Errant (Chronicle of the Seer, #1) in Review / Write / Read Club (Indie & Self-Published)

Feb 01, 2024 Lynn Helton rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, romance, action

This complex medieval-style fantasy novel of intrigue and conflict centers mainly around Codrin, last of his family, and Jara, widow and mother. Their individual stories weave together against the backdrop of this world of struggles over power.

There's a lot going on in the story and the many characters, each with their own allegiances and plots, at times interact and other times oppose each other. The world in which these characters move is rich in culture and detail, and the magic that is prese ...more

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Sep 02, 2021 Ann Birdgenaw rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the epic fantasy saga, ERRANT - Book One of the Chronicle of the Seer Pentalogy by Florian Armas. It is well written and the author takes his time to flesh out the world-building, the many characters and the battles they fight. Maybe to a fault, as the descriptions can be, at times, tedious and too in-depth. It’s the fantastical love story of Jara and Codrin, who have lost everything and a chance encounter gives them strength. Adventure set amidst the realm of traged ...more

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Aug 02, 2024 Seth Hobbs rated it really liked it

This was a great entry from Armas, but I was already expecting that, judging by his large imagination and interesting worlds from his other books. This one has a bit of everything, from epic battles and revenge narratives, to the magic and mystical powers and oaths so often found in fantasy tales. The idea of Lady Jara being sought after by many men reminded me slightly of themes from the Odyssey and Iliad, when Odysseus was trying to return home to find his wife. She is besieged by real threats ...more

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May 06, 2020 Gene Kendall rated it liked it

Reminiscent of Tolkien, right down to the maps that open various sections, Florian Armas’ “Errant” is a fantasy tale with romantic elements. The two leads, Codrin and Jara, have been wronged and placed in the middle of numerous conflicts, both political and on the battlefield. It’s a lengthy book, but that shouldn’t be an issue for fantasy fans. Personally, the book’s greatest failing is in the author’s often clumsy prose, which at times blunts the impact of what should be significant moments. W ...more

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Dec 07, 2020 Ben Haskett rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: published-201x, i-read-this-on-my-kindle, self-pub, road-less-traveled, rrs, 2020-reads

Errant really hits the ground running with Shakespearean story beats and epic battles. Within just a few pages, one of the main characters, a 15-year-old boy, has made his first kill. Because this main character is so green, the book tends to stop and highlight flashes of war as a young person might see them. The descriptions of combat are effective and decidedly purple. One early example involves a soldier losing his head. "Blood sprayed out from a headless body still riding until the horse rea Errant really hits the ground running with Shakespearean story beats and epic battles. Within just a few pages, one of the main characters, a 15-year-old boy, has made his first kill. Because this main character is so green, the book tends to stop and highlight flashes of war as a young person might see them. The descriptions of combat are effective and decidedly purple. One early example involves a soldier losing his head. "Blood sprayed out from a headless body still riding until the horse reared. The head bounced of a boulder and rolled further."

Errant is beautifully written, but it's also exhausting to read. Simple actions like walking from one room to another are drawn out into full paragraphs, with descriptions of how the characters' legs moved, and the speed at which they walked, and the way they carried themselves. Sometimes, I had to backtrack a page just to remind myself *why* this group of people was entering the room in the first place. No detail was too small to pass up, whether it's what the clouds looked like or the clothing on each combatant.

I was reminded several times of Louis Braille in grade school, lamenting to a friend before developing the Braille alphabet that he would often only get through three or four raised letters before forgetting the letters that came before. I found myself losing the thread often.

Despite the drawn-out writing style, the overall story comes through, with many battles and lots of palace intrigue. Errant is good hard fantasy, and anyone looking for a heavy book to curl up with will find a lot of value here. Casual fantasy fans like me will find a high barrier to entry, but if you enjoy series like Game of Thrones, I reckon you'll like Errant and the rest of the books in the Chronicle of the Seer Series.

This is the second book I've read by Florian Armas, and the copyediting on display in Errant is much, much better. Readers might find an awkwardly-worded line of dialogue here or there (e.g. "The village is attacked," or "my hearth pounded."), and I was occasionally confused about who was speaking, but it's nothing that would keep anyone from enjoying the book. Recommended to fans of hard fantasy. ...more

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Sep 05, 2017 Florian Armas added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: romance, fantasy, historical-fiction, sword-and-sorcery

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Jul 24, 2025 Brittany A Tilley marked it as to-read

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