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Jake Thomas Trilogy #1
A World Apart
A World Apart is the exciting first book in the Jake Thomas Trilogy.
Jake Thomas thought he was having a bad day. An after-school encounter with a long-time rival had left him angry and dismayed, but little did he know that before the day was done, his life would be changed forever.
Suddenly and mysteriously transported to another world, he finds himself alone and without a clue how or why he was brought here. Cut off from his familiar surroundings, he has to find a way to survive and return home.
Soon after he begins to explore this new world, he meets an enigmatic warrior and is introduced to magic-wielding clerics. However, Jake finds out quickly that danger lurks all around him as demons exist on this world - and they want him badly!
Jake Thomas thought he was having a bad day. An after-school encounter with a long-time rival had left him angry and dismayed, but little did he know that before the day was done, his life would be changed forever.
Suddenly and mysteriously transported to another world, he finds himself alone and without a clue how or why he was brought here. Cut off from his familiar surroundings, he has to find a way to survive and return home.
Soon after he begins to explore this new world, he meets an enigmatic warrior and is introduced to magic-wielding clerics. However, Jake finds out quickly that danger lurks all around him as demons exist on this world - and they want him badly!
388 pages, Paperback
First published November 8, 2012
14 people are currently reading
738 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 21, 2013
I found this to be an enjoyable read, though the book is a bit of fantasy formula. Young unknown off to discover his power, do a quest or three, save the world, and hopefully return home. While some of those objectives haven't been accomplished by the end of this book (it is a trilogy after all), after finishing this, I was ready for part 2.
January 10, 2013
I need new books on my shelf, and this is one I would love to add! Everything about this book grabs my attention.
September 28, 2022
This is a true coming of age story. The author leads us off world as we trace Jake’s travels. Questions are left unanswered, but no cliffhanger.
There is action and lots of it. There is learning, acceptance, struggles and life. A good story unfolds as Jake learns more about himself and his new family is brought in to support him.
There is action and lots of it. There is learning, acceptance, struggles and life. A good story unfolds as Jake learns more about himself and his new family is brought in to support him.
August 16, 2021
Weak story telling
October 5, 2013
The descriptions used to describe the world are of a good length. There is always plenty of information to allow a reader to really see the details of what the characters are seeing and doing, but they are not so lengthy that the pacing of the story suffers.
The author also does a good job of recapping events, for example if a character is asked to describe something that happened to them earlier in the story. In these cases, we as the reader do not need much detail and the author just gives a few lines of reminders.
The only part of the descriptions I found lacking was when the main character is being taught something, we are often told that the other characters tell him how to hold a sword, maintain a furnace or use magic but these details are never given to the reader and it left me feeling I was missing out.
The story, world and characters aren’t original, most of it has been seen before in some form. The basic story is that the main character is from our world, he is at school where he has some troubles, although he’s not quite the outsider seen in most books like this. He is magically transported to a fantasy world; the world itself is your typical European medieval fantasy setting, complete with knights, kings, a beautiful princess and an evil being bent on destroying everything.
Once there the main character turns out to be the chosen one, foretold of by a mysterious prophecy. He then begins his training by a tough warrior, who really has our hero’s best interests at heart, has a softer side underneath that gruff exterior and has the compulsory tragic past. After some training the hero is called upon to defeat a dangerous foe.
The characters are pretty standard as well. There was nothing really dislikeable with any of them, it was just everyone is someone I have seen before, many times in a fantasy novel.
One problem was that just about every good character was too nice, they would always say kind things, insist on being the one that pays for the bill, always offer and try to help everyone, be prepared to sacrifice themselves to save someone else, hug and have tears in their eyes when thanking someone. While it maybe okay to have one ‘perfect’ character in a story, when everyone is like that it just makes it dull. It also makes what they do less special since everyone is prepared to do the same thing.
There are one or two characters that break the perfect mold, although these tend to be very minor characters and their rarity doesn’t alleviate the problem with the rest of the cast.
We are given a glimpse of some of the evil characters, and in a similar problem to the good characters they seem to be wholly evil with nothing good to say about them. This gives them less depth.
There is nothing special about the magic system either. It is just flashy lights to blast enemies or heal friends.
There is a heavy Christian theme throughout the book, while the religion in the world our character enters isn’t actually Christian there are many very strong parallels and it is really Christian in all but name. In fact it is so close it is just another example of the books unoriginality.
For the most part the pacing is good, with a nice balance between action and scenes with more depth to them. There was a bit of a slowdown mid-book when the main character was in training without a great deal of action or major plot development but it didn’t last too long.
I read the Nook version of this book and there was some issue with the presentation that caused the text to be center aligned. The lines were also often broken mid-sentence half way across the page and only continued on the next line. This was sometimes a distraction and would pull me out of the story, the worst part was that it would often make dialogue confusing as it was often unclear who was speaking since you couldn’t tell if the new line of dialogue was on the same paragraph as the last one.
Another issue with the presentation, which may be in the printed book as well, was that the author didn’t use the standard use of punctuation for dialogue. I found this to be distracting and it would often pull me out of the story as I noticed these mistakes.
There was some swearing, violent scenes and references to sexual content, mostly implications or threats of rape (although no details are given), making this book unsuitable for younger readers. It is probably aimed at a young adult audience rather than middle-grade.
Overall I did enjoy the story, and if Goodreads allowed half stars I would have given it a 3 ½ rating. The descriptions were of an excellent quality and the story was enjoyable. The unoriginality of most of the elements is what hurt it the most.
I have read the second book in this series and feel that it was so strong I would recommend this series overall.
In full disclosure I won the second book in this series in a Goodreads giveaway.
The author also does a good job of recapping events, for example if a character is asked to describe something that happened to them earlier in the story. In these cases, we as the reader do not need much detail and the author just gives a few lines of reminders.
The only part of the descriptions I found lacking was when the main character is being taught something, we are often told that the other characters tell him how to hold a sword, maintain a furnace or use magic but these details are never given to the reader and it left me feeling I was missing out.
The story, world and characters aren’t original, most of it has been seen before in some form. The basic story is that the main character is from our world, he is at school where he has some troubles, although he’s not quite the outsider seen in most books like this. He is magically transported to a fantasy world; the world itself is your typical European medieval fantasy setting, complete with knights, kings, a beautiful princess and an evil being bent on destroying everything.
Once there the main character turns out to be the chosen one, foretold of by a mysterious prophecy. He then begins his training by a tough warrior, who really has our hero’s best interests at heart, has a softer side underneath that gruff exterior and has the compulsory tragic past. After some training the hero is called upon to defeat a dangerous foe.
The characters are pretty standard as well. There was nothing really dislikeable with any of them, it was just everyone is someone I have seen before, many times in a fantasy novel.
One problem was that just about every good character was too nice, they would always say kind things, insist on being the one that pays for the bill, always offer and try to help everyone, be prepared to sacrifice themselves to save someone else, hug and have tears in their eyes when thanking someone. While it maybe okay to have one ‘perfect’ character in a story, when everyone is like that it just makes it dull. It also makes what they do less special since everyone is prepared to do the same thing.
There are one or two characters that break the perfect mold, although these tend to be very minor characters and their rarity doesn’t alleviate the problem with the rest of the cast.
We are given a glimpse of some of the evil characters, and in a similar problem to the good characters they seem to be wholly evil with nothing good to say about them. This gives them less depth.
There is nothing special about the magic system either. It is just flashy lights to blast enemies or heal friends.
There is a heavy Christian theme throughout the book, while the religion in the world our character enters isn’t actually Christian there are many very strong parallels and it is really Christian in all but name. In fact it is so close it is just another example of the books unoriginality.
For the most part the pacing is good, with a nice balance between action and scenes with more depth to them. There was a bit of a slowdown mid-book when the main character was in training without a great deal of action or major plot development but it didn’t last too long.
I read the Nook version of this book and there was some issue with the presentation that caused the text to be center aligned. The lines were also often broken mid-sentence half way across the page and only continued on the next line. This was sometimes a distraction and would pull me out of the story, the worst part was that it would often make dialogue confusing as it was often unclear who was speaking since you couldn’t tell if the new line of dialogue was on the same paragraph as the last one.
Another issue with the presentation, which may be in the printed book as well, was that the author didn’t use the standard use of punctuation for dialogue. I found this to be distracting and it would often pull me out of the story as I noticed these mistakes.
There was some swearing, violent scenes and references to sexual content, mostly implications or threats of rape (although no details are given), making this book unsuitable for younger readers. It is probably aimed at a young adult audience rather than middle-grade.
Overall I did enjoy the story, and if Goodreads allowed half stars I would have given it a 3 ½ rating. The descriptions were of an excellent quality and the story was enjoyable. The unoriginality of most of the elements is what hurt it the most.
I have read the second book in this series and feel that it was so strong I would recommend this series overall.
In full disclosure I won the second book in this series in a Goodreads giveaway.
May 26, 2013
I liked this book, but I can't say this is my favourite book. I like the way the author describe the scene and setting in this world, its detailed so you can imagined it in your head. The magic in this world is so simple, just some colored light, nothing excited like spell or rune. so that is a minus in my checklist. The MC is normal, perfectly normal, humanely normal. you won't find a genius protagonist here. the MC is unique but not a great hero. I enjoy reading this book but this is not a page turner book.
November 19, 2018
this was cute, formulaic, fun, mindless - just what i wanted. :) i started the second one and i hope it's just like this one.
May 26, 2014
A good story told simply - I'm interested to see how the pace picks up in the 2nd book, I'd love to see Mr Tolle let himself off the leash, as such.
March 6, 2016
Unfortunately, this book suffers from lack of editing. It is quite clunky. It is a nice story of a hero's journey that might benefit from showing versus telling.
Read
June 23, 2017DNF at about 5%. (I was at 2% of the whole trilogy, which was a single kindle book.)
The book starts with too many cliche characters, pages of infodumps, and bullies being dumb. This Drake guy goes after Jake twice to fight him. Then an adult (a teacher?) doesn't call the cops or hospital but drives Jake home with a black eye and bruised ribs. ?
I admit I was skimming, trying to find where Jake finally goes to a different world. I didn't want to wade through all the infodumps and cliche dialogue, though. Never mind.
The book starts with too many cliche characters, pages of infodumps, and bullies being dumb. This Drake guy goes after Jake twice to fight him. Then an adult (a teacher?) doesn't call the cops or hospital but drives Jake home with a black eye and bruised ribs. ?
I admit I was skimming, trying to find where Jake finally goes to a different world. I didn't want to wade through all the infodumps and cliche dialogue, though. Never mind.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews