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Defender (The Sanctuary Series Book 1) by [Robert J. Crane]

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Robert J. Crane

Defender (The Sanctuary Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Robert J. Crane (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

473 ratings

Book 1 of 10: The Sanctuary Series

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From Million-Selling Author Robert J. Crane, comes the first novel in an Epic Fantasy Series set in the richly imagined fantasy world of Arkaria. Best described as: “...'Hobbit meets Game of Thrones'...” ★★★★★ This is a can't-miss series!

Ten thousand years ago, the gods themselves forged weapons of war unmatched by any mortal steel. Most were lost to the mysteries of time. A few...were not.

Cyrus Davidon, a warrior on the ragged edge of poverty, leads a trio banded together with others into a dragon's den in search of adventure – and gold. When things go terribly wrong, a chance encounter with the guild of Sanctuary saves their lives and brings Cyrus into a world he has only imagined.

But all is not rosy in the ranks of Sanctuary; betrayals are brewing, and tensions within the guild threaten to destroy them as a shadowy villain begins collecting the weapons of the gods for terrible purposes. Paired with a beautiful, caustic elf named Vara who harbors a mysterious secret, Cyrus must brave the lands of Arkaria and find out who is pulling the strings before Sanctuary, and the land of Arkaria, are destroyed.

What readers are saying:

“A thrilling fantasy, that leaves you guessing until the last page. An adventure with dragons, swords, and trolls, I only wish it was longer.” ★★★★★

“Crane has blended action, adventure, mystery, magic, suspense, even a little romance into a wonderfully rich tale of heroes conquering evil and going on through impossible odds to triumph.” ★★★★★

Print length

269 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 2, 2014
Reading age

13 - 18 years
File size

3615 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert J. Crane was born and raised on Florida's Space Coast before moving to the upper midwest in search of cooler climates and more palatable beer. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in English Creative Writing. He worked for a year as a substitute teacher and worked in the financial services field for seven years while writing in his spare time. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN : B0057OAXQ0
Publisher : Ostiagard Press (January 2, 2014)
Publication date : January 2, 2014
Language : English
File size : 3615 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 269 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #20,717 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #22 in Teen & Young Adult Norse Myths & Legends eBooks
- #91 in Teen & Young Adult Fantasy & Supernatural Mystery eBooks
- #114 in Folklore (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
473 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		18%
3 star		10%
2 star		7%
1 star		6%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Michael

A Series Worth Reading

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2016

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I'm now through book 5 of the main series as well as the companion (dark elf) books, and so I want to provide some thoughts to someone who might be contemplating trying this series. The 1st book in the series won't give you much hope about the future of the series, but let me tell you that overall it's worth diving into and my review above really speaks to my feelings about the published series as a whole, not just this book. Part of the joy of this series is watching the author slowly become a significantly better and more confident writer.

During the course of that growth the world, the characters, and my love for the series has also grown. It starts out like a typical early 00's MMORPG and grows in depth and subtly with each passing book. I urge you give this series a chance and I hope by book 3 you'll have grown to love it as much I as do.

Book 1: Boring, predictable, mediocre fantasy novel. The first half is particularly bad. 2 of 5 stars
Book 2: Slightly better. The world begins to expand a little in this novel and the characters become a little more 3 dimensional. 3 of 5 stars
Book 3: The world opens up, the main characters begin to have a real voice, and you feel the actual stakes at play within this universe. Most importantly the author finds how to incorporate his trademark snark and sarcasm into these relationships. 4 of 5 stars
Book 4: The series asks questions that involve real more complexity including dealing with death, responsibility for our actions, and the importance of trust in relationships. 4 of 5
Book 4.5 Provides more color and complexity for one of the best characters in the series. 5 of 5
Book 5: I'm hooked. Can't wait to see the path that this story finally takes us down. 5 of 5
Book 5.5 More backstory, more complexity, just wonderful. This is basically Ender's Shadow to book 5's Enders Game. 5 of 5.

68 people found this helpful

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Faustus von Goethe

HORRID - AN RPG CAMPAIGN TRAVELOGUE WITH NO LITERARY PRETENSIONS

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2020

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Implements every 7th grader's d&d tropes - poorly. To all appearances, what Mr. Crane had done here is take his notes from his favorite dungeons and dragons character/campaign, and basically list them in a book. I could echo much of the other negative reviews, but you can read them for yourself.

What I will say is this - the actual reason a tabletop role playing game is ever fun, is the character development ; the visceral pleasure you gain from guiding your unique character (informed by your rich and detailed back story) from lowly noob who can barely swing a sword, to once-in-a-lifetime hero who shapes the world. Along the way, having many adventures, for many different reasons.

This has none of that. Mr. Crane's characters spring fully formed like flat, featureless cardboard cutouts, consisting of little more than a name, a (dnd trope) race, and virtually no history or motivation aside from "gaining loot".

No, that is neither mistype nor exaggeration. The central motivation of every character in this book is ... gaining loot.

From the very first chapter, the characters in this book are cowing dragons with single sword strokes, routinely using mass teleport spells to escape certain death, and stacking up slain comrades like cordwood so they can be "brought back" by resurrection spells. The characters start fully-formed at epic levels. Characters die and are brought back to life with little drama or impact, and the few "real" deaths experienced are so obviously setups ("red shirts", if you may) that they leave no lasting memory, and are never truly mourned.

In one of the "deepest" backstory moments in the book, one character presents his dreams for the future - to assemble his ultimate sword by getting the pommel (held by baddie x in location x), the blade (held by baddie y in location y), and the guard (held by baddie z in location z). NO backstory on how this lowly trainee got all this information. Just a laundry list of locations and baddies he has to kill to get the loot. He keeps the list on a tattered folded parchment, next to his heart.

Yes, it is - actually - that cringeworthy.

Spoiler alert. Yes, he eventually gets the loot.

So stay away, unless this is your kind of thing.

7 people found this helpful

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Smokin Crow

Bad.

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Apparently no editor. The reviews were mostly good for the series with warnings that volume 1 was weak. I bought the first 3 volumes & endured the first. Yes, the next 2 are much better but still bad. An editor would green ink `I beheld the scent of musty parchments.' (I paraphrase as I gave the books away already). The fantasy monsters, the challenges are conquered with ease. Poke a dragon in the nose with a spear & insult it and the dragon will then allow itself to be carved into steaks?

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A great fantasy!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

I have downloaded this book after reading Robert J. Crane's Girl in the Box Series (and I read that series after first book was free!). From the description I knew it was quite different from Girl in the Box, but since I enjoyed that series, I decided to give it a try. I have to say, I am now a great fan of both series! It has all the ingredients of fantastical suspense that make you turn pages and stay up late at night to finish just that one more chapter before turning the lights off... I have read all of the available books in less than a week! Yes, after downloading the free first volume, I happily purchased all the rest and am now stalking the authors blog and FB for the news of the release of the next one. There are heroes, villains, mystical beings (trolls, elves, dwarwes, dragons and even gods), there is war, love, secrets and mysteries that are slowly being revealed, but still so many to be explored. I do not want to reveal any of the stories, I recommend you read them for yourselves! One of my favourite fantasy authors!

16 people found this helpful

Fantasy Reader

Wade through...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 18, 2014

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Defender: The Sanctuary series Volume 1 seems at the beginning a bit slow, a bit disjointed and frustrating without a storyline to firm why the battles are fought but then all of a sudden it dawns on you as you read on that this is part of the story itself - a defender/ adventurer has a disjointed existence often entering battles for the thrill of it ( and the treasure) their lives more mercenary in nature than not. Once you accept this and move on the book then evolves, pieces come together and an understanding of the true plot starts to reveal itself.
The land of Arkaria holds cities of dwarves, elves, humans, trolls, dragons, gnomes, dark elves,gods and their treasures. Within these cities are guilds- groups of adventurers who target the cities treasures and steal these for the good of the guild ( to build the guild up to a more powerful association for its members).Each guild also seems to have an underlying reason for existence.
Book one introduces us to Cyrus Davidon a warrior, who after failing to get his own guild (Kings of Reikonos) to any standing joins a larger more powerful guild Sanctuary. The leader of Sanctuary believes in honour and therefore has other reasons for the guild other than adventuring ( he thinks this is a means to an end).
The story develops through his first few years in Sanctuary and is full of action, betrayal, and longing...
A very good read.

5 people found this helpful

MarekJ

A poor start to what is a pretty good series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

I started reading the Sanctuary when I ran out of the Girl in the Box books to read.
The Girl in the Box kept me hooked and I am now waiting for the last two books in the series to come out.
As I had found those books to be most enjoyable, I thought that I would give Robert Crane's other series a go.

A previous reviewer mentioned that this book feels like a Dungeons and Dragons manual and I agree there is something to be said for the accuracy of that comment. I found this book quite tedious and difficult to get into. There was a very palpable feeling of let down and I found myself wishing that I could return to Sienna and the Girl in the Box.

And yet...there was just something enough to keep me going and then to purchase the next book and then again the next one after that.

Each book is better than the last and I can now say that I am enjoying the Sanctuary series.

In summary, you may find this book a bit of a struggle to read, but rest assured that if you persevere the next books do turn out much better to read. Unfortunately, they do need this book to set the story up, but in fact the pay off is quite acceptable.

2 people found this helpful

Richard G. Monson

This is a pleasant easy read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is light and easy fantasy in the vein of Dnd. Don't take that as an insult. While a lot of Dnd like writing can be samey and subpar, this was anything but.

It flowed easily with likeable characters and an interesting plotline. It didn't break any of the cardinal rules for myself (i.e. it didn't include overly graphic violence or sex scenes nor was it filled with swearing).

Seamless and enjoyable.

One person found this helpful

Fantasy Devourer

Much better than other reviews suggest

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

I always read the reviews before buying books. In this case the book was free and I had run out of other stuff to read so this was one of 14 books I loaded onto my kindle. I wasn't expecting much.

In fact this is a well written and gripping book. The story is told from the point of view of a warrior in a D&D style world. There is nothing wrong with starting from a world with that cast of characters. It is a world that most fantasy readers will know well as most fantasy books seem to include a subset of the same races/abilities/classes. It made a change for an author to be refreshingly honest about his influences and it made me smile when the character was first brought back to life.

The story is well worked. There are a number of sub plots, some of which reach fruition within this book and others that are left hanging. Unlike most of the starts to series that I have read for free on my kindle I will purchase the next book (which will be only my second purchase since getting the kindle at christmas - 30+ books reviewed so far).

There is enough to this story and this world that I want to go back into it.

One person found this helpful

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