Introduction
Author Chris Pridmore contacted me mid-April and offered me a free copy of his novel, The Last Child of Leif, in exchange for an honest review, and I am so glad that he did!
Primarily, I want to take this chance before we dive into the novel to say how much I appreciate Mr. Pridmore's patience with this review. I was initially supposed to have it written last Saturday, on June 2nd, but as I started a new internship last week, life became a bit hectic. Thankfully, Mr. Pridmore graciously permitted me to extend the deadline to this Wednesday, so here we all are!
I should note: this act of kindness in no way affected my review for The Last Child of Leif. It is a simple matter of expressing my thanks to the author.
That all being said, let's get into it, shall we?
My Rating: ★★★★
Synopsis: "Forced from my home, I find myself fleeing from the evil forces that killed my father. My mother and Sebastian, our protector, are by my side--but for how long?
I soon find myself travelling with a circus led by a kindly man called Konrad, but my young mind doesn't know who to trust. Sebastian seems less at ease with every passing day. I'm struggling to cope with the tragedy that has befallen me, and the world now seems a lot more dangerous than I had ever imagined.
My name is Prince Valiant, and I am a Child of Leif." (via Goodreads)
Thoughts and Comments
Pros
- The entire novel exhibits excellent writing and implies that it was written with a practiced hand. I was extremely surprised when I found out that this was a debut novel!
- There are quite a few lovely nods contributing towards the steampunk theme that I appreciated, as a fan of steampunk myself.
- All of the characters have depth, vigor, and development, even the minor ones. Those of you that have kept up with this blog for a while know that I am the most picky when it comes to characters, but there was not a SINGLE one that I disliked--even among the antagonists!
- The author does a good job of portraying childlike wonder and innocence through Prince Valiant as a child, which I find to typically be a challenge for adult authors.
- The author is very imaginative and creative in his descriptions of scenery, objects, and character profiles.
- In parts of the novel, Valiant has nightmares, which I find to be a delightfully creative way for the author to express Valiant's suppressed memories and emotions.
- The pacing is wondrously appropriate; I had no qualms with the way the story moved along.
- The worldbuilding and storytelling is very impressive.
- There are very minimal grammatical errors, which allows the story to flow smoothly and makes it easy on the readers.
Cons
- The prologue is the first thing that the reader comes across, which takes place in "present day". The first chapter begins as a flashback, and then the rest of the novel continues in this flashback manner. This is neither here nor there in my honest opinion, but I have met people that have issues with this kind of novel formatting, so I thought it the most appropriate to include this detail in the "Cons" section.
- There are two side characters, Isabella and Sebastian, and they are both incredibly overpowered. In multiple instances, they find themselves involved in battle, and each time they seem to cast aside their enemies with barely any trouble. Unfortunately, this was a little too unrealistic for my liking.
Conclusion
If I could give this novel four and a half stars, I would, because I feel that it deserves a bit more than four stars! But, sadly, this cannot be the case, so four stars it will have to have earned. Mr. Pridmore, thank you so much for allowing me to share in this adventure and write a review on it! I very much look forward to seeing more works from you in the future!
This fulfills the "Steampunk Fantasy" subgenre of the Fantasy genre!
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