Title: Acadia, Book I: The Lost King and the Goddess of Time
Author: Ali Naqvi
Rating: 4/10
Description: “It was only a nightmare at first, but Damont soon realizes that he can see into the future—a curse he has to live with for being the only son of a king dead for a thousand years, with a mother who is the goddess of time.
A man in black armor with a face as obscure as the shadows mantling him laughs wickedly. Who is he and why does he continue to haunt me, Damont wonders. Appearing only in his dreams, the man in the black armor stands alone and laughs high as if to mock him while the world around him burns to cinder. “They are not dreams, my son,” a voice calls out to him in a vision after the many nightmares—claiming to be his mother whom abandoned him when he was but a child. “They are shards of a broken world to come if you so take the path of your father.” If such a path does lie ahead beyond a throne that sits vacant for centuries, with an empire in the east growling for war, then Damont Langörn realizes he has but one choice: follow the visions and seek out the truth lost to both him and the world behind his lineage—but will he be strong enough to face such a malevolent foe of his nightmares?
With a vampire and a sorceress at his side, Damont begins his journey, but such a road is not an easy one to take if the gods themselves do not wish for his return as the king who would unite the world against their existence and bring demise to their very doorstep.” – Amazon.co.uk
The Review: My Mother always told me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say to people then I shouldn’t say anything at all – sadly that would make this review extremely short.
Damont is a young man who finds out around half way into the novel that he is the long lost descendent of the infamous Langorn line – the one who united Acadia. He travels to the nearby country for advice, where the Queen sends him on a quest of discovery in the forest (along with two companions) to prove he is worthy to be king. From there, there’s run-ins with gods, people out to kill him and the heir to the neighbouring country planning Damont’s demise. Sadly by the time the story starts to kick in I had already decided that I had no real love for Damont, primarily down to his naive yet arrogant attitude. Instead I wanted to know more about Virden (a loner, or hunter as he’s titled in the book, who seems to like a drop or two of blood to drink) as he seems like much deeper characters.
One of the main things that I love about fantasy novels is how I can become completely and utterly lost in the World that the author has magically created for the reader to fall in to in their own way. The exploration chapters that some people find a little tiresome I absolutely adore. Sadly the first two real journeys that Damont faces are incredibly rushed over with no real depth or feeling of travel or excitement, which in turn made Acadia have no real depth or meaning to me. As the novel continues Naqvi seems to find his footing and the World does start to flourish and open up, however for me it was too late.
Sadly I don’t think I’ll be reading the next book in the series.
A Note Of Thanks: I would like to say a massive thank you to Celine from Nyx Book Reviews who I received this review copy of Acadia, Book I: The Lost King and the Goddess of Time through. Make sure you check out Nyx Book Reviews for some excellent reviews and interesting book related insights.
I can has book? 