Ecalain

by Maxina Storibrook

“Imagine walking through a familiar forest that you used to travel through every day of your life. You grow sleepy, so you take a nap. When you open your eyes, nothing around you is familiar. You try to backtrack to find your familiar pathway again. Before you know it, you are so lost that you don’t know which way to turn – not even to return to where you had been sleeping. This is what happens to me every time I wake up.” It has been less than a year since Mara woke up on Blazhreia, and a lot has happened. She struggles to maintain her sanity as she tries to deal with the grief of losing someone she loves, as well as remembering the different lives of other Essence incarnations. When remnant fragments of a seal in her mind start dissipating, though, she encounters another problem as she slowly loses what little control she has over her Source. It does not help that Desdemona’s escape exposes the presence of a traitor among Mara’s comrades, and her mysterious friend, Thanos, falls under suspicion. Not only must Mara prove Thanos’s innocence, but she has to pull herself together and regain control over her powers. If she doesn’t, she might truly go insane before she turns seventeen.

Genres: Fantasy

402 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2017

About the author

Sci-fi fantasy author Maxina Storibrook grew up traveling all over the world. She loved it so much she couldn’t be satisfied by merely traveling to all the unknown places across the Earth; she has to discover new places, write about other worlds, and meet amazing, adventurous people.

Maxina has a bachelors in English and a masters in creative writing – all for the love of words. ‘Danarko’ and ‘Ecalain’ are the first two books in a quartet, and she takes pride in all the effort she has put into her realms. Her dream is to share these stories with the world.

Reviews

[Joana Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be quite honest, while the writing didn't get worse for book two like in another series I'm reading, it certainly didn't get better. This entire book was jumbled and confused, trying to be something a lot bigger than I think the author is capable of writing- or was capable of writing at the time, anyway.

It reads like revelations were made up on the fly, and were never gone back to for fine-tuning and editing. Names and characters melt together so you have a hard time remembering who is who just as they did in the first book, with the added bonus of minor characters being so forgettable that I didn't realize until about two chapters afterwards that someone that was supposed to be part of a big realization wasn't just a random person the author had made-up to throw in.

Not to mention Mara hasn't become any better of a character. She's still whiny, over-dramatic, and can do no wrong. She learns things in days that should take years, and when she needs to learn something quickly, she just conveniently has a memory of a past vessel who knew how to do it and suddenly she's an expert. There's no tension at all with her.

So, sadly, this isn't a 'it gets better if you keep reading' situation. I'd put this as another pass if you've gotten this far in the series already.

[Amanda Marsico · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with the first in the series, this book has lots of rich world-building and lore that I appreciate in a fantasy novel (not my typical genre). Sometimes I found the explanations redundant, others lacking. It's clear the author has a deep knowledge of her creation, beyond even what appears in the story. Sometimes this leads to passages that I'm sure make sense to her, but could use more exploration for the sake of the reader. There were frequent ah-ha moments for the main character that were mentioned and never returned to, so a lot of loose ends here. As far as the series as a whole, I plan to read book 3 to see where the cliffhanger of book 2 is leading. However, book 1 was a stronger text than book 2 literarily. Regardless of its craft (some errors and unclear things here and there), I like the characters, setting, and concept, so I found it worth my time to read.

[Dedra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing is just as amazing in this book as the first. The progression of the story holds on to you.