What do you think?
Rate this book
Terith
“If the Terithian people could be described as a small child or lonely lamb, then SWARM would be a hungry lion, lustfully licking its teeth.” A small group of people journeyed from Earth to the planet Terith hoping for a more peaceful life. No one foresaw the divisions that would manifest between those who wanted to encourage growth and prosperity for all and those who wanted Terith only for personal gain. SWARM arose like a snake under a rock, devastating us in the course of a few hours. I was caught in the middle, determined to stop them from ruining the only home I’ve ever known. I knew I couldn’t take the might of SWARM on my own, so I recruited my friends to help me. Given aid by them, along with the Varius, a special gift from my father, we were willing to do just about anything to end SWARM. But before I seem like a hero, it might be worth mentioning that this all started because of a girl - I was only human, after all. She was everything I didn’t know I needed. I don’t regret that it started this way, but I will forever regret what this fight cost me. She helped me realize that a good portion of the evil I was fighting…was hiding in my own heart.
345 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2018
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 21, 2020
Thank you J.S. Spaulding for giving us the opportunity to review your work😘 Honestly, the cover page already had me hooked into reading the book! And the plot was pleasantly surprising😯 As for my experience, it was a thrilling roller coaster ride🎢 Every moment had me wondering what's coming up next and the ending made me go crazy for the next book- so I guess that explains enough on why I really liked this book 😅
The plot revolves around the inhabitants of Terith, a planet where humans live, similar to Earth, but wherein the technology is much more advanced. People communicate using holograms, teens drive their rides and cars float around! These in itself made me fall in love with the imaginary world😍
Blaze suffers from serious anxiety issues and barely gets through each day with the help of his best friend, Carter. They join a new school, but it seems like he has to deal with bigger dangers than just being the new guy at the campus. The SWARM have taken over the lands of Terith and it's people, and Blaze needs to now break through his fearful life to take down the SWARM and save his only home. Meanwhile, he realizes that there's a lot more to his father's death than he ever knew😥 Blake's father had left him with his creation, the Varius, that could help him defend himself against the SWARM. But he cannot do this alone and needs his friends to fulfill this mission.
Will Blaze be able to gather the strength and courage to face them, or will his anxiety throw him down the path? Will Terith ever be free of the Swarm, those who do not hesitate to kill if it means an unrivaled reign over this planet? 😫 Try the book, and you'll figure it out like you never imagined😯
For more reviews check out our Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxkGAt9gP7T/
The plot revolves around the inhabitants of Terith, a planet where humans live, similar to Earth, but wherein the technology is much more advanced. People communicate using holograms, teens drive their rides and cars float around! These in itself made me fall in love with the imaginary world😍
Blaze suffers from serious anxiety issues and barely gets through each day with the help of his best friend, Carter. They join a new school, but it seems like he has to deal with bigger dangers than just being the new guy at the campus. The SWARM have taken over the lands of Terith and it's people, and Blaze needs to now break through his fearful life to take down the SWARM and save his only home. Meanwhile, he realizes that there's a lot more to his father's death than he ever knew😥 Blake's father had left him with his creation, the Varius, that could help him defend himself against the SWARM. But he cannot do this alone and needs his friends to fulfill this mission.
Will Blaze be able to gather the strength and courage to face them, or will his anxiety throw him down the path? Will Terith ever be free of the Swarm, those who do not hesitate to kill if it means an unrivaled reign over this planet? 😫 Try the book, and you'll figure it out like you never imagined😯
For more reviews check out our Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxkGAt9gP7T/
January 3, 2019
Joel so seamlessly crafts a story filled with explosive drama, intense fight scenes, and tangible emotional dilemmas that can be felt by the reader. Blaze is a very complex character who often delves deep inside his own mind to find the answers he seeks, both to save his home and protect his friends. With a little help from his late father's invention, he fights his way through many challenges, always growing braver and stronger (even if he doubts himself). What ultimately makes this book so special is the ability for the reader to truly relate to everything that the characters experience (even if they don't live on a secondary Earth-like planet fighting a territorial army of laser-wielding control freaks). A very strong debut novel, can't wait to see what this author produces in the future!
March 5, 2020
First off, thank you so much to Joel for sending me a copy of this book to review!
I’m going to cut right to the chase, I did not like this book and I don’t think this book was for me. Terith is set in the distant future on an alien planet. We Follow Blaze, a high school student who finds himself right in the middle of the mess when a villainous group called SWARM quickly takes over. Here lies my first problem: this book doesn’t know who it’s audience is supposed to be. Initially, it reads more like middle grade, a la Percy Jackson or early Harry Potter, but the tone is all over the place. Sometimes it’s nonstop action, sometimes it's almost got a YA contemporary vibe, and then suddenly it’s violent and angsty. It was very jarring and it made it hard for the story to hit its stride.
My next problem is the characters themselves. It almost felt like they had multiple personalities, and the way we would get information about them felt clunky. Blaze has crippling anxiety but he’s also a leader who has a dark streak, the switch between the two was so sudden and would leave me confused at what I was supposed to think of him. We would also suddenly learn things about our characters that didn’t really fit with what had come before. There are quite a few twists as the story goes on, and each one just made everyone read more and more robotic.
The biggest thing for me though was the female characters. There is nothing to them, just stereotypes. And there are quite a few troupes that REALLY need to die out.
Overall, this book truly wasn’t for me and I don’t really know who it’s for to be honest. BUT, with that being said, I think Joel had some really cool ideas. His world building was pretty great and I really wish that the story had allowed me to get into it more. I’m interested in seeing how his writing improves down the line.
I’m going to cut right to the chase, I did not like this book and I don’t think this book was for me. Terith is set in the distant future on an alien planet. We Follow Blaze, a high school student who finds himself right in the middle of the mess when a villainous group called SWARM quickly takes over. Here lies my first problem: this book doesn’t know who it’s audience is supposed to be. Initially, it reads more like middle grade, a la Percy Jackson or early Harry Potter, but the tone is all over the place. Sometimes it’s nonstop action, sometimes it's almost got a YA contemporary vibe, and then suddenly it’s violent and angsty. It was very jarring and it made it hard for the story to hit its stride.
My next problem is the characters themselves. It almost felt like they had multiple personalities, and the way we would get information about them felt clunky. Blaze has crippling anxiety but he’s also a leader who has a dark streak, the switch between the two was so sudden and would leave me confused at what I was supposed to think of him. We would also suddenly learn things about our characters that didn’t really fit with what had come before. There are quite a few twists as the story goes on, and each one just made everyone read more and more robotic.
The biggest thing for me though was the female characters. There is nothing to them, just stereotypes. And there are quite a few troupes that REALLY need to die out.
Overall, this book truly wasn’t for me and I don’t really know who it’s for to be honest. BUT, with that being said, I think Joel had some really cool ideas. His world building was pretty great and I really wish that the story had allowed me to get into it more. I’m interested in seeing how his writing improves down the line.
November 15, 2019
I can't believe I haven't written a review yet! Okay, so my friend Joel wrote this and gave me a copy once it was out. With no professional editor and not much formal education, this story still excels against most sci-fi worlds and I'm excited to read the rest of his trilogy.
The book is set in the future on a planet named Terith. The main protagonist and narrator, Blaze, is a highly anxious high school boy who lost his father, who we figure out is a scientist. After a series of unfortunate events, Blaze and his friends Carter, Verena, and eventually Rex, not only battle out some spiritual and mental warfares, but villains much bigger than what they think can happen.
Tragedy strikes around every corner, our main perpetrators Vacca and Creed aim to steal the last heirloom Blaze has given by his father: the Varius.
A worthy read, if you don't mind the occasional interruption with a misspelled word.
Plot twist: it has Christian thematical elements, so our religious reader may want to take a gander and try this genre for themselves, too.
The book is set in the future on a planet named Terith. The main protagonist and narrator, Blaze, is a highly anxious high school boy who lost his father, who we figure out is a scientist. After a series of unfortunate events, Blaze and his friends Carter, Verena, and eventually Rex, not only battle out some spiritual and mental warfares, but villains much bigger than what they think can happen.
Tragedy strikes around every corner, our main perpetrators Vacca and Creed aim to steal the last heirloom Blaze has given by his father: the Varius.
A worthy read, if you don't mind the occasional interruption with a misspelled word.
Plot twist: it has Christian thematical elements, so our religious reader may want to take a gander and try this genre for themselves, too.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews