Doors to Eternity (Temple of the Traveler Book 1) - Scott Rhine

Title: Doors to Eternity (Temple of the Traveler Book 1)
Author: Scott Rhine
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2012
Formats: Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
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Review:
“Doors to Eternity” is the first novel in Scott Rhine’s “Temple of the Traveler” epic fantasy trilogy. The story is mainly told from the viewpoint of two characters, Jotham who is both a historian and priest and Tashi who is a sheriff of their religion and an acolyte to Jotham. Jotham and Tashi are on a quest to close the doors of eternity but with the kingdoms of their land close to war, their religion outlawed and new enemies appearing with each door they close this is no simple task.

As I have come to expect in a novel by Rhine the majority of the story is told at a blistering pace with a lot of action and adventure thrown in. However, Rhine has actually tried to slow the story down in sections aided by swapping between various points of view. Whilst I commend this as a tool to try and really develop the story and world beyond the entertaining action sequences it does result in the pacing feeling a bit uneven at times. Personally, I think the problem is that the changes in pacing just felt very sudden and abrupt rather than it being a bad thing to have done.

Another issue I had is that it felt like I was being dropped into the middle of a story already being told. For the first part of the book I was busy trying to understand who everyone was and what the world’s mythology was meant I wasn’t enjoying the book as much as I should have. It was just rather confusing which was enhanced by the swapping in view points and the large cast of characters being employed.

Of course once I began to understand who everyone was and how the world functioned I really began to enjoy the journey that Rhine was taking me on. The world, characters and plot are interesting to follow and the myriad of action sequences are all fun and enjoyable. There is also some interesting observations about the morality of the characters evoked via various discussions between them such as if it was right for the “hero” of the story to kill people or not.

Overall, this was another enjoyable book by Rhine which struggled at first to grab my attention but as the story progressed and I understood more about the mythos of the world I soon found myself hooked. Personally, I am looking forward to picking up the 2nd novel in the series and suspect I will enjoy that one more as I should know right from the off who everyone is and what is happening.