Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: Enchantress (The Evermen Saga Book 1)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2018

Good book, but ruined slightly by a really weird morality whereby the most horrific and violent acts are moral as long as they are demanded by a higher power. The authors' other books are very similar in this regards. I've genuinely found them to start really well, but then get more and more bogged down as they go through the series. Have enjoyed reading a couple of this authors' series, but won't be reading any more.

Please note - this may not bother those of a religious bent (the author is a pastor, so I think he's just applying quite fundamentalist christian mortality to a fantasy setting), but as I'm not religious I found it a bit weird,. I'm not trying to make any sort of statement on religion, I just found that it made it hard to support the heroes when they're committing worse acts than the villains are while!

31 people found this helpful

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DJW13

Worth reading for a spell (or two!)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2017

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I only read the reviews after I have read a book so was quite surprised to find a bunch of negative reviews. However, these appear to have been written by people who are much more familiar with this specific genre than I am. For someone who seldom or never gets involved with swords and sorcery type books this one seemed fine to me. Yes, the central characters were naïve at times, and managed to overcome adversaries who changed from being very clever to stupid sometimes, but this often happens in stories. Having a brother and sister going in different directions meant that there could be at least two strands to the story unfolding at once, which may not be to everyone's taste.

I'm not sure whether I will read the other books in the Saga - luckily this one was a self-contained story, unlike some other books which say they are Book One but are actually Part One, so you have to read the other parts to make sense of the story.

17 people found this helpful

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Big adventure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2017

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Since childhood, Ella has dreamed of becoming an enchantress. Her brother, Miro, has his own dreams of becoming a bladesinger – one of the world’s greatest swordsmen. While the two set forth to achieve their dreams, a darkness is brewing, taking over the land bit by bit and the siblings find themselves being accelerated forward as Miro is sent to the front and Ella becomes involved in a life-changing adventure. Her actions will determine the fate of her brother, her homeland, and the entire world.

Enchantress is the first book in the Evermen Saga, setting the scene for some very grand adventures. It is long (600+ pages) and very detailed, which makes the world-building and character development excellent. The story-world is well thought out (and there’s a map! I love a map), and bears many similarities to the real world, making it easy to comprehend (issues such as race and social status come into play). There are a lot of different characters, but only a few are known to us in great detail so the number of characters never gets confusing. New characters throughout the book are introduced well and integrated into the story.

I personally loved reading about a main character called Ella (in case you hadn’t realised, that’s my name) and I found her to be a mostly likeable character. Her storyline was particularly interesting and fun to read. Miro’s plot interested me slightly less; there was a lot of detail about his movements on the front line of battle, with full inclusion of general life in war rather than just individual battles. Although I was less into this, the whole thing was still very engrossing.

Enchantress is a very good and well written book, but I have mixed feelings about the series. It almost falls into the YA category, but with some pretty heavy violence, some slightly-more-than-PG sex scenes and references to almost rape pushing it more comfortably out of YA and into adult fantasy. While reading, I wasn’t sure whether I’d bother carrying on to the next instalment, but now, having finished, I’m finding myself very tempted to buy book #2.

6 people found this helpful

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Bringing fantasy to life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 July 2017

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This proved to be a pleasant diversion from the books I usually read. Fantasy is a genre I only occasionally delve into. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and reading about the different regions within the Tingaran Empire. It's fair to say that this type of story has been written many times before but I thought James Maxwell brought a few fresh ideas to the table to make this an interesting and rewarding piece of escapism. It also contained a number of humorous diversions - for instance, I found it very amusing to read about the mischievous little Dunfolk who resided in part of The Dunwood.

It was a fairly light read for me and I would have a preferred it to have had an harder edge and a quicker pace. Overall though, I did like the way this story was put together and the fact that it was rounded off in such a way as to make it possible to read it as a stand-alone novel - even though it is essentially the first book of The Everman Saga.

5 people found this helpful

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OneOpenTrail

Good, but not for me.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2015

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Sometimes it's hard to say why you don't like something. It's what makes each person individual. Having sat here for 30 minutes I think it boils down to the magic system and the main characters being neither bad or good.

I really enjoyed James writing style and the whole world was wonderful. There were many fantastic scenes that had me grinning with exhilaration from the story coming out in the words. I can remember a lot of these scenes vividly weeks after finishing it. Sexual scenes were delving, but not perverted. Descriptions were good, but not over the top with detail. The people were relate able, you could actually imagine meeting a lot of these people. So I loved reading it, but only have it 3 stars?

Read 'the painted man' The magic system although not the same feels quite similar and that's probably like saying Harry potters magic is a clone of every other magic... ever. Let's say 'The discworld series'. I was somewhat tainted by the painted man in that it started off really well and then turned to rubbish in the next books. I'll mention that even then I didn't really like that style of magic. I'm more of a point a finger, mumble some words and fire kinda guy and as much as I tried to like it in Enchantress I kept wishing someone would pick up a staff and blast a fire ball at someone. I've also been tainted by Game of thrones a story that hacked and smashed it's way through three great books turning into travel diaries with no story momentum. Others ague that Lord of the rings is just a walking diary of same & frodo

Enchantress is not a bad read and I would recommend trying it. This type of magic system won't suit everyone and that's OK. The writing is refreshing and for the most part many of the story ideas are good with fun twists and turns.

If this is your first venture into the fantasy genre then I am sure you will love it.

6 people found this helpful

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Draegon

great first book from a new author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 August 2015

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I took a chance on this book and author and I'm glad that I did.

The basic premise of the magic in this book is completely different to any other that I have read which instantly makes for a refreshing change on the fantasy genre.

The story dives straight into the climax of a character's life and follows her as she desperately tries to achieve a task. We have no idea what the task is or why it's so important to her.

We are then introduced to another character who is instantly believable and likeable. In fact, each character is described with a touch of finesse that is rarely seen in new authors, with just a few lines I was able to imagine and empathise with the characters.

The story progress on several fronts, skipping from one character to another in an easy and sure manner. The different facets of the story intertwine nicely and don't feel forced. This was apparent to me when the story progressed several years very suddenly and I didn't feel like anything had been omitted, very clever writing.

There is the obligatory journey for the main character to have their eyes opened but once again this is handled well and the journey takes quite a while to happen and the enlightenment doesn't happen all at once

I say the main character but actually there are several main characters. The story follows several people on and off, if you think you won't see a particular character again don't be too sure, this author is full of surprises!

Overall I feel that this book is a great introduction to a new world of magic and fantasy. The overall story flows well although some parts are a little predictable one you get into the story. The places and people are well described and it is well set up for the next book.

I think this is an author to watch out for.

4 people found this helpful

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Emma Brown

Great on the whole but reasons why it dissapointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2021

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On the whole, this book was amazing.It has a strong plot and likeable characters. The writing is ok, great description at most points but sometimes a bit slow and tiresome so i skimmed some bits. In my opinion the start wasnt overly gripping as in my opinion, usually a character that you know nothing about is gripping as you want to find out more, yet for me it took too long for the main characters to be introduced and instead of being enraptured and wanting to find out more, the book was a bit too slow for me. I had also just finished another great james maxwell series, the FireWall trilogy, which i thoroughly reccomend. both books are based on fantasy war, yet everything about the FireWall trilogy was perfect; perfect pace, beautiful writing and loveable characters so that was very page turning.Dont get me wrong, Enchantress is an amazing book yet after reading an amazing trilogy and it being a little too slow for me, this was 4.5 rounded up. Keep up the good work, Maxwell

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Barney

Over rated

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2016

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After flitting over reviews, reading the blurb and the sample chapter on my kindle i thought i'd give this book a go.
I'm a solid fan of fantasy/magic/adventure based books and unfortunately was sorely disappointed by Enchantress..
The story seems to jump around far too much and there is no character development so in no way to you feel attached or even bothered byt the characters.
It feels very much written for pre-teens/young adult but even that seems to be giving it too much credit. I've got ~1/3 of the way through and was hoping it would pick up but to no avail.

For a book with such promise it really fell flat.
Not recommended at all.

6 people found this helpful

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Buntie

Spellbinding ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 May 2017

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My heading is a little obvious I know, but in this case I was metaphorically spellbound ... I thought I would lose track of the characters but I didn't because they came out of the pages as real people. Despite the complexity of this world within the pages you can see the events unfolding in your minds eye. I enjoyed the whole story from beginning to end and look forward to Book Two with the anticipation of another excellent read.
Highly recommended.

6 people found this helpful

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Neil

Powerfully woven, a solid world, strong characters and compelling narrative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2019

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This book was nothing like I expected, I don't really know what I expected but this book took me by surprise. I quickly became enraptured by the rhythm that built within the narrative, a burst of energy at the start moving through a well paced intro before gathering momentum. The story leaps from pitched battles to lovely quests with ease. With many books you find yourself clinging to one story arc above the others perhaps skip reading your least favourite to hurry on to the next exciting part. Not so worth this story, each thread as strong as the next, skilfully woven together. Delightfully compelling.

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5 star		61%
4 star		24%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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