Road to Underfall (Loremasters of Elundium #1)

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Title: The Road to Underfall
Series: Loremasters of Elundium
Author: Mike Jefferies
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy/YA

Synopsis:
Holbian, the last of the Granite Kings, is afraid of the dark. With that hidden fear, he allows Krullshards, master of Nightmares, to escape into his City of Night. Because of this act of cowardice, the Bond between Men, Owls, War Horses and Border Runners [dogs] is broken.
Nevian, Master Magician, foretells of a King to Come who will not be afraid of the dark and will reforge the bonds between the races.
To protect this chosen one, Holbian sends him to the End of World, to Underfall, Fortress against the Darkness. Along this journey he becomes legendary swordsmen, leader of men and re-forger of the bonds.
This is the story of Thane.

My Thoughts:
Having read this multiple times in highschool and in college and read it a last time in 2000, I loved this.

This directly falls into the Fairy Tale style [Bigger than big, no small details were talked about, Highlights of main points] and Epic Gloss. Epic Gloss I define as being like Tolkien in scope, tone and language, but not the depth of Tolkien. The talking was the main thing I noticed. In many ways it was like reading from the King James Bible. A different form of English when talking.

The older, more experienced me recognized the young adult in this book. It isn't a bad thing in any way, it simply is.

The story is cliched enough to captivate and enjoy. Kind of like mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives. It tastes good and you can end up eating too much but it doesn't really fill you up.

I know I would have given this a 5 back in the day, but now, I find I can only give 3.5 stars. I now need new things to feed my insatiable hunger, or a book that is deep enough to stand up to re-readings.

In a little side note, I apologize to those of you who liked my accidentally pre-released post. I hadn't written this all and clicked the post button by accident. Then I somehow deleted the whole post and had to rewrite this.