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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Rise of the Wyrm Lord, by Wayne Thomas Baston, December 17, 2006
When Aidan Thomas learned he was moving away from home and his best friend to live with his eighty-year old ailing grandfather halfway across the country, life turned inside-out. Without Robby, it was back to being un-athletic, unpopular, bullied and pushed around. It was the end of life as he knew it, a new beginning he wanted no part of.
However, Aidan finds the sacred scrolls of Alleble in his grandfather's basement and embarks upon a journey to The Realm, changing his life forever. A place of ancient magic embroiled in war; on one side stands King Eliam - loving, eternal ruler of Alleble, and Paragor - once trusted herald of King Eliam, now evil ruler of the hellish lands of Paragory. In The Realm, Aidan surmounts challenges revealing his true measure, and when he finally returns home, he burns with the desire to impart King Eliam's love to everyone.
Things aren't turning out as great as he'd hoped. While leaving The Realm, he received a disturbing vision, one showing Robby's mirror-self serving Paragor. Worried about Robby's eternal destiny, Aidan emails repeatedly for weeks with no answer, and when he finally does get ahold of Robby, he's distant, guarded, and acting very strange.
Aidan is convinced Robby's in eternal danger, but what can he do? The rules are clear; King Eliam calls a person to The Realm once a lifetime - there's no way he can reach Robby's mirror-self with King Eliam's love.
Enter Antoinette Reed, Aidan's art classmate at his new school. When he sees her artwork - a rendition of Paragory's outer gates, and she sees his, The Seven Fountains of Alleble, they realize the amazing truth: they're both believers of King Eliam, true citizens of Alleble.
Even more astounding; Antoinette receives a ghostly vision of Aidan in warrior dress, and on the back blank pages of her Book of Alleble, the same poem that brought Aidan to The Realm appears. Antoinette has been called to serve King Eliam, but before she goes, Aidan tasks her with a desperate plea - find Robby's Glimpse, and somehow convince him of the truth of King Eliam's love, to save Robby's soul!
When Antoinette arrives in The Realm, she discovers another shocking truth: she is the mirror-self of Lady Gwenne, Aidan's close comrade and friend! Though heartened by this, as well as warmed by her quick friendship with Aidan's Glimpse, Aelic, Antoinette encounters a world in turmoil: imposters have spread everywhere, speaking falsehoods and lies, attempting to destroy alliances with Alleble. Even worse, rumors abound that Paragor seeks to unleash an ancient evil power locked away for centuries. The fearful question lingers: is the rumored Wyrm Lord a myth, a fable - or Paragory's new weapon against Alleble?
The Rise of the Wyrm Lord, the second installment in Wayne Thomas Baston's The Door Within Trilogy, jacks up the action a notch, successfully following up The Door Within. Baston continues to weave classic Bible stories into an intriguing tale, and makes this novel even better than the first - which is not easy to do - by going "off the Biblical" map with the Wyrm Lord and the Seven Sleepers' mythology. The second novel is an excellent tale, building on and improving The Realm mythos.
At first I was disappointed Aidan wasn't returning to The Realm¸ but this offers a fresh new story from Antoinette's perspective. In The Door Within, the characterization was solid, believable, but in this novel they grow and acquire depth in ways most Christian fantasies don't today.
The pace picks up, the threat of the Wyrm Lord and the Seven Sleepers looming over every page. One thing to admire: many writers make the mistake of showing off their hidden bad guys too early, and in this novel, we only get tantalizing, shadowy, menacing glimpses of the Wyrm Lord and his minions. This adds suspense; Baston is now playing the "cruel author", (which we all love so much), by making us wait for the last novel for the pieces to fall into place.
The Rise of the Wyrm Lord ends in a cliffhanger: we are left suspended, in true Empire Strikes Back fashion, without a clue as to what's going to happen next, as we learn that not only is Antoinette in mortal danger, but so is Aidan - even in the "safer, real world". All we can do is trust in King Eliam and his grace, and wait until the series concludes in the final novel, The Final Storm.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Adventures are funny things...", December 13, 2006
In my review for "The Door Within", the first book in the trilogy, I said that the beginning-->middle of the book is bad and that the middle-->end of the book is excellent. "The Rise of the Wyrm Lord" is much like that, except it is more divided.
The beginning of the book far surpasses the beginning of book one. Aidan has evolved into a likable character, and his daily non-Realm life is interesting, especially when he meets Antoinette.
The middle of the book, in which Antoinette enters the Realm, becomes problematic. "The Door Within" is plot-driven as opposed to character-driven, and that isn't a problem. However, the plot here requires heavy, heavy suspension of disbelief. Antoinette doesn't come off shocked or amazed that she was able to enter a different dimension, nor does she seem out of place or foreign to the setting, as Aidan initially did in book one. It is also strange that she was able to be deemed equal to the warriors of Alleble, who have spent their entire lives training for war. Antoinette has learned martial arts and fencing. They should be in entirely different leagues, but they are not.
The end of the book picks the pace up, and it is exciting. Almost every chapter has a different protagonist, and that is risky as the majority of the book featured Antoinette as the protagonist up to this point. However, Batson's risk paid off. The end of the book is highly entertaining and suspenseful, even more so than the climax of book one.
Let's dissect a bit...
The Bad...
+ The dialogue is stiff, and not on account of the medieval-esque language. It's on account of the dialogue itself. It's forced. Mallik is more than three times called a "hammer-wielding friend" instead of just his name. Stiff. This shows traces that the characters in this series are characterized by their skills, not their motivations or their... well, characters.
+ As mentioned above, the characters are flat and undeveloped. They seem to be pawns in the story. The story moves them, they rarely move it.
The Good...
+ Antoinette's entering the Realm gives a different perspective than that which we read in book one, and it was interesting to see the world through her eyes.
+ Plenty of suspense.
+ The world is richly described, particularly the scene where the lava veins down the volcanoes.
+ Batson's switch from Aidan as protagonist in the beginning to Antoinette was daring, and paid off well. However, I feel that the story should have traded off between Aidan and Antoinette as the story developed. All Aidan has after Antoinette enters the Realm is two pages at the end of the book. I feel as if his character should have had a few chapters through the course of the novel.
+ The book is paced well, and was consistently enjoyable. The allegory was never overly cheesy, and I found myself hoping that Kearn would except King Eliam.
+ The book cover and pages are beautiful.
+ The Robby/Kearn situation is handled well. Since the first book, I've wondered why "cool guy" Robby befriended Aidan. Prior to his adventure in Book One, Aidan was not only a "nerd", he was also an unpleasant person. In this book, it is revealed that Kearn (Robby's twin in the Realm) finds meaning in life only when he feels superior to other people. This makes sense when Robby/Kearn and Aidan's friendship is analyzed. Robby befriended Aidan because he felt superior to him, not because he wanted to help him. That was definitely a good tidbit of info.
"The Rise of the Wyrm Lord" is flawed, but always entertaining. The writing is good, with moments of excellence. I only wish that Mr. Batson restricted the use of exclamation points to his characters' dialogue(!). For example, from page 298:
They all turned and looked to the sky above the ruin of Clarion. And there, just as the sun broke through the clouds, the sky filled with dragons! (Batson).
Not only does the exclamation point here (used liberally throughout the novel) ruin the mood, it also seems childish and unnecessary to add.
However, this novel withstands its flaws and Batson proves himself to be a formidable writer. I hope to hear a lot more from him, and my copy of "The Final Storm" is on its way to my house right now! <-- ;)
And I must add: Not only is Wayne Thomas Batson a good writer, he is also a good man. Whenever I e-mail him, he always returns with a personally addressed e-mail with nothing but kindness and good advice, as I too am an aspiring writer.
7/10
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can they stop the Wyrm Lord?, December 6, 2010
This review is from: The Rise of the Wyrm Lord: The Door Within Trilogy - Book Two (Paperback)
Aiden, having completed his mission, finds himself at a new school back home. Meeting a girl that also believes in the realm that he went to, he quickly starts up a conversation with her. Visiting their house, Aiden finds that they all believe in the realm and are astounded at his announcement that he had visited the realm. However, they soon go from excited to scared when they find out that their daughter was being called to the realm to go on her own adventure. Will they see their daughter again? Will she come to know the truth about the realm that she grew up to believe in? Read and find out.
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