Trysmoon Book 1: Ascension (The Trysmoon Saga) Paperback – November 11, 2014

At first glance, Trysmoon appears to be an almost cliche story of a village boy singled out by destiny. It becomes far more. Gen, the protagonist, is a young apprentice bard. When you first meet him, he seems confident, sarcastic, and slightly egotistical. There is more to him. His world is unique - a planet that was physically shattered when the heroes of centuries past failed. He lives in a feudal kingdom on one of the shards of that world, floating through the void in fragments.Gen's life is overturned when Shadan Khairn, warlord ruler of another nation, begins a covert invasion of his own. Khairn himself, though the villain of this book, has a greater role to play in the series. Khairn is brilliant, ruthless, crazed, and yet entertaining and strangely likable. He also has the power to heal, even from the brink of death, and he uses it for far from noble reasons. Khairn captures Gen and trains him to fight in the most brutal possible way, making full use of his healing powers.Imagine the kind of harsh master in some old Chinese martial arts films, utterly uncaring of his student's well being or even sanity. So Khairn deals with Gen. The young man emerges as a kind of emotionally detached, psychologically scarred killing machine - or so it seems. In truth, in his suffering for himself and those he cares for, Gen finds his moral compass. It forges him into a hero.This is a dark book, but the overall series varies in tone. It is not grimdark. Gen truly becomes a hero, and subsequent events prove it. The writing is fantastic and powerful. The editing is generally good, though it has a few misses. Some reviewers have complained that Trysmoon is a single, massive book cut into four pieces. I agree, but I don't see it as a problem. I'd rather read a story on such a scale in stages, deciding on my own how far I want to proceed, than expect more than a thousand odd pages for the price of one eBook.And so I did. I eagerly bought book 2, and followed Gen's tale.

This book is for people that love twists(like myself)but, you have to read carefully to pick out what is going to happen next. With that out the rest of the story is mixed with mostly simple characters. The main characters are only getting that little bit of depth to move the plot along. I do love the interactions and the mix of word play used that adds a little light on characters that would otherwise only be supporting in the loosest in the best terms possible and pointless in the worst.Note: I am hard to please when it comes to how a character develops and it can stop me form reading a book even in the middle of a set of novels.

This is a great beginning to a series. The thing that strikes me about this book is how I truly could not figure out what was going. Fantasy is my favorite genre and it is rare to find one that doesn't follow the template. The story defies my expectation at every turn.Something I would like to highlight that really helped me love this book is the length of the chapters. I have noticed a trend in Epic Fantasy lately to have very fast chapters. What this does is gives the feeling of accomplishment to the reader and gives the story momentum. Yet I just don't think it fits Epic Fantasy a lot. I think the complaint could be made about this book that its scenes are over long. This isn't a book where conversations happen over 5 paragraphs. It feels like the author lets the personalities of the characters breath. I found myself more attached to them because of this.Most authors can tell stories about a man from humble beginnings growing up to be a savior. It takes a very talented author to populate the story with wisdom that makes you think into the night. I am referring to a portion of the story when one of the characters encounters a book. This book challenges her. The meaning behind this book is shockingly deep. That is a sign that the author wasn't just copying the template from other authors. In just this one moment from Trysmoon makes me confident that Brian K. Fuller is an author to look for.The only drawback of this first book is the lack of conclusion. It ends on a shocking moment. Yet it doesn't feel complete. Even one more scene afterwards with some form of closing would have done it for me.Also this one is just a pet peeve of mine. The author ends some sentences with ?! I cannot say that is something wrong with this book but I find that it takes me out of the story.I just hope the rest of the books in this series deliver on the promises this book made. This is a great book. If you like a lot less cookie cutter fantasy then this book is for you.