Sunday, 21 September 2014

Battle for honour: Gates by RJ Brousseau.

Hey guys!
Joe here with another review for you, today I’m going to be reviewing Battle for Honour: Gates by RJ Brousseau.


Here’s a quick excerpt from the book blurb on Goodreads:
Three thousand years ago, the Third Great War brought Agora to the brink of annihilation. Since then, all has remained peaceful, until now. Challenges present themselves daily and your response is paramount to survival. 

Marcus awakens in a world he does not know. Possessing the skills of a seasoned warrior with the ability to unleash devastating magic, he ventures into the unknown to discover himself, the world and answers to the mysteries surrounding him. Who are these Guardians guiding him on this life’s mission? What do the Gods want?
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I found out about this book through Twitter, the author(s) followed me and sent me a message asking if I would like to do a review on their book, I said yes and they sent it over to my kindle.

Just to clarify and to let you guys know, RJ Brousseau is a collaboration of Father (Richard Brousseau) and Son (Ryan Brousseau)

I’m super-super happy that the author(s) asked if I could review this book as it became possibly one of my favourite Fantasy-Adventure books so far.
The detail and dedication that went into writing this was obvious from the first few chapters and continued to grow as the book progressed.

The plot was really intense, but at the same time, it was very easy to follow. There wasn’t at any point the need to to re-read or skim back across a few pages to understand it, I did leave reading it for a couple of days as I had a few things to sort out, but as soon as I had come back to it I remembered each and every little detail of what had happened and what was happening through-out the chapters.

As like many Fantasy-Adventure books, the plot was thick and heavy in different races and war. It also focused heavily on how these races were adding to the war and what would happen as to which side they took.
We’ve seen these types of motives and ideas from authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Bruce Fergusson, John Gwynne (who’s books I have, but yet have to read) and more.

RJ Brousseau takes it to a different plain, they dab into the Fantasy-Adventure world with Orcs/Gnomes/Fairies/Faes/Elves’/Humans, etc… But they also allow for a broader approach with different gods and deities, which are able to change and influence the flow of the world by just talking to certain characters.

Another good thing that most authors are really desperate to get perfect and correct so that fans of the Fantasy-Adventure world are not disappointed, are the names of the characters and the places.
*This book has really-really good and ‘realistic’ names*
(*I say realistic, what I mean is that you could imagine a dwarf with that name or a city with that name)

The book focuses on around 3 main characters, there are also sub-characters who play very important roles within the book but they aren’t as focused upon.
The first main character we meet is Marcus.

Marcus is a human Paladin/Avatar, who suffers from memory loss during the early stages of the book.
As soon as he finds out who he is and why he is in this world, this allows his character to be defined and explored more.
Marcus in the beginning is a quiet man, who has extraordinary strength and reflexes that are put to the test when he is ambushed by a pack of Kobolds.
Unable to speak in the present day tongue, he tags along with a group of mercenaries who take him to Brinstone where he meets a priest by the name of Lingar who is able to understand the ancient language that Marcus speaks and unlocks Marcus’s memory by allowing him to sleep in a temple. 

The second important character is Thorel.
Thorel is a Dwarf Paladin and sword for hire; as he is hunting a pack of Kobolds, his and Marcus’s paths cross.
Thorel is a brave, noble Dwarf who never lets his pride go to his head. He stays focused and centred when in battle and when in discussions with Marcus and other Dwarf brethren.
Even though he is not the king of the Dwarf race, he has the potential and the following/attention of the citizens to become a powerful and loved king.

The third important character is King Kenric.
Kenric is the king of the Pure Blood Elf race. Though he is a strong and intelligent man, he is more known as an “underdog”.
In the beginning he is nothing but a sunken king, he has no passion left for being king and his subjects are not shown any kind of compassion or acknowledgement from their ruler.

He is married to a Pure Blood Elf named Celeste who is able to communicate to the gods through meditation, after speaking to the gods and gaining treasurable knowledge, she is the reason and the catalyst of why Kenric wages war upon the dwarfs.

Other characters such as Celeste, Baazar, Lingar, Jorig, etc, all play defining and pivotal roles, but they are not as focused upon as much as the three main characters.
(Just to note: they do play important parts, but their roles influence the actions of Kenric/Thorel/Marcus, which make those three have greater and more suffice roles)

My favourite character would have to be Kragg, even though I liked Marcus and Thorel a-lot, Kragg was the funniest. He turned everything into a joke but was still as serious when it came down to the combat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book; from start-to-finish there was no boring or dragging bits, each bit was intense and was even more so intriguing that it would just keep me reading it… One night I did start reading it at around 11pm and I finished around 3 or 4am.
But yeah!
The story was well written, it was descriptive and immersing, the writers did an amazing job; what more can I say; other than I really really enjoyed this book and I cannot wait for more workings from the authors J

I can also honestly see this becoming a series or film franchise if it becomes more popular :)

Thank you for sending me a copy to review!
You can check their book out on Amazon and Good-reads here:


And here’s their website:
http://www.rjbrousseau.com/about.html

That’s all from me for today; hope you’ve had a great day and I’ll see you in about a week’s time!

Joe :)



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