Awaken His Eyes: The Awakened Book One

The Awakened:Book One (Awaken His Eyes) By Jason TesarI Liked this book I liked the style of writing And I found the story engaging.There are some few annoying elements that have more to do with editing decisions and this it the way Jason decided to put things together so there is no changing that.This novel contains One good solid story if you ignore the other two unfinished ones. Personally I found the first chapter to be more equivalent to a prologue. I found the next five chapter belonging to perhaps a preface.Or maybe those two go the other way. Anyway there is a reason I say this and in part it is because the first 6 chapters of this book did not add anything to the book for me. In fact they were a distraction because I expected to get back to either one of these stories all the way through the last two thirds of the novel.For me the real story began at chapter 7 and it's not a bad story. There are rough elements that honestly were not as rough as some recent novels I have read. Yes there is a rape yes there are slaves. I'm not sure what people want but when you tell a story these things do happen. I think it might be more objectionable when the child? in prison resort to eating raw flesh like savages and one even eventually bites another prisoner.But, back to the story, or in this case the three threads that run for the last two thirds of the novel.Maeryn is left without her husband,Adair, who has for all intent and purposes vanished. The readers knows a little bit about this but really not enough to help this part of the story. She is interrogated about his disappearance and since he is the governor of Bastul it should be a big deal though we are led to believe its not so big a deal and that he is easily replace and that his replacement is on its way and that Maeryn and her family will become the new governor's family. In this culture this is the common practice and it helps that Maeryn is considered attractive. Beautiful enough that her beauty seems to be one of the deciding factors in the replacements decision to take this position.To me the first pages of the seventh chapter read well enough to be the beginning of this novel. This book has a lot of mystery and the mystery of her husbands disappearance works well without the five chapters about him and it was annoying to have him just vanish from the story.Lemus,the socially acceptable replacement husband, is a tall thin imposing and very cruel man. He beats his slaves and eventually rapes his new wife. It is the beating of Maeryn's son, Kael's, friend Ajani -a child slave- that sets the wheels of this story into motion. Kael responds by defending his friend Ajani and attacks Lemus with a pitchfork. Lemus responds by placing the child (Kael) under arrest to be executed. Orudan Empire law forbids any attack on it soldiers, an offense punishable by death. All of this occurs in front of Maeryn who is powerless to intercede.Maeryn become pregnant with child and since this is after the rape she passes it off as Lemus lest she lose another child to her new cruel husband.(She assumes that Kael is dead.)Along with sending Kael to his death, Lemus removes Kael's long time tutor, Saba, from the household and threatens him with death if he or his soldiers ever see Saba again.(As far as I know he also assumes that his student Kael is dead.)This starts the three threads of the story which follow the lives of Maeryn, Kael, and Saba.In her desperation Maeryn becomes a spy for the Empire's enemies as she tries to secretly thwart Lemus.Saba goes on a journey to discover his own past. ( He seems to have amnesia pertaining to his life before coming to Bastul.)Kael- the primary figure here endures some hardship to later be pressed into service with some monks to become a religious warrior. He will have to do a lot of self examination while trying to discern the truth of the things that are happening around him. This novel seems to be mostly about Kael's journey interwoven with the parallel tales of the lives of those people who are alive and most important to him.This is a good tale of mystery and betrayal and self discovery that starts at chapter 7.What comes before that may have much to do with later novels and my only objection to them is that they don't really add much to this story and I would guess that they would fit nicely into whichever place might continue their stories and since the author seems to dwell a lot on the mysteries interwoven into this tale I think their absence here would just be a part of the intriguing mystery that could be woven in later when he finishes telling those two stories. But that is just my opinion. Apparently a lot of people like this novel the way it is.Although I didn't find it all that helpful to have them only say so in a single line or paragraph.Some more full description of how and why they liked it would really go a long way.I also found the forward and history and prophecy to be just a bit unnecessary to this story along with the maps and links to maps. Some people like those things though and I'm sure they had some bearing in helping the author's world building.I found the story of Kael to be complete enough as it is in this book despite the cliffhanger-ish ending. Unfortunately when you take the incomplete nature of the first chapter's story which perhaps takes place in some alternate future. Add to that the incomplete story of Kael's father, which unfortunately had nothing that I felt greatly impacted the tone of the rest of the story it leaves the reader with three cliffhanger-ish things to deal with which may not be necessary. I'm assuming Kael's is a past history of an alternate universe though from the Forward it could be a dystopic future and that element again adds to confusion.The prophecy and history seemed also superfluous to this story though again I am sure for the whole series they have some value.I have not yet read the next two books but perhaps if they had been drawn into one book this novel might make more sense. I'll be a better judge of that when I read those.I would recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy and a bit of revisionist history or dystopia as it may be. I don't see much in the science fiction draw here because the bulk of the better part of this story reads like some far eastern monastic battle monk training and spiritual philosophy and it could take place in a wide range of historic settings almost up to the present time. J.L. Dobias

At first, I was excited by the book. It seemed to have a cool, expansive fantasy-world, with some mysterious glimpse of what looked like the real world. I liked how (in the Kindle format), the place names were linked to the parts of the map.However.I had absolutely no respect for the characters, and thus didn't like them.The main guy, Adair, is a Colonel and Governor. At first he seemed a good character, he was made out to be a great guy -- a good father and husband, a beloved and capable leader.However.He goes to investigate a part of ocean he suspects an attack happened... and doesn't take his fleet. Or a great war ship. Or anything. In fact it seems he was on a tiny little boat with few crew members. So when he encounters the trouble he was expecting, he has no choice but to flee over the reef, because his boat is light enough and the enemy's isn't (but he couldn't have known that before). Unfortunately for him, they have projectiles (like cannons). Luckily for him, they don't kill him (for some reason), and he's able to escape before being imprisoned in a cell, then makes a total failure of any further escape (except by something mysterious that eventually happens).Then we have his wife. When her husband is missing, it's determined he's deserted his post, and all his possessions (including his family) are passed off to this new guy, who is evil. She suspects from the start that things won't end well, but she just sits it out, waiting for her husband to return.The new guy claims her, and still she does nothing. The new guy kills a servant boy and sticks her son in a cell, and still she does nothing. ???If she had absolutely no authority, why didn't she flee in the beginning? Or send her son far far away then have him mysteriously disappear? Also, why are the people (and more importantly the soldiers) -- who loved Adair -- not complaining about this new guy, and why doesn't he care about what they think, enough to threaten to execute the little boy? Wha? What at first appeared a civilized and powerful Empire is now... confusing.There were also annoying inconsistencies.Adair dresses in the clothing of the guards he killed in his escape, and `strides confidently down the hall' thus disguised. But a few pages later he doesn't want to risk being seen because he knows in a small operation like this, the soldiers will all know each other and thus suspect him.After leaving the possibly-interesting stuff with Adair, we're taken to the wife's POV, and at one point she reflects on how long it's been since he's been gone. Has she waited weeks or days at this point? Because `weeks pass' but she's `had a few days' and her son was gone for `a week' and returns the next day -- major confusion there. No idea.The third POV character (who seems to be the main character) is the son. He isn't executed, for whatever reason, but after sitting in a cell for days with no food (? again, what the hell is his mother doing?), he's taken on a ship to a fortress and thrown in a cell with other little boys who then fight to the death for food and stuff. They are rescued by monk-like people who take them far away to a nice place where there's plenty of food and they get their own rooms. These monk-people explain the kids have been chosen to be raised as warriors for their god. Nice.The kid is an ok character, but despite everything that's happening, it wasn't that interesting. I guess the writing style is a little dry or something.I wanted to like this book. I had a positive, lenient attitude at the beginning, and all the way to ~40% of the way through, then I realized I was really bored. It got a little more interesting after that, and I did finish the book, but I won't be seeking the sequel, though it ends in an interesting way.The Awakening is a could-be, but as-is, not really recommended.

I read seven books in the series.After reading the seventh I went onto Jason Tesar's website to find out when book eight was being released and I was told "you will have a long wait because Jason Tesar is no longer writing fiction.I read and paid for seven books only to be left hanging in mid air with no conclusion planned.What a waste of money and time.Amazon should take these books off sale in my opinion.What writer would do that to his readers that have invested time and money into his stories?I won’t be buying any more of Jason Tesar's books.

All novels have to compel their readers into involvement. Language, characters and setting.This novel lacks in all three. The author has a mundane command of English. The character 'transitioned', he 'exited' from a room. He uses modern colloquial Americanisms. In a news report maybe, but not in fiction. At the start the wind blows the fog along. No it doesn't. Wind equals no fog at all because it blows it away! A pie-shaped section is a quadrant, or half a quadrant, or segment. Heavens, this author really needs to work harder at his language skills.I do support the criticism of others.I'm halfway through the first book and am not sure if I'll finish it. If I were told he was fifteen I'd believe it.So far it's an unpolished work that needs the efforts of a good editor to make it readable.I read the sample and the opening part of the story was intriguing enough for me to buy it. One star for having had to pay for the rest.

I found the first chapter confusing with the 'modern' start and wasn't sure where it was all going (if anywhere). Thankfully it became more 'fantasy-like', but the mix felt jarring.The one part that really rubbed with me was after Maeryn was raped. I can't imagine a normal response would be to be so detached as to walk off to the garden and consider what life would be like as a flower. What of the sense of violation and feelings of disgust (towards self and other)?It also took a very long time to come back to Adair. When it finally did, I hadn't realised and had to read back a couple of pages still thinking it was about the son.As a free read, it was kind of ok (nothing outstanding/new) - but I was interested enough to want to read on despite a number of bits that niggled. I'd perhaps read the next books, but I'm not sure I'd want to pay much.

This is a great read. I downloaded all three books when they were freely available and couldn't put them down. The books move at a good pace, and although the scenery is very well described, the author does not get bogged down in too much detail, but gives you enough so that you can picture the layout. The fight scenes are very well written and the entire trilogy reads like Lord of the Rings meets Kill Bill with the elements of a quest, adventure and sword play all rolled into one. Cannot wait for the fourth installment to see what further adventures lie in store for the main characters.P.S Just downloaded  Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One , which is the prequel to these books and can't wait to start it Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One

The author writes a good plot, and this (and the following two) books make for a good story.But the writing is itself is terribly shallow and simplistic and seems to be in need of some serious editing. Given the books cover a great many years of story time, there's very little feel of character development or interaction, and when the author does try to add some depth to a characters emotions the result is often cringing to read.Is this a self published book? It feels as though it was never looked over by a publisher. As it stands it makes a good read for older children or teenagers, but adults will find themselves skipping increasingly large chunks of it.