Blood of the Earth: Sovereign of the Seven Isles, Book 4

Liked it

Outstanding, Love this book

I enjoyed this series, in some way it reminded me of the SOT series, without the endless and repetative sermonizing. There are a few problems that would benefit from professional editing, but they DO NOT distract from the story unless you sre just looking to nitpick which I think some revewers are. There are some problems that other have harped on repeatedly and maybe the outhor does not need to mention Isabels "beautiful green eyes" or "they way she can walk through the forest without leaving a trail", etc, etc., more than once in each book. There have been some bad reviews about being overly descriptive, always finding something magical or that allows them to beat the odds and as I remember this always happened to Richard in SoT. Also, this is fantasy and I think the description of places that Alex and team are at is an aid for readers to see how beautiful some things are because there is magic involved. It was the same with the Confessors Palace and Rahl's and the home of the sisters in SoT. Yes, editing would help with wording, spelling and many others things but then the books would cost more. If the author is picked up by a publisher then we will all pay for the editing; the ebook will be a least $7.99 +tax if not more. Then if they decide to publish his work in hardback we will pay at least $12.99 +tax for a digital copy.This is an entertaining story, if you are not planning on reading it just to spot flaws. If you want to see a book that is truly horribly written and self-published contact me and I will give you the title. The story has characters who are likable and for those that scoff at the idea at the plot of a evil sorcorer, kept in a stae of suspended animation for 2000 years and yet the people alive still know the story of what happened, I repeat this is FANTASY. Also it was 3000 years in SoT; they remembered the wizards war and things that happened during that time.I read all different genres and have recently returned to fantasy and I think this is one of the best series I've read. I originally rated this a 5 because I think that the author has potential. I've lowered of all the thing that have been extensively written about but this is cloaser to the 3.5 that the book should be. Maybe I should have left it at 5 to counter all the reviewers I feel are being unfair, but that's not how I review books. I read all four books (he is planning on 7 and hopes to release #5 in December) and I will get the others as soon as they are released.DISCLAIMER: I am not a friend or relative of the author. I was not paid a fee to review this series. I am not a "sock puppet". I received the first book while it was offered free on Amazon and purchased the others because I enjoyed the first one.

The pages were mixed up in my version and hard to read through the book, but I got the most of it.

As witches and wizards increase their magic with practice, so does this author! However, while some characters seem to have more depth than they did, it's not his strong point yet. I was interested to learn that Alexander chooses to take the blood of the earth selfishly. This might be his first immoral decision in the entire series. Finally, he's made a choice we are led to believe is wrong. I had been waiting for this! Don't get me wrong, Alexander is a cool main character for all his magic, but he was also too perfect... so perfect I can't help but hope something interesting happens with his character. When will power start to draw him? When will he be blinded by anger? -these would be very good options for the author to entertain for a while, just to get readers interest in him up again, not to mention make him human. Azugorath's grip on Isabel isn't as satisfying as an actual character development, but at least she's not another perfect princess angel anymore. Abigail has not done anything unexpected, no real development there. She too gets power thrust upon her, which no reader ever doubted would be an issue for her character. Still a rather annoying princess angel character who is handily perfect at battle tactics with no help or experience, but she did do an impressive physical feat toward the end of the book, which is what the author relies upon heavily to keep our interest. It works, I'm just saying... As my final complaint, I am upset that nothing has been done with Anatoly either. We've known him for a while now, but he is always in the same mood and has the same emotion. I want to know who his real family is and what he cares about besides Alex and Abby. When will he staunchly disagree with one of them? When will he break down? This would be an interesting option. Doesn't he ever dream about anything but war tactics and justice? This character is way too shallow for how long he's been a semi-main character. I could complain about the other characters too, but those are some main issues that could be improved. Five stars because the action is more than enough to keep you hooked, and I'm still enjoying the story.

One thing about this book is that the writing is getting better but I struggled with this one, I get that what the writer is trying to do, make it seem that our Hero has no chance & the odds are severly stacked against him but there does come a point that as a reader you begin to stop caring! Too much of this book is "woe is me.." with not a lot happening, you sort of get the impression that being the Soveriegn of the Seven Isles doesn't really count for much as Alexander moves from one bit of bad luck to the next.As well as the Shades,Phane & Zuhl we are introduced to Wraithkin, & would you believe it they are nearly impossible to kill,does make you wonder why Phane just doesn't send them all out to kill everyone ?As has been witnessed in most of the series of this Genre there is usually a "padding" book & hopefully this is it for this series, I will of course buy the next one but it will need to be better than this to keep my interest.

The writing has definitely improved. the writer is more to the point (though still annoyingly repetitive and over-descriptive atimes). He has managed to turn this into an avid read from the first book to this one. It is now a very enjoyable story, and I am really looking forward to the nextOnly issue is, I really am tired of Amazon authors turning their stories into never-ending money spinners at the expense of the readers. It's book four now and the same story has still not ended (plus book four was much shorter than book three). Getting tired of reading one book and waiting a year for the next to be honest. I don't understand why they don't realise they can finish one sotryline and satisfy their readers and then create a new storyline in the same series?

Another fantastic book by David A Wells loved every page as the previous books I have read in this series. Can't wait to purchase the next book in this series Book 5. Only 2 other series I have enjoyed as much 1 was by Craig O'Halloran and the other by Morgan Rice and nearly forgot Lindsay Buroker all fantastic books

This book continues a great series that doesn't disappoint and I can't wait for the next book to come out - hopefully sooner rather than later pleaseMy all time favourite book series is LOTR but this is certainly a very close second and has everything you want - heros, villians, magic, dragons, demons and bloodshed.So if you like LOTR you'll throughly enjoy this book series as well.

I read the first three of this series one after the other as they are good page turners: however the last two and especially this one are beginning to feel tired. I think that this tale has gone as far as it can with these characters: I'd like to see this conflict wrapped up and put to bed now - and then maybe a sequel could follow in good time - but this really needs to finish.