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Knight's Surrender
Aylan Suresword is a spirited thirteenth century farm girl of seemingly common origin who blends her special knowledge of herbology with her new found gift of magic. With her handmaid, Millie, hijinks ensue as she is whisked through a mystical tale of danger and romance, where upon she is ultimately forced to make a desperate decision in the face of death between freedom for her people, or her own life.
Knight's Surrender, is the first of five books in the Binding of the Almatraek series, to be followed by Noble Pursuit. Each book in the series is told from the point of view of a different one of the main characters. The first is told from the perspective of a peasant girl, who thwarts a theft in the marketplace and is sought after by the prince, who hires her to become his future mage. The following book continues the tale from the prince's perspective years later, when he is about to take the throne.
This book is appropriate for ages nine (when students start to learn about medieval times), to adult, and features strong female characters that shine just as brightly as the males.
Knight's Surrender, is the first of five books in the Binding of the Almatraek series, to be followed by Noble Pursuit. Each book in the series is told from the point of view of a different one of the main characters. The first is told from the perspective of a peasant girl, who thwarts a theft in the marketplace and is sought after by the prince, who hires her to become his future mage. The following book continues the tale from the prince's perspective years later, when he is about to take the throne.
This book is appropriate for ages nine (when students start to learn about medieval times), to adult, and features strong female characters that shine just as brightly as the males.
ebook
First published March 9, 2013
About the author
Heather Reilly
10 books6 followersHeather Reilly is the author of four novels in the Binding of the Almatraek series, and has written and illustrated several whimsical storybooks for children. She was the recipient of the Noble Artist's Author of the Month award for February 2015. Her newest upcoming novel will be the fifth Binding of the Almatraek novel to be released in April of 2018. She currently lives in NL, Canada, with her husband, three children, and wonderful blogging cat.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2018
I had very high hopes for this book. We got it at Sci-fi on the rock and had a nice chat with the author, so I was disappointed when I read the book. I am loathe to give a self published book a 2 or less as I know it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there.
I do understand that the books are meant for younger readers and they seem to be very much in the same general style as Tamora Pierce's Tortall series, which is also for younger readers, but having read those makes this story seems even more lackluster.
Everything about the story falls flat. The characters, the impression it gives, the over all feel of it.
The story starts out with a bit of a hook, the main character is being chased by someone, that takes a couple of pages. Then she is caught and then the story goes downhill from there.
Aylan Suresword is the main character, and the entire story highlights how perfect she is. She is taken to the castle and told she is going to be a mage, she is already over powered using her herbology (and becomes the princes object of affection), then she makes friends, makes more friends, makes more friends (honestly every single person in the book that meets her loves her even the princesses do her bidding) and helps her friends happy. She has the ability to do what people can't usually do (she catches an imp). Then she learns magic (she's a natural and she teaches herself the most powerful magic in her sleep and never makes a mistake) then there is a tournament and then a ball where she has to prove that wearing a dress makes all the difference (because she's beautiful and now her standing as a suitable wife for the prince is no longer in question), then there is a bad bad mage that attacks the castle, then they have to find the mage whom when found is easily defeated, then everyone is happy again.
Oslan (the perfect prince) just happened to be watching out his window and noticed her. Then he, at 12 has the authority to bring her to live in the castle as the next mage without consulting anyone. He is never upset, he never throws a tantrum, he never uses his princely influences for anything, he is extremely handsome, a great kisser, and the most capable falconer and fighter in the realm at 12. The only slight hiccough that he has is that at first his father doesn't approve of his choice of future wife because she wears pants. Boom, put a dress on her and all is good. He does have to deal with the death of his father. But he is strong and does what needs to be done and finds and captures the killer in 25 pages or less.
Sasha, the over powered seer that at 3 years old saved her home town from a fire and can see absolutely everything. She wants to know something. She sees it. It's the answer to all questions about how does so in so know 'x information' the seer told them. She is so powerful that she can see all the attacks an enemy is going to make before they do. She is pretty and funny and perfect.
Lazelan is the head mage of the kingdom, he is of unknown age. He washed up on the shores of the kingdom during a storm and was taken to the King. The king immediately gave him a job so that he could still get recognition back home. He is supposed to teach Aylan everything he knows (which he does in a year or less, the time frame is foggy) and then he can go back to his fiance Maggie (another perfectly beautiful and desirous woman) whom is still in University (making us again question the age of the character). He is supposedly really strong but is over shadowed by his student and lets this young girl think of all the solutions for all the problems.
Zaltreous, the big baddie is a close friend with Lazelan, but he wants Lazelan's woman, and thus a college student having a temper tantrum becomes the only enemy in the book. He is supposedly extremely powerful, but not enough to do anything other than move a couple of bags around plant suggestions in a servants mind.
Carn, the perfect knight. His age unknown, but he is a friend of the prince, fought beside Aylan's father, is the best knight in the kingdom, was the one that found Aylan and brought her to the castle. If muscle is needed, that's why he's there, but he is never as strong or capable as the 12 year old prince. He was however helpful in stopping the big book of bad from being completed, stopping scrolls from getting to it, which makes one wonder how old the big bad book was.
I found that I had an issue trying to wrap my head around if all the young characters (Aylan, Oslan, Bowreguard, Sasha, Millie etc) are really mature and competent or if there is something wrong with the older characters (Carn and Lazelan) because they are never as competent and able to handle the situations that Aylan and Oslan handle with ease.
Besides the weak characters the story suffers because there is no challenge during the book at all. There is no grip, no pull and no suspense. Every answer is right there for a 12 year old to figure out in less than a page.
It's very choppy to read and has no natural flow to the story, giving no time reference. Each different scene may take place a day after each other or a year. They are so cut and dry that except for the first and the last you could take the other scenes out and shuffle them and put them back in any order and the book would still have the same impact.
I will read the rest of the books because they are here, but I will never actually seek out any books by this author unless the other books in this series really pick up.
I do understand that the books are meant for younger readers and they seem to be very much in the same general style as Tamora Pierce's Tortall series, which is also for younger readers, but having read those makes this story seems even more lackluster.
Everything about the story falls flat. The characters, the impression it gives, the over all feel of it.
The story starts out with a bit of a hook, the main character is being chased by someone, that takes a couple of pages. Then she is caught and then the story goes downhill from there.
Aylan Suresword is the main character, and the entire story highlights how perfect she is. She is taken to the castle and told she is going to be a mage, she is already over powered using her herbology (and becomes the princes object of affection), then she makes friends, makes more friends, makes more friends (honestly every single person in the book that meets her loves her even the princesses do her bidding) and helps her friends happy. She has the ability to do what people can't usually do (she catches an imp). Then she learns magic (she's a natural and she teaches herself the most powerful magic in her sleep and never makes a mistake) then there is a tournament and then a ball where she has to prove that wearing a dress makes all the difference (because she's beautiful and now her standing as a suitable wife for the prince is no longer in question), then there is a bad bad mage that attacks the castle, then they have to find the mage whom when found is easily defeated, then everyone is happy again.
Oslan (the perfect prince) just happened to be watching out his window and noticed her. Then he, at 12 has the authority to bring her to live in the castle as the next mage without consulting anyone. He is never upset, he never throws a tantrum, he never uses his princely influences for anything, he is extremely handsome, a great kisser, and the most capable falconer and fighter in the realm at 12. The only slight hiccough that he has is that at first his father doesn't approve of his choice of future wife because she wears pants. Boom, put a dress on her and all is good. He does have to deal with the death of his father. But he is strong and does what needs to be done and finds and captures the killer in 25 pages or less.
Sasha, the over powered seer that at 3 years old saved her home town from a fire and can see absolutely everything. She wants to know something. She sees it. It's the answer to all questions about how does so in so know 'x information' the seer told them. She is so powerful that she can see all the attacks an enemy is going to make before they do. She is pretty and funny and perfect.
Lazelan is the head mage of the kingdom, he is of unknown age. He washed up on the shores of the kingdom during a storm and was taken to the King. The king immediately gave him a job so that he could still get recognition back home. He is supposed to teach Aylan everything he knows (which he does in a year or less, the time frame is foggy) and then he can go back to his fiance Maggie (another perfectly beautiful and desirous woman) whom is still in University (making us again question the age of the character). He is supposedly really strong but is over shadowed by his student and lets this young girl think of all the solutions for all the problems.
Zaltreous, the big baddie is a close friend with Lazelan, but he wants Lazelan's woman, and thus a college student having a temper tantrum becomes the only enemy in the book. He is supposedly extremely powerful, but not enough to do anything other than move a couple of bags around plant suggestions in a servants mind.
Carn, the perfect knight. His age unknown, but he is a friend of the prince, fought beside Aylan's father, is the best knight in the kingdom, was the one that found Aylan and brought her to the castle. If muscle is needed, that's why he's there, but he is never as strong or capable as the 12 year old prince. He was however helpful in stopping the big book of bad from being completed, stopping scrolls from getting to it, which makes one wonder how old the big bad book was.
I found that I had an issue trying to wrap my head around if all the young characters (Aylan, Oslan, Bowreguard, Sasha, Millie etc) are really mature and competent or if there is something wrong with the older characters (Carn and Lazelan) because they are never as competent and able to handle the situations that Aylan and Oslan handle with ease.
Besides the weak characters the story suffers because there is no challenge during the book at all. There is no grip, no pull and no suspense. Every answer is right there for a 12 year old to figure out in less than a page.
It's very choppy to read and has no natural flow to the story, giving no time reference. Each different scene may take place a day after each other or a year. They are so cut and dry that except for the first and the last you could take the other scenes out and shuffle them and put them back in any order and the book would still have the same impact.
I will read the rest of the books because they are here, but I will never actually seek out any books by this author unless the other books in this series really pick up.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review