Book Review: Windwalker: Temple of the Shifting Sands
Windwalker: Temple of the Shifting Sands by H.G. Chambers
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length spin-off. I obtained a free copy via the author's newsletter.
Summary: While scouting as a Shadestalker trainee, Mica (Kiva’s brother) sees a vision of shadow demons and sleeping woman. When he tells his old Mystic school teacher, he tells him of a former student that followed a vision of demons and a sleeping woman deep into the desert to a mysterious temple, but he had vanished into the desert when he tried to find the temple a second time. Mica recruits his friend Windwalker Deysa to help him find the temple. Together they embark on an Indiana Jones style adventure into the heart of the desert, encountering monsters along the way.
Comments: This is a fun adventure story, filled with battling monsters, and a friendship, as they uncover a mystery buried in the desert. Plenty of imagination went into this story, creating the various monsters that attacked them, and creating the dream world. Mica and Deysa have an interesting relationship, with their banter, with Deysa being the more logical one, not quite getting things (a little like Mr. Spock). Sadly, there wasn’t too much to the temple itself. I really wanted to know how Mica and Deysa first met and became friends since they are from two different schools, and seem vastly different in personalities, and they don’t know each other all, but that never got touched on (maybe its in the main series). One thing that did bother me was that I don’t really understand what the Shadestalkers do. From what I could gather from the story, they’re assassins. But, as a training school, who are they being trained to fight against? (I’m just not seeing the point of having a school of assassins in the middle of a desert). I can’t really see it being something that would get used day to day in a desert society, unlike the Mystics and Windwalkers (then again, maybe the different factions are just supposed to put us in mind of dystopias like Divergent). Then again, maybe that’s also something that gets explained in the main series (this is what happens when I pick the shorter novellas up first to give me a taste before starting a larger series). I’m not really a fan of stories that focus on dreams, because technically they’re not really happening and they’re too surreal for me to get a decent picture of what’s going on in my head. I do love the exotic desert setting, and the adventure chasing the demons into the unknown. I did love the drama and emotion in this as Mica dealt with his past, and revealed what made him switch from being a Mystic trainee to a Shadestalker trainee.
4 stars
Category: New Adult
Note: Novella-length spin-off. I obtained a free copy via the author's newsletter.
Summary: While scouting as a Shadestalker trainee, Mica (Kiva’s brother) sees a vision of shadow demons and sleeping woman. When he tells his old Mystic school teacher, he tells him of a former student that followed a vision of demons and a sleeping woman deep into the desert to a mysterious temple, but he had vanished into the desert when he tried to find the temple a second time. Mica recruits his friend Windwalker Deysa to help him find the temple. Together they embark on an Indiana Jones style adventure into the heart of the desert, encountering monsters along the way.
Comments: This is a fun adventure story, filled with battling monsters, and a friendship, as they uncover a mystery buried in the desert. Plenty of imagination went into this story, creating the various monsters that attacked them, and creating the dream world. Mica and Deysa have an interesting relationship, with their banter, with Deysa being the more logical one, not quite getting things (a little like Mr. Spock). Sadly, there wasn’t too much to the temple itself. I really wanted to know how Mica and Deysa first met and became friends since they are from two different schools, and seem vastly different in personalities, and they don’t know each other all, but that never got touched on (maybe its in the main series). One thing that did bother me was that I don’t really understand what the Shadestalkers do. From what I could gather from the story, they’re assassins. But, as a training school, who are they being trained to fight against? (I’m just not seeing the point of having a school of assassins in the middle of a desert). I can’t really see it being something that would get used day to day in a desert society, unlike the Mystics and Windwalkers (then again, maybe the different factions are just supposed to put us in mind of dystopias like Divergent). Then again, maybe that’s also something that gets explained in the main series (this is what happens when I pick the shorter novellas up first to give me a taste before starting a larger series). I’m not really a fan of stories that focus on dreams, because technically they’re not really happening and they’re too surreal for me to get a decent picture of what’s going on in my head. I do love the exotic desert setting, and the adventure chasing the demons into the unknown. I did love the drama and emotion in this as Mica dealt with his past, and revealed what made him switch from being a Mystic trainee to a Shadestalker trainee.
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