Soul Tomes

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Oblivious to the realms beyond, Otis, a university student, awakens a magical affinity that thrusts him into a war across the many planes of existence. Finding shelter within the crumbling Veil, soon there will be no one and nothing to stand in the way of cultists, abominations, and demonic entities that would soon kill him for their lords, his magic, or simply for pleasure.

Will Otis succumb to the bloodlust of the magical realms? Can he escape the clutches of ungodly tyrants? Who can be trusted?

[UNDERGOING EDIT BEFORE FINAL CHAPTERS OF BOOK 1, COMING SOON!]

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: GeorgeAitkens

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 84
Views: 30,554

Chapters(40 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

Anthony ZarrellaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This story is apparently on an unannounced hiatus (or perhaps just greatly delayed--it's been less than a month), but I'll be checking back frequently.
I'll let the more detailed categories speak for themselves, but to sum up, this is a highly entertaining narrative that makes me care about the characters and leaves me eagerly waiting to find out what's next.
The only... not even bad thing, but odd thing is that at this point, a full 28 chapters in, the title, "Soul Tomes", still appears to have no relevance at all to the plot. I'm sure it will make sense eventually, but if it is a "big reveal", then the title probably shouldn't be a spoiler, and if it isn't a "big reveal" then maybe don't name the novel after something that isn't central enough to the narrative to appear within the first couple hours of reading.
But that's not really a complaint--just advice. And with that, on to the categories:
STYLE:
The author's pacing is... I wouldn't say crisp, but it doesn't need to be. It's tantalizing.
It's a little on the slow side, but in the way that makes you keep clicking "Next Chapter" in search of that next slow drip of nectar, rather than in the way that makes you feel like you're wasting time waiting for a payoff that never comes.
The author isn't terrific at describing action, or scenery, or character emotion--but is above average at all three, where most authors have one category that they struggle with, so personally, I still count that as a strong positive.
The only thing holding it down to 4 stars is diction (i.e., word choice), which I'll address more thoroughly in the Grammar section, because it's one of those things that overlaps the two criteria. I will say, however, that my problems with the diction are grammar-based, not thematic. That is, the language properly evokes the story's resonance, but having simply the wrong word in a few places can sometimes yank me out of the story for a precious half-second as my brain swaps in the right one.
STORY:
As