Erudite Erekos

Erekos by A.M. Tuomala

*I received this e-book for free from Candlemark & Gleam Publishing. 

This book gets a solid 3 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for great descriptive language, intriguing characters and well though out world building.

The cover draws you right in and makes you want to investigate this book, it has a mysterious yet creepy vibe.

I personally could have gone without all the pronunciation stuff in the beginning I prefer stuff like that to be at the end of the book or be a lot shorter.

This story caught my attention with the way that it's told.  It has a lot of points of view so you get to experience just about every character's story.  There are gods, men, women, magic and even a zombi.

The story opens with Achane using magic to bring her sister Shabane back to life and it works.  Sadly though she doesn't come all the way back and is stuck as a zombi with a soul. Achane's goal is to get her sister brought fully back to life so her and Shabane head out to Terichone's temple.  While there she is spotted by King Milaus who is a little too interested in her and her zombi raising abilities so he basically kidnaps her and leaves Shabane flailing in a mud puddle.

The story them picks up through the very interesting eyes of Shabane's character and Gamela the priestess who escorts her in the attempt to go after her sister.  I wish there would have been more chapters or parts that included Shabane and Gamela.

The story also shows the views of Jeiger and Erlen.  Jeiger's a hunter and Erlen's a scholar, they have quite the relationship.  They have an unspoken bond that makes you want to know what happened to them before this story started and what the future has in store for them.

War has been going on for awhile and the King thinks that Achane is his answer to winning and lessening lives lost.  While Jeiger and Erlen and a lot of their friends are on the other side of the war.  Understanding is hard to come by when men, gods and other forces are all fighting.

There are a lot of characters in this book and I don't think the reader needs to hear from all of them but that is more than made up for by the stronger characters.  Even the gods are given snippets every now and then in the book which provides the readier with a view of how they see human events.

The big fight between the two separate forces could have gone on longer than it did because it did involve my favorite character Erlen and many of the other characters.   Even so the ending of the book is satisfying and wraps things up nicely.  I certainly hope that more is written about the world of Erekos.

Erekos does get off to a slow start but slowly but surely draws you in so you want to know what happens to these characters.  Events and people come together to put the whole story into focus.  If you like your fantasy books with a little zombie twist and a lot of character viewpoints, Erekos may be the book for you.