Elitist Book Reviews

Every so often I run through the list of books I've recently read and try to find follow-ups to those I liked. The sequel to Edward Lazellari's debut novel AWAKENINGS (EBR review) was one that pestered me for what seemed a very long time. I kept looking for something but never saw any news about a sequel. And then Steve plopped it in my lap, and I was absolutely floored when I realized that it has been less than a year since the debut. In all fairness, having a newbie author get a 500+ page fantasy novel out within a year is actually, in my opinion, quite decent. I guess some part of me was just really looking forward to this one.

THE LOST PRINCE is the second book in the Guardians of Aandor series, which is, not surprisingly, going to be a trilogy. This book picks up almost immediately after the end of AWAKENINGS. One of my complaints about that first book was the fact that the story just seemed to stop, and this quick pick-up kind of reiterates that. Looking at things from this side the first two books should probably just be tackled as a single 800-page novel. But seriously, what kind of publisher would have picked up a 800-page debut? Answer: none. Score one for Lazellari.

The plot for the book is surprisingly simple: find the prince. There are the good guys that want to return him to Aandor; there are bad guys who want to inflict death upon him; and there are the nebulous types who are in it for their own reasons. Prince Danel is the prize. But how can a book that is so simple be so great? Well, as they say: the devil is in the details.

All of the previous characters from AWAKENINGS are back plus a few new ones. Cal MacDonnel, the married New York cop who now knows he's from a noble house, engaged to another woman, and captain of the guard in the fantasy realm of Aandor. Seth Raincrest, the porn photographer who is actually a wizard in hiding is having trouble casting any spells. Daniel Hauer, the 13-year-old accidental murderer of his step-father and heir to the throne of Aandor. Honestly, I could go on for a while with all the characters in this book. Suffice it to say that there are a bundle and they were actually all done quite well. Characterization is one the of the many shining aspects of this book. All sorts of them get point-of-view time: good guys, bad guys, traitors, neutral parties. Each of them were great.

Although, the sheer number of characters frequently got in the way of me being able to follow all of them and keep them distinct from one another, especially with regard to the “bad guys”. This also made the beginning feel like it was moving really slow. It took a good 20% of the book before I felt like the story was progressing. This was due to a bundle of new POV characters and catching up all of the current characters to where we were in the story. The middle half was a great ramp-up though, and by the time the last third to fourth of the book hit, things were really moving.

The end of the book was crazy good. I remember stopping once and finding myself standing in line at the grocery store with my jaw hanging open and realizing that the line had moved a good long ways since I had last noticed. But even with all of the really cool action and back-and-forth between the various parties as they try to find the prince and finally end up converging on him (REALLY good stuff there), the place where Lazellari completely outdid himself was in staying true to each of the stories of the individual characters. It's the individual characters that drive this story.  Seth's redemption story was especially good for me.  Just solid.

There is one factor that I have to point out that might be a big sticking point for a lot of people and that's the sexual content. The issue is that it involves the prince, who is as you may or may not remember is supposed to be 13 years old. As with all of the other character stories in the book, the time spent with these interactions is significant and detailed. And yeah, it bothered me. The glorification of the deeds was especially evident and overdone. I have no idea why this needed to be in the book. There isn't a lot of extraneous stuff at all in the story, and I can't help but expect that the prince's escapades will come back to bite him at a later date (and thus make these sexual interactions important to the plot of future books), but it all really stuck out like a sore thumb and in my opinion was significantly more than necessary or wanted.

It seems ludicrous to me that Lazellari is writing books that are this good this early in his career. And apparently he's still got a full-time job external to writing to boot. Will be exciting to see where he goes with things once the harness comes off and he can really spend his time writing. Watch this guy. I expect big things to come.

Recommended Age: Adults
Violence:  Not a lot of bloody violence, but most of it is with swords (fantasy world, remember?) so it can get graphic at times
Profanity:  Strong but fairly infrequent
Sex:  Frequent references by one character (porn photographer) and a couple strong scenes involving the 13-year old prince.

Find this amazing debut series here:

AWAKENINGS

THE LOST PRINCE

AWAKENINGS is Edward Lazellari's debut novel and not a bad one at that. It's not often that I come across one as good as this, in fact. It's a story that struck a chord with me, landing somewhere smack in the middle of John Connelly, Mike Resnick, and a jaunt through the backless Wardrobe.

The plot revolves around the efforts of a couple parties from a magical world named Aandor to find a prince that has been lost in our world. It's difficult, really, to say much more than that without including some spoilers, as the development of the story is so intimately tied with the progression of the book. This was one of the things that I really liked about the way the author put the story together. Each piece of the story that is revealed comes as the characters interact with one another and try to piece things together themselves. Thus, anything more detailed that I might include to whet your collective appetites might spoil the plate, and I'd rather avoid that.

Suffice it to say, there are several characters of interest (a police officer, a druggie with low morals, and a high school kid), lots of engaging action, and a little amnesia thrown in to mix things up. Readers start out knowing who the various search parties (both nefarious and well-intentioned) are searching for, and it's obvious fairly quickly who the targets are. Thankfully, the author never tries to hide this from us. Along in the mix are some trolls, some gnomes, and a relative of Mr. Fantastic's that has wicked-sharp claws and blue ink for blood. Oh, and the dude that can pull your beating heart out of your chest without killing you. He's in there too.

As an aside, it was also pretty funny. I like books that make me laugh. You too? I thought you might.

One of the main characters, Seth, really reminded me of The Prisoner from King's Dark Tower series. It's hardly ever a bad thing, for me, to see a story channel a favorite character of mine from a previous read. Here, Lazellari does something very similar to what King did, in that he takes a character that is quite supremely unsympathetic and gets us to like him. From Seth we get humor in abundance and eventually some guilt, and it all really worked for me. I loved the high degree of characterization in the book. The author has done it with each of those we spend time with, and secondary characters as well. You get the high school kid that's beaten by an abusive step-father. You see the confusion and heartache as the more fantastical characters learn about their past lives. You see the affect of this new-found history on the officer's wife. All good stuff.

The one complaint I have about the book is that it essentially stops right in the middle of the story without any kind of resolution, minor or major. We have a couple chapters that summarize where each of the characters is and, Bob's your uncle, we're done. The one thing that the ending does have going for it is that there is a fairly large change in the situation of each of the various characters. A plot turn. Still, it just didn't feel like a proper ending. Even if there are going to be sequels. It was like Empire Strikes Back without the reveal from Darth Vader. Luke lost a hand. Okay. Um, now what? It doesn't ruin the ending, but there just isn't any punch to it. You know? (Catch that one? I thought you might.)

On the whole though, I'm completely impressed with this new entry and will be looking forward to Lazellari's next installment. In some respects, I think the sequel has potential to totally come off the rails and end in catastrophe as we move from the "real" world and into the magical one. And yet this first chapter of the story has also shown the very distinct possibility of being one of those fantasy stories that sticks out amongst all of the other magical-world crossovers. We'll see. Definitely not a book to miss, and fairly high on my scale of Like.

Recommended Age: 18+
Language: Frequent and strong
Violence: Pretty high
Sex: Lots of references from Seth, and one low-detail scene


Sounds pretty good right? You want to try it out for yourself? Here's your link:

AWAKENINGS