Fel'annár is a gifted immortal warrior embarking on his first patrol into the Deep Forest. Half-Silvan, half-Alpine, he battles the enemy from without, and the prejudice from within. But he learns more than just warfare when an arcane power begins to emerge, one he cannot control.

While friendships are forged, a destiny unfolds, one that is tied to a past he knows nothing about. For others, though, it is only a matter of time before the truth is revealed, and the danger becomes real.

If you love high fantasy worlds with compelling characters on a dangerous mission, you can't miss Path of a Novice, book one in the epic fantasy series The Silvan Saga.

Listening Length

9 hours and 23 minutes
Author

R.K. Lander
Narrator

Daniel Thomas May
Audible release date

February 12, 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Tantor Audio
ASIN

B07N33FSQ4
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 23 minutes
Author	R.K. Lander
Narrator	Daniel Thomas May
Audible.com Release Date	February 12, 2019
Publisher	Tantor Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07N33FSQ4
Best Sellers Rank	#17,522 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #80 in Magical Realism Fiction #437 in Fantasy for Teens #698 in Magical Realism

Customer reviews

5 star		72%
4 star		21%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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LadyMcBeath

Elves like you’ve never known before

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2019

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I haven’t enjoyed elves this much since I met Drizzt back in the day. I couldn’t give it five stars, even though I loved it, because it’s a story about warriors that lacks good battle scenes. But it’s exciting, with great characters and decent world building. It’s just too obviously written by a woman. These are the most emotional elves I’ve ever encountered. They spend a little too much time braiding each other’s hair. The magic system is largely undefined so it’s use comes without context. The military situation feels unexplained. They are raided regularly, but not by an army seeking to conquer. The enemy seems to have no purpose other than destruction. Also, there is a large back story of how a minority of Alpine elves came to conquer the Silvan nation which could have been explored but is largely ignored. Perhaps it will be explored in future volumes. Which I look forward to, in spite of my rating.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

First book in an intriguing Epic Fantasy series

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2018

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And Ladies, even though the cover shows a handsome Elf, this is not a romance book. It has wonderful characters, a fantastic World, and great action scenes. I only wish it had been longer, because then it would have allowed even more depth and world building. It was, though, very nicely written and did not end with a cliffhanger (although the story has just begun).

First--the writing style. It was (as in most epic fantasies) very descriptive. Third person. Sentences were a bit too long, as many lasted for an entire paragraph. British spelling on some words. Easy and smooth flow.

Second--the World. This world had varied types of Elfs, not just 'Dark' or 'Light'. It had enemies not just within the caste system and the different Elven species, but with violent creatures who used to be human. It highlighted one Elven race's love of nature and forests.

Third--the characters. Nicely developed and interesting with (again, as usual) nearly unpronounceable names. The main character is 51-year old Elf. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that he was considered too young to be a Warrior. His origins are unknown to himself (although the reader and some of the other characters eventually find out). He has a few good friends, and his superiors respect him. All he has ever wanted was to be a warrior Captain and to serve his King and his people.

The ending was a little anti-climatic, because I was expecting that the MC would know who he was by that point. But it wasn't a cliffhanger, which is a plus.

I liked it. In fact, I've done something that I almost never do (mostly because my 'To Read' pile is so large). I've actually pre-ordered the second book.

11 people found this helpful

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The Baker Family

Not Bad. Kept Wondering If I Was Reading Book 2

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2020

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So it is a fun read. Let's state that right off. I did read it all the way through, but there were elements that I found annoying.

The author is a decent writer, though I found quite a few terms that did not seem to match the time period and would throw me when used--made me wonder if the author had really done her homework. The imagery is good, not too heavy to the point where we can't get to the story itself. But where the author jumps into the story kept making me wonder if I was reading book 2 instead of book 1.

Characters and backstory that seemed to be significant weren't fully explained, but the author wrote as if the reader should already understand or know their significance. For example, at the end of the story, there were a variety of characters that were introduced but the author treated them as if the reader already knew all about them. I actually went and looked to make sure I was really, indeed reading book 1.

The characters themselves are diverse and multi-dimensional. They have differing personalities and for the most part they stayed true to character. The main annoying thing for me was the omniscient perspective the author took for the characters. The reader knows what everyone is thinking at any given time. The problem for me with such a view is that I found it hard to invest in the main character. In fact, it took some time to determine who the main character was supposed to be. I like experiencing a story through the eyes of a single character, and I didn't like knowing more than the main character did. I would have preferred to discover his hidden history as he did--or at least reasoned it out on my own--but instead I found out through secondary characters. That is a personal preference, but it did make it harder to feel invested in the main character.

The action scenes were good, though slightly unbelievable at times. The magic system is still a mystery--something that might be explained better in the next books...dunno. The plot was interesting, though vague as to who the enemy was, why they were the enemy, and what their goals were. I enjoyed the mystery around the main character, but was baffled as to what the main goal of the story was. In fact, it was not made clear as to the main character's motivations--his personal goals were made clear enough, but why he had those goals and why such an ambition existed was all rather vague.

But overall, it is a good story and a fun read.

3 people found this helpful

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Sue C. Dees

A MUST READ

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2019

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This is the beginning of a wonderful story. The Silvan, is such an unassuming title but it so completely describes Fel'annar, Hwind'ator, our blossoming hero. Little does the reader know as they read the first few pages, that their mind will be consumed with the life of this young Elf. It has been awhile since I have enjoyed a story so much. Our author has woven his life masterfully on the pages of her book and by the end of the first book, we have rejoiced with him and cried for him, we have feared for him even though he is only a character in a book. He has come to life and touched our hearts and minds. I often wonder what it must be like to be a writer with stories to share. What is different in their minds than the minds of other people. I'll never know, but I will be able to enjoy their gifts as they share them with the rest of us.

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Tiree

shallow book extremely badly written with poor language skills

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2018

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I found this book to be exceedingly shallow in its scope and plot. I found the politics to be simplistic. The descriptions were cursory at best (eg: the courtyard below the royal chambers) and did not work to provide an holistic evocation of a large world. The constantly highly-charged emotional state of the characters seemed odd to me, unrealistic. The language was bombastic and the lexical choices were bizarre to say the least. It seemed to me that someone had chosen to use the longest words they could, after checking them in a dictionary, however their usage was not correct within context. I found out after I had finished reading the book that it was not written by a native English-language speaker so that may go some way towards explaining the weird grammatical constructions and inappropriate lexical choices.

The author also slipped from narrating through the eyes of the characters, to narrating from a ‘God-stance’. One example is: they were walking through a courtyard looking at ‘studies’ and ‘healing halls’ off to the sides. They could not know this at this point as they had just arrived. You would have to insert ‘what looked like’ ground-floor studies.

On a positive note, I thought the dialogue was generally not too bad and some of the characters reasonably well-drawn.

It was simply not believable that the main character had never heard of the King's indiscretion, since this appeared to be a well-known historical fact to everyone else.

I add some notes below to highlight some of the language issues. Many passages needed to be re-worked but there were too many to list here. I had 140 pages of ‘notes and marks’ on my kindle, where the text needed to be amended.

This is a poorly-written book which needed much proof-reading and editing prior to publication, which obviously did not happen. The Epilogue was particularly dreadful.

Vocabulary

Everywhere the author has used ‘thusly’ should be either removed entirely or replaced by more appropriate vocabulary. ‘Thusly’ should not be used at all.

‘to be banished thusly by the Silvans’ should be ‘to be banished by the Silvans’

The author should also remove every ‘utter’ which is included in the text – ‘utter’ is simply not required and where it is included is inappropriate.

‘his antagonist’s comment somehow ameliorating his aggressive emotions rather than exacerbating them’ should be ‘somehow modifying his aggressive emotions rather than fuelling them’

‘gesticulating wildly’ should be ‘gesturing wildly’ (‘to gesticulate’ has the sense of ‘to point’)

‘adverse to the idea of’ should be ‘averse to the idea of’

‘an onerous weight settled in his chest’ should be ‘a heavy weight settled in his chest’

‘simply burned carelessly’ should be ‘simply burned indiscriminately’

‘prompted the king monotonously’ should be ‘prompted the king dully’ (indeed on every occasion ‘monotonous’ is used, it should be replaced with more appropriate vocab)

‘with time came a purge of what worked, what didn’t, what might’ should be ‘with time came a synthesis of what worked’

Grammar

In general, the commas are placed incorrectly within sentences throughout the entire book. Commas are also used too liberally by the author and are often not required.

‘one he had craved for’ should be ‘one he had craved’ (the ‘for’ is included in ‘craved’)

‘to earlier promotion’ should be ‘to early promotion’ (if you use the word ‘earlier’ here it means promotion that happened earlier in the day, for example)

‘the noble onus of protecting Valley’ should be ‘the noble responsibility for’, or ‘the noble charge of’ (‘onus’ means ‘putting emphasis on’ eg: the onus was on him to do the deed)

‘since for as long as he could remember’ should be ‘for as long as he could remember’ (the ‘since’ is not required)

‘fields sprawled endlessly into the horizon’ should be ‘fields sprawled endlessly to the horizon’

‘gesturing for them to dismount somewhat rudely’ should be ‘gesturing rudely for them to dismount’ (they are not dismounting rudely, it is the gesture that is rude)

‘Far be it from he to distrust the word’ should be ‘Far be it from him to distrust the word’

Tenses

‘being lain to waste by the Sand Lords’ should be ‘being laid to waste’

‘it was the Silvans that lead the festivities’ should be ‘it was the Silvans that led the festivities’

‘as they danced and they drunk’ should be ‘as they danced and drank’

Constructions of sentences and paragraphs

Too many problems to list.

19 people found this helpful

CasT

Couldn't put down

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2019

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I'd had this book on my kindle for a while before finally getting round to it. The blurb and synopsis intrigued me, but didn't truly grab me. I was on holiday, bored and decided what's to lose, I'd already bought it for less than a loaf of bread. What I discovered with each page was a world I became enthralled by. The depths to each character, the vivid beauty of both lush forest and stone architecture, the detailed fights both physical and verbal with all their horror, pain, fear, relief, joy, sadness, pride and shame. This author writes of a world I found myself wanting to literally jump into and join. Share the camaraderie, the laughter and even the pain. Watch our main protagonist grow, slowly learning what others already see.
PS) FYI, I ended up buying the other two in the series and had to read them before I could take the time for this review!

4 people found this helpful

Spiced Wine

A rich, absorbing new fantasy world

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2018

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I so thoroughly enjoyed this. R.K. Lander leads us into a world where, instead of being on the sidelines, the Elves are the main actors. They are passionate and proud, skilled and flawed. The Alpine Race, having advanced into the Silvan lands, seem benign enough rulers, but there is a dark underbelly of racism and superiority. The Silvans cling to their forests and trees with which they have an almost symbiotic relationship.

Emerging to straddle the two races comes Fel’annár, offspring of both Alpine and Silvan, with all that will entail.

There are rich characters, underlying conflict, as the path of this young novice warrior, who cannot be hidden, much though some would wish him to be, steps forward...

2 people found this helpful

Me Richard E. Jervis

Best read of the year so far !

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2018

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Classic, in the mould of Eddings and Fiest,.
This is only the first book and the reference to Eddings and Fiest might be a bit over the top, but it was a great book, the story well told and the cast of players well developed.
A must read for fans of fantasy!
Obviously books are all about personal taste but this really is worth a read !

4 people found this helpful

Kingshussar

I think this story has lots of relevance today with race playing a major part.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2020

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I am now on book three, I can honestly say this series of books is the best I have read in the last 10 years at least and I have been reading epic fantasy for over 40 years, this lady is right up there with the very best and I include George Martin, Steven Erickson Tad Williams etc, I just can’t put it down the world building is awesome the story has everything a fantasy nut craves, it also has ( Uniquely I think) very moving dialogue involving main characters. Brilliant

One person found this helpful

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