Find out the latest indie author news. For FREE.

ADVERTISEMENT

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 02/2020
  • B084TTWGC2
  • 307 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 02/2017
  • 978-1543125832 B0BTKMDFZG
  • 305 pages
  • $5.77
Audio Details
  • 08/2020
  • B08F5KXNLC
  • 305 pages
  • $17.46
Hardcover Details
  • 02/2023
  • 9798823189392
  • 308 pages
  • $20.54
T.H. Alexander
Author
The Lord of Salamander

Children/Young Adult; Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror; (Market)

It begins with the strangest of incidents . . . so strange that it will soon set 13-year-old Elijah Pendleton on the path to unearthing a long-hidden family secret.

Having spent his life under the abusive hand of his two miserable aunts, believing his parents had all but abandoned him, Elijah learns their abandonment may have, in fact, been a last-ditch attempt to spare his life before being captured and imprisoned by a power-driven dark ruler bent on revenge and total domination . . .

. . . and that he is the one destined to save them.

This revelation will mark the beginning of a daring and treacherous journey that will lead him into the heart of an unknown world . . . where myths and legends are not only true, but alive and breathing and the enchanted sees no limit. If the long-awaited prophecy is correct, then his very arrival is set to bring forth the beginnings of the end to a decade-long reign of darkness. But only if Elijah can survive the journey that awaits him, will the land's ultimate destiny, and his own, finally be revealed.

Reviews
Alexander’s young adult portal fantasy has few surprises but a fair bit of charm. Thirteen-year-old Elijah Pendleton lives under the thumb of his “dominating, cruel, malicious” aunts, Mae and Faye. One day he sneaks away to follow a mysterious black cat to its owner Aura’s house. Aura reveals that Elijah is the prophesied savior of the mythic land of Salamander, where despotic enchanter Theodoric has imprisoned Elijah’s parents. Elijah slips through a portal with the cat, Cloe, who transforms into a talking panther and agrees to be his guide. They soon team up with siblings Jesse and Dustin Donovan, who provide rudimentary magical training, and Asthenia, an impulsive young enchanter, to infiltrate Theodoric’s castle and rescue Elijah’s parents.

Elijah’s story progresses nicely through discrete action sequences. Some descriptions are wordy and stilted (“as though he had just stepped into a lush Bob Ross painting littered with impeccable detail of briars, brambles and tall shrubs flanking the trail before him”), and there’s an unfortunate tendency to make good people pretty and bad ones “thoroughly repulsive.” The exposition primarily relies on Elijah listening to lectures from other characters. The final battle between Elijah and Theodoric rushes past and strains believability: despite Elijah’s very recent discovery of any magical abilities, he casts a level ten spell, a metric of magical difficulty that is never fully explained.

Despite these blips, the novel is entertaining and endearing. The blend of references to various mythologies (sasquatch, wingless dragons, giants called Nephilims) and nods to more recent works (a flying broom, a golden compass, faux-Latin spell names) makes a complicated world with lots of possibilities that are only hinted at. Unresolved questions, incomplete reunions, and a new quest nicely set up the sequel. Teens who enjoy seeing a prophesied hero stumbling into power and wandering across a fantasy map while making friends will be pleased by Alexander’s debut.

Takeaway: This is an enjoyable diversion for teen fans of traditional portal fantasies.

Great for fans of Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins’s Gregor the Overlander series.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: A

The Manhatten Book Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Elijah Pendleton's adventure begins when he rescues a cat caught in an oak tree. That's pretty normal for any thirteen year old (at least, any good-hearted thirteen year old), but not when there has never been an oak tree in the yard before. It's impossible to say whether things grow odder when the oak tree vanishes. Well, they do, but not because of the oak tree. Things grow odder because Elijah Pendleton is in a YA adventure novel.Alexander uses multiple tropes frequent readers of such novels will recognize, but chief among them is Elijah's home life. He's miserable at school, but part of that is because he lives with two aunts reminiscent of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker from James and the Giant Peach. His aunts are physically and emotionally abusive, but Elijah is granted rescue -- of a sort -- when he learns two facts about his long-lost parents. First, they are Enchanters, and he has inherited their magical abilities. Second, they are not in Hawaii, as he was brought up to think, but in a land called the Mythic Realms, held captive. What follows, as Elijah sets out to rescue them, is an epic adventure that puts me in mind of the fantasy novels I devoured all through middle and high school.While I'm certain this book would be enjoyed by girls who were like me and will read every fantasy novel they can get their hands on, its primary audience will be boys in middle and early high school. Elijah's travels are thrilling, and the Mythic Realms equal any high-fantasy world I can recall from my own reading adventures. His companions (because what's a YA quest novel without companions?) hit the perfect balance between being amusing and genuine, with a delightful wit that any preteen will enjoy.My one complaint about the book is purely cosmetic and may well not bother most readers. There are a few handwritten notes throughout, and the fonts chosen to present the handwriting were difficult to read without squinting. Skimming over them rather than reading every word didn't affect my enjoyment of the story, but those with poor eyesight or who enjoy reading in dim light (for instance, when they should be asleep) may struggle at those points. On the whole, however, the book was a delight to read, bringing back memories of when I would set down a similar novel and fantasize about what my own adventures might be like if I were an Enchanter. This is the best new YA novel I've read all year!"

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 02/2020
  • B084TTWGC2
  • 307 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 02/2017
  • 978-1543125832 B0BTKMDFZG
  • 305 pages
  • $5.77
Audio Details
  • 08/2020
  • B08F5KXNLC
  • 305 pages
  • $17.46
Hardcover Details
  • 02/2023
  • 9798823189392
  • 308 pages
  • $20.54
ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...