Rise of the Tempest

by F.K. Hansen

Arthur Adams finds himself ‘invited’ by the exiled wizard, Mane Molan, the greatest mass murderer in Aratorian history. Arthur is to help the infamous mage in writing a book.

What Arthur does not know, is that Mane is looking for the ancient magic – magic that does not require the flow of life called mana. Mane has learned that conjuring a story is magic, and with Arthur’s help, he makes an extraordinary discovery.

He creates a book that brings the reader into the story – an undertaking not seen in centuries.

His achievement is but one step in finding the ancient magic. He is close to unlock the one secret that would allow him to redeem himself, but then someone steals his book...

In a fit of anger, Mane decides to break his exile to pursue the thief. He becomes an outlaw again, and his escape causes friction in the weakened Circle of High Wizards. The treaties made in the aftermath of Mane’s crimes are broken, and the wizards find themselves in a silent war against themselves and the religious Templars. Soon the continent of Arthria will burn.

Genres: Fantasy

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2013

About the author

I'm F.K. (Flemming Knøss) Hansen.
I fill my day with work, and diaper changes, and bellowing ghastly children's songs. In fact, having children has taken away all my leisure, and I'm afraid that this will go on until I'm fifty.

It's not that I mind patty cake that much. After all, it is marvellous to see my future heirs smiling and clapping their small chubby hands while laughing. Still, a part of me needs to think, fantasize and create. It has been like this all my life, and if it hadn't been for the vast quantities of beer I consumed in my youth, I would probably have published more novels.

Now, I have published one novel, and the funny thing is that I wrote this book at a point in my life where I have no time at all. I guess I've grown up at that point. I've become disciplined and even serious at times. Oh yes, it is astonishing what a few thousand dirty diapers will do to a man! I mean, one morning I woke up as an author, and found myself slightly bald - no wonder authors look the way the do.

Besides writing, I love photography, astronomy and yelling at other motorists when driving. If I'm not working on my next novel, I try to keep the blog www.fkhansen.com more or less up to date.

Oh, there's not much of a biography here, is there? Well, nevermind, those things are boring anyway.

Cheers

Reviews

[PurplePrimula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very generously given this book for free on the condition that I wrote a review about it. I have done so and I have tried to be as honest as possible.

I need to talk about language and grammar first. This author is ESL (English Second Language), and unfortunately it shows. The grammar and punctuation is a bit dodgy in places, and I also spotted a few cases of “I don't think that word means what you think it means”. It gets quite jarring to read after a while and makes for slow reading progress. ESL speakers who speak English flawlessly are few and far between. My English is certainly not flawless, despite marrying an Englishman and therefore getting loads of practise. Hey, not even all native English speakers have flawless grammar. This makes proof-readers so very important, especially when one is writing in one's second language. They will catch all those things that you just can't see yourself. I would strongly recommend getting a native English speaker to proof-read. Preferably two, actually.

That aside, I've been generally enjoying the story. Arthur is generally a likable chap, and at no point does he fall into the Gary Stu trap and become the type of hero who is excellent and talented at everything new he tries, hugely attractive and always does the right thing. On the contrary, the description of Arthur gives the impression of a rather plain young fellow, awkward and mildly cowardly and quite willing to lie through his teeth if necessary.

Molan Mane is probably one of the most polite bad guys I've ever come across. At first I found that a little odd, but it's really kind of endearing and it gives the character some depth. He might be a complete maniac, but he's got a heart as well. This especially shows in his interactions with Humphrey the skeleton, supposedly his butler. Their interactions seem more akin to an old married couple at times, which it also seems that Humphrey actually believes they are.

He's a peculiar character, though. I think it's the fact that he's often so polite that throws me off and makes him different from your run-of-the-mill bad guys. I find it difficult to figure out where exactly I am with him and that makes him an interesting character.

Brillefar! I need to talk about this character because I made this face --> :D as soon as I even saw the name. Anybody who speaks a Scandinavian language should be able to understand why this is an awesome name for a character who is little more than a collection of eyes. For anybody who doesn't... ehm... difficult to explain, really. But it is! I did wonder about the purpose of him though, because for the entire last bit of the book he seems to be suspiciously absent, conveniently entertaining himself in a bar somewhere being more or less useless.

Lance, however, is... hm. Well, he's a sexist bastard and I hated him from the get go. He got paid back by the queen, I suppose, but honestly he's still guilty of sexual assault and that's not something I ever really think is funny. Or something which can be made fun with.

So as far as plot and most of the characters go, I like it. I could absolutely live without the various references to sex, see above in particular, and especially to lavatorial matters. I absolutely did not need to read about yellow rivers of vomit. In fact I could have lived quite happily without that bit. I found it quite jarring and unappealing, especially when the tone of the rest of the book feels more like a young adult rather than an adult kind of story.

Would I read the next part in the series? Possibly. IF it was proof-read and corrected by someone who speaks English as their native language, then yeah I might do so. In fact I should like to see this one again after an extensive editing process and a good polish. If the second book turned out to be the same as this one, however, then no, probably not.

I have decided to give it two stars. Without all these unfortunate language errors, I'd probably have given it three, because it's definitely a story that has potential. As it is, though, it just feels sort of unfinished.

[Graham Maxwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sad to say, I couldn't finish this. Not the worst plot ever, the thing I could not get past was the number of basic grammatical and spelling errors. Made it painful to read.

Shamey shame.