Legend of the Stone Keepers is the first book in an upcoming series by J.L Trepanier. It tells the story of Elaro, an Agraxian caught between between the cusps of childhood and adulthood, and his adventures in leading a squad of warriors on a quest far from home. It documents the challenges he faces in the newly-promoted position of captain amongst a group of peers who are not overly welcoming.
This YA fantasy novel is very well written and extremely well polished. The world of Terranium is engaging and exciting, the characters (particularly Plutollo and Cirra) are interesting and diverse, and the plot reels you in early on. The first chapter, however, serves more as a prologue, and when the timeframe jumps ahead on the second chapter there was not much of an explanation as to what purpose it served. This was a little jarring at first but it sets the rest of the story up well (and I imagine this scene will be elaborated on in the upcoming books).
In a sense, this is a novel of two halves. The first half explores each of the seven heroes in turn and establishes their motivations in quite some depth. This goes on for some time and with only a couple of incidents happening, I did find myself wanting to read about some more action early on. I found that some of the characters were a little inconsistent as well (i.e. the book starts with a playful and light-hearted fight with Kindle, who then pages later is trying to undermine Elaro's authority) and the fact that they were all a race of people called Agraxians was introduced a little too late for me. I was picturing human characters in my head until they were described, and by then the interpretation I was left with felt a little cartoony.
But minor and nit-picky complaints beside, the writing of Trepanier truly shines during the second half. Once the action arrives this book is unstoppable. With the use of swordsmanship, vitira (magic) and monsters, I was really engaged throughout the entirety of the second half. Mixed in with more than a couple of laugh-out-loud moments (mostly from one of the warriors, Kindle), I could not stop reading this book. It reminded me a lot of the video games I used to play when I was younger - I got a very strong Final Fantasy-esque adventurous vibe that really resonated with me.
The ending is bittersweet (in terms of what happened to the characters). And I like that a lot. I was left with a warm feeling inside. I am very much looking forward to the next instalment of the Legend of the Stone Keepers.
Posted on Amazon UK and Goodreads.