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The Cosmic Fairy Tale #1
Phate: The Cosmic Fairy Tale
In the far distant future, in a forsaken galaxy of dying stars, the last great war between good and evil erupts when the Devil King of the Dark Forever attacks the haunted world of Phate. Overwhelmed by the Devil King's vast legions, the cosmic guardians of the universe call upon Drinwor Fang, a young dusk elf deemed the Son and Savior of the Stars. Bequeathed the legendary Sunsword Surassis, it is his destiny to fight for all the universe. But before he can defend the forces of light, Drinwor must elude the clutches of an even more despicable fiend than the Devil...
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
484 pages, Paperback
First published October 9, 2012
10 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Jason Alan
1 book3 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Hello!
I was born and raised on Long Island NY, and grew up through the late seventies and 80's, when Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott and James Cameron were on top of the sci-fi world (well, they still are in my mind!). I immersed myself in all things Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, etc etc, and ate up a zillion fantasy books, including the Dragonlance saga and the Drizzt Dark Elf books, and Shannara, Elric, and many others. It was the dawn of home computing, video games, and just all in all a very creative time to be a child and teenager.
This wonderful childhood led me to have a fairly active imagination which in turn gave rise to...dum dum dum!!! Phate: The Cosmic Fairy Tale. It is a summation of all my ideas and creative musings that were deeply rooted in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the myriad other fantastical works we humans have produced over the centuries, whether written or on film. Im glad to be here at Goodreads, and hope to correspond with like-minded geeks!! oh...I mean, like-minded people...
I hope some of you can check out Phate; I'm very proud of it, and hard at work on the sequel. I think people will find it...original, unique, and a helluva ride....
One Life, One Soul, One Sword.....
Hello!
I was born and raised on Long Island NY, and grew up through the late seventies and 80's, when Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott and James Cameron were on top of the sci-fi world (well, they still are in my mind!). I immersed myself in all things Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, etc etc, and ate up a zillion fantasy books, including the Dragonlance saga and the Drizzt Dark Elf books, and Shannara, Elric, and many others. It was the dawn of home computing, video games, and just all in all a very creative time to be a child and teenager.
This wonderful childhood led me to have a fairly active imagination which in turn gave rise to...dum dum dum!!! Phate: The Cosmic Fairy Tale. It is a summation of all my ideas and creative musings that were deeply rooted in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the myriad other fantastical works we humans have produced over the centuries, whether written or on film. Im glad to be here at Goodreads, and hope to correspond with like-minded geeks!! oh...I mean, like-minded people...
I hope some of you can check out Phate; I'm very proud of it, and hard at work on the sequel. I think people will find it...original, unique, and a helluva ride....
One Life, One Soul, One Sword.....
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 22, 2013
My hat is off to Jason Alan for creating a universe where magic and science fiction live side by side. The whole story is written in an omniscient fairy tale voice, as well which has got to be hard to pull off as consistently as he did.
The world of Phate, however, knows only magic. They have a breed of elf for every ecological niche, a breed of dragon for every element of nature, flying castles, ghostly cities, and hordes of demons waiting just the other side of a dimensional rift to the Forever Dark.
There is a lot of imagination here, more creative mojo than you can shake a dozen sticks at. When the scenes brought me in visually, I found myself stunned by the beauty or devastation of it all. Throw an enormous special effects budget at this and you will have something like the next Neverending Story--in appearance.
The action is first rate as well. There's a taste of epic in every fight and every chase scene. Characters push to their limits and then turn the knob that one extra notch, pretty much every time. The battles are lingered over for pages almost gratuitously. If you want cinematic action, you are gonna get it here.
So what's the problem, why only three stars? I am afraid it is subjective of me, but I will try to list out my issues.
The names and titles of many characters and things bugged me. What's in a name? A lot. Or at least there should be, these bordered on alliterative silliness. Soular Centurion 7, Cauldron of Carcass Control, Sillithian Synnstrike, Sunsword Surassis, to name a few. Other names like Cliffs of Moaning Wishes just conjure images of WTF in my head. A lot of thought went into many of the character names, but some of them, like Drinwor Fang (the good guy hero mind you) have names that just don't do the story any favors. Was it comediene Phyllis Diller who had the boyfriend she inevitably mentioned named "Fang"?
Too much of a good thing. I love dragons and elves. I don't balk at them as fantasy trope one bit. So why do they bother me here? As I said, too much of a good thing. If you were not a dragon or an elf, you had no business on the world of Phate. By having a dragon or an elf for all seasons, elements, climates, and belly lint, they just descended into a glompy mess of oatmeal to me. I am being very subjective here, and I admit it. To me, for all that they are lovingly described, these fantastic beings get reduced here to plain vanilla. The characterizations of the dragons does them no justice either. Zraz and Morning's Hope have identical personalities. After their descriptions, they become the same dragon.
Zero depth. I really kept looking for depth, some backstory on anyone. I think Drinwor Fang, the main character, got one or two lines to say he was the last surviving dusk elf orphan. That's it, other than that we can just believe he's been in stasis until he enters the story. Nothing about what a dusk elf is, nothing about why he is the last one. He is just Joe Protagonist along for the ride. Now, I don't have much of a leg to stand on here, in that this story is called "a fairy tale" and typically a fairy tale doesn't say why the wicked witch is wicked, we just know she is because they would not have called her "wicked" if it was not true, right? I want a bit more. This issue is rampant everywhere in the story. The set dressings were painfully shallow. Ulith Urn, a ghost city, on partially material in the plane of Phate. What a great setting, imaginative indeed, but its history is only hinted at. It too becomes so much set dressing.
I hope I have described the love/hate thing I have going on with this story. When my head was in the story, I gobbled it up with a stick and a spoon, but when I got smacked in the face by a cheesy name, a heavy handed window dressing, or a cardboard characterization my head would pop right out. Sometimes it was a struggle to get back in and enjoy the action and pure flights of imagination.
In the end, I personally require more depth, but I think fantasy lovers can appreciate the imagination that went into this story.
The world of Phate, however, knows only magic. They have a breed of elf for every ecological niche, a breed of dragon for every element of nature, flying castles, ghostly cities, and hordes of demons waiting just the other side of a dimensional rift to the Forever Dark.
There is a lot of imagination here, more creative mojo than you can shake a dozen sticks at. When the scenes brought me in visually, I found myself stunned by the beauty or devastation of it all. Throw an enormous special effects budget at this and you will have something like the next Neverending Story--in appearance.
The action is first rate as well. There's a taste of epic in every fight and every chase scene. Characters push to their limits and then turn the knob that one extra notch, pretty much every time. The battles are lingered over for pages almost gratuitously. If you want cinematic action, you are gonna get it here.
So what's the problem, why only three stars? I am afraid it is subjective of me, but I will try to list out my issues.
The names and titles of many characters and things bugged me. What's in a name? A lot. Or at least there should be, these bordered on alliterative silliness. Soular Centurion 7, Cauldron of Carcass Control, Sillithian Synnstrike, Sunsword Surassis, to name a few. Other names like Cliffs of Moaning Wishes just conjure images of WTF in my head. A lot of thought went into many of the character names, but some of them, like Drinwor Fang (the good guy hero mind you) have names that just don't do the story any favors. Was it comediene Phyllis Diller who had the boyfriend she inevitably mentioned named "Fang"?
Too much of a good thing. I love dragons and elves. I don't balk at them as fantasy trope one bit. So why do they bother me here? As I said, too much of a good thing. If you were not a dragon or an elf, you had no business on the world of Phate. By having a dragon or an elf for all seasons, elements, climates, and belly lint, they just descended into a glompy mess of oatmeal to me. I am being very subjective here, and I admit it. To me, for all that they are lovingly described, these fantastic beings get reduced here to plain vanilla. The characterizations of the dragons does them no justice either. Zraz and Morning's Hope have identical personalities. After their descriptions, they become the same dragon.
Zero depth. I really kept looking for depth, some backstory on anyone. I think Drinwor Fang, the main character, got one or two lines to say he was the last surviving dusk elf orphan. That's it, other than that we can just believe he's been in stasis until he enters the story. Nothing about what a dusk elf is, nothing about why he is the last one. He is just Joe Protagonist along for the ride. Now, I don't have much of a leg to stand on here, in that this story is called "a fairy tale" and typically a fairy tale doesn't say why the wicked witch is wicked, we just know she is because they would not have called her "wicked" if it was not true, right? I want a bit more. This issue is rampant everywhere in the story. The set dressings were painfully shallow. Ulith Urn, a ghost city, on partially material in the plane of Phate. What a great setting, imaginative indeed, but its history is only hinted at. It too becomes so much set dressing.
I hope I have described the love/hate thing I have going on with this story. When my head was in the story, I gobbled it up with a stick and a spoon, but when I got smacked in the face by a cheesy name, a heavy handed window dressing, or a cardboard characterization my head would pop right out. Sometimes it was a struggle to get back in and enjoy the action and pure flights of imagination.
In the end, I personally require more depth, but I think fantasy lovers can appreciate the imagination that went into this story.
September 13, 2019
Great potential... poorly executed.
The base idea for the book is great, but it drags and drags and drags for pages and pages as the author tries to construct a immense universe but totally forgets about setting a right pace for the story he is telling. The characters are really shallow and dialogues are child like. I really wanted to like it soooo much, but finishing the book was already a huge accomplishment for me. Won’t be pursuing this series.
The base idea for the book is great, but it drags and drags and drags for pages and pages as the author tries to construct a immense universe but totally forgets about setting a right pace for the story he is telling. The characters are really shallow and dialogues are child like. I really wanted to like it soooo much, but finishing the book was already a huge accomplishment for me. Won’t be pursuing this series.
September 22, 2015
The world building of this book is amazingly accurate. I love the actions descriptions.I love dragons and especially talking dragons.
For some reason, which might be entirely personal, the writing style kept putting me out of the book. I couldn't go deep into the story and travel to this dying world. The dialogues felt quite mechanical and all the rythm of the storyline (up to the point I dropped ) was off somehow.
For some reason, which might be entirely personal, the writing style kept putting me out of the book. I couldn't go deep into the story and travel to this dying world. The dialogues felt quite mechanical and all the rythm of the storyline (up to the point I dropped ) was off somehow.
February 28, 2015
Science Fantasy
This is a science fantasy novel. A genre where elements of science fiction and fantasy are combined. The author is trying for something that combines Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars but completely misses the mark.
This is a science fantasy novel. A genre where elements of science fiction and fantasy are combined. The author is trying for something that combines Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars but completely misses the mark.
February 3, 2016
Loved it! A new edition will be out in a few months, so it will be even more enjoyable. Can't wait to read Phate II! A wild ride and a lot of fun. "Cosmic Fairy Tale" is a perfect description.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews