Review: Pretty Good Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2011
I thought this had the makings of a fairly good fantasy book.  It's probably closer to 3.5/3.75 stars but I had to round up on this one.  As someone previously mentioned this book can be read as a stand-alone and while it does get a bit rushed in certain parts, I appreciated that it didn't cut off mid-story and look for a second or third book.  (Although there are additional books which continue with other adventures.)A few good things:I enjoyed seeing some new races that I hadn't really read about previously, Algors and Delvers.  It would be good to have a better understanding of the Algors and what gives them almost a hive mentality while still trying to be individuals.  More insight in to what makes the Delvers a separate race when they pretty much mix in and breed with humans.  At this point all we see is that there aren't many (for that reason) and they move very quickly.The characters, most of the time, are pretty believable and there is no one character that suddenly gains godly powers or anything.  They all have abilities but not anything over the top.Over all a pretty smooth read, it started a bit slow but then picked up and had enough action to hold my interest throughout the story.A few bad:The basic story was a bit simple and pretty much followed the standard format of the group of various races/traits coming together on their journey to overcome the evil threatening the world.  So it wasn't at times very much like reading a shorter/modified version of Lord of the Rings.  They were even heading to an old dormant volcano / mountain in the end.At times the characters were a bit on noted.  Ryson, the Delver was always a goodie two shoes and would never hurt anyone, even if it meant putting others in danger.  IE: he catches the bad/evil creatures and lets them go, or just knocks them out.  He doesn't even want to "kill" some animated sandstone creatures until he's assured that they're not really alive.  It seemed a bit like he was too altruistic or pure/innocent.  It almost made it a bit hard to identify with him as a character for me.  The elves, especially Lief was at time annoying with his quick jumps to argument and yelling.. and of course Ryson pretty much always ignored it or tried to calm him down even though he was usually the target or Lief's over reactions.  The others had similar problems.Maybe it was intentional but there seemed to be a bit of a religious theme thrown in there towards the end with "Godson" everywhere and some "angels" in the end of the story.  I didn't really see any purpose in that and for me, it didn't really add much of anything to the story.  Also, seemed that there was a very big separation between good characters being completely good and the bad being basically pure evil no real characters in the gray middle area, which could have made things a bit more interesting.Over All:While not in any way an Epic Fantasy Book, but it was a very good light read.  It kept things clean and simple and is something you could easily let younger teens/kids read without any worries.  It was a good standalone book with subsequent books available that involve the characters/groups in different adventures so you can stop with this one or continue if you enjoy it.  I'd suggest this book to anyone who likes the high fantasy style and just wants a fairly easy read.