Rise of the Ranger (The Echoes Saga #1) by Philip C. Quaintrell

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Off page sex, Torture and abuse to prisoners including rape that is done off page

 

THE ECHOES OF FATE, A PROPHECY UTTERED UNTO THE WORLD A THOUSAND YEARS AGO, CANNOT BE DENIED…

Mankind has lorded over the land of Illian for a thousand years, building on the ruins left by the elves, as if it were their birthright. A thousand years is a long time for an immortal race to see the truth of things, a truth that has remained unsaid for a millennium - elves are superior. They are faster, stronger and connected to the magical realm in a way that man could never grasp. Illian should belong to them.

Unaware of the shadow that looms in the east, the six kingdoms of man are fractured, unallied, and clawing at each other’s gates for more power.

This isn’t just war set to ravage the land, but a slaughter - the world of man cannot hope to survive.

Thrown into the heart of this war is a man known by many names; an Outlander of the wilds, an assassin, a ranger. Asher was born a thousand years ago, to a life he doesn’t remember. Forty years of brutal training and killing for money has beaten the earliest years of his life away, leaving his ties to the oldest of evils a mystery to all…

 

I've had this book on my to-read list for a while and I was glad to finally get the chance to sit down and read it. I actually went into this with pretty low expectations based on some reviews I read but was pleasantly surprised by it. Although a lot of people have commented on how slow this is in the beginning, it actually pulled me in right away. I immediately liked the character Asher and wanted to know more about him. There are quite a few characters introduced in this book and it took a while to meet them all, but I found most of their stories compelling. I liked the take on the elves. Instead of being all noble they are pretty flawed. Most of the characters are pretty flawed though, and some of them are very hard to like.

The world here is interesting with multiple character plots playing out whilst a greater evil is awakening. As far as plots go, it's a pretty standard "evil has returned to the world" kind of plot, but I still enjoyed it. There were some pretty dark happenings in the book that were not easy for me to get through, but not so dark that I couldn't read it. I'm always wary that fantasy books are going to be grimdark when I pick them up, which I just can't handle, but this only skirted that. It was a traditional type fantasy with some dark elements. I do wish that most of the female characters weren't either abused, dying, or involved in instant sex in this book. The instalove between a couple of the characters was annoying. How about they get to know each other first? Other than that I did really like this book and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.