Legends of Heraldale

by Brian McNatt

Here is the story of Galaxy the hippogryph, of Featheren Valley, who after great tragedy must go on a journey to reunite with her family and rekindle the fight against the Unicorn Empire and the dreaded Lord Mordred.

252 pages, Paperback

Published August 6, 2016

Reviews

[Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Legends Of Heraldale by Brian McNatt is a unique book about creatures long forgotten. The biggest selling point for me was that this book featured fantasy creatures that are very uncommon and it delivered exactly what it promised - a very uncommon plot and a fresh concept in the fantasy genre.

Though it took some time to get into the story, the plot was interesting and even gripping at many places. The settings very very unique and new and therefore pretty exciting, the characters were of a wide variety and pretty interesting in their own way. The plot progression was good and therefore the book made for a good quick read.

The writing was good, not overly impressive, but good enough as the book proved to be an easy read, especially given the hard names of some of the characters and beings which were difficult to remember at times. I think overall the book would have been much better with better editing.

My main problem in this book is with the characterization, it was okay in the sense that I was able to read the entire book, but not good enough that I was able to feel a connection to any of the main characters. The characters weren't bad, but they just didn't grow on me in this part. As this is a series, I am considerate of the fact that in some stories characters take time to grow on the readers. I desperately hope that I am right as I have just begun reading the second part in this series.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to hardcore fantasy readers.

You can also read this review on www.thereadingbud.com

[GuineaPigFalconer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised that this book, which started out pretty lighthearted for the most part, turned into the epic adventure tale that I devoured in only a couple of days! I was fascinated by the world of Heraldale in which the story takes place, where gryphons and unicorns are in opposition to each other. I liked that I could understand the magic system. I liked the main characters, and I liked the ending that left several questions unanswered. I’m definitely interested to see what happens next to Galaxy, Brynjar, and Owain.

[K. Nagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through a period of time where I kept picking up gryphon books where the gryphons were disposable bad guys, quickly murdered by unicorns without a second thought. For a gryphon fan, that's disheartening. While Legends of Heraldale is still a gryphon vs. unicorn narrative, the unicorns are painted as bad guys for murdering gryphons, and that was a nice palate cleanser after the previous books I'd read. It feels like, in the great unicorn vs gryphon conflict across literature, it was nice to see someone on the side of gryphons for once.