A Crucible of Souls (Sorcery Ascendant Sequence Book 1) Kindle Edition

An easy to read fantasy coming of age tale in the style of Feist's Magician. If you want an easy to read entertaining story will solid characters, then give this a try.

I loved the way the author built his world, I never knew what was going to happen next. So the story wasn't at all predictable. I can't wait for the sequel.

Far out this book was stressful! My dreams were haunted by the characters – and I don’t mean either of those as a bad things.

From the synopsis I thought this book was going to be all about Caldan, but it’s much bigger than that. The prologue sucked me in straightaway; I didn’t know who these people were but I wanted them safe. Not too many pages in and we find out the prologue people were in fact Caldan Grandparents and Mother. It was obvious they had to be some sort of ancestors to Caldan as it was the perfect way to kick the story off, giving us a glimpse into the past. I will add that Grandma and Granddad were kickass powerful. In this first book we never find out exactly by who their killers were or why they were killed. But I’m sure that will be brought up in the second or third book as Caldan strives to find out the truth behind his heritage.

Extremely early on Caldan is forced to leave the monastery thanks to a kafuffle with one of the other students. We travel with Caldan from the sheltered monastery to big bad Anasoma. In Anasoma Caldan learns the ways of his new home the hard way when he gets mugged and receives a serious ass whooping when he accidently wanders into the slums. Never the less he makes some friends in Maranda, the love interest, and Master Simmon, who goes on to give him the unprecedented position of Apprentice Protector.

So we’ve gone through 100 pages following Caldan only to move onto another set of characters. At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but as Aidan’s chapters continued it became evident the importance of his actions and that we were being shown things that were going on in the background of Caldan’s world. We follow Caldan for a few more chapters then we get dropped someone new again, Amerdan, and again with, Vasile. Now following four story lines we really start to see the rich and complex world Mr Hogan has created. We meet so many intricate and important characters but the story still manages to flow well and remain easy to read/understand.

We spend most of the time with Caldan but every now and then check in with the others to keep a broad view of what is happening. In this book Caldan’s and Amerdan paths cross, Aidan and Vasile’s cross, but the four never end up together, it seems enviable that they will at some point during the series.

So while only Caldan is mentioned in the synopsis and yes we probably spend the biggest percentage of the book with him, the other three charters and their stories lines are extremely important to the world Hogan immaculately builds.

Towards the end of this book Caldan shows just how powerful he is and because of this I think he’s in a lot more danger then he realises. I am really on edge about the traveling party Caldan is with at the end of the book, in which Amerdan is included, it can only mean trouble. Poor Maranda is left brain dead from evil sorcery. And I was left questioning who the bad guys really were. There are a fair few things left open at the end of this book and it sets up some epic show downs and discoveries to come.