Seize Your Copy Into The Abyss (Demons Of Astlan, #1) Envisioned By J.L. Langland Issued In Copy
trash.
Full of "Deus ex machina" moments, characters whose description constantly conflicts with their actions" and incredible stupid actions from these characters.
A demon named Tom
This one has an interesting twist on an old idea, what if Demons were actually people just ones from a different plane.
their souls got twist not by evil or torture in hell but by what they thought demons should look and act like and had this conformed by the thoughts of those around them.
One such case is our MC who is ayear old kid that got high on a bad patch of weed and died.
The book is action filled with an interesting perspective on things, is it the demon that is bad or the person ordering him to do evil after all, how long can you use the excuse "I'm just following orders"
The book kept my attention throughout and I found it creative and visual.
The con is that the side characters can bedimensional as if stuck in a loop and the MC acts more like a middle aged man than a teen, this one would have benefited from aging him up a bit.
The Dialogue can be a bit too philosophical at times but it never tried to shove anything down your throat, only asked questions
leading ones admittedly
It didn't so much as end as suddenly stop at the climax battle.
. . a good way to get me to buy bookbut the author DOES owe he's readers an apology for doing that! This book could have been terrific.
It had a good concept, the author had a good start, he could have made a good fantasy seller.
But he screwed up on the editing,
The problem with this book is it's length, I don't see how people can keep stuffing up the simple fact that just because you stuff a lot of pages together they think it makes for a more enjoyable book.
It does not work that way Langland,
One main problem is that Langland is constantly repeating the same scene multiple times from several points of view.
Good for a mystery, not fantasy,
I'm not kidding here, Half the book is repeating itself, Langland, I know it is painful but you need to cut the fat out of this thing and sell it for a smaller version.
I quit after reaching the last five percent of the book because I was grinding my teeth.
This book is pretty damn good, The whole start to finish was on point, It's on of those taken to another world type stories, but it's told from the viewpoint of the unwilling demon.
It's interesting to see how they think and the way things play out, The "REAL" reason demons are so evil and etc, That and the story has plenty of colorful characters all throughout the book, Nobody is really evil, but there are set biases that need to be overcome, The end of book one sets up one hell of a whopper for book two and I'm looking FORWARD to reading it! Rating.
stars
This is a hard review to write because I have conflicting emotions, There are aspects of this book that I thought were awesome, There are other aspects of the story that I absolutely hated, Most books are either good or bad, I am having a hard time reconciling one book being both great and terrible at the same time.
The story mainly follows Tom, ayear old who just moved to a different town, In order to make friends he went to a party and tried a joint for the first time.
Something was funny with the joint and he ended up in an out of body experience, While he is "out of body" he hears/feels a call and is compelled to check it out.
Worst mistake of his life, The people calling are wizards and they are trying to subjugate Tom, He fights back and tries to escape but the more he fights the harder they try to keep him.
He tries to go back to his own body but the wizards sever the link, Next thing Tom knows he isfeet tall and looks like a demon, He is now a bound demon! There is a good debate on the concept of evil and demons, Since the demons are bound and have to follow their master's orders which is more evil The one who performs the act or the one that orders it It is a fun ride with Tom while he tries to understand what it means to be a demon, having everyone terrified by his presence while at the same time knowing he is/was ayear old kid.
He is treated with so much distrust even when he helps people,
My favorite part of the story is following the exploits of Tom, Jen, Rupert and Tom's demon friend Tizzy.
When the story is told from Tom's, Jen's or Ruperts point of view I was very engaged, My biggest problem with the story is the other pointsofviews,
There is also a political war going on in the back ground or foreground depending on your point of view.
The Wizard who enslaved Tom is named Lenamare, He is a major asshole and is being attacked by another Wizard named Exador, Exador is attacking Lenamare's school, with the hopes of getting a magical book that Lenamare has in his possession.
The school is destroyed but Lenamare and some of his students escape, The book is accidentally left in the hands of a journeyman wizard student named Jen, She is one of the few survivors of the attack along with ayear old boy named Rupert.
With the help of Tom, Jen and Rupert are brought to a far away city to be safe.
They now need to travel a long distance to get back to a Town called Freehold to meet up with Lenamare.
Along the way even more political issues come up, They make enemies of a group called the Rod of Tiernon, They make enemies with another group called Oorstemoth, Then there is the council of Wizards and the other demons, There is so much distrust between the groups there ends up being a comedy of errors,
I hated all the political talk.
I hated everything with the Rod and with Oorstemoth, I especially hated the talk about that Damn book, It was talked about throughout the entire story and even at the end I have no idea what it does or why it was so important.
By the time I found out Exador's secret I didn't care anymore There were too many moving parts in the political drama that weren't explained until almost the end and by that time I was very frustrated because I didn't know what was happening.
The ending was awesome and it made me think about getting the next book, That is, until I read some of the reviews for the next book, All the things I loved in this book it seems are nowhere to be found in the next book.
Tom, Jen, and Rupert are given a backseat in the next story so the author could focus on the political aspect of the story You know, the part that I absolutely hated! So while I really like Tom and want to read more about him, I don't think it is worth it based on the reviews I have read.
Turns out: "The Demon Weed" really is a Gateway Drug!
Who knew
Tom Perkinje certainly didn't.
He had never smoked anything in his life, but as the new kid in town trying to make friends, he'd gone to a party and had foolishly let his new buddy Reggie talk him into trying a joint that he'd picked up from a new dealer.
Before he knew it, Tom was having a seriously bad trip a total out of body experience where the world had dissolved around him.
A few puffs in and he'd gotten this massive case of tunnel vision where the entire party seemed to be happening at the other end of a long tunnel soon it was like he was having this weird out of body experience looking down at himself.
The next thing Tom knew, there were these deranged myopic wizards from some place called Astlan calling on him in some sort of pig Latin mumbo jumbo.
They had somehow mistaken Tom for a demon! He tried to flee but the wizards were relentless and were determined to conjure him into their world and bind him as their demon slave for all of eternity!
Oh, yeah, and those crazy wizards Turns out they were going to war and planned to use their new demon slave as a secret weapon to obliterate the enemy!
Jenn was a journeyman Thaumaturge at Lenamare's Academy of Wizardry.
School was a living hell, Oh, she was learning a lot, thanks to Master Trisfelt, but the Head Master and Head Mistress were insufferable egomaniacs.
Head Mistress Jehenna seemed intent on making Jenn's life a living hell,
If this wasn't bad enough, the Head Master, Lenamare, had gone and got in a squabble with another wizard, Exador and now Exador was marching his army on the school.
And to top it off, during what was supposed to be a routine classroom demonstration on demon summoning, Lenamare and the class had stumbled upon what they thought was a minor demon and tried to bind it.
But unfortunately it wasn't a minor demon, It was a Greater Demon, something so powerful and Evil that they were almost never conjured onto the Planes of Man.
Naturally being an egomaniac, Lenamare insisted on trying to bind it to his will and use it to destroy Exador and his army.
So the question was: Would Exador's army ravage and kill her, or would the school's newest defense consume her immortal soulpages is a great sacrifice to give.
the story it self can't be taken seriously with shallow and weak writing, it becomes impossible to continue
stopped at pageLove it! I can't tell you how many times I have read and reared these trees books, waiting for next instalment! This was refreshing read, Well written and quite enjoyable.
Some of the characters were a bit too stereotypical for my own preferences, and the ending left me feeling a bit disappointed I want some closure, but I'm not willing to read another book in the series just to get it.
As much as I liked the book, it wasn't a perfect fit for me and I don't plan to continue the series despite it being quite promising : This was an enjoyable coming of age fantasy that lived up to the promise of its super fun sounding blurb.
This was set in a fun fantasy world and was a character driven story packed with action, humor, and great characters.
The story was fun, In a attempt to seem cool and fit in with the crowdyear old Tom Perkinje decides to try a joint offered to him by his new friend Reggie.
Big mistake as it turns out the new weed really is a gateway drug, A gateway straight to the Abyss! The new drug caused Tom's spirit to cast into the astral plain.
Which seems pretty cool at first but becomes a lot less so when wizards from the far off reality of Astlan mistake him for a demon and cut his souls cord from his regular body and bind him into the form of a demon.
As if being stuck as a demon in a world straight out of a crazy fantasy tale was not enough poor Tom finds that his masters intend to enslave him for all eternity and that when he is not at their beck and call he is cast back to the Abyss!
The whole book was a ton of fun.
Tom was an easy guy to root for, He was mostly a good guy but was often left with little choice but to take action in ways that he disliked either due to wizards compelling his obedience with magic or because he had to defend himself or his friends from those who attacked him on sight! We got a mix of drama and humour as Tom had to deal with how all the various characters he encountered reacted to him.
Even the demons were not sure what to make of him, There was also plenty of plotting as the complicated politics of both Astlan and the Abyss meant that various different factions and players were all causing chaos that Tom got caught up in.
The characters were neither overly good or bad, There were good and bad guys in the story for sure but all were very human in their motivations and desires, even those who were not actually human in appearance! I felt like that believability gave the story that bit of depth it needed to help me invest emotionally in the characters.
We met a lot of fun secondary characters over the course of the story and they all played a part in making thishour audio an engaging listen from start to finish! J.
L. Langland's writing had a slightly simplistic and YA feel to it but the story itself had enough depth and Langland's writing was still super engaging.
All in all I was quite happy with this one,
Rating:.stars.
Audio Note: Stephen Bel Davies did a good job with the audio, He got the tone of the story and did a good job with the character voices, It took me about an hour to warm to him but once I did I enjoyed his performance a lot.
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