The Hytharo Redux by Jonathan Weiss~Blog Tour

 

Publisher: Helixic Books

Publication Date: 23rd October 2023

Genre: Fantasy Science Fiction 

Summary:

A THOUSAND YEARS AGO THE HYTHARO WERE WIPED OUT.

A THOUSAND YEARS LATER SPIRIC WAS SPARED.

Lost among the dune-swept ruins of ancient glass towers, 14-year-old Spiric hunts for his stolen memories. Guided by the exiled scholar that found him, he embarks on a perilous journey across the Droughtlands to uncover his origins.

He’s told his red eyes mark him as a Hytharo, one of the long-extinct storm callers that sealed all water into the air itself before they were erased from history. In the thousand years since, thirst has been quenched simply by breathing, but that hasn’t stopped the surviving runic peoples from wanting water any less.

For without it, there’s no ink, no runes, no magic, and in the vast desert wastes of the Droughtlands, magic means power.

To Spiric, the mantra is eerily familiar.

Word of his presence ripples across the Droughtlands and pressure mounts on him to reverse the Hytharo’s final, sacrificial act. It’s only as his memories begin to return that he realises the true reason his people were wiped out.

With the fragments of Spiric’s memories growing bloodier and more desperate, he must determine whether carrying out his supposed fate will cause history to repeat, or if he can forge a new destiny, both for himself and the Droughtlands.

Review:
Firstly, thank you to Love Books Tours, Helixic Books and Jonathan Weiss for having me on this tour and sending me the book.
So not only did i like the sound of this book from the blurb, but so did my husband, so ive spent my time reading this alongside him and for once he's read quicker than me! So hes awaiting book two and ive finally got the book to myself to finish it! 

It's a really easy book to read, I found myself whizzing through chapters in no time at all both because it was easy to read and because I was enjoying the world-building. Whilst I loved the world-building, there were times that I felt we could have had a little more character development and there were missed opportunities to find out more about their background. The companions especially felt like they lacked a little depth, I would have liked to have points where we found out more about them.

I liked getting the flashbacks of Spirics memories, I just would have maybe liked them to be in Italics or a different font so they were easy to define. Spiric himself is interesting but I just didn't feel he read like a 14-year-old boy, he read like he was older maybe closer to 20.

I found the way that magic was used was really interesting, I liked how they had to use the runes to be able to use it and that a lack of water is making magic a valuable commodity because they just can't make the ink for the runes. But I couldn't pinpoint a system for understanding the power hierarchy. 

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Krystina xx