Hunting the Three (The Barrier War #1)

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Title: Hunting the Three
Series: The Barrier War
Author: Brian J. Moses
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 467



Synopsis:
In a world where Hell has literally touched Earth a millennium ago, Knights of the Prismatic Order end their service by riding through the Barrier and fighting whatever Hell holds. Not one has ever come back.
Now one Knight has returned. Only he can't remember exactly what happened. He and his nephew Danner head off to the Central Authority of the Prismatic Order, Danner to join and Birch to see if someone else can figure out what happened.
Problem is, not only Birch returned from Hell.

My Thoughts:
First, I had super low expectations for this book. An unknown Indie author [and if you've been following me, you know the baggage I carry about those 'indies'] with a book that is almost 500 pages long, it didn't add up to expectations for a super read.

Second, I absolutely loved this! I was wicked, pleasantly surprised. It started out a bit rough, as I wasn't sure of the theology, ie, fantasy or sometime in our future and hence something to take seriously.  But once it was established it was fantasy, I really liked this. The world was pretty fleshed out and satisfied me. The characters were ok and reminded me of a well done Forgotten Realms book.

Third, the length wasn't an issue at all. To be honest, it didn't feel like a 400+ page book at all. A good editor could have cut some of the scenes and pared down some stuff, but it never dragged for me.

Finally, this definitely borders on the Y/A, in that things are easily dealt with and not gone into in either graphic or great detail. An example of this is the rape scene. It happens, is described, but in such a way that I wouldn't feel a qualm about letting a young teen read it. I really like that. For those who glory in books of degradation like the Broken Empire books by Lawrence, this is probably not for you. And if you're in the mood for intricate characters, you'll have to satisfy yourself with the game that Moses has created. In fact the addendums in the back about the rules of the game remind me of when I created a Lego game in my teens. Fleshed out and fully realized.

Definitely have moved the next 2 in the trilogy on top of my TBR pile.