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Call of the Syron
A princess born into a war-torn galaxy.
Two ancient beings with the power of suns.
A mortal bounty hunter.
And a dark prince, whose shadow blankets the galaxy.
Aladella, princess of Prytha, never imagined she would step foot off of her home planet. Especially, after the brutal murder of her sister and father. With the Darion's invasion growing closer with every passing day, Aladella has no other choice than to run.
Escaping the Darion with the help of a masked bounty hunter/pilot, she finds herself in the company of those she once thought would leave her for dead. With her new unlikely crew, Aladella discovers long-hidden secrets and a magic that was once thought gone forever. Now she must balance her heart and her head as the galaxy is thrown into chaos around her.
After having visions of her mother's death, Aladella must return home with her rag-tag team of misfits in an effort to stop Darious and his army of silent soldiers. But, as Aladella learns more about the magic of a Syron, she realizes she may be the last hope in the fight against the Darion.
"You don't know, do you little dove?"
Two ancient beings with the power of suns.
A mortal bounty hunter.
And a dark prince, whose shadow blankets the galaxy.
Aladella, princess of Prytha, never imagined she would step foot off of her home planet. Especially, after the brutal murder of her sister and father. With the Darion's invasion growing closer with every passing day, Aladella has no other choice than to run.
Escaping the Darion with the help of a masked bounty hunter/pilot, she finds herself in the company of those she once thought would leave her for dead. With her new unlikely crew, Aladella discovers long-hidden secrets and a magic that was once thought gone forever. Now she must balance her heart and her head as the galaxy is thrown into chaos around her.
After having visions of her mother's death, Aladella must return home with her rag-tag team of misfits in an effort to stop Darious and his army of silent soldiers. But, as Aladella learns more about the magic of a Syron, she realizes she may be the last hope in the fight against the Darion.
"You don't know, do you little dove?"
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2021
1 person is currently reading
283 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 21, 2022
Great read, relatable characters, and a plot that has me waiting for the next book.
April 26, 2022
Yikes. I feel bad for being so harsh on this young author, but Call of the Syron is a complete trainwreck. The nicest thing I can say about it is that at least Alyssa Bukowski stuck with it and managed to produce a novel.
Everything about it is bad. I guess I shouldn't expect much from vanity publishing, especially when Bukowski clearly didn't spend additional money on an editor. Sadly, it's not an exaggeration to say that every single page contains at least one glaring error—the book is littered with unnecessary commas, jarring sentence fragments, misspellings, and typos. Additionally, the style is bland and redundant. The characters are always giving a huff of laughter, smirking, winking, or feeling a smile pull up the corner of his or her lips...meanwhile there isn't much that makes the reader truly feel any of these emotions.
The world-building (and character-building) is incredibly lazy. In no particular order, these are some of the things that bothered me:
-Characters are almost always introduced by their hair colour and eye colour. Repeatedly. Ooooh, magic colour-changing eyes are so mysterious!!!
-Every single planet and moon in this story is Earth-like. It's amazing how there's so much grass, forest, and beach in an intergalactic adventure. Not to mention a convenient Earth-like level of gravity and oxygen.
-A lot of the dialogue just sounds fake. Probably because the characters talk about how things are "bad-ass" all the time. They also apparently use the word "special" as a mocking insult that implies someone is mentally challenged. And say "ma belle" as a term of endearment. I guess the French managed to colonize the distant planet of Prytha! Most of the time it sounds like a bunch of teenagers got high and started LARPing as space cowboys.
-The characters' outfits bothered me. They all have stupid, impractical outfits that are barely better than stereotypical bikini armour. But yeah, plate mail with "stylish" asymmetrical cutouts AND A CAPE is just what every fantasy hero needs.
-In a world where pilots casually travel through space, the characters fight with knives and battle axes. Only the evil army has high tech laser guns, which are apparently no match for a psychic-powered longbow.
-One of the secondary characters is named Mamarie.
Even if you ignore the nitpicks and try to enjoy the book as some sort of campy alien princess story, it still has several glaring plot holes.
Is it an imaginative story? Ehh...kind of, I guess. I think this would've had more potential as a graphic novel or a screenplay. I found it nearly impossible to visualize anything that was happening...not only because of the constant grammatical errors, but also because the author is pretty bad at describing anything. If it were me, I would've developed Della's powers more slowly, made the war longer, introduced the secondary characters with more heart, and made a believable number of Syrons to fight against Darious. This novel has some pretty bad issues with pacing and with the actual storytelling. A lot of super important things happen, but each page is so flabby and uninspiring. Examples:
"My eyes met his instantly, not wanting to show him I was afraid. I met his dark green eyes with a fire of my own, showing him, he didn't scare me. I cursed myself when I did hesitate my step for a second when I finally saw him." (111, and yes, this is copied verbatim).
"I only had light from the small side table lamp next to me, the light barely reaching the dark corners of the room. Because of the lack of light, Olen was cast in shadows where he stood in the doorway. When he took a step forward, the side of his face light up under the warm light. He moved into my room slowly, looking around as he closed the door behind him." (135)
"As she instructed, I closed my eyes and let her words guide me. I felt the warm thrum of magic tingle across my arms and legs in the direction of my hands. It left a warm trail as it all gathered in my hands. And when I opened my eyes again, I held two gold flames in my hands, the glitter of them rising up into the sky before disappearing. I watched them for a second before closing my hands, the light disappearing completely." (151)
Everything about it is bad. I guess I shouldn't expect much from vanity publishing, especially when Bukowski clearly didn't spend additional money on an editor. Sadly, it's not an exaggeration to say that every single page contains at least one glaring error—the book is littered with unnecessary commas, jarring sentence fragments, misspellings, and typos. Additionally, the style is bland and redundant. The characters are always giving a huff of laughter, smirking, winking, or feeling a smile pull up the corner of his or her lips...meanwhile there isn't much that makes the reader truly feel any of these emotions.
The world-building (and character-building) is incredibly lazy. In no particular order, these are some of the things that bothered me:
-Characters are almost always introduced by their hair colour and eye colour. Repeatedly. Ooooh, magic colour-changing eyes are so mysterious!!!
-Every single planet and moon in this story is Earth-like. It's amazing how there's so much grass, forest, and beach in an intergalactic adventure. Not to mention a convenient Earth-like level of gravity and oxygen.
-A lot of the dialogue just sounds fake. Probably because the characters talk about how things are "bad-ass" all the time. They also apparently use the word "special" as a mocking insult that implies someone is mentally challenged. And say "ma belle" as a term of endearment. I guess the French managed to colonize the distant planet of Prytha! Most of the time it sounds like a bunch of teenagers got high and started LARPing as space cowboys.
-The characters' outfits bothered me. They all have stupid, impractical outfits that are barely better than stereotypical bikini armour. But yeah, plate mail with "stylish" asymmetrical cutouts AND A CAPE is just what every fantasy hero needs.
-In a world where pilots casually travel through space, the characters fight with knives and battle axes. Only the evil army has high tech laser guns, which are apparently no match for a psychic-powered longbow.
-One of the secondary characters is named Mamarie.
Even if you ignore the nitpicks and try to enjoy the book as some sort of campy alien princess story, it still has several glaring plot holes.
Is it an imaginative story? Ehh...kind of, I guess. I think this would've had more potential as a graphic novel or a screenplay. I found it nearly impossible to visualize anything that was happening...not only because of the constant grammatical errors, but also because the author is pretty bad at describing anything. If it were me, I would've developed Della's powers more slowly, made the war longer, introduced the secondary characters with more heart, and made a believable number of Syrons to fight against Darious. This novel has some pretty bad issues with pacing and with the actual storytelling. A lot of super important things happen, but each page is so flabby and uninspiring. Examples:
"My eyes met his instantly, not wanting to show him I was afraid. I met his dark green eyes with a fire of my own, showing him, he didn't scare me. I cursed myself when I did hesitate my step for a second when I finally saw him." (111, and yes, this is copied verbatim).
"I only had light from the small side table lamp next to me, the light barely reaching the dark corners of the room. Because of the lack of light, Olen was cast in shadows where he stood in the doorway. When he took a step forward, the side of his face light up under the warm light. He moved into my room slowly, looking around as he closed the door behind him." (135)
"As she instructed, I closed my eyes and let her words guide me. I felt the warm thrum of magic tingle across my arms and legs in the direction of my hands. It left a warm trail as it all gathered in my hands. And when I opened my eyes again, I held two gold flames in my hands, the glitter of them rising up into the sky before disappearing. I watched them for a second before closing my hands, the light disappearing completely." (151)
May 13, 2022
I definitely almost finished this book in one sitting, and the fact that I couldn’t put it down should be indicative of how compelling this book was. It was fast paced and engaging, the main character (Aladella) was likeable and easy to sympathize with, the author also did a very good job of immersing the reader into the storyline.
Ultimately my one major complaint was that this book was short. I feel that it lacked chapters that would have given the reader an opportunity to better connect with the characters. The development of relationships between Aladella and her crew members happened very abruptly. She seemed to befriend and trust them immediately, and suddenly they were all best friends, even though there was not much of a foundation behind their relationships. I also wish their had been more detail as to what exactly Darius did that made him the antagonist, (there were a couple but it was touched on very lightly). All in all, considering this was the author’s first book, it was very well done!
This book was listed in the fantasy section of the bookstore, though I would have placed in the Sci-Fi section. I would recommend it to fans of Star Wars or Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Can’t wait for the sequel!
Ultimately my one major complaint was that this book was short. I feel that it lacked chapters that would have given the reader an opportunity to better connect with the characters. The development of relationships between Aladella and her crew members happened very abruptly. She seemed to befriend and trust them immediately, and suddenly they were all best friends, even though there was not much of a foundation behind their relationships. I also wish their had been more detail as to what exactly Darius did that made him the antagonist, (there were a couple but it was touched on very lightly). All in all, considering this was the author’s first book, it was very well done!
This book was listed in the fantasy section of the bookstore, though I would have placed in the Sci-Fi section. I would recommend it to fans of Star Wars or Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Can’t wait for the sequel!
June 17, 2022
Loved this book! It was interesting take on galaxy and planet hopping and I loved the magic aspect of the book. I thought the couples were great together and didn’t take away from the story at all. Also the big plot twist was great and I love myself a morally grey character 😍. Overall a great book, a few grammar errors but that’s not on the fault of the author. I met Alyssa and she is so nice! Definitely give this book a read!!
September 2, 2022
I couldn’t stop reading this once I started, and I ended up finishing the book in just a few reading sessions. I just loved everyone’s personality, but Mamarie had to be my favourite. The fact that this is her first book amazes me, it’s just so good! You won’t regret picking up this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews