Review: Progeny: The Children of the White Lions by R.T. Kaelin
Reviewed by Caleb Shadis
Progeny is R.T. Kaelin’s debut novel and I have to say I was really impressed. This tome is a promising beginning of a great epic and Kaelin has done an excellent job in telling his story. The first two chapters were a little rough, but soon after the writing smooths out and really gets its legs. The story moves right along, but Kaelin takes the time to flesh it out and give the world and the characters depth. I got caught up and was eager to find out what happened next, not to mention wanting to know more and more about the world I was immersed into.
The story starts with Nikalys and Kenders, a brother and sister, racing to the lake on a hot day to cool off. On the way, Kenders ‘senses’ something ‘blue’. They approach the beach slowly only to witness Mages (people who can perform magic using ‘threads’ to ‘weave’ spells) creating an incredible water monster, just before it is unleashed to drown and wash away their village. This starts them on a journey of justice and self discovery. Along the way they meet and collect individuals who need or want or can give help, and all of them are being pursued by an evil hell bent on destroying them all.
Overall, I would favorably compare Kaelin’s writing with Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, (early) Robert Jordan and even a bit of David Eddings mixed in. At just shy of 700 pages, Progeny is a lengthy book. Kaelin expects that he will need to cut down on the length to get a national publisher to pick it up, but I think cutting more than 50 pages would cause the story to lose some of its depth. I really enjoyed this book and my biggest disappointment is going to be waiting for the next installment.
Rating: 4/5
Caleb is a software engineer and amature woodworker living in southern Minnesota. He has more hobbies than he has time or money for, and enjoys his quiet time reading.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by R. T. Kaelin. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
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Mary – I agree with you. I like books with some weight behind them. I see Carol’s point, as well, and think I could cut 15% of the book without losing much. Even so, Progeny would still be a hefty read.
But if you are reading a good book, do you care how long it is? I don’t. And aren’t you upset when it’s over? I am.
Traditional publishers, though, hate long books for the simple fact they cost too much to print. Ebooks, though, solve that problem. It’s going to be finding that sweet spot that will be a challenge for me going forward.
I like a book to have some length to it. I remember years ago when so many of the books I picked up were 500 or 600 pages long and now we’re lucky if a book is 200-300 pages and the novellas are even shorter. I like a book to be big especially if I am really getting into it. I think it gives the author time to really flesh out the characters and bring the story to life.
I do like fantasy books every once in a while so I’ll keep this one in mind next time I’m looking for a fantasy read.
Mary Kirkland recently posted..Operation Auction
Thank you for the review. I have trouble stretching my imagination enough to read and enjoy books of magic and fantasy so I would probably stay away from this book. I do agree totally with the reviewer that cutting the length would be a great idea. It takes a major committment for me to read something that is almost 700 pages long so I make sure that the genre of the book is always one of my favorites.
This cutting would probably pull in more readers.
Carol Wong
For those interested in sampling Kaelin’s work he has some short stories he’s putting out that are happening before the events in Progeny. They are free on his site.
http://www.progenythebook.com/Terrene-Chronicle-no1-Market.html
I came across this on GoodReads once and after reading a couple of reviews, I went ahead and purchased the Kindle version (only $4 – why not?). I have to say I was really surprised – for a first book by an new, self-published author it was very well done. The depth of the world is impressive. Could it use an editor’s guiding hand? Sure, but I still found it to be better than most fantasy books traditionally published.
If Kaelin were to get picked up by a major publisher, I think we’d have a new big name in the genre. The reviewer here is right – Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan (although not as heavy as Jordan got at times) are great comparisons.
I’m not sure about this one. It sounds like for a fantasy book it is high quality and engrossing, but I tend to shy away from fantasy. Also, with it being so long, if I don’t like it I am in for a long haul of trying to make it through (I have this aversion to stopping a book before it is finished, even if I don’t like it very much). This one will take a little more thought. Thanks for the review!