Awaken His Eyes (The Awakened - Book One)

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Awaken His Eyes (The Awakened #1)

by Jason Tesar (Goodreads Author)

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 · rating details · 1,422 ratings · 230 reviews

THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered the course of history.

THE PROPHECY: Amidst the chaos of a dying world, a lone voice foretold the awakening of a warrior who wou...more THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered the course of history.

THE PROPHECY: Amidst the chaos of a dying world, a lone voice foretold the awakening of a warrior who would bring an end to this evil perpetrated against all of creation. But with the cataclysmic destruction of earth and rebirth of humanity, the prophecy went unfulfilled and eventually faded from the memory of our kind—until now!

THE AWAKENED: The physical dimension is fractured. What remain now are numerous fragmented worlds moving simultaneously through time, sharing a common history, connected only by a guarded portal. On a parallel earth, in the city of Bastul, Colonel Adair Lorus disappears while investigating the death of an informant, triggering a series of events which will tear his family apart and set in motion the resolution of an ancient struggle.

Kael, sentenced to death after rising up against the cruel leadership of his new step-father, is rescued from prison and trained in the arts of war by a mystical order of clerics. Excelling in every aspect of his training, Kael inwardly struggles to give himself fully to the methods of his new family, or the god they worship.

Maeryn, bitter over the disappearance of her husband and supposed execution of her son, fears for her life at the hands of her newly appointed husband. Finding comfort and purpose in her unborn child, she determines to undermine his authority by reaching out to an underground social movement known as the Resistance.

After being forced from his home, Kael’s former mentor, Saba, uncovers a clue to Adair’s disappearance. Sensing a connection to his own forgotten past, Saba begins an investigation which leads to the discovery of a secret military organization operating within the Orudan Empire.

In book one of his debut series, Jason Tesar delves into the heart of an ancient legend, embarking on an epic saga that will journey from earth’s mythological past to its post-apocalyptic future, blending the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and military/political suspense.(less)

Kindle Edition, Second, 288 pages

Published May 16th 2011 by 4shadow, LLC (first published October 24th 2010)

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Mar 10, 2012 Damali rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: epic fantasy fans

Shelves: epic-fantasy

4.5 stars.

I just read the book summary for the first time, and it's a complete surprise. I'm interested to see how the gods and parallel worlds come into play. I did think it was PA from the prologue, but then it turned into something else. I really, really enjoyed this one!

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Apr 30, 2013 J.L. Dobias rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fantasy-dystopia-wierd history parallel world lovers

Shelves: book-shelf-11

The Awakened:Book One (Awaken His Eyes) By Jason Tesar

I Liked this book I liked the style of writing And I found the story engaging.

There are some few annoying elements that have more to do with editing decisions and this it the way Jason decided to put things together so there is no changing that.

This novel contains One good solid story if you ignore the other two unfinished ones.

Personally I found the first chapter to be more equivalent to a prologue.

I found the next five chapter belonging t...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Myra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At first, I was excited by the book. It seemed to have a cool, expansive fantasy-world; I liked how (in the Kindle format), the place names were linked to the parts of the map.

However.
I had absolutely no respect for the characters, and thus didn’t like them.

The main guy, Adair, is a Colonel and Governor. At first he seemed a good character, he was made out to be a great guy — a good father and husband, a beloved and capable leader.
However.
He goes to investigate a part of ocean he suspects an a...more

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Feb 21, 2013 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-fantasy

First off, I enjoyed this book. It is well written and has a very engaging story. I find myself intrigued with Saba and Keal. The trials they go through on their path to where they are going has truly drawn me in.

That being said, I do have a few specific comments. First off, this is not a Novel. This is a 288 page Episodic Novella. There is no completion to the active storyline in any meaningful way. There are huge amounts of loose ends with no closure. In all honestly I don't think there is a s...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Deeds rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving this book 2.5 stars but I'm rounding up because *fingers crossed* I'm hoping the next one will make up for this one.

As previously stated in other reviews, The Awakened felt much like an extended prequel and not like the first book in a series. In my opinion, it's just far too much rambling made in such a way that it was long enough to be called a book even though it shouldn't even be a standalone book.

It was difficult for me to get into this story at first. The beginning chapter is so...more I'm giving this book 2.5 stars but I'm rounding up because *fingers crossed* I'm hoping the next one will make up for this one.

As previously stated in other reviews, The Awakened felt much like an extended prequel and not like the first book in a series. In my opinion, it's just far too much rambling made in such a way that it was long enough to be called a book even though it shouldn't even be a standalone book.

It was difficult for me to get into this story at first. The beginning chapter is so entirely disconnected from the main content (although in the end it does tie together to give you a bit of an Aha moment) so I was pretty confused and had to re-read it a few times to make sure that my Kindle didn't somehow splice two different stories together.

Now, as for the story itself: I felt that not all of the characters were someone I could relate to and that some of the "stereotypical" things were going on with their development.

Adair was one of the few characters I sort of liked. It's such a shame that we got to see so little of him. As the Colonel and Governor of Bastul who had risen to his power without seeming to want it, he read off as the most realistic. Wary, careful, responsible and resourceful (if not a bit neglectful toward his wife). That sort of thing.

Kael just... gosh I wanted to just skip virtually all of his story. While it was interesting to know what had truly happened to him (and I wonder why Lemus sent him off instead of killing him as he'd said he would), I hated that he was the stereotypical "I'm different from all the others, I don't fit in, I'm making friends but I feel all alone" type of character. Like, really? He was just a kid when this all started and while I do believe his internal struggle to conform to Ukiru's beliefs, I just don't like how "different" he was from the others. If the other children - even Soren who had initially seemed rebellious - could feel so at ease and comform, so could Kael. It felt as though the author just put that in to give Kael an excuse to run away.

Saba bored me. Plain and simple. There's just not enough information there to keep my interest. I felt like he *could* be a pretty fascinating character (as long as his longevity and story aren't "mary sue") if I could only be given a little more to work with instead of grasping at straws. I don't really care about Adair's wife either although the slave woman, Zula, is interesting to me. I hope that their involvement in the story isn't over and that we get to see the consequences of their actions.

Overall, this story felt very disjointed and slow. There were times when I felt like just saying "forget this" but then I remembered I spent money on the three books as a set so I figured I should at least give them a try. There were many parts of this story which could have been shortened considerably and the way the time just jumps around certainly didn't help. Months and years would pass from one narrative to the next which made it a bit confusing to follow. The ending was what really got to me though as that's what piqued my curiosity enough to want to give the second book a chance. How did he get there? What's going to happen? Are we going to hear more about Bastul and how the events there affect our modern world? All those questions lead me to giving the next book a try in the hopes that it will meet my expectations at delivering a real story and not just a very long prologue and set up for more character development.(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 Regina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recently-finished

Awaken His Eyes: The Awakened Book One is a Sci-Fantasy book about parallel worlds, ancient evils, warriors, survivors, and tenacity. The book started out well, the opening pages got you hooked and interested in where the story was going. However by chapter two the book really slows down. The following few chapters are so far different from chapter one that I was confused and had to go back and read the synopsis a few times to make sure I was reading the correct book! Three quarters of the book...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Rayven rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have just finished the first book in “The Awakened” series by Jason Tesar and I was pleasantly surprised at how well written this book was. I am a huge fan of fantasy fiction and this book fits the bill perfectly. Filled with mystery, political intrigue and rebellion I was thoroughly engrossed from the first page as it engaged my imagination.

The story follows a the family of Colonel Adair Lours who is charged with keeping the city of Bastul safe and keeping the peace for the empire. Upon inves...more I have just finished the first book in “The Awakened” series by Jason Tesar and I was pleasantly surprised at how well written this book was. I am a huge fan of fantasy fiction and this book fits the bill perfectly. Filled with mystery, political intrigue and rebellion I was thoroughly engrossed from the first page as it engaged my imagination.

The story follows a the family of Colonel Adair Lours who is charged with keeping the city of Bastul safe and keeping the peace for the empire. Upon investigating the death of a friend he goes missing, and in his absence his family’s life as they knew it was over. Adair’s wife Maeryn must cope with her new role as the property of the new Colonel. Adair’s son Kael is forced into captivity and with the sentence of death hanging over his young head, and Sabra, the old family friend and mentor to both Adair and Kael is forced into exile as he searches for clues of Adair’s disappearance.

I choose this book to review from our list and all I had to go on was the title “The Awakened” I didn't read the book description just started to read. I look back now and I am so glad I didn't for the book revealed itself to me in the most spectacular way. The author takes his time in revealing the plot by telling the story from the point of view of the each character, which really adds to the buildup of the story line. I had to keep reminding myself that this is book one and not all of my questions will be answered.

I could find no flaw in the character development of this story. The main characters in the novel were so well written that as the story progressed laying the solid foundations for the continuation of the series. For me my favorite character in this first book was Kael, the young son of Adair & Maeryn. Kael's story was so well done and believable. Children have a very unique ability to handle change and adapt to any given situation even one that is dire. The author did a fantastic job of allowing myself as the reader to watch Kael grow and accept what life was throwing at him, while not losing his own identity and belief system.

This book was extremely well written and there was so much attention to detail especially in Kael’s story that I was highly impressed with the author’s ability to blend the spiritual and fantasy in away that I could understand and affirm from my own experiences. This is what made the story more real for me and I sure will resonate with others.

I would class this as an epic fantasy and Jason Tesar is an author to watch and he has now gained a spot on my list of favorite fantasy authors. So I highly recommend this book to everyone! Even if you are not a fan of fantasy, give this book a try and you may find yourself hooked for it has something for everyone. I am eagerly waiting to start the next book in the series.

With that said I give this book 5 Stars, it is truly a fantastic read, and the Kindle version is currently free at Amazon.

Reviewed for DarkissReads. www.darkissreads.com (less)

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Sep 12, 2012 William rated it 3 of 5 stars

at first I thought this was crap, but then I bought book 2 and finished both within a week....and I just bought book 3...and yes there is a book 4. Simple-minded but lots of action....I do want to see how it ends up. Here's the goodreads description:

THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered th...more at first I thought this was crap, but then I bought book 2 and finished both within a week....and I just bought book 3...and yes there is a book 4. Simple-minded but lots of action....I do want to see how it ends up. Here's the goodreads description:

THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered the course of history.

THE PROPHECY: Amidst the chaos of a dying world, a lone voice foretold the awakening of a warrior who would bring an end to this evil perpetrated against all of creation. But with the cataclysmic destruction of earth and rebirth of humanity, the prophecy went unfulfilled and eventually faded from the memory of our kind—until now!

THE AWAKENED: The physical dimension is fractured. What remain now are numerous fragmented worlds moving simultaneously through time, sharing a common history, connected only by a guarded portal. On a parallel earth, in the city of Bastul, Colonel Adair Lorus disappears while investigating the death of an informant, triggering a series of events which will tear his family apart and set in motion the resolution of an ancient struggle.

Kael, sentenced to death after rising up against the cruel leadership of his new step-father, is rescued from prison and trained in the arts of war by a mystical order of clerics. Excelling in every aspect of his training, Kael inwardly struggles to give himself fully to the methods of his new family, or the god they worship.

Maeryn, bitter over the disappearance of her husband and supposed execution of her son, fears for her life at the hands of her newly appointed husband. Finding comfort and purpose in her unborn child, she determines to undermine his authority by reaching out to an underground social movement known as the Resistance.

After being forced from his home, Kael’s former mentor, Saba, uncovers a clue to Adair’s disappearance. Sensing a connection to his own forgotten past, Saba begins an investigation which leads to the discovery of a secret military organization operating within the Orudan Empire.

In book one of his debut series, Jason Tesar delves into the heart of an ancient legend, embarking on an epic saga that will journey from earth’s mythological past to its post-apocalyptic future, blending the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and military/political suspense.(less)(less)

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Aug 15, 2012 Clackamas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fantasy

Really three and a half stars but I like to go easy on authors' first books. Thus read more like a prequel than a stand-alone novel but I think that was Tesar's intent. He wrote it as a book in three parts, much like LotR was intended.

What I liked: I was drawn in and cared about the characters right away, even though a couple are killed off or disappear early on. People aren't always what they seem to be. Characters grow and change. Like in real life, their motivations change and adapt with the...more

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Jul 25, 2012 MarsianMan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel mostly rotates around a separated family. The father gets kidnapped while on an investigation and is declared a deserter (since he is missing in action). His replacement legally inherits his wife and son. The son attempts to stop his step-father from beating and possibly killing a child/teen and is sentenced to death for fighting back. Unknown to his mother, he is not executed but instead exiled into a far off prison and then taken from the prison by religious clerics. The clerics the...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Jeremy rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: No one. Ever.

Shelves: waste-of-time

As much as I wanted to like this book, and I did, nothing really happened at all. This book was like an extremely long introductory paragraph, setting up a fantastic story, the problem being that it takes up an entire book. I read maybe 3/4's of the way through this book before I stopped, and it was such a relief when I did. There are so many sections of this book that could have been amazing, but for some reason, Jason Tesar decided to prolong the reader's suffering. At least half of this book...more

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Jun 18, 2012 D.M. Dutcher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Interesting, but doesn't work too well as a stand-alone book. Think of it as an extended free sample of a larger one.

It starts off in our world as some people discover some interesting research going on, and send a cov-ops team to recover a strange man who materialized in the facility yet isn't part of the research team. Cut to the fantasy world of the Oruduan empire, where a merchant ship is raided by pirates. From that tragedy a greater one envelops all it touches: a local lord, his wife, thei...more

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Jun 11, 2011 PaulineMRoss rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-fantasy, price-cheap, 4-star, omnibus-available, self-pub

This is the author's debut work, published in three parts (called Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and isn't that better than inventing meaningless titles?). These are all cheap downloads, and even better value as a combined volume, which is how I read it. This review covers Part One.
The opening is intriguing - an apparently present-day encounter with someone from another time (or world), and then we are plunged into a standard fantasy scenario, a ruling family is a great city, which is fragm...more This is the author's debut work, published in three parts (called Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and isn't that better than inventing meaningless titles?). These are all cheap downloads, and even better value as a combined volume, which is how I read it. This review covers Part One.
The opening is intriguing - an apparently present-day encounter with someone from another time (or world), and then we are plunged into a standard fantasy scenario, a ruling family is a great city, which is fragmented by events. The father disappears, the son is essentially kidnapped to train as a follower of the All Powerful god, and the mother is left to survive a number of difficulties back home. We follow several characters initially, but not all of them are there for the long haul, so it is a little hard to know who the story is really about. There are obviously some strange things going on, and the action scenes are dramatic and very tense - I particularly enjoyed Adair's race through the strange structure beyond the reef.
World building is fairly sketchy. Certain locations are described in almost too much detail (we don't need actual measurements of rooms, or how one room connects to another, unless it's relevant to the plot), but others are hardly touched on at all. There is very little sense of what the city of Bastul is like, for instance, apart from a vague sense of a warm-climate Romanesque lifestyle with dark-skinned slaves, while the people of the monastery are almond-eyed eastern types with a disciplined, austere lifestyle. There are also some primitive people, with bones through their noses. This is all sadly stereotyped.
If there is overt magic in this created world, it is not obvious, although there is clearly some strangeness - a crossover from the fantasy world to what appears to be our own world. There are also gods somewhere in the background. I rather like this kind of subtlety.
The characters are a little difficult to believe in, being rather too black and white, evil or nice (Lemus is particularly overdrawn). I felt they all needed some more backstory and depth, especially Maeryn, Adair and Lemus, and with Kael I was not even sure how old he was, an important detail. Having so little background makes characters' motivations hard to understand, so sometimes major things just seemed to happen without rhyme or reason. A little more subtlety and greyness in the characters would have improved the book immensely.
The prose is a little clunky at times, but there are few typos and only occasional grammatical errors. There is perhaps too much descriptive writing, and the dialogue fails to bring the characters fully to life, but it is all very easy to read, and the reader is never left wondering exactly what is going on (sometimes why, but never what). One minor annoyance: my Kindle version had every mention of Bastul and a few other places hyperlinked to the maps at the back. This is useful the first time, and after that is just distracting.
The pacing is good at first, with racy passages interspersed with more introspective sections. However, once Kael begins his training, the descriptions become a little too long and detailed, and could be over-slow for some readers. Things pick up again just before the end, with a slightly melodramatic cliff-hanger.
There are some seriously unconvincing plot contrivances. Adair, for instance, is the ruler of a major city, yet he decides to take off on a secret mission of his own. And why exactly was Bahari so important to him anyway? Why was the Council so quick to replace him? Then there was Maeryn and Lemus - I really found the legal position unbelievable (I can't think of any real-world equivalent), so that needed some elaboration, to say the least. Some more detail of Maeryn's feelings would have helped here. The subplot dealing with the rebels, in fact almost all of Maeryn's story, feels as if it is setup for events in the later books, and it just never seems to get going.
But having said all that, I found the story extremely readable - I just kept on turning the pages to find out what happened next, and that, after all, is what everyone looks for in a story. Only some minor quibbles over plot and characterisation hold this back from being a very good debut work. It is a good 3.5 star effort, so on the assumption that things will fall into place in the later books in the series, I will give this 4 stars. And so on to Book Two...
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Apr 20, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-challenge

I enjoyed this book as I thought it was a good start to a story but I think I’ll need to read the other two books for it to make total sense, and for me to get a sense of closure of the characters, and the incomplete story lines. I originally choose the book as the blurb appealed to me, and as a free download, I had nothing to lose. There were some elements of the story that were better than others, but I did like the maps at the back of the book which helped me make sense of the places that the...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars

There is unexpected human rights violation here that doesn't sit well with me (rape, mass murder, & child abuse). Had I known, I wouldn't have read it, no matter how subtle or factual the bitter incidents were insinuated. To be fair, almost all books now are loaded with injustices. What makes this uncomfortable for me though is that there is no redress for the grievances.

The story is ambitious in my opinion-- the plot is too broad that it takes an entire book for its introduction....more 2.5 stars

There is unexpected human rights violation here that doesn't sit well with me (rape, mass murder, & child abuse). Had I known, I wouldn't have read it, no matter how subtle or factual the bitter incidents were insinuated. To be fair, almost all books now are loaded with injustices. What makes this uncomfortable for me though is that there is no redress for the grievances.

The story is ambitious in my opinion-- the plot is too broad that it takes an entire book for its introduction. I will not attempt to explain the grand plot-- it's simply best to read the back cover summary. Even so, it has to be a lengthy summary in order to justly cover the whole idea of the plot. With all the things that happened here, not one issue was resolved to make it independently stand alone as a story. It comes off as generally fragmented that if I had missed the book's given synopsis, I'd have been lost. It makes writing this review difficult. The story fragments here are:

1. Adair got caught by mysterious people while investigating the death of his informer. While running away he disappears in what I could just assume as a portal.
2. Adair's disappearance left the city leaderless, so a new one was appointed. This bad guy assumes all of Adair's responsibility, forces himself on Adair's wife Maeryn (she isn't aware yet that she is pregnant with Adair's child), promptly throws her 9 (or 10?) year old son Kael to the dungeons for execution, and banishes Kael's tutor Saba from the city. Thinking her son dead, Maeryn becomes a spy for the resistance against the empire to get retribution.
3. Saba fails in his attempt to rescue Kael or Maeryn, and finds in need of rescuing himself when he was abducted and imprisoned by, again, mysterious people. Saba can't remember the early parts of his life, and this mysterious memory holds the clue to who he really is.
4. Kael is snatched away from the dungeon by a group of people with their own, again, MYSTERIOUS purpose. Subjected to barbaric conditions of survival, he survives with a few other kids. They are "rescued" and trained to become warrior priests destined to fulfill a prophecy (the training took yeeeeeaaars--Kael was 17 when he finished). Kael excels, but discovers a big deception that prompts him to jump off a cliff. End of the book. A literal cliff hanger, haha.

This is all well and good, but most books achieve a converging point for all the characters before its close, and probably presents new and greater conflict just right before it ends. However this is done, one or two of the subplots should have been resolved, like short independent stories and not a cliffhanger of each. The thing is, I thought Adair would occupy the most part of the story. But then it focuses on his wife Maeryn, then quickly becomes all about their son Kael, not to mention his tutor Saba, and the other bad guys. The author did go back to some characters, one more often than the rest, with too short or too long intervals between. So then I naturally assumed that Adair's story will resume somewhere in the succeeding chapters, but, he was never mentioned again. His story was just shoved aside.

I do understand that the pieces are all coming together to set the stage for what's about to happen, that the last page of THE AWAKENED is not really the end of the story but part of a larger whole... maybe in the manner of the Lord of the Rings. But the LOTR trilogy didn't frustrate me, instead it just made me want to read more. So I guess it's either there's just something off with the story telling here or the plot isn't just my cup of tea. The only good thing is that there is a fair amount of action throughout the story and bits of mystery that makes me rate this 2 since there's no 2.5 stars.
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Feb 12, 2012 Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone that is a fan of fantasy

Recommended to Gary by: Pixel of Ink

Shelves: kindle, own, 2012

Jason Tesar debut novel is intriguing as well as compelling. As it is with natural one seemingly insignificant event has a rippling effect that tears a family apart creating three distinct simultaneous narratives that drive this first book. Yet the catalyst event is always at the back of my mine. What happen to Adair.

This one event brings about great changes for Maeryn, Kael (my favorite), and Saba. Each character is complex and driving forces behind the overall narrative. Telling their story at...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Shahryar Hasnani rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was an interesting one to rate. The summary tells about an apocalyptic angel/fantasy/Sci-fi/epic/suspense novel. And, for the most part, it delivers. Without delving into to many details or spoilers, i'll give an overview. The setting is in the fictional ancient empire of Orudan. This starts out with the story of a boy, his father ( who is a general), his mother, and the old man who is his mentor. The story starts out quite boring and actually stays like that for a while. This is one o...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Fred rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This was a great book. There aren't many writers who can succeed at keeping the overarching plot so vague that I can't figure out where they are going with things. Not mention that the book ends with one absolute hell of a cliff hanger that I never saw coming and that's another rarity. The last ten pages, maybe the last twenty pages are really something else and enough that I'll definitely pick up the rest of the series sooner or later. If you like epic fantasy this is someone to watch and a boo...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Kiyun rated it 4 of 5 stars

The storyline was all right, and I really enjoyed some of the characters. But the world-building wasn't as good as I would've liked and had way too many similarities to real-life history (most of society is polytheistic except for a smallish group of people who believe in an all-powerful god and they're obviously right in their beliefs and everyone else is wrong and they're horrible persecuted [but you see no evidence- more poor world-building]) And then those people are basically like "We're go...more

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May 19, 2012 Trevor Shelby rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Ok I will start this off with this is not my favorite kind of book. As a aspiring author I like to read and I want to read a few self published books to see what I do and do not like about them. One thing that worried me was that on amazon.com there were several references to the authors writing ability. Most said they did not like his writing style and there were many errors along the way. But I found that I enjoyed the first book in this series, I will not jump into the next one right away, bu...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Stefan Vucak rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Awakened is a book with soaring scope that pits an evil god against men, mixing magic, combat, deception and treachery in a vista that spans time. Kael’s development from boyhood into a powerful warrior endowed with growing mental faculties that enable him to defeat the All Powerful, keeps the work potent. Jason Tesar weaves an ambitious tale that grips the imagination. In many respects the work is overly ambitious, incorporating numerous distracting scenes, which at the end, leaves the book...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Merissa Sheppard rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-freebie

I had high hopes for this book as it was highly reviewed and a very good friend of mine had given it 5 stars. However, I have to say that I am very disappointed with it. For me, the whole thing was quite disjointed with the first chapter in a completely different "world" but also not appearing to have much relevance either, although I'm guessing at who the stranger is. The synopsis gives you a description of angels and prophecies which isn't mentioned at all in the book, just "mysterious clerics...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Mekerei rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Awakened: Book One is the first book in a fantasy adventure trilogy by Jason Tesar. This is a Kindle only e-edition. It was free download at Amazon when I wrote this review.

This takes place in the Orudan Empire and follows the Lorus family:
Adair - husband, father and governor of the city of Bastul
Maeryn - Adair's wife
Kael - their son of who is eight.
Saba - Kael's tutor.

After Adair goes missing following some mysterious clues, the governorship is quickly awarded to a cruel man, Lemus, who f...more

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May 12, 2012 Tommie rated it 2 of 5 stars

I just got a Kindle Fire and wanted to try it out, so I ordered a free book online. I was in a hurry, so I picked out this book for no other reason than the artwork on the cover. The book was interesting in the beginning, became boring in the middle, and just when I thought it was getting better....it ended. Very abruptly, ended. I couldn't tell in which time period this book was written as it had characters with sandals and tunics as well as some futuristic qualities. The author must like the w...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Tommy Jones rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book started off with an opening that really got my attention and I was excited to read on. However, the book then goes into a spiral around what I assume to be the main characters and never returns to that original hook. I was dumbfounded as to why and almost gave up on the read entirely a few times. There is intrigue and even some suspenseful moments, but I never felt like I actually got to hear enough of the story to keep me wanting to know more. Lots of character development but not a l...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Lisa Nicholas rated it 2 of 5 stars

First of all, this is not a novel, it is part of a novel. I discovered this only by reading through to the end, which was (quite literally) a cliff-hanger.

There were some interesting aspects -- in the concept, if not the storytelling -- but they didn't get well developed. Characterization was crude, and there was no discernible plot. I notice that there is now a revised edition of this volume, which ends with Adair's being sucked into our world (told from his point of view), but I'm not sure thi...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Kay rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 20, 2012 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

More like 2.5 stars. Luckily this book left so many questions that I feel like I have to continue. That and I finally read the synopsis and realized the purpose of the series. This is just the introduction of some prophetic battle between deities. I'm still not sure where its going but it's got potential now that I know what it's actually about. That being said this book hurt my brain. The absolutely horrible things that happen over the course of significant amounts of time. It makes my heart ac...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Tammie P. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Looking beyond the handful of misspelled words and the regular jarring hop from one viewpoint to another, this was a decent read. Nothing like what I expected from the description as after the first chapter the entire story is in a single dimension. The description makes promises that are seemingly left unfulfilled by the end, leaving the reader to try to figure out what really happened to Adair and where the mystical portal is. While I have my suspicions on both matters, the writer has failed t...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Sil rated it 2 of 5 stars

The beginning and the end were interesting but there's just a long portion in the middle that's spent mostly on world building and it was really boring with nothing significant happening that I found myself skipping about 2-3 whole chapters. I also don't like the fact that there was no sense of any resolution at the end of Part I. Adair's story was left hanging in one of the earlier chapters and was just left there with no further mention of his fate on the rest of the book. I do want to see wha...more

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About Jason Tesar

As the third of four children and an introvert from the start, Jason Tesar grew up as an imaginative “middle child” who enjoyed the make-believe world as much as the real one, possibly more. From adolescence to adulthood, his imagination continued to feed itself on a diet of books, movies, and art, all the while growing and maturing—waiting for its opportunity. Then, during a procession of monoton...more

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Books by Jason Tesar

Paths of Destruction (The Awakened - Book Two)

Hands To Make War (The Awakened - Book Three)

Seeds of Corruption (The Awakened - Book Four)

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