Customer Reviews

Aradithia: Rise of the Goblin King

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend recommended this book. Normally I don't like fantasy -- the genre makes me feel trapped and suffocated. However the humor in Aradithia gave me breathing room so that I could enjoy the fantasy world and all that it has to offer. There is a tender coming of age story of an unlikely hero, a bit of satire, comical characters and scenes, exciting adventure, magic, ingenius story line and thought-provoking themes. A few pages here and there were a bit draggy and over-done but overall it was great. Read the whole thing on a rainy weekend, couldn't put it down.

This book is not one for the faint hearted. Just when you think you've settled nicely into the story-wham, the adventure begins. With wonderful characters and vivid description, John Gregory Jackson draws you in and takes you into the magic of lands long forgotten. You'll be reading this and put it down only to find yourself going back and saying"oh just ten more pages". That is until you reach the closing finale where I wasn't just reading it before bed, it was at breakfast, while making dinner, any free time I had. Climactic chapters that twist and turn to audible gasps as you sit there hoping no-one heard you. I thoroughly recommend to all who enjoy magic, suspense, humour in the face of danger and that continuous struggle of good versus evil.

The formatting of this book makes me regret purchasing the kindle version. Here are some examples of the issues you will see.

You will often see pages
that are
formatted like this for the
entire
page which is very distracting. It
gets very
difficult to determine which
characters
are speaking at times.

You will also see the page number and book title 64 Aradithia: Rise of the Goblin King inserted into the page.


E
very chapter also begins with the first character offset from the rest of the sentence.

I did find the story to be enjoyable, though. Somewhat of a lighthearted fantasy novel that seems to be a mix of LotR and Harry Potter. There isn't a lot of time spent explaining the different races but at this point there really isn't any need. The races don't deviate to much from the standard goblins have sharp teeth, dwarves are small, elves have pointed ears, etc... There is an introspective dwarf that has some refreshing commentary.

I would recommend the book for people who like a lighthearted fantasy but would suggest getting a physical copy. This would probably be a four star review had the kindle version not had terrible formatting.