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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

NICOLE'S REVIEW: The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost

Title: The Paladin Prophecy
Author: Mark Frost
Format Acquired: Hardcover 
Publication Date: September 25 2012
Publishing House: Random House
ISBN: 9780375870453
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked

Summary:

Will West is careful to live life under the radar. At his parents' insistence, he's made sure to get mediocre grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his cross-country ream. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off the charts on a nationwide exam.

Now Will is being courted by an exclusive prep school...and followed by men driving black sedans. When Will suddenly loses his parents, he must flee to the school. There he begins to explore all that he's capable of - physical and metal feats that should be impossible - and learns that his abilities are connected to a struggle between titanic forces that has lasted for millennia.

Co-creator of the groundbreaking Twin Peaks, Mark Frost brings his unique vision to this sophisticated adventure series, which combines mystery, heart-pounding action and the supernatural.

Review:

Frankly, I'm amazed at how well Paladin Prophecy turned out to be. Frost had a decent cast of characters, an intriguing plotline and lots and lots of well-written action scenes. Paladin Prophecy also has secret societies, an epic war that's been raging for... well, ever, with lots of interesting tidbits thrown in for good measure.

Will is your typical teenage boy, he stays under the radar and moves from one place to the other with his parents until he makes a mistake that finds him scoring incredibly high grades on a nationwide exam that turns his whole life upside down. Soon after he finds himself being chased by shady people dressed in black and being courted by an exclusive school aptly named the Center. It is there he discovers his powers, and meets his friends . It is also here where the poor boy is blind to the fact that he's a big player in a millenia-old war. 

I liked a lot of things about Paladin Prophecy. It was fast paced-with a lot of descriptive action scenes. It also had copious amounts of mystery thrown in and dabbled in the secrecy of well, secret societies. Frost even managed to mix in a bit of the supernatural entwined with science, mainly the war between "angels" and "demons", and all their high-tech gadgets and talk of creating hybrids using in-vitriol fertilization, oh, and let's not forget super powers. Who doesn't like super powers? 

The characters were a plus too, I thoroughly enjoyed Will's voice and for some odd reason I liked the way he followed his father's list of "Rules to Live By" and how those nuggets of wisdom were always there in the back of his head. His friends were an interesting lot too, Nick in particular, was my favorite. I'm also glad that this book has very, VERY minimal romance - a few scenes here and there just to establish who Will's paired with. It's a refreshing change from all the romance-centered books out there but if you're jumping into this expecting a whole lot of swoon-worthy moments you will be sorely disappointed. And there's Dave - I'm not going to say anything about him but just know that I absolutely loved his character. 

Paladin Prophecy is a thrilling mix of mystery, suspense and action that manages to blend the supernatural with science fiction. It contains a whole lot of plot twists and turns but they're fairly easy to follow. Watch out for the cliffhanger. I can't wait for the next book in the series.


Rating:
                       

2 comments:

  1. this was not on my radar, but i do like the blend of mystery and fantasy and the male pov.

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    Replies
    1. It was a really interesting read for me. :> I enjoyed it. :D

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