Customer Reviews

The Guardian (Bantam Spectra Book)

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

 

 

The Guardian is xtra-light fantasy with all the common cliches to be expected in such literature: There're the good guys'n girls, who do (almost) everything right, motivated by most honorful intentions. Then there are the ultimately bad guys, who're soulless powermongers and who get either killed or converted (okay, in that case they werent that bad). And in the end the hero gets the (smart) girl (surprise, surprise: the leading female character actually isn't the guardian's ward, which serves as quite a positive twist), the other girl (the ward) gets the good-looking guy, and the smart guy (the hero's sidekick who is providing the most pleasureable scenes) gets the cute girl. At the end, the good ones are all united and everybody is happy and all smiles. Including the reader who just enjoyed a straightforward, easy-going tale with all the ingredients needed for a solid fantasy novel.

The Queen of Chaldor foresaw the death of her husband in battle. Aided by an evil Vachyn sorcerer, Talon would conquer the castle. She gave the region's fiercest warrior, Gailard (a Highlander), the task of spiriting Princess Ellyn away and guarding her with his life until such time Ellyn was old enough to gain her hereditary powers, defeat Talon, and regain the throne.

Gailard and Ellyn had no love for each other. With Ellyn at the awkward age between child and woman, she had no understanding of the burdens of commanding armies, politics, magic, and zero patience. They gain an unlikely ally in Shara, another Vachyn. Shara promises to teach Ellyn the magic while Gailard teaches the princess how to battle in combat. Then, somehow, they must raise an army, defeat the mighty sorcerer, kill Talon, and regain the kingdom.

It sounded like fun!

***** An excellent Fantasy book! This one will keep its readers up well into the night. Non-stop, I hardly had time to breathe, much less, do anything in reality. Order out for pizza and settle in for a fantastic tale! *****

I was most impressed with Wells' previous series "The Book of the Kingdoms" and the "Godwars." So therefore I was eager to read his newest book. I thought I would be taken on another thrilling ride, I was most disappointed. This book for all intents and purposes is a rehashing of the other series, particularly Godwars. Here we have a noble fleeing from his/her troubles with a guardian/protector and being presued by a sorcerer/wizard, we encounter waring clans who are not united, we get past them learn what our magical talent is, use it to solve our problems then triumph. It would have been easier and more accepted, if Wells had just tacked this book onto one of his other series. His style of writing hasn't even changed any. I think that next time, if there is a next time, I will examine his book more thoroughly before I decide to buy it. A great disappointment from a promising author.

The characters did fall in love a bit too quick but I really enjoyed this book. I am young and do not enjoy reading much but I actually enjoyed reading this book and spent my free time on it (no school project or anything). I thought this book was great and I think that young people would enjoy this book because of its setting and theme.

This is a good fantasy tale. Nothing really new in the story, but the writing is very solid. While I think Angus Wells has written better more original stories, this one reminded me a great deal of a David Gemmell book. I think it is worth a look.

The Queen of Chaldor foresaw the death of her husband in battle. Aided by an evil Vachyn sorcerer, Talon would conquer the castle. She gave the region's fiercest warrior, Gailard (a Highlander), the task of spiriting Princess Ellyn away and guarding her with his life until such time Ellyn was old enough to gain her hereditary powers, defeat Talon, and regain the throne.

Gailard and Ellyn had no love for each other. With Ellyn at the awkward age between child and woman, she had no understanding of the burdens of commanding armies, politics, magic, and zero patience. They gain an unlikely ally in Shara, another Vachyn. Shara promises to teach Ellyn the magic while Gailard teaches the princess how to battle in combat. Then, somehow, they must raise an army, defeat the mighty sorcerer, kill Talon, and regain the kingdom.

It sounded like fun!

***** An excellent Fantasy book! This one will keep its readers up well into the night. Non-stop, I hardly had time to breathe, much less, do anything in reality. Order out for pizza and settle in for a fantastic tale! *****

I thought this book was exciting. I was caught up in the book in the second chapter when Gailard swore to protect Ellyn, even though neither of them liked each other. It was fast paced and had a lot of action and character conflicts. True, the characters did fall in love quickly, but that was its only major flaw, but I don't think its a bad one!! Read it for yourself to decide if you like it or not!!

I was really impressed with Wells' Lords of the Sky, but was somewhat disappointed with The Guardian. It seemed that the odds against the main characters kept on getting higher and higher and they would repeatedly say: "Why don't we just give up?" But of course they wouldn't. They would figure out someway to overcome their obstacles. Overall, well written, but predictable.

I liked this book, but from reading other reviews, i guess you have to read this before reading his other books. This is my first book by Angus Wells, and maybe that is why it did not seem repetitve to me. I think the character Gailard was a bit puppyish, running after master Shara and being quite obviously destined for her, as I felt when I read the books blurb. Also, Ellyn isn't really spoiled at all, belying the potential humor the blurb offers. Still, the story is well put together and makes sense for the most part.

Gailard the Mercenary has sworn to defend the princess Ellyn from the invading army of Danant. We follow the warrior through many adventures. This was a pretty good book. It had the feel of an early attempt by a younger Angus Wells. It wasn't as developed or as detailed as his other works. The characters fell in love a bit to easily and quickly for my taste. But all in all a good story.