Review: Sword of Fire and Sea - Erin Hoffman

Series: The Chaos Knight 1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 277
Published: June 21st 2011 PYR

Three generations ago Captain Vidarian Rulorat's great-grandfather married a fire priestess. For love, he unwittingly doomed his family to generations of a rare genetic disease that follows families who cross elemental boundaries. Now Vidarian, the last surviving member of the Rulorat family, struggles to uphold his family legacy, and finds himself chained to a task as a result of the bride price his great-grandfather paid. The priestess Endera has called upon Vidarian to fulfill his family's obligation by transporting a young fire priestess named Ariadel through dangerous pirate-controlled territory. A dangerous journey is made more so by their pursuers: rogue telepathic magic-users called the Vkortha who will stop at nothing to recover Ariadel. Together, Vidarian and Ariadel will navigate more than treacherous waters: A world that has been slowly losing its magic for generations, the indifference of their elemental goddesses, gryphons returning to the world, and their own labyrinthine family legacies. Vidarian finds himself at the intersection not only of the world's most volatile elements, but of colliding universes, and the ancient and alien powers that lurk between them.

My thoughts:

There is a lot going on in this book and it was different than other fantasy books in a way. Because a lot happened, sure at times I felt like things happened to quickly, but then that might just be because I am used to it taken 4 books just to start a journey.

To break things done. Vidarian is a ship captain who escorts Ariadel to her destination but things go wrong at once. So many will fight against them at the end, or by their side. The imperial forces, pirates, the Priestesses, gryphons and Goddesses. This is a world that is slowly loosing its magic and Vidarian and Ariadel stands in the middle of that. There is a prophecy and decisions to be made.

Sure at times I did not know how I felt about the book. Things did move forward fast so the fights were not long, but why should this be bad? New is good. Though it also felt a bit hard to get to know the characters, still at the end I liked the book and it had me curious about the next one.

The world was interesting. The elements  are used in magic and 2000 years ago something big happened and that shaped the world today. Other things are that people can't seem to marry those who are of another element because then they will get a disease. Viridian is fire and water because of that and, oh I can't say.

The end, well there actually was an ending to their journey and the goal accomplished. I was surprised since this is a series but then because of the ending in question so much more will happen. It was an ending that gave birth to more.

And I shall not forget the romance, yes something is building between the main characters.

Conclusion:

The book got better and better and ended with a finale that sure shook things up. I am very intrigued to where she will take the story next. There are so many possibilities. And I liked it.

Rating:

Surprised me in the end, in a good way :)

Cover.

I like it