Omni and the Blazed Boy

by Benjamin Ver Burg, Sheri Ver Burg

Twelve-year-old Myles has only known the confines of the small orphanage where he grew up. But his life is irreversibly altered when two mysterious men arrive at a local festival, intent on capturing him.
Myles soon discovers a shocking he was born in the inner world, Escalia, a fantastical world hidden beneath the earth's crust. Thrust into this extraordinary reality, he must learn to navigate this new world and confront the mystery surrounding his missing parents.

During his journey, Myles finds an unlikely partner, attempts to harness a strange gifted ability, and forges friendships at the Feylux Academy for the blessed and blazed.

This first book in a captivating new series will leave you breathless and wanting more as Myles discovers his true potential and confronts a destiny greater than he ever imagined!

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons

299 pages, Paperback

Published January 25, 2025

Reviews

[Elijah · Rating 5 out of 5]

⚔️A Great Story of Adventure!…⚔️

✏️REVIEW✏️

I would like to thank Benjamin Ver Burg and Sheri Ver Burg for giving me the opportunity to review this book! Thank you both!

🗯My Thoughts: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Omni and the Blazed Boy" is an amazing story that beautifully portrays adventure, friendship, and the journey of self-discovery. From the very first page, I was drawn into a colorful and exciting world full of creativity.😁 ↓↓↓

📖 Overview: Twelve-year-old Myles has only known the confines of the small orphanage where he grew up. However, his life is irreversibly altered when two mysterious men arrive at a local festival, intent on capturing him. Myles soon uncovers a shocking truth: he was born in the inner world, Escalia, a fantastical realm hidden beneath the earth's crust. Thrust into this extraordinary reality, he must learn to navigate this new world and confront the mystery surrounding his missing parents.

Things I Liked: 👍 - Myles was an awesome character! - The world-building was really impressive! Loved the dragon themes🐲

Content: 🤬 Language: 0/5
⚔️ Violence: 2/5. Minor fighting scenes.
⚠️ Sexual: 0/5

I LOVED the illustrations! Wonderful job! 😍

Favorite characters: ✓✓✓
- ✨Myles✨
- ✨Kamara✨
- ✨Sigurd✨

I CAN’T WAIT FOR BOOK TWO!!!!

[Ѽ tazannah Ѽ]

So excited to read this! Thank you to the authors for giving me a free physical copy! And the cover! Ugh, it just lures me 😍

If you guys think you’ll be interested in this book, read it, and please review it to help smaller authors out there publicize their books!

Update as of 8/23/25- just got the hardcover today and I can’t obsessing over the cover. Also, I love the small font and long pages>>>
🤗🤗

[Laura and Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read and thoroughly enjoyed buddy reading with Sharon Loves to Read!

I found this to be a nice read for young boys- I’m sure my son will love it once he’s old enough- his name is Miles, too. I think my daughter would enjoy this as well, she’s 8.

The writing is well done and flows great! The dragons are fun and there’s a lot of mystery to this new world that Myles finds himself a part of. The chapter breaks are nicely done and left me wanting to get to the next chapter to find out what is going to happen next!

This is definitely going to be a series- we’re left with a big cliffhanger at the end!

I think this will be a great Middle Grade series and I’m looking forward to my own kids reading it one day.

For me personally, I think the resemblance to Harry Potter was a bit heavy. To the point that it pulled me out of the story and caused me to try and find HP connections throughout reading it.

Overall, fun story and the artwork was beautiful!

[Wayward Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut novel offers quite a lot to middle grade readers! It's got engaging main characters, dragon bonding (and hopefully riding in the coming books?), a magic school, creative world building, an ensemble of characters who end up being fast friends, and some good puzzles and mysteries that need to be solved.

My personal favorite element was the nature of the world itself - it is unique and I imagine would be very intriguing for young readers. And as a reader who enjoys all things dragons, I also really liked the method of finding a dragon to bond with, and the classification of dragons by the type of magical breath they possess.

There are a few elements that will feel familiar to the more avid young scifi/fantasy fans: the magic school and after-hours shenanigans that ensue are not unlike what we see at Hogwarts. And in an effort not to spoil any of the fun surprises the story holds, suffice it to say there are one or two other features of the story that were reminiscent of other well-loved fantasy worlds. This makes it a good choice for children who are fans of popular properties like Harry Potter, Star Wars, How to Train Your Dragon, etc.

This is a debut novel, and as such some of the descriptions, a couple character dialects, and a word choice here and there that caught me as a little odd, and pulled me out of the story briefly as I paused to discern the authors' intent. I don't think that is likely to phase younger readers too much, there may just be one or two new words worth looking up as they go along, because they didn't seem as easy to figure out from context clues.

All in all, the Ver Burgs have created an exciting world with an engaging cast of characters, good humor, and enough familiarity with fantasy/scifi tropes that I believe this book would be an good choice for middle grade readers who enjoy fantasy staples like magic schools and dragon riding.

[Brycen Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our son loved this book! We were impressed with the way its was written with great fun and adventure, keeping him captivated, but without being too dark and evil little other books we looked at. Great characters, plot twists, and of course… dragons! Lol

[London Binford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I bought this for my 10 year old, who devoured it. I was intrigued so I read it too. Great book! Loved the characters, especially the four main friends. Great adventure, funny dialogue, and unforeseen twists. I can’t wait for the next one. Worth getting!

[~*Ellie*~ (Taylor's Version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐
Thank you so much to Ben for sending me a free copy on kindle to review!
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I enjoyed this book so much! It was a little slow at first but once I really got into it I binged the entire thing. I love the dragons and the way the school worked was so well thought out. The plot and characters were amazing. It honestly reminded me of the nostalgia of reading the Harry Potter books for the first time. The school was amazing and the writing style was beautiful and so easy to read. I absolutely cannot wait for the second one to come out and to hear more of Myles and Omni’s story.

I also loved the fact that this book was completely clean. I feel like it's hard to find good books without an awful amount of swearing and this book had none of that which is awesome. I am always looking for books like that.

And let's just take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous hand drawn pictures in this book. They really helped immerse me in the world even more and I was excited to see each one. Sheri Ver Burg did an AMAZING job on those.

Overall I would say, go pick up this book right now. No matter what age or gender you are, you will love it. I can’t wait for my family to read this book. They are going to love it.
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Thanks once again to Ben for sending me this copy. I can’t wait to read your next book. You guys did an amazing job.

[Abby (Reader of Clean Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover is so cool. If I were the kind of person to impulsively buy a book solely based on the cover, I definitely would’ve with this book. But also, who’s on the cover? Is it Myles, Hickalick, and Zalaph? And I really like the title.

At first, for some reason, I thought it took place in medieval times. I dunno why. Just kinda seemed like it, I guess. 🤷‍♀️

Ok, so they’re underground. Are they upside down? Like, on the underside of the earth’s crust? It also kinda reminded me of Journey to the Center of the Earth a little bit (this was a heck of a lot better than that tho).

I love dragons. And all the different flames are so cool.

I thought it was quite funny when that rock dragon broke into the cabin. It was very amusing.

I love Sigurd so much. Hickalick comes a close second, despite the not-so-nice thing he did.

I really like the Caldera map. I love maps. The Caldera is also just so cool (I need a different word to say instead of cool lol).

Myles just kept on dropping the egg! Like, bro don’t you know that eggs are fragile? Yes, I know the first time he dropped it was totally an accident and probably couldn’t have been avoided, but that’s not what I’m referring to. SPOILER ➡️Considering the amount of times Myles dropped the poor egg, it’s not surprising that Omni ended up being at bit sickly.

Sometimes I would read karma instead of Kamara 😭. I didn’t really like her, but she grew on me a little. And the comments she made about Sigurd were hilarious!

Overall, this book was really good, and I’d recommend it to anyone of all ages.

Quotes! ⬇️

“Your… dragon?” Myles squealed back, almost completing a year’s worth of puberty in one sentence.
(Page 31)

“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”
(Page 96)

“No…Stalactites. And those ones on the ground are stalagmites.’ Hickalick gestured to the cones forming on the floor pointing up.
“What I wouldn’t give for some stalag-lights,” Myles chuckled in the dim glow, but Hickalick was not amused.
(Page 109)

Sigurd answered first, “The egg protects the hatchling while they grow.”
“Yes, that is one of the simpler functions.”
“Simpler is what he knows best,” Kamara couldn’t help herself.
(Page 161)

“Wow, isn’t this great?” nodded Sigurd, “Four friends just sharing all their truths and growing their trust?” He slowly cocked his head toward Kamara, eyebrows raised.
(Page 175)

No one was more stunned than Kamara at Sigurd’s quick thinking.
(Page 203)

Sigurd laughed, “Careful Kamara, you are starting to sound like Hickalick.”
“And what’s wrong with being smart?” she asked. “Oh sorry, you wouldn’t know.”
(Page 213)

“Sometimes the hardest things are what’s right for others, and not ourselves.”
(Page 237)