“What are the ideal characteristics and components of a gripping heroic fantasy read?  This genre has definitely mushroomed since the days of J. R. R. Tolkein’s works and even before that, becoming an accepted category of pop culture, young adult and adult fantasy literature.  While scholarly debates of fandoms and fiefdoms may rage into trivia contests, it would be safe to say a good fantasy read contains the following: Engaging if imperfect, believable characters of both sexes (and possibly exotic racial origins) driven by understandable potentially noble motives, set in a completely realized believable fantasy world/universe with clearly realized definitions, involved in an exciting, challenging (dangerous) quest or task with both mundane and otherworldly parameters and implications, aided by a tight plot full of unexpected twists and turns, filled with exciting action, adventure, and transformations.

     Is my reader bored yet with my definitions of the ideal characteristics of adult heroic fantasy?  If so, skip to the end of the above and just read Michael Mood’s “The Compendium of Raath, Book 1: The Chosen,” available in e-book format.  You will not be able to put your electronic book-reading device down except for the usual daily required mundanities (work, sleeping, eating, etc.).  Here are an amazing assortment of ragamuffins, rebel priests, magical animal “whisperers,” rogues, mystical healers, and minstrels, both male and female.  Their common bond appears to be a secret mark or calling, realized or clarified by traumatic life events, that brands them as five Chosen figures who are destined to play impacting roles in the coming days of conflict in a Foglin-infested place called Haroma.  The five chief characters are 15 year old Wren, a female impregnated by her father with special powers to communicate with animals who becomes the Chosen Protector; Otom, the Chosen Monk, forced to sacrifice more than he bargains for; Domma, the Chosen Devotee, a woman of God with a mysterious past; rebellious but realistic Halimaldie, the Chosen Benefactor; and young Krothair, destined to be the Chosen Servitor, in a strange military training.  Each character has a fully realized and developed profile that finally leads the five to be together at the finding of a mystic tome found by Raven, the self appointed musical chronicler of the group.  The final reading of this Book sets the stage for the next volume of “The Compendium of Raath,” which this reader eagerly awaits with growing impatience.

     Really, the first volume of “The Compendium of Raath” is seriously good fantasy, well-written, fully realized, laced with quirky humor, dark emotions and mysterious conundrums, all woven into an excellent fantasy adventure epic that is only just begun.  Believable male and female protagonists, exotic races and mystical animal communication, plus a streak of religious ethical framing and promise of redemption that is intriguing   and non-Judeo Christian on the surface – all these things alone perhaps do not a great fantasy make, but they sure help keep the pages turning.”