Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Bell Between Worlds by Ian Johnstone

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 512pgs

The Story

Half of your soul is missing. The lost part is in the mirror. And unless Sylas Tate can unite the two worlds, you will never be whole again.

Sylas Tate leads a lonely existence since his mother died. But then the tolling of a giant bell draws him into another world known as the Other, where he discovers not only that he has an inborn talent for magic, but also that his mother might just have come from this strange parallel place. Meanwhile, evil forces are stirring, and an astounding revelation awaits Sylas: that the Other is a mirror of our world, and every person here has their counterpart there, known as a Glimmer. As violence looms and the stakes get higher, Sylas must seek out his Glimmer, and unite the two halves of his soul – otherwise the entire universe may fall . . .

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

This book - even before reading it - had a lot of potential not to mention a lot of expectations to uphold considering it's being compared to the likes of C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman whom I'm a really big fan of. So in terms of those two author's, I guess this particular book did resonate a similarity to their famous works (it even felt like a Percy Jackson novel for a moment or two) but I still firmly believe it's a book not be compared with others as I thought it held its own in being unique and perhaps wasn't as epic as those others tales that I mentioned above. Still it was a good book.

THE BELL BETWEEN WORLDS isn't the best book I've read in the fantasy genre even if I wanted it to be (c'mon it sounded perfect, right?). But once I began the book and what occurred within it - with decent pacing, fascinating magical elements and interesting, quirky characters - the book continued to hold me there and kept on reading which is all I ask for in a  book. Sure I will admit that at times I may have wanted the book to be a little bit faster and have a bit more oomph, and not be over 500 pages long, but by the time you reach the end it's all worth it and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel because this series - as I said before - has a lot of potential.

Overall, THE BELL BETWEEN WORLDS will appeal to any sort of reader and if you like a good old fantasy tale to pass the time on, than this book would be it. It's definitely worth reading!

The Rating
4/5 stars

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