This has become a long review. I guess I am writing to the author, as well as the next prospective reader. I hope you find it helpful. The intended audience of this series is young teens.
The story line in this series is pretty imaginative--a young boy survives the fall of his kingdom and loses his grandfather who was the only person who loved and cared for him. At only 10 yrs old, he is tasked with keeping the relic of the family line safe--the sword of the Kestrel's. Although out in the woods alone and being hunted by fearsome men, he cleverly avoided capture after escaping the attack. He was nearly at his limit when his maternal grandparents find him, hide him, and start his true training and education, building him into the figure he must eventually be. He is brave, true, strong, determined, mature, and driven. He has hidden strength and special power that is revealed in each of the books. How can you not like him? The first five books show his development and tests his resolve not to fail. Trial by "fire" has forged a figure stronger than ever. You do want him to succeed.
This book six had promise starting after Thomas's success in going through the trials required to become the Lord of the Highlands, (in the 5th book) and the introduction of Malachias, another evil minion, but is very repetitive. There seems to be a lack of descriptive scenes, and even the large battle felt rather "matter of fact." It was as if Wacht was just trying to fill up pages, so he could get on to the next in the series.
While many authors will target this younger audience and still write a memorable, complex story, Wacht seems to believe that this group has basic reading skills, so things are simplified. In this 6th book in the series, we had very little progression. Retelling the story line was unnecessary. If a reader made it to book six, they are aware of everything that had happened, and even if you are 13, it doesn't have be explained over and over again.
I am puzzled as to why the author doesn't continue to follow Thomas and his thoughts in this installment, and neglects to describe his impact on others that haven't met him before. Instead, Wacht chose to follow the antagonists in detail. It didn't serve to introduce a more interesting and complex antagonist, but rather showcased more of the same whiny, arrogance that each hold. They are carbon copies of one another--greedy, power hungry, arrogant and flawed in appearance and self-esteem, causing them to "prove" to the world they are important. They have given up on being loved, preferring to be feared. Wacht explained that very plainly just in case it was a complexity that the reader would not understand. When he wrote these characters, I wonder if he had more in mind than two-dimensional "bad guys." Note to author: antagonists can be more than their ambition. The only still mysterious figure is Malachias--we have yet to learn his story and the story of the Shadow Lord. I can only hope there is more to them than the other "bad guys."
Wacht's writing craft is still developing. He creates clever descriptions but then repeats them often, so they are no longer clever. At times, he is brilliant. Most of the time though, he could do more to set the scene, giving the reader more feeling of being in the story and maybe use more emotion in the scenes. His editors could do a better job, too. They allowed the adjective "ubiquitous" to be used twice on the same page to characterize one person, then another group in the following paragraph. Frankly, he could have just used the word "and."
Wacht should think of his audience as having more skill in reading. The books and chapters can be longer. A most annoying feature is that the chapters have a title that is a description of what is going to happen. It kind of spoils the surprise. Wacht appeals to teens in the sense that Thomas does all he does at age 17, and there are other 17 yr olds in the story too. When some of the teens worry about who likes who, it felt out of place in this saga. However, the attraction between the protagonists does seem appropriate and provides interest.
So now we wait upon the next installment, which I do plan to read. In that sense, Wacht is successful. I can only hope that he will treat us readers as if we have a great vocabulary, can follow a story without repetition, don't need a chapter title that tells us what will happen, and finally, will not lose interest even if the book is more than 250 pages.