A Few Announcements

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

I have a few announcements.

First of all, I completed NaNoWriMo at a grand total of 52,172 words. *confetti* Now I have more time on my hands (I hope!) and will soon work out a regular schedule for posts.

I also will start posting reviews of books my friends are writing and also ones I read for school and would greatly recommend. I will also post reviews of music, events, you name it.

Feel free to ask me any questions you want or suggest anything you’d like me to do a blog post on.

I’ll have a posting schedule soon.

~ Gwynnedd

 

Below is my review of my friend, Faera Lane’s, fantasy trilogy, The Myriad Chronicles.

A bit about the author:

Canadian lass Faera Lane is a twice Wattpad featured author and 2018 Wattpad ShortList-er. The Myriad Chronicles, an epic fantasy trilogy, was just recently completed, but has already begun to earn acclaim on Wattpad. She is also a commercial graphic designer. Her website is here: Faera Lane Studio

The Myriad Chronicles Review

Title:

I must confess, when I first picked this up, er, one to two years ago, I had just learned the definition of the word myriad for English class. Reading the title for the first time really threw me off for a second. However, knowing now that Myriad is the name for the fantasy world in these books, let’s just say it makes a whole lotta sense. Beautiful title, and totally something that would grab my attention for sure.

Cover:

Well, these covers are beautiful, buttttt–I’ve seen better ones you’ve made for them. I mean, they look professional and very “fantasy/teen-fic,” but I don’t know. I guess I imagined something more epic, like the ones you’ve had in the past. I honestly liked those much better. ^.^

Moving on.

Blurb:

First off, excellent. The opening line on Book 1 immediately had my attention and made me want to read more.

One hilarious thing I noticed was that with each book, the blurbs got smaller. XD However, they still got the point across and made me interested in reading the trilogy. Good work.

The Good:

Minus the typos and mistakes of first drafting, kudos on the grammar.

The plot was brilliantly executed, and moved at just the right pace. Granted, there were parts were I was twiddling my thumbs and waiting for certain stupid people *ahem* to get moving, but other than that, excellent work.

Characterization was spot on, and even though some might call some people shallow, I found them believable and not boring. I know a lot of them might be considered “cliché,” but you managed to pull off those stereotypes in new and intriguing ways.

Your world-building, as well, was amazing. I was able to feel that the Myriad had depth and wasn’t just a bunch of names floating around on a colored map with dragons and monsters stuck in random places.

The Bad:

Just a few issues…

First of all, and this is a personal preference, the language. I completely understand why it’s in there, but maybe turn it down a notch or two. Sometimes it was excessive to the point of being irritating. Just lessen it up in places, that’s all.

Secondly, chapter length. Yeah yeah, I know this is Wattpad and all, and you can have chapters of whatever length you want, honestly, but, especially in book 3, they were all of greatly varying lengths. You’d have a super long one and then a super short one right after another. It was a bit disorientating. Maybe something to keep in mind when editing.

Also, maybe include more descriptions? You do an amazing job with describing what things look/hear/smell like, but maybe more of the other senses too might help bring it alive.

What the Reader Thought:

Unfortunately, I’m not as cool as The Reader, and will never achieve that level of epicness. (Hey, I mean, that’d be pretty awesome to be able to read things into existence!) However, I do believe I was the first one who coined Luin. XD

I started reading this wayyyyy back, but along the way, you have never failed me. Time and time again I was literally on the edge of my seat, waiting with baited breath for the next update.

I identified a lot with Guin, a lot. Andddd, I had/have a crush on Lorn since I first started reading the story. Shel sorta creeped me out, but I thought her cool anyway. XD  Ygrael needs to be burned, and Orven–I want to personally torture him. And do not even mention the name Thesul to me–grr. Matta, on the other hand… How could you have broken my heart so? DX

Let’s just say this is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. Excellent world-building, plot, characters, younameit.

Huge congratulations for finishing the first draft of this masterpiece. I can’t want until it’s in print!

Score: 10/10