Never quit a book after only 4 hours before. Where to start… the narration seems sarcastically done, which is understandable given the content. The characters are inconsistant… It has only one remotely interesting plot point. The ‘bad guy’ has a legitimate reason to hate the protagonist and is actually sympathetic. Even if the author was too lazy to give proper names to his plot device motivation of a family. I can honestly say if Eye of Argon had seen an editor, its flow would be basically identical to this mess. Give it a hard pass.
‘Spoilers’ ahead.
Why do people in this fantasy setting know how volcanoes are formed, or about how to properly treat dehydration? They seem to have a deep understanding of science, despite having faced near extinction only 100 years ago.
Why does this fantasy world have ‘villages’ that seem to have thousands of people in them? That’s city territory for their level of development.
Why does this book rip off the Wheel of Time? Not completely, but stop me if this seems familiar. An ancient method of fast travel, opened via a plant like covering, where time moves differently, it has been infected by an evil that is a danger to the soul. Oh, and they just dropped the ‘s’ from the place name.
Do you like McGuffin plots? Do you hate consistant characters that even obey the flaws we are told of, like an acrophobic just climbing a wall? Do you love ham fisted exposition that drags on for minutes that could have been summarized, or broken up into bitesized flashbacks? Do you love literal deus ex machina? Then this is the book for you!