Know Thyself

Stories from the Circle #1

by Jared Aragona, Phil Arcuri (Illustrator)

People of every generation have wondered if they would witness the end of the world. All nearly did! Life continues only by the delicate work of rare, supernatural people called “Caretakers” who manipulate destiny to keep existence flowing rather than spiraling into complete annihilation. However, the Caretakers now face a threat unlike any that has entered the fabric of reality, and it could mean the end of the universe.

Know Thyself, the first book in the Stories from the Circle series, chronicles the growth of “Apprentice Caretaker” Miles Dean from the discovery of his calling through his training under the powerful “Guiding Caretaker” Oliver Crucias. Earth is just one world in a macrocosmic “Circle” of worlds, and Caretakers must journey in consciousness to each world to undertake Caretaker Quests that thwart creation’s greatest enemies, the “Breakers,” who seek to destroy creation. In order to secure their victories, Caretakers grow to realize great powers, but in this latest generation, those powers may not be enough.

“The warm spot in the sky beckons all of our kind. But each one alone must choose to embrace it …”
From the Publisher (Muse of Epics)

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2010

About the author

Jared Aragona is an American author and college professor. His interplanetary fantasy novel "Stories from the Circle: Apprentice," won the 2011 Arizona Book Awards Glyph Award for Best Literary Fiction.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

KNOW THYSELF was written by Jared Aragona and has a fatasyesque mythology, but a contemporary world, amongst a greater sci-fi universe. And, as that description suggests, it's got a little too much going on in the world-building sense, while it has very little going on in character development. No character quirks... nothing that would make either of the two primary characters seem real or complex. However, it was the gimmicky use of second person that really killed this story for me. Having our narrator constantly going back to Luzciel, writing in second person to her was jarring and irritating. Additionally, the story could easily have been told in a straight-forward manner that wasn't so forced.