Review: KYRA: The First Book Of Enchantus
I have received and read this book in return for an honest review of the book.
The book starts off with a "Foreword" a dragged out recount of how the book came to come in the hands of many readers today. The "Foreword" should be cut down or saved for the end of the book as an "Authors Note". I feel the "Foreword would be more fitting as a "Authors Note", for many recount there trials, tribulations with in that point, for then after getting to get a understanding for the authors work, we can understand how piece of work if we may or may not like has come to be and what they may have felt what journey was took. A dedication, a mention of names in the beginning of those who helped along the way, almost like a footnote would work of you want to dedicate a body of work, or mention someone or a few people .
On to the book itself, the story starts off itself with a map of Enchantus, the map is created to give the reader a visual, an idea of how Enchatus is separated and where the land and border lies. The second smaller map is a slightly cruder to the first; the image is slightly at an angle. The lines overlap and are not cleanly placed over the image. When having a design in a book that relates to a previous you want to create connections, the second portion of the map should be the same as the first and a connection should be lead from the first image to next so it's the second portion of the map is a lead over from the first.
The story Kyra: The First Book of Enchantus a young girl Kyra has dreams of a land, a "imaginary" world that has their own language called Enchantus, with their own language called Aiso. Enchantus is a kingdom located in the world of Aisis Lip. We can see the location of Asis Lip and the kingdom location on the map in the beginning of the story. The word of Asis Lip, the world is vibrant and Kyra's dreams started off as once a week and she did not want to leave this beautiful place. The more she went in, the more people she got to know, they all had the same/ similar tan toned complexion, with fruit trees with fruits size of oranges but as green as watermelons and the meat within a soft blue color. In the beginning of the story we know not of much of the Kingdom of Enchantus and the world of Aisis Lip, we know not much of Kyra and her strange dreams that she has of this world only that she remembers clearly the day they started is when she turned 15 so we are also unsure the true age of Kyra, if she is speaking past tense or she telling the story as it is happening. The story line is not fully developed, neither are the characters.
At a point the her dreams become more than a dream and she is asked to go to Asis Lip, because for "years" since she was 15, she did not belong in the real world and she needed to save the kingdom and Queen Anita of Enchantus from Jolus the a' Malignant. I feel there is a lot going on in this story, some would call it "cliché" that a young girl dreams about going to another world and turns out to be true, but name something that has not already been done, can you do that. No I don't think so, for me it's what you can do with it, and this tale this story underdeveloped, the characters do not have substance. We do not know when in the time of this young girl's life this is supposed to be happening and who has always told her she is different and belongs in another world? We know little to nothing about her family in 225 pages, and nothing about the people she meets or barely anything about the land she discovers and visits once a week for a year until she finally her dreams become real and she is asked to save this realm Asis slip. I feel this book would have more potential with further development of the characters and the story.