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Seasons of the Cycle #1
Broken Souls: Book 1
Broken Souls
Bothvar Beorcolsson
Through fire and ice I will fight to find honor. Whether it be giants or creatures of the night, I’ll fight. Pain is my comfort, and sorrow is my companion. Death follows wherever I go. Even the sun hides from my sight.
Bothvar they call me. My journey isn’t an easy one. It follows a long and broken road full of the bones of those who I couldn’t save and those who got in my way. My blades are soaked in the blood of my enemies, but my heart is left in shattered pieces, broken by the costs of my actions. All for what? Honor? Glory? I don’t know anymore.
Maybe I have gained honor, but all I have to show for it is pain. yet I must carry on. I must earn my place among the halls of the gods so I can see my loved ones again. That is why I carry on to fight again. And I will not stop until I am reunited with them.
Whether it be giants or the gods themselves, I will always fight on.
Lura Syllana
I will do whatever it takes to save my family. Afterall, it is my fault they were enslaved. If I had only listened to my father. If I heeded his words and did what was right instead of what was easy they wouldn't have had to pay for my mistakes with their freedom. Now it is up to me to do whatever it takes to find a way to free them.
Even if it means sacrificing myself and my own freedom. I don’t care what happens to me. I’ll gladly pay any price to save them.
Of course, I said that, but I had no idea what was going to be asked of me. What price I’d have to pay. I didn’t know what I’d have to do to save them. Even so, I’d sacrifice everything to see them free. Even my own freedom. Even my own soul. Which I will soon find out is the very price I must pay.
---
Join Bothvar and Lura as they go through pain and sorrow and climb mountains and cross seas, all to save and protect the ones they love. Follow their journey as they discover true love, honor, and glory.
Broken Souls is a Dark Fantasy with a bit of romance. It’s inspired by Viking culture, but it is no way an accurate portrayal of historical Viking culture. It takes place within a fantasy world that’s heavily influenced by ancient mythology and lore of many different cultures among other things. That being said, this book contains some pretty graphic and controversial topics such as slavery, sexual assault, death, war, violence, blood, mental health, drug addiction, and many other controversial topics. This novel includes The Bound Soul and The Damaged Soul which makes up the first third of the book.
Bothvar Beorcolsson
Through fire and ice I will fight to find honor. Whether it be giants or creatures of the night, I’ll fight. Pain is my comfort, and sorrow is my companion. Death follows wherever I go. Even the sun hides from my sight.
Bothvar they call me. My journey isn’t an easy one. It follows a long and broken road full of the bones of those who I couldn’t save and those who got in my way. My blades are soaked in the blood of my enemies, but my heart is left in shattered pieces, broken by the costs of my actions. All for what? Honor? Glory? I don’t know anymore.
Maybe I have gained honor, but all I have to show for it is pain. yet I must carry on. I must earn my place among the halls of the gods so I can see my loved ones again. That is why I carry on to fight again. And I will not stop until I am reunited with them.
Whether it be giants or the gods themselves, I will always fight on.
Lura Syllana
I will do whatever it takes to save my family. Afterall, it is my fault they were enslaved. If I had only listened to my father. If I heeded his words and did what was right instead of what was easy they wouldn't have had to pay for my mistakes with their freedom. Now it is up to me to do whatever it takes to find a way to free them.
Even if it means sacrificing myself and my own freedom. I don’t care what happens to me. I’ll gladly pay any price to save them.
Of course, I said that, but I had no idea what was going to be asked of me. What price I’d have to pay. I didn’t know what I’d have to do to save them. Even so, I’d sacrifice everything to see them free. Even my own freedom. Even my own soul. Which I will soon find out is the very price I must pay.
---
Join Bothvar and Lura as they go through pain and sorrow and climb mountains and cross seas, all to save and protect the ones they love. Follow their journey as they discover true love, honor, and glory.
Broken Souls is a Dark Fantasy with a bit of romance. It’s inspired by Viking culture, but it is no way an accurate portrayal of historical Viking culture. It takes place within a fantasy world that’s heavily influenced by ancient mythology and lore of many different cultures among other things. That being said, this book contains some pretty graphic and controversial topics such as slavery, sexual assault, death, war, violence, blood, mental health, drug addiction, and many other controversial topics. This novel includes The Bound Soul and The Damaged Soul which makes up the first third of the book.
- GenresFantasy
469 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 22, 2022
13 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 17, 2022
I found the first odd third of Broken Souls (basically the prequel stories) difficult to progress through. This is largely due to Lura's side of the narrative as she is compelled into prostitution and sexually assaulted multiple times, and I just found none of it an enjoyable narrative, and the story style itself is dark enough that I never felt safe enough to emotionally invest in her journey: every step of the way I understood it was only going to get worse, which resulted in me just never wanting to reading her chapters when they came up in the narrative.
Bothvar's side of the narrative is stronger, serving more as scenes setting and character introduction but lacks narrative conflict meaning that very little of actual significance actually happens.
After the prequels (although long prologues is probably a better description) conclude, though, the story improves dramatically: Lura situation improves, with her moving to an emotionally safer environment and being given a tangible means of progressing as a character in ability and personality alongside friends (while still maintaining narrative conflict, perils, and adding a slight mystery plot.) Bothvar narrative comes to a head, delivering both immediate narrative conflict tied to tragedy and strong personal goals, as well as excellent character progression (I found his relationship with the yeti's particularly rewarding.) The darker elements and they catalyze his character growth, and how the narrative itself further alters and adjusts his character, are well integrated, supplying a natural, steady and emotion-bound progression. He's likeable, but imperfect, and his flaws and decisions cause problems in the narrative.
The pacing after the prologues is solid, mixing actions scenes, drama scenes, rest scenes, and character interactions in a nice balance to both maintain interest and to provide the readers with respite or catharsis from heavier plot beats.
In general, the characters are decently complex and worlding fairly immersive. The elven side of the world building could have used more cultural details, but the Viking side was excellently immersive. (I did find the copy and paste-ish inclusion of Norse Mythology a little unimaginative initially, but that eased as the author revealed the larger vision of multiple interacting mythologies.)
There are some slight issues with the prose where the author would just name drop/introduce ten to fifteen characters in a paragraph (multiple occurrences over the course of the story) and would occasionally become bloated, resulting in me skimming.
First third I would rate two stars, the rest four.
Bothvar's side of the narrative is stronger, serving more as scenes setting and character introduction but lacks narrative conflict meaning that very little of actual significance actually happens.
After the prequels (although long prologues is probably a better description) conclude, though, the story improves dramatically: Lura situation improves, with her moving to an emotionally safer environment and being given a tangible means of progressing as a character in ability and personality alongside friends (while still maintaining narrative conflict, perils, and adding a slight mystery plot.) Bothvar narrative comes to a head, delivering both immediate narrative conflict tied to tragedy and strong personal goals, as well as excellent character progression (I found his relationship with the yeti's particularly rewarding.) The darker elements and they catalyze his character growth, and how the narrative itself further alters and adjusts his character, are well integrated, supplying a natural, steady and emotion-bound progression. He's likeable, but imperfect, and his flaws and decisions cause problems in the narrative.
The pacing after the prologues is solid, mixing actions scenes, drama scenes, rest scenes, and character interactions in a nice balance to both maintain interest and to provide the readers with respite or catharsis from heavier plot beats.
In general, the characters are decently complex and worlding fairly immersive. The elven side of the world building could have used more cultural details, but the Viking side was excellently immersive. (I did find the copy and paste-ish inclusion of Norse Mythology a little unimaginative initially, but that eased as the author revealed the larger vision of multiple interacting mythologies.)
There are some slight issues with the prose where the author would just name drop/introduce ten to fifteen characters in a paragraph (multiple occurrences over the course of the story) and would occasionally become bloated, resulting in me skimming.
First third I would rate two stars, the rest four.
October 10, 2022
Broken souls by Troy Calkin.
Book 1 of seasons of the cycle.
Bothvar Beorcolsson
Through fire and ice I will fight to find honor. Whether it be giants or creatures of the night, I’ll fight. Pain is my comfort, and sorrow is my companion. Death follows wherever I go. Even the sun hides from my sight. Bothvar they call me. My journey isn’t an easy one. It follows a long and broken road full of the bones of those who I couldn’t save and those who got in my way. My blades are soaked in the blood of my enemies, but my heart is left in shattered pieces, broken by the costs of my actions. All for what? Honor? Glory? I don’t know anymore. Maybe I have gained honor, but all I have to show for it is pain. yet I must carry on. I must earn my place among the halls of the gods so I can see my loved ones again. That is why I carry on to fight again. And I will not stop until I am reunited with them. Whether it be giants or the gods themselves, I will always fight on.
Lura Syllana
I will do whatever it takes to save my family. Afterall, it is my fault they were enslaved. If I had only listened to my father. If I heeded his words and did what was right instead of what was easy they wouldn't have had to pay for my mistakes with their freedom. Now it is up to me to do whatever it takes to find a way to free them. Even if it means sacrificing myself and my own freedom. I don’t care what happens to me. I’ll gladly pay any price to save them. Of course, I said that, but I had no idea what was going to be asked of me. What price I’d have to pay. I didn’t know what I’d have to do to save them. Even so, I’d sacrifice everything to see them free. Even my own freedom. Even my own soul. Which I will soon find out is the very price I must pay.
I really enjoyed this book. I did like Lura. I loved the cover. That's what got me to read it. It was different. 5*.
Book 1 of seasons of the cycle.
Bothvar Beorcolsson
Through fire and ice I will fight to find honor. Whether it be giants or creatures of the night, I’ll fight. Pain is my comfort, and sorrow is my companion. Death follows wherever I go. Even the sun hides from my sight. Bothvar they call me. My journey isn’t an easy one. It follows a long and broken road full of the bones of those who I couldn’t save and those who got in my way. My blades are soaked in the blood of my enemies, but my heart is left in shattered pieces, broken by the costs of my actions. All for what? Honor? Glory? I don’t know anymore. Maybe I have gained honor, but all I have to show for it is pain. yet I must carry on. I must earn my place among the halls of the gods so I can see my loved ones again. That is why I carry on to fight again. And I will not stop until I am reunited with them. Whether it be giants or the gods themselves, I will always fight on.
Lura Syllana
I will do whatever it takes to save my family. Afterall, it is my fault they were enslaved. If I had only listened to my father. If I heeded his words and did what was right instead of what was easy they wouldn't have had to pay for my mistakes with their freedom. Now it is up to me to do whatever it takes to find a way to free them. Even if it means sacrificing myself and my own freedom. I don’t care what happens to me. I’ll gladly pay any price to save them. Of course, I said that, but I had no idea what was going to be asked of me. What price I’d have to pay. I didn’t know what I’d have to do to save them. Even so, I’d sacrifice everything to see them free. Even my own freedom. Even my own soul. Which I will soon find out is the very price I must pay.
I really enjoyed this book. I did like Lura. I loved the cover. That's what got me to read it. It was different. 5*.
March 8, 2025
2.5 stars round to 3 on here.
This was a hard one to rate. At times I loved it and other times I was struggling to get through it.
I loved both main characters but felt like might have been better to have this as 2 separate books and then a 3rd one joining them together as it didn't come together until the last chapter.
Both stories were great in their own way but sometimes I'd end one chapter with one character and was really enjoying it and then would switch to the other character taking me out of that story.
The world was super interesting where there are human vikings but also elves and dwarves and other creatures in one story, which I haven't seen before.
Had some really good morals and world views, and life struggles were told really well. Got very interesting toward the end but felt like there was a lot of parts that were unnecessary or waffley. The amount of names in this was bordering ridiculous. Bothvar has like a million relatives with long viking names, litterally one whole page was him naming off all his family members and I started to skim through some of that. Also still not sure if one character is Grom or Gorm as it changed multiple times throughout the story.
Lura was my fav and I would love to have more story about Thora she was very interesting and slightly mysterious.
Really think this just needs a bit more editing and maybe cut out some of the childhood (prologue) part and it could be a fantastic book.
This was a hard one to rate. At times I loved it and other times I was struggling to get through it.
I loved both main characters but felt like might have been better to have this as 2 separate books and then a 3rd one joining them together as it didn't come together until the last chapter.
Both stories were great in their own way but sometimes I'd end one chapter with one character and was really enjoying it and then would switch to the other character taking me out of that story.
The world was super interesting where there are human vikings but also elves and dwarves and other creatures in one story, which I haven't seen before.
Had some really good morals and world views, and life struggles were told really well. Got very interesting toward the end but felt like there was a lot of parts that were unnecessary or waffley. The amount of names in this was bordering ridiculous. Bothvar has like a million relatives with long viking names, litterally one whole page was him naming off all his family members and I started to skim through some of that. Also still not sure if one character is Grom or Gorm as it changed multiple times throughout the story.
Lura was my fav and I would love to have more story about Thora she was very interesting and slightly mysterious.
Really think this just needs a bit more editing and maybe cut out some of the childhood (prologue) part and it could be a fantastic book.
March 13, 2023
The chapters switch between Bothvar and Lura in a very epic fantasy story. These are very emotional characters with a lot to gain once they accomplish their missions. There are also various characters introduced and a lot of events that take place alongside the main goals. The book is written in the present tense, so readers read the narrative in real-time. A personal pleasant way to read since nothing in the future can be foreseen and readers learn what happens at the same time as the characters.
I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Hidden Gems Books and author.
I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Hidden Gems Books and author.
March 13, 2023
A good story with fun fantasy story that is little bit of A dark slightly romantic fantasy I like the fighting and characters development and the Viking aspects of the book I found it interesting with a little bit of everything
March 24, 2023
Amazing!
I Loved it! Can't wait for the next book to come out! I cried multiple times and laughed even more.
I Loved it! Can't wait for the next book to come out! I cried multiple times and laughed even more.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews