Of Nature and Kings

“You must understand something as you go through your life: there’s no rule of play that says life is going to be easy. We get no promises of security, no false assurance of peace. Father Above tests each one of us as He sees fit, and we must be ready to follow Him to His destiny for us, which is uniquely shaped and crafted to each man.”

Of Nature and Kings

Of Nature and Kings is a fantasy adventure novel following the Tibbak family and its mysterious past. It is written by a fellow young author, which makes me admire the content of the book more. It was enjoyable, though not one of my favorites.

Plot

Twelve-year-old Lacter Tibbak lives in Cinera, which is— in his opinion—the most boring city in the world. It only consists of a handful of buildings. Nothing ever happens. Soon, strange events start to challenge his view. Peculiar weather patterns and forbidden tales hint of something greater at play.

Slowly, the secrets come out. There’s another continent in the sea, long forgotten by most. Edwun, Lacter’s father, hides the story of his past. Everything he thought sure is being challenged.

Of Nature and Kings‘ plot is the driving force of the book. It is filled with questions and twists. Although they are well done, many of the twists came as little surprise for me. They were mostly things I had suspected from early on.

The climax of the book is one of its strongest points. It brings out the main character and keeps you unsure of the finale until the last pages. Enough foreshadowing is given to the climax for it to be believable, but not predictable.

At no point did the plot drag, but it never had gripping suspense.

Characters

The characters of this book are a mix of developed and attention-starved. The author chooses to jump between points of view rather than stick with one, meaning no one character is deeply known.

The middle of the book contains much more of this jumping around than the first and last acts. This also causes no real emotional attachment to the characters—at least for me—since I don’t know much about them.

On the other hand, the book manages a decently large cast of characters in a good way. Everyone has a defining trait or two, keeping them from blurring together.

I admire how the story has action without brutality or death. Only one person actually dies in the book, though others are mentioned as having died long before the book started.

My favorite characters are Lacter and his brother Olafman. Their dynamic toward the end of the book is well done. Lacter’s thirst for adventure makes him interesting, and Olafman’s limited speaking ability leads to some humorous moments.

Theme & Content Warnings

The theme, in the end, is about following what God has told us to do. This is not clear nor integrated until the climax.

There are, however, many mentions of “Father Above” and good Biblical principles. It has no real salvation representation, like The Wingfeather Saga, though it does have a more thorough basis of the thematic elements on Father Above.

One of the reasons I picked this book up was because of the blurb:

Of Nature and Kings deals with Christian family values, and a strong anti-sorcery theme runs throughout the tale—not painting sorcery and magic as myths from which we have nothing to fear, but rather as real evil with destructive consequences.

The book features two kinds of powers, the good and the evil, but makes clear that harnessing either for one’s own benefit is wrong. I thought this was a welcome departure from the typical fantasy view of magic.

One thing I was not a fan of is that the book features and endorses alcohol consumption by some of the characters.

Overall

I enjoyed Of Nature and Kings. I probably won’t read it again, but it always kept me drawn in with unanswered questions.

My general rating is that it’s good, but could have been better. The climax is well set up, but doesn’t pack the punch it could. The plot twists are hardly unexpected. The characters don’t change at all, save one minor character. The book keeps you reading, but tensions are never high. Although, you have to cut some slack for the author, as she was only twelve at the time of starting the book.

I’ll mention too that the formatting and design of the book is excellent. The maps especially are amazing.

If you’re looking for a clean adventure novel, this has a worthy place on your to-be-read list. It’s a promising start for a young author’s career.

You can buy the book on Amazon here.

Did you find this review informative? Spread the word about the Benefield Bookmark, and follow to get more reviews just like this.