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Shadows in the Sand (Empyria, Book 1)
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New reviews just in:****
After reading a million and one fantasy books, this one is much different. The end half of the story has been well thought out and has been planted well in the first half, also having perspective from several characters gives much more depth to the whole story rather than just your typical one point of view.
More please, I need to know what happens !!!
***
This is the imaginative fantasy tale of a race hard pressed by a desert land and a lack of water. Recent geological activity has greatly reduced the city's water supply and has allowed a fearsome race of sand-dwelling creatures to encroach. The people of the city are divided into four groups, hunters, medics, craft workers and soldiers and the story follows a group of four who grew up together.
The author has created a great set-up here which is very promising but it is marred by some clunky sentences and rather wooden dialogue at times. I found these rather distracting. Michael Diack is a young author and I think experience will make his writing flow better. I hope he continues to write and on the basis of this book I think fantasy is his genre.
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New reviews just in:
*****
A very intricate and thought-provoking fantasy story. It is very well written and had me gripped from the first page. It's not the first book I have read by this author and it certainly won't be the last. I look forward to the next book in the series.
New Review:Every once in a while I read a book and think to myself “this would make such a great movie!” And “Shadows in the Sand” did that for me. The author created such an interesting and fantastical world with vivid scenery, amazing characters you root for (and some who will terrify you), and unpredictable events. It takes place on the land of Empyra, which is a single continent surrounded by ocean, and inhibited by 3 main clans. The quest for survival against a mounting enemy is the driving force in this novel, and the story mostly focuses on a group of 4 friends, each different and with their own special skills and challenges. It will definitely appeal to a wide range of fans, from Percy Jackson to Game of Thrones. Action, adventure and great writing. Will read more form this author in the future! (5 stars)
New Review:This well-planned story is set around the few thousand remnants of the human race following a global cataclysm, who eke out a precarious existence in an area supportive of human life. Their existence is dependent upon a water-pool, which is no longer replenishing itself; they have one month in which to find alternative sources. Parties are sent out, eventually to secure the area around Dunein, where they need to relocate. They experience a succession of graphically-described, vicious battles with an assortment of foes: trolls; sand golems; Sanghouls, who live in sand dunes; giant scorpions and snakes; immortal Ovites (unless decapitated); and mermen. Later they form an alliance with a tribe of elves against the Sanghouls. This is an exciting, action-filled tale, brilliantly and imaginatively plotted and written, with believable characters such as the hunter Athmane, and Faria, who are thrown together to face the dangers and horrors of such turbulent times. The story ends with matters still unresolved. I was kept in suspense throughout, and I can't wait for the next instalment.
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Over 1400 downloads and number 3 in the epic free fantasy chart!
Only $0.99 for this weekend. Reviews:
I should start with a spoiler alert – 'Shadows in the Sand' ends at a perilous point, requiring the next book in the series. If you don't want want to read a gripping novel that is the first of a series, then you shouldn't start 'Shadows in the Sand'.
While most fantasy novels are set in worlds resembling medieval Europe, Empyria is much more primitive. Humans only exist in very small clusters of hunter-gathers, with very limited technology. Almost everything they encounter thinks that men are nothing more than another food item. When an earthquake shuts off the communities water supply, everyone must begin a process of moving to a new refuge … that is far from safe.
The world Micheal Diack has created is continually fascinating. The environment is so threatening, and mankinds technology so limited that I continually asked myself – would anyone actually be able to survive this?
Well worth reading for an adventure in a world unlike any other.
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First, I love Athmane and Faria. I really like that they, Mary and Bayoud have known each other basically all their lives. It gives their bonds to each other a very lived in feel and the reader is able to focus more on the story unraveling than on the building of the characters relationships.
With a larger cast of characters like this it's easy for an author to loose a someone's place in the plot. To not mention them for too long and suddenly they're back in the story and we're all left scratching our heads trying to remember who this person is and what they mean to us. Michael didn't do that. He did a great job of giving us glimpses of the characters, creating tension around them and leaving us wanting more when he moved on to the next one. It creates that feel of a story within a story. My only complaint would be that the characters are a little bit flat. They're dialogue is stunted sometimes which leaves it feeling a little unnatural. I think Michael was more focused on the story unfolding and it's unique and exciting enough that one can forgive slightly flat characters.
If you're a fan of epic fantasy, this is a book you need to read.
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Recent reviews! 4 and 5 stars.This is a story like no other. I find myself saying this a lot lately. It could be due to the fact that fantasy stories are not my normal read. In my defense, I can only say, I was captivated. I could not stop reading about a breed of people that I knew was not real, that the entire was so far from reality, it was not funny. But the author did such a terrific job describing the environment, its inhabitants and all the perils the inhabitants went through, I just could not put the book down, even though I was exhausted from all the fighting, walking, and searching for water. Great read!
It's like Dune went viral. I'm kidding. It's good. It's original. I liked it. The world was carefully constructed without too much explanation pulling away from the story.
The story centers around a few thousand survivors who need to find a new source of water. The pool they depend on is running dry. they need to relocate to another area around Dunein. Shadows in the Sand is their struggle to survive.
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New reviews:Michael Diack's Shadows in the Sand drew me in right from the beginning and never released it's grip. The book was so entertaining that I finished it in less than a week and eagerly await the next chapter in this saga.
Set in the primitive world of Empyria, the human race has dwindled to just a few thousand people. When all of the sudden their water supply is cut off they face extinction if they can not find a way to get more water. Leaving the city of Nimar will both be dangerous and challenging but with no other choice, they must. The main characters face an assortment of monsters and other creatures along the away, eventually forming an alliance with elves in time for their ultimate battle with the evil Sanghouls.
The action sequences flow and are wonderfully told. I was able to see in my head exactly what was going on. The characters were strong and well developed. This book is a must read for those who love a good fantasy/action story.
5 stars
I have been a long-time lover of fantasy books, starting with Piers Anthony and the Wheel of Time series. I can highly recommend this adventure. It's similar to Dune in some ways - wrapped in a desolate world where the constant quest for resources dictates the characters' actions. A great read for any fantasy lover!
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New Review:I usually get frustrated with fantasy pretty quickly, but this one was far outside the mold. There were no excessively convoluted sideplots or irrational quests to complete. Just an action-packed tale of survival. Far more akin to a post-apocalyptic thriller than “Lord of the Rings.” Which is a good thing. The author also crams in a lot more details about combat, logistics and all around world-building than you usually find in fantasy,
The only drawback was the dialogue seemed a little too deadpan sometimes. Especially during that climatic (and cliff-hanger) ending. I’m picturing the heroes just shrugging their shoulders the whole time!
Still, that doesn't change the fact that this is a well-organized story and a lot of fun. A great read, hands down.
New Review: 5 starsThis is an exciting story set in an unusual fantasy world in the desert. The four main characters are childhood friends and represent the different aspects of life in Nimar, the city where they live. We have a soldier, hunter, craftsman and medic. I liked the idea all the inhabitants of Nimar had to follow one of these four careers.
Nimar has run out of water, which spells death in a desert and in the pursuit of finding new sources of water, our heros come across all sorts of mythical creatures from giant serpents to friendly elves and horrible Sanghoulls.
This is a fast paced adventure and the fantasy world is brought vividly to life. The mixture of male and female heros plus their different skills stops this book becoming just an action adventure for the boys. There is plenty of battles but also romance and interesting scenes featuring the craft and medical characters.
If you enjoy fantasy you will love his book!
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New 4 star review:Shadows In the Sand – Empyria – Book One.
“Shadows in the Sand” is the first part of a series of fantasy novels written by the young English writer Michael Diack.
It’s set in the ancient city of Nimar in Empyria, a desert land where the inhabitants are at risk, for the water supply is running out and it isn’t being replaced.
The writer’s expert knowledge of barren desert states comes through strong in his writing.
It reminds the reader of Tolkien’s stuff and with the fantasy genre enjoying a worldwide boom with a massive and growing following, this book will surely find a wide audience.
As you might expect there’s plenty of action with battles and fighting aplenty featuring fearsome creatures, monsters, elves, and warriors, and if that is your bag then you will surely enjoy this.
I have to confess that fantasy is not my favourite bookshelf, but once I’d got into this I enjoyed it.
Michael Diack is still at the beginning of his writing career and this is a very promising step forward, and it will be interesting to see what he writes and releases in the future.
New Review:In all honesty, I do not normally read this genre of books. But I enjoy reading talented authors and on a friend's recommendation I purchased it.
I was immediately sucked in by Diack's writing. It's precise, rhythmic, and detailed. The writing is sophisticated and mature. Diack has a great future ahead.
Soon, I got into the story and really enjoyed the character development. I felt like I knew Athmane. The plot captivated me, which surprised me because I normally don't get into fantasy. This one was awesome. Now I'm hooked and will have to read the others.
In short, I loved it. Michael Diack has a new fan.
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New Review:In all honesty, I do not normally read this genre of books. But I enjoy reading talented authors and on a friend's recommendation I purchased it.
I was immediately sucked in by Diack's writing. It's precise, rhythmic, and detailed. The writing is sophisticated and mature. Diack has a great future ahead.
Soon, I got into the story and really enjoyed the character development. I felt like I knew Athmane. The plot captivated me, which surprised me because I normally don't get into fantasy. This one was awesome. Now I'm hooked and will have to read the others.
In short, I loved it. Michael Diack has a new fan.
http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Sand-Em...
Another new review:Shadows in the Sand is set in an apocalyptic world where human survivors eke out an existence amongst a harsh and brutal environment. In contrast to the exposition-heavy opening chapters the novel is extremely well written. It is also a largely based action tale, something rare for a first instalment of a fantasy series.
The plotline is beautifully simple. A tribe’s water pool is running dry and it is up to a hunter and tracker Athmane, along with his childhood companions, Faria, a craftsman, Bayoud a soldier and Mary a medic, to go into new lands and find out why.
This is no clichéd quest but rather a life and death mission. The desert however is full of perils such as sandghoulls and serpents which always keep the narrative fresh and exciting. The mood of the desert, especially at night; its beauty as well as terrible dangers are wonderfully evoked.
The work is very different from most fantasy novels and reminds me of one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Frank Herbert’s Dune, yet this time with the tale told from Arakis’ Fremen viewpoint. That is not to say this tale is derivative. The story is entirely the author’s own.
The one staple fantasy character the author does borrow is the elf. Yet the reader need not fear clichés for they serve to act as an important catalyst in the narrative as it is realised the two races must work together if they are to withstand an encroaching dark, malign enemy.
This first instalment of Michael Diack’s Empyria trilogy promises great things. The canvas grows increasingly broader throughout as the author creates the foundation for the second instalment. If Diack manages to keep the same atmosphere and mood without falling into the usual fantasy stereotypes I believe this trilogy will be something very special indeed and attract an army of fans.
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New Review:In Empyria it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who want to kill you. Athmane and his friends must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Forced to move they now face many unknown dangers. This story thrives on tension and danger. The sheer depth of “Shadows in the Sand” is simply amazing. This book exceeded all my expectations with its incredible story line that was highly imaginative, inspired and totally unique. The fast moving action pulls me along on a thrilling journey, which is full of vivid imagination and suspense. His characters are unique and original, yet seem simple when you realize that they aren't perfect. This is the beginning of book one where the journey begins. As a side note: the characters are not only likable, but are generally upstanding citizens with strong moral fiber. I like that. Also, there is fighting and death, but the scenes are not written too gruesome or gory. I like that as well.
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New Review and book cover!Great fantasy novels are difficult to write because even if you’re writing about events or characters that never happened or existed, there is still the readers’ demand for believability and verisimilitude. But Michael Diack, with his ‘Shadows in the Sand’, has fulfilled those demands in a flourish: this is a book you will “devour” and whose sequel(s) you will watch out for. Here’s why.
‘Shadows in the Sand’ is a post-apocalyptic tale about the remnants of mankind who manage to thrive and survive after a devastating cataclysm. And like how human beings lived in the past, this small, vulnerable community of survivors in a city called Nimar live near a water pool, on which they depend on for their meagre nourishment. But the water pool happens to be drying up—in a few weeks, the water would be gone. Desperate, the humans send out search or exploration parties everywhere to find an alternative water source, despite their fear that there might not be any. This post-apocalyptic situation sounds familiar—but in ‘Shadows in the Sand’, the humans have allies and foes that come from the fantasy genre: elves, trolls, giant insects, mermen and mysterious immortal beings called the Ovites. And if the water problem isn’t enough, the humans also face a formidable problem: the murderous onslaught of the Sanghouls, beings whose main mission in life is inflict death. Fortunately for the humans, they’re not alone: an elf prince offers alliance and military help—and a chance to survive the Sanghouls: using the long lost seven stones of light as weapon. There’s only one little problem: as I’ve said, the stones have been lost a long time ago, and nobody knows where they are.
And that’s only for starters—as you may realize, this is an epic fantasy tale that shall span multiple books, as indicated by its sheer scope. But if this “Book 1” is any indication, then the entire series is set to become a well-loved classic. Author Michael Diack has a way with words that compels you to keep on turning the pages and drops your jaws when you least expect it. He paints a rich, vivid, and evocative backstory that supports the tale’s present, giving us more than enough emotional gravitas to “feel” with the main characters.
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Happy New Year everyone. New review:It usually takes me a while to be fully drawn into a story; not so with Shadows in the Sand; I was pretty much fully on board from page one. Was it the writer's infectious writing style? Or just my penchant for this kind of jump-ahead-to-the-past sci-fi? Set on another world, the struggles of the humans are reminiscent to our age of castles and moats. There's, what's more, as much fantasy as sci-fi, perhaps more, when you consider the traditional tropes of the either genre. Technically Game of Thrones is sci-fi too, but only in the sense that this one is; it's a fantasy set on another world in a primitive times. The forward momentum of this story, to my thinking, however, is a lot more pronounced than with Game of Thrones, if only because there isn't a cast of thousands to try and assimilate in record time.
The four leads are very likable and engrossing, the male hunter, and the female master architect and civil engineer, the solider and medic. Their lives and their challenges made for great drama. The one perk of writing sci-fi/fantasy in this vein is you also rope in historical fiction devotees so long as you render the period appropriate detail realistically and absorbingly, which this writer does.
The sense of adventure and danger oozes out of every page. As a fan also of stories set in the desert and of harsh-environments presented as a subordinate character in stories, I thought Shadows in the Sand definitely delivered.
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*Boosting* New review:
I just finished reading Shadows in the Sand. It’s a wonderful fantasy book that reminds me of JRR Tolkien who is one of my favorite authors. One of the things I enjoyed most was the creation of a unique world and all of the creatures in it. The world was very vividly portrayed and I could easily visualize it. The creatures were a combination of those commonly found in fantasy and ones that were unique and imaginative.
The story is about the people in the desert city of Nimar, focusing mainly on four friends, two men and two women. The city is in crisis because their water supply is drying up. The elders have two plans, one to explore a place that has water and figure out how to bring it to Nimar and the other is to relocate the people to a location that has water. Unfortunately, the place they want to relocate is reported to have an enormous serpent living there.
I found myself pulled into the story and caring about the characters. I looked forward to reading it everyday. I am planning to buy the next book in the series as the characters are in the middle of their quest when the story ends.
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Only when Prince Viro, an elf of the southern lands, arrives in Nimar do the humans truly understand the threat to their existence. The two races must unite and reclaim the lost seven stones of light – the only weapon that can defeat the demonic shadow enclosing them.
As four of the city’s most talented young men and women, Athmane, Faria, Bayoud and Mary will be critical to Nimar enduring the perils, both natural and unnatural, that await them.
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This is a fantasy about friendship, love, action and an epic quest around the dangerous lands of Empyria. If you love fantasy, you'll love this.
Thanks,
Michael