Helpful Score: 9
Even before I finished reading this book, I ordered the next one. I hated this book to end, it was that good. I was completely caught up in the world created by the author. Not only did McDonald create an impressive setting for the book but also created not one or two great characters, but numerous interesting secondary characters.
Usually when an author bounces from character to character in a book, it annoys me and it disrupts the flow of the book. Quite the opposite was true in this book. I found myself intrigued with all the characters and I wanted to know more about them. The secondary character's POV is vital for the story and McDonald handles it with ease!
The main characters in this story are Solie and her battle sylph Heyyou. Battle sylphs are creatures that inhabit a separate dimension. In Solie's world, she is a young farm girl who lives a simple existence. In a Battle sylph's dimension, a young girl like Solie is a "queen". Queens are to be loved and worshipped and most of all treasured and respected. Battle sylphs, curious about the abundance of "queens" in Solie's world, often will be enticed (and tricked) into her world. Unfortunately, they are tricked into this world by men with malicious motives of controlling the battle sylphs.
Solie, running away from her father (who plans to marry her off to a man she does not like) ends up being the tool to trick a battle sylph over to Solie's world. Thankfully, for Solie and Heyyou, everything goes wrong. Solie ends up with her own battle sylph and that is when the adventure begins.
Solie and her battle sylph Heyyou are playful, witty and engaging. Solie, who starts innocent and naive, learns plenty about the world around her and about herself. Heyyou, who starts angry and bitter, learns about true innocence and joy. The friendships the pair form and the adventures and challenges they endure make for a memorable story.
I would not call this book a paranormal romance. While there is romance in the story, it is much more a fantasy book.
Usually when an author bounces from character to character in a book, it annoys me and it disrupts the flow of the book. Quite the opposite was true in this book. I found myself intrigued with all the characters and I wanted to know more about them. The secondary character's POV is vital for the story and McDonald handles it with ease!
The main characters in this story are Solie and her battle sylph Heyyou. Battle sylphs are creatures that inhabit a separate dimension. In Solie's world, she is a young farm girl who lives a simple existence. In a Battle sylph's dimension, a young girl like Solie is a "queen". Queens are to be loved and worshipped and most of all treasured and respected. Battle sylphs, curious about the abundance of "queens" in Solie's world, often will be enticed (and tricked) into her world. Unfortunately, they are tricked into this world by men with malicious motives of controlling the battle sylphs.
Solie, running away from her father (who plans to marry her off to a man she does not like) ends up being the tool to trick a battle sylph over to Solie's world. Thankfully, for Solie and Heyyou, everything goes wrong. Solie ends up with her own battle sylph and that is when the adventure begins.
Solie and her battle sylph Heyyou are playful, witty and engaging. Solie, who starts innocent and naive, learns plenty about the world around her and about herself. Heyyou, who starts angry and bitter, learns about true innocence and joy. The friendships the pair form and the adventures and challenges they endure make for a memorable story.
I would not call this book a paranormal romance. While there is romance in the story, it is much more a fantasy book.
Helpful Score: 5
I found this novel in the romance section at Borders but it is more of a fantasy story than a paranormal romance. There are romance elements in it, but no more than you would find in a Sharon Shinn novel. I'm really glad it's not a straight forward romance because the main romantic pairing is not what makes this story so interesting. Heyou and Solie provide the framework for a whole host of intriguing characters to get together and form a community (literally called The Community)--a utopia wherein sylphs, men, and women live in equality. They become a kind of rallying point for the others to create change in a world dominated predominantly by sadistic kingdoms in which sylphs are slaves and women second class citizens. But because of their youth and inexperience they must rely on more fascinating and fully developed characters to help them lead. And while Solie and Heyou are cute and innocent, it is the other battle sylphs, their masters, and other more world-savvy folk who provide the true intrigue for me. Another battle sylph, Ril and his master Leon form the most complex and creative relationship that is worth following into the next novel. I'm so glad they were such a powerful element in this first novel as it made L. J. McDonald's world more 3-dimensional to me and drew me toward reading the next novel in the series and each successive story thereafter. Had the author spent less pages developing her well-crafted secondary characters I would not have liked this novel so much. Solie and Heyou were just not that interesting on their own--a fact which I think is on purpose. After they get together, the focus of the story shifts to the other, more dynamic, characters.
And really this novel is a set up novel for more complex stories to follow. Solie and Heyou are likable clean palettes upon which is built a new era where sylphs, men, and women are all equal and interdependent upon one another. Their story had to be told so that Ril and other damaged sylphs could have their happy endings in later books. (Mace's story will be told later this year in an anthology called A Midwinter Fantasy which has yet to be assigned an ISBN number and will include work by Leanna Renee Hieber--Yay!)
I definitely recommend this book but only if you like well-written fantasy novels with some romance. There isn't very much sex and though Solie and Heyou are the glue which bind all the other characters together, their relationship isn't the main strength of this story. My definition of a romance novel includes the hero and heroine as the main interest of the plot. But Solie and Heyou take back seat to several more intriguing and dynamic characters and I am happy to let them. This is not a typical romance story and the book is better for that.
And really this novel is a set up novel for more complex stories to follow. Solie and Heyou are likable clean palettes upon which is built a new era where sylphs, men, and women are all equal and interdependent upon one another. Their story had to be told so that Ril and other damaged sylphs could have their happy endings in later books. (Mace's story will be told later this year in an anthology called A Midwinter Fantasy which has yet to be assigned an ISBN number and will include work by Leanna Renee Hieber--Yay!)
I definitely recommend this book but only if you like well-written fantasy novels with some romance. There isn't very much sex and though Solie and Heyou are the glue which bind all the other characters together, their relationship isn't the main strength of this story. My definition of a romance novel includes the hero and heroine as the main interest of the plot. But Solie and Heyou take back seat to several more intriguing and dynamic characters and I am happy to let them. This is not a typical romance story and the book is better for that.
Helpful Score: 4
I was skeptical but really ended up enjoying this book. There are so many characters in the book yet I never got confused and I enjoyed the flow from 1 story to the next and back again. I wish the main character "Heyou" was a little more mature, at times I wanted him to be more of "the man" but there were others that filled the role. I ended up liking the second-hand characters better.
Tons of action, some great surprises, and all very well written. L.J. McDonald creates a fantasy world that I couldn't stop reading about! I'm so glad the story continues in the next book!
Tons of action, some great surprises, and all very well written. L.J. McDonald creates a fantasy world that I couldn't stop reading about! I'm so glad the story continues in the next book!
Helpful Score: 2
Excellent fantasy read with an action plot. The lead characters - Heyou [the battle sylph] and Solie [a farm girl] - meet up because she is kidnapped to be the virgin sacrifice to 'catch' a battler sylph. She defends herself from the Crown Prince's attempt to kill her giving the battle sylph time to come through the dimensional gate and rescue her; killing all present [including the prince]. She inadvertently names him by calling out 'hey, you'. He is enchanted by his new queen and carries her away from danger.
Neither of the protagonists knows much of the world - essentially they are teenagers - hormones with feet and not much experience. If their storyline was the only one, it would be a good read but not a great one. But this plot contains several storylines - those of the other [older] battlers, the King's efforts to destroy them, and the emerging culture of the Community where sylphs are friends, not slaves...
The action is intense and kept me turning the pages well into the night...
Sylph
1. The Battle Sylph (2010)
2. The Shattered Sylph (2010)
Neither of the protagonists knows much of the world - essentially they are teenagers - hormones with feet and not much experience. If their storyline was the only one, it would be a good read but not a great one. But this plot contains several storylines - those of the other [older] battlers, the King's efforts to destroy them, and the emerging culture of the Community where sylphs are friends, not slaves...
The action is intense and kept me turning the pages well into the night...
Sylph
1. The Battle Sylph (2010)
2. The Shattered Sylph (2010)
Helpful Score: 1
Incredible read. I highly recommend it.
Helpful Score: 1
If you want a book with lots of sex and romance ... this is not the book. If you want a STORY with fleshed-out characters, some romance, excitement, and action in a sci-fi genre ... this is definitely the book!
Helpful Score: 1
This the first book in the Sylph series by McDonald. The second book is Shattered Sylph and the third book, Queen of the Sylphs, releases on September 23rd. I got an egalley of this book to review through Netgalley(dot)com. It was an excellent book. I was worried that based on the beginning it would be too much of a romance; but was surprised at what a great world McDonald created and at how far-reaching the plot ended up being.
Solie is an independent woman in a nation where females are treated as the weaker sex. Solie wants more than an old man for a husband and runs away from her arranged marriage seeking help from her aunt. On the way Solie is kidnapped and brought to the castle to be used as a sacrifice in the summoning of a Battle Sylph. Solie ends up escaping and accidentally binds the Battle Sylph to her. Now Solie is on the run from the law with a new Battle Sylph by her side; she has no idea what to do...as far as she knows a woman has never bonded a battle sylph before.
The book started out a bit corny. Solie is bound to Heyou, the battle sylph. Heyou is very alpha male and him and Solie have that whole drawn to love each other through fate thing going on. That whole destined love or love at first sight thing bothers me a bit, so I was worried about what type of book this was going to be. I shouldn't have worried there is an element of fated romance to the book, but at its heart the book is a solid fantasy set in an intriguing world.
The world building is wonderful, especially the idea of the sylphs. The relationship between sylphs and humans seems deceptively simple at the beginning of the book; this is expanded a lot throughout the story and I was impressed and intrigued by the complexity of the sylph/human relationship. The magic system derived from human/sylph interaction was also very creative and interesting. There are some sex scenes in here, although they are not incredibly explicit, they make this book suited best for adults.
The characters start out a little stereotypical but as we get to know them better I really started to enjoy them. Solie is an independent girl thrust into a role that is outside of anything anyone has ever known. She is a very realistic character and has moments of extreme strength as well as moments of weakness and doubt. Heyou is a bit one dimensional in the beginning too, but as he is exposed more to the human world his complexity increases. I loved some of the side characters, for example some of the other Battle Sylphs (Mace and Rill). These are great characters that I can't wait to read more about.
There was one thing that bothered me a little. The language used in the book oscillates between modern slang and the rather stilted language used by the Sylphs. But this wasn't all that consistent throughout the book. Sometimes the Battlers also used slang and sometimes the humans sounded a bit too stilted. A little more consistency in language patterns would have been nice (a small thing I know).
I should also mention that the book is told from many perspectives. It focuses on Solie and Heyou; but other characters' stories are told from other points of view as well. Usually this kind of bothers me because it makes the story lose focus, but in this case it seemed to work really well.
The story is nicely tied up, with some possibilities left open for future stories.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I was impressed with the world and with the complex human/sylph relationship. I enjoyed learning about this new world and was impressed with what a solid fantasy story this was, there is romance here but it isn't the focus of the whole story. I loved the characters; they started out a little weak but developed into characters I was engaged and intrigued with. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I will definitely be picking up Shattered Sylph to read. Fans of fantasy with some romance throughout should enjoy this book. I think fans of paranormal romance will also enjoy this foray into fantasy.
Solie is an independent woman in a nation where females are treated as the weaker sex. Solie wants more than an old man for a husband and runs away from her arranged marriage seeking help from her aunt. On the way Solie is kidnapped and brought to the castle to be used as a sacrifice in the summoning of a Battle Sylph. Solie ends up escaping and accidentally binds the Battle Sylph to her. Now Solie is on the run from the law with a new Battle Sylph by her side; she has no idea what to do...as far as she knows a woman has never bonded a battle sylph before.
The book started out a bit corny. Solie is bound to Heyou, the battle sylph. Heyou is very alpha male and him and Solie have that whole drawn to love each other through fate thing going on. That whole destined love or love at first sight thing bothers me a bit, so I was worried about what type of book this was going to be. I shouldn't have worried there is an element of fated romance to the book, but at its heart the book is a solid fantasy set in an intriguing world.
The world building is wonderful, especially the idea of the sylphs. The relationship between sylphs and humans seems deceptively simple at the beginning of the book; this is expanded a lot throughout the story and I was impressed and intrigued by the complexity of the sylph/human relationship. The magic system derived from human/sylph interaction was also very creative and interesting. There are some sex scenes in here, although they are not incredibly explicit, they make this book suited best for adults.
The characters start out a little stereotypical but as we get to know them better I really started to enjoy them. Solie is an independent girl thrust into a role that is outside of anything anyone has ever known. She is a very realistic character and has moments of extreme strength as well as moments of weakness and doubt. Heyou is a bit one dimensional in the beginning too, but as he is exposed more to the human world his complexity increases. I loved some of the side characters, for example some of the other Battle Sylphs (Mace and Rill). These are great characters that I can't wait to read more about.
There was one thing that bothered me a little. The language used in the book oscillates between modern slang and the rather stilted language used by the Sylphs. But this wasn't all that consistent throughout the book. Sometimes the Battlers also used slang and sometimes the humans sounded a bit too stilted. A little more consistency in language patterns would have been nice (a small thing I know).
I should also mention that the book is told from many perspectives. It focuses on Solie and Heyou; but other characters' stories are told from other points of view as well. Usually this kind of bothers me because it makes the story lose focus, but in this case it seemed to work really well.
The story is nicely tied up, with some possibilities left open for future stories.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I was impressed with the world and with the complex human/sylph relationship. I enjoyed learning about this new world and was impressed with what a solid fantasy story this was, there is romance here but it isn't the focus of the whole story. I loved the characters; they started out a little weak but developed into characters I was engaged and intrigued with. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I will definitely be picking up Shattered Sylph to read. Fans of fantasy with some romance throughout should enjoy this book. I think fans of paranormal romance will also enjoy this foray into fantasy.
Unfortunately I just could NOT get into this book. The characters, the storyline just were not interesting to me even though I thought it sounded like an interesting premise. I will not read the rest of the series.
I really liked this book.
