Well-written, well-developed characters, a fun read to a point.
583859
I started out enjoying the book. The author does a good job of developing the characters and an interesting plot line. However, later, he demonizes creation theory, Christians, and the political right. The author demonstrates an academic arrogance that causes him to glorify faculty and denigrate anyone he considers unenlightened. This doesn't strengthen the book any and is, if anything, simply distracting. Overall it's an interesting concept, and if you can get past his political/academic biases, is a fun read.
4792202
Four stars, easy to read,good character development, and enough twists to keep  it interesting too the end. I will definitely read the whole series.
4817995
An enjoyable read. The characters are fresh and well developed.
4239524
Well written;great character development; a compelling read.
762837
A fun read that was not predictable but was thoroughly entertaining. The characters are well-drawn, the plot/realm was well-conceived, and I rooted for the protagonist. I hope for a sequel.
3152749
I liked this book.  It is not an epic, in the usual sense.  Rather, it is simply a good story.  The main characters travel the land and sea, meet good guys and bad guys, kick a little butt, and come out okay in the end.  The writing style is straightforward, the characters are simple but well-defined.  No profanity, sex, blood and guts all over.  This would be a good story for a teen/young adult without worrying about questionable content, as well as older folks looking for an entertaining tale.  You won't be on the edge of your seat the whole time, but you will be interested about what happens next, and looking forward to finding out how the heroes fare.

Recommend for a good, fun read.  Four stars.
4607253
Fun read. Most things were explained in this story, but I hope more will be written. There is plenty of secondary characters for more related books (not serials please). The two main characters are pretty well rounded. The characters could have been developed more to give the story more depth. Same for the world we find the characters in. I liked the way the tale flowed. The plot was pretty straight forward with definite moments of excitement. I say again I hope the author writes more.
172111
excellent story, with well developed characters and some fun plot twists.
1208910
This is a very enjoyable read with nice, interesting, well developed characters.  It's fun to "watch" the relationship between the main characters play out for you.
2776108
For a self-published online fiction novel, the writing is really eloquent with inventive use of language, with fun and interesting heroes I found myself really rooting for - which is the most important thing, I think.

The two main characters have a lot of fun banter that made them particularly endearing to me. There's a nice dynamic there, with the shy straight-faced girl and the strong yet whimsical warrior as her foil, and I really enjoyed seeing their relationship develop throughout the course of their adventure. Them constantly learning more about each other and their troubles was the highlight of the story.

That said, it's not a perfect novel. Some of the eloquent language can arguably make action scenes drag on for a bit longer than they should, and could potentially confuse readers as to what's actually happening. I admit it did make me pause a few times.
The plot doesn't have a strong sense of direction, either. It introduces a lot of different elements early on, and most of them do come into play in what I'd refer to as the "crescendo" action segment, which is usually a good thing. But as there is so much going on, without that neat sense of direction, it ends up feeling rather unfocused. With some more build-up and trimming, a lot of the really really interesting stuff in that segment could've been made more poignant.
There are also a few typos here and there, but nothing major that messes up entire sentences or anything. Just minor things like "than" instead of "then" in a few places. Nothing really worthy of strong criticism, in my opinion, all things considered.

Most of my criticism above is overshadowed by my fondness for these interesting and refreshing characters, however. There is a lot of creativity and talent here that I appreciate, and the book does a good job of making you feel feelings.
All in all, it was a nice introduction to an adventure that I'd like to see more of. I can't wait for the next installment.
3708441
This story is entertaining, uplifting, and well written. A good read with well-developed characters and a fully fleshed-out story line. I recommend it.
3190208
I liked the story, the plot, the amount of characters, the story line seemed to flow, without losing interest in the entire story line.
2106015
Started out pretty light hearted and and consistently funny, eventually became a lot more serious and melancholy. This isn't a critique, merely an observation.

I enjoyed the character development, though felt there could have been a bit more as about halfway through there was no more development to be had for any of the characters. I enjoyed all the characters that were introduced and felt most of them were fleshed out quite well - but a couple seemed slightly repetitive and some others could have used more page time.

The story was well paced and I became genuinely invested in its outcome. I've read a LOT of super-genre books in the last couple years, so this next point might be my own fault - but the setting and motifs seemed very familiar. That being said, this was one of the better installments in the genre I've read so I enjoyed it.

This review might sound more negative that I intended it to, but the 4 star rating was earned. I really liked the premise and the build up, and the tonal shift from haphazard funny to world weary serious was actually quite refreshing as I found myself feeling more emotional about the conclusion than I expected.

Good stuff, looking into this authors other work next to see what else they have in store for me.
2681170
I really enjoyed this book. It's well-written, and the two main characters have such diverse characteristics, it's easy to tell who's who without the character headings.
3235171
Solid writing, good character development.
A bit slow at first, but got Interesting soon enough
3624656
Good story, well written. Enjoying the development of the characters.
4919913
I enjoyed this book.  The dialogue is well written, the story is well thought out, and the characters are meaningful.  I look forward to the next book in the series.