Review: Good clean fun
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2013
This book is for those who are tired of gore, prolonged sword play and overcomplicated conspiracies. They are still present but in a small digestible doses. I found the read a restful, good, clean and fun.Main character, a honest knight-priest (does not wear a shiny armour and rides on borrowed horse) has a good heart and strong sense of duty, written little simplistically for my liking. But how do you write about someone that means well to all and kills only when there isn't any other way?Backgrounds of a characters are also little sketchy at first but revealed to the reader as journey progresses and characters open up to those they grow close to.There is enough of damsels in distress to make every lover of that genre happy, I liked that book's female characters are feisty and can hold their own. However, it is not a love interests that dominate the book but a friendship between Brydon and Toryn that gradually develops in to something so amazing. Regardless of so many characters in the book, for me it's a story of a great true friendship.I enjoyed the length of the book (over 400 pages),  which seems at times long-ish (I know it's not a word, shush). Maybe it is constant journey  as you may do when you are on the quest, or maybe because there's so many events crammed in to it. Still, it's moves along nicely and I could pictured myself being just one of Brydon's companions. It's nice to read a trilogy book that lasts more then few hours! I feel it could have been even longer if authors didn't skip over events so much, or perhaps just as long and much better with less events but in greater details. Handful of missing or extra word like "cannot not" does not take away from the story but they are still there and together with a lack of attention to details puts 'The Gauntlet Thrown' in the solid four stars.Pet-hate: big continent to travel and no maps! I did found some after purchasing second book by following link to xcpublishing.net , but they are hard to read!All in all a good effort from a self-published authors, by far the best I have read in awhile. I just hope they iron out those few wrinkles in the future books and become great must read authors!