Kay's Bookshelf

The story is supposedly told from the point of view of one of the five main characters, alternatively. Nevertheless the style is the very same, at times I even forgot who was talking and had to go back and check, having no other way to differentiate the narrators from one another. But, interestingly enough, the author has managed to give each of the characters a different personality that can be perceived as such (seen through the eyes of the rest, of course). Kara, for example, is the street type with an attitude — she’s probably supposed to be a really cool kid, but I have found her really annoying (one of the minor characters calls her an “ill-mannered, temperamental brat“, and I really couldn’t agree more). The other four kids were likable enough, though, and I did like them: Justin, the geeky kid, wearing braces and allergic to bees, Leeann, quiet, friendly, always trying to cheer people up, Elex, quite the accomplished fighter and understandably proud of that, and Na, the shy kid, still growing into his power. An assorted cast that I have grown to care about. :)

I think the author had a lot of fun imagining and assigning the powers of each of the chosen, as they are all great powers with great story potential. Kara is an Illusionist (she can bend reality to her own will, making people see things that aren’t there; actually, at the end of the book we find out that a strong illusionist can make reality out of illusion too). Justin has the gift of prophecy and is also a telepath (my favorite part was when they were looking for the princess and he touched her blood and saw what had happened to her earlier :D ). Leeann has the power to control the elements (although so far she’s only used fire and ice). Elex’s power is sort of complementary to her personality: she has the power of protecting others. Little Na (I always think of him as little although I have no idea of his actual age) has the power of healing — interestingly enough since he is quite a fragile person himself.

The author did a great job creating the world of Naranda, a charming and captivating place filled with wondrous creatures such as unicorns, sini-corns, wolverimes, Halvers (half men, half beasts) and even Amazons. The people themselves are elf-like, with pointed years, some with magic powers or simply skilled fighters. The descriptive parts are, in my opinion, the book’s forte, the author fleshing out people, clothes (wonderful wonderful clothes!) or events by only a few strokes of her pen (I almost said brush, as the parts I’m referring to feel more like a painting than anything else).

As a downside, I’ve been a bit disappointed to notice that our heroes never go through anything actually difficult, no moments of actual suspense spent by me wondering “oh my God, what are they going to do now??”. At times their enemies are too stupid or unskilled, at others someone else comes to their (our heroes’) help — truth is I spent half the book feeling it a waste of such cool powers (because, as previously mentioned, the powers are really cool, and I felt it a pity that they were wasted on such unworthy opponents). On the bright side, the very last fight was better than all the previous ones combines, which I think spells good things for the books to come (this one being the first in a series).

What I liked most: For some reason I have absolutely loved the title. “Out of Reality” sounds so… simply cool. :)
Oh, and something else that has utterly delighted me by its novelty: Elex has pink eyes and hair!!! While I cannot actually picture her, I am thrilled at the idea nevertheless. :)

What I liked least: Well, this is a self published book and at times it shows, some parts being less polished than others (see for example “I happened to notice the Princess was staring at me. I returned her stare, but she never spoke. Eventually she returned her stare to the road.” or my personal favorite, “The man was wearing a skull cap and a lot of layers of loose fitting clothing, but he seemed to feel awkward wearing it, and he looked like he felt.“). I know it’s not a big deal and that it’s easily corrected but it did detract from the pleasure of reading it at times.

Recommend it? Yes. It may not be perfect but it does have a certain charm :)

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