Blurb:

Aric’s job is simple; assist the elves as they moved dragon eggs across the kingdom.

When an orc raid leaves a dragon in peril and her egg vulnerable, the responsibility falls into Aric’s hands to complete the mission. But when the dragon hatches, Aric’s life is thrown into disarray.

Accused of being the world breaker of an old prophecy by the elves, sought after by the ever-growing orc clans as vengeance against the elves, and desired by the human kings and queens for power, Aric will stop at nothing to protect his new dragon. It may be the only thing that can turn the tides of the war.

Can Aric fight fate and save the world, or is he destined by the whispers of a world breaker?

Review:

I first saw this book on the SFF Insiders server while browsing the buddy reads section and I thought I’d read it. And oh my goodness, was I not prepared to get emotionally punched that many times over a 581 page book.

“Why do you say this?”, you might ask. Or “That seems a bit over the top to say it like that.”. I am not exaggerating that the amount of times I wanted to toss my kindle out of the nearest skyscraper increased by around 75% reading “Whispers of a World Breaker”. 

If I had to categorise this book into a genre or two, I’d have to say Grimdark and High Fantasy with Dragons. If I wanted to go even further than two genres, I’d add in science-fiction, druidism, and perhaps a bit in the romance genre (I’m looking at you, Donalis!)

The book, as is mentioned within the blurb, revolves around Aric and friends of his and it starts off with him and one of his friends going out on patrol, separating while doing so shortly before the orcs show up, and they don’t see each other again for quite some time. 

While both Aric and his closest friend are separated, both get traumatized a lot.

What did I like about this novel?

The way Ratliff took classic fantasy tropes (the classic three fantasy races, a prophecy to save or doom the world, et cetera, et cetera) and expanded them into a new thing was done excellently. Sure, we only get Elves and Orcs in this novel while dwarves are being dwarves underground throughout it… but the way the Elves and Orcs and the Humans interacted throughout the entirety of the book worked flawlessly. There’s a varying degree of hatred and mistrust that all races have of each other and all that is conveyed alongside the politics between Elves and Elves, Orcs and Orcs, and Humans and Humans, without any hiccups.

Each Race feels like a unique take on already existing ideas. Elves have insane amounts of nature magic, Orcs channel energy taken from dying creatures or plants and Humans are, well, without any real magic and somehow are still around despite that. And it’s hinted at throughout the entire book that the Dwarves are basically super engineers who could halt any invasion towards their kingdoms. But we can’t really judge that because the dwarves are practically just myths throughout the entire book.

Then, how Ratliff took the classic “we have a prophesied one and he must do this” trope and decided to spin that around with Aric not being what one would think an author would put in as the prophesied one. Usually, if there’s a main character who is the prophesied one, he’s usually in his late teens, early adult years of life. Aric? Nope. He’s about 30 years old with about a decade or two of trench warfare behind him. Because of this, he has already seen a lot of things and knows how to deal with combat. Is he perfect? No, he has his flaws. Yet he is still a perfect main character to guide you through “Whispers of a World Breaker”.

Now, to the plot. This book has that plot that takes you down to hell, lifts you back out of it, plunges you back in and then finally lifts you out before tossing you to the moon and ending it there. Not a bad thing, it just took me by complete surprise and was definitely a plot I would read through again (hint hint, book two does exactly that and doesn’t disappoint). 

What did I not like?

There isn’t a lot. I think the only real thing I’d have to gripe about is the fact that we don’t get more lore. We get some, not going to say we don’t get any from reading it. But there’s not enough. I want more lore!

If you’ve made it to this point, thank you for reading this review and hopefully we here have helped you find your next read. If this book doesn’t feel/click right with you, there are other reviewers here who have written great reviews for other books that are different than this, like Josh Walkers review of “Lost Souls” by Ryan Skeffington or Phil Parkers review of “The Wake of Manadar” by TR Peers. 

As always, wherever and whenever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon or goodnight!

Read Ariana’s review of Bloods of a Withering Kingdom: Elmerïan Book 2 (Elmerïan Chronicles)