Fezariu's Epiphany (Elenchera Chronicles Book 1) - David M. Brown

Title: Fezariu's Epiphany (Elenchera Chronicles Book 1)
Author: David M. Brown
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2011
Formats: Paperback/Ebook

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"Fezariu's Epiphany" by David M. Brown is the first book in a new fantasy series entitled "The Elencheran Chronicles". One of the big things I look for in a fantasy book such as this has to be the world itself and I think the author did a great thing with this one. It is rather colourful and varied place that has a lot of potential within it available for any future books in the series.

The novel itself was focused on the life of Fezariu whose life seems to have been surrounded by tragedy from early on. Trying to escape from the perceived curse he feels that has been plaguing his young life he leaves his family and joins up with a mercenary group. After years of training and hard work he becomes a great soldier and along with his friends sets out on an adventure. However, all the time the events of his past continue to lurk in the back of his mind filling him with dread and guilt.

The first portion of the story was a little bit slow as the world and the characters were introduced to the reader, but as it progressed the pace picked up and the plot developed into quite an interesting and sombre tale. I found the overall journey that the book takes the reader on to be an enjoyable and emotional one that delved into Fezariu's life and covered so many aspects, from periods of heartache, pain and guilt to those of love, joy and redemption.

One issue I did have with the story itself was in the manner that it was actually told. There were so many sections that were related in letters or in someone's comment about a past event. As a reader, I hardly actually got to witness any of these events actually going on, it seemed like this interesting and entertaining story was mainly being told to me in a series of summaries. Perhaps the author didn't want to make this novel a massive tome, I don't know but either way I was a little bit disappointed that I didn't get to actually follow some of the events in an in depth manner.

In regards to the characters, I have to admit that I really felt something for Fezariu, the way in which misinterpretation and random events had conspired to lead him to a life of guilt and anger was rather sad to behold and I really wanted him to turn his life around. However, outside of this I think the characters on the whole were a little bit flat which was probably influenced by the use of letters and people's comments to tell large portions of the story. There were no real surprises from any of the characters and in particular, I never saw any evidence as to why anyone feared the story's main protagonist. Considering it is mainly due to his actions that Fezariu's life went the way it did, it would have been nice to see something that actually explained why people were so scared of him.

Overall, I found "Fezariu's Epiphany" to be an enjoyable fantasy novel that covers the usual hallmarks of the genre with tyranny and cruelty being offset by loyalty and self-sacrifice. Whilst, there were some flaws that I felt were related to the manner in which some of the story was told, it is still an interesting and emotional journey in a well developed world that most fantasy readers should enjoy. I now look forward to continue reading "The Elencheran Chronicles" as new books are released.

Challenges Book Counts Towards:
Ebook Reading Challenge (The Eclectic Bookshelf)
Ebook Reading Challenge (Workaday Reads)
Free Reads Challenge
Speculative Fiction Challenge