Thank you to Jeffrey L. Kohanek for the ecopy of Temple of the Oracle in exchange for a review and huge apologies on my part for the long wait in getting around to this one.
I do try to keep my reviews spoiler-free for the book I am reviewing. Previous books in a series are a whole different thing so be warned – past book spoilers may be present.
| Series: Fate of Wizardoms #3 | Genre: fantasy |
| Date of Publishing: January 28th 2020 | Publisher: self-published |
Thrones lie vacant while a power-hungry wizard lord seeks world domination. Armed with unequaled power, who can stop his mad lust for conquest?
Monsters from legend arise and stalk the land. Who or what is behind their return?
The Seers of Kelmar, a reclusive sect of prophets, claim the future has become obscured from their visions. What foreboding future awaits the Eight Wizardoms?
A band of reluctant heroes embark on a quest to stop the chaos sweeping over the Eight Wizardoms. Can they prevent the end of their world?
Temple of the Oracle is the third entry in Fate of Wizardoms, a thrilling epic fantasy saga from bestselling author Jeffrey L. Kohanek.
“Narine emerged from the tent, holding one hand before her and the other above as she called upon her magic. A globe of bright, white light flared above her, illuminating the camp. All four women stood stunned, staring at the scene before them.
Three wyverns stood beyond the tents, each dragon-like beast far larger than a horse. Their muscular bodies were covered in gray scales, a line of crests running from their head to a long, sinuous tail. Gruesome, black talons graced the end of their massive, talons graced the end of their massive, webbed wings. The nearest one blasted a defiant shriek, its gaping mouth filled with jagged teeth. Lying on the ground in front of the beast were the two men who had been on watch, both covered in blood, one missing an arm.”
Easier by 5 Seconds of Summer
Jace’s song.
Jeffrey L. Kohanek brings us another fun story in the Fate of Wizardoms series.
Resuming the story almost directly after the events of the last book, with death of Lord Raskor (we seem to have a theme here where I start my review with the death of a past character) our group of friends are invited to the beautiful seer city of Kelmar. Likely built by Rawk’s people; Kelmar is found deep under the mountains and it is quite a trek through a frigid, and lifeless forest landscape to arrive at the entrance to the city lit with purple-hued gems of magic.
The Seers of Kelmar, seek our friends’ help in verifying the correct sequence of events out of their past prophecies in hopes that cancelling out some of those multitudes of possibilities, will help direct them to the correct future events – which have become cloudy and obscured to their scrying.
If they can figure out where on the timeline things went wrong, they may be able to change the path of the future and save their world from the destructive cycle it is on.
Meanwhile a worrisome prophecy seems to point to our main players having key roles in events that could drastically change the fragile bonds between them.
***
This world is expanding as fast as the wizards are dying, bringing us lots of cool in-world ideas and places to visit. This story has a bit of the “middle book” feel as things do slow down a little and we get some needed character time and some plot/character pieces placed.
Of our friends
Quite a bit of time is spent in Kelmar giving us lots character bonding time.
Rawk and Roah spend some time in the limelight after taking a backseat to Jace and Narine last book, we see their friendship becomes stronger and hints of a deeper kind of connection. That’s not to say Jace and Narine are ignored this time around either, Jace learns a few things about himself, including that he can be a bit of an ass and maybe needs to apologize occasionally.
Adyn is there as always to have Narine’s back (she happens to be my favourite of the friends).
And the Princess Priella, daughter to Lord Raskor and old acquaintance of Narine’s, has rejoined her mother and looks like she is going to be a handful for someone; we will see who she ends up causing the most trouble for in the next book.
Of our bad guys
There is lot of shifting in power in this series. As the top dog falls, the wizards are scrambling to gain that vacant position of power, forming new alliances and old loyalties are being ditched quicker than these old men can change their socks.
Now, some favorites (like Garvin) are starting to doubt their unquestioning loyalty to their employer and if they are worth following. There are hints of possibly big changes in this quarter which could shake a few things up in the future, making for some fun and interesting circumstances, I am sure.
Quick paced and actiony fun! I find these are nice bite-size breather books to read in between those heavier and darker themed chonkers that have filled up my kindle.
Other otes
- As always, I appreciate the “what has come before” in the form of Salvon’s journal. Even without the time between stories for me just the refresher on the names is nice because the cast is so large with people moving in and out, sometimes dying or doing things off-screen only to reappear in a later part of the story.
- I’d still class Temple of the Oracle as YA. A little more adult themed innuendos and some gore in this book but nothing you wouldn’t find on the CW. Still something I would let my teen read but that’s just me.
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