A Quest of Heroes

The Sorcerer's Ring #1

by Morgan Rice

“A breathtaking new epic fantasy series. Morgan Rice does it again! This magical sorcerer saga reminds me of the best of J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, Rick Riordan, Christopher Paolini and J.R.R. Tolkien. I couldn’t put it down!”
--Allegra Skye, Bestselling author of SAVED

From #1 Bestselling author Morgan Rice comes the debut of a breathtaking new fantasy series. A QUEST OF HEROES (BOOK #1 IN THE SORCERER’S RING) revolves around the epic coming of age story of one special boy, a 14 year old from a small village on the outskirts of the Kingdom of the Ring. The youngest of four, the least favorite of his father, hated by his brothers, Thorgrin senses he is different from the others. He dreams of becoming a great warrior, of joining the King’s men and protecting the Ring from the hordes of creatures on the other side of the Canyon. When he comes of age and is forbidden by his father to try out for the King’s Legion, he refuses to take no for an answer: he journeys out on his own, determined to force his way into King’s Court and be taken seriously.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Ebooks, Magic, Adventure, Audiobook

243 pages, ebook

First published November 29, 2012

About the author

Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising seventeen books; of the #1 bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising twelve books; of the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising three books; of the epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS, comprising six books; of the epic fantasy series OF CROWNS AND GLORY, comprising 8 books; of the new epic fantasy series A THRONE FOR SISTERS, comprising eight books (and counting); and of the new science fiction series THE INVASION CHRONICLES. Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations are available in over 25 languages.

TURNED (Book #1 in the Vampire Journals), ARENA ONE (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy), A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1 in the Sorcerer’s Ring) and RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Kings and Sorcerers—Book #1) are each available as free downloads!

Morgan loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.morganricebooks.com to join the email list, receive a free book, receive free giveaways, download the free app, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!

Reviews

[Diannah Kaylani Paponette · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest I am just so happy to see that the goodreads community is a much better judge of good writing than amazon. It's mind-boggling how many good reviews this and Rice's other books have received there. The fact that these reviews are better written than the books themselves should tell you all you need to know.
I've asked myself quite a few times throughout this series if it's worth putting up with the horrendous writing to satisfy my curiosity of the plot lines. The answer is a resounding NO, but as I had already bought the series I felt compelled to. Throughout the books you see themes and even lines stolen from other fantasy writers and movies - Sword in the Stone, the Dark Knight, Spiderman, the Three Musketeers "We are one for all, and all for one" ... seriously?! FFS - not to mention contradictory phrasing, abhorrent grammar, misuse of words and elementary-level descriptive writing. Allegra Skye's affirmation is completely FALSE this author can NOT be compared to Tolkien, Paolini, Rowling or even Rick Riordan, who even as a children's author has MUCH better writing skills than Morgan Rice. In fact I would go as far to say it is slanderous to mention these authors in the same line as Morgan Rice. As others have stated, I have seen better writing come from my little sister in grade school. I can't understand how people can praise this book. In summary terrible books, terrible writing, wouldn't recommend to my dog. This is one author I will be giving a wide berth in the future.

[sad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Does everyone in the kingdom do nothing but scream at each other? It seemed that every other word that came out of someone's mouth was screamed.

*may contain spoilers*

Thor seems a rather simple, clueless character who is so plagued with confusion that I occasionally found myself infected. When he wasn't confused and wondering why the other Trainees (the ones who were actually chosen and invited to join) hated and resented him (it makes no sense! it makes no sense!) for breaking and entering into the training grounds, then basically failing the test they gave him, and only given a royal, if illegitimate, pardon and allowed to join after impressing the king's natural-born son, he's:
1: finding himself as a squire to the most famous knight, yet knows nothing about squiring and spends his time confused,
2: blundering around confused and accidentally finding himself in situations where he nearly gets killed but did it in a heroic way which means he's given a (magical?) falcon (with whom he feels the deepest connection ever),
3: having confusing random attacks of magic during matrix-like slo-mo scenes,
4: being adopted by the king (but nothing ever really happens with that, and can't even get access to the king, and is hated by the queen, so I can't figure out if he's actually a part of the royal family or not, so the confusion was on both his and my part)
5: finding a super duper rare omen of a white leopard cub that he's a little confused about(another deepest connection he's ever felt, and when is he going to find the time to raise the thing when he's having to keep from being killed in training?),
6: aaaaaand falling in love with the princess (who is supposedly the only child of the king worth being named heir [only we find out she cares nothing for politics and knows nothing about ruling a kingdom, so confusion on my part] and being confused if she really likes him or not (despite her being screamed at by her psycho mother and banned from seeing him [she totally doesn't stop seeing him], and oh, I think she was another deep connection, if not on his part than it was on her part. Lots of deepest connections evah in this book).

Not to mention shoveling horse waist, and hunting for foul. Everyone seems very excited for whatever awful thing they were hunting for, too bad they never found it and only came home with a cat cub and a boar. And about that boar, for a world that is familiar with hunting boar, why on earth (or whatever planet they are on) wouldn't the use a boar spear? Any regular medieval reader knows you hunt boars with a boar spear. Unless they are *trying* to kill everyone off, I mean, Legion training doesn't seem to be productive if it hasn't killed or seriously maimed at least one recruit. You'd think Edmure Tully was getting married on the training grounds on a daily basis, to listen to the training instructor scream at his trainees to not get killed.

Yeah...I won't be reading the rest of the series.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand why people are only giving this book 1 star. As a huge fantasy fiction reader, I found it to be well written. It may not be as complex as Tolkien or Jordan but that doesn't mean it's bad. I found the story interesting, characters likeable and well hated as well. I've read a lot of the reviews on this book and most people are saying its "too simple" or "too predictable". In the words of Hemingway "Do you really think big emotions come from big words?" As an aspiring writer, I give Morgan Rice props for putting out a good fantasy novel. It may not be my favorite, but its certainly not the worst I've ever read. It kept me entertained.....isn't that the whole purpose? So I disagree with 99% of these reviews. I think its worth picking up for a quick "simple" *rolls eyes* read!!

[Junkie for the Written Word · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/14/13 - If you have a nook these books are currently on sale for 2.99. I hope I like it, I bought the whole trilogy. :/

----
I'm on page 4
9 and I wo
uld like to fo
rmally protest the way this book is format
ed
.

Also, the last sentence I read was,

"Slow down boy!" she screeched, as he raced pas
sed her, stirring dust into her fire.

raced passed. RACED PASSED.

Also the lead characters name is Thor. I think there might have been a reason this book was 2.99. Perhaps I should change my custom of not reading any reviews before I buy a book.

--------------------
2/15 - This book is bad. It's a bad bad BAD book. I'm putting it on suspension until I have absolutely nothing else to read and no money to buy anything else to read. And no vehicle to get to a library. And no instruction manuals to browse.... and maybe until after I've reread every other book in my collection.

[Ryan Mckee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very few books moved me to action like this one. I wanted to find the author and let him or her know, that I did not want my money back, but that I was dreadfully sorry that my money in any way, shape, form, or fashion encouraged him/her to continue trying to be an author.

In a hurry to download some books before going out to sea for a few weeks, I bought the first three books based on reviews, and at the top of the list. I downloaded them all, and with a very LOW standard (I've been reading whatever was laying around the ship for god's sake) to be happy, the Author couldn't even get there. After the first 30 pages, I had to double check to make sure this wasn't some kid's book.

The character development is laughable. "Help, I'm getting hurt... oh look theres an all powerful ability that just happens. Wow, I can now use it all the time!" "Help, I've made an enemy..."turn page"who I just rescued and is now my friend".

After the first 60 pages, I was angry. Determined to finish despite that... I kept reading, imagining that it couldn't stay this bad. It did. I had bought and downloaded the next two books, so I prayed that if I skipped ahead the writing got better. It didn't. This book is awful in so many ways it is actually hard to describe.

The writing? Simplistic. The Characters? one dimensional almost to a bizarre fault. Bad grammar, and spelling mistake abound (acceptable in say... an online review. Pathetic in a published piece.)

I have read bad books... This far and away blows them all away. It's a shining example of why I appreciate hard copy publishers, because there is next to no way this book could have survived.

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

A thoroughly generic assembly of tired fantasy tropes played straight without a trace of irony or originality, including but not limited to:

-A good kingdom endangered by an evil empire on the other side of a physical and magical barrier.
-A prophesied Chosen One (complete with magic sword that needs to be lifted) whose identity is painfully obvious.
-The ignorant farmboy hero who desperately wants to be special and badass (and whose value is overlooked by his dull relatives).
-The "spunky" teenage princess rebelling against her authoritarian mother but loved by her understanding father.
-Love at first sight between the above two characters.
-The collection of super-helpful friends and unpleasant bullies in the organization the protagonist joins.
-The supposedly wise magician who speaks in cryptic utterances and natters on about destiny.

The appallingly cliched plot aside, the book is also poorly written. It makes far too much use of superlatives in describing things (e.g. characters being "the most beautiful person" or "the biggest man" the protagonist has ever seen), continually drops in redundant descriptions or information that could be shown rather than repeatedly told, and can't decide whether the characters are speaking Ye Olde Standarde Fantasye Englishe or Generic American Highschool-Speak. The plot happens at breakneck speed, our hero going in the space of seemingly a few days back and forth between anonymous peasant, mysterious magic-wielder, honorary-royal squire, feted hero of the day, unhappy military pariah, boyfriend to the heir to the throne, ignored Cassandra and prisoner. Finally, it doesn't seem to have a consistent target audience - the simplistic, seen-it-a-million-times plot and black-and-white characterization suggest perhaps a pre-teen audience (assuming the author has a low opinion of 10-12-year-olds' intelligence, reading ability and genre savvinesss). However, the book also has occasional vague flashes of Song of Ice and Fire-style "grittiness" which might be expected to deter paranoid parents from giving it to their precious impressionable offspring, like alcoholism, brothels and gay characters (evil ones, of course).

In short: a total mess, the kind of thing that gives the fantasy genre a bad reputation. Avoid except as something to point and laugh at (this book is free on Google Play, presumably to promote the no-doubt numerous sequels).

[Kathryn Ford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please follow the link for my full review:
http://www.bookrantorrave.com/blog/a-...

The blurb doesn’t seem too bad right? I thought oh this may just be a nice story, a nice little epic fantasy novel. To my horror, it wasn’t! At first I thought that perhaps it was meant for children, around the age of 10. But, in the blurb it does say it is for all ages, and this was confirmed when it was described how it felt to kill a man, and when brothels were visited, and crude jokes were made. Nope, this book is not for ten year olds. The writing and story just decided to treat me like I was a ten year old... or maybe younger; since, I know that ten year olds these days are quite advanced.

The plot starts off by reminding me of the Bible story of David and Goliath. Thorgrin, whose shortened name is Thor [chuckles] is a sheep herder; he has older brothers; Father treats Thor like a servant; brothers dislike Thor and treat him like a servant; Thor is good with a sling-shot; brothers get chosen for the King’s army and Thor does not. Sound familiar? Well, it did to me, especially when Thor killed a massive lion-like monsterous creature, partly through his sling-shot. In any case, although I found that all very funny, I could still deal with it, I mean most books have to come from some idea or another right??

When Thor is not picked for the King’s Legion, he chucks a fit, runs to fetch the sheep, finds one missing, follows it into a forbidden forest, meets the King’s Sorcerer who tells him he has a great destiny. Please note that Thor has never ever been out of his village before, which is very far away from the capital of the Kingdom, but he immediately knows that he has met the King’s Sorcerer. This happens a lot during the book, he somehow miraculously knows who everyone is despite his sheltered background.

Thor then looks for his sheep, finds a lion-like beast eating it, kills the beast half with his sling-shot and half with some magical super strength that suddenly appears. No one else has ever been able to conquer this fearsome beast, but Thor has. The Sorcerer then reappears and tells him that he should take his destiny into his own hands. So, Thor runs away, gets into a farmer’s cart and goes to the capital to join the Legion. Does this sound corny to you? Well, take that corniness and double it, then you may have an idea of how this book was.

Just because this is a fantasy book, does not mean that you make things unbelievable. The whole point of an epic fantasy novel, is that you get drawn into the world, and think “Hey maybe that is really possible”. The point is not to cringe, then laugh your butt off at how unrealistic and improbable the story is.

Now onto some of the things that really baffled me in the world. This world has two suns; a blue and green one and a red and orange one. They rise about an hour a part. They are never explained. If you are going to have different suns, then tell me why there is a need for them. Another problem was that if you have these two differently coloured suns in the sky, wouldn’t they impact how things look? Apparently not, since everything looked exactly the same as it does in the light of our one sun.

Travelling was fascinating in this book. When Thor jumped in the farmer’s cart to go to the capital it took them one night to get there. Yet, on the sixth day of the story, when the Knight Eric must leave to go on a search for a wife, Thor says that he will accompany Eric to the first Southern Crossing; because, he comes from far south. It takes them half a day to ride on galloping horses to the first crossing. In the book it is described that the capital is more in the centre of the Kingdom which is circular. The canyon runs around the whole land. When Thor goes on canyon duty, it somehow takes them only an afternoon to walk to the canyon...
http://www.bookrantorrave.com/blog/a-...

[Misha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good things about this book:

1. The plot is interesting and moves forward at a fast pace.

Bad things about this book:

1. The plot can be a little contrived at times and a bit predictable if you have read any fantasy books before.

2. Holy shit, does this book need the services of a decent editor. Some instances of modern words pulled me right out of the story, such as "crap" (noun) and some instances of missing words refused to parse ("in that way she was like her (missing word brother) Roderick"). The author seems to be enamoured of certain one word summaries of characters to create a more vivid picture in the reader's mind. In one instance, slovenly is used so many times in a single paragraph to refer to a shady merchant that I found myself facepalming.

3. Characters. The characters are archetypes of fantasy. The good and benevolent (and handsome) King has multiple children who may inherit: an illegitimate eldest son (another very good looking young man) who is described tediously frequently as the finest man I have ever known, the schrewd, manipulative and scheming second son (predictably his features resemble those of a weasel) who expects to inherit but is not shrewd and clever enough to hide his shrewd and manipulative nature from anyone (he is also gay, of course), the beautiful and wilful younger daughter of the King (we all know where this is going) and the youngest son who immediately befriends a common boy. I've deliberately left out an elder daughter who is only used as a plot point because her marriage kicks off the exciting events, and a drunkard lout son who we never understand anything about except that he is unpleasant.

4. The animals. In the real world if you find a random animal or one is gifted to you as a pet, you do not "form a deep and immediate spiritual bond" with the creature. In this universe, apparently, you can only stumble across animals that want to kill you or ones that want to form a spiritual bond with you. Oh, and all animals are apparently rare, except chooks and boars.

5. Last but not least: our hero, Thor. I'll assume I don't need to explain why naming your main character Thor is mildly silly. Thor is what I have come to recognize in fantasy novels as the "Fine Young Man" archetype. Everyone he meets will think he is a fine young man and embodies all the good qualities necessary for the situation. He will prove himself bold and loyal in combat situations, having a keen eye to foil an assassination attempt when no other (more capable) person in the group notices said assassin, he is appropriately enigmatic and handsome so as to capture the eye of the predictably interested princess, he has a mysterious gift that allows him to save the life of a knight and so the King adopts him (WTF? Will get to this later), he is sufficiently honorable to protest keenly when steered towards excessive drink and prostitutes, etc. It seems the hero can do no wrong, aside from constantly wondering why the rest of his comrades in the training program hate him. Here's a hint: you did not get selected and then essentially shoved your way in and got admission by unfair means.

5. Convenient but nonsensical plot points. Some really inorganic developments in the plot (which make sense only because in typical fantasy fashion, you know what should be coming up next) happen. Thor takes immediate liking to no less than ten people in this book. This is possible because handsome people in this world are always good and anyone described as an unfavorable animal (weasely, as in the case of the manipulative prince) or evil-looking (I shit you not, people are described as "evil-looking") are immediately identified as villains. There is a sword in the stone (very original) and only people from the King's line of descendants can try to lift it. This... makes no sense but it explains why it may be necessary for the King to randomly decide to adopt Thor. Thor also has prophetic (and strangely literal) dreams, which serve as convenient reasons for him to should about danger, have nobody believe him and then be vindicated later on.

Summary: The story, despite some silliness, kept me engaged. Perhaps a more seasoned fantasy reader would have flung the book away by now, but I kept going so I will read the next one in the series. However, I wonder why a writer who has published fourteen books in this series so far never thought to go back and edit the earlier ones or at least fix the very obvious problems.

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

++SPOILERS++

Freebie that had bad reviews. Took a chance anyway and found that I enjoyed it.

Do not go into this book expecting a tale of epic fantasy, amazing world building, major conflict or complex characters.

This book is a perfect low angst, sweet, entertaing read.

I rated it based on my personal enjoyment and did not attempt to compare it to other more prominent writers of epic fantasy, nor should you because it is not that type of book.

I really like the characters. Thor is just so sweet and honorable. Reese also honoarble and Thors best friend. Gwen, Thors love, is sweet, feisty and strong.

The theme is typical, but to me it never grows old. A young poor boy who has low self esteem finds he and his destiny are far greater than he ever imagined.

Yes there are issues.. lack of descriptions.. and yes people get severly injured and get up and walk around just hours after...Yes, the actions of some are unrealistic..Like the King thinking Thor attempted to poison him. Why would he think that? Thor was the one to prevent it! If he really wanted to poison the King he wouldn't have done anything!

The biggest mistake the author made was to make the villian homosexual. I think that pissed off alot of people. It made me feel a little uncomfortable as well, but I don't believe the author was attacking homosexuals. I think it was done for a purpose to the plot. The villian hates women, and is gay..and is a potential heir to the throne.. if so, he would also need to produce an heir.. that along with his greed would count him out as a successor and the Kingship would go to one of his siblings. It is a stretch, but seriously I don't think the author is trying to bad mouth gays..IMHO. Well anyway, even still, the author seems to have slit their own throat with that I think.


So one has to kinda let a few things slide.. I was in the rare mood to do that.

What I loved most was the fact that Thor wasn't a manwhore and remained innocent, waiting for Gwen.

Anyhow..I have started the second book, which is KU I think..because the 1st book ends in a cliffhanger.

Overall I like it, but it is clearly not for everyone.

Safety: mild cursing, no sex, mild blood & violence. Drinking and alcohol. Brothel scene no sex.

Romance peeps: Hero and heorine are virgins. Thor's friends force him, while drunk to go with a whore in a brothel. He didn't want to. He wanted to save himself for Gwen. His last thought was he was going to do everything possible to not be with the whore.....We find out later that he wasn't with the whore. He threw up and passed out..nothing happened.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this book free from the Amazon store, and I can say that it wasn't even worth the cost of the electricity it took to download.

The multiple spelling errors, missing words and generally sloppy editing were enough to set my teeth on edge while reading, however I have read some truely terribly edited books, and may have been able to stomach these issues if not for the lack of an engaging or even original plot.

The content was so cliché as to be painful, and the main character was one dimensional, confused and unable to make even the simplest reasonable or logical choice throughout.

***Mild Spoiler Alert***

The secondary characters were even more empty and weak, if that is possible, with the worst example being the Royal family, who are described as intelligent, caring individuals, yet act in a totally unreasonable and unpredictable manor. Especially the king, at the end of the book. Truely brain meltingly, terrible writing.

How this author has managed to have reviews from Allegra Skye which compares it to "the best of J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and Rick Riordan" is actually unfathomable. (I fear money has changed hands for such a foul, misleading lie to have been perpetuated.)

Not only shall I not read any other books/atrocities by this author, I would strongly urge you to ban this book from the libraries of anyone you care for, especially children, as it has so many errors that it will surely have a detrimental effect on their language skills.

[Immanuel Jegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terrible! I was initially not going to be so mean in my review, but it did something at the end that was really unacceptable. I'll get to that in a bit.
Firstly, the plot started off fine. But somewhere around the 10% mark it started fraying, and continued to do so until it fell apart. The main character seemingly has every going his way. Runs away from home, with no food or water and gets to where he wants to go with no problem. He gets magic powers that no one else has. Is able to perform heroic feats and receives rewards the whole time. I know this is meant to be teenage/children's fantasy, but what does that teach a kid? That if you're not lucky or blessed in life you can't aspire to greatness? The characters that actually worked hard to gain their abilities don't receive much screen time. Unjustly so, considering the length of the book.
Lastly, the author pulls a cliffhanger at the end. There's a right way of doing a cliffhanger, and simply implying that the main character gets thrown into jail just doesn't cut it. There's no scene of him rotting and contemplating what would happen in an epilogue with hints of what's to come. Just a simple getting grabbed by the guards and being punched in the face. It reads like there was meant to be more, but someone decided to just cut it off right there!
Considering that there are 8 books so far in this series and that this book is only about 2/3rds the length of a decent sized book, this just screams of greed and moneymaking to me.
In the end, this is just the literary version of fast food. The plot moves fast and is filled with exciting things happening in hopes of getting you addicted to the rush. At the end, you just feel like you've ate something bad and unhealthy.

[Kareem · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought something must have been fishy when I saw that Google Play gave it away for free. Turns out I was right.

*Spoilers*

As for the cover of the book, that castle is mentioned once in the entire story at the very end of the book. Once. And it wasn't even expanded upon, just vaguely hinted at.

The first few chapters were actually pretty promising (I decided to ignore the whole "two suns" thing) and I genuinely wanted to find out what was going to happen. Thorgrin is obviously a sorcerer of some kind, but he desperately wants to be a warrior. So how was this going to be worked out over the course of the book? Will he go on a completely different path where he will learn about sorcery from the druid (whose name escapes me at the moment)? Will he find a way to integrate his dream of being a soldier with his strange affinity with magic? Will he go on a spectacular journey with other people who he will be able to call his friends and comrades in arms, as the title suggests?

Nope. He and just about every other character are just going to ignore the fact that he can literally bend reality with his mind. Instead, he's going to focus on his dream of becoming a soldier, which is probably one of the only things I can give him credit for, except he acts as if his magical side doesn't even exist for majority of the book. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I find that very strange considering, oh, I don't know, he was adopted into the royal family because of his use of magic to save a knight and stop a war from breaking out!

And since I'm on the subject, why did the King so readily adopt Thor even though his knights on the border apparently do things a bajillion times as dangerous every day? I also find annoying that after the chapter his adoption took place in, everyone in the world completely forgets or something. Especially Thorgrin. Does he not realize that he's technically going out with his own sister, adopted as she may be? Does Reese not realize this?

Now that I'm done ranting about the plot holes that bothered me the most, let me move on to the characters.

Thorgrin seemed like a good character in the making in the beginning of the book. He' a morally good character and is willing to get along with anyone, to the point where he turns people who hates his guts to his friends. He has a dream that he needs to achieve, and has steadfast will. When he misses out and gets rejected in the opportunity of a lifetime, he goes on to create his own. After the point of joining the Legion though (really? Legion? The point of a Legion is to show that there are many, so why are there only like 30 or so?) he basically loses most of his character. He seems to bumble through the entire book with almost everything being handed to him on a plate so he could be totally confused about how everything is happening to him. And can the reader blame him? Everything just seems to work out to well for Thor (barring the last 6 pages or so of the book).

Reese could have easily been my favorite character in the book. He wasn't. He straight up had no real personality besides being morally good, had no past actions to define him, and didn't do much except do his best to be Thor's servant. I know the author was trying to establish a best-friend relationship, but it's so one sided in that Reese did everything for Thor that it just got annoying. The same goes for O'Connely, as he basically seemed to be a clone of Reese.

And then there's both the King and Gwendolyn. Supposedly, they are both kind and smart people. However Gwendolyn just acts so insanely shallow whenever she is with Thor it's not even comical. Not even a little bit. It just seems so out of character for her based on the description of her personality at the beginning of the book. Speaking of out of character, whenever the book wasn't in the perspective of either Gwendolyn or the King, they were both acting extremely out of character. Case in point: the King is kind and decently smart. He adopted Thor. He trusts Thor. He knows that Thor has special abilities. The druid (still can't remember his name) tells him that he will die soon. Thor warns the King of a vision he had of the King dying. Not only does the King not believe him, he snaps at him and has the guards push him away. Thor then stops the King from dying by poison. By all logic the King should be happy. But instead, he listens to words of his son Gareth (who he openly doesn't trust), gets really angry and immediately locks Thor up for apparently knowing that the drink was poisoned.

Alright I'm done ranting on the characters. There's so much more but I'm kind of tired. I won't even get started on the grammar.

All in all, this was a TERRIBLE book. It had many plot holes, no definite problem past the first few chapters, extremely shallow characters (I've honestly read fan fictions in which new characters made up by the fan author had a lot more depth), and an unengaging storyline that leaves people disconnected even during the climax. Don't read it unless you enjoy reading terrible books.

[Erica Elder · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books in this series are my literary equivalent of a train-wreck. Overall they are bad. However, I cannot seem to stop reading... most likely due to the fact that I've made reading* them into a drinking game.

Rule #1: Drink every time there's redundancy in the writing, for example lines like, "...looked at him/her with a new respect," situations in which someone owes/d someone their life, or when someone thinks they are about to die.

Rule #2: Drink for errors; including misuse of pronouns, names that are incorrect, misspelled words, and occasionally text that simply repeats itself.

*Please read responsibly and limit yourself to a few chapters at a time.

On a more serious note, if young readers are the target audience for theses books, then I would think proper grammar would have been a fairly basic goal for the writer/editor - but apparently not.

Cheers!

[Toya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every page of this novel. Morgan Rice takes the reader on a spectacular journey of magic, sorcery, and suspense. As I read each page, I saw the characters play out their own movie in my mind and didn't want the pages to stop flipping. I'm sooooo looking forward to finding out what happens next in the saga of Thor, please finish book #2 A.S.A.P!!!!

[Brianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty sure whoever wrote the rave review on Overdrive Media Console either A) doesn't exist or B) had a gun pointed to their head. (I picture the latter- Always Sunny... style ;-) )

Also, I love the fact that Rice has NO citations on WHO(M) thinks she/he's the #1 BESTSELLING whatever.

As soon as the druid in Ch. 2 said, "You have your mothers eyes," I got pissed. That's a line from Harry Potter. A well known one at that.

I also have a theory that Rice has or knows someone with above average computer skills. Rice is all over google with the exact same "biography" (and I'm using the term loosely because it says nothing about her/him at all) saying he/she's awesome and a best selling author and what not. Like, we're talking DOZENS of sites...it's mind boggling. But what's weird is there is absolutely NO info on Rice, the person, anywhere... or pictures or interviews. Nothing. It's all just really fishy.

I also cannot fathom how this book is at a 3.5 on Goodreads.

Seriously, don't bother. Even if it's free.

[Vito Gutilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please Do Not Pay Money For This...

Wow. Just wow. Forgive me; I have to take a minute here. Just.......Wow...I have to rant for a sec. Bear with me.

The Rant

It baffles me how a book this poorly written, derivative, unimaginative, and just plain bad could have sold so many copies. So, so, so many copies. It simply defies understanding to me. Here I am trying to be an author myself, slaving away at my own fantasy novel while trying to make the characters deep, compelling, unique individuals, painstakingly handcrafting a plot that's (hopefully) original and fresh when apparently all I have to do is take a generic hero's quest storyline (ooh, that'd make a good title, derrrr), populate it with cardboard cutout tropes with painted-on personalities, and have them run around doing generic fantasy crap in a completely and utterly reactionary manner. Then, apparently, I could just sit back and wait for the dough to roll in.

And don't give me that "but it's written for kids" argument I've seen so many times in the comments here. It's bad even for a children's book. And there's some pretty graphic violence here, not to mention a very cliche, negatively presented homosexual relationship, which takes some maturity to wrap your head around and understand properly. This is not a book for kids. Maybe young adults and tweens. But if you put it in the YA category, you're putting it in with such books as The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Book Thief, among others. While it may not be fair to compare them to a self-published author, you can indeed compare their target audience. Therefore, you can't tell me this was meant for children...I mean I can see how they'd be the only ones to actually think it's good, but I don't think it was meant for them.

By the way "trying" is the key word up there. I know firsthand that writing is really hard. Nobody is debating that.

The only reason I mention this is that I have something against a writer who is ok with her books containing grievous spelling and grammatical errors in her work at the time of publication. I have a problem with people paying money for something so frighteningly bad when there are other books and authors out there that deserve the money so much more.

If it were simply a first draft (because that's basically what it is), I wouldn't blame Ms. Rice. I wouldn't consider it an affront to fiction and fantasy. I would probably pat her on the head and say "Wow, Morgan, you've got a lot of potential here. It just needs to cook some more. Go back and write a few more drafts." But no, this is the finished version. This is what she released. Apparently it was even WORSE before she had it "edited" recently. It's the equivalent of a game developer releasing a game while it's still a beta version before releasing a patch to fix it AFTER people have paid good money for it. It's simply inexcusable.

Ok, rant over. Let's dive in to see exactly why this story is an unfinished, premature pile of clichés and cash-in fantasy.

The Review

Well, the book is bad, as I've mentioned. It's really bad. This chiefly comes from a few different core issues, though pretty much everything about it is pretty poorly executed. Let's look at what may very be the biggest problem with it: characters.

Characters

Well, the only character I really want to talk about is the protagonist, Thor. I mean, all the characters are basically soulless facsimiles of overdone fantasy tropes, but Thor was by far the worst offender. Maybe I'll talk about the others a little bit too, but the problem can really be summed up with Thor.

Thor is a fourteen-year-old shepherd boy from a small village in the hill country of a land called The Ring. He wants more than anything at the outset of the story to join The Legion, which is basically the army, and eventually the Silver, which is the King's elite fighting force of some sort. This is literally his only character trait, the only thing he wants or cares about in life at the outset of the story. Why? Well, he doesn't even know, as he tells the princess later on in the story. He literally never thought about it, apparently. He just wanted to join the Legion because....uh...he's a young, male protagonist in a fantasy novel...you know, reasons.

Anyway, he is of course hated and mistreated by his three elder brothers and his father. Why? We don't really know. He just is. He's told that his mother died giving birth to him, but obviously that isn't true because we have extremely heavy-handed hints that his mother is somebody special and still alive from the very beginning of the story, delivered by the most clichéd, poorly handled wizard character of all time.

Let me say this now: clichés can be good things when used well. They're overdone for a reason, and that reason is that they work. The hero's quest story line, the wise old wizard, the conniving, evil prince. They're all compelling tropes. They can make for really great characters when the writing actually portrays them in a three-dimensional, compelling way. It's just that in this story, the combination of tropes and poor execution makes it a double whammy of bad.

Thor is a completely reactionary character, meaning that he never does anything unless acted upon by an outside force. Even the times when he is proactive, it's either because somebody made him do it or it is quickly thwarted by the first obstacle placed in his way. That said, whenever he IS thwarted, the problem persists for all of two seconds before something pops out of nowhere and helps him overcome it, whether that be magic that is out of his control or a valiant knight saving his sorry hide.

Also, he is perpetually confused. Every single time he encounters a new situation, whether it be something as complex as the king's court politics or as simple as a freaking jousting match, he "doesn't understand" what's going on. My goodness, the number of times that phrase or some variant of it was recycled drove me absolutely nuts. That, combined with the overuse of superlatives (the MOST BEAUTIFUL girl he's ever seen, the BiGGEST man he's ever seen, the MOST AMAZING experience of his life, etc) made Thor seem like a wide-eyed, bumbling, incompetent fool. His only real skill is that he can throw a stone pretty well from his sling (and apparently a spear too, out of nowhere), but that's never enough to save him. He'd be dead a million times over if magic hadn't saved him every time out of nowhere.

Let's talk about that. The magic system in this book exists solely to get the protagonist out of a jam. He literally understands nothing about how it works, only that in any sort of stressful situation, it pops out of nowhere and saves the day in whatever way it needs to do so, whether that means giving him super strength, telekinesis, or anything else. He gets his powers out of nowhere while fighting a wild beast at the very beginning of the story and then goes on his merry way as if nothing happened. He uses it in the middle of a crowded jousting arena, seen by hundreds of people, but then nobody ever mentions it again. He just goes on being a squire and training with the legion without even the court wizard talking to him about his amazing magical abilities, even though the wizard himself claims that Thor is even more powerful than he is.

Thor is immediately accepted by some characters and immediately hated by other with little to no justification. The king immediately ADOPTS him and loves him like a son (never having met him before) after his show of magic in the jousting arena and the king's youngest son similarly becomes his best friend immediately after meeting him, as does a random irishman who pops out of nowhere. On the other end of the spectrum, his father and brothers hate him without justification, as do the majority of his fellow Legion members. This never fails to confound Thor, who "can't believe" that he's made enemies already and "can't understand" why he's so hated by all of them because of course he's too thick to get that they hate him because he broke into their training ground after assaulting a guard in order to join them even though he wasn't selected, but is then immediately accepted by the king's sons even though the general in charge of training is against it. But the prince insists they're just jealous of him and they're a bunch of meany-heads.

This is another one of the big problems with this character. It seems like we're supposed to identify with him, to sympathize with his belief that he's "special" and "not like the others" and as a result is misunderstood. The only problem with that is that he outright states these things to himself. He believes himself to be above everyone else, that he should receive special, deferential treatment. Why? Because he wants to be a heroic warrior. Why? For...reasons. We are never given the opportunity to identify with his journey and struggle because he has no goals deeper than a simple military position, no reason given to us why he SHOULD achieve those goals, why we the readers should be cheering for him.

The romance story line is another example of this. He had never expressed much interest in girls before he meets the princess, but immediately upon meeter her, both he and she fall head over heels for one another. This is somewhat believable on his part, but for her, it is not. At all. Why would she fall for this shy, whiney, bumbling boy who is two years younger than her? It's just relationship porn for tween boys, what every one of them wishes would happen to them. It's immature and completely unbelievable. There's a way to do that sort of romance the right way. This is not it.

[Bryan Nyaude · Rating 5 out of 5]

It sort of felt like I was reading an alternate version of the Games of Thrones in the beginning. The main character could easily pass off as Arya Stark, but as you read on, it begins to build into its own story. Aside from a few grammar errors and editing mistakes, this is a good read.

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst book I have ever read. That is all.

[Joyce · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I understand this is a book aimed at younger readers, I still found the plot simple and unimagineative. To call Thor, the main protagonist, a character is an oxymoron as he seemingly has no character at all. Aside from a couple moments of daring, Thor bumbles his way into fame and friendships, while spending the majority of his time asking himself rhetorical questions on long soul searching walks. This author has seemingly gone out of her way to insult her audience. There was clearly little editing, the characters and plot are contrived and the foreshadowing is so heavy handed that the twists and turns are about as surprising as the twists and turns on a merry-go-round. I whole heartedly believe the author was looking to make a buck by throwing together a stew of currently popular story elements from high grossing novels like the Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings, while sprinkling in plenty of medieval cliches (A magic sword? Come on). I would sincerely caution against letting any young adult read this book lest they come away confused about the differences between morning/mourning, flour/flower and a host of other homophone confusions.

[Kirsty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I scream, you scream, we all scream because this book is utterly frustrating.

I have many, many problems with this book. The most glaring is that the novel is just plain dull. The characters are flat, mono-dimensional. Author relies heavily on telling, and vomiting large chunks of exposition at you. Dialogue is clunky in places, and just strikes me as being "off" in this particular book.

First off, the plot: small town underdog discovers he has a *~fate~* that makes him special. Never heard that one before, amirite? Whilst this plot has been done to death, I am not adverse to it. Heck, there's plenty of enjoyable stories which follow that kind of formula. Done well - or given a unique spin - cliche plots needn't be awful just because they're cliche. However, "A Quest of Heroes" does not bring anything new to the market. On top of that, it's not particularly well written, meaning that it's not even one of those stories that you follow along enjoying the ride. It drags you along; you're not even passionate enough to kick and scream - it's just a kind of "meh" as you go along.

Second, characters: Flat. Flat, flat, flat. What makes Thor a compelling character? Nada. Zilch. Neit. He's a perfect "good guy". His destiny is never made interesting or even hinted at more than ~POWURZ DESTINY ERMAGERD~. This is perhaps personal preference, but nothing about this protagonist made me really want to read the next book in the series. He doesn't really undertake any characteristic growth. His true love Gwendolyn is equally perfect. Their relationship holds no interest. They have no conflict, and no real spark. It's not a compelling love subplot.

Third, the villian: Okay so the main villain in this particular novel in the series is Gareth. He has no real character development other than being the designated bad guy, angsty evil tyrant prince. I have to say that I personally don't understand why the author felt that it was relevant to make him gay. It doesn't effect his character development, despite the author making somewhat of a big deal of it in his initial description. Whilst I don't have an issue with the inclusion of LGBT characters, and honestly, would like to encourage such, I don't understand its relevance right here. It strikes a sour chord with me that the only specified non-hetero characters are the deplorable bad guy and his lover/henchman. This is something I personally hold against the novel, but I will honestly say, that this might be me over thinking things a little.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot isn't so much bad as it is unbelievable at almost every turn. The characterization exists, but it's weak. The author violates "show don't tell" repeatedly in some pretty atrocious ways. The author also contradicts herself, the main character experiences drinking ale for the first time, not once as is the usual case, but twice! Impressive.

More than anything this book needs an editor, and not just a proofreading, but someone to tell the author all of the many things wrong with it.

It's not worthless as a piece of fiction, but it needs work. A lot of it. I have no intention of reading the rest of the series. If I had paid money for this book, I would be very disappointed. The positive experience I gained out of reading it is that I gained confidence while writing my own epic fantasy, I kept thinking, Man... I know I can write better than this crap.

[SnakEmil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hello, The Sorcerer's Ring. It's me, who, having been starved for a good fantasy novel, snatched you up off Amazon and ate you right up. You and sixteen of your sequels. Desperately hoping this would get better, however marginally.
Spoiler alert: You didn't.
I have come back to the origin of this attack on English literature to warn any with the morbid curiosity to get into this abyssal void: there is nothing for you here. Turn back. Despair abounds ahead. Unless of course, you enjoy insubstantial, cliche stories, bland, boring characters, black and white morals, cringeworthy spelling errors and prose, and inconsistent scale.
Seeing as how wise reviewers have already torn this thing to shreds, I doubt this review needs writing. However, this is more than a review. This is a warning.
Let's begin with the story. Welcome to every bad fantasy ever. Hero grows up with unsupportive relatives - not his real relatives - but wants 2 b moar. His brothers get chosen to join the king's guard or whatever, but he can't go. He discovers he has supa powaz - conveniently, as he is getting mauled by an uber-lion. A sorcerer appears, and telz him he haz grate destiknee.
So he goes to the castle without permission, beats the hell out of a soldier in training, is congratulated for it, becomes bros with the king's son, immediately forms a romantic liaison with the princess, gets the bad guy to hate him though he didn't do anything (oh, by the way, the only gay guy in the story is our villain for the first few books) and becomes a celebrated hero with little to no effort. That's basically it.
Our man Thor is what we creatures of the Internet refer to as a Gary Stu - a character who is loved by all for little reason, is better at everything than everyone, and essentially gets everything handed to him. Thor is misunderstood and wants 2 be moar, and has the blandest magical power ever conceived - he shoots balls of light. Turns out later that his parents are mega-wizards from another land. There's a sword of destiny that only a special someone can lift. Who kud it b? As soon as he starts screwing around in the castle court, everyone except the bad guy wants to be either his best friend or his girlfriend. He is kind of an idiot - but not in a likable way.
The princess, Gwendolyn, is supposed to be nice and wise, yet naive and impulsive. Eheh... so basically she's a walking oxymoron, because her personality changes on a dime, though she always manages to be annoyingly stupid. Her dad the king is kind of okay, but then becomes a tool as well when he randomly throws Thor in jail at the end. Spoiler: he gets out IMMEDIATELY in book 2.
Thor gets random, next-to-useless pets throughout the series, starting with a berd, then a kat, then a f*cking dragon. Needless to say, the first two are forgotten entirely by the time the dragon rolls up.
Everyone is either good or bad. People's morals rarely if ever change. Thor is good, and the bad guys are bad. George R. R. Martin would puke at the predictability of these mannequins.
Spelling errors abound in this series, and it doesn't end. Ever. Homonyms slip past and make for thoroughly unfunny mistakes. This is not "My Immortal". This is a monetized, published work. There is no excuse for more than a few typos in a book - once the character's names become confused, one might correctly conclude that this work should have been canned and never released.
Last, but not least, the series - not just parts of it - is peppered with glaring redundancies, most notably "looked at with new respect". At the point I stopped reading, both Thor and Gwendolyn have each taken at least ten levels in respect from every major character in the story. They are more respected than in humanly possible. The amount of respect they garner transcends any believable limit and resembles worship at that point. And for not a lot, really.
You, as a consumer, should receive money for buying this book. It is a veritable cringefest, and the series as a whole will likely warrant therapy. You could write better. The fanfiction this series' followers write is probably superior. At least I laughed reading "My Immortal".
Beware, esteemed literate human. This is the worst fantasy I have ever read.

[Aaron Pinkwasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book or author, but the download was both recommended and free on Amazon, so I gave it a go. I'm glad I did!

If you are an adult, looking for escapism on your train commute with a bubble gummy fantasy, then this fits the bill. Yes, it is young adult fiction and maybe it isn't a literary masterpiece, but it was fun and easy to read and I felt like I was watching a movie as I read it. It is fast paced, engrossing, and I couldn't wait to download the second in the series (which is also free on Amazon, BTW).

It reminds me a bit of Game of Thrones mixed with The Sword of Truth - both series of books that I really enjoy, but for different reasons. While there are many similarities in the storyline to Game of Thrones, there are far less characters and long-term agendas, which keep the story simple and easy to follow.

I've started on the second book already and I'm fairly certain I'll read all four. They are short and poppy and you can read them in 1-3 days.

[The Jolly Elf · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5
ΘΕΤΙΚΑ

- Η ιστορία σαν ιστορία είναι ενδιαφέρουσα. Έχει όλα τα στοιχεία της παλιάς κλασικής φαντασίας. Ο ήρωας, η πριγκίπισσα, τα τέρατα, οι ιππότες και ο δολοφόνος. Μαγεία, προφητείες, μαγικά σπαθιά και μακρινοί εχθροί που περιμένουν την κατάλληλη ώρα για να επιτεθούν.
- Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη αυτά, είναι ο,τι πρέπει αν θέλετε να διαβάσετε ενα εύκολο γνώριμο βιβλίο φαντασίας χωρίς τις περιπλοκοτητες που έχουν τα τωρινά βιβλία που διαβάζουμε.

ΑΡΝΗΤΙΚΑ

- Ε εντάξει. Αν το βιβλίο ήταν φαγητό, θα ήταν κάτι σαν τα φαστ-φουντ. Όλα γίνονται τόσο γρήγορα που μέχρι να συνειδητοποιήσεις ότι τελείωσε κάτι έχουμε περάσει ήδη από δύο αλλες τοποθεσίες. Κυριολεκτικά σε διάστημα 5 σελίδων μπορεί να έχετε διαβάσει ��ια μάχη, εκπαίδευση, βόλτα με το ερωτικό ενδιαφέρον και ο χαρακτήρας θα έχει αλλάξει 7 διαφορετικές απόψεις ως προς τα κίνητρα του.
- Οι χαρακτήρες είναι καρικατούρες. Δεν έχουν βάθος ή μειονεκτήματα που τους κρατούν από το να ολοκληρώσουν το πεπρωμένο τους. Παρουσιάζονται ακριβώς όπως είναι στο χαρτί της συγγραφέα: όνομα, ηλικία, εμφάνιση, καλός/κακός, χιούμορ, γενναίος, δειλός κτλ. Διαβάζω για αυτούς και σκέφτομαι: ναι, αυτοί είναι ψεύτικοι χαρακτήρες.

- Οι πράξεις και οι αποφάσεις τους συχνά έρχονται σε αντίθεση με τον χαρακτήρα τους και τη συμπεριφορά που έδειξαν κυριολεκτικά 4 γραμμές πιο πάνω. Για παράδειγμα, ο τάδε σκέφτεται "ο πρίγκιπας είναι αγαπητός από όλους και τον λατρεύουμε,ο ίδιος πιστεύει δεν αξίζει τον θρόνο αλλά εύχομαι να γίνει βασιλιάς και επίσης ο ουρανός είναι πάντα μπλε" και στην επόμενη σελίδα θα πει "ο πρίγκιπας έσπρωξε τον βασιλιά, ΠΡΟΔΟΣΙΑ, μάλλον τα 17 χρόνια που τον ξέρω υποκρινόταν και κρίνοντας με βάσει αυτό το περιστατικό που συμβαίνει πρώτη φορά, θέλει να πάρει τον θρόνο. Θα τον κλείσω σε μπουντρούμι. Επίσης πάντα πίστευα ότι ο ουρανός είναι φούξια." Βλέπετε τι προσπαθώ να πω? Αυτό είναι το σκεπτικό σε όλο το βιβλίο και εμένα μου την έδινε στα νεύρα.

ΠΡΟΣΩΠΙΚΑ

Δύσκολο να το πιστέψει κάποιος αλλά η ιστορία όπως είπα από πάνω είναι ενδιαφέρουσα. Δεν θέλω κάτι περίπλοκο αυτή τη στιγμή και ούτε απαραίτητα να το λατρέψω. Παράλληλα παρόλο που είναι χάλια στην πλειοψηφία του έχει το παράδοξο ότι με κάνει να θέλω να διαβάσω κι άλλο αντί να το αφήσω.

Δεν θα το διάβαζα αν έπρεπε να το αγοράσω η αλήθεια ειναι. Ούτε θα συνέχιζα. Όμως έχω όλη τη σειρά δωρεάν οπότε μπορώ ελεύθερα να ικανοποιήσω την περιέργεια μου για το που θα πάει η ιστορία. Προτείνω αν θέλετε να το διαβάσετε, να μου στείλετε ένα μήνυμα να σας στείλω τα βιβλία και αν δείτε ότι το λατρεύεται (το οποίο απλά θεωρώ απίθανο) τα αγοράζετε.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually don't write reviews but I can't help myself in this case because I do not understand how this is is a bestselling series. I'm kind of shocked. And appalled.
Especially because there's some blatant stolen elements from fairly well known fantasy classics the most obvious one being sword in the stone.
And I mean BLATANT.
I read this as part of a fantasy novel bundle and I honestly don't know why I kept reading. I guess I was hoping it would get better. Or morbid fascination, I'm not sure. Kinda like walking past roadkill and not being able to keep yourself from stepping closer trying to guess what animal the poor thing had been although you know the image is gonna burn into your retinas and give you nightmares for weeks.

It didn't get better.

In fact it got worse. I should have stopped when I stumbled over this little gem: "his straight hair fell back in waves" somewhere in the first couple of chapters. It's like the author didn't give a hoot. This sentence pretty much sums up the rest of the book. It feels like it was written in one go, without editing, polishing, thought or care.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this author was already well known and he was sure his book was gonna sell because of his name. How exactly this turned into a successful series after this horrific disaster of a book is completely beyond me.
There's painfully obvious potholes, incongruences, inconsistencies, conflicting and often completely contradicting statements all over the place. The language is unsophisticated, and there's repetitions and weird phrasing and spelling and GRAMMAR mistakes for crying out loud. What the hell? I'm not surprised actually, maybe the proofreaders all conveniently "overlooked" this train wreck of a book.

The whole thing clearly takes place on another planet (two Suns) but then... We're kinda obviously in the very much Earthy sounding Middle Ages and NOTHING except the freaky second green sun is in any way otherworldly. Even the magical elements are unoriginal and weak.

Too much happens in way too short a timespan (the whole thing plays out in probably less than a week) and yet nothing really happens at all.

The main protagonist never really does anything, rather stuff just kinda happens to him which he then reacts to, usually with some show of stubborn naive and unlikely bravery for a 14 year old, (which I suppose is meant to portray him as charming, honest, brave and special but all it does is make him boring and predictable and "too perfect" - he literally has no flaws the poor kid) and the people around him react seemingly completely randomly and unpredictably in weird extremes, either adoring or despising him for really no reason at all, changing their minds within the span of a day or less and all together being totally hysterically inconsistent and shallow.
The amount of sentences like "he never felt this happy in his life" "he never felt so ashamed" "for the first time in his life he felt truly confident/like he belonged/that somebody cared" "he knew they would be friends/companions/whatever for life" "he sensed with absolute certainty that (insert random unlikely thing to be a 100 percent certain of at age 14 or any other time in your life for that matter)" and repetition thereof is staggering and a little ridiculous, and what the hell is up with all the random animals that "he immediately felt a deep connection to" and omg I need to stop this rant it's getting out of hand.
I was gonna write two sentences and then got carried away. My apologies.
Needless to say I could go on, but I'll spare you.

Anyway, in summary: if you're looking for well constructed storytelling, realistic plots (I mean realistic as in "logical and consistent within the universe created"), and characters with more depth than a brain dead chicken, you should probably search elsewhere because you will find none of the above in this book.

Needless to say I will not continue this series.

-edit-
I only noticed after writing this that there's already quite a few reviews here of people who pretty much felt the same as me. Thank god for the good reads community.

[Bob - Will Read Anything · Rating 1 out of 5]

*** Warning I swear in my reviews. If offended, please don't read on. ***

After seeing all the glowing, five star reviews on Amazon, I expected to be blown away by this book! Literally, I expected this to be the epic fantasy saga to kick Lord of the Rings in the knackers, mug Game of Thrones, and piss in the face of Harry Potter.

Seriously, some people infer it's 'that' good.

Is it?

No, our hero Thor starts out as a bit of a nobody, sneered at by his brothers and generally a bit of a numpty. After running off into the forest, following a major tantrum over getting into the army, he meets weird druid/wizard dude, who tells him he has this amazing destiny. He searches for his sheep, he get's a 'David and Goliath' moment when he slays a legendary monster with a combination of his slingshot and a hastily deus-ex-machina'd super-strength that appears out of nowhere. [The Plagiarism starts there, but it doesn't finish there!] Next thing you know he's buggering off to join the legion, next thing you know he's experiencing love-at-first-sight with the heiress to the kingdom.

If you like plagiarized themes, worn out old fantasy tropes and atrocious writing, you might, MIGHT like this. She flits between modern English and old, archaic Shakespearean dialect The plot does move fast, I will say that. Thor is catapulted from unknown peasant to magical, honorary squire to prophesied hero who is dating the princess, in less time than it takes me to have a shit. I mean I mean the story moves so fast I'd still be wiping at the point where he gets thrown in prison and all this other unbelievable crap has already happened.

This book is utter, utter tripe. I know some people have enjoyed it, but I can only assume they read it after having a bilateral lobotomy or a serious head-injury which destroyed the part of the brain responsible for critical analysis. At times you almost feel this could be the case for the actual author, in which case I apologize, if it is the case, then all credit to her for writing a novel in incredibly difficult circumstances. Why? Because of the use of strange, out of place homonyms.

"It's like she's looking four a word and their is a choice of too or three. She nose what it sounds like, but she's unsure of the spelling. She uses spell-check, however she has know idea witch of the words is the correct won."

That's just an example. To be fair if you had no trouble reading that and you don't mind grammar and spelling issues you might find this okay. Erm, as long as you don't mind an already over-done, cliche plot that's driven by constant deus-ex-machina.

To sum up, pretty awful.

[Sv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okuldan çıkış saatlerim tam İzmir'in en yoğun anına denk geldiği ve okulum, İzmir'in İstanbul'u olan Buca'da olduğu için ayakta da olsa boş boş etrafı izleyeceğim yere kitap okumanın yöntemini bu kitabı telefona yükleyerek bulmuştum. Okudukça boş boş etrafı izlemenin daha heyecanlı, daha ilgi çekici olduğunu fark ettim.

[Brewergnome · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. Two chapters in and there was so much trope and poor logic/economics I just couldn't anymore. And SO MUCH CHOSEN ONE/DESTINY (of kid with Teutonic name). Also awesome caring (Scottishly named) king of awaesomeville versus the jealous mean jerkfaces of jerkville (also scottish).

Bleh.

[Drew Errington · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's like someone read Game of Thrones and asked themselves, "How can i make this into a hamfisted Harry Potter knockoff."

[Laird · Rating 1 out of 5]

I realize that I'm probably not the target audience for this book, but it was free on Google Play so I thought I'd try it out since I enjoy fantasy. As I suspected, there was a reason this book was free.

The book is pretty cliche, but I suppose it could have been saved if it had some editing done to it. As it stands, it seems as if the book hasn't been edited at all. For example, there are tons of words that are homonyms of the word that was intended. It doesn't just happen once or twice. The word "site" is used in place of "sight" many, many times, and you get lots of others like "would" instead of "wood," which leads to a lot of re-reading until you realize what's going on.

This book loves to "tell" instead of "show." When a new character is introduced, you're told, through narration, exactly why or why not you should like them. And there's really only ever one reason, because the characters are completely one-dimensional. Thor is strong-willed, MacGil is good, Reece is trusting. When characters develop a new trait, it's not that it's added to their list of traits, they just become a new character. One character that was wise all of a sudden is no longer wise, and just becomes manipulative, etc.

Character names change and are completely inconsistent throughout the book. For example:

- Gwendolyn -> Gwen (given as the correct nickname) -> Gwynn -> Gwyn

- Conval -> Colven

- Conven -> Caven

- Krohn -> Khron (this one switches over and over again, several times, on each page it shows up)

- McCloud -> Cloud -> McLoud (the main character's last name is McLeod, and these names are just derived from the same name--I hope that's not foreshadowing something because that just seems so... lazy)

There are probably others I don't remember.

The book seems to forget its own story at times. Early on, Thor (the main character) gets drunk for the first time in his life. A little over 150 pages later, he gets drunk again... for the first time in his life:

He remembered the night before, the king's feast, the drinking, his first taste of ale. The room was spinning. His throat was dry, and at that moment, he vowed he would never drink again.
--pg 193 (ebook)

"Rough night, was it?" he asked Thor, grinning widely, elbowing him in the ribs. "I told you to stop after the second cask."
--pg 197 (ebook)

"I bet you've never even had a cask of ale, have you?" asked Conven, clapping him on the shoulder with a laugh.
"Of course I have," Thor shot back defensively.
He was blushing, though, and hoped no one could tell, because, in fact, he never had.
--pg 362 (ebook)

Emphasis mine. I know it's a stupid example, but it's one that stood out and it's just more of the weirdness of the editing in this book.

There are certain situations and words that repeat themselves over and over and over again in this book to the point that it gets ridiculous. The first third of the book is dominated by the word "choice." Everything is the most "choice" thing they have.

The second third of the book is dominated by the word "million." Everything weighs a million pounds. Everyone feels a million times better when a burden is taken off of them. The enemy army has a million soldiers (does the author have any idea how impossible it is to feed an army of a million soldiers, especially when they're a roving band of marauders whose sole purpose in life is to attack the kingdom (but actually, haven't in ages). They're never described as being big into farming and what not, they're always just described as mindless evil--but apparently starving mindless evil).

The last third of the book is dominated by "giggle," as in every girl just giggles. Actually, that's pretty much all women do in this book: giggle.

Every time someone wakes up, they are disoriented and we have to go through a description of how they figure out where they are.

Every place Thor goes is the most beautiful place he's ever been.

Every monster they meet is the most lethal monster in the kingdom.

Every person/animal Thor meets who is "good" instantly becomes a cosmic friend forever, and he always feels as though he's known them his whole life. Every. Single. Time.

The romantic characters instantly fall in love after saying about two words to each other. Puh-lease. And I'm not just talking about they swoon for each other... they mention how it's actual real love. Uh huh. Which falls apart almost immediately, seeing as how it wasn't real love.

The gay character of the book is (one of) the villain(s), but the author make's sure to tell us that it's okay that he's gay. Everyone knows he's gay, but everyone is cool with it and he's never bullied about it, so instead he becomes the bully. And he makes sure to bully his partner because his partner is too gay and screws everything up because of it. I dunno really what to even say about this part. It's not important to the book that he's gay, except that his too-gay partner is too weak from his gayness to get things done correctly, so he has to do everything himself.

Most bad situations in this book could have been resolved by one person just saying something. No one ever does though, because it seems like the human thing to do, and these characters don't really act like humans.

Plblblb... I dunno. Really didn't enjoy it. Just seemed like a lazy copy of better books that have come before it. I realize it's probably meant for a young adult crowd, but I still think I'd give my teenager something better to read.