[Review] Soul Born by Kevin James Breaux

Title: Soul Born
Author: Kevin James Breaux
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Soul Born Saga #1

Paperback, 316 pages
Published on November 30, 2010 by Dark Quest, LLC

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||SUMMARY||
All Opal wanted was to be respected as a wielder of magic, but her teachers passed her over time and time again. When a mysterious warlord embarks on a conquest to destroy the lands of Illyia Opal seizes an opportunity to step out from the shadows of her instructors and take her rightful spot among them.


Tala, an alluring young elf, was banished from her tribe, hunted and nearly killed by the beasts that dwell in the deep forests, but more than anything else she is a survivor. Joining forces with an ancient elemental power Tala finds herself in the center of an unrelenting human war. She never wanted any of this.


Flesh like leather and bone as strong as steel Karn, a veteran from the first kingdom to fall, is fueled by vengeance. While pushing ever headlong into battle Karn begins to recall memories of another life; ghosts that haunt his dreams.Through death of soul, their world is born.


||REVIEW||

Soul Born is the first book in Kevin J. Breaux’s Soul Saga series. Having read Mr. Breaux series out of order, I already knew the outcome of the book. When reading a book I like the element of surprise and mystery, and to not know the end until I get there! So when I started this book I couldn’t stop thinking about the second book, even though it centers on a different group of characters. Soul Born focuses on three main characters; Opal, Karn and Tala. Opal is a powerful mage, Karn is a warrior and Tala is a beautiful elf that was exiled from her tribe. The readers are dropped into an unexplained scene at the beginning of the novel with Karn fighting the guards, and where his lover Opal comes to rescue him. A lot of things are happening in the first one-hundred pages or so, and the secondary characters were a blur to me. There were so many characters and multiple plots/problems all occurring at once that I felt overwhelmed and confused as what was occurring. For example there was a council of mages, but there were so many, I didn’t know who was who. As I read past the half way mark, everything started to make more sense as information is brought forward.

As I wrote before I’ve read his second novel, Blood Divided before Soul Born…and while they all had the same exceptional elements for a great fantasy novel, Blood Divided was written better in my opinion. The characters didn’t stand out as much as the 2^nd book’s characters. The characters in this book like the second book are neither good nor bad. The choices they make might seem to be bad, but then again people do crazy things for love or what they believe is right/in their best interest. After reading about Karn, Opal, and Tala in the second novel, it was great to see how they were before everything happens in book two. While not the best in the series, it is still pretty good. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys an action packed fantasy novel.