Children of Prophecy

by Glynn Stewart

An age in the past, the world’s two greatest Mages fought a bloody war to a draw that slew them both.

In the time since, the Kingdom of Vishni has known quiet, and the Swarm beyond the mountains has grown in strength and numbers. Now, with the Time of Prophecy at hand, dark forces move to fulfil ancient visions.

Two men, born to poverty but bearing the blood of those ancient Mages, will rise to decide the fate of both Swarm and Kingdom as the fires of this ancient conflict rise anew.

Genres: Fantasy

289 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2014

About the author

Glynn Stewart is the author of over 60 books, including Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible–but only because of magic.

Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to thank the author for a copy of the book and the chance to review it through the GoodReads First Reads program.

Hmmm…I liked the story and enjoyed reading it. There were just a few things that would have made it flow a little better.
The characters’ names were a bit confusing. First and last names were joined by an apostrophe – sometimes the full name was used, sometimes not. When dealing with family/siblings, the last half of the name was the same and it got confusing about who was who (Jan’tar, Liv’tar, and Kove’tar). Especially when a lot of people had first names that started with a ‘J’.
People were divided between magic users and non-magic users. Each magic user had a specific title and some had more than one title: Battlemage, Hawk Mage (who is also a Hawk Lord AND a Death Mage), Raven Mage, Chaos Mage, Death Mage, Life Mage, etc. Only the Death and Life mages were explained. I would have like more information about the other different categories and what they could do; or did they just shapeshift? Some were considered more powerful than others, why?
Huge time-jumps resulted in the main character growing up too fast. I feel like I missed out on the characters’ back stories and I had a hard time developing a connection to them. One minute they hate each other, then next minute they like each other, the next minute they are in love. Huh? More in-between info please! I want to fall in love with them too.
Magic was very one-dimensional. You were either good or evil. It had a very “Star Wars” feel to it. Order Magic is good, Chaos Magic is bad. If a mage used too much Chaos magic, they will become a bad guy forever – Death and Destruction 24/7. “Cross over to the Dark Side of the Force, Luke! And we will rule this galaxy together!” “NEVER!”
And I could have done without the “Lord of the Rings” ‘They Shall Not Pass!’ reference too.
I’m not trying to rip this story apart. I really did like it. And if there were a book 2 already out, I would definitely read it. This book just needed a little more fine tuning and it would have been better. I would still recommend it.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was well written and the story was entertaining. I enjoyed the magic system that the author created even if it was a bit confusing at first. The characters are a bit black & white (with the exception of Stret) meaning that they were intricately good and amazing or just even and losers. The book definately needed more intense moments as it was pretty predictable. Also, I believe that the story had more potential and the author could definitely expand on it for a more well rounded adventure. It would have been particularly interesting to further explore the connection between the two children and their struggle with the magic. With that said, however, the book was still interesting and i devoured it in 3 days.

[Aaron Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

First to say, Glynn Stewart is one of my favorite "new" authors, who largely started publishing after 2010. That said, this book was quite atrocious.

It was extremely formulaic and full of bad melodrama. It felt like most bad fantasy from the past few decades. Like bad King Arthur re-enactment drivel. The magic was pretty bland. Battlemagi seem to have about 5-8 spells total, not counting gray magic, which is just kind of thrown in there to add a few more spells that anybody could learn. We learn very little of anything Life Magi could actually do, beyond healing and related stuff.

The only character that was even vaguely interesting was the bad guy.

I can kind of see where the author took the better aspects of this book and put them in Starship Mage. There's a bit of cheesy Lord this, and vow to save normal folk that in that series, but it has enough other things going on that it's just kind of amusing and noble. The characters in that series aren't just cutout nothings like in this book. There's nuance.
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Oh god, I forgot to talk about my pet peeve. God damned apostrophes. Why does every new author of fantasy think they have to put in those damned punctuation marks. It makes my eyes bleed. EVERY name in this entire country uses an apostrophe. Only orphans and foreigners don't do it, god bless them.

[Cy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. I liked Stewart's choice to make 'death' magic good, breaking the death bad, life good dichotomy which is so common. But I find most books where the main plot is a prophecy quite formulaic, and this book had that flaw. I think this might be Stewart's first book, and for a first book it is quite good. Stewart's more recent books have much more nuanced plots and characters.

[Theresa Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book could not put it down

I found myself reading until the wee hours of the morning. I would recommend this bod to anyone who enjoys a good adventure story with a love story. With a truly happy ending.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much wasted potential. Black and white, with random minor characters acting with what seems to be broadly out of character actions in order to make a particular plot point work.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a fantasy world two great mages, one of magic and one of chaos faced each other and both died. A thousand years later their replacements, the Children of Prophecy (ebook from Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc) have to fight. Tal was lucky to be recognized at an early age as a Mage, and then adopted by the current Hawk Car’reen and trained well. Brea is a life mage and the King’s heir whose love for Tal may make the difference and Stet’sar is a thief who uses small magics until the people he loves are murdered by aristocrats. Eventually these two great men come face to face with battlemagi facing a huge swarm of evil with the fate of the world at stake. Fun.Review printed by Philadelphia Weekly Press