John

I wanted to love this book so badly. I've followed the author on social media for ages and didn't know he wrote a book until recently. His pitch of it being sort of like Digimon and Pokemon mixed together had me pumped and I bought it immediately.

Unfortunately I did not love it. Constantly using the wrong word (shudder vs shutter happened once, taught was used every single time taut should have been used, etc.) and some inconsistencies with formatting were rough in the ebook. One of the main characters whines way too much for 90% of the book. The entire thing is setup for I guess what's supposed to happen in book two. I almost DNF'd around 30% but events happened that pulled me in and I ended up seeing it through. I was rooting for the whiny MC and there's enough there in the story that I am curious what happens in book two, unfortunately the writing itself was just not doing it for me. A great idea but not a great execution. I don't think I'll be reading book two any time soon.

The story is great but the editing brings it down. Poor punctuation like someone speaking “all hail the king said the rangers.” Not a direct quote, but the end quotation was in the wrong place. Sentences having periods in the middle and continuing without a capital letter after the period like it really slipped in there unnoticed.

It just doesn't seem like care was put into the writing, more like it was pumped out as quickly as possible. This theory also comes from the fact the series has 12 books released since January 2020 with book 13 coming in April 2022. Maybe the editing in the books is better after the first, but I won't know until I read them.

I do plan to read more of the series though. I enjoyed the characters and the world for the most part. I don't mean to criticize the editing so much that it ruined the entire book for me. I'd give it 4 stars instead of 3 if there weren't so many mistakes. I am sure the author lives and breathes this series and isn't just rushing through the books for a quick buck.

Fans of the Ranger's Apprentice series will enjoy this book.