The First Gift

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

When the power you crave ends up destroying everything you love.

***

Lara Skyborn has a destiny: to receive a Gift--the kind of magic heroes of legend like the First Lady Elena bore and granted. Having trained and studied her entire life for a chance at the honor, Lara has always dreamed of one day being worthy of being bestowed a Gift. What she doesn't know is that with a Gift comes a mission, and with a mission comes taking the lives of others, whether she wishes to or not.

Not wanting to kill, Lara refuses her mission. As she leaves the place she calls home, she begins to learn more about the First Lady, the history of the Gifts, and her true identity. Things are never what they seem, and her destiny may lie in something else entirely.

Also posted on Wattpad

Beautiful cover by @Lueur_laVespine on Wattpad

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: AziaElga

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 5
Views: 6,207

Chapters(18 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

RydeniusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
High drama ahead as themes of pride and betrayal with a sizable helping of mind-control have resulted in much of the galaxy being under the terror of tyrany with only a single hope (that was previously thought lost) remaining to challenge the tyrant's reign.
Story 4.5:
The choice to have one of the story's major characters
commit a surprise betrayal and genocide at the end of the prologue
and then have it initially treated as 'another day at the office' makes it really hard to become emotionally invested in the characters at the beginning of the story. I was initially considering the story as a 4.0 rating because of this but, with a bit of perseverence, found that events pick up at a farily rapid pace and the story itself does start to draw the reader in as the drama of the past is unveiled.
Style 4.5:
Technically well executed and perfectly servicable. The prose is engaging and easy to read. Short sentences are used for effect when needed. Actions are used to attribute dialogue, and overuse of dialog tags is avoided.
On the negative side, the prologue has a fair bit of discriptions that feel a bit over the top — as if from a supermarket romance novel — though that may be intentional characterization for the PoV character. There are also occasional incidences of accidental present tense and use of 'can' where 'could' would've fit better, but those are infrequent enough to not be bothersome.
Characters 4.0:
I may re-think this score as the story continues to unfold, since it might not failrly reflect AziaElga's effort. Though the characters aren't particularly likable, mainly due to actions performed under brainwashing and mind control or threat of mind control, the backstories are thoughtfully concieved and become more fleshed out particularly during flashbacks to past events.
Grammar 5.0:
Excepting a few typos (like maybe 3), the grammar is impecable. Even the punctuation and capitalization around dialogue (a failing for most RR authors) is perfectly correct. 👍