Beyond The Summerland is the first book in a new fantasy series by L. B. Graham. This is Graham's first book and he seems to be getting off to a great start. The book is written in the Tolkienesque fantasy subgenre. Anyone familiar with Tolkien will quickly recognize many of the similarities.
The story is epic and adventurous. Graham also develops interesting characters with lots of depth and potential for future stories. For readers looking for a good, solid, old-school fantasy I think this is a great book. I certainly enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one in the series.
One of the first things I noticed in the book was the blatent reference to Tolkien. In the prologue we meet a character named Andunil. This name is so similar to the river Anduin in The Lord Of The Rings it's impossible to consider it a coincidence. There are several names throughout the book like that. These overt references to Tolkien are not so much examples of Graham ripping him off as much as they are nods of respect offered towards someone who Graham clearly considers to be a great author.
The range of creatures that are in this book is interesting. In additional to humans there are dragons, giants, gods, talking bears, and various evil creatures created by the Malek, the primary enemy. But the relationships between these different races of sentient beings is well thought out. By the time the main action of the story takes place dragons and bears are mostly things of the past. Due to betrayal from humans both of these races have withdrawn. There are many fresh imaginative ideas in the book -- recasting of some old cliches.
One unique relationship was the connection between Aljeron and his tiger (sorry, forgot the name). The bond between the two seems stronger than a bond of brotherhood. I hope to see more of these two in future books (I'm sure I will).
There's much more I could say about the book but I don't want to spoil it. As I stated above, this was a great book and I can heartily recommend it to any one who is looking for a fun fantasy book (and series) to read.
(If you are concerned about spoilers you should skip the rest of this article)
There were a few missed opportunities in the book. There were a few places where the author had a chance to bring in an interesting twist to the story. These things would have added more depth and complexity to the story. If you've not read the book yet then you probably don't want to read the rest of this section since I make no effort to avoid giving away details of the story and plot.
Synoki was an interesting character. They picked him up on the Forbidden Isle under rather suspicious circumstances. Throughout the rest of the story there was always an underlying slyness with Synoki. Several of the group sensed this too and talked about it amongst themselves. This was a perfect setup and added tension. All along the reader is waiting for Synoki to "break" and betray the group in a devastating way. But then at the end of the book he just walks away. This was a great missed opportunity. Or rather, it was a deflation. Each time Synoki was in the scene the reader was waiting to see if this would be the time he revealed his true character. With each passing scene the anxiety built. And then in the end -- nothing. That kind of build up and let down weakens the dramatic effect of the story.
Maybe Synoki is being saved for later stories. In the later stories he may come back and reveal his secret life. I guess we'll see.
Early in the story Joraiem tracks down one of the Malekim. He is able to defeat him using an arrow tipped with a special poison. The poison makes the Malekim's blood clot almost instantly. The story explains how this poison would also affect humans, and presumably all living creatures. So it was confusing that in the battle with the giants, Joraiem wasn't able to use these arrows to disable the giant from a distance. Maybe I was missing some details that were explained earlier. The battle was more exciting without the poison arrows but it still made me wonder.
The end of the book is surprising. If you haven't finished reading the book to the very very end and you are the least bit concerned about spoilers you shouldn't read the rest of this article. Go ahead, bookmark this page and come back when you've finished reading the book.
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Last chance to turn back.
Ok. So I will join the ranks of people who didn't like the ending. In contrast, I loved the ending to Taliesin. If you've read that book you will understand the similarity. My objection has to do more with the writing style. Oftentimes an author will change voices during a story. During action sequences the voice is more narrative and dramatic -- the actions and events are described in a lot of detail and with depth. During exposition the story will become more like a news story where the author is just explaining a sequence of events or spouting history. Essentially, the author is providing some information that the reader needs in order to understand the story.
In my opinion, things that significantly change the plot or direction of the story should not be presented in the exposition parts of the story. They should be dramatized. That's the point of the story. But this is what happened in this book. It is arguable that Joraiem's death in the last few pages of the book is the most unexpecting turn of events in the entire story. However, there is no dramatic build up to this. It is just presented almost in a matter-of-fact manner. It just kinda fell flat for me.
Despite these issues I think that the book is very good. And I am very interested in reading the second in the series as soon as it comes out. L. B. Graham has done a great job in creating an interesting world and story line that many readers, myself included, will be anxious to read more about.
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