Monday, April 6, 2020

Book Review: The Marked Heir by K.J. Backer (Nav'Aria #1)


Amazon.com: Nav'Aria: The Marked Heir eBook: K.J. Backer: Kindle Store

Let's have a look at (from what I can tell is) an indie! This is the first book in the Nav'Aria series, The Marked Heir, by K.J. Backer!


A real page-turner about a teen from Oregon who turns out to be the prince of the magical realm known as Nav'Aria, which is being torn apart by war and an evil king named Narco and his Rav'Arian forces.

Just a really solid book along the lines of Narnia with our main characters traveling from the "real" world to a fantastical realm where they turn out to be royalty of prophecy. Nav'Aria definitely has the makings of a classic. It could use some finetuning at some aspects, but most of it is really good.

The worldbuilding of the fantastical world(s) is interesting. It's great to see all of these mythical creatures co-exist in a human monarchy, albeit a broken one. The unicorns in this also aren't just the majestic beasts you often see them portrayed as: they're both that and awesome heroes of war who will do what is necessary in order for the side of good to prevail.

The characters are good, albeit a bit lacking. I do like them, do not get me wrong! Especially Antonis, Triumph, Trinidad, Lyrianna and of course Darion were really solid. I just think that they tended to fall into basic character archetypes you see in this genre maybe a bit too much. I just thought that they had potential to have a bit more to them than just what we got. But, hey, maybe I'll be surprised in the second book of this series, you never know! This might very well be the basic setup for more happenings and development for them in the sequel! The villain from what we got of him was rather one-dimensional, but he did do his job as "Ultimate Evil" well enough, and, again, I definitely think we'll get to see much more of him in later installments.

The writing was masterful and I instantly got lost in this world (or even just Oregon) from the way the author described things. It read really easily and nicely and I didn't have to take a moment to adjust to the author's writing style like I have with some books I am new to getting into. I definitely loved the way things were richly described. The perspective between characters changed a bit often within one chapter if you ask me, but that might just be me not being adjusted to shifting POV so much. I'm not counting it as a flaw, just something to mention. I did spot a few errors in the grammar, formatting or writing, however, so I will have to deduct some points for that.

This is also definitely not a fantasy for younger readers. I really expected it to be for teens, with it being just your average fantasy with some swears in it, but it does actually delve into really dark subjects later on  such as rape, hence why I'd say this belongs more in the young adult/adult section. Again, not a criticism, but worth bringing up. I definitely didn't see it coming and it really caught me off-guard, so I thought I'd give a heads up.

Overall, I'd say this first book of Nav'Aria definitely deserves to be checked out by older fans of the fantasy genre if they can handle the darker subject matter. While there are some minor missteps and the characters aren't too deep (yet), everything else it has going on definitely makes it worth reading. I've already started reading the second book and am looking forward towards finishing it, soon!

Rating: 4/5

No comments:

Post a Comment