Thursday, September 5, 2013

Frost Arch by Kate Bloomfield Book Review

The reason why I clicked onto the link for Frost Arch, book one of the Fire Mage Trilogy, by Kate Bloomfield was originally due to the cover. It was dark and a bit edgy.  The reason why I bought it? The blurb. Sci-fy meets fantasy. A post apocalyptic world that had me thinking off Fallout and FF at certain times.

The stories MC, Avalon is a fire mage who can’t control her powers and runs away from home due to the fear that the family secret would be revealed. From there, the story deepens she gets a winged fox for a pet and befriends the local healer and is stalked by a person who is said to bring death.

Frost Arch is one of my favorite reads of this year for many reasons: the characterization, the fact that I don’t get the characters confused and the cover. But I am not saying that it is a perfect book. Like a lot of ebooks, the editing leaves much to be desired. But I can deal with bad grammar and fragments. It is a first person story; say it is done of purpose to show that the character isn’t the smartest bulb in the building. One thing I can’t stand is the fact she destroyed the entire tire of power she created. “I don’t think levels exist anymore.”

I’m sorry, but earlier in the story Avalon is credited as a level five fire mage yet stunted in a way. Then later, she kicks the butt of one of the most powerful mages around and has the nerve to say levels don’t exist anymore. That is just wrong. I can deal with the blurb only being partially worked into the story- she mentions human slavery and readers get the idea that this could be a revolution story- it keeps me on my guessing- and expecting a sequel-, but removing a tier of power in a story where it plays a key role tends to make me want to dock a full star.

Nevertheless, kudos goes out for a great debut novel from a talent that I look forward to reading in the future.
 
Frost Arch recieves a three out of five.

 

P.S. This story reads like a young adult. I hate reviewing young adult novels. They cause good reviews to turn into rants... I’ll post that later…maybe.

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