The Sword of Elseerian

The Chronicles of Lumineia: The White Mage Saga #2

by Ben Hale

Led by the mysterious Master, the Harbingers have infiltrated the highest levels of the mage government. They mean to reveal the mages to the world—and then conquer it. To that end they have stolen the Sword of Elseerian, and intend to open the portal to Draeken's vast army.

But the fiends are gone.

In their place another entity lurks. Caged for eons, the Dark feeds on fear . . . and light. If unleashed on Earth it will devour every spark of illumination, until mankind is left in darkness absolute. Madness and terror will rob men of their minds. Each will become extensions of the Dark, flesh without a soul.

The Oracle and her allies have a desperate plan, to retrieve the Sword of Elseerian before it can be used. If they fail the Dark will be released.

And the day will have its last dawn.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure

396 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2013

About the author

As an avid snowboarder from Utah, Ben grew up with a passion for learning. This thirst for knowledge led him to sports, music, and academic endeavors. After a year of college, he did volunteer work in Brazil and became fluent in three languages. Graduating from the University of Central Florida, he started and ran several successful businesses before publishing his first novel in June of 2012. By the end of the year he'd sold almost ten thousand copies of The Second Draeken War, and he began writing full-time. Now spanning 10,000 years, ten titles, and two series, The Chronicles of Lumineia represents a sprawling YA series that has sold over fifty thousand copies, and continues to expand its readership across all ages. Each of his books has been inspired by his wonderful wife and five beautiful children.

To contact the author, discover more about Lumineia, or find out about upcoming novels, check out his website at Lumineia.com. You can also follow Ben on twitter @ BenHale8 or on Facebook.

Reviews

[Sharaya]

Quick, easy reads. These books fly by and leave you intrigued about characters and previous wars and ages that he has written other books to cover. Can't wait to dig into those as well.
Honestly, he's not technically perfect and the books are a little simplistic, but I'm surprised he's not a more popular author.

[Deepak Sharma]

The book literally takes off from where the The last oracle left.
Lots of new things have been brought up.
Love new angles which got created and specially the revelation at the end.
The small tit bits of magic are good,
Loved the wary Iris character has developed and tess character has grown on me , cant wait for the next book.
although some places the book looked drag to me , few episodes looked liked filler(may be next books utilize these.)

Overall a great addition to the series.

[Meera]

I like the author's imagination, despite the parallels to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. The writing style could have been better, with characters not smirking all the time :D
Grammatical errors wee a turn off.
Looking forward to the last book in the trilogy.

[Gyasi]

More Harry Potter outlines until the plot refreshingly runs into a Tom Clancy novel.

[Nigel]

Interesting mix of mainly magic and little bit of the real world as plans by the Harbingers to unleash the dark gather their pace as the anniversary of the the Draken War approaches. Tess and her friends find themselves struggle with everything that life throws at them. First Tess is attacked in her parents home and has to reveal herself in order to escape. A mage city is attacked apparently by US forces who have tricked into believing it to be terrorists hideout. In this mix Tess has to cope with being introduced to her birth mother, a mage who has had her magic removed by her husband (and Tess's father) who was the leader of the Harbingers.
As the anniversary approaches Hawk vanishes and Drake comes back to Triton's and takes Tess off to a meeting with the 'Master'. Can her friends find her in time? What will happen if the Sword of Elseerian is used to open the portal?

[Sean Taylor]

I continue to enjoy this series. I got the trilogy for only one audible credit and it has been well worth the purchase. It’s better if you have read Ben Hales other trilogies- the Jack Mist books and the Chronicles of Lumineia. It’s been a fun escape.

[MiaRose]

I loved this book I wish that Alice did not betray them!!!

[Laurie Hopkins]

Excellent

Talk about action packed, Tess and sometimes the group go from one hair raising incident to another. And did both her mom's have some shocks to reveal.

[Mary]

I liked the second book more as it divorced itself from the HP look-alike curse. This story has become its own thing now and I really liked the reveal of the BBEG.

[Rich Mainville Jr.]

Not as good as the first book but it was solid. Looking forward to what the final chapter of the trilogy will bring.

[Matt]

Trying to hard to be a homage to Harry Potter. I have the third book already, so I'll read it, but...meh.

[Oy Geeringh]

Outstanding! Full of Actions. Teeming with violence, treachery, and intrigue. With Characters who actually behave like adults. Highly recommended. I can't wait for the next in the series.

[Mitchell]

This book picks up directly after the end of The Last Oracle, which is good because it was quite a cliffhanger. To recap, this is the same world as the original Lumineia trilogy, saved in the Second Draaken War by Taryn, Braon and his friends after 2/3 of the world had been killed off. Now, it is modern times on Earth and mages have withdrawn themselves from the general population to avoid repeats of previous conflicts with the aurens (non-magicians). Tess, the last Oracle, has been prophesied to bring the two populations back together again. She completed her first year of mage school and help to beat back the first big offensive by the bad guys, opening up the same portal Draaken used in hopes of using his army again. Unfortunately, something else was in the portal, waiting to be released, potentially more destructive than the armies that almost wiped out the world. Tess, Hawk, and her friends now have mere months until the portal is opened again, and they have to figure out how to deal with the Dark.

As always, I enjoyed this book. I really like the Lumineia books and read them as soon as they come out. However, they are a bit short, and I feel like I need to wait to give a full review until after the last book. There are a few things that are introduced or emphasized in this book that I just can't see how they are going to play a role in the battle that is coming up. However, knowing the author, I imagine that he has plans for making these things relevant.

Again, initially, it was hard not to compare this to Mr. Potter, but that feeling, I thought, went away even faster this time. This book had a nice twist at the end seems to be building to something big. We seem to be nearing the completion of the Ianna's final prophesy. Again, I'm excited for the next book!

[Laura]

Led by the mysterious Master, the Harbingers have infiltrated the highest levels of the mage government. They mean to reveal the mages to the world—and then conquer it. To that end they have stolen the Sword of Elseerian, and intend to open the portal to Draeken's vast army. But the fiends are gone.
In their place another entity lurks. Caged for eons, the Dark feeds on fear . . . and light. If unleashed on Earth it will devour every spark of illumination, until mankind is left in darkness absolute. Madness and terror will rob men of their minds. Each will become extensions of the Dark, flesh without a soul. The Oracle and her allies have a desperate plan, to retrieve the Sword of Elseerian before it can be used. If they fail the Dark will be released.
And the day will have its last dawn.

my review:
I liked this book as well as I did the 1st one. The swordsman was a great addition.

[timothy scott mckeehan]

Loved it please give me more

Loved it please give me more

I was shocked at the twists towards the end. the story was entertaining and exciting.Mr hale tells a story about as well as anyone....please get work on next book

[Scott Wozniak]

This sequel was a good step up from the first of the series--which was well written but stereotypical in plot. Characters were deepened and the plot twisted in creative ways. The ending, especially, was wonderful.

[Gregory]

Another decent read. I do get bored of the emotional roller-coaster that is the protagonist. 1 part determination, 3 parts doubt and despair which keep her from reaching her potential. But maybe that's how teens really would react in a similar situation...

[Deb]

Great characters. More of a cliffhanger than the first book. A surprise in the end. I don't know how they are going to get out of this one. Can't wait for the next one.

[Jim]

Couldn't read it fast enough!!!

[Ian Doyle]

Good read and well paced

Hale keeps the pace fast without sacrificing the world or character arcs. A good read for anyone that likes magic in the modern world type stories.

[Stacee]

A great continuation! And with a pretty good twist at the end.

[James Tomasino]

This was an unfortunate turn. Book one of the series may have been derivative, but it was well written and fun. Book two was a hodge-podge of exposition and unnatural characterization.

[JGA]

Overall score: 3.9 stars.
Connection to the main characters: 3.75 stars.
World(s) portrayed: 3.5 stars.
Magic system: 4 stars.
Depth: 3.5 stars.

[Harvey Dick]

Last Oracle, Part 2