Erle Clavet

Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars A slow burn, but the payoff is worth it

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

To start off, I am not usually into fantasy. I have decided to take a breather from traditionally published work and support smaller authors, and I came across Federation during that search.

From the beginning, I was impressed with how Erle walked the line between writing a fairy tale and writing something of the scope of the Lord of the Rings. I felt that was a refreshing stance to take. As I said, the initial burn is slow and a time or two I did wonder what exactly we were building up to, but during those times I was still kept going by the questions I had from details provided. I found myself curious and wanting answers. Eventually, I found myself stuck to the book and staying up late on a work night to continue reading.

I won't give spoilers, but I do want to share a few things that I feel are incredibly praiseworthy:
The villains are not who you initially believe to be. The ultimate villain was so well-written that I was absolutely amazed with him by the end. He is an absolutely deplorable person once the cards are all laid out.
The battle that the book leads up to is nothing short of awe inspiring. It keeps going and going, but you never feel bored or tired because you feel the exhaustion of the soldiers, the desperation, the disappointment they feel when false hope falls through. The final showdown is fantastic reading.
You end up celebrating the kinsmanship between the different races and feeling supremely disappointed when some of them don't feel so courageous.
There are no Mary Jane characters in this story, which is something that turns me off to a lot of fantasy. Each of the characters has some weakness, some drawback that makes them (and you, by proxy) doubt their abilities and fighting chance.
While this book does have a main cast, the author is not afraid to give them the back seat, and indeed does quite a bit. It reads something like a report or history of a battle, and not something that is, in essence, a carbon copy of a certain wildly-popular and now overdone fantasy series. While you do have a focus on the main party traveling to obtain a goal, the end result is the important part, not the journey. It's a nice change from the status quo.

All said, I am glad I took the time to read this book. It has been a long time since I was so glued to a story.