Soul Seeker by Jacquelyn Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What if, in a world where every elf's destiny is an open book, you were the only one whose fate was unknown?
Iarion's quest for meaning has spanned millennia. Now ancient, dark powers are rising, and he may be the only one who can stop them. Joined by the unlikeliest of companions, treachery looms from within and without.
How far would you go in your search for answers?
This book is a gift to humanity (after Twilight has corrupted our generation beyond repair *sigh*).
I mean, seriously. I was in euphoric state hours after I finished this book, dancing madly to Move Like Jagger.
It took me almost a full week to finish (because I’ve started working already) but every sitting was a pure bliss. The rare thing is that the chapters were not written as cliffhangers (a trademark of Dan Brown’s books) but the story paced at a reasonable speed so the readers will be content to put this down to...well...live like a normal person again, but the story would still be in the back of your mind.
I couldn’t help but to notice many striking similarities with The Lord of the Rings trilogy (It’s not surprising really, considering the author quoted J.R.R. Tolkien as one of her major influences). For instance, my oh my, the characters...
Iaron = Legolas
Barlo = Gimli (the dwarf, loyal best friend of Iaron)
Lysandir = Gandalf (one of the Learned Ones. The power to manipulate elements possessed by them was a nice touch)
Saviadro = Sauron (Although I personally more terrified of Sauron)
The Forsworn Ones = The Nazguls
Okay! I have to stop, or else I risked of exposing spoilers to (I’m sure by now) the enthusiastic readers.
Usually, having similarities with legendary books such as The Lord of the Rings is a major no-no but I feel like my knowledge of the series help me enjoying this book better. It helped me imagining the characters and the settings more vividly.
But I swear, if I come across even a Hobbit in this book, I would send an angry mail to the author. Ha-ha!
Nevertheless, if you want to write a book like this, you can’t help but sort of tied to the obvious personalities of the elegant elves, the grumpy dwarves and so on. So yeah, I’m not trying to pan the author here, I’m just giving heads up to the valuable readers that sometimes similarities are necessary and unavoidable.
My favourite characters? Well, of course Iaron is worth swooning for but I really like Linwyn. She was a bad-ass, butt-kicking warrior! Same goes with the cute, bad-ass Sinstari, the wild cat (oh, I always have a soft spot for cats!)
Silvaranwyn surprised me with her seems-to-be dull exterior. She is for me, the most dynamic character in the story. I had a good laugh at some points too, thanks to Barlo.
Numarin sounded like a spoilt brat to be honest. I expect more from a Learned One than dialogues like:
“I hate you!” Numarin shrieked. “First you are the darling of the elves and now this. Everywhere I go, all I hear about is you!”
Hmm...forget that. That’s just tinie-tiny compares to the awesomeness of the whole book.
Oh ya, I found Iaron bedding all the three wild elves princesses at the same time frame as a little disturbing, more so, when he had no actual affection towards them.
No! I’m not jealous!
I mean really, I know the setting supposed to be ancient but nah...it still sounds disturbing.
Finally, the battle and fighting scenes, there were just EPIC.
For example:
He ducked her first blow. The sword whistled through the air where his head had been a moment before. Linwyn knew she had to be quick. She could hear others running to join their tribe-mate. She threw herself at him in a wild fury, but he managed to bring up his spear to block each of her attacks.
The others were getting closer.
Linwyn abruptly switched her strategy. She used a double-feint to confuse her opponent. He didn’t fall for the first feint, but he was fooled by the second. As he brought his spear up to block the blow he thought was coming, Linwyn switched the angle of her sword at the last possible moment...
The ending was not perfect, but a satisfying one. The last few chapters got my heart pounding so fast!
What else...hmm...I wish I could write longer but face it, when a book is this good, you can hardly find anything wrong with it, what more you can write about except words cannot describe how wonderful this book is.
To wrap it up, I may have to switch my most favourite genre from Young Adult to Fantasy novel solely after reading this book.
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