Review: "Demon Gates"...great start to a new series...4 1/2 Stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 10, 2011
"Demon Gates (Nexus Wars Saga) is the first book of a 5 to 7 book fantasy adventure series by Robert Day. This is a Kindle only e-book and is a 641Kb download.SPOILERThis is the story of Valdieron (Val)...a young man whose village and family was destroyed by trolls. His quest to avenge those deaths turns out to be an adventure of epic proportions. In his travels he visits many places making many friends and several enemies. Unbeknownst to him, his heritage goes back for centuries and in his blood runs special talents and skills that once discovered and developed, will allow him to participate in a quest that has the future of the world of Kit'Tar, hanging  in the balance.END SPOILERSThe Pros:1.) although the general theme of this fantasy adventure in not particularly new...a young, unsuspecting lad is thrust into a world full of emerging evil. What is different about this particular tale, is that the author was able to attain a consistent high level  of story-telling...laden with lots of action, travel, interesting dialogue and an assortment of characters that have a variety of appearances, skills and attributes.2.a) there was a sense of believability (within the context of the story) that helped maintain a high level of interest.2.b) also within the believablity vein...important members of the story can be seriously hurt and some even killed. I really have little patience for fantasy adventures where all the 'good' guys come through every battle with barely a scratch.3.) map: a well detailed and expandable map (on both the Kindle e-reader and the IPad).4.) cover art...although maybe not considered beautiful, had an intriguing quality to it that probably made me decide to purchase this book.The Cons:1.) the only area of concern in this otherwise intriguing story was the descriptions of beautiful women that were encountered. They were often inexplicably dressed in either sheer or revealing clothes, and not surprisingly, these clothes always seemed to reveal some feminine assets. Concerning only from the fact that this type of description occurred with an almost annoying repetitiveness. (as there seemed to be a number of fair damsels...lol)2.) maps (on the Kindle e-reader)...although detailed, in some areas the printing was very small, making some names very hard to decipher.Conclusions:A superb first novel...well written with a sense of flow and pace. A tale of travel and action that combine to set the framework for an epic quest. 4  1/2 Stars.Ray Nicholson