Review: Farworld ****()

Title: Farworld – Water Keep
Author: J. Scott Savage
Why I Read This: When Savage offered this book for free if I participated in his blog tour, I thought it was intriguing, and signed up.
Short Summary: To save Earth and Farworld, Marcus and Kyja must find the Elementals, starting with water, and convince them to open a drift between worlds.
Website: http://jscottsavage.blogspot.com/
Publication Date: September 12, 2008

Buy Farworld at Amazon

This is book one in a series of five. Savage has stated on his blog that each of the Elementals Marcus and Kyja visit take up a book, but that left me wondering what would happen in the fifth book. While I was reading this book, I figured it out. Book five will deal with what happens once all the Elementals get together and how that leads to Earth and Farworld getting saved (hopefully).

Because I knew this going in, I didn’t feel much suspense during the book. If each Elemental gets a book, then each elemental HAD to agree to open a drift. There weren’t any subplots to distract me, either. There is quite a bit of action, but since I felt like I knew the end, I didn’t feel the suspense. However, once we did get to the climax, I was wondering how Kyja and Marcus were going to succeed, because it certainly looked impossible. So at least that part was suspenseful, which kept me reading even after Rachel was done eating.

Kyja and Marcus were really interesting to follow. Even though Marcus was disabled, he was spunky, which I liked. Kyja is really sweet, and I really enjoyed watching her reaction to Ert (as she calls it). The side characters were quite varied. The villains, while they have lots of power, don’t seem that exciting in this book. However, Savage has promised to develop them in book 2, which I’m interested to see.

The thing I enjoyed the most from this book was the magic and world set-up. I’ve always enjoyed parallel worlds, but the way they were constructed in this book was awesome. As for the magic, even though it dwelt with the four elements, which is very common in fantasy, it felt new. I liked how Marcus made up his own chants to perform spells.

There is quite a bit of actiony violence, but nothing graphic. There is no swearing or sex in this book.

Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Despite the lack of suspense through much of the book, it was a good read.

**FARWORLD ARC GIVEAWAY**

Can’t wait until September to buy the book? Well, enter my giveaway sweepstakes! You have two chances to enter: Chance 1 – leave a comment on this post listing something you like/don’t like about my book reviews. Chance 2 – leave a comment on my post interviewing J. Scott Savage with a question you would have liked me to ask. After one week, I will put all the names of eligible commenters into a hat and randomly draw one to win their own ARC of Farworld! Winner must then email me their address to storyengineer at gmail dot com so I can give it to J. Scott Savage for delivery.

To be eligible, the comments must be left by 11:59pm on July 7th. Winner must live within the US or Canada, or specify someone in the US or Canada to receive the book for them.

Good luck all! I look forward to your feedback!