BEWARE of any book title that calls itself "EPIC."

I'm not sure how this book had so many positive ratings.  It was utterly boring.

We are thrown into a world of darkness.  NOTHING is explained to us.  The author uses strange references to mark things like government, passage of time, which are wholly and utterly unfamiliar to us, expecting us to accept that we didn't understand anything about that last phrase or sentence, so we should just move on.  The hero/anti-hero is a cave-dwelling "dark" boy with absolutely no personality.  We know he harbors a deep secret in his miserable life as the bullied underdog.  That's about it.  He has nothing else to recommend him except his connection to darkness in a dark world.  He has no inner thoughts of note.  He has no epiphanies.  He has no character.

When I concluded this was a world of mage-polygamists, who use magic with the help of magical stones, with a fractured society of capital rule over independent village-states, with "Guadel" who travel the frozen tundras in the service of the capital to find and recruit other young mages, I had no desire to read further.

The names of people and places are entirely distracting.  While I don't expect characters in a foreign, magical universe to be named "Tom" or "Harry" I also don't want to be puzzling over how I'm supposed to pronounce something for minutes on end.  Why the apostrophes? Why does every name and place sound the same?  (Va'del, Guadel, something-el) Only Jasmin has the most decent sounding name and she is the only one with some semblance of personality.  Maybe there's a correlation...  Give an exotic name to a flat character to make him/her interesting.

When I realized I could be doing something, ANYTHING, more exciting than reading this book, (i.e. learning how to darn socks, sewing a button, pulling weeds, cleaning, doing laundry, listening to a lecture on recent changes in the law) I realized that if I put this book down I'd never pick it up again.  Couldn't get past the first 8 chapters before deleting it from my Kindle.  Haven't looked back.
BEWARE of any book title that calls itself "EPIC. "

I'm not sure how this book had so many positive ratings. It was utterly boring. We are thrown into a world of darkness. NOTHING is explained to us. The author uses strange references to mark things like government, passage of time, which are wholly and utterly unfamiliar to us, expecting us to accept that we didn't understand anything about that last phrase or sentence, so we should just move on. The hero/anti-hero is a cave-dwelling "dark" boy with absolutely no personality. We know he harbors a deep secret in his miserable life as the bullied underdog. That's about it. He has nothing else to recommend him except his connection to darkness in a dark world. He has no inner thoughts of note. He has no epiphanies. He has no character. When I concluded this was a world of mage-polygamists, who use magic with the help of magical stones, with a fractured society of capital rule over independent village-states, with "Guadel" who travel the frozen tundras in the service of the capital to find and recruit other young mages, I had no desire to read further. The names of people and places are entirely distracting. While I don't expect characters in a foreign, magical universe to be named "Tom" or "Harry" I also don't want to be puzzling over how I'm supposed to pronounce something for minutes on end. Why the apostrophes? Why does every name and place sound the same? (Va'del, Guadel, something-el) Only Jasmin has the most decent sounding name and she is the only one with some semblance of personality. Maybe there's a correlation... Give an exotic name to a flat character to make him/her interesting. When I realized I could be doing something, ANYTHING, more exciting than reading this book, (i. e. learning how to darn socks, sewing a button, pulling weeds, cleaning, doing laundry, listening to a lecture on recent changes in the law) I realized that if I put this book down I'd never pick it up again. Couldn't get past the first 8 chapters before deleting it from my Kindle. Haven't looked back.