Review: This Series Just Keeps Getting Better!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 1, 2014
The Warrior Kind series continues with Zevin and his brother, Gavin, on a quest by the Creator to take His Word to a land they know nothing about. The Creator plants a seed in Gavin's psyche through a dream of a land in distress, of a people's spiritual and physical bondage and oppression. Gavin knows he has to seek out this land and take the Creator's Word with him and deliver them from spiritual bondage and leave instead a legacy of the Creator and His Word. Little does he know that he and his brother, Zevin, will be also leaving and building upon a spiritual legacy of their own, that or restoring the Ta'lont name and spiritual legacy that was started by the Ta'lont family centuries before them.Again, Stanton leaves the reader panting from the layers of richness from the pace of the plot, the romance that is found for Gavin and Zevin, the warfare and battle strategies to break the alliances within the various peoples of Assoria, the final confrontation between Zevin, Raya and the Sorcerer, the spiritual aspects being very evident and again showing the Creator as a God who is actively involved in His people and on a very relational level too. This latter aspect is one of the strengths of all The Warrior Kind novels. Stanton portrays the Creator as the God of the Bible and no other, and he depicts God well with His many attributes and character traits that the bible so richly exhibits.I was impressed with the conversion of Zalisha from following the Sorcerer and other gods to making the declaration that she and her people would follow the Creator and Him only. His presence and what He said to her is very powerful. It is these spiritual elements of the Creator revealing Himself to various characters in such a tangible way that provides credibility to the plot and characterization and richness to the novel. It also shows the heart of the author towards God.I absolutely loved the romance between Gavin and Zalisha and Zevin and Raya. Stanton is a great romantic by his own admission, and he definitely shows this flare in all his novels. This romance adds a very binding force to the plot and the success of uniting the peoples of Assoria and the defeat of the Sorcerer together with the Creator being sovereign in destroying this bondage and oppression.Stanton has depicted the underground land of Lanoria as a land of mystery, where rich deposits of the mineral trinial that provide light and sustenance for the Lanorians, the animals and plants that live there and for them to thrive. These people have developed their own culture and security in the protection of the underground world from this bondage and oppression. I loved reading this section of the novel. In my imagination, I can see a series of spin off novellas of Zevin's time there with untold adventures before he had to leave to continue the battle to overthrow the Sorcerer.What becomes a very motivating factor in uniting the peoples of Assoria to overthrow and destroy the power of the Sorcerer is the outcome of the romance between Gavin and Zalisha and Zevin and Raya; both brothers become kings; Gavin of the Eastern Kingdom with Zalisha as his Queen and Zevin of Lanoria with Raya as his Queen. This forms the legacy of restoring and building on the Ta'lont heritage all those centuries ago that was destroyed by Sarcis, the younger half brother of Tadius Ta'lont, who became the Sorcerer.I loved the ending where the brothers return to the Valley Lands and introduce their new wives to Roric and Krista. This seems a very fitting and appropriate icing on the cake finale to this novel.It is very hard to have a favourite in this series. I think I will reserve my judgement on this to the last book. So far they are all favourites.Highly Recommended.