Review: "Just don't call me a hero." -Cleve
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 28, 2013
Possible spoilers fromBastial Energy (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 1)andThe Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry)ahead. If you didn't read those books yet, I'd highly recommend you start with them, in any order.Taken from King of Kyrro, Welson Kimard's prison by princess Jessend Takary, Cleve, the main hero of this book, and Rek, his Elvish psychic friend, travel across Starving Ocean to the continent of Greenedge in "Bastial Steel," a new installment of B. T. Narro's epic saga.The book is written in a third-person limited point of view; we see everything happening through Cleve's eyes. This is, again, a departure from the style of the first two books. "Bastial Energy" is written in a third-person, multiple character points of view, while "The Sartious Mage" is a first-person style narrative.To be honest, I think this choice of storytelling style suites Cleve the best. If you remember him from "Bastial Energy," he used to have a personality of a brick, with other characters constantly outshining him in any interaction. Now, that we finally can see deep inside his head, we see a reason why: mysterious death of his parents that left him an orphan at a very young age and scared him deeply, led him to build a wall around himself and not let anyone in. We already saw a glimpse of this wall crumbling in Cleve's later interactions with Reela in the previous book. However, Cleve has to leave Reela, the Academy, Kyrro, and the whole continent of Ovira, presumably never to return.Princess Jessend Takary takes over as the female lead for the better part of the book and does a smashing job of it. She is more outgoing, even more forceful in getting what she wants than her sister Lisanda, with whom we became familiar in the previous book, "The Sartious Mage." She sees Cleve as a future husband prospect; Cleve even manages to ingratiate himself to Jessend's father, King of Goldram, so he approves of his daughter's choice. Cleve, being his charming self, dismisses princess' matrimonial ideas out of hand. Jessend, however, does have a good reason to insist. So, Cleve, while desperately wanting to return to Kyrro, Rella, his friends, and the upcoming war back at his homeland, gets involved in the politics of the royal family of Goldram, with a possible war looming over the kingdom. In the later part of the book, Jek, the main hero of "The Sartious Mage," makes an appearance, and he, together with Cleve, travel on an adventurous mission together.This book, "Bastial Steel," is somewhat different from the previous two, mainly because of the choice of protagonist. Cleve is a young warrior, who, through making new friends, through many dangers and adventures, is finally coming into his own, finding his strengths, if not yet his place in the world. The way he acts, the way he feels, and interacts with people, is very indicative of his character. While he grows into a fine young man in this book, he does retain some of his initial qualities. If I were to make a "Princes of Amber" analogy, for those who are familiar with the book, I'd probably say his personality was close to that of Gerard.Very good adventure, especially in the later part of the book, plenty of action scenes, and, as we already are used to expect from these series, an excellent character development. We also learn about the world this fantasy is set in quiet a bit from this book, especially about desmarls and the continent of Greenedge. Cannot wait to read the next book. Recommended.