Title: Wind Rider
Author: Patrick
Bran
Series: Prophets
of the Smoke #1
Genre: YA,
fantasy
Source: ARC
Pages: 271
Rating: 3.5 stars
Available at:
Blurb: (via
Goodreads)
The
people on the Great Canyon’s floor live a simple life. They have little to fear
save for the falling debris that comes with the tremors. For this reason most
stay clear of the daunting cliffs. Most never even look up and wonder what lies
beyond them. Dareth is different.
When
an earthquake threatens the life of his mother, Dareth must follow the advice
of a mad hermit and brave the cliffs to find help from outside. He seeks the
aid of the mysterious Wind Riders who sail the updrafts over a vast network of
fissures, which crisscross the cracked and broken land. The Wind Riders hold
the secret to the future. If Dareth can handle the depths of the fissures and
the red smoke that carries visions up from the bowels of the earth, he could do
more than save his mother’s life. He could get a lesson in the meaning of
destiny.
Not
all would see Dareth succeed in his task. The future revealed by the smoke is
hazy. Dareth’s face hovers in the forefront. Whether the omen portends good or
ill is an argument some might kill to win.
My Review:
So, first let me start of by saying that Patrick contacted
me asking about another book I had blogged about and asking for some advice as to
whether or not he should read it. Major bonus points and totally made my day.
Of course, this could have all been a clever plan to butter me up before asking
if I would review his book. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when I said I
would.
Lets start off with what I loved the most about the book:
the characters. I absolutely loved the characters in this book! Although Dareth was
basically infallible and didn’t really develop as much as I would have liked, I
am going to cut the author a break because Wind
Rider IS the first book of the Prophets of the Smoke series. A certain
amount of leeway can be given here. Saying that, I still loved Dareth’s character.
I loved his story, and discovering who he really was, and slowly learning the role he was being
set up for in the rest of the series. I loved the “hermit”, who I think was the
real star of the novel. He changed and developed so much, and his parts were
always so interesting. I was never mad when the plot line briefly stopped to
look back at what was going on with him back home. He was my favorite character
hands down.
The plot was my second favorite part of the story. In my
opinion, it was pretty original. I personally had not read anything like it
before and I found myself at a loss when it came to guess what would happen
next plot wise. I have this little cork when I read a good book. I am extremely
empathetic when it comes to stories (I have to fast forward through parts of
movies when the main character goes through something embarrassing), so when a
book is fast paced and thrilling, and I am at the edge of my seat, I have to
get up. Literally. I have to put the book down and walk off some of that
excitement. Don’t judge. Anyways, I found myself getting up pretty frequently
while reading this book. Patrick Bran created a bunch of pieces, and he slowly
put them together to create such a creative and interesting world. I was
impressed.
Now for the parts that I didn’t really like: the first four
or five chapters of the book where pretty slow. It was a lot of travelling and
description and, I don’t know, it just wasn’t catching my attention. I had serious doubts about the book getting
into it, but I am glad I stuck through it. I promise, it did get better. The second aspect I wasn’t particularly fond
of was the lack of romance for the main character. The author introduces us to
a possibility of romance at the beginning, but that is quickly squashed early
in the novel. In fact, I didn’t find any particular use for Kadnee (the brief
romantic interest). If you took her out of the book, it wouldn’t have affected
much. I do hope to see some hope of a love interest in the second book however.
Considering how badass Dareth is, I can’t see him not catching the eyes of the
ladies.
The last thing I had a problem with, and the thing I had the
biggest problem with, was the lack of character development in the story. The
hermit had some development and Versi had some development at the end there,
but overall, the characters stayed pretty true to who they were at the
beginning of the novel. While Dareth
learns about this whole new world outside of his Canyon, and yes that knowledge
(and the red smoke) do change his views of the world, but who he was made out
to be at the most fundamental level remained the same. I truly hope that we get
to see more development in the next installment of the series.
Despite it’s shortcomings, Wind Rider was still a great read. It was something different, and
new, and had tons of twists and turns to keep your brain distracted from the
fact that the characters weren’t developing all that much. If you liked
learning about Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, back in your
Greek Mythology lessons, you might get a kick out of this. You get to see
people who learn to fly with the help of man-made wings, crazy visions that can
drive you mad, some badass red smoke that has a secret badass origin, and a
badass main character who kicks major… well ass. There is a lot of badassery in
the book! I say it is definitely worth the try if you can get past the first
few chapters!
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