Customer Reviews

Farworld, Book 1: Water Keep (Far World)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thirteen year old, Marcus Kanenas has always had to defend for himself. His parents died when he was a baby. Marcus was born with some deformities. Marcus also has a strange mark on his shoulder. Marcus has a secret. He imagines a world far, far away known as Farworld. Everything there deals in magic....the people, the animals and even the trees and flowers talk.

One day a lawyer comes to the place where Marcus lives. He tells the man in charge that he has come on the behalf of Marcus' parents and they want him back. The lawyer says though that he needs proof that Marcus really is the boy he is looking for. The boy he is interested in has a mark on his shoulder. Marcus can sense that the man is not really who he says he is and tries to escape. Unfortunately the man captures Marcus. The lawyer is actually an evil summoner known as Bonesplinter. He wants to kill him Marcus. Before Bonesplinter can do so Marcus ended up in Farworld. There Marcus meets Kyja, her friend, a skyte named Riph Raph and Master Therapass, a master wizard. Master Therapass tells Kyja and Marcus to run for their lives from the Dark Circle. The Dark Circle is a group of summoners. Master Therapass tells Kyja and Marcus that he will catch up with them once he has taken care of some things. Kyja and Marcus end up experiencing all kinds of strange and unusual people and places in Farworld. To find out what types of things or if Kyja and Marcus survive you will just have to read Farworld: Water Keep for yourself.

I have not read a lot of young adult books. I do have to tell you though when I read the summary for FarWorld: Water Keep I thought I will give this book a chance. So glad I did. FarWorld: Water Keep was a good quality book, even if it is classified as a young adult book. The characters in this story were fun and had good personalities. Also I found the storyline to move at an easy pace. The only problem I had was just when the story was getting to the best part the book ended. So all I have to say is book two can't come out fast enough. For anyone who enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books, and then you will probably like J. Scott Savage's Far World: Water Keep series. Mr. Savage is going to make a great name for himself with readers of all ages.

13 year old Marcus is not having a great day. First bullies try to beat him up and then he finds out that an evil otherworldly power wants him dead. Before the evil's emissary can strike him dead, Marcus is pulled from Earth to another world, a magical world called Far World, by Kyja, a girl his age. He discovers that Far World is in danger, and it's up to him and Kyja to save it which they can only do by getting the four elementals to work together. And so they set off on a quest fraught with danger and with the evil power and its minions nipping at their heels.

This is the first book in a series, so it details only the beginning of the quest: to find Water Keep, where the water elementals live. Marcus and Kyja face a variety of obstacles, some which feel slightly derivative (the Unmakers remind me of The Neverending Story's The Nothing, the talking forest trees are similar to the Ents in Lord of the Rings), but the pacing is great and the story speeds along nicely.

Both Marcus and Kyja are appealing main characters though Kyja is just a tad too noble to be completely believable. Marcus's character is the best thing about the book, and what elevates it from your run of the mill quest story to something more special. Marcus is disabled and confined to a wheelchair or forced to crawl. He has his moments of self-pity and self-doubt, but he's able to overcome these to find the hero within. Disabled kids have a strong role model in Marcus and the rest of us gain a deeper understanding of the disabled experience.

Highly recommend this book! The author came to our little school in Northeastern Utah last week. Oh my gosh what a positive presentation he gave! The theme of the book is fantasy but his message is that the magic is in you not in magic tricks or such. That you can be and do whatever you want because it is up to you to do and be the best you can and you can do it because of the magic in you. The kids were enthralled. He had kids make up a story. A short one by asking different children different questions and turned it into a short story as he was talking to them that he is going to post on his website.

Our librarian had purchased 20 books in advance that she had him autograph. She was a little worried that she might have over bought. No way! She has had to reorder more. I bought three at the time of the assembly and had the autograph personalized for my three youngest grandsons, twin boys age 9 and a boy age 12. They have not put the book down! Other children (boys and girls both) bought books the next day and the teachers in our third, fourth and fifth grade classes (we only go to fifth grade in out little school) are saying that the kids are wanting to read this all the time. The third grade teacher said the kids that had the book were begging to read instead of doing the computer class. Kids are wanting to stay in at recess to read the book!

We traveled this weekend and I read the book outloud out and back from Salt Lake City. It is a good book. Lots of detail and excitement in his writing. From the very first page he has the kids hooked.

A new book is going to come out in this series every September. There will be five in all. We can hardly wait for the next one. They are waiting for it the way I was waiting for the Twilight books to come out.

Grandma Lee

Thanks for a great read I could share with my children! We all loved it!

Okay, first I have a confession to make. Although an adult in age, I am certainly a child at heart, typically prefering YA fantasy to just about any other genre. And I am very picky. Having been raised on classics like Narnia, I perhaps expect too much out of children's stories. This one, however, met my expectations.
I came across it while perusing the the book section in Walmart about a week ago. I've been caught up with homework and such and have been too busy to really read much. However, this book caught my eye. I picked up a copy and started reading as soon as I could. I couldn't put it down, and had it finished by the next evening.
One thing I found particularly satisfying about this book was Savage's choices for the heros of the story: a handicapped boy from Earth and a girl who is the only person on her entire planet who can't do magic. I found it rather reminescent of Tolkein and his hobbits in Lord of the Rings.
My one complaint with this book is how it starts out, with a strange creature with a weird name I can't recall coming out of the ground to investigate a tremor. It felt TOO surreal to me somehow, and written towards a younger audience than the rest of the book seems to address. While the rest of the book was something I was able to get lost in, even being a college student, that first chapter seemed to send me back to grade school in a way that I didn't really like. Overall, though, an excellent book and one I would certainly recommend!

My 11 year old is eating this up. He left his Nintendo products for two whole days! But for some reason the cover art bothered him so much we had to remove it before he would read the book.

I bought this book for my son, but I read it before he did, and loved every page!

One thing that struck me as great about this book right from the start, is that the male hero is not a buff, perfect young god to whom everything comes easily. He's disabled and picked on, misunderstood, and all around treated bad (except for one or two understanding folks like the monks and the English teacher). Yet he still keeps plugging ahead, fueled by his own internal strength. That things don't come easily to him only made me like him more as he faced all the twists and turns and sudden surprises that the story brought him. Because of the struggling and the sacrifice, the rewards are all that much sweeter.

I would heartily recommend this book for anyone twelve and up.

Being mundane is something that our non-magical world just is. But in J. Scott Savage's original fantasy novel, "Far World: Water Keep", we are introduced to Marcus, a mundane boy, who meets Kyja, a mundane girl when he finds himself thrust into a world that is different from own. Unfortunately for Kyja, her world is one of magic where she is considered weird for being simply mundane. The two mundane non-magical-user people are faced with an evil magical plot that could both affect the world of magic, known as Far World, and the mundane world of Earth. Kyja and Marcus embark on a quest that is gripping adventure from beginning to end, making "Far World" a solid pick for fantasy lovers and a popular addition to community library Fantasy & Science Fiction collections.

just finished reading this book and it really held my interest. great characters and i really loved the story... i can't wait for more from this author!

Farworld Water's Keep by J. Scott Savage

Marcus Kanenas, a boy with a crippled arm and leg, lives in a school for boys. He never knew what happened to his parents, but an Elder Ephraim, who found Marcus of a baby and named him Kanenas meaning nobody in Greek, keeps tabs on him until his death. Marcus finds that occasionally people notice that he makes weird things happen and he ends up someplace else. When he gets lonely or bored he often daydreams about a place called Farworld, a much better place full of animals who talk, and trees and plants that sing. He imagines that he has a friend there, a girl with brown hair and a strong personality.
Little does he know that the girl he sees lives in a real place and that their futures are intertwined by magic. When Marcus is magically transported to Farworld and meets Kyja, familiar to him because of his dreams. He learns that she grew up in Farworld, a place of magic, without a speck of magic ability. She introduces him to her friend and teacher Master Therapass, who tells Marcus that they are the key to saving Farworld and the Earth from a powerful, destructive forced called the Dark Circle.
Together Kyja and Marcus must find Water Keep and convince the elemental powers--air, water, fire, and earth--to combine together to save a world that they rule but care nothing about. They must get there before the Dark Circle destroys them and the worlds they both know and love.
I read the ARC edition of this book, and it will come out officially in September this year.
I wasn't extremely enchanted by the book, and found it kind of hard to get through. Don't get me wrong, the book isn't bad at all. It has good writing, a unique (though typical) magical world, and a strong plot. I think younger readers, especially those who like fantasy and are relatively new to the genre will love it.
Thing is I've read a lot of fantasy and plot, action, and new world elements are fun, but aren't really what make a book shine for me anymore, especially if they aren't innovative. It really is the characters, and I felt the characters were kind of overshadowed by the larger plot in the book. Also, I had this feeling that throughout the book that the characters problems were solved too conveniently and predictably. Though, the unmakers cavern was a reversal of this trend and a really cool sequence of the book. Yeah, so I wish the characters internal conflicts had been fleshed out, and resolved alongside the main plot threads, instead of being there and for the majority ignored. That said the book is still worth reading especially if you like action adventure fantasy.