Preserver - Christopher Reardon

Hey guys!

Joe here with another review!

Today I’m going to be reviewing Christopher Reardon’s book ‘Preserver’

Here’s a splice of the blurb to get you interested:

17-year-old Corey not only has to deal with his mother’s disappearance, but recurring nightmares horrifying him to no end. Each and every night, an old man constantly begs for his help. He pleads for assistance escaping a murderer keeping him hostage in another world.

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I was sent this e-book by the author for an honest review.

I have mixed emotions about this book; I really enjoyed it, but I felt like there was a lack of story line, character development and just overall enthusiasm for all above…

The age range for this book is mostly aimed at ages 10-17? Maybe a-bit higher but from reading it, it’s clear that it is a Child’s/Teen fantasy book.

The story starts by placing us in the main character ‘Corey’s’ dreams.

In these dreams there is an old man who keeps contacting Corey and asking for his help against something/someone called ‘The Preserver’.

Corey shrugs off the old man as just a dream and humours him by replying to the old mans’ many plea’s for help.

We find out that Corey has been having the same dream continuously for the past few nights and that he’s used to the old man speaking this crackpot gibberish.

Then the old man mentions something new, something about Corey’s mother, who has been missing for a number of years; Corey starts to become defensive and questions the old man… all the old man says is that he needs to us the last words his mother said to him to stop The Preserver.

I really liked this^ It gave the book a quick and creepy feel to it that you don’t normally get from Childs/Teen fantasy books; I generally did get slightly more intrigued as to what these words are and where his mother was; what did they do? Why did his mother leave?

From here on the book was really good; I liked the idea, the way it was moving and how the author implemented a sort of basis for this to revolve around.

The story itself was really simple and superbly easy to follow; I personally would’ve preferred a story that sort of dragged out a-bit longer but that’s just my preference of books.
Also, remember that this book is targeted for a younger audience and it does the job perfectly in terms of keeping the attention of the reader.

I liked the characters, I honestly did, but I felt as if they were severely under looked as I couldn’t connect with any of them; I didn’t get that attachment you normally acquire during Fantasy/Teen-Fantasy reads.

They were described quite shortly honestly; I really had to use my imagination, which isn’t a bad thing, but when you’ve got one thought in your head and then you read the next short descriptive piece about the character you push that image further away.

For example; Blanko The Wizard Under The Sea, I had no idea what he looked like; the only descriptive text we get when we first meet him is that he has a ‘Big, Brown beard’… like, what is his body structure? Is he old or young? Is he pure human?

We do get another descriptive wording about him, this one calls him a ‘Man-Fish’… which then further leads onto the What’s, the Why’s and the did I miss some descriptive text???
(Which I didn’t… I checked)

My favourite character throughout this book would’ve had to be Slamora, the strongest of the Mages.

I liked her personality, her not-caring attitude and her lack of social skills… It kid of reminded me a little of my friends, and myself which is why I connected with that characters.

The only thing I didn't like, is that I depicted her as some sort of Late-Teen, early Twenty's type of Lady... instead from reading where it says 'Old witch' I caught on that it was the generic older and more wiser/stronger witch

Overall – the story was really well done, for the age group Christopher has aimed for. It’s a fun book with a smooth story and quick points that will make even the slowest and the un-advanced readers get to grips with it.

Also! One other thing; in the realm of The Treacherous Sea they meet a Captain called Arnold.

When the company are walking with Arnold, the author wrote:

'While walking towards Captain Arnold's boat Patricia, Slamora and Blanko gab and chatter about things...'

Note that at this point of the story they have yet to meet Blanko; I have a suspicion that the author accidentally wrote Blanko's name instead of Arnold's. I have no problem with this as human error, just thought I'd bring it up^

The ending was good! I really liked the twist!

Here’s the authors Amazon page if you would like to purchase either the Kindle editions or Paperbacks:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Chris%20Reardon&search-alias=books-uk&sort=relevancerank

I urge that you check him out as he’s got a-lot of potential!

Thank you for reading this review guys!

Have an awesome one today! :D

Joe J