TITLE: Katarina the Dragonslayer and the Foebreaker’s Curse
AUTHOR: Samuel Medina
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
AVAILABILITY: Amazon US (Kindle e-book), Amazon US (paperback), Amazon UK (Kindle e-book), Amazon UK (paperback), Smashwords (multiple e-book formats)
APPROXIMATE LENGTH: 90,000 words
GENRE
Fantasy—Epic
This book is the first in a series
PACE
Katarina the Dragonslayer and the Foebreaker’s Curse rolls along at a decent pace, alternating between action
and world-building.
PERSPECTIVE
Third person omniscient.
CONTENT REVIEW
Katarina the Dragonslayer and the Foebreaker’s Curse follows the adventure of a young half-Elvish girl, the
titular Katarina. In this fantastical universe, which Medina laced with
elements of science fiction, the children of humans and elves are often sold as
slaves who must work to buy their freedom. In the novel’s opening, Katarina is
sold to a silkworm farmer. An innovative and precocious child, she invents new
ways to improve the farm. One day, a dragon attacks her village, killing her
master. Katarina manages to slay the dragon. Not long after, she meets an old
Elf called Oren, a master of ancient ways, who takes her under his wing.
In Medina’s world, dragons can be
either good or evil. While the first dragon Katarina encountered and slayed was
wicked, she befriends another dragon not long after. This dragon, Dalandra,
actually helps train her in how to kill the wicked among her own kind.
Katarina is a feisty and likable young heroine.
Bold, brave, and intelligent, she’s reminiscent of Arya, Ned Stark’s daughter,
from George R. R. Martin’s Game of
Thrones series. She’s quick to take action, which sometimes gets her into
trouble, and yet humble in the presence of those wiser than her.
The world Medina has created in his
novel will seem familiar to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien. Medina even writes with a
similar storyteller’s lilt, describing the silkworms as not nasty worms in a
similar manner to how Tolkein opens The
Hobbit with a description of how hobbit holes are not nasty holes. However,
Medina seems to have borrowed the best of Tolkein—the imagination, the
distinctive voice, the journey—and given it his own twist while leaving behind
the old master’s lengthy, not-so-fun exposition. Also, this may come as
sacrilege to some and is mostly likely due to my 21st century
sensibilities, I believe Medina is more appealing than Tolkien in his pacing
and dialogue. Katarina moves forward
at a fine pace, and between the world building and the adventure, there’s never
a dull moment.
Medina has clearly spent a lot of time
developing his mythology, and it really shows. The laws of his universe are
well drawn, and it’s easy to get lost in the expansive world he’s created. He
creates and uses his own terminology, for which there is a helpful appendix at
the back of the book.
For fans of epic fantasies, Katarina is a welcome return to the kind
of fun heroic adventures we all love. While Katarina
is not necessarily a children’s book, its child protagonist, bright adventure,
and colorful characters will definitely appeal to younger audiences.
THE NITPICKY STUFF
I found a few errors, but nothing
distracting.
This book contains some fantasy-style
violence.
AUTHOR INFO
Katarina the
Dragonslayer and the Foebreaker’s Curse is Samuel Medina’s debut novel.
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