Ruins of Isulia ~ Book 1 : Awakening of the Emarine

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Creatures once believed to be legend have invaded the kingdom of Vulkira. King Erik must uncover the truth behind their sudden attack. The crushing responsibility threatens to break him and his kingdom.

In a remote town, Henry, an energetic bookworm is thrust into the world as chaos engulfs his once seemingly peaceful town. His lord has a task for him, one in which will change his life forever.

A haunting past eats away at the Queen of Xer. Cara is hellbent on protecting the ones she loves and the future of her kingdom. Balancing the greater good, she fights to keep her head above a sea of guilt.

Betrayal is at each corner, shadows step into the light, a supernatural force awaits the time to strike. Awakening an ancient civilization from their past may be their only hope now. A spiraling doom awaits the world of Isulia.

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I put the gore warning not because my book is overly gory (It's not constantly blood and guts). However, there are several moments that are extremely violent. I've always loved shows/movies such as, (The Expanse, The Boys, Banshee, Kingdom of heaven, Vikings, Attack on Titan, Baccano, etc.) I am descriptive of the scenes with violence. So be warned :)

I've worked long and hard and have finally finished my third draft. Still needs work but everything storywise is complete. There are still a few things I need to add and tweak. Grammatical errors and flushing out the characters and dialogue still needs work. If you see any errors or plot holes, please feel free to point them out. It helps me improve upon the story.

Cover art was done by: Micaiah William

If you'd like to consider supporting my work, there is a link to my Patreon.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2021
Author: MorseCode

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 44
Views: 61,207

Reviews

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Community Reviews(3)

MichelleMRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I enjoyed the world building. There's enough information given at the right times to keep up with the plot even with multiple storylines and characters. And speaking of, the characters are realistic, flawed, and loveable. There's plenty of build-up with big payoff. Lots of action and adventure with a some genre crossover that kept it interesting. Looking forward to Book 2!
K.M. KeaneRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Book 1 of Ruins of Isulia is long but definitely worth the read. The author has weaved many things into the story; kings and queens, betrayal, secrets, love, action, history, technology, and brutality.
STORY
The book is an adventure that follows multiple characters that are fighting for survival. It has many things going on that I feel I can't summarize the premise well enough to do it justice. At first glance, when looking at the page count, the book might seem intimidating but while reading it, I never felt that it was too long. It has so much content that it never felt dragging to me.
From the very beginning, it was instantly clear that the author has created a story where the stakes are high. The plot of the book is interesting and moves forward quite naturally. There are a lot of cliffhangers and things that are kept secret at the start, but the author redeems them all. Everything has a reason that will be revealed at some point. I liked how these secrets kept me questioning and guessing along the way.
There's history, world, and infrastructure which I enjoyed. There's something familiar in the plot but also something new in it. Sometimes I wondered whether it was necessary to have all of that background information and worldbuilding in the book or could the author have taken something out without losing the essentials of the story, and put that focus more on the characters and the feels.
There were times when I got lost in the timeline of the book, especially in the end, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment too much. The themes were also sometimes a bit too underlined for my taste, but I could look through that too. The criticism I have about the story seems small on a large scale and never pulled me out of the book too much. Mostly I was in awe of all of the things and worlds that the author had created.
STYLE
I think the strongest aspect of the book is the style. The writing is good, vivid, and clear. Overall the book is slower paced but the author can change
StgBriaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Isulia constantly reminds me of A Song of Ice and Fire that leans more into the high fantasy side. It's large, it's expansive, it has tons of locations and characters. It's kind of slow moving.
And all of that is great, especially as it fills a niche that you don't see on RR. I can honestly say I don't think I've read anything like this on this sight, which is obviously a point to it's credit.
Now with all this said, I do think the issues arise within engagement. ASOIF was rough until I really connected with the characters and that was like top tier, best of the best. Here, we never reach that same level of engagement which I think hurts the story telling. It's not grounding in anything that I really love, and as I sit here on chapter 27, I think I've given it a fair shake so far.
STYLE/ GRAMMAR
I think these are flawless. Grammar is flawless at every level, and I think style is more than servicable for a sight like this.
STORY
Like I said, 27 chapters in and this is where I have to make my point in that I'm not even 100% sure I could give the overall story any justice, and that's a problem.
To rehash my ASOIF comparison, that started small on a very specific part of the map with a limited cast and limited plot and expanded from that single point into this grand scale behemouth.
What we have here loves that largeness but doesn't necessarily build itself up to it. I don't want to critique the structure, but to be even more vague, the shape of the story is just a little off.
CHARATER
And this is my big critique because I am first and foremost a character driven reader. On a technical level, they are all competent, and there are moments or bits that I would even call "right".
However, I would still err on the side of calling them slightly cardboard. There's a stiffness to their interactions and a loss of humanity wherein they play a bit too heavy to thier roles. At no point does someone do or say something surprising. It's like a check list.
In that regard, I would com