The Kingdom of Oceana by Mitchell Charles
Age Group: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Publishing Date: November 2, 205 by Butterhorse Publishing
Summary: Prince Aliani and his brother Nahoa are sons of a king and basically, the book starts off with a late-night adventure of sorts, which turns into them accidentally awaking this big curse or spell. After that, they travel to King Lako's kingdom, which I forget the name of, but all you need to know is that their currency is pearls, and pearls are valuable. They need supplies, so they get helped by a store vendor. Later, they join their father and King for a meeting, which is when things start to get noticed. Like the fact that the alchemist for King Lako is using whale blubber from whales to power the lamps. Or princess Momi, who is extremely beautiful and a crazy surfer. But after King Lako wants his kingdom and Aliani's father's kingdom to merge, things start to get crazy. Like 1000 year old curses shaky. It's hard to explain without giving the whole book away, but I'll I'm putting out there is you're going to want to see what happens.
What I Liked: So before I write the things I liked, I feel it is important to put this one sentence disclaimer. I'm not really sure if it's a legality if I have to, but better be safe than sorry. So. *Ahem* DISCLAIMER: This book was sent to me for a discounted or free cost in exchange for my completely honest and unbiased review *exhales* Ok, moving on, one thing I really would like to point out is that I enjoyed the book very holistically. Meaning, I enjoyed the overall sense the book gave me. It was pretty satisfying to just read the book, although explaining what that means would be hard, so just take my word, overall the book was a good read. Another thing I'd like to point out is how Mitchell Charles incorporates this brotherly rivalry between Prince Aliani and Nahoa with princess Momi. The relationship, and the rivalry, oh, it was a symphony on paper.
What I didn't like: As this is unbiased, I can't rave about the book without stating some flaws I came about. For one thing, I don't know if it was me, but the start was just confusing, which was probably why the rising action and climax made no sense. I skimmed through the first half of the book because it made zero sense. I'm not sure why I didn't understand it but I didn't. That said, I understood enough to at lease follow along and thoroughly enjoy the ending. Another thing I'd like to mention is the incorporation of Hawaiian words. I did like learning some more vocabulary than aloha but it's like if I replaced fifty terms and words in your favorite novel with the equivalent in Dutch or something similar but not quite English, just because that's where it took place. It got a little tedious to see the word "wa'a" think about it, and then comprehend they're talking about boats instead of just seeing the word boat and moving on. Also, this didn't bother me as much but THE EPILOGUE!!! Ah, I could rant about it so much, but I'm just going to saw it was way to short (ok so maybe it did bother me)
Final Thoughts: Overall it was good, but for the nitpicky reader I tend to be, a bit tedious. Once you get to the 100 page mark, it's one of the more exciting books out there, but WARNING: getting there isn't easy.
Rating on 'the scale': 8.0 out of ten.
I'd like to take the time to thank Mitchell Charles and his publisher to reach out to me and send me a copy of your book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I can't thank you enough.
Genre: Fantasy
Publishing Date: November 2, 205 by Butterhorse Publishing
Summary: Prince Aliani and his brother Nahoa are sons of a king and basically, the book starts off with a late-night adventure of sorts, which turns into them accidentally awaking this big curse or spell. After that, they travel to King Lako's kingdom, which I forget the name of, but all you need to know is that their currency is pearls, and pearls are valuable. They need supplies, so they get helped by a store vendor. Later, they join their father and King for a meeting, which is when things start to get noticed. Like the fact that the alchemist for King Lako is using whale blubber from whales to power the lamps. Or princess Momi, who is extremely beautiful and a crazy surfer. But after King Lako wants his kingdom and Aliani's father's kingdom to merge, things start to get crazy. Like 1000 year old curses shaky. It's hard to explain without giving the whole book away, but I'll I'm putting out there is you're going to want to see what happens.
What I Liked: So before I write the things I liked, I feel it is important to put this one sentence disclaimer. I'm not really sure if it's a legality if I have to, but better be safe than sorry. So. *Ahem* DISCLAIMER: This book was sent to me for a discounted or free cost in exchange for my completely honest and unbiased review *exhales* Ok, moving on, one thing I really would like to point out is that I enjoyed the book very holistically. Meaning, I enjoyed the overall sense the book gave me. It was pretty satisfying to just read the book, although explaining what that means would be hard, so just take my word, overall the book was a good read. Another thing I'd like to point out is how Mitchell Charles incorporates this brotherly rivalry between Prince Aliani and Nahoa with princess Momi. The relationship, and the rivalry, oh, it was a symphony on paper.
What I didn't like: As this is unbiased, I can't rave about the book without stating some flaws I came about. For one thing, I don't know if it was me, but the start was just confusing, which was probably why the rising action and climax made no sense. I skimmed through the first half of the book because it made zero sense. I'm not sure why I didn't understand it but I didn't. That said, I understood enough to at lease follow along and thoroughly enjoy the ending. Another thing I'd like to mention is the incorporation of Hawaiian words. I did like learning some more vocabulary than aloha but it's like if I replaced fifty terms and words in your favorite novel with the equivalent in Dutch or something similar but not quite English, just because that's where it took place. It got a little tedious to see the word "wa'a" think about it, and then comprehend they're talking about boats instead of just seeing the word boat and moving on. Also, this didn't bother me as much but THE EPILOGUE!!! Ah, I could rant about it so much, but I'm just going to saw it was way to short (ok so maybe it did bother me)
Final Thoughts: Overall it was good, but for the nitpicky reader I tend to be, a bit tedious. Once you get to the 100 page mark, it's one of the more exciting books out there, but WARNING: getting there isn't easy.
Rating on 'the scale': 8.0 out of ten.
I'd like to take the time to thank Mitchell Charles and his publisher to reach out to me and send me a copy of your book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I can't thank you enough.
Great review! I love your honesty. :)
ReplyDeleteI tend to be picky too. Thanks to your review, I'll know not to give up.
ReplyDeleteI like your honesty as well. It's a gorgeous cover and it's nice to see a fantasy set in Hawaii, but I'm not sure about the confusing beginning.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for an honest review. I'm not much of a fantasy reader, so I will probably pass on this one.
ReplyDelete