Review: "Knight's Valor"... the Pros and Cons... 2 1/2 Stars
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2013
"Knight's Valor"  is the first book in the 'Legends of the Dread Realm' by authors 711 Press and Ronald Coleborn with Rich Dalglish (Editor).This Kindle e-book was a 380 Kb download (approx. 94 printed pages) and sold for $0.99 at the time of writing this review.Please Note: the author(s) provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.SpoilersThe land is about to be overrun by a sinister warlord along with his evil minions. The dying king is virtually ineffective in his ability to lead, so the task of saving the land falls to a group of knights who have managed to survive a military rout at the Battle of Aklon. And so our tale begins.End SpoilersSome thoughts on "Knight's Valor"...The Pros:1.) although not new, an intriguing premise for this tale. I thought the beginning was well done and set up the remaining story very nicely.2.) the idea of a small child (Quarvik) with seer-like abilities to see the past, present and future through his dreams, was an interesting device.3.) map... a beautifully colored map. (see Cons below)The Cons:1.) an adult fantasy tale that unfortunately reads, in many places, like a Young Adult (YA) work.2.) areas of unbelievability (even within the context of a fantasy setting)a.) 4 knights kill 150 marauders as they rescue some captured women and children, but then leave them behind (unattended) as they go off north, knowing the remaining marauders they missed, are now hiding in the woods nearby.b.) Jerreb, the leader or the knights is told many useful things by the boy-seer Quarvik, but is repeatedly warned 'first you must do something else that is more important'. However, Jerreb never bothers to ask what this all important task might be... he just gathers his men and goes off on his own.3.) some examples of dialogues and happenings that are equally inane... e.g. Princess Redora reply on discovery that the get-away boat is gone. And then Jerreb, who tends to do things without thinking them through, often find himself having to retrace his steps because of his impulsiveness.4.a) map... the scale of the map didn't seem to fit the distances travelled. It appeared one could travel by horse from far north to the southern tip in a relative short period of time. So it looks like the entire land mass was very tiny but held an huge number of peoples and different topographical areas.4.b) map... the words on the map were almost illegible (Kindle reader App) and enlarging the map only made them more indistinct. But in fairness, this may be more of a formatting problem related to the Kindle App.5.) there seemed to be minimal character development of the Knights in our party of potential heroes. All very one dimensional and all easily forgettable.6.) and finally, Ellerick, the young Knight (the impetuous sidekick, if you will) whose continual immaturity became very tiresome, very fast.Impression:I'd high hopes for this tale when I started. Unfortunately it slipped more and more into into a story reminiscent of writing that was meant for a YA audience.Writing techniques and devices, plus some poorly thought out scenes that I think most seasoned adult fantasy adventure lovers would struggle with.It's one of those story that I find it hard to imagine that a friend, proof-reader or beta reader would not have voiced some concern. Because the basic premise was excellent... but the execution fell well short of delivering a quality product.I only finished this because it was so short.As it is... 2 1/2  StarsRay Nicholsonraynicholsonsreviews@hotmail.com