Review: Entertaining light read even if it is a little shallow
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 16, 2014
Most reviews are based on personal opinion so I will include reasons as to what I liked about the book and what I didn't like so you can determine if this is something you'd like to read.1. Low number of protagonists and a likable main character.  I hate books with a large cast that require you to have a diagram and appendix of names to follow along.  This book only has 1 main character who is likable and someone a reader can identify/root for.  I find it interesting that some reviews state the main character was well developed and other reviews state there was no character development. The story follows the character very closely which is why someone would say he was well developed, however the issue is that we can't quite understand why he sometimes makes decisions he does which is why he is underdeveloped.  For example there are parts in the story where he just goes where he is directed or wanders into a town and stays there for years with no good reasons2. Story is too black and white in a sense that there are good characters and they only work for the king and then there are evil characters that work with the insidious and cannibalistic barbarians. There is nothing really wrong with this setup except some instances that don't make sense and needs to be fleshed out. For example the King seems to be the almighty authority figure and has a class of specialized knights to mete out justice, except how come they don't mete it out when they have positive proof of incompetent army commanders, corrupt priests/officials/army commanders that work hand in hand with the barbarians?3. I love coming of age stories and this somewhat had it but the author blew through it. I would have especially loved to have read about the main character when he went through the academy but instead the story leaps through the years.4. This book is fast pace and action packed which is why the story is fast forwarded in certain parts. It reminded me of SF military books where the character just goes from point a to point b and is like reading about the character and not actually being in the story with the character.  However the book read well which kept me turning the page and wanting to see what happens.All in all I liked the book and would recommend it for a quick entertaining read; mostly if you can catch it on sale. I usually like to recommend a book at the end of my reviews in case readers want to read something similar. The plot of this book did remind me of Michael Stackpoles' Talion: Revenant which also has a specialized class of knights that mete out justice but Talion has better character development.As for the next book I plan on buying it when it comes on sale to see what happens with the main character since it ended a bit abruptly and left many things unfinished.