4,0 su 5 stelle
Fantastic fast-paced fantasy
Recensito nei Paesi Bassi 🇳🇱 il 22 maggio 2022
Well, that was a wild ride! I had seen this book going around and even watched some reviews on it, but the only thing that had really stuck in my mind about this book was: ‘here there be griffins!!’, so suffice to say that I went in pretty blind, lol.
And wow, I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by everything in this book, because yes…there are cool griffins, but there is so much more to love!
In this self-pub debut, we follow three characters in the lands of Avarin. Now, you probably couldn’t find three characters that are more different from each other than these three and I honestly really liked that.
Two of our characters, Adrian and Lynn, live in the Domain. This area of land consists of multiple different countries, but they are united by their belief in the Seraph. Here, life is worshipped and death has become somewhat of a taboo subject. Those who are deemed worthy by the Seraph have an extremely long lifespan, and when they eventually die, they will be preserved in order to be resurrected in the Promised Dawn, when the Seraph is prophesied to return. Those who are considered unworthy, however, don’t get this chance at resurrection, as they are immediately burned.
But then we have our third POV, Nasha, who lives in the clanlands to the south of the Domain. The clanlands are the complete opposite of everything the Domain stands for, because here death is worshipped and seen as the main source to keep the Earth alive.
So, needless to say there are some major culture clashes in this book. I really loved that we got to explore this world through these characters with such different backgrounds and different beliefs. That said, our three characters never cross paths in this book and that kinda left me feeling like I was reading three separate stories instead of one cohesive story.
BUT, there is one very intriguing overarching threat that ends up binding all these storylines together. That is, there is a mysterious plague spreading throughout this world, which leaves the infected in a state of feral madness.
The intrigue and mystery surrounding this plague really had me glued to the page, as I was so eager to find out more about where this threat was coming from and what it exactly was.
Now, I honestly couldn’t pick a favourite character if I had to. They were all so well-written and I loved that they all had different struggles to deal with and overcome. Though, the fact that Lynn is bonded to a griffin does give her a slight edge, haha. I do have to say that you shouldn’t go into this book expecting pages upon pages filled with griffins though, because that’s not the case. We get some nice and epic scenes, but they are featured much less than I was led to believe.
Anyway, as amazing as the main characters are, there are also some very great side characters. However, we are switching back between POVs so often and quickly, that I found it hard to really latch onto anyone aside from our main three.
And talking about the pacing, I have to admit that I sometimes wished we had some more ‘down time’ with our characters, because this book starts off with a bang and just continues going at break-neck speed. While this kept me really engaged, it also resulted in some scenes feeling less impactful than they could’ve been.
So, all in all, I had a blast with A Touch of Light and I am very eager to see how the story continues. I’d highly recommend this for anyone who is interested in fast-paced fantasy, themes of death and loss, exploring the meaning of life, different and opposing cultures/religions, mysterious threats, betrayal, characters with hidden pasts and… oh, yeah, griffins ;)
