A Review: Home Lost, by Franz McLaren

Yes, I'm well aware I've been quiet for a while. September has be an extremely busy month for me.

Product Description:
“Home Lost: Clarion of Destiny” is the eight volume fantasy tale of Leena, a heroine selected by destiny to combat the greatest challenge her world has ever known. In an epic journey that leads through foreign lands and mysterious realms where demons, monsters, and magic rule, this inexperienced young girl is forced to overcome a protected childhood to face challenges that would crush far more experienced adventurers. With each step she takes, with each passing day, she draws closer to a malevolent force so formidable that it has defeated the mightiest armies and the strongest magic in her world, an evil that could prove too powerful for her developing knowledge and skills to overcome.

In Volume 1, “Home Lost”, Leena, a sixteen year old half trained hedge witch, is mysteriously selected to receive the Garlan branch, a magical item that has twice saved her world in the far distant past. From the first moment of contact with this talisman, her life is changed. After a solitary journey through a silent and deadly winter forest to seek this honor, she returns to her village. Nervous with the excitement and anticipation, she rushes home only to find the secure and treasured town of her youth deserted and in ruins. Confused and alone Leena has little choice but to set out on a search for her missing friends and family, and to try to discover the reason that the Garlan branch has selected her as its tool.

My Thoughts:

Loads of potential, lacking in execution. (Possible Spoilers Below)

 Home Lost is billed as the beginning of an epic eight volume fantasy cycle, and it started off well. Our plucky heroine, Leena, a half-trained hedge witch, is introduced after an extremely gripping prologue (Orcs and Goblins harrying the last small band remaining free humans, all seems lost, when the young commander, Robart finally receives his apparent destiny in the form of an all powerful magical....stick?) Okay, Fanstasy piece, I can let the All-Powerful-Magic-Stick thing, known as a Garlan Branch pass. Robart single-handedly defeats the Inhuman horde with the Garlan Branch, Humanity saved. AWESOME! Being a member of humanity, I happen to like not being enslaved and worked to death but ugly Orcs and Goblins.

Then we jump ahead some two thousands years or five hundred years, either way it was a long time. Leena our plucky heroine, the half-trained hedge witch is out in the forest, in the middle of the night, searching for an invisible tree (The Garlan Tree) in what is apparently heavy snow. Okay, great, nice adventure story, Leena will have to face the dangers of the forest and nefarious powers that be, on her path to this powerful object, right?

Nope. She bumps into said Invisible tree with in a few pages and easily dispatches the Great Wizards Giant Death Raven with her Garlan Branch. Then she makes her way home, to find her village deserted and only 19 or so of her fellow villagers can be located. (Because they're DEAD!)

The average 16 year old girl would be flipping the hell out. Not Leena, she calmly buries the bodies and sets about gather supplies for her journey north, ostensibly to find and free her parents and neighbors. By riding straight to the Great Wizard's gate...you know, the same one that sent the Giant Death Raven and disappeared the populations of the surrounding area to find her?

She meets Arvin, a murderous little 12 year old squire who is constantly scampering off, getting into trouble and sticking his sword were it doesn't belong. Apparently, Leena found Arvin as tiresome as I did, because the last time he ran off in the night she didn't even bother looking for him. Instead she meets Darius, the older, wiser, much better looking Ambassador to the Great Wizard and decides that he would be a much more suitable traveling companion to walk into the jaws of the enemy with....Wait, What?

Yeah.. The rest of the story appears to be multiple days and nights of Darius and Leena riding north while Darius regals Leena with a tale of heroism and adventure (How he came to be the Great Wizard's Ambassador) Unfortunately for the reader, the all we get is Darius literally telling Leena about it. Not a flashback, or a dream sequence. Dialogue. Which is unfortunate, because if it were handled as a flashback or a dream sequence, it would've made Home Lost a much better book. It's not as if the author gives us a brief sketch of Darius' past then gets back to the story, Darius tells us, and Leena about the most minute detail of his adventures...in great length. I'm not kidding when I say the ride north and Darius' tale probably take up a good 60% of the book, if not more.

If you've read this far, you probably assume that I hated this book, which isn't true. Actually even with my laundry list of complaints, it was actually a very engaging read. McLaren writes very well, his dialogue, overabundant as it may be, is written in a very natural speaking manner, and his descriptions of the settings never leave the reader confused, he paints a picture with words. I noticed no major typos, so it's obviously been competently proofread, it's formatted well, and over all I enjoyed it. But I don't know if I could devote the time to an entire 8 book Series.

Home Lost is .99 cents on Amazon so it's no major investment, if you have the time, try it for yourself.

Overall 3.5/5 Stars


*I was in no way paid for this or any review I post on this site, the only compensation I receive are promotional copies of the books from the authors, and potential advertising revenues from this website. The Opinions expressed above are mine and mine alone.

--Mike Jordan

A Review: A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire

 A preface: If you haven't read the other books in this series, read them first, or you will be hopelessly lost. (And this post will contain SPOILERS!!!)


Overall: 4 out of 5 stars






A Dance with Dragons is Book Five in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy cycle that began with A Game of Thrones. Martin excels at bringing the world of Westeros to life, he mixes practical descriptions of what life would be like in this world that seems to be stuck, for all intents and purposes, in the medieval era with the magic and mystery of prophecy.

In Book Five; Winter is upon us, and things are looking very bleak for all the Noble Houses of Westeros. In this world seasons can apparently stretch for decades. The War of the Five Kings ravaged much of the countryside during the Autumn.

According to Martin's own website Book Four and Book Five run concurrently in the timeline, where Book Four focuses on the the events in King's Landing, The Fingers, the Iron Islands and the events in Essos involving the young Targeryan Queen. (Rightful Heir to the Seven Kingdoms?) Book Five focuses on Jon Snow, the Wall, King Stannis Baratheon, his Red priestess, and much to my relief, the continued adventures of one Tyrion Lannister.

I'm going to stop here and let everyone know: The Imp is easily my favorite surviving character at this point in the series. Why? He's the most honest, to be frank. He's wily, shrewd and absolutely cutthroat when needs be. People view him as an obscene little monstrosity, and Tyrion does his best to live up to that perception.

A Dance with Dragons is a great read, well constructed and extremely entertaining. Although Martin, as an author, stays to form. (My Kindle has a crack in it, from where I threw it to the floor after reading of Robb and Catelyn Stark's shocking murders at the Twins during what became known as the Red Wedding.) Another major character, meets an apparent untimely demise at the hands daggers of friends in the final pages.

When Martin writes it seems that no one is safe. He continues that tradition here. Although one character most readers would have thought dead for the past two to three books in this series does make a surprising comeback, and starts on his road to redemption. The events in Mereen with the Dragon Queen are both revealing and puzzling and Young Brandon Stark is well on his way to mastering his own destiny. This outing shows Bran, Jojen and Meera journeying deep into the wilds beyond the Wall. Bran finishing his portion of this book learning from the last greenseer and restaking his claim as the hardest Stark to kill. Then Young Aegon Targaryen, the son of slain Prince Rhaegar, long thought dead, reveals himself and makes way for Westeros with Jon Connington, former Hand to Mad King Aerys, and a sellsword army at his back.

Oh...and Dany finally tames her dragon....

Personally, I can't wait for Book Six.