Hey, writers and readers!
It’s not a good month without an indie novel or two. Today I’ll be reviewing An Unlikely Company (The NetherGate Trilogy, #1) by Tyler R. Lee.
Check out the review below and make sure to give your two cents in the comments section if you’ve already read the book, too!
Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis
The country of
Woden, a prideful half-orc, Baelor, a surly dwarf, Jokkoa, a whimsical goblin sorceress, and Amrynn, a paranoid elf and her tiger companion are thrown together by chance. With more than a bit of reluctance, the four loners stumble upon this evil plot and discover they may be the land’s only hope, much to their annoyance.
At the request of the wizened wizard Grindor, the unlikely company set out to find the four artifacts that defeated the order in the past before the enemy finds them first. However, not only do they have to contend with the dark forces hot on their trail, but they still can’t quite trust each other.
The dark mages,
What I Enjoyed
The cast has a wide range of interesting characters. I think there’s at least one character that you’re rooting for throughout the book. I personally liked
Everyone also has a pretty decent sense of humor, so you’ll find lots of fun zingers here. If you have a handful of siblings, you know the kind of humor I’m talking about.
What I Didn’t Enjoy
The book has a fully omniscient narrator which is helpful and unhelpful at times. For example, when they enter the city, we get the reactions from the whole cast of five characters. It feels a bit like info-dumping because their reactions are also tied to their MO or backstory. I liked the backstory information but I would’ve liked to hear the others explain these things when it’s relevant. Or, it would’ve been helpful to have one perspective at a time so we could get one perspective and not five.
And I can tell by the reviews that this will either make or break your reading experience, but the high fantasy you read here is very akin to a DnD or Pathfinder plot. As someone who enjoys tabletop games, it was fun to read a novel that seems to be based on a campaign. However, I felt like there was a lot of high fantasy names and characters; I mixed names up a few times. And much like the pace of a tabletop game, the first half of the book felt pretty long and full of constant battles.
My Final Thoughts
Sometimes I come across books that aren’t quite what I was looking for but still had a good time. I think some of you would really enjoy this style of storytelling and some of you won’t. Such is the way of reading. For me, there was a lot to keep track of, lots of powerful folks, and I was waiting a long time for the characters to just make amends and work together. It’s easy to have favorites but it was hard to root for them as a team.
I hope I shared enough to still pique your curiosity without giving too much away. If you’d like to learn more about Tyler R. Lee and his work, you can catch up with him via social media:
Do you have thoughts about this novel? Share with me in the comments! You can also see all of my other book reviews by checking out the Book Reviews tab.