What do you think?
Rate this book
Xenolith #2
Peregrin
(Sequel to Xenolith). Frank Bowen braves three portals and a parallel world at war to find the wife he lost years ago in Belize, but the reunion inexplicably bombs. The Liz he finds is much evolved from the woman he married. Can Frank rekindle what they once shared, survive the coming purge and convince her to return with him to the land of their birth?
Nook
First published May 26, 2010
6 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 17, 2019
Peregrin by A.Sparrow.
In this book Peregrin is a foreigner- stranger -traveler which in my dictionary is Peregrine. On the other hand Peregrin is Pippin from the LOTR. Since this is the second half of an epic adventure it all balances out.
I love everything about the two books Xenolith and Peregrin. I believe that most everywhere the first book is free though in some places you have to purchase the second for about a dollar. That's the e-books. They are well worth the price. If you like the fantasies like LOTR and love reading about great battles this is one fine book.
It's a diamond in the rough though, and I'll get to that, but first the praise.(Five stars for most everything)
Peregrin takes up after Xenolith with the story of Frank Bowen and his wife Liz who have been separated for twenty years by the most fantastic rift one could imagine.
The Xenolith rocks which seem to be much like fools gold hold the key to the power of the convergence that links Earth to Gi. For years their secret was guarded until Cuerti, Crasacs and Polu began invading from Venen. Before then there were many clans and cities and peoples who often fought amongst each other, until the invaders came and they had a common enemy.
This is the world that Liz stumbled into all those years ago and in twenty years she has changed and hardened while somehow in many ways remaining the same. Frank, her husband has tried to live without her but has not been able to move on and has lived the life of a ghost as he goes from one medical mission to another and always landing at Rio Frio where he lost Liz. On the last trip he's too close to one of the Convergences and Tezhey (a traveler who walks the convergences) takes him across to Gi where no one returns. Tezhey along with others like him help keep the secret and when the peregrin wander in they take them to places where they are away from the convergences so they can't get back.
Frank was given a chance to go back and declined being convinced that Liz was on this side somewhere. He finds her in her new life and he discovers how difficult it will be to get back into her life.
But theirs is not the only story.
Ara is a member of an elite force known as the Cadre that is supposed to work with people like Tezhay. While trailing through Earth on a supposed mission of peace she meets up with a band of fellow travelers led by Seor. Ara's leader Baren has told her that they are on a peaceful mission to parlay with the enemy. The problem is that the Venen are not suppose to know about Earth or the stones that drive the Convergence. And it looks as though Baren means to give the Venen a stone. Seor and her people convince Ara that something is amiss with the whole idea and things have gone poorly for everyone leaving some of the wounded on both side of Earth(Ur) and Gi.
This is where A. Sparrow begins to grow the character of Ara as a reluctant but possibly brilliant leader commander.
There are so many well developed characters in this novel each drawn with their strengths and weaknesses sometimes leading everyone into danger even death and other times coming out smelling like roses.
Rarely are there any punches pulled. The horror of war and peoples varied reactions are examined closely. Where characters like Miles and Frank have had such a hard time believing they have ended up where they are and in so causing their own problems; there are characters like Liz who have accepted it and grow to where they turn a blind eye to what is happening around them because they don't remember a day there wasn't conflict even when the Venen were not around.
There's never a dull moment and I think all fantasy science fiction adventure lovers will eat this one up.
I would be remiss though if I did not caution that there will be rough patches for some people.
There are many grammar issues with both books. A. Sparrow has become my second favorite author who is a powerful writer who could benefit from getting a couple extra set of eyes to look at the work.(I'm not offering to do that; I'm busy.)But, I'm sure some college student could even help here.
Many times in this book there are extra words that are redundancies. Sometimes there are missing words. In this novel I didn't notice any misspellings.
We can't catch all of these- I've seen traditionally published books with many such errors. But extra sets of eyes will help vanquish many of those I caught I this book.
So if those things bother you be prepared but please don't let that dissuade you from trying at least the first book Xenolith. I loved them both and I hope you will too.
J.L. Dobias
In this book Peregrin is a foreigner- stranger -traveler which in my dictionary is Peregrine. On the other hand Peregrin is Pippin from the LOTR. Since this is the second half of an epic adventure it all balances out.
I love everything about the two books Xenolith and Peregrin. I believe that most everywhere the first book is free though in some places you have to purchase the second for about a dollar. That's the e-books. They are well worth the price. If you like the fantasies like LOTR and love reading about great battles this is one fine book.
It's a diamond in the rough though, and I'll get to that, but first the praise.(Five stars for most everything)
Peregrin takes up after Xenolith with the story of Frank Bowen and his wife Liz who have been separated for twenty years by the most fantastic rift one could imagine.
The Xenolith rocks which seem to be much like fools gold hold the key to the power of the convergence that links Earth to Gi. For years their secret was guarded until Cuerti, Crasacs and Polu began invading from Venen. Before then there were many clans and cities and peoples who often fought amongst each other, until the invaders came and they had a common enemy.
This is the world that Liz stumbled into all those years ago and in twenty years she has changed and hardened while somehow in many ways remaining the same. Frank, her husband has tried to live without her but has not been able to move on and has lived the life of a ghost as he goes from one medical mission to another and always landing at Rio Frio where he lost Liz. On the last trip he's too close to one of the Convergences and Tezhey (a traveler who walks the convergences) takes him across to Gi where no one returns. Tezhey along with others like him help keep the secret and when the peregrin wander in they take them to places where they are away from the convergences so they can't get back.
Frank was given a chance to go back and declined being convinced that Liz was on this side somewhere. He finds her in her new life and he discovers how difficult it will be to get back into her life.
But theirs is not the only story.
Ara is a member of an elite force known as the Cadre that is supposed to work with people like Tezhay. While trailing through Earth on a supposed mission of peace she meets up with a band of fellow travelers led by Seor. Ara's leader Baren has told her that they are on a peaceful mission to parlay with the enemy. The problem is that the Venen are not suppose to know about Earth or the stones that drive the Convergence. And it looks as though Baren means to give the Venen a stone. Seor and her people convince Ara that something is amiss with the whole idea and things have gone poorly for everyone leaving some of the wounded on both side of Earth(Ur) and Gi.
This is where A. Sparrow begins to grow the character of Ara as a reluctant but possibly brilliant leader commander.
There are so many well developed characters in this novel each drawn with their strengths and weaknesses sometimes leading everyone into danger even death and other times coming out smelling like roses.
Rarely are there any punches pulled. The horror of war and peoples varied reactions are examined closely. Where characters like Miles and Frank have had such a hard time believing they have ended up where they are and in so causing their own problems; there are characters like Liz who have accepted it and grow to where they turn a blind eye to what is happening around them because they don't remember a day there wasn't conflict even when the Venen were not around.
There's never a dull moment and I think all fantasy science fiction adventure lovers will eat this one up.
I would be remiss though if I did not caution that there will be rough patches for some people.
There are many grammar issues with both books. A. Sparrow has become my second favorite author who is a powerful writer who could benefit from getting a couple extra set of eyes to look at the work.(I'm not offering to do that; I'm busy.)But, I'm sure some college student could even help here.
Many times in this book there are extra words that are redundancies. Sometimes there are missing words. In this novel I didn't notice any misspellings.
We can't catch all of these- I've seen traditionally published books with many such errors. But extra sets of eyes will help vanquish many of those I caught I this book.
So if those things bother you be prepared but please don't let that dissuade you from trying at least the first book Xenolith. I loved them both and I hope you will too.
J.L. Dobias
April 26, 2013
Peregrin is the sequel to Xenolith. I haven’t read Xenolith so I went into this one not knowing what to expect. There were things I liked about the book that would lead me to believe I would like the first book, however there were things about it that I didn’t like as well. There are parts of the book that I think I would have enjoyed more if I had read the first one.
To begin with I liked the characters. There didn’t seem to be any one main character as the story itself was told from multiple perspectives. The characters are interesting. However I felt that I was missing parts of their back story that would have helped to explain their actions. These items were probably more fleshed out in the first book, so I don’t want to hold that against the book in reviewing it.
Also the story and the world that the author have created are very intriguing. But again, there are parts that just seem to be missing that probably have more to do with the fact that I didn’t read them in order.
I think my biggest issue with the book has nothing to do with it not being a standalone novel. It came at the beginning and it has nothing to do with the order of the books. In the beginning the author jumps from the present to the past and then back to parts in the present, then leads up to a point in time were all the stories and characters converge. I really didn’t like the way it jumped around. By the end it made sense, but in the beginning it was just confusing.
Would I read the first book? Possibly. I would like to discover how the characters ultimately came to be where and who they are. I would also like to find out more of the details of the world and how it connects to ours.
Overall would I recommend it? Yes, but I would say to definitely pick up the first book. The characters and story are solid and well written. But again the book is not a standalone novel and I kept wishing that I knew what had happened before the current events in the story. Maybe then some of the actions taken by the characters at the end of the book would make more sense.
To begin with I liked the characters. There didn’t seem to be any one main character as the story itself was told from multiple perspectives. The characters are interesting. However I felt that I was missing parts of their back story that would have helped to explain their actions. These items were probably more fleshed out in the first book, so I don’t want to hold that against the book in reviewing it.
Also the story and the world that the author have created are very intriguing. But again, there are parts that just seem to be missing that probably have more to do with the fact that I didn’t read them in order.
I think my biggest issue with the book has nothing to do with it not being a standalone novel. It came at the beginning and it has nothing to do with the order of the books. In the beginning the author jumps from the present to the past and then back to parts in the present, then leads up to a point in time were all the stories and characters converge. I really didn’t like the way it jumped around. By the end it made sense, but in the beginning it was just confusing.
Would I read the first book? Possibly. I would like to discover how the characters ultimately came to be where and who they are. I would also like to find out more of the details of the world and how it connects to ours.
Overall would I recommend it? Yes, but I would say to definitely pick up the first book. The characters and story are solid and well written. But again the book is not a standalone novel and I kept wishing that I knew what had happened before the current events in the story. Maybe then some of the actions taken by the characters at the end of the book would make more sense.
July 16, 2012
After the abrupt cliffhanger of Xenolith, I had high hopes for this book. It didn't meet them. Too many different plotlines which, while they did eventually converge into one, just seemed too haphazard and oddly strung together. You'd stay with one plotline for four chapters in a row, then zip back to a different one for one chapter, then off to a third for two, and then nothing on that one for another five. Add to that the vast assortment of increasingly simple editorial errors (such as saying the recently-deceased character was walking up the hill with another), and it felt like a once-promising train going entirely off the rails. Definitely glad I got this one for free, because I wouldn't consider it worth more than the paper it was printed on.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
One other thing that continually nagged at me was an evident flaw in the setting. There are three key 'regions' of transport described - Our own Earth (or Ur), Gi, and Sesei. Gi and Sesei appear to be different countries or continents, but Ur seems to be its own planet. Through the whole book, it struck me as strange that a world with portals capable of not only international but interplanetary travel would only be connected to one other planet, let alone that this planet would have just happened to evolve humans, dogs, horses, mules, goats, oxen, etc. as we have. It is possible that this was not evolution but a founder effect when a few of each creature happened to stumble through these portals, but populating an entire planet with a few accidentals seems highly unlikely. And even if humans evolved and 'imported' the animals from Ur/Earth, why would they draw the line there and be so opposed to bringing over newer technology? Their own goes no farther than medieval standards, so at what point was the line drawn to mark cars and AK-47s illegal smuggling? The story has some very interesting concepts, but lacks expansion and refinement.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
One other thing that continually nagged at me was an evident flaw in the setting. There are three key 'regions' of transport described - Our own Earth (or Ur), Gi, and Sesei. Gi and Sesei appear to be different countries or continents, but Ur seems to be its own planet. Through the whole book, it struck me as strange that a world with portals capable of not only international but interplanetary travel would only be connected to one other planet, let alone that this planet would have just happened to evolve humans, dogs, horses, mules, goats, oxen, etc. as we have. It is possible that this was not evolution but a founder effect when a few of each creature happened to stumble through these portals, but populating an entire planet with a few accidentals seems highly unlikely. And even if humans evolved and 'imported' the animals from Ur/Earth, why would they draw the line there and be so opposed to bringing over newer technology? Their own goes no farther than medieval standards, so at what point was the line drawn to mark cars and AK-47s illegal smuggling? The story has some very interesting concepts, but lacks expansion and refinement.
September 8, 2014
This is the sequel to the book "Xenolith" and continues the story of Dr. Frank and his search for Elizabeth, his believed to be dead wife who has actually crossed a trans-dimensional portal to another world. I enjoyed "Xenolith" tremendously, but confess to being disappointed with "Peregrin." In this volume the story gets too diluted, I believe, and that leaves the reader struggling to follow. Like a nylon rope beginning to unravel, the multitude of characters separates and so Sparrow tries to keep up with multiple stories at once. In addition there are new characters introduced to help resolve a plot that could have been, perhaps, better resolved in other ways. While I enjoyed Sparrow's writing and thought the plot was a good one, and even the confusion of multi-character story lines might have worked, but the conflict is not well resolved and I was very unsatisfied with the ending. While, I believe it was meant to build to a climactic battle which would thrust all of the characters back together to achieve victory (something reminiscent of the LOTR: Return of the King), the way Sparrow resolves it doesn't account well for all of the characters. This was very unsatisfying to me as a reader as I was seeking a bit more closure after following the story lines all the way to the end. A bit disappointing.
August 16, 2011
I read lots and lots of free books. Mostly because I'm a cheapskate, but also because I am curious about books that writers give away. It's not surprising that free books are full of typos and many would benefit from some attention from a professional editor - the writer has invested time but probably nor money into stories they are willing to give away.
A. Sparrow is imaginative and created a captivating world and concept with Xenolith. I cared about the characters and couldn't wait for Peregrine so I could find out what happened to them. The book feels like a draft almost, but the basic story is there and shines through.
If you cannot abide typos, odd word choices, or other small details that would probably be smoothed out by a proofreader or an editor, don't read Peregrine. However, if you can overlook those things in the name of a good story, I recommend it, particularly if you've read Xenolith. It could be confusing without reading Xenolith first.
A. Sparrow is imaginative and created a captivating world and concept with Xenolith. I cared about the characters and couldn't wait for Peregrine so I could find out what happened to them. The book feels like a draft almost, but the basic story is there and shines through.
If you cannot abide typos, odd word choices, or other small details that would probably be smoothed out by a proofreader or an editor, don't read Peregrine. However, if you can overlook those things in the name of a good story, I recommend it, particularly if you've read Xenolith. It could be confusing without reading Xenolith first.
July 5, 2011
Peregrin is a battle-laced sequel to the first book, Xenolith, by A. Sparrow. I thought Xenolith was the better of the two. The author needs to hire a proof-reader, and although some of the descriptive narrative was innovative, I also found strange word usage. All in all, a quick read and worthwhile addition to the Xenolith eBook.
September 9, 2011
It turned out not to be another episode of Lost.. At around 30% the story picked up pace and continued well to the end. All the threads are nicely finished and the read was ok.
For some reason though, i did not enjoy this book. It failed to drag me in, maybe because it didn't propose anything new and was quite predictable.
For some reason though, i did not enjoy this book. It failed to drag me in, maybe because it didn't propose anything new and was quite predictable.
January 9, 2012
I actually enjoyed this book better than the first one, maybe because I was more in tune with the style of writing. This story brings together all the main characters from the different parts of the story into one big battle. Frank finds Liz, Canu and company get back together and the new characters, Miles and Misty find each other. How can this be bad??
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 11, 2013
I didn't like the sequel as much as I liked Xenolith. I was interested in the dynamic between Frank and Liz, and the book didn't even talk about that part of the story until about 15 percent in. I also felt like it wasn't really resolved at the end. There were also a lot more battle scenes in this one, which I didn't love. The book just kinda ended with nothing being solved.
April 9, 2011
Can't wait for the next book
July 19, 2011
Great Book!
July 2, 2013
A continuation of the story begun in Xenolith; a nicely detailed fantasy.
Want to read
June 21, 2011Free on Amazon and Nook
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews