Whill of Agora: Whill of Agora, Book 1

OK I love the map that is provided. It is very helpful.So is the fact that there is a lot of history given in pieces as the story progresses. Ploof is a very good author in this sense (and he has a good editor as well)!Whill is a 19- almost 20- year old who has been brought up by his father’s friend Abram and Abram’s sister Teera. His parents died the day of his birth, though those details come later. And, as a reader of fantasy stories, they didn’t really surprise me.There are a lot of tropes used here, though with enough twists and the author’s individual tone that the story felt original enough. Still, that predictability along with a few other things that nagged at me prevented me from giving this a 5-star rating.Namely, the over-repeated use of the phrase “As you know,...” or something similar to that.Also, I was able to pinpoint times when I thought “Oh, that is from LOTR,” and “I remember scenes like these from Eragon.Through Teera, Whill learned medicinal and culinary uses of every herb and plant in the known lands. Through Abram, Whill learned how to speak Elvish and Dwarvish, geography, fighting, and history. Through both, he learned sewing, cooking, and many other skills.Abram has always left on long journeys and, about two years ago, requested that Whill join him. This time though, there is the promise that Whill will truly know of his heritage.On the other (western) side of the continent of Agora, abram enters Whill in a fighting contest against knights. Of course, he is paired against the “dragonslayer,” Rhunis, a knight closer to his own age than he realized. A Lord Rogus and the King of Eldalon (one of the four kingdoms of men...though I count three so I'm either misreading the map or that info was wrong) are more than happy to see Whill fight, which is a hint to his heritage. That, and the fact that Abram is friends with Lord Rogus.And the dwarf king, Ky’Ell.And the elf queen, Araveal.King Mathus seems to be pretty young himself, as well as an understanding person. I really like that.There is trouble brewing in the lands, though. There was an evil Dark elf named Eadon who combined an unborn elf with a dragon egg to spawn beings called Draggard. They had the shape of elves and features of dragons, and were taking over various parts of the land, including entire kingdoms. In recent years, they’ve been getting worse.So Whill and Abram drop all plans to head to Dy’Kore, a dwarf city, to talk with Ky’Ell and see how they can help him against the Draggard.As well as help Queen Araveal.Pirates. Storms. Battle. Waves and wind. Getting lost.These are the dangers that await anyone heading to sea, and Whill and Abram are no exception to this. In a way, it’s fortunate that the worst pirate comes to overtake them, because Whill’s abilities manifest [early], with both positive and negative repercussions. I like that downsides are explained, both from a worldly sense and a moral one.Along the way, they come in contact with Eldonians, islanders who want to lead a simple life. Their homes sound beautiful and yes, simple. The larger the house, the larger the family that lives there. They work for and with each other. They celebrate and share fortunes, and mourn together.Dy’Kore is like a typical dwarven city, but still sounds pretty neat. As mentioned before, there are unique aspects that make it Ploof’s. It is here that Whill’s past is revealed. It’s both sad and very interesting, speaking of a friendship between the human King Theorolus and elven Queen Araveal over 500 years ago. The elves, it seems, are able to teach their magic, what they call Orna Catorna.Fast-forward to current years, and we all learn of the horrors of Addakon, who became king of Arden after the death of his brother. He seems to hope to conquer all of Agora….with the help of the Draggard, though many people are purposefully blind that that fact.Along the way, they pick up a few friends--companions, as Ploof calls them:Tarren, a boy from FendaleRoakore, a dwarf from Dy’KoreThe elven siblings, Zerafin and Avriel. Avriel is younger than her brother and yet is 650 years old. My brain hurts.And, neatly enough, Rhunis.I absolutely love the information on both the dwarf and elf religions, and how they have kept track of time.The elven teachings and focus of powers are also fascinating. From healers and fighters to druids and monks, all skillsets are represented in a way I’ve seen in the past, but not all at once.Dwarves have an utter respect for life and motherhood. "We love and guard our women as fiercely as we do our treasure, for they are the givers of life, the greatest gift bestowed upon us by the gods."

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great series to read.. Do not skip this book read it!!

Legends of Agora books 1-4NOTE: These books are available as an E-book bundle.I highly recommend this series. It is a well written, thoroughly enjoyable, fast paced, high action romp through a familiar world. The world and plot are standard fair with enough originality to make it memorable.Book 1:Enter a world created without fear of copying stereotypical Tolkien races, albeit with some interesting differences and enhancements. Characters and races are less pure (chaste) than you'd expect from Tolkien, but good and evil exist with little gray between. To me this polarization is a plus. Modern readers often seem to disparage authors who use goody-two-shoes protagonists as being unrealistic, but I would choose this approach and this series over Game of Thrones or Malazan Book of the Fallen any day. That being said, the main protagonist comes off as a bit saccharin during most of the first book, after which his life and personality become more complicated. Elven and Dwarven magic is given structure. Dark Elf antagonists exist with extraordinary power gained from their willingness to use forbidden magic, and magical beasts threaten at the coming of age of our hero, Whill of Agora.Books 2-4:The plot thickens nicely as more characters are introduced and lasting friendships develop. Gray or downright muddy characters come into play as mystery and betrayal are introduced. Still, don't expect soap-opera relationships among most of the core characters. A new character is introduced and becomes prominent. While possibly independently derived he could be a Kron Darkbow (Ty Johnston) knockoff with a little bit of Drizzt Do'Urden and a lot of Jarlaxle (R.A. Salvatore) added in.The author uses smooth flowing, easy to understand and fast paced language. No extreme profanity is present and there are very few typos. I dislike his use of profanity replacements like "Shyte", etc. I personally would prefer he use the word outright or come up with original and perhaps world-relevant exclamations. He commits a few cardinal sins, including one "I know, right?", one use of communication stones with a "so-and-so out" sign-off, and several cases in which the word "weary" is used when "wary" was meant. The latter being consistent.Books 1-4 contain a complete story with a satisfying conclusion, but the story does continue with book 5 released in August of 2015. Based on this work I intend to continue reading the series.

The story of a boy coming of age and coming into his powers which he doesn't understand, but they keep growing and he keeps using them. He seems almost a little bit too good to be true, as does most of the characters. Somewhat predictable. If I was 16-17 years old this would probably be one of my favorites. However at age 70, and being a prolific reader, this book is an OK book, but not great. One of the things I found distracting was that Mr. Ploof changed scenes and characters from one paragraph to the next without letting the reader know he was changing subjects. Sometimes I had to say "wait, what?" and go back and to the first of the paragraph and read again or read half way through the paragraph to find out which character was the focus. Even if he just skipped a line between paragraphs, it would be helpful to let us know the subject had changed. The fight scenes were not so long as to get boring, and there was other action going on as well so that it did not turn out to be just one fight scene after the next as some of the recent books I have read. Ok, that said; I liked it well enough to buy the next book to see if the characters develop any depth of character and the story has any new twists to it to keep me interested. If so, I will continue the series, if not then I will go on to something else.

Blimy . I think Mr Ploof has read a lot of fantasy books in his lifetime because I found snippets of so many of them in Whill of Agora.Everyone knows the plot of alot of fantasy books. Orphan child with mysterious past turns out to be rightful monarch and must fight their nasty relatives to retake their throne.But I found so many snippets of other stories I just couldn't enjoy it.Other's might but not for me.

This is an excellent read. The characters slowly build and become real. The story is told at a good pace and it becomes hard to put the book ( or kindle) down. I did find it odd at first how the story jumps from one piece of action to a different piece of action from paragraph to paragraph, rather than by chapter. But I can see that it made the pace much faster and quite enjoyed it after a while. Book two here I come.

I got this free book when I first got my kindle about a year ago and it's just been sat in my reading list not thinking to go for it but I'm really glad I did as this gripped me as much as assassins apprentice by robin hobb and the characters are so well written and individual. I will be carrying on this series

A good read, not a great start for me as whill is introduced already being a great swordsman and getting a bit too much too quick in my opinion, but i am a fan of the coming of age books or the already a hero type in an older character, that said once the story kicked in and got going after the expected explanation events i could not put the book down, one page had me laughing out loud. The book gets better and better as the story progresses and i have already purchased the second book, not quite a David Gemmell, David Eddings or Raymond E Feist but definitely up there in my opinion. If you like these authors or R A Salvator, Brent Weeks and James Barclay then its definitely worth a read as judging by how this book gets (and considering it is a first) the others will get better and better, great job and i can't wait to read the next one.

I stopped reading because the hero was way overpowered and all his friends were hyper-competent goody-goodies as well. I regret wasting 99p which I could have spent on a cheese & onion pasty.