Book Review: The Fifth Vertex

Book: The Fifth Vertex (The Sigilord Chronicles book #1) by Kevin Hoffman with cover art and interior illustrations by Eli Neugeboren

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Publisher: AuthorBuzz

Description:

Urus Noellor -- a boy born deaf who is about to be publicly branded as a burden, incapable of being the warrior his people demand -- stands upon a rooftop, poised to throw himself over the edge. His failed attempt at suicide unlocks within him a long-dormant form of magic thought to have died out thousands of years before, a power that may be the key to saving the world from an equally ancient enemy.

Urus and his companions -- Goodwyn, the greatest warrior in Kest, and Cailix, a mysterious orphan -- must find a way to stop a powerful group of sorcerers from destroying the five long-hidden vertices that ward the world against threats from beyond, while fighting off threats from within. They soon learn that the scope of the coming danger may be more dire than any of them could have imagined. As the battle for the vertices spreads to the neighboring realms, Goodwyn must face the realities of war and death; Cailix discovers a devastating truth that could change everything; and Urus discovers his uncanny gifts and courage as he peels away clues to his true identity. But even as Urus gains the power he has always craved, he experiences it all in profound, lonely silence.



Rating: 2 stars

Review:

I just couldn't connect with this story. I did find the beginning to be interesting but my attention just couldn't stay with this. Although, this had a lot good action scenes and some interesting characters, I did have to fight the urge not to skim through this busy story.

Something I thought was great was that the author had a character with special needs (Urus was deaf) because that's something you don't see enough of in books. However, a few things I didn't like was not being able to gauge the age of the three teen characters (there ages were not stated), despite being teenagers sometime they seemed a lot younger. Another thing was that sometimes the writing could be too descriptive while at other times not descriptive enough. Lastly, this story suffered from trying to do too much, there was a lot going on and it felt as if I was reading three stories instead of one.

The story follows Urus Noellor and his best friend Goodwyn (who is a great warrior) as they try to stop invaders from trying to stop a group of wizards from destroying magical artifacts. There was also a girl in this story, Cailix who was traveling with one group of wizards but she was only with them to gain magical knowledge so to seek revenge against them for murdering the monks she lived with.

From the beginning of the story you can tell that there is something mysterious going on with Urus, he was dealing with spontaneous bouts of magic something that has never happened to him before. It all started after he tried to jump off the roof after he failed to pass his tests to become a warrior. There is also something unique about Goodwyn, not only is he a great fighter but he has this interesting locating ability. Cailix was also unique she found out that she was a blood mage.

I thought the author did a good job of creating this world and introducing the characters but this story just didn't engage me enough. However, I did found it interesting that Goodwyn had more on his mind than being the best warrior and that there was a bit of romance for him. But his warrior's spirit may have started to change after he experienced so much death and destruction following so many fights and battles. Also, Urus found out the truth about his power and how it connects with something that happened to him when he was younger. There maybe a possible romance between Urus and Cailix but I think the story is slowly building up to that.

This ends on a cliffhanger with Urus finding out the consequences of using his powers.

Overall, this story suffered from being all over the place trying to do too many things. It did have great action and good characters but that just wasn't enough.