Glory is an eleven-year-old orphan who has a beautiful heart that never allows hate and anger to step in. Her adoptive mother, Myrtle Willis, died when she was six. Glory lives in painful conditions with her adoptive father who keeps himself drown in liquor all the time, and with his cruel son who never misses a chance to torture her. In these painful conditions, she has a mysterious companion—a tiny dragon-faced, red snake that has bat-like wings and green pointed horns. It appears from nowhere on her palm and absorbs all her pain whenever she mourns. And one day, she finds another mysterious companion who leads her to the hidden worlds….
This is a legend of war between Gods and Ill Dwellers to control the greatest power of the hidden worlds, the Heart of Universe. This is a legend of ambitions and conspiracies. This is a legend of those whose hearts are filled with sacred feelings. This is a legend of hope.
Glory Roslyn and The Heart of Universe is the first part of the six-book series written by Indian author Tushar. In his debut book, he created a seven world that are connected with hidden portals known as cameras. An eleven-year-old girl named Glory and Lintie discovers a magical creature, named Roslyn, that drives them into the hidden world.
They are far away from the Earth and finds themselves into the lands of Kaiser. The chief Paterfamilias helped them to get acquainted with their new surroundings. He considered them as three saviors who will help them to get their people redemption. While Lintie and Glory's main objective is to find Roslyn's parents, destiny has some other plans for them. Glory has something on her hand known as Loops of Fortune that makes her special. She brings hope wherever she goes.
In another world, named Alphorns, King Vayne's sister Mystic Misti, the Goddess of hope was blasphemed by some evil beings. All the efforts to bring her back were backfired. According to a prophecy, she shares a connection with the saviors. The author further portrays the kinships protectors made in their journey, and their fights to bring hope. They made some tough choices that create a firm base for upcoming books and give endless ideas about what to anticipate.
Narration - The book is fast-paced and pinned the readers from the start. It has Ill dwellers, witches, wizards, warlocks, ghosts, and many other deadly monsters that helped the story to progress smoothly, but none of them leaves a mark. Not a single villain is noteworthy. Maybe they all are just puppets. Tushar has done good work, but I am expecting much more mysteries and sensible-deep conversations, and about the real knave in the next volume. Overall, this book is proved to be a one-time fun read. If you're new into fantasy, this book will prove to be a good start. I recommend it to young adult readers.
Glory is an eleven year old orphan who despite having a heart of gold, suffers in the hands of his ignorant adoptive father and his wicked son Peter. But things change when magic comes into the picture.
First of all, let me begin with the narration. It was so so dreamy and lyrical that it was hard to stop reading despite the full stops. It was almost as if the words were dancing, each narrating a story of their own. The outcome was definitely wholesome.
Moving on to the story, the world-building was crude and layered with details. The creatures described are new and imaginative. The war between realms, the political rigidity, dark and fierce magic, everything just adds to the final picture. Though it has been pitched as a middle grade / young adult fantasy, I believe adults would love and enjoy this book just the same, if not more.
Glory is such a marvellous child that my heart swells just at the thought of her. She is a good representation and someone who can lead by example. She's definitely the kind of protagonist that I admire to read about.
Only thing that I disliked a bit was the pace. It quickened at places and then slowed to a dead stop at some. It would have been a lot better if it had consistency through out.
Glory Roslyn And The Heart Of Universe expresses the kindness, bravery and resilience of an enigmatic kid who showed the world that any obstacle can be overcome with an undying spirit of fighting and goodwill.
First of all, I like the writing style. It's dark and gritty. It's visual and fast paced. Considering that dark magic, fantasy fiction is not my favourite genre to pick up anytime, I am quite happy with the fact that I took more time in reading this book than I normally would as I got more into this book trying to know the characters more, trying to get more of this world. Most of the adult characters are really unlikeable. They remind me of all the grouchy adult characters of every fairy tale. I would say the credit goes to the writing as it successfully made me hate such characters all over again. I like the plot that is built on the concept of multiple hidden worlds. You will learn about such worlds called Dark Scared, Alphrons The book is so full of adventure and intense dark characters to begin with. The reading might slow down a lot considering the fact that there is so much happening in this world and so much information to take in. (One tip for the beginners here: If you find it difficult to read this book, you can read the summary of the book first and then continue reading the book. There are no spoilers. It's a good summary.)
Until the first two chapters, it was a lot to take in and I had to take more time to read in order to grasp everything. But it's worth it. From then on, it's a rollercoaster ride! Glory, our main protagonist, struggles a lot for someone so young losing her mother early in her life. She has to bear the taunts of her foster father and his son, Peter. Ugh, I hate Peter!
This book has got the royals, the demons, the gods, the faeries, dragons, wizards, witches and mythical creatures of the hidden worlds which you will find easy to know and some you will be afraid of. Specially the Ill Dwellers. I wish they were introduced earlier in the book. I would say the adventure of Glory and her friends is too fun to follow. You will never know what's waiting for them. It took me a lot of time (again!) on between to take in the political parts and the scientific information of the magical worlds involved.
My favourite character is Lintie. She is the most spontaneous character and comes out as someone we all can connect with. I wish the character of our main protagonist to be more developed.
I will tell you this. This book is difficult for me to read. I just had to take in a lot of things and yes, many things can go over your head because there's a lot to take in.
The highlight of the book is the complex world building, the numerous intense characters and the friendship between Glory and her friends. I just love the side characters.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book. I wish it was a series! The ending though. Anybody up for cliffhangers?
this is the first book in the series and is about an eleven year old orphan, glory, whose adoptive mother passes away when she is little. her step father and step brother are drunkards who treats her very badly. she loves to makes statues and supports her family with the help of it. one day with her best friend lintie she finds a mysterious creature...and is taken away to another world.
my thoughts:
this book was very well written.
this book is filled with wonderful and weird creatures which shows the imagination powers of the author. the creatures were very weird but very delightful and creative at the same time! this book includes gods, faeries, dragons, demons, everything!!
even though the starting of the book felt very slow and info dumpy but eventually the pacing picks up.
this book is full of adventures! glory traveled between world through this portal called cameras and it was such fun to see her go on adventures.
the world building was well developed and described very well.
this book ends in a cliffhanger and i am very excited for the next books in the series.
if you are fantasy reader then you should definitely check out this book!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Sooo many mysteries left unsolved, and CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *sighs* Well, this book defined awesome in a new way, and you cannot separate yourself from this book even for a minute cause it is marvelous, the way the author describes the places and the happening is stupendous! And how he wraps the story in 6 pages, I was freaking out at the end how can the author end it in less pages, but that he did! The imagination of the author stands out and this is definitely one of the best fantasy book I have ever read! Full review on my blog
This middle-grade book is the first in a six-book series. The story follows young Glory and Lintie, who discover a magical creature named Roselyn, which guides them to other worlds in search of the "Heart of Universe." The book is really fast-paced and succeeds in capturing the readers' attention from the very start. It has everything starting from royals, demons, faeries, dragons, ghosts, and tons of other mythical creatures of the hidden worlds which are fun to acquaint with and will keep you entertained. The writing style is dark and gives off a vintage vibe, which I enjoyed tremendously. It has many dark characters (mostly hateful adults) and delightful protagonists. It takes you right back to your childhood days when you read stories about dreams and misunderstanding "grown-ups." Overall the story is engaging and fun to read, however, there are many issues with the book. The biggest issue with the book was - the audience. It is supposed to be a middle-grade book, but it was very confusing because majority of the book read like a young adult book. The thoughts and language of the main characters definitely didn't suit their age. It seemed like Tushar, was aiming for a larger audience but ended up mixing age genres. The story proceeds quite slowly, but that's expected since it's the first book and there is a lot of world-building, which is a tad bit too much for a middle-grade book. One very disappointing aspect of the story is that there is not a single memorable villain. All the antagonists seemed to be present just for sake of it and for providing obstacles. The story was in general fun to read, imaginative, and like I said entertaining. But I don't think I will continue the series
A real page turner and a great read for people of all ages. It is full of unexpected twists and how the story unfolds to the end make it a more intriguing read. Please write a sequel soon.
"Glory Roslyn and the Heart of the Universe" by Tushar really is not a book for me. My biggest issue with this book was the audience. There were a lot of parts of this story that for me felt like I was reading a middle-grade book, but then I was getting very confused, possibly due to writing style, which made me think that this was maybe a young adult book. For me, this book really didn't engage me and I had to force myself to continue through. I think it was a nice story but I personally wouldn't recommend it. Overall this book was maybe too difficult for me reading palette and I wanted to like this so bad because the synopsis was beautiful, I just couldn't.
I won this book as an ARC, and was looking forward to reading it because I enjoy the fantasy genre and I presumed this was intended for young audiences, so it would be an easy read. I was mistaken.
Although the story begins on Earth, the author does little to explain the time period in which the story is taking place. The secondary character, Lintie, I found annoying with no redeeming qualities, other than that she was the only friend to the main character. Once the girls become exposed to the fantasy elements in the book, the author spent much time going into descriptions that even I, as an adult, found difficult to follow. I began to wonder who was the intended target audience for this book.
The middle part of the book was OK, but as the girls advance through their adventures, I was alarmed by the language coming from the mouth of Lintie and seemed it out of place- definitely not what I would want even a teen to read and think it was acceptable. There is also the issue of the magical creature who accompanies the girls on their quest - in the beginning of the story it is referred to as a 'he', but then frequently the author changes back and forth between calling it a he and a she. The names given to the some of the characters and magical creatures I found difficult to pronounce or combinations of words that didn't fit well together.; trying to work out the pronunciation slowed me down and didn't help to make the story run smoothly. The girls are on a quest for the Heart of Universe, and every time I read it I subconsciously read it as the Heart of THE Universe.
I am willing to concede that some of these issues are a reflection of the translation. I understand that this was the first of a 6 book series, but the first book did not capture my interest and make me want to continue. While the author leaves some unanswered questions in the first book, and tried to leave readers with a cliffhanger ending, I will not be eager to continue reading the series. Again, my presumption is that the author was hoping to appeal to a very wide group of readers, and instead of staying in a preteen, youth, or adult mode of telling the story, the end result was something somewhat choppy. I would not recommend it for youths under the age of 15. I had hoped I would enjoy this book, but I did not.
I wanted to like this book - I truly did. It has a wonderful premise, based on multiple worlds, hidden, unknown destinies, children who rise above their lives, orphans who come into their own - but it is just so badly written that I couldn't get past the prose to truly appreciate the story. The writing style is a cross between William Shatner's overblown and stilted annunciation and a bad translation; for example "Her faded pink top was patched in many places and did not look pinkish anymore. Her old trousers that used to be white had turned pale." Details about the setting are changed later in the book - for example, early in the novel, a thunderstorm causes the electricity to go out, but toward the end, the same setting hasn't yet developed electricity for home use. And then there are the parts of the story that appear to have been lifted almost bodily from other books, most notably, the talking trees that object to having their apples picked, which appear to have come straight from The Wizard of Oz.
It's really too bad that the prose is so bad, because the underlying story is interesting. Glory, an adopted child living with her alcoholic father and abusive cousin, discovers Roslyn, a baby with the head of an elephant that hatches from a shell. This leads Glory and her friend Saili (nicknamed Lintie by Glory, but no one else is allowed to call her Lintie, for a reason that is never explained - another confusing point that detracts from the story, as people call her Lintie and she gets angry - but no one knows why) on a quest through multiple fantasy worlds, seeking Roslyn's parents. This quest is a key point in the novel, and leads them to meet people and creatures throughout the worlds, who, as is common in fantasy, either help or hinder, according to their inclinations. Ultimately, the quest reaches its end, with both success and failure; some in ways that were foreshadowed in the book and at least one surprise that appears to have no connection to previous events in the book. It seems, in some ways, like the author couldn't find an ending that followed the existing plot, and added a character and event here and there toward the end to allow for a resolution. This story has promise, but it needs some serious editing.
I take it as a matter of professional pride to completely read every ARC I review before writing my report. However, I was about 100 pages into this one and I was perplexed to discover that I still have absolutely no idea what's going on. It really needs some serious developmental and copy editing. I'm so scared for this book: it is built on such beautiful ideas, but I have a feeling it's going to be ripped apart for technical reasons. While the proofreading is almost flawless, the book has many problems with unclear sentence structure, over-explaining things that don't need to be explained, under-explaining key things the reader needs to know, misplaced modifiers, odd word choices, confusing transitions and unclear organization. There are also some issues with appropriateness, as no library or school is going to accept a middle grade fiction with graphic descriptions of drunkenness and child abuse along with PG-13-rated swearing. I would love to be able to give this book a fair review and would be happy to read it again once the significant editing issues are taken care of, but right now I cannot focus on the story because the writing is so problematic. I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley on February 21, 2021. I'm hoping there is an updated edition available.
Glory is a young girl who finds herself (and her friend) thrust into a world of magic and mystery. In their journey they find more questions than answers.
This is an interesting story but it took a bit to get into. For the first third of the book I wasn't really sure what was happening. There was so much information thrown out and none of it felt fleshed out enough.
I didn't really feel much of a connection with Glory or her friend Lintie. They seemed too annoying and inexperienced in critical thinking. But after a while they calmed down and grew a touch. Most of the other characters felt kind of forgettable, mainly because there were so many and we didn't really spend a lot of time getting to know a few of them.
After the first half I found myself enjoying the story and the adventure the girls were going on. The end is a bit of a cliffhanger and I really need to know what is going to happen. We got a decent reveal that I can't wait to see fleshed out a bit more.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy from Netgalley.
It was a great story. The buildup took a while, but it was necessary for the world building as well as the payoff that we get towards the later part of the story. The author's imagination is wonderful and I would love to read where the story takes us next. The characters were colorful and enjoyable, would love to see how they develop further. Considering the ending, there's a lot left to uncover and a lot of questions are still left unanswered. I hope we get to see soon where the next part of Glory's journey takes her.
This was such a cute story with a mythical feel to it. The author does such a great job of tailoring this to the young adult reader and the characters are so well developed and likable except for most of the adults. The description of the characters as well as the surroundings was just amazing. I could honestly feel like I was there.
5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.
I don't know that I would read this story again but I would read the next book in the series (I assume there is one with the ending) to find out what happens. This book does end ina cliffhanger. Even though I like the worlds and characters the author created, the book started slow and I had to struggle to get to the point where it speeds up (sadly not til halfway thru). I won this book thru a goodreads.com giveaway.
I 'm not sure if this was written for youth or adults, but I had to think hard about the names.A long but fun story to reach the moral. I would recommend this book to preteens.
I'm attempting to read but it's not a easy read as the story jumps around and is not consistent. At almost 1/3 of the way through and characters are still jumping between areas. If this is meant for kids I think they will be disappointed. Now that I'm more than 2/3's through the book, the places and characters are making more sense. Glory and her friend from earth find a egg that hatches a baby with a elephant head and they go on a trip through many different worlds with lots of different people/things trying to figure out if roslyn came from one of them. Plus the meaning to many things that they get involved with and into. When I first started reading this book I had problems deciding the ages of Glory and her friend, it would be from pre-teen to late teen depending on the scene.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.