The Written by Ben Galley – Review

Published: January 1, 2011

Publisher: BenGalley.com

Series: Emaneska #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 418 (Paperback)

My Rating: 3.0/5.0

Synopsis:
Game Of Throne meets Die Hard in this explosive epic fantasy, packed with tattooed mages wielding unbridled spells, meddling gods, dragon-riders, and twisted Norse mythology.

Only half the recruits that undergo the Ritual survive to become Written mages. Only they can wield the fiercest of magics, to protect the Arka, until either death or the madness takes them.

Five scholars of Arfell have been assassinated. A spellbook has gone missing – a powerful summoning manual from the time of elves and fire-born daemons. The Arkmages are running out of time and options, and the world is once again on the brink of war with the Siren dragon-riders.

It falls to Farden – one of the Arka’s most powerful yet troubled Written mages – to keep Emaneska from falling into chaos. Entangled in a web of lies and politics, Farden is tasked with hunting down the assassin, and recovering the spellbook before it falls into the wrong hands, and the world is cast into shadow.

It will mean fighting his way across savage Emaneska and back, a land infested with wyrms, marauders, and betrayal. It will take every fibre of his will, every scrap of magic in his bones, and if he falls, so shall the world.

Welcome to Emaneska.

Now that I’ve gotten invested in the world of Emaneska by reading The Forever King and Heavy Lies the Crown, I decided to go back and check out The Written. This was one of the author’s very first books, so while it lacked the polish of his later works, it was still a very entertaining story.

The opener to The Written was certainly enough to capture anyone’s attention – five scholars are assassinated by a mage who came to steal an elven spellbook. Then we’re introduced to a weary Fardan returning from a mission (yes, somewhat suspicious), only to be promptly sent off again to the Arkmages. Fardan has been tasked with tracking down the stolen spellbook and it’s thief before the dangerous summoning spells within can be used. This takes Fardan to meet with werewolves, sirens, and dragons who help to uncover long forgotten knowledge of the elves and their dark summoning magic.

Because I’ve read the two books in the sequel series, knowing ultimately how the larger, overarching plot turns out makes this interesting – almost like a treasure hunt for foreshadowing. The author has really honed his craft over the years and has greatly improved his characterization and made his plot tighter in later books. I think Fardan and the other more central characters were difficult to connect to in this book and I didn’t find myself particularly invested until the latter half. Overall, this was not a bad start to the series and I’m looking forward to checking out the next book, Pale Kings, in the near future. Each consecutive book has even better ratings on Goodreads, ranging from 4.16 – 4.63. An encouraging sign!