Forgotten Portals 1: Rise of the Magi
(a Soterion Novel)
by Randy Blackwell Jr.
I was really looking forward to reading
this book. Having already read 3 or so short stories in the Soterion
universe on soterion.com and having had some contact with the author
over the past couple of years, what with his table top RPG based on
the Soterion world and proposed video game based on the RPG, you
could say that I'm a Soterling.
There were some issues with the print
itself. Some spelling mistakes, some grammar issues, and typographic
errors, and after only 1 month of owning the book, the lamination is
starting to peel off the cover. Although these are all minor issues
and easily looked over, they did detract from my enjoyment of the
story for brief periods. One of the biggest problem I had is trying
to pronounce Miyka in my head, especially when it was spelled Mikya
once. It always came out as mik-EE-a for me. I can't really come up
with anything else wrong about it besides the usual first edition
hiccups that you get.
The main characters in this story are
the founders of the Order of Magi, Omar Metzger and Myles Callaghan.
Omar is the epitome of scientists, inventor of miracles and
researcher extraordinaire, who grew up a child prodigy, passing
college early and gathering letters after his name like some of us
gather flowers. Myles is a illusionist and conman, who grew up in
the circus to learn slight of hand and many other skills like
throwing knives and lion training and so much more. Both come across
as intelligent in their own right, even if their educations were
drastically different.
The use of Musterion as a gateway world
to Soterion makes some sort of sense, and anyone familiar with C.S.
Lewis could climb right on board with that. The requirement to
choose a council, and choose right away before you could learn
anything about the world, came as a jarring shock to me. I was
already committed to finishing the book, but now it got me involved
at a deeper level I hadn't thought possible. Up until that point we
were learning about a world of tunnels, where the center is full of
strange creatures with wondrous qualities and weird features. I
didn't count how many different species were introduced in that one
chapter, but I could have sworn it was 7 or 8, all with similar
names, or similar descriptions. I'm not going to go through them
here because, let's be honest here, I'd get them wrong. Now remember
how I said I was a Soterling? Well there's about 2 extra peoples in
here that I just didn't know about. I liked it, but it may confuse
some people. I would suggest that if you want to get even more out
of this book, take a note from Omar and write in a journal when you
come across new and interesting facts about Musterion and Soterion.
Now I suppose it's time to bring this
to a close and so in order to not tell you the ending of the book I
wrote this review without reading the end of the book. At this point
I would probably stick out my tongue, do a little dance, then run
away, but that's childish so, no, I won't do it. I would like to say
thank you to Randy Blackwell for inventing this beautiful and rich
universe, where we Christian fantasy lovers can revel and frolic,
along with the characters and species he's created. I'd say this
book definitely passes the mustard.
