The Sigil Blade (Archon Sigil Trilogy Book 1)

I described the book as dense because you have to wade through lots of words to get to action. So if you're looking for action then this isn't the book for you. I get bored with action books for the same reason I zone out during car chases in movies. I prefer a well written story with a lot of character development and this book meets that description.

As I said, the characters are fully realized. They are not one dimensional. I particularly liked that each character's motive develops slowly. There's bad guys but everyone else, with the exception of a couple, are like real people...a little bit of good and bad. The whole island of An Innis has made its living by selling slaves and piracy. But the individuals are neither black or white.

For example, edryd (main character) encounters the raiders who have captured and plundered every ship that attempts to leave or land on the island. They smear their skin with ash to make them look like undead beings ("ash men") who terrify the islanders. As edryd points out, an island that prospers from piracy is being plagued by pirates. He's led to them by secret means and asked for his help in a plot to take the island by force. Should we view these men as the good guys or bad guys?

As I said, the joy in this book is in the slow unveiling of each character's personality and the pieces of the puzzle each character reveals.

The negatives of this book are minor. There were articles and prepositions missing sometimes like "the," "into," etc. They caused me to stumble in my reading but for the most part these are things your mind fills in when you're reading.

Sometimes the rich description was a little too rich. For example, "The bronze coin was still pressed tightly in his hand and had become warm through the influence of a dissipating heat that was seeping rapidly from his body."

Sentences like that could be a little simpler without the book losing anything.

I generally read more science fiction than fantasy but like many nerds, The Lord of the Rings had a profound effect on me as a child and instilled a life long love of fantasy. This book falls under the category of "historical fantasy." By that I mean this could be a story that took place 200 years ago in our history with fantastical elements.

I was pleased to see draughrs as a main part of the plot. If you play Skyrim, you've had to fight these mythical Norse beings.

I'd recommend this book to any fan of fantasy who prefers story to action.

Overall good new epic fantasy, with very realistic characters and different story line from most other fantasy books. There are relatively few editing errors for a book of this price, and you get a lot of pages for very little money. None of the characters can be characterized as completely good or completely evil (which makes them all realistic), but you can clearly tell who you want to root for, which I enjoyed. The author had the tendency to show multiple character's points of view in the same situations, revealing sources of confusion and miscommunication as it was happening, which occasionally got annoying, as I would be frustrated with the main character that he would (seemingly) stupidly not notice things that were revealed to the reader. The magic system isn't thoroughly explained, but the reader knows about as much as the main character knows, so this isn't bad and I would expect it to be more fleshed out in the next book as the MC learns more.

All in all, it was entertaining all the way through with no major plot holes or hugely annoying aspects and I'm looking forward to book 2, but it wasn't spectacular enough to get 5 stars.

This story engaged my interest early and held it. The direction the story took was unpredictable, I enjoyed the characters, and felt that aspects of the main character which have been criticized by other readers actually made him relatable. I do think The Blood Prince is a must read prior to reading The Sigil Blade, (perhaps it should be a prologue?), and the Kindle edition had some editing errors which disturbed reading fluidity, but overall this was a great clean read, intriguing, with interesting fantasy creatures, (who's history could make a compelling series in itself) and without the over the top violence and sexuality which has completely ruined other series. I definitely recommend The Archon Sigil Trilogy to other readers, and will be waiting to read the next installment in the trilogy! Thanks Jeff Wilson! Keep it up!

Great read and an appropriate amount of mystery to keep me guessing. Inventive fantasy and I'm definitely looking forward to more. I read a lot of the fantasy/sci fi genre and this was definitely top tier stuff. I wasn't reading with the critical editing eye so I didn't note any of the glaring grammatical errors that a couple other reviewers noticed- and usually I pick up on that stuff.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. The story is well paces and the characters (especially Edryd and Seoren) are developed well and I felt for each and every one of them. A little more interplay in dialogue between some characters would have made this a 5'er, but that is the only negative thing I have. Editing was very good, and I'm eager to read the next installment. If you enjoy high fantasy and a character driven story, definitely check this one out!

I truly enjoyed this book. The author is intuitive and introspective by his own admission but arguably better than he or his main character is comfortable with acknowledging. The writing style and obvious intelligence and education of the author is greatly appreciated as he doesn't 'talk down' to the reader but treats them as an equal in thought. I felt the chicken dumpling recipe was extremely thoughtful and not in the least bit contrite. Although the author isn't the editor or proof reader that brought it to e-print. An unexpected treat that reminds you that the characters are more than the writer.

Pretty decent book. Little slow. Decent story, good ideas and over all world, however the pacing was slow and the combat writing wasn't that great. I had a hard time really visualizing the few battle scenes there were. Overall I give it a 'not too bad' and I will likely read the sequels when they come out.

Good Stuff, I am looking forward to the next episode. Not a true hero nor an anti-hero for much of the book, the protagonist was even a bit annoyingly whiny at times! However,the story was interesting and the first book in this series seems to set up the following stories very well. I am really interested in the world the author built and in the future endeavors of Edryd.

I absolutely loved this book. I have read hundreds of books in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre, so lets just say that I have read all types. Good, bad, and not so good. Jeff Wilson develops characters that are deep, that you want to know more about. He makes you love them, and makes you hate them. I couldn't put it down, and I was so sad when the story ended. I cannot wait until the next book comes out, but I do hope that he takes his time and makes it just as good as this one was!

I love this book. The writing was compelling, it was masculine and concise; the characters were engaging. I was really interested in each of the characters you spent time with, I remembered each little side character and didn't just forget about them. Everything felt detailed, it felt fleshed out and put a complete picture in my head.

I just want to see where the story is going from here.

The overall premise is good, but the book is overwritten. Most of the male characters all sound like they just graduated from the same MFA program (even barflies in a seedy bar),

The attribution of dialogue made me cringe at times. Imagine if you read a crime novel and there were passages like: "I'll kill you," he said threateningly. Or "I stole this," he said, admitting to the theft. Kinda obvious, right? The whole novel was in need of a serious edit.

I loved reading this! The characters were fun, believable, and the story was paced perfectly. I also appreciated the underlying plot that came to a head towards the end of the novel.

Wonderful book.

Fantastic book. I realy enjoyed it. The autor uses a lot of words to discribe a whole world around the characters.

Just the villains could be a bit less likable. They all just seem to have a sad story behinde them and whished they were amongst the good guys.

I am really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Interesting story. I would recommend reading the included short (Book 0) at the end of the book first. I must have missed it. If that would have just been made the entire prologue would have been helpful. A few typos but these seem to be leaking into even major publications. Waiting on book 2....

This story flirted with some very interesting plot possibilities that, unfortunately, never really materialized in a satisfying way. However, the story was able to hold my attention enough to complete it. Not a bad first try. I hope the author sticks with it as he definitely has talent.

I enjoyed this book and appreciated the clean violence, non swear writing. I was confused however, as to the mysterious illness that had Erdryd unconscious for 3 weeks. It was never explained what happened to him or how he suddenly woke up and got better. Other than that, I thought it was a good book.

Very engrossing story that I am sad to realize will not be continued in short order. Hopefully the writing goes smoothly and Sigil Knight will hold up to the high standard this first chapter has set.

Perfectly well written course I have some concerns on the age of edryd since it really didn't specify it but as read more of the book I found out that it really doesn't matter because it was so well written.

Fantastic book!Good luke!Gallery!

Heracles!
Heracles son you Zeus.
And woman Zemnoy.
Brave wars.
And strategist of a front line.
I made 12 feats.
Always in everything I had a reputation for a victory.
And there I trained army.
The people in battles got.
I united the country.
Glory you the shone that.
And the world in soul restored.
Why the history is sacred.
Why it is so intimate.
After all ancestors blood that not water.
Love life is always sacred.
Gallery!

The author's writing style did not appeal to me. There is nothing particularly wrong with it; I just find it to be an incredibly round-about and verbose way of story-telling. The protagonist is annoyingly petty and impulsive for his apparent age.

The book is ok but too much author projection. Like he would have felt better if he knew so and so was there. Stuff like that ruined the rhythm of the story for me. It was slow because of these unnecessary explanations.