The Tome of Beginnings by Patrick Michael is this author’s debut novel.  In this story we follow Sofia, who has received an unexpected and unexplained gift on her birthday, and a strange internal calling to find someone.

This is an incredibly fast paced book, and that is both good and bad.  There are so many things that happen in this book, that it almost feels overwhelming at times. 

When we start our book, we are following Sofia who is journeying towards a set of mountains in the distant to try and find… something?  The author is good at maintaining the secrecy of what the something may be (and yes we do find out), and after Sofia arrives at the intended location inside the mountains, she is met with a large eye, far larger than what she is.

The large eye is a dragon, and I love that the author included dragons in this book.  Not only did he include dragons, but each one had a personality, there was a specific council for the dragons, and it wasn’t like anything I had read anywhere else before.  The dragon we meet first is Cirrus, and Sofia tells her the unbelievable tale that has been her life for the past six months, all the while terrified that Cirrus is going to eat her.

The first half of this book, while being fast paced, feels exceptionally long while reading it.  Some of the paragraphs and sentences are exceptionally wordy, which leaves it to feel as though it wasn’t properly edited.  In addition to being wordy, there are times where extra words would be more than welcomed.  For instance, the author will take time to explain the surrounding areas, what the trees look like, and then we will come to a new room and the only description we as the reader get is “exceptionally furnished”.  Which I was not a fan of, because we are in this amazing fantasy setting, and I want to know what their furniture looks like, and I want to know how their rooms are laid out.

As this book progresses, we are the reader are introduced to multiple characters.  If I remember correctly, by the end of the first half of the book, there were at least fifteen different characters that had been introduced in one way or another.  The author was very good at creating a different and distinct voice for all of those characters and their individual personalities, which I appreciated.  However, the author makes a point in his novel to say that dragons do not use contractions, which I love.  I love that he gave them a distinct speech pattern, and reason as to why they speak like that.  But there are other phrases in the book, such as “humanoid” and some casual speech, which feels like it doesn’t quite belong overall.  The first time I saw the word humanoid, I was actually confused.  Humanoid is more of a term for a sci-fi book set in the future.  The setting of this world, feels like the medieval past.  It is not an incorrect word to use, but I wish it was a different word overall.

The biggest issues I have with this book, is the timeline and how quickly everything does happen.  I am not entirely sure of the exact timeline in this book, or how many days have passed overall, but it feels like everything happens in one tenday (this books version of a week).  And for everything that happens, it is too short of a span of time.  Especially when the author is taking the time to tell you how long the characters have been walking.  In the later chapters, the author points out that the group has been walking for six hours, rested for a night, and then they were at their destination.   A destination that had been quite a distance away.  It didn’t feel realistic, and I actually ended up googling how far someone could walk in a day just to see if I was missing something.  And I could have been missing something, as there is no table of contents in this book, I cannot go back and just easily check things either. 

My favorite thing about this book, was the last half.  After Sofia comes home, Cirrus shows her dragon heritage, and shares her history, I love how the friends and family banded together to go back to the city of Kiserian.  It is easy to tell that everyone is frightened, unprepared, unsure, and they all band together to go there anyway.  They make sure they no one feels alone, feels ridiculous at their fears.  And the moments before they decide to go, where there is the hesitation and confusion at everything that has been revealed is damn near perfect.  I loved all the way they were brought together, I loved the way they worked together in the face of the challenges.  When they were traveling in Kiserian City, and came across an unexpected threat, it felt like they had been fighting together and working together for years.  And technically I know that is the case, but they flowed seamlessly together.  There were moments of humor during the battle that I appreciated.

Overall – As a debut novel, this was an interesting read and I love the story the author has come up with.  The idea of awakening someone, and leading everyone to believe that you are awakening them from a slumber only to have it be entirely different is interesting and wonderful. The way the author weaves the backstory, the history, the way the world had changed, into the pages of the novel is well done.  There are some issues with this book overall, and I am hoping that they are addressed in the second one.  My biggest concern in this book is how slow it felt reading the first half, and how quick reading the second half of the book went. The second book is already out so if you want to continue the story you can.

The Tome of Beginnings (Legends Are Made Book 1) – Patrick Michael

Cost* – eBook is $0.99 and $16.99 for paperback.  This novel is included on Kindle Unlimited. 

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published