However, I do think there will be a sequel, and that always shows promise for more world developing.
If you like epic fantasies, Christian-themed fantasies, or just a good story, I would highly recommend this book.

[Cheryl Landmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was not a bad story, with very strong overtones of religion and good versus evil. There was definitely a lot of action and the violence and gore was very graphic--maybe almost too much. A lot of it felt a little gratutious and overly done. And, being an animal lover, I was extremely saddened by the treatment of the horses in the story. *sniffles into a tissue*

Tiernan was almost too pure and perfect, but he did have his moments of self-doubt and indecisiveness. Shiloh definitely possessed a great deal of darkness and evil in her soul, but she, too, showed some human qualities at times. To me, she was the most developed of the main characters. I was puzzled, however, by her behaviour in the little town of Evanesce and actually wondered what the whole purpose of that episode was about. It seemed a little out of context with the rest of the story.

Abric was the most horrendous and strongest of the monsters that Shiloh awakened. The others didn't have as much of an impact on the quest.

The cliffhanger ending was relatively well-done, although a little bit predictable. Ms. Roth definitely shows a lot of potential as an author and I wouldn't hesitate to read more of her work in the future.

[Lynxie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An epic tale of good vs evil if I have ever read one. Quest follows Tiernan, the pure quester who is backed by The Most High, and Shiloh the quester who is shrouded in the darkness of the Dark One.

You can probably guess some of the plot points if you were given 5 guesses, but probably not the ending. That surprised me.

I didn't like some of the character names because it made the reading harder as I went along. I also think the alternate names and idea for the times and seasons was an added burden for the reader that didn't add anything to the story.

I liked a lot of the visual imagery Michayla created, but the occasional use of poetic replacements of words, again, just added a bit of confusion.

I would have liked crisper detail in the fighting scenes, but I know this is extremely difficult to get right. The fighting scenes were mostly quite good and easy to picture in my mind.

Thanks Michayla for letting me enjoy Quest.

On a side note - this is the first book in a while that I have not picked up a single error in :)

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading a book that draws you into the story, Michayla Roth does just that with the first book in the A World of Heroes series, Quest. The story follows the journeys of Shiloh and Tiernan as they begin their adventure across Wundyrr. It is and epic battle between good and evil, light and dark the effect of circumstance and environment on humane nature. The tale that Michayla spins is captivating too the last. I can not wait for the second book in the series to continue following Tiernan and Shiloh and their ever personal quest for what they believe in, what is right.

[Stephen Whaley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who normally doesn't enjoy the fantasy epic good vs. epic evil, I must say that this particular book did a great job of going beyond just that. The plot was intriguing, and even though I felt that sometimes the pace got a little bit too bogged for my tastes, I still read the entire book pretty much straight through just to know how it ended.

Another thing that I enjoyed was the different abilities displayed by the evil characters. I enjoy wizards and their abilities, and I think that the author did a good job in making them powerful but still vulnerable.

[BookishVegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well there are plenty of twists and turns and ACTION . Good vs evil with strong characters . Magic ,action and occasional romance . A bit slow and confusing in some parts but picks up towards the end . I would recommend this book

[Alena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, lots of action, light on the romance, interesting characters...

[Rebecca Santiago · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to stop after a few chapters. It was that bad. Maybe a much younger reader would enjoy it. But nothing like Tolkin or Rowling!

[Laura]

I loved this book. It was very exciting.