Of Secrets and Sorcery
Chris Solaas
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As Kyne settles into his new home and new school, he begins to notice strange things happening around him. He wakes with strange bruises that seem to match up with bumps he must have gotten in his dreams. In those dreams, he’s a prince of a faraway realm, on the run for his life, whose only friend seems to be an irritable red dragon. With each night the dreams become more vivid, and Kyne realizes they may in fact be as real as his waking life.
The dragon was probably my favorite character – because, seriously, who can resist a snappy dragon? I liked Kyne and his friend Zip, too. They were interesting characters, and immediately I wanted to know more about them.
I found the first few chapters a bit confusing – especially as the story introduced Jason, Kyne’s counterpart. It seemed like by the time he was introduced I was already supposed to know who he was. Once I figured it out, though, I was able to move forward with no problems. I liked the mechanism of shifting through dreams into another dimension, and the fact that instead of our world being the origin of the story and the characters traveling through to a fantasy realm, this world actually was the foreign world to Kyne and his family. I thought that was a cool way to make this concept a little different than the usual approach.
Another unusual touch is the cover art, which was created by the author’s children. I thought that was a creative way to draw kids into the creative process and involve them in having a novel published.
Overall the story reminded me a little bit of Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow by The Miller Brothers. It’s a light adventure story with strong spiritual elements.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
A man pinches Kyne’s mother on her rear while she’s working as a waitress. Kyne’s grandfather immediately attacks the man and stops him from harassing her.
Spiritual Content
Kyne’s mother and grandfather refer to God as the One and make note to pray for His blessing. In times of trouble, characters sometimes stop and pray. A dragon shows up to help Kyne when he is in trouble.
A prince grows up with a terrible curse, in which anything he wishes for will come true. During his childhood, this gets him in a lot of trouble, because, as children do, he wishes for some things which turn out to be terrible and then he can’t undo them. Eventually he learns to use the power of his words to help others and promote peace, but it’s a hard-won lesson that doesn’t come easily.
Violent Content
Battle scenes show soldiers being shot down with arrows and run through with swords. That’s about the level of detail that the story goes into though.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
