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Courage
A Nation of Warriors... The Areli have fought back the darkness in their world for as long as history has been recorded. But now they find themselves faced with a new, deadly adversary. Faces a Deadly Foe... A Devil of unimaginable powers has entered their realm and will stop at nothing until every last one of them has been killed or possessed by the horde of demon spirits that follow her. By her cunning, the Devil has wrought a curse that destroys the very thing that gives the Areli their strength, leaving them weak and vulnerable to their enemies' attacks. And a Young Girl is Their Only Hope... Though young, Jade possesses the potential for powers from beyond her realm. She will need those powers to battle the Devil that secretly seeks to possess her body and use her otherworldly powers to not only destroy their world, but worlds without end. As her nation braces for the Heavenstorm, Jade must face her worst fears, and the Devil itself, to save her people.In the first book of this thrilling new trilogy, the battle to save the world is only the beginning.
- GenresFantasy
386 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2014
2 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 7, 2015
Honestly, I have been very hesitant to leave feed back on my own brother's book. Partially because I don't think people will take it as seriously as I do. I am my brother's first fan. He has been a natural story teller his whole life, even from the time we were small children. In our upper teenage years he just took off as a great admirer of the story in general and he consumed literature in a way and at a rate I was always secretly envious of. I have been listening to him ponder and refine his ideas for these stories he has wanted to share nearly all his life. Through his reading "research" and his studies he has developed into a master storyteller and he is going to paint a world you will never forget. I was his first fan and to me it is an honor to have my brutal mug tarnish the back of his book. Oh, and the first time I read courage it changed my life a little and it might change yours for the better as well.
January 17, 2015
So... it's been a while since I read this book, so I'm probably forgetting a lot of what I wanted to write, but I'll see what I can remember. There were times when I was enjoying the story; felt like a good, solid "liked it" 3 stars. But taking it as a whole work, I had to go with an "it was ok" 2 stars.
I think the biggest problem with this book is the one writers harp on all the time: "show, don't tell." This book loves to tell you what's going on, and makes little effort to show it to you. In the very first chapter, Jade, the my-name-doesn't-follow-naming-conventions-for-my-culture main character, is chewing on her hair, thinking about nothing, when the book all of a sudden goes off on a history lesson, spilling the beans on the entire religious background of the culture, then goes off on tangents about who Jade's parents are and why they're dead, etc. This isn't Jade thinking. She's bored, half-asleep, totally zoned out. This is the author, putting the brakes on his story (a few pages after it started), and directly speaking to you, the reader. This highlights another problem with the book--the author picks viewpoint characters for each chapter, and then completely forgets whose point of view the story is being told from. You can have a chapter completely from Jade's point of view, and all of a sudden, you'll get a sentence like "Little did Jade know, there was totally some dude hiding in the bushes behind her!" You know what? That's correct, she didn't know. Neither did we, since we were seeing the scene from her point of view. Why was that sentence there? Why not have a scene change and view things from the point of view of the dude hiding in the bushes? Because this book loves to tell you what's going on.
Descriptions in this book are really weird. You'll get an idea about what the world is like, and then one sentence will force you to reimagine the world all over again. I initially imagined the world to be fairly low-tech, since this culture lived on the edge of a jungle and jungle civilizations tend to stay pretty low-tech because they have easy access to food and aren't forced to innovate agriculturally to grow food in difficult situations. But no, you then find out that they have indoor plumbing. I still have no idea what their civilization is supposed to be like.
The good guys are Good. Too good. They are brave and righteous and always do the right thing, except for Jade, who cries (a lot), therefore she is considered weak and not good enough (okay, I'm paraphrasing a bit). The bad guys are Bad. They are 100% devil-worshippers. There are no deviations from that. They fail at everything they have ever done, they have never beaten the good guys, and they get treated like crap by their devilish deities. And... everything stinks and is covered in garbage where they live. Somehow, none of them get fed up enough with being tortured by devils, living in filth, constantly failing at life, to look over at the good guys and say, "Hey, you know what? I would get treated better if I joined their side. Even if I got thrown in their prison, life would be great!" But nah. They don't. They're just bad guys. They want power! The power to... get beaten by the good guys again. But maybe one day they'll beat the good guys! And then they can throw garbage around their city while devils torture them some more? I don't know... There is no motivation for this other country to keep on doing what they do. The good guys really don't have any motivations either. They have some sort of fortune-telling and prophecy-like powers, so they literally just tell the cast of characters what to do, and then the plucky band of adventurers go and do what they were told to do. They don't really ever have to figure anything out for themselves, because they've already been told the important points. Really kills any sort of mystery about what's going to happen in the book.
The ending of this book is frustrating. Something just happens. The book, of course, tells you what happens by giving it an in-world name, but it never describes what that means. It just tells you that "it's" happening, and after "it" happens, the book is over. In fact, if you read the... inside cover description or the back of the book description or whatever it's called, you've now spoiled the ending for yourself and you know just as much what happens as I do.
Anyway. I don't mean to be overly negative--I understand that this is this author's first real novel, and while it shows a lot of signs of being a first novel, the author still has the talent to get their story on the page, and that's a major accomplishment that most people are never able to do. And like I said, I did enjoy the story--it just had some rough technical issues that I think a good editor would be able to smooth out.
I think the biggest problem with this book is the one writers harp on all the time: "show, don't tell." This book loves to tell you what's going on, and makes little effort to show it to you. In the very first chapter, Jade, the my-name-doesn't-follow-naming-conventions-for-my-culture main character, is chewing on her hair, thinking about nothing, when the book all of a sudden goes off on a history lesson, spilling the beans on the entire religious background of the culture, then goes off on tangents about who Jade's parents are and why they're dead, etc. This isn't Jade thinking. She's bored, half-asleep, totally zoned out. This is the author, putting the brakes on his story (a few pages after it started), and directly speaking to you, the reader. This highlights another problem with the book--the author picks viewpoint characters for each chapter, and then completely forgets whose point of view the story is being told from. You can have a chapter completely from Jade's point of view, and all of a sudden, you'll get a sentence like "Little did Jade know, there was totally some dude hiding in the bushes behind her!" You know what? That's correct, she didn't know. Neither did we, since we were seeing the scene from her point of view. Why was that sentence there? Why not have a scene change and view things from the point of view of the dude hiding in the bushes? Because this book loves to tell you what's going on.
Descriptions in this book are really weird. You'll get an idea about what the world is like, and then one sentence will force you to reimagine the world all over again. I initially imagined the world to be fairly low-tech, since this culture lived on the edge of a jungle and jungle civilizations tend to stay pretty low-tech because they have easy access to food and aren't forced to innovate agriculturally to grow food in difficult situations. But no, you then find out that they have indoor plumbing. I still have no idea what their civilization is supposed to be like.
The good guys are Good. Too good. They are brave and righteous and always do the right thing, except for Jade, who cries (a lot), therefore she is considered weak and not good enough (okay, I'm paraphrasing a bit). The bad guys are Bad. They are 100% devil-worshippers. There are no deviations from that. They fail at everything they have ever done, they have never beaten the good guys, and they get treated like crap by their devilish deities. And... everything stinks and is covered in garbage where they live. Somehow, none of them get fed up enough with being tortured by devils, living in filth, constantly failing at life, to look over at the good guys and say, "Hey, you know what? I would get treated better if I joined their side. Even if I got thrown in their prison, life would be great!" But nah. They don't. They're just bad guys. They want power! The power to... get beaten by the good guys again. But maybe one day they'll beat the good guys! And then they can throw garbage around their city while devils torture them some more? I don't know... There is no motivation for this other country to keep on doing what they do. The good guys really don't have any motivations either. They have some sort of fortune-telling and prophecy-like powers, so they literally just tell the cast of characters what to do, and then the plucky band of adventurers go and do what they were told to do. They don't really ever have to figure anything out for themselves, because they've already been told the important points. Really kills any sort of mystery about what's going to happen in the book.
The ending of this book is frustrating. Something just happens. The book, of course, tells you what happens by giving it an in-world name, but it never describes what that means. It just tells you that "it's" happening, and after "it" happens, the book is over. In fact, if you read the... inside cover description or the back of the book description or whatever it's called, you've now spoiled the ending for yourself and you know just as much what happens as I do.
Anyway. I don't mean to be overly negative--I understand that this is this author's first real novel, and while it shows a lot of signs of being a first novel, the author still has the talent to get their story on the page, and that's a major accomplishment that most people are never able to do. And like I said, I did enjoy the story--it just had some rough technical issues that I think a good editor would be able to smooth out.
February 6, 2015
The story immediately brings you in--with the imagery and fantastic details you feel like you are right in the Areli jungle, or feeling the essence of the plants and animals, or worse, standing in the midst of the Devil! So well-written the story offers the reader an intense journey of love, sacrifice, and pure evil! The plot is truly terrifying and gripping! I could not stop listening! You won't be disappointed and you'll be dying for the 2nd book to come out!
January 4, 2015
Enjoyable read
I enjoyed reading this book. It kept me wanting to keep reading and I am excited to read the next book in the trilogy.
I enjoyed reading this book. It kept me wanting to keep reading and I am excited to read the next book in the trilogy.
February 5, 2015
This is an awesome book. The story line sucks you in quickly making it hard to put the book down (well in this case, turning off the book). The story has brought tears, smiles and laughter through out. There are tense spots where your left wondering what is going to happen as the story changes from character to character. I would highly recommend this book if your wanting a great read!
September 17, 2017
Great Read
Good book. Well thought out and organized story line. The magic system is very well thought-out and detailed in a way that makes everything they are doing make sense. The author does a great job of creating a new and interesting group of people. A people who are good and believe in everyone working together. It's a big contrast to the bad guys in the book who are very evil (super evil, creepy evil).
Good book. Well thought out and organized story line. The magic system is very well thought-out and detailed in a way that makes everything they are doing make sense. The author does a great job of creating a new and interesting group of people. A people who are good and believe in everyone working together. It's a big contrast to the bad guys in the book who are very evil (super evil, creepy evil).
February 21, 2015
This is an awesome book. The story line sucks you in quickly making it hard to put the book down (well in this case, turning off the book). The story has brought tears, smiles and laughter through out. There are tense spots where your left wondering what is going to happen as the story changes from character to character. I would highly recommend this book if your wanting a great read!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews