Publisher: Bookbaby
Written By: Ryan Hastings
RRP: £7.06 / $10.76 (Paperback) | £6.04 / $7.80 (Kindle)
Reviewed by: Sebastian J. Brook
Review Posted: 16th October 2020
Ryan Hastings' Rituals is a fresh take on the SciFi / Fantasy mash-up genre, and takes no time in throwing the reader straight into the action. In the city of Evermore a treacherous son is about to make a decision that will be the catalyst of a war between good and evil.
Our protagonist's, Galai'el and Yana battle the evil Dom'rel, together with Baalta, whilst saving a princess along the way. All the right ingredients are here for a fantastic adventure and Hastings pulls it off with lustre.
There is some fantastic world-building in Rituals, with the world of Harth and the kingdom of Malene painted in glorious detail - sometimes at the cost of added character depth, but with such a wonderful roster of characters, the author can be forgiven for painting some with lighter brush strokes than others.
All the action (and there's a LOT of action) ticks along at great speed, and as a reader you are constantly being propelled to continue reading - even, at times, when your eyes may need a rest, there's a wonderful propulsion to find out what happens next.
There's a wonderful morality tale at the heart of Rituals. Sure there is the obvious strands of good vs evil, but there is a religious theme that beats away gently throughout, and you can't help but feel like being a slightly better human at the end of it all. In fact, Hastings' closing paragraph is rather apt and bookends this story perfectly.
We were pleased to learn that there are two sequels to Rituals (Rituals: Storm And Serpent and Rituals: Wars, Worlds And Wards) - both titles we hope to review in due course. We enjoyed the escapism of Harth and cannot wait for our return ticket!
+ Rituals is Out Now!
+ Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk!
+ Follow @DragonFrisky (Ryan Hastings) on Twitter.
