Susan Faw

While at Book Bonanza 2019, I bought a couple blind bags of books. The bags were labeled by genre, so all you knew was that and the approximate size of the book inside. This was in the Fantasy bag I selected.

I initially thought this was a single long fantasy novel, but it's actually a collection containing the entire Spirit Shield Saga - a prequel and three books. I decided I'd try the prequel, Soul Survivor, and see whether I wanted to continue on. In the end, I decided to save myself a lot of time and boredom and stop after the prequel, so this will be a review of Soul Survivor only.

Soul Survivor follows several different groups of characters whose relationships and factions I wasn't always able to follow. Caerwyn and Alfreda are Primordial gods and siblings, while Hud is (I think) Caerwyn's manservant. Hud also happens to be the father of the most magically important and gifted individual in existence, Mordecai, a 7-year-old charged with protecting something called a "balance box." Meanwhile, Helga and Artio, Caerwyn and Alfreda's sisters, are working on plans of their own. Artio has fallen in love with a mortal wizard named Genii and plans to create a medicine wheel that will not only magically heal people at particular times, but also somehow make Genii immortal like her. However, Helga is also in love with Genii and is wildly jealous of Artio. She also hates her other siblings, Caerwyn and Alfreda, for having been given better powers and land than she was after they were all banished to the mortal world. In her anger and envy, Helga has put plans into motion that have the potential to either kill everyone or make immortal gods a thing of the past.

This was stiff and boring, more focused on its plot than on presenting readers with interesting and appealing characters. I didn't care about a single character in this, although Helga was at least initially somewhat intriguing. Mordecai was unintentionally creepy, a too-mature child sage. Main characters sacrificed themselves, and I didn't even feel a twinge.

While reading this, I couldn't help but think of the Greek gods: also immortal, but infinitely more fun to read about than Caerwyn, Alfreda, Artio, and Helga, so I don't think the main characters being immortal was necessarily the problem. Maybe it was the grand scale (end of all life, or the end of all immortal gods!) and/or the way it was written. Either way, I didn't feel any temptation to continue on, especially considering it would have meant slogging through 800 more pages.… (altro)

I liked the twins from the start more so of the prankster Avery, but it was Cayden's dedication to never kill another that really swayed my heart. But how can he not kill another human when it was they and other darks spirits that sought his life? Avery and Cayden Tiernan were foretold for centuries to take back the castle and ruled their people, but magic was banned by the reigning evil queen and the twins could not develop their talents for fear of being burned as a witch. Book one is the only beginning as Cayden's ragtag bunch of mostly loyal farmers align themselves to the new king.… (altro)