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Pallomand
J. W. Murray’s Pallomand, the second book in The Winter’s Twins Series, is a sprawling epic fantasy novel built around prophecy, fractured kingdoms, ancient crimes, cloudships, dragons, and a war that keeps widening in scope. Murray opens with the fall of the Winter Kingdom and the murder of King Karradine Tieton, then carries that history forward into several interconnected storylines whose characters are living with the consequences centuries later. The central prophecy gives the novel its gravitational pull: the Pallomand, or Traveler, is destined to unite the Raven clans, while the Arcusian is tied to the destruction of the ruling Triumvirate. That setup makes Pallomand feel like high fantasy in the fullest sense, with old bloodlines, competing religions, magical artifacts, hidden civilizations, and political powers all converging on the same approaching crisis.
The worldbuilding is probably the book’s most immediately distinctive feature. Murray has created a fantasy world where air currents function like highways, rocky aerracks float in the atmosphere, Raven navigators sail cloudships, the Haik fly on their own wings, and time itself can be manipulated through objects and places such as the Oculan and Nol-Tajerus. The Moonstones can harness tremendous elemental power, while the book’s other supernatural systems involve telepathy, weather control, temporal travel, animal communication, prophetic visions, and the disturbing ability to steal memories through a victim’s eyes. The extensive glossary shows just how deliberately all of these cultures, technologies, titles, creatures, and magical concepts fit together. As epic fantasy worldbuilding, it has a lived-in quality. Terms such as Ko’journ, Saken, Marschirne, Strix, Navarasche, and har’korda gradually become parts of a coherent history.
What keeps all that lore grounded is the book’s attention to family, belonging, and identity. Marek’s story carries much of the emotional weight as he learns the truth about his Nordac ancestry, struggles with his failures as a father, and reaches a breaking point with both Elenya and the Triumvirate. L’dai’s arc has a different kind of force. After losing her wings, she has to rebuild her sense of self among the Snow Walkers, a people carrying their own inherited shame. Cassille develops from a stubborn child into someone frighteningly powerful, while Caleg wrestles with the legacy of Tadral the Traitor and the possibility that his people might finally redeem themselves. Even secondary threads, such as Alexi’s determination to protect his son and Harnen’s attempt to save Serrat through preparation, reinforce the same concern: what do people owe their families, their communities, and the generations that come after them? That gives this fantasy adventure a strong human center even when armies, dragons, and prophecies are moving across the page.
Murray also gives Pallomand a darker current that suits readers looking for dark fantasy alongside traditional high fantasy. The Korgon’s power comes as much from understanding desire and weakness as from military strength, which makes him a more interesting presence than a distant monster at the head of an army. His dominions embody different forms of corruption and control, from the Strix and Sedurai to the memory-stealing Navarasche. The Legion’s use of bonded soldiers and creatures gives the recurring image of chains real thematic importance. At the same time, the book knows how to stage large fantasy set pieces. The hunt for the Moonstones beneath the ice, L’dai’s encounters with the Strix, the dragon assault on Serrat, and the fall of Caladrin all have their own visual character. The attack on Caladrin in particular combines dragons, flying warriors, cloudships, collapsing towers, and an evacuation into a sequence that feels enormous while still making room for individual acts of courage.
By the final chapters, Pallomand begins pulling its many threads into a clearer pattern, and some of the book’s earlier mysteries take on entirely different meanings. Marek’s encounter on the Southern Ocean gives the prophecy a deeply personal dimension, while Tylene’s return as the Winter Queen reshapes Elenya’s understanding of her visions and of the Korgon’s long manipulation. Elenya learns that her supposed gift of prophecy is actually something else, and that another presence has been fighting to reach her through those visions. The ending provides revelation, which fits a continuing epic fantasy series whose central conflict is now expanding into something much larger than the original search for the Moonstones. Pallomand is ultimately a lore-rich, character-driven high fantasy adventure about people discovering that the histories they inherited are incomplete, the roles assigned to them can change, and the approaching war will demand that scattered families, clans, and kingdoms decide what they’re willing to become together.
Pages: 350 | ASIN : B0H2BY12HS
The Old Road
The Old Road, by Jimmy D. Whitt, is a portal fantasy with its boots planted firmly in Appalachian soil. Pete begins as a young man from coal country who has already made a few bad choices and isn’t sure what comes next. Then an ordinary walk past an abandoned mine drops him into the Below, a vast underground world of Goblins, Kobolds, Elves, Dwarves, ruined civilizations, strange creatures, and a force simply called the Power. Whitt gets the adventure moving quickly, but the real hook is Pete himself. He carries the hollers, his mother, his humor, his regrets, and his way of looking at people into every strange encounter. Even when the world around him becomes increasingly fantastic, Pete remains recognizably the same kid who started out wondering whether his life was going anywhere.
The Below is built through discovery, and that makes exploring it with Pete a lot of fun. Glowing moss, enormous caverns, ancient roads, bags of holding, glyph-powered tools, underground settlements, strange mounts, lost cities, and competing peoples arrive as things Pete has to understand if he wants to stay alive. The Power gives the story a satisfying progression-fantasy engine, rewarding experience, intent, will, and hard-earned Milestones, but Whitt connects that system directly to character. Pete becomes more capable because he’s learning to pay attention, work, endure, and make better choices. His training under Keres turns those ideas into the backbone of the book. Their relationship grows from wary necessity into trust and affection, with Keres’s relentless lessons in observation and survival becoming as important to Pete’s development as any supernatural ability.
As the story opens up, The Old Road becomes more than a journey through an exotic underground world. Pete’s arrival intersects with missing scouts, mysterious gateways, Elven activity, old abuses of the Power, institutional politics, and dangers that increasingly suggest his presence in the Below matters. Brannick and Lirissa broaden the cast without stealing the story away from Pete, while Pete’s eventual entry into Scout training gives him something he has rarely had before: a place where effort, discipline, friendship, and ability might actually lead somewhere. Whitt also keeps Pete’s sense of humor alive through all of it. His Earthbound comparisons, awkward reactions, running commentary, and occasional inability to leave well enough alone give the book an easy conversational energy even when assassins, political maneuvering, and ancient threats begin closing in.
What stays with me most is the way The Old Road treats transformation as a series of choices. Pete gains extraordinary abilities, but the more important change is that he begins taking responsibility for what kind of person he’ll become. That gives the book’s adventure real emotional weight and makes its cliffhanger ending feel like the opening part of a much larger story. Whitt has created a fantasy world with plenty to explore, but he’s also given readers a protagonist worth following down every dark passage ahead. The Old Road turns an Appalachian kid’s search for a future into a gripping journey through another world, and makes every hard-won step feel like it matters.
Pages: 183 | ASIN : B0DS2Q2PR4
Medieval Warfare
The Knight’s Squire follows a twelve-year-old squire who dreams of becoming a legendary knight like his father and learns the meaning of courage, loyalty, and honor. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I thought a lot about what it is like to be growing up and deciding what you want to be. As kids, we often glamorize the professions we want to be in, and then the harsh reality of life hits us as we get older. I also had the idea from listening to a boy who loved Professional Wrestling and then found out that the matches are predetermined, and I thought of applying that idea to jousting in tournaments.
What influences helped shape the kingdom, cultures, politics, and traditions of the world?
Many of my ideas about the kingdom come from JRR Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. One of the things I always wondered about while reading his works was: what if the elves leave Middle Earth for the West, and when they arrive at their promised land, it is already inhabited? I have a degree in History and have taught Government and Economics for over 30 years. One of the main forces of history is the movement of people. How do people adapt to their environment or modify it? I look at the Viking raids on the British Isles and the conflicts between the Church and the ideas of the Enlightenment for inspiration.
The novel repeatedly challenges romantic ideas about knights and warfare. What did you want younger characters to discover about the difference between tournament glory and actual battle?
I want them to see that being a knight is not all chivalry and proper etiquette. Medieval warfare was brutal and violent, especially for the common soldiers. Jousting tournaments had danger, but not at the level of actual battle, where it was kill or be killed. Also, the lesson Jory learns is that during tournaments, knights had freedom to come and go and make decisions for themselves. In battle, a knight is under the command of his lord and must follow his orders even if he might not agree with them.
Several revelations near the end dramatically change what readers understand about characters and loyalties. How do those discoveries set up the larger story?
In the next book, the readers will discover the motivations for one of the characters who switched their loyalty and get to follow his character arc. Also, we will find out what the costs of having power or reaching for power can be. Emily will have to make a choice between her magical abilities and her love for Theo. And Jory’s journey will become a little darker as he tries to survive in this world. He must decide if he can trust others again and if it is worth having friends.
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As the kingdom moves toward civil war, Jory and his knight are sent on a mission where Jory finds friends and enemies, and discovers that magic, long believed to be extinct, is far from dead. But will magic and friendship be enough to save the kingdom?
The Knight’s Squire is an epic fantasy that follows Jory, his knight, Sir Cley Woods, the apprentice girl, Emily, and the heir to the throne, Prince James, in a medieval world where kings and lords rule, and knights and squires serve.
The Knight’s Squire
John J. Curta’s The Knight’s Squire is a coming-of-age fantasy built around knights, squires, tournaments, royal succession, hidden magic, and the messy gap between the stories people tell about heroes and the choices those heroes actually make. At the center is twelve-year-old Jory Turner, a talented but wounded young squire who wants desperately to live up to the reputation of his dead father. His knight and guardian, Sir Cley Woods, is famous, charming, and genuinely devoted to Jory, but he carries his own war trauma and makes compromises that force Jory to reconsider what honor really means. That relationship gives the novel its heart. Their conversations gradually move the idea of knighthood away from winning jousts and looking impressive and toward courage, honesty, judgment, and protecting other people. Cley eventually tells Jory that the Knights of the Realm are sworn to protect the kingdom, which neatly captures one of the book’s biggest ideas about loyalty and conscience.
The story gets wider as it goes, and Curta handles that expansion through several points of view. Prince James has to grow from an uncertain teenager surrounded by stronger personalities into someone capable of making decisions for an entire kingdom. Emily begins as a healer’s apprentice and discovers that she’s a Drasani with the rare ability to influence emotions and heal, while Aiden slowly develops from Jory’s mysterious new friend into one of the book’s most important wild cards. Magic also arrives gradually. By the time Marwyn explains Firecasters, Summoners, Windcallers, Dragontalkers, Dreamwalkers, and other surviving Drasani, the supernatural side of Terros feels like something buried beneath the official history instead of something pasted onto the setting. I especially liked how the battles change the younger characters. Jory, Theo, Emily, and even Cley learn that real violence has very little in common with tournament glory. Deaths matter, fear lingers, and Jory’s growing competence comes with memories he’d rather not have.
Readers of John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series will probably recognize some of the appeal here. Both stories get a lot of mileage from a young protagonist learning practical skills under an experienced mentor, and both understand that training scenes can reveal character just as effectively as combat. Curta takes that basic mentor-and-student pleasure and places it inside a much broader political story. Jory may be the emotional anchor, but the succession struggle between Prince James and King Ivan, the competing regional lords, the Temple of the Four, the secret Knights of the Realm, and the reappearance of magic keep pulling the camera outward. That makes Terros feel lived in, especially because its politics affect farmers, healers, soldiers, servants, and children. One of the sharper moments comes when a farmer tells Jory that an army takes what it needs regardless of which side it serves, a small observation that says quite a bit about how ordinary people experience the grand causes knights fight over.
The Knight’s Squire turns Jory’s dream of becoming a knight into something much more complicated and much more interesting. He’s brave enough to face a Summoner who tempts him with the image of his dead father, loyal enough to ride into a collapsing battle to reach Cley, and still young enough to be hurt by jealousy, homesickness, fear, and questions about whether his mother loves him. The final chapters land hard because the story refuses to let battlefield courage guarantee a clean victory. Sir Cley is gravely wounded, Jory falls into the hands of his abusive stepfather, James escapes a disastrous betrayal, and Aiden is revealed as the son of the Pirate King after secretly helping the high priestess. Those revelations give the ending real momentum while also circling back to the book’s central question: who deserves to be called honorable when titles, bloodlines, legends, and loyalties can all be manipulated? The Knight’s Squire is an adventurous medieval fantasy, but its strongest quality is the way it makes growing up inseparable from learning that courage is less about becoming the hero from a song and more about deciding what kind of person you’ll be when the song no longer matches reality.
Pages: 367 | ASIN : B0GYLPQF1Z
5 Steps You Must Take to Win the Battle of the Mind
5 Steps You Must Take to Win the Battle of the Mind, by Joe Roach, is a Christian guide to confronting fear, anxiety, doubt, racing thoughts, and depression through the lens of spiritual warfare. Roach frames the mind as a contested place where lies must be recognized, resisted, and replaced with biblical truth. The book moves through five steps: understanding the battle, acknowledging troubling thoughts, identifying the enemy’s lies, guarding the mind with Scripture and gratitude, and building a disciplined daily rhythm of prayer, meditation, devotion, and thought inventory. Along the way, it folds in biblical stories, practical exercises, a “Power in Your Pocket” section of truth cards, and a thirty-day devotional meant to help readers carry the teaching into ordinary mornings, anxious nights, and repeated inner struggles.
I appreciated the book’s insistence that thought patterns matter deeply, not in a vague self-help sense, but as part of a spiritual and emotional life that requires attention, honesty, and practice. Roach is at his strongest when he gets close to the lived experience of mental battle: waking with racing thoughts, feeling accused by old labels, or needing something steadier than willpower when fear starts circling the room at night. The suggestion to write down looping lies, replace them with Scripture, and keep truth close in tangible form, even on simple 3×5 cards, has a humble practicality I found moving because it’s usable. There’s also a welcome generosity in the chapter on medication, where the book avoids treating medical support as a failure of faith and instead allows room for God to work through professionals, treatment, prayer, and slow healing together.
The writing is earnest and direct. The Q&A sections are useful, especially for readers new to spiritual warfare. There’s sincerity here that’s hard to dismiss. Roach writes like someone who wants readers to stop being bullied by their own inner darkness, and that urgency gives the book its pulse.
I came away from Win the Battle of the Mind with respect for its pastoral seriousness and its belief that freedom is cultivated through daily surrender, not dramatic shortcuts. Its best moments are practical, compassionate, and bracingly clear: identify the lie, speak the truth, return again tomorrow. I’d recommend it especially to Christian readers who want a Scripture-centered, action-oriented approach to anxiety, negative thinking, and spiritual discipline, particularly those who find comfort in devotionals, guided routines, and concrete tools they can use throughout the day. This is a book for believers who don’t merely want to understand the battle of the mind but want to begin fighting it with steadier hands and renewed hope.
Pages: 209 | ASIN : B0G5261VHZ
Kit’s Awakening: A Dark Progression Fantasy of a Fractured Mind (The Book of Kit: Book 1)
Kit’s Awakening, by Dan Green, is a progression fantasy about Kit Landon, a young noble heir whose life is shaped by cruelty, survival, and the slow discovery of his own magical power. The book follows him from a childhood marked by fear and control into a wider world where magic is not just a gift, but a discipline that demands pain, focus, and cost. As Kit learns to endure, escape, and build a new life among unlikely allies, the story becomes both a fantasy adventure and a coming-of-age tale about reclaiming the self piece by piece.
I liked how personal the book feels. Kit’s growth doesn’t come easily, and Green makes sure we feel the weight of that. The progression of fantasy elements is very much present, with training, mana control, spell structure, and new abilities unfolding step by step, but the heart of the story is not just power. It’s survival. Kit isn’t chasing strength because it sounds exciting. He needs it because the world around him has teeth. That gives the magic a sharper edge, and it made his victories feel earned rather than handed to him.
I also appreciated the author’s choice to spend real time with Kit’s inner life. The book can be intense, especially in its early sections, and at times it leans hard into suffering. Still, I found that intensity purposeful. Kit’s mind becomes almost a battlefield of its own, and the way he uses logic, discipline, and emotional distance to keep moving is both fascinating and sad. The later shift toward found family, performance, travel, and practical problem-solving gives the story some needed air. I liked seeing Kit in moments where he was not only fighting to survive, but starting to imagine what a good life might look like.
I would recommend Kit’s Awakening to readers who enjoy progression fantasy with a darker coming-of-age core, especially those who like detailed magic systems, training arcs, tactical thinking, and damaged characters learning how to trust again. It’s not a light read, and readers sensitive to abuse or trauma may want to approach it with care, but for those who appreciate fantasy where growth has scars, and every step forward costs something, this book offers a compelling start to Kit’s journey.
Pages: 299 | ASIN : B0G4W6MVCG
The Library Between Worlds: Journey to Nirisia
Journey to Nirisia, by Mark K. McClain, is a middle-grade fantasy adventure about Emma, a quiet fourteen-year-old who would rather be with books and her cat than face a new town, new people, or a new life. After moving to Mistwick, she discovers a strange old library and meets Friden, its eccentric Archivist. What begins as a summer job quickly turns into a journey into Nirisia, a magical world threatened by Eraser, a being who feeds on stories, memories, and whole worlds. Emma’s task is to find the Wizard’s Crystal, help save the elves of Moonvale, and decide whether she is braver than she ever believed.
I enjoyed how the book builds Emma from the inside out. She does not arrive on the page ready to be a hero. She is anxious, sharp, awkward, funny, and often unsure of herself, which makes her feel real. I liked that McClain lets her fear stay visible instead of rushing past it. The fantasy elements are big and colorful, with portals, elves, memory trees, magical objects, and shadowy enemies, but the emotional engine is simple: a girl who wants to be safe is asked to care about something larger than herself. That worked for me. It gives the adventure a heart.
The writing has a classic portal-fantasy feel, especially in the way the library becomes both a refuge and a doorway. I could feel McClain’s affection for books in almost every scene set there. The idea that neglected stories can fade or be consumed is not subtle, but it is effective. It makes the genre’s love of imagination feel urgent. The dialogue can be direct at times, and some moments explain more than they need to, but the pace keeps moving, and the sincerity carries a lot of weight. Friden’s odd speech, Faylen’s calm strength, and Cedar’s lighter charm give Emma different kinds of energy to push against, and that helps the story avoid feeling like a solo quest.
By the end, I felt the book was less about defeating a villain than about learning to trust your own instincts. That is a good message for the age group. I would recommend Journey to Nirisia to younger readers who enjoy fantasy adventure, magical libraries, brave but imperfect heroines, and stories where books are treated like living things. Adult readers who like gentle, earnest portal fantasy may enjoy it too, especially if they are looking for something imaginative, accessible, and full of heart.
Pages: 238 | ASIN : B0GYLK6YXM
Library in the Clouds: Children of the Blue Knight
Library in the Clouds: Children of the Blue Knight, by Hal Olsoe, is a fantasy adventure about Gwen and Landon, two children forced onto the road after their home is burned, their father is killed, and their mother is taken. What begins as a desperate journey to find her slowly opens into something larger, involving old powers, hidden knowledge, political betrayal, and a legendary library that feels half myth and half warning. At its heart, though, this is a story about siblings trying to survive when the world has asked far too much of them.
What I appreciated most was how grounded the book feels, even with its gods, kingdoms, sacred places, and ancient books. Olsoe does not rush the children from one grand fantasy set piece to the next. Instead, the story spends real time on hunger, sore horses, bad inns, dirty clothes, fear, and the small choices that keep people alive. It gives the fantasy genre some dirt under its fingernails. Gwen, especially, carries much of that weight. She’s brave, but not in an easy way. Her courage is practical, tired, and sometimes harsh. Landon brings a softer counterpoint, and I found their bond to be the emotional center of the book. They argue. They misunderstand each other. They keep going anyway.
The author’s worldbuilding is ambitious, and I could feel how much thought went into the gods, temples, social order, and history of the realm. The appendices reinforce that sense of a wider world beyond the immediate plot. The story leans on travel and explanation, and some sections move more slowly than readers expecting constant action might prefer. But that slower pace also allows the book to breathe. The danger feels earned because the quiet moments matter, too. I was especially drawn to the way the book treats knowledge. The library isn’t just a magical idea. It becomes a question: who gets answers, who controls them, and what happens when wisdom turns into a weapon? That stayed with me.
I would recommend Library in the Clouds to readers who enjoy character-driven fantasy adventure with medieval settings, sibling stories, and a sense of myth woven through everyday hardship. It will appeal most to readers who enjoy quests that are as much emotional as physical. This is not a light romp through a magical kingdom. It’s more like a long road taking you to beautiful places, frightening places, and worth following if you like fantasy that takes both its world and its young characters seriously.
Pages: 220 | ASIN : B0GZP9FP8Q
