It's Book Review Wednesday, my very favoritist day of the week! Today's book is an unusual one, involving talking bears, evil humans, and the fate of the universe…

Everflame

Long ago, when the earth was young, four ancient beings created man to be the bastion of the earth and its creatures, but when the Great Tyrant came and chased the Ancients away, the world was transformed into a place of fear and isolation. Over time, humans lost their connection with a world they had been created to protect, they forgot the ways of their ancient creators, and accepted the Tyrant’s lies as truths from the mouth of a god. Now, deep in the forests that surround Gray Mountain, two bears find a small child that is abandoned and left for dead. The bears name him Evercloud, raise him as a member of their kingdom, and teach the boy of the Ancients, all underneath the light of the Everflame, the flame that burns atop Gray Mountain as a monument to the integrity and spirit of the bears. As Evercloud grows, rumors reach the bear kingdom of the Ancients’ return, and now the young man must leave his home to find them, and help save the world he holds dear. Will Evercloud lose himself in the darkness of the Great Tyrant’s lies, or will he have the courage to judge his own heart, the strength to master the darkness, and the faith to follow his purpose until it burns within his heart like the Everflame?

My Review: 3 Stars

There is a lot about this story to make it great, but there is a lot that made it iffy. For example, the first few chapters are dedicated to the bears, how they find the child, how one bear has to fight to be king, and more. Those chapters could have been made shorter, particularly the part about the fight. It added nothing to the story, and didn't flesh out the characters any more. The bear who found the child could have started out as the king, and it wouldn't have affected the backstory at all. There could have been some pretty epic moments in the story, but due to the amateur quality of the writing, I felt no tension or drama. Only the death of one character really caused any sort of reaction in me, and he wasn't even a main character. I almost missed another important death because there was very little attention paid to it. The quality of the writing definitely earns a 3-star rating at best. There are lots of grammar and punctuation mistakes, though thankfully no misspellings. I understand that this is the first book written and published by the author, but it was just a bit too bland for me to give it a good review. That being said, the characters were fairly interesting--particularly the one who becomes the villain. While they could all have been developed much better, there was enough to make me like them at least in passing.

Here's a Taste:

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said the tall man as he and the short man stood with Evercloud by the stream, watching two large bears come lumbering toward them. “Put the knife on him,” whispered the short man to the tall man. The tall man grabbed Evercloud and held the knife to his throat. “You make the bears play nice and we’ll play nice, got it?” Whiteclaw and Riverpaw stopped just a few yards short of Evercloud and the men. They saw the knife, up to Evercloud’s throat, and they both began to growl. “It’s okay,” said Evercloud to the bears. “They just want to be sure that they can trust you. Speak to them.” Whiteclaw shook his head very slightly at Evercloud, not wanting to give away that bears could speak or even understand speech. “Really, it’s okay. They helped me in the village. They’re just protecting themselves.” “Take the knife away from his throat or I’ll crush your heads,” said Riverpaw to the men. Whiteclaw spun on his son. “What are you doing?” For a moment, everything was silent. The two men were wide-eyed in amazement. Then they began to whisper to each other. “The bears are talking, right?” “Yes, the bears are talking.” “They’re going to kill us.” “Say something to them, would you?” “Um,” started the tall man. “We mean you no harm…nor your friend here. Um…are we correct in assuming that you are friends to those who search for the Ancients and reject the Great Tyrant?” This time Whiteclaw spoke, however reluctantly. “I don’t know. Are we correct in assuming that you will not do anything that will force us to kill you?” The short man came up behind the tall man and whispered into his ear. “Tell him yes.” The tall man spoke, “Yes.” “Then, yes,” said Whiteclaw. “So what do we do now?” asked the tall man, obviously unsettled by the events that were taking place. “Well, first,” said Whiteclaw. “I suggest that you remove the knife from Evercloud’s neck and tell us who you are.” Find the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Everflame-Dylan-Peters-ebook/dp/B008QZMX7E Read Dylan's thoughts on his website: www.dylanleepeters.com Connect with him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Dylan-Lee-Peters/109222362447009 Tweet at him: @dylanleepeters