Another Fantasy Kingdom series by a Stilton, however this time it's the Chronicles of Fantasy Kingdom rather than Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom, which I have reviewed before. I honestly wanted to check out book one of this series for quite a while now, but never did as a kid and even now that I have a library card I came to the sad realization that my library does not own book one of this series, only books two through six.
So I decided to get myself a secondhand copy of book one so I could emerge myself in the world of Fantasy Kingdom this way. Let's take a look. Spoilers ahead.
PS, just as a quick disclaimer beforehand for those who have read the Princesses series: So far I cannot find any real hints connecting these two books other than the world sharing the same name. None of the characters of the sister-series appear, nor are there any familiar locations or other aspects other than it being a fantasy series. So whether or not there'll be any true connection or overlap between the two series remains to be seen. It could very well be that they explicitly want both series to not be connected, I honestly do not know.
Audace is a young Woodland Elf who was torn away from his home at a young age and raised by Star Elves, among which are his adoptive siblings Regulus and Spica. His old home was destroyed by evil witches and the Portal to the realm closed off. But when one day Audace and Regulus find a gemstone which turns out to be the key to the Woodland Realm, the duo set out on an adventure to this place, where they discover the dark forces that have taken over, as well as some survivors of Audace's race. Will they be able to restore balance to the realm?
I honestly found myself getting lost in this story and this world rather quickly while reading. Is this book the most original fantasy out there? No. It falls into plenty of old tropes and clichés of the genre. But does that mean it is bad? No, not at all. I liked following Audace on his journey and the world, while simple and a bit trope-y, does feel engaging and I do want to see more of this world, not just the Star and Woodland Realms. Because what we got here was written rather interestingly, regardless of whether or not it falls into clichés at times.
The characters kind of fall into the same category. Yes, Audace and Regulus and Spica and Robinia are pretty standard fantasy character fare, but they're still written in an engaging way. I liked their interactions and friendships, particularly the one between Audace and Regulus. They really do feel like best friends and brothers. Spica spends most of her time in the book away from the boys but she still has meaningful interactions with her wizard mentor and Robinia has probably the biggest character arc of all the main heroes. It's good stuff.
A trap the sister series of Chronicles, Princesses of Fantasy Kingdom, often falls into, is being too formulaic, so I do hope that future books in this series won't have the same problem. But who knows, maybe it'll avoid this trap altogether and go a different route. I certainly hope so.
Overall this was a pretty generic fantasy and I can see some people being put off by how basic it is, but I think there's enough good things here to be enjoyed even by older readers, such as the good characters and interesting world-building.
Rating: 4/5
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