Thorny Reviews | REVIEW SHOP [CLOSED]

《Nihwé》Land of Ralosia

Reviewer: MissRut

My review on Land of Ralosia**.

Thank you Sanch250 so much for trusting me with your book. This took a while but here it is. I commend your work with the mythical creatures in your book, for starters it was worth the time but I’m still going to be quite blunt in my grading.

The Cover: It is said to never judge a book by its cover which is very true otherwise I might not have pushed to look into this book. It doesn’t tell good of a book cover if it doesn’t have its title on display. A blank picture doesn’t exactly draw in a crowd. This attracts 2 point.

The Title: This feature is in line with the claimed genre and does the real work of drawing attention to fans of mysticism, fantasy and historical fiction. It promises tales by moonlight and that’s exactly what is delivered. 4 points.

The Blurb: Not exactly the most inspiring text or suspense inflicting but it does the trick. However, readers may find it hard to compute since the only thing it contains are vague outlines of everything that is supposed to happen. It is in cooperation with the title however so it has done enough of the talking. 3 points.

The Setting: The story seems to be based in the medieval age where all the knights, training academies, inns, villages and the rest of them were the natural order of the day as well as authorized magical practices in the mystical world of Ralosia. Ancient deities are very much present and in control of the basic elements and I hope the readers respect them as they travel back to this age. 13 points.

The Plot: The narrative organization is adequate but it consists of separate perspectives of individual stories that cannot be understood without going back over the series. As aligned as the happenings are, it is a tad mysterious and with the number of twists and unexpected suspense, it could leave the readers unsure of what they’re getting into. It’s not so independent and it doesn’t cover for the missed episodes. Still, it is a very interesting nail-biter. 7 points.

The Characters: They are all independent and important chess pieces on the same chessboard. They’re bound to the narrative and they drag the readers into their individual roles of weaving the plot from their different ends. ‘The masked one’ certainly has shown up in all perspectives and seems to be the key to interweaving the narrative in this very book. I like the seeming character quality of Emil and Hita seems to be on her way to making a name for herself with the way she handles everything going on around her at the academy. With the tournament coming up, the jewel theft might be a bit of a disturbance for Hita’s teacher to manage but what exactly does the masked man need it for even with all the events surrounding his escapades? 4 points.

The Content: This feature lives up to the blurb and invites the hidden adventurers in we the readers to join in. The writer’s voice lies in the complexity of conjoined elements that make up Ralosia’s tales. It is filled to the brim with the unexpected and gives away enough detail to accurately recreate this fictional world and its characters in the mind but it is somewhat not rich enough. Everything is over too quickly and even if it’s in a series there should have been a little bit more depth to it. 17 points.

Writing Style: The writing style used is relatively concise in relationship with the genre. The author’s narrative ability is commendable and very much so. His way of creating vivid pictures in the mind’s eye is unique and very distinguishable. In short, it makes the story a whole lot more enjoyable and even in a way, relatable. This feature earns 9 points.

Grammar, Vocabulary& Sentence structure: These were altogether impressive from the beginning. In other words, you could say it was an amazing read because there were no cringe-worthy or silly and unbelievable errors in terms of word usage, context and word arrangements. That alone could be the very best feature of this book- unless I missed the said errors myself. 19 points.

Engagement with readers: Like I said earlier to never judge a book by its cover, this very one has its own way of calling in a crowd. Cue in the lovers of tales of mythical creatures. One would find oneself going from one part to the next because of the ability of the author to keep his target audience around long enough to remain in his handwritten world. 14 points.

Total Points; 92/100.