Review Request for Jaeth's Eye - Character-driven Epic Fantasy NOT quite like Game of Thrones

[K.S.]

Jaeth's Eye

Hi all! I am seeking help from my fellow Filipinos to help promote my book (via reviews). I am a Filipino author living in a village in BC, Canada, where I am currently raising my two children. I've lived here in BC for most of my teenage and adult life, but I spent my childhood in the Philippines. My book Jaeth's Eye, The Agartes Epilogues: Book One is an epic fantasy series with distinct Filipino touches.

This is an epic fantasy series conceived in the generation following GRR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire: just another honest, realistic fantasy focusing on people and personal quests while a larger plot looms in the background. Don't get me wrong; this doesn't mean (and despite what the Prologue chapter--which I really have to apologize in advance for, it was necessary or the plot wouldn't have occurred otherwise--may imply) that this series is grimdark. I've been told that it makes people cry, but it's really not meant to depress. In fact, I think that the tone of the series is "hopeful" overall--a sort of "light in the dark" feel.

The Agartes Epilogue is written from the point of view seemingly-minor characters. Set in a diverse world where magic is drawn into the world like oil, it is a story of people trying to find what really matters amidst political conflict and chaos. The culture, drama, and mythology in some of the places in the series is inspired by my childhood back home. I hope you could help me in getting the word out; I don't see enough Filipinos writing in this genre, if at all. The genre badly needs diversity and this is a chance to add our culture to the mix.

This is the blurb from Amazon.com:

It has been years since his brother's accident. Kefier was only just beginning to live a normal life--at least, as normal as it could get for a mercenary from a run-down town. And then an errand goes wrong and he finds himself holding his friend's bloody corpse.

Already once branded a murderer, he is pursued by men he once considered friends and stumbles into the midst of a war between two mages. One bears a name long forgotten in legend; the other is young, arrogant Ylir, who takes special interest in making sure Kefier is not killed by his associates. The apex of their rivalry: a terrible creature with one eye, cast from the womb of a witch, with powers so immense whoever possesses it holds the power to bring the continent to its knees.

Now begins a tale with roots reaching beyond the end of another. Here, a father swears vengeance for his slain children; there, a peasant girl struggles to feed her family. A wayward prince finds his way home and a continent is about to be torn asunder. And Kefier is only beginning to understand how it all began the moment he stood on that cliff and watched his brother fall...