This is review #1 of my own review series, Hayley’s Comments! I review books and literature from small authors, and give my honest and in-depth analysis of them. First up is the first book in the five-part Warriors of Bhrea series, called The Lost King. A self-published work written by a wonderful and kind author. I think this book will hold a special place in my heart now, being the first one in this series.
The Warriors of Bhrea: The Lost King
By T.M Kohl
Genre: Fantasy
Subgenres: High Fantasy, Isekai
Lauren Strauss, a 21-year-old nursing student, is magically teleported from her peaceful city life to an entire different world that she knows nothing about. She must navigate the kingdom of Bhrea while also trying to find out why she was put there, all the while dealing with the possibility of having latent magical powers of her own.
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I’m glad I stumbled across this book; it was pretty easy for me to miss, honestly. Once I decided to start reviewing, I spent a while perusing my Twitter feed, searching for some books that I could take a look at. T.M. Kohl just happened to be one of the people that I followed, so after clicking on several people’s profiles, I come across hers and see that she so happens to have a book series she’s working on. Interested, I start reading the first of them; and now, a month and a half later, I’m writing a review of it. To think that I could easily have overlooked this work of literature makes me think fate was on my side.
The Lost King is a fine fantasy adventure, flawlessly absorbing me into its lore and keeping me with it all the way to the last page. It has a way of keeping your attention beat by beat, all while not skimping on the details and imagery that attracts you to it in the first place. Unlike a more traditional, slow-burn fantasy novel like The Hobbit, this book skips over a lot of the filler and minutiae, jumping right into the plot important details and real character development. In my opinion, that’s a great thing.
I especially like how it doesn’t inundate you with unimportant characters, verbose setting descriptions, or irrelevant dialogue. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity, and manages to be condensed but still enticing. The Lost King appears to be a great start to a series, and is perfect book to get lost in during a long car ride or a weekend out of town.
Scoring
Overall: 81/100
Plot: 7/10
Dialogue: 10/10
Pacing: 6.5/10
Characters: 6/10
Settings: 5/10
Length: 334 pages
Maturity: Teen/Young Adult
Reading Difficulty: Moderate
Point Of View: 3rd person limited
Spoilers below!
What I like
•There are very few tropes or clichés used at all. Lauren, the main character, is just a normal girl who magically gets transported to an unknown land, and that’s exactly what it feels like.
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Nothing about her feels cheap or unrealistic, and the same goes to most of the rest of the characters. The classic “character does something stupid or illogical just to advance the plot” cliché is nowhere to be found. There’s no predictable or forced romance; the reader may be led to believe that Lauren and Val (the crown prince to the throne of the kingdom of Bhrea) will fall in love by the end of the book, falling into each other’s arms in a romantic resolution. That doesn’t end up happening, though. Tropes are unavoidable, of course, but those that are included seem to be implemented well.
•The story has its own special fantasy language, called Korvet. I think this is one of the defining features of the lore. It feels very fresh and original, not too complex and with handy translations. The way it’s integrated into the plot is especially great.
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Normally, fantasy languages are often mentioned in passing, with characters using a few words here and there, the language itself hardly mentioned at all. Either that, or every character in the book is instantly and seamlessly fluent in the language, with the dialogue, place names, lores and legends all just a confusing mashup of English and Fantasyish. The Lost King does a great job of implementing Korvet, though. English and other earthly languages are completely unknown to Bhrea, and Lauren spends the better part of the book learning the language, practicing it, and learning how to use it in conversation. And it’s not like there’s a time skip and then she’s fluent like a native speaker; throughout the book, you’ll see her ask how to say specific words, mix in English words, or generally make mistakes when speaking; all in a way that feels completely natural, pretty much exactly what it feels like with real life language barriers. The Korvet dialogue is translated into English for us, but Kohl somehow found a way to do that and still incorporate all of the elements I mentioned.
•The dialogue is exceptional. It feels smooth and natural, just like people would talk and communicate in the real world.
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It’s not exceedingly verbose, and isn’t trying too hard to sound magical or fantastical. You won’t see any of the villains going on annoying, long-winded monologues that last three pages either. This adds a level of realism to the story, and makes it and the characters within it much more relatable and interesting. Kohl writes dialogue like a veteran author–even better than some of them.
What I dislike
•I would’ve liked to read more about Lauren’s life on Earth.
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Only the first chapter, and a little bit of the prologue and second chapter take place on Earth. Though there are some references and reminders of her life on Earth, with Lauren’s purse full of a few precious belongings being teleported to Bhrea along with her, a lot about her day-to-day life back at home is shrouded in mystery. It feels like Kohl wasn’t really interested in the realistic, down-to-earth elements of her writing, like she just glossed over all of that in order to get straight to the cool interesting fantasy bits.
•As mentioned above, the book is more simple and condensed than your average fantasy novel. But that comes at a cost: a lot of things are mentioned briefly and are not expanded on enough.
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For example, there’s a whole pantheon of gods in the world of Bhrea. Joss, Dolan, Svorra; these are all very important figures that are mentioned throughout the lore, yet we as readers know relatively little about them. Perhaps the most notable thing that’s overlooked is the Sebaal, a group of warrior cultists that are determined to kill Lauren and steal her mysterious necklace, the Sem-Kelad. Though they’re the main focus of the plot, with Lauren being trained to fight them throughout the book, we know surprisingly little about them before the last few chapters of the book. Overall, I would’ve liked to see a more engaging side plot, focusing less on just Val and Lauren’s personal struggles.
•There are very few settings throughout the book. Granted, those that are mentioned are described well enough, but the way the settings are involved in the plot make the fantasy world feel very small.
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About 75% of the book takes place in the city of Terrn, and about 80% of that takes place in one giant mountainside palace. I wish I’d seen Val and Lauren explore the kingdom a little more. Maybe they could have explored some of the nearby cities, visited the Algarans in the north, had a run-in with the mysterious Kataal people. It’s an interesting narrative choice to have the majority of the setting condensed into such a small area, and one that I’m not too fond of.
Content warnings
Death, blood, battle and violence, alcohol use
Spoilers above!
In Summary
The Lost King is a fine work of fantasy writing. Short and condensed but filled with enticing characters and lore, this is a good read for the avid reader looking for a fresh new world to get lost in for a little bit. Though some of the more important fantasy details are a bit lacking at times, overall this makes for a fine novel that will leave you excited for the sequels.