Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Key of Kilenya



The Key of Kilenya is the debut novel of Andrea Pearson. From the back cover of the book:
When two vicious wolves chase fourteen-year-old Jacob Clark down a path from our world into another, his life is forever changed. He has no idea they have been sent by the Lorkon--evil, immortal beings who are jealous of powers he doesn't know he possesses--powers they desire to control.

The inhabitants of the new world desperately need Jacob's help in recovering a magical key that was stolen by the Lorkon and is somehow linked to him. If he helps them, his life will be at risk. But if he chooses not to help them, both our world and theirs will be in danger. The Lorkon will stop at nothing to unleash the power of the key--and Jacob's special abilities.


I love fantasy novels and found this to be a worthy first effort into the genre. Andrea's writing improved as the book went along.

The protagonist, Jacob, is assisted by a race of people called the Makalos. Someone else described this race in their mind as being a cross between Native Americans and Ewoks. That's about how I pictured them too. The pacing in the book is good, I would've liked more descriptions of what the primary characters looked like, i.e. Jacob, but the action of the book helped me overlook some of the lack of descriptions.

One minor nit, sometimes the characters all spoke with the same voice. They all used the word, "wow" way more than they should have.

The beginning of each chapter had a journal entry from another person in the tale. I really enjoyed that. While following the primary line of the story, I was allowed to see briefly another character line. That gave two very different and distinct views of what was happening, and why it was happening.

I look forward to the sequel and reading the continuing saga of Jacob and his friends as they try to save damsels in distress and two worlds from annihilation.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

You can learn more about the author here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

he he. I loved it that we imagined them the same. :)

Your book reviews are always so well done. You are obviously an author who knows how to critique writing.

I definitely think the author's writing improved halfway through.

I didn't even notice the "wow" factor. I think I might have to go and reread to see if it annoys me.

I look forward to the second book.

Andrea said...

Dan, thank you so much for your review. :-) You noticed and enjoyed the same things my husband noticed and enjoyed. And I'm positive you'll like book two - I've been told over and over again it better exhibits my abilities as a writer than book one. :-)

Thank you again - I appreciate your professionalism and look forward to hearing what you think of the next book.

Andrea

Dan Olsen said...

Loved the book and look forward to book 2.

Andrea said...

Thanks again for your review. :-) I'm wondering how open you'd be to posting it on Amazon and Goodreads? I'd really, really appreciate it! :-)

Amazon (Kindle):
http://www.amazon.com/Key-Kilenya-ebook/dp/B0058KBQRS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323978764&sr=1-1

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12416944-the-key-of-kilenya

Thanks soooo much! :-) Also, I'm wondering if you'd be okay with me using bits of your review for blurbs and such? Let me know: apATandreapearsonbooksDOTcom. Thanks! Oh, and did you ever get your hands on book two?