The Orphan King: Book 1 in the Merlin's Immortals series

To begin with, I should probably confess that Sigmund Brouwer is my favorite author, and has been since I was young, so I am somewhat biased. That being said, Brouwer is my favorite author because he's simply so crazy good at what he does. A man of many talents, Brouwer's fast-paced historical suspense thrillers always contain what is so rare in the suspense genre--complex, likeable, haunting characters--in addition to sophisticated plots. Also, Brouwer is equally at home setting his books in the Wild West, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, or the present day.Bruwer's latest book, The Orphan King, is a re-working of his book Magnus, which was later republished as Wings of Dawn. I hadn't re-read Magnus in about ten years, but it was always my favorite Brouwer novel--unique among his novels, it's an epic thriller--so I was really excited to hear that Brouwer was coming out with a retelling of the Magnus story. I was not disappointed. Brouwer writes in a prefatory note that he's started this new series to tell the mostly-untold story of the two deadly secret societies that first appeared in Magnus, the Druids and Merlin's Immortals. Mortal enemies, these societies create intricate plots and subplots that make Inception look like Dick and Jane. The fascinating schemes of the two enemies are not so complex as to be incomprehensible, however, just very sophisticated and intriguing. The hero of this new novel, Thomas, is a likeable, dangerous teen. Despite being raised an orphan by cruel and abusive monks, Thomas is highly educated and determined to fulfill his secret destiny, no matter how terrifying that quest may become. Grudgingly helped by a mysterious Knight who has a great secret of his own, a beautiful girl who is far more than she appears, and an irrepressibly cheery and thoroughly dishonest pickpocket, Thomas uses secret weapons from Oriental lands to make his way across Medieval England and toward the impregnable island fortress of Magnus. Thomas intends to conquer this stronghold with only himself and his three companions, and his plan is both brilliant and unique.If you like the novels of Peretti, Dekker, or Lawhead, no offense to those talented authors, then I respectfully submit that Brouwer is more enjoyable than all of them. Brouwer is unique for his detective-novel-complexity plots; his believable, haunted characters; and his sense of humor. Brouwer did try his hand years ago at serial killer and bioengineering thrillers in Blood Ties and Double Helix, my least favorite of his novels, which were very similar to Dekker's writing years prior to Thr3e, but while Brouwer's writing is always good, I simply didn't enjoy those sorts of plots and settings. You might, though! If Dekker and Peretti write Spiderman and Superman books (novels in which "impossible" supernatural things occur), then Brouwer's books are Batman: they abound with multifaceted Byronic heroes in eminently believable situations, regardless of the time period. Brouwer's one real weakness in The Orphan King is that almost all of his characters tend to have the same intelligent, measured voice, but as a writer myself, I can tell you that attaining a diversity of voices is phenomenally difficult, and as Brouwer does everything else so well, I'm prepared to cut him a little slack in that area. Check out The Orphan King and decide for yourself!!I received an e-version of this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review, but I also bought a hard copy of this book from Amazon.com--it's that good.

Plot: This was an interesting plot with a lot of mystery and intrigue. The plot is revealed as you read and you are kept in wonder as the story unfolds. But by the end of the book, the plot has been revealed and executed. You are left, however, with questions that are sure to be answered in the rest of the series.Characters: The character development in this book is very interesting. You start off with no knowledge of any of the characters, but as the story goes on, you learn about the intentions and even some background on some of them. However, you learn still, as you read on that things you thought you learned as truth about some characters, turns out to be falsehood. In some stories, this method of character development would have been confusing, but for this story, it works and it works well.Themes: I would say that an important theme in this book is finding God. Thomas, who grows up in a monastery, doesn't believe that a loving God could exist in such a cruel world. As his journey progresses, he is faced with people who challenge him to question his beliefs and allow him to look beyond what he thinks and see that the possibility of God is more real than he has believed.Emotion: This book did lack emotion. There was intrigue and wonder, but there was no emotional connection to the characters or their predicaments.Overall: This book was a very easy and a very fast read. I was kept engaged by the mystery and wanted to continue to read to see what would happen next. While it is geared toward younger readers, it was enough to satisfy and wasn't too childish.---I read an ARC of this book. The final published book my differ.---

A young hero, a quest, and a destiny shrouded in mystery, weave together to make this a fun adventure for readers! Thomas is a young man who isn’t sure who he is but finds the courage to take a risk and follow the path set before him. With skills of intelligence and wit he overcomes the odds without sacrificing kindness or compassion for others, creating the type of hero we hope all our children will aspire to become.I really appreciate the values instilled in this hero and the knight who helps him take back his family’s kingdom. The author skillfully demonstrates common pitfalls of the world, like deception, greed, selfishness, contrasted by how choices to turn from these and choose the path of sacrifice and love can lead to triumph over evil.Definitely put this on your to read list, you won’t be disappointed! The first in a series, this story will only wet your appetite for more!

While the story got off to a bit of a slow start for me - there was a lot of background information to include in a shorter novel - about 100 pages in the story began to get really interesting. However, I'm not sure how the author could have given that information (all fairly important) without taking the extra pages to do so.With intrigue on top of intrigue it can be difficult to tell friend from foe from random person on the street. But this is the situation Thomas finds himself in as he journeys (with a very unexpected group of people) to the city of Magnus, intent on conquering it to rule as his own.Having studied and developed quite an ingenious plan to take the city, he now just needs to get there in one piece and make sure he trusted the right people. The intrigue was very exciting and I was constantly trying to guess, right along with Thomas, who was truly good and who was out to stop him.The ending was quite a surprise to me and set the stage for the second book very nicely.