Acquire The Gift (Palanshia #1) Written By William Chancellor Shown In Edition

Certainly, a very original story,

There are a lot of elements of "High Fantasy" in this book which may encourage some to pick it up and dissuade others.
The world introduced to the reader in Chancellor's book is as complex as our own, full of rival kingdoms, mass genocides, and political intrigue.
I enjoyed the creativity attached to each distinct kingdom which certainly added to the realism of the world,

However, this inundation of information did result in a somewhat jumbled storyline, I feel the book could have done with more explanation, For example, I found the magic system called "eth" a little difficult to understand, Normally, I am not overly picky about the rules of magic in fantasy novels, but when it plays such a pivotal role in the plotline I felt it needed to be fleshed out more for the audience.


Overall it was a fun and fastpaced actionpacked fantasy adventure, If you are drawn to novels with a lot of worldbuilding and multiple POVs you will enjoy the first installment of Chancellor's series, This is one of the best books i have come across in recent times, To be honest taken away on first instance when i saw the title The Palanshia which intrigued me to know more about the book.
Then came the book cover which instantly got my eyes rolling, I was absolutely impressed about the author's background, William Chancellor, the author of this book has masteredlanguages and has installed the largest stained glass installation in switzerland,

He also has mastered plantation and has developed over thirty hardy Orchidform Hemerocallis inspired by the very Summerbird Orchids of his books.
Last but not the least he has cofounded the Toyger Cat breed and has also promoted the bengal cat breed to his homeland, This book is a combination for his love of history blended with his pasion of geography, language and botanical interests, Phewww, thats indeed a rare combination to find,

I am not gonna talk about the story, as it will diminish the efforts of the author to mesmerize his/her audience's, to which i can assure you that The Palanshia is indeed mesmerizing.
it will capture your imagination and interest from the very first paragraph and will keep you gripped till the end eventually asking for more.
Personally i feel like, this book and its story can be your partner to keep you mind joyful while on business tour, leisure tour, dialy travelling, coffee couching, over all an all time read.


The strange dreams of different worlds, fleets of ships made of clear glass, . . inky black figures brandishing spears, leaping from the shadows, Something was amiss. And now a light that appears in the bones of his fingers! Something strange is happening, . . !!. The language, the articulation, the sequences, the characterization, everything is perfectly in place whihc makes this book a must have for all genre of readers and age groups.
Grab you copy today and thank me later !! Just kidding, But surely a lovely read,


Finally a breath of fresh air to the genre! Although still remaining true to the FantasyFiction hallmarks that we all love, William Chancellor takes you on a journey both epic and intimate through the eyes of extraordinary characters with the “Deeprd person POV”, a highly unusual choice for the genre, that gives the reader a dynamic experience that, once gotten used to, makes it really hard to go back to classic “omnipresent narration”.

The beauty with which the author paints the story is enchanting, weaving words like a master artisan he pulls you into a world so rich and complex that you feel as if youre experiencing it yourself, a world full of deep history, schemes, mysteries, supernatural forces and unbelievable creatures.
Everything that a lover of FantasyFiction expects but told in an original and surprising new way that will leave you breathless for more,
If you just want the short version of my review this is a good start to an interesting story,

To expand on that, this really is just the start of something, I read the Kindle version and the story sneakily ends at, as the remainingis several glossaries, There is a lot of world building here, but not a lot of plot, This is a very typical teenagefarm boychosen one story so far, None of the story threads started here come to resolution in this book, Weird animal migrations Parallel worlds Some kind of of sorcerer cult
I think there might be something really interesting tying all these things together but it isn't in this first installment.


What this DOES have is one of my very favorite Prologues of all time, That short bit is all magic, and might be enough to get me to dive back into a future installment in this tale, . . Unique read. I want to start by saying that I'm not much for fantasy, so my rating is more reflective of of my general preferences than of the The Gift's overall quality.


Palanshia, Book One: The Gift is as good as you'd come to expect from a modern fantasy story, with the requisite slower pacing, characterdriven narrative, religious imagery and symbolism, and medieval melodrama.
Even if I can'tget on board with, and invest in, the overcooked politics and capitalD Drama of Chancellor's world, the obsession that the fantasy genre has with religion, specifically Christianity, will always be refreshing because it's reflective of the internal desire for a savior and the divine in all of us.
In that sense, fantasy is a much more human genre than others since its focus is typically on good people accepting a spiritual gift and using it to battle evil, but it's only when these people fully lean into whatever God or Christian parallel is the center of their story that they succeed.
Chancellor focuses on this aspect much more than many of his contemporaries, and it's definitely one of The Gift's strengths, We get a fully fleshedout and realized religion and higher power for the novel's world to be subordinate to, and we get lots of discussions centering around Ber'eth and his power and legacy.
We see the characters consistently pray to him as well, and you really get the sense that these people value their faith and truly need a higher power to succeed.


Chancellor's world itself, taken on its own aside from Ber'eth, is intricately designed and thoroughly constructed, One may see shades of Tolkien,

and indeed The Gift could just read to some as another Tolkienadjacent work of fiction, but you have to admire the thought and effort put into bringing Palanshia to life.
It's a vast land full of species, languages, forms of magic, kingdoms and bloodlines, and history, A good part of a fantasy realm should be that, while characters may not encounter that many wild or imaginative beings or monsters in a singular tale, one should get the sense that there is a large array of things yet to be discovered or disclosed to the reader.
Chancellor probably takes the worldbuilding more seriously than any of the other aspects, and this can simultaneously be a feature and a bug, Because of the finetuning of the novel's backdrop, the narrative itself suffers, Pacing is rather inconsistent and often slow, with roughly twothirds of the novel being a slow burn soap opera about what it's like for a farm boy to suddenly be dropped into a royal family.
There are also a lot of established supporting characters who don't seem to have much purpose, but the most egregious sin is that it fails to clearly establish any sort of antagonist.
There's a moment where we are given a glimpse of an impending onslaught of demonic forces, and we do get some hints at a larger foe in the third act, but outside of these instances, the story is largely just about the protagonists and their hardships and interactions with each other.
I don't want to make too much of this, since it could come down to preference I prefer more traditional good guy and bad guy narratives, but some may enjoy the careful unfolding of the more personal human drama, but the pacing and lack of any real villain are really my only two complaints.
Toman is interesting enough, and Chancellor makes sure that the reader wants to root for him, and that's about as much as I can ask of an author and his protagonist.


While I continue to grow more exhausted with modern fantasy in the wake of Lewis and Tolkien, I'm pleased with what Chancellor is trying to do, and I'll continue to read his stories and let him take me further on this journey.
Good novels should cultivate discussion and further analysis, and this one does that, If you mentally prepare yourself for less of a fastmoving and straightforward story and more of a maximalist epic with a lot of ideas to throw at you that takes its time to get to its destination, then you'll be on the The Gift's wavelength more and enjoy it for what it is.
Chancellor certainly has more literary knowledge and artistic reference points on his mind than many of his peers, and he's definitely an upandcomer to keep an eye on.
I recommend The Gift,

Note: I listened to the first thirdorso of this on audiobook, and for anyone interested in audio versions, the audiobook of this story is good, and worth it.
Each chapter is read in the voice of the character whose POV it's in, and this choice, while unorthodox, did entertain me and hold my interest.
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