Jaeth's Eye

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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There is no doubt in my mind that Villoso had a very clear idea what was going on in these pages – but as I read, I felt like I was constantly re-evaluating what was going on – guessing what I was supposed to understand, and what was supposed to be being revealed to me (either where I was or in the future).

Not only did I not understand where I was, I couldn't really tell you until the end how everything tied together and what the overall story was. I didn't get the various cultures/ethnicities, I couldn't tell how the various moves by the characters – or by those they were talking about – meant anything.

Now, I liked the characters – I liked the interactions, and every time that the story moved on I hated it, because I'd have to reorient myself. The characters seem to change almost every time I encountered them.

Glancing around the internet I see that I'm alone in this – every other reviewer seems to have really dug the way Villoso told the story. Great – that's a relief. I'd rather that I missed out on something good than the alternative – that Villoso didn't put out something good.

Well, there's one thing that you cannot convince me belongs in this fantasy world – dime novels. Nope, that just doesn't fit.

I'm going to give this a three because the individual scenes, the character moments were great – I just couldn't put the pieces together. Go read someone else's take on the book, it's bound to be better than mine.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for this post – sorry it worked out this way for you, K. S.

It's obvious that Villoso has put a ton of work into crafting this world. The various countries have cultures that feel distinct from each other, there's a rich history of legendary heroes, and the creepy crawlies hiding in the shadows are downright unsettling.

The series is called The Agartes Epilogues due to the main story taking place many years after the legendary general Agartes shaped the world to be how it is at the start of the book. In a sense, these books are the epilogues to an epic adventure that has already ended.

There are quite a few characters, so I'll try to boil this down to the main ones:

Kefier grew up on a small island in the middle of nowhere but was sold into slavery after his brother Enosh (the village chief and an enormous prick) suffered a terrible accident. A mercenary named Oji bought his freedom, and Kefier followed him into the mercenary life.

Sume is a poor girl living in a seaside city and the younger sister of Oji. She's rather strong-willed and ends up having to make some harsh sacrifices to protect those she loves.

Ylir is the man who hired Kefier's mercenary company (well, he works for the man who hired them). He's a womanizer who is quick to deal out harsh discipline to his men, and he's somewhat of an enigma for most of the book. Oh, and he's also kind of a prick.

The author has said that the idea for this series is that it follows the minor characters in an epic fantasy story. That's more or less true, but I feel like it can be a little misleading. It's almost (but not quite) like saying your average cliché epic fantasy follows a minor character because they're a simple farm boy.

Kefier is making his way through life as a mercenary when he ends up being accused of his friend Oji's death and having to flee from the wrath of his former brothers-in-arms. As if that wasn't bad enough, the incredibly wealthy and equally mysterious man who was hiring the mercenary company is trying to resurrect a horrific monster from legend. This is a creature that almost literally destroyed entire nations by itself.

While all of this is going on, children are going missing, and many people blame the monsters of myth and legend that are said to live in the forest.

The book starts slowly, largely because you are thrust into a complex world and expected to figure out much of it as you go. There were probably some info dumps due to the scale of information you're exposed to, but I honestly don't remember them. Most of it is doled out in bits and pieces. By around the halfway point in the book, storylines have started to converge and the pacing kicks into high gear.

I'd rate the prose as slightly above-average, but prose is a such a subjective thing anyways. It wasn't flowery and it complemented the story. The dialogue made effective use of different dialects, too. Sometimes, “out there” dialects in books can bother me, but this was one of the times in which it was done well.

For an indie book, Jaeth's Eye is actually very well edited. There are very few typos, though I did catch one or two (RIP roast peasant, you were the best of us).

Jaeth's Eye reminded me a lot of Black Wolves by Kate Elliot. Expect lots of worldbuilding, a large cast of complex characters, and magic that slowly comes to the forefront of the story. The book starts out a little slow, but quickly picks up the pace.

This is not a book designed for light reading. It demands a fair bit of your attention to keep track of everything, but once you put in the initial effort everything starts coming together. Due to the scope, some of the interesting side characters didn't get much attention, but I suspect they'll be visited more in the next book.

Overall, I'd say you'll enjoy this if you are in the mood for an epic fantasy set in an ambitiously-crafted world. You won't have your hand held as you overcome the learning curve, but the book is a rewarding experience.