Renshaw’s writing that he was able to make those scenes interesting enough that I did want to know what happened next, but I found the school scenes much less engrossing than the few exciting outings, involving monsters and spies, that interspersed it. We also learn of the sort of antics he gets up to as a student, of which there are many, but mostly involving tame stakes. We learn a great deal about Aedan’s training, in more detail than we need. Believing that becoming one would give him an even better chance to avenge Kalry, he leaps at the opportunity.Īnd it is here that the book bogs down, becoming more Harry Potter without magic than the epic tale of revenge I was anticipating. When he seeks out the training to become one, he quickly catches the eye of General Osric, and is offered a place at the Academy, studying to become a gray marshal, the spies and scouts who are Castath’s first line of defense. When they arrive in the city of Castath, Aedan’s father separates from his family to return to the criminal lifestyle he had practiced before marrying.Īedan quickly decides that what he wants is to become a soldier, independent of his father and the domineering woman his mother finds shelter with, and more importantly, able to pursue revenge on the nation of slavers who took Kalry. It is here that we are introduced to the source of Aedan’s fears and weakness, his father’s abusive temper. When tragedy strikes and Kalry is lost to slavers, Aedan is blamed, and his family has to leave the area.

We’re first introduced to Aedan as a boy, together with his friends, most notably Kalry, the daughter of the local noble. Aedan, the main character, is instantly likeable, adventurous and bold but with a grave weakness that will haunt him throughout the novel. It is certainly a well-written book, with rich and poetic language and strong characterization. But it is a self-published book, and I was curious whether it could live up to the expectations. Renshaw doesn’t need my help selling his book, as he’s sold over 200,000 copies, has over 2,500 Amazon reviews, and has won a bevy of awards. This month’s self-published book review is of Dawn of Wonder, by Jonathan Renshaw, a 700-page novel of epic fantasy. (If you’d like to submit a book for me to review, please see the instructions.) Partly that’s for personal reasons that I won’t go into here, and partly it’s because I haven’t received a lot of submissions lately, so I went looking for a book to review, and I ended up with one that proved a little longer than I anticipated. It’s been a few months since I’ve done one of these.

Dawn of wonder renshaw