REVIEW: We Are Voulhire: A New Arrival Under Great Skies by Matthew Tysz

We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies , by author Matthew Tysz, was surprisingly delightful. I would have to say; I would rate this book three out of four stars. It is rare for me to become immersed in this genre of book, and I could not put it down! The book starts out with "Once there was..." and that is reminiscent of a fairy tale, which makes you settle back in your chair and get immersed in a new and exciting land. The main character is called Gallen and he is basically poor and from a war-torn place. The book starts off with him on a boat, heading to receive an inheritance from his Uncle. On the boat, we hear of the story of the Emperor of Lullabies. The Emperor of Lullabies had four sons, and he was afraid that the sons would overpower him one day and take his Kingdom. The Emperor decided to send each of his sons to a different island. As the sons grew older and ruled their islands, a civil war begun. The boat that Gallen is on is traveling to a County called Voulhire which is ruled by King Wilhelm. As any Country, there are many cities inside. To name a few, Voulhire has its’ Capitol city of Soulhire, a darker crime ridden place called Virko, the Holy Land of Yamon Soul, and Magnum Caelum the tiny town that Gallen is traveling to. Gallen ends up meeting a character called Rowan, who plays a huge role throughout the book. Once Gallen is in Magnum Caelum, he signs the paperwork to receive the inheritance from his Uncle- a house and a forge. He gets to the house and business called Onita Steel where Rowan gives him the deed to both, a notebook and a letter. The letter leads him to team up with Rowan to try to make the County whole and safe again. In lieu of creating spoilers, I will just say there is also a powerful wizard imprisoned on an island and a group of bad guys called Riva Rohavi. It is a great book with lots of excitement and keeps you on the edge of your seat! What I liked about this book is quite a bit. First, I loved that the author included a map in the beginning. It was neat to see the layout and have a picture in your head of where everything is taking place and where the characters are traveling to. I liked how realistic the characters were, it was almost like you were meeting them in person. I also liked how realistic the main character was, with the book being written from his point of view, you could really get into his head. He had emotions and thoughts that you and I would have on any given day. He wasn't super or extraordinary necessarily, just believable! I loved the descriptive text throughout as well. For example, on page three it says that “The war dragged, like fingernails cracking in dirt”. I love text that really throws your imagination into overdrive! It makes it feel you are there experiencing what you read. What I disliked was trying to keep the characters straight. I wish there had been a character list after the map, so you can get an idea of who is who beforehand. That way when you come upon them in the story, you can recall who they are and what they do. If not, you can always go back to the list! I just personally find this helpful with books that contain unusual places and names or even made-up words. There were a few words I had to look up the meaning to, which got frustrating. Animus means hostility, vie is to compete eagerly and cacophony is a harsh mix of sounds. Its always great learning new things and new words, it just gets frustrating when you need to stop reading something you are engrossed in, to look up something so you understand better what is going on. The audience for this book would be anyone into medieval times or fantasy. However, being that neither is my first choice for genre, I would expand my previous statement as to the audience would be anyone looking for a temporary escape from every day life.