Review: GOOD FANTASY ADVENTURE  **(4.0 STARS)**
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2013
This is a book filled with magic, kindness, friendship, life and death and cruelty.  These aspects are what bring this story to life.  The plot is absorbing, the writing is very descriptive and the characters are well drawn.  The reader is immersed into a world filled with darkness, yet hope still manages to exist there as well.  Readers who like the Chronicles of Narnia, GoT, or LoR should enjoy this adventure.The novel is filled with many characters, Storm Elf's, a race of humanoid barbarians, Shade Wolves, Ghast Gorillas and some humans.  The heart of the tale is the conflict between the characters and their rival god s, the ties of family, the bonds of friendship and the power of love over that of violence and hatred.  The message evolves from what happens to the characters without seeming denigrating.  This is a book that should appeal to boys that are over the age of ten, but most girls will not like all the violence and the lack of female characters.  This is the first book in a series so I hope that in the next book the author will broaden his characters so that they will appeal to both genders.  Unlike many writers who are writing serials, he does a good job at resolving the plot so readers are not left hanging for months to see what happens when the story picks up again.**UPDATE: June 2013:  After much contemplation, I have decided to change how I rate the books I read.  I feel that this is necessary for two primary reasons; there are too many high rated reviews from "SP's and or friends of the author.  Secondly, we are limited by Amazon's rating system which I feel needs to be changed but until then this is my only option.  My standards for the stars, (noted in the title of review), are shown below:**5 STARS:  This will be for books that I consider outstanding, meaning that I will keep the version I have to reread again.4 STARS:  Books I would have previously rated as 5 will be 4.50 or higher and books under 4.50 will be the same as Amazon's 4 (I Like It).3 STARS:  Books I would have previously rated as 4 will be 3.50 or higher; books under 3.50:  will be the same as Amazon's 3 (It's OK, recommend).2 STARS:  Books I would have previously rated as 3 will be 2.50 or higher; books under 2.50: it was good enough to finish, not recommend.1 STAR:  Books I would have previously rated as 2 will be 1.50 or higher; books under 1.50: I didn't like it, but eventually I finished it; books under 1.50: I hated it and may not have finished it, not recommend.4 STARS:  ** Receiving this book through Amazon's Vine Program did not influence my review or rating of this novel; all opinions are mine.**