of Wind & Lightning by Ella Walker Henderson

Hello Everyone

Another day, another review! Yesterday saw the release of the second book in Ella Walker Henderson's Selah series called Of Plains and Fire. 

In preparation, I recently read the first book in this epic fantasy series called Of Wind & Lighting. 

This is Ella Walker Henderson's first fantasy series

 

Originally growing up on an island in South Carolina, she now lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

She is an avid reader and writer and says that one of her favourite genres is fantasy. As well as reading & writing, she is a longtime lover of travel and adventure. 

Her epic fantasy adventure, Selah is now available on Amazon.

Book Description 

In a land of legends, three rival nations hunt the ancient relic that can control rare and powerful warriors. 

With lightning speed and an affinity for knives, Desa is a legendary, one of the warriors the relic can enslave.

Disguised as a mercenary, she joins a band of enemy warriors who also hunt the relic. In the height of battle, a startling connection links her to their leader.

Will he help her find the relic or betray her for the glory of his northern kingdom? His aid could be worth the risk.

For if her oldest adversary succeeds in the hunt, he will destroy her and her world. 

Who will triumph? Join the epic quest to find the relic first.

I received a copy of this from the author who said would you mind reading this and saying what you think about. So, I did! And here's what I thought! 

Of Wind and Lightning is one of those books that definitely falls into the Epic fantasy camp. It has all the tropes that you associate with epic fantasy, and I mean all of 'em

So, if you like all that stuff, then is this the book for you? I think it might be you know! Although, I always say, then again it might not, but what I can give you in conclusion is that it is definitely worth your time (well I think so anyway!) 

Now as a rule, when it comes to epic fantasy in its purest form, sometimes I can be more enthusiastic than others to be honest, but there you go! That's just me! However, I found myself warming to this book, and I think that this is because it is unabashedly epic fantasy, and the author, Ella Walker Henderson is unflinchingly putting it out there that she likes this particular aspect of the fantasy genre and hopes you will give her book a chance. So I did! 

There's a lot to like about this book, and Ella Henderson tries to incorporate the regular fantasy tropes that we are all familiar with, but tries to do something different with them.. For instance with the chosen one trope, she expands it to incorporate two individuals that promise to work better together than apart. In addition, making the hidden artifact a little incorporeal without a fixed form is quite interesting, and I am intrigued to see how this manifests

I liked the main characters Selah and William, and how William is not necessarily the all encompassing hero type that is adored by his king and instead of being Mr Adorable, he is not as well liked as you might expect, even amongst his own men. In addition to that, Selah is not entirely likeable and I found her not to be the typical hero. She makes mistakes and at times is a little too focused on herself, which I quite liked.

There is plenty of character development in the story, with the main character Selah initially going from elite guard member to a slave in a couple of chapters and as we move through the book we see her rebuild herself in order to fit into the world she now finds herself in.

I did think at some points this was going to turn into a fantasy romance, and more than likely would have probably stopped if it had. However, Ella Walker Henderson keeps away from that and we see the development of William and Selah's relationship being one of necessity guided by the inimitable pull they feel towards each other based on their respective powers.

The world building is pretty distinctive and is split into three types of races, there's the Sulyanese that seems to be inspired by Persia, whilst William comes from Alethia, a medieval/Norse type, and then there's the other one, the Mirandans which seems to be based on medieval Europe.

The book kept my interest all the way through and I found I liked where the story was going. I liked the ideas of the Legendaries who are those people that have powers above the normal individuals and are imbued with special powers.

There is a lot of set up for the rest of the story and with the second book in the series soon to be released I am hoping to see some more expansion to the story and seeing how the plot develops.

Of Wind &.Lightning is an enjoyable fantasy that promises to be an exciting tale and I will definitely be continuing with Selah' s journey!