Challenge Accepted: Book 1 of the Unnamed Saga

by Stuart Maher, Peregrine Anish

The time for heroes appears to be past. Over 20 years ago, Trey ard Sliath and Serene na Ridire defeated the greatest threat their world had ever known. Then, they settled down to raise their families.

What do you do if you are the child of one of those legendary figures? Especially if you are naturally talented with weapons, like Serene's daughter, Athynae? Or unable to use a sword at all, like Trey's son, Athlain?

And what happens when you realize that there are still enemies to confront and threats to be faced?

Ask Athynae na Ridire, first child born on the island of Inis Bolcan following the end of the Darkening. Ask Athlain Treyson, eldest child of the hero who brought the Darkening to a close.

For these two friends, there is only one

Challenge Accepted

The first book in The Unnamed Saga , a YA epic fantasy series.

331 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 21, 2023

About the author

Stuart W. Maher III grew up surrounded by books and a love of the written word. Both of his parents were voracious readers; his mother planned and outlined a novel which she never completed. One of the most significant moments in his lifelong journey of reading came when his father stated, "If it is for books, we will find the money." As a consequence of that insatiable appetite for books, he received an M.A. in English, and spent the next 40 years learning how to write as if he hadn't.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll start with my first impression while reading this book: it needs an editor. I will say that it seems to get better farther into the book, or at least I stopped noticing the things that needed editing if they persisted throughout.

The story is not good, it's not bad, but it has extremely low stakes for most of the story, and spends far too much time telling the read, often repeatedly, what is at risk, rather than moving the plot forward. There are moments where the story hints and bigger and better things, some of them are in the past, some of them are probably planned for future books, but none of them occur in this story. The rather low stakes are made even lower by the fact that one of the main characters (the female) is treated as essentially flawless. The only trials she ever faces are the main plot elements, but every plan goes off flawlessly, ever battle she wins with little or no struggle. There is very little as a reader to worry about, and with her as the lead, there is nothing to motivate you to turn the page. The male lead is slightly more interesting (because the male always has to be the one with a bunch of weaknesses nowadays), but even he doesn't have a complete story arc, and when you get to the end of the book you see why; it's planned for future books. The female is not an interesting character, nearly flawless, has an attitude problem when she doesn't understand the very reasonable requests of her superiors, and is general flat and unlikable. The male is more interesting because he has an obvious character development laid out for him, but it doesn't happen in this book. If I were to read the future stories (of which there are three more planned) I would only be in it for the male lead.

The telling of the story becomes even more difficult to follow or get into because of the amount of made up words, places, and historical events that are referred to constantly but never incorporated into the story organically. As a result, you either have to endure sections of pure info-dump, or you are left feeling slightly outside of the story you are reading. It was like walking up to someone else's conversation and understanding 3/4 of it. I understand enough to not be lost, but I always feel like an outsider, and therefore not really invested in the story.

The writing has an inconsistent quality to it that at times is hard to fully articulate. Occasionally you have large enough words being used that it makes me think that it is written for an older audience, but then the relationships, the dialogue, and the story-telling maintain a much lower quality that seems more appropriate for a pre-teen reader. On the topic of writing, the world never feels fleshed out. There is not a lot of world-building (yes there is a lot of history, but the actual world is very poorly described), and even though there are some descriptions of the characters, I never developed a clear sense of the world I was supposed to be in. My initial mental picture was far more simple than certain descriptions that would pop up, leaving me with a confused, poorly defined semi-advanced/semi-crude world and a bunch of characters that were essentially blank husks that I only recognized by name. Also, it isn't ever defined anywhere, and it takes a while before you start to realize that they only way you know whose perspective you are reading is by the symbol at the beginning of the section. You'll figure it out eventually, but you may struggle longer than necessary to become invested in what little story there is in the beginning because of this confusion.

Also, mid chapter on two different occasions the story just skips forward a year, basically revealing how little even the writers think of the story they had been writing up to those points. The investigation that makes up the beginning of the book is just shelved and time skips forward. If there had been less dialogue that was more concise in its delivery, this book probably could have been the first third to maybe first half of a better paced and more interesting book.

I won't give this book a one star because I have definitely read worse, but if three is average and the minimum I expect from a completed work, this is definitely below that. I will at least say that, if the male character ends up pursuing the pirate treasure in the next book, and the female gets involved in all the potential murder and conspiracy that was hinted at, the second book in the series could be far more compelling of a read, but there would definitely need to be growth from the authors as writers if they want to live up to the story's budding potential.

[Hannah Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book could've benefitted from a little more editing. I greatly enjoyed the plot, characters, and worldbuilding, but I was left with questions not normally left at the end of the first book: what was the significance of the assassin and letting him go free with the poacher scandal? How old were the characters by the end of the book? Why were Athlain's parents so worried about him becoming a Warrior? There were also some typos and inconsistencies that threw me for a loop and knocked me out of the story for a few moments.

As I said, the worldbuilding was fascinating and the plot was engaging. I would like to follow this series as it comes out, though I hope the future books are slightly more refined.

Thank you to LibraryThing and the authors for the gifted copy!