Defender (The Sanctuary Series Book 1)

Reading Defender was like falling in love with RA Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden novels all over again. Crane tells a captivating story, full of action, character growth, and ridiculous jokes. Fantasy novels have a tendency to focus too heavily on certain elements of a story (like a character's religious journey, how they feel about their family, an inner monologue, love interests, or just plain combat mechanics) but Defender is well-balanced and plot development is natural. I hate it when you can predict the next pages of the book I'm reading and I haven't had that happen with Defender. Dialogue is fresh, there's just enough foreshadowing to keep you interested (but not so much that you can just skim the book), and Crane's style is entertaining all by itself. This book has truly been a joy to read. I haven't waited for a sequel this impatiently in years...

This a fantastic book! It has lots to offer: good plot, interesting lands, good character development, and few grammatical errors. When reading, I felt like I was next to the characters not on my couch. That is exactly what I want when reading. It was hard to put down and that is not good if you have children. I am looking forward to starting the next book.

I absolutely love the Sanctuary Series. I've read 3 books so far...waiting for the 4th so impatiently. I can't wait. These books are so imaginative and intriguing. Arkaria is such a vast and diverse place and all of the characters play some type of roll to everything in these books. I would love to see them made into a movies, but would be disappointed if they messed it up!!!! The author is just simply amazing for creating and writing this series of books. Cyrus is just plain awesome.

A nice story line with plenty of action....could have used a bit more attention to detail.
I will no longer be reviewing any books or stories because I feel that I should be able to write as much or as little as I desire and not be required to submit "X" amount of words in my review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I snagged this when it was promoted via BookGorilla or BookBub because the premise sounded neat. And it did. Great premise.

The good news about Defender is that it's very well written. Structurally and grammatically the book holds up well. There are sections of dialogue that's terrific. Very well written, compelling, and in a few cases, pretty damn poetic. Well done on that.

I had several problems with Defender, hence the low review. The book reads like a written account of a D&D session, or a long MMO raid. It's mechanical. It's encounter-action-loot. The spaces between those moments are also cluttered with cut and paste gaming archetype characters that didn't speak out to me in any fashion that made them interesting.

There are trolls, dark elves, dwarves and gnomes. Dragons and druids and wizards, and far too many people who can teleport for my taste. The scope of a fantasy world is hurt when you can cross it in the span of a deep breath. And what did we learn about the backgrounds of any of the core characters? Where are they from, why do they do what they do? I didn't read nearly enough character background for my taste.

Anyway, for me, it was a very well written, but formulaic action fantasy novel. Nothing too original, and no character I could really identify with.

I hope the author keeps writing. He can write and I hope he finds a subject matter that is original and compelling, because I'd love to read it.

This was a great story if you are a fan of action packed fantasy. It took me back to gaming on Saturdays with my friends. It had good character development though I would have liked to have seen a bit more detail in the characters' relationships and a tad less detail in the fight scenes (of course that may be like asking for more character development in most action flicks - nice but not required). The last chapter really helped clear up a lot of storyline and I am looking forward to the sequel.

I did not go into this book expecting "great" things but I found my self talking about it at work. That is when I know something has me and this book had me. Was it the best? no, but I found that I was reading each page wanting to find out more.

I think its a pretty solid book plus the next two on the series. i started defender on friday and finnished champion on sunday. If you like to play UO, Everquest, or W.O.W. then you should like this series. Having guild runs going into dungeons, having a pug group and recieving loot at the end. I can't wait for the next installment.

Absolute childish writing. Reads more like a game manual than a novel. No character development, poor diction, and the 'plot' is pretty much a D&D game. Not worth it, even free. Only wish I could give 0 stars.

The author does a wonderful job of creating a world I would love to explore. Arkaria is a fascinating place full of danger and excitement...two things the main characters seek out constantly. This makes for an extremely fast and fun read that throws stuffy fantasy writing out the window and makes the book more enjoyable than it has a right to be.

"Defender" is Robert J. Crane's first novel. We are introduced to Cyrus Davidon, the main character, and follow his adventures alongside a multitude of colorful and interesting Arkarians. Fans of the fantasy genre will recognize familiar races such as dwarves, elves, and dragons. The author's decision to stick with well-known races goes a long way toward making the book more accessible to the average reader and removes the burden of having to remember a hundred made-up names. The story builds to a satisfying conclusion that leaves the world wide open for more books (like Avenger: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Two, the sequel to "Defender").

I also want to note that this novel lacked the typos that usually make reading a self-published novel unbearable. It was formatted well and I never once thought that I wasn't reading something that should rightfully cost $20. "Defender" is a fun read and should satisfy anyone looking for a ton of action, witty characters, and an intriguing story.

This is a story of an adventurer that joins a guild and fights many foes with his comrades. Soon a conspiracy comes forth and the Guild called "sanctuary" must come together to stop a dragon from taking over the world.

If you want to read about the drama of a guild from world of Warcraft but in the real world then this book is for you. Every race in the game is also in the book. It is almost like this author copied the entire dialog and action of 50 raids and made it a book. Even the powers of the game are in the book. I joke not when I say this is a complete copy of the game.

If this book was not free I would never recommend this book to anyone. It was dry and boring the entire time. It takes about 30% of the book to understand who is who because the author does an info dump in the very first chapter giving you 5 plus characters talking at the same time.

No sex, drugs, alcohol

Welcome to EverQuest, the book. While the manes are not the same, I can not appreciate a book that is exactly how a game goes without crediting the source it follows so exactly. Types of spells, who casts what, types of opponents, types of drops, objectives of characters, guilds, guild arguments, guild drama, locations, how you travel, and more are all right out of EQ. The book is set right when The Planes of Power came out. It is content from when I was still playing EQ, which is why I recognize it so well. If the author wants to be inspired by something, fine. Just give credit where it is due. And yes, coincidence is possible, but there is far to much in this work for me to think it random.

The character development is so trite is it deplorable. For example, the main male character gets into an argument with a woman at the start and is later shown that he has always had a thing for her. This revelation is when the enchanter uses a spell on him that reveals deepest desires and it exposes something the character himself did not know. He always thought it was hater but really it is love? Someone spent too much time digging behind a male bovine creature to find this "gem" of a character concept. The entire idea that people show dislike to someone they like comes from the acts of children and rapists. It has been shown to be false in real life and is far too overused in stories.

On and on, tired and improbable plot devices keep getting brought up to the point where I just had to stop reading and am looking for ways to remove the free book from my account.

If you love old EQ and wanted to read a book set in it, fine. Go for it. Otherwise, not worth the time to read.

Overall ... I like this book. It took a little while to get there, but I like it. The plot certainly thickens as you get closer to the end, and intrigue builds satisfyingly. Yes, I like this book.

Now, it does take a while to get there, and you are left with doubt plaguing at points, but once we have a taste of the scale of the problem - rampant gods, crazy dragons, and a big war on the horizon - the whole thing makes more sense. There are some 'turn-offs' in the novel, but overall this is a good read. Nice work Robert.

I particularly like the structure of the novels, the brief intro which is then followed by a majority of the book written eight years earlier. The second book does the same, but seven years earlier, with a tantalising suggestion that all hell has broken loose. That's clever, and it keeps you on track, even through the tougher bits.

Now, it felt to me like this book was improving as time went on - like cheese (or more likely wine). I came up with a number of problems whilst reading the book, but by the time I got the end, they were lesser issues in my mind. The risk is that a reader will pick up the book, and be turned off before they reach the end, but I would urge you to read on. The better bits are definitely at the end of the book.

For completeness, here are some of my key observations:
1. P.O.V. is third person, but this is not always obvious. I think the problem stems from the fact that there is not that much depth to the prose, so it feels almost omniscient at times.
2. The plot takes a while to turn into something we can grab as rational and emotional readers. Early in the story, it appears that our hero has joined a group of mercenaries who go around killing for little more than kicks and coinage - quite challenging to swallow (for me anyway). Fortunately, by the end, the greater purpose is revealed, and it starts to make more sense. But it is touch and go.
3. For me, the bounds of the magic are just too loose. This group of mercenaries have a bunch of wizards who can cast constant healing spells, and even bring people back to life with apparent 'ease'. I liken it to playing a computer game with invincibility cheats enabled - it's funny for a moment, and then it gets boring. Fortunately, Robert redeems himself when he introduces the concept of combat with gods. Suddenly the scope of the magic is not so silly, but we need to know this earlier.
4. And then there's Cyrus. As characters go, he's a bit magnolia, and what's frustrating as a reader is that everything sort of just goes his way. We should be interested in our main protagonist, but Cyrus is likeable (there's nothing to dislike) without being overly interesting.
5. And that leads me to my final comment - the size of the cast. It's just too big. I would struggle to keep tabs on that many people in real life. In a novel? I gave up with most of the names and just tried to make sure I kept tabs on the important ones. It seemed to work for me.

All these are reasons that the book struggles to grip, earlier in particular, but ultimately, I am contented. And, even though there are other books that will jump the queue, I will come back to this. I want to find out, and that makes it a good story. And in the end, that's all that matters.

I read this book as part of the "Quest" anthology of novels.

This was essentially the author's fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons meets World of Warcraft. The entire book is about "guilds" going on "adventures" to accumulate treasure. Even the titles and powers of the characters are straight out of D&D. There are Paladins, Rangers, Warriors, Druids, Healers, etc... Very little originality there.

Then there are the quests that the characters go on. These are essentially straight out of WOW. There is even one quest described as having to go through a portal to fight the monsters, then every time a new group goes in all of the monsters and treasures are reset for this new group to fight. Again, very little originality.

It would have been nice if there was more time spent exploring the characters so we could get to know them and care about them. As it sits, I, as the reader, had little to no empathy with the characters and did not really care what happened to them. Hell, with them just being constantly resurrected did it even matter what happened to them? They would just be back in the next paragraph.

This book could also use a good editor. There were far too many editing errors like missing words or bad punctuation. There is even one instance of the word "said" being spelled "sai".

While I am sure there are people out there that would enjoy this style of writing it is certainly not the first thing I would go for and I am not going to be picking up the sequels any time soon.

I bought this book in a seven book series and so far it's off to a pretty decent start definitely worth the $0.99 I paid for them.

This book takes place in a fantasy world where dwarves, elves, dark elves, gnomes, dragons, and many other mythical creatures live. Oh ya and humans are there too.

When I began reading this book I was not fully hooked on it. While I enjoyed the adventures, I felt like it was a little rushed and I found myself trying to keep straight all the names, and races of the characters along with their many varied abilities. I also spent a long time asking myself, 'what is the point of all this?'

I did struggle to get into the book, but by the end I liked the story and I liked how the author takes the events that happened at the beginning, and tied things together in the end. When I finished I was able to feel like I read a very satisfying adventure story with potential to have some good sequels.

I think taking time to slow it down, and focus on character development would have strengthened the book significantly but overall it was enjoyable. On a rating I'm somewhere between three and four, so I'll give the store 3 and goodreads 4.

This book actually had a game-y quality to it to me. It reminded me of a fantasy video game, which, you know, is pretty cool. If done right at least. And this story was certainly not done wrong, although I was a bit confused in the beginning, which actually takes place quite some time after the main events of the book. Now this same thing was repeated at the very end, after the main events of the book have finished, but by that time I understood more of the character telling or reminiscing on what happened.

Now let's talk about the main events themselves. I love that the elf that initially leads the characters on an obviously not smart endeavour was...well...not smart. I thought it was funny, because she wore such beautiful armor, but when it came down to it she was in no real shape to lead. She knew well enough to run, but that's about it.

Our main MAIN character, I say main MAIN because he is the main focus of the story, was actually quite likeable. I mean, yeah there was some moments when I thought he was going to let his emotions and wants take over and corrupt him a little, but all in all he is a good guy. And in the end, he was willing to save the people he cared about with no regard to his own safety.

I have to admit that by the end, when someone is revealed as a traitor, I kind of saw it coming. So to me there was no amount of surprise, merely a nod of knowing. But I know that the traitor can change. I KNOW IT!!! So I am definitely going to have to read the rest of the books to find out what happened.

All in all, I really did enjoy reading this story. There were certain characters that I enjoyed seeing different sides of...ehem...Vara...and the love interest aspect of the story intrigued me. It was hit upon enough that it brought a sense of 'Will they or won't they?', and it made me want to read the other books just to see how things would develop.

Defender was a strange read. The first half of the book dragged, with little to no plot for the reader to follow. All the characters seemed to have the same clear goal: riches and fame. It wasn't until the book's mid-point that a true plot showed itself. At that point, Defender went from poorly written World of Warcraft/Dungeons and Dragons fan fiction to a book with substance, and intrigue.

What kept me reading through the first half of defender was Crane's use of characters. He creates a likable band, despite their greedy motives. A lot of time is spent reading obvious D&D class descriptions and WoW-like raid recounts, but the way the characters interact with each other keeps the flow going enough that, as a reader, I wanted to keep reading. By mid-book, I was very pleased to see the author take things in a new direction. The second half of the book is what makes me want to continue reading the series. It's like the author grew into his book, and I'm glad he did. All-in-all, Defender is slow at first, but it's worth trudging though. By the end, you'll likely look back fondly on what you've read, despite the story's poor start. The four out of five stars I've given Defender shows, in my estimation, how much the book improved. If I were only judging the first half, I would have given two stars.

A great story of a warrior in a land of mythology and magic. In a Tolkien manner Robert J. Crane has started a great series. He has begun to spin a story involving the development of Cyrus Davidon with great battles; unexpected turns; mysteries and romance. I really like the book and hope to have time to catch up on the rest of his works soon.

I'm rating it a 4 only because of spelling and some grammar issues as they caused me some minor difficulties with the story but they don't allow me to rate the book as a 4.5.

I purchased the book in the Magic, Myth & Majesty (7 Fantasy Novels) set.

I've been reading sword and sorcery for nearly twenty-eight years. That said, I almost couldn't get into the first book. Something about the first few pages were difficult for me. Rythm, perhaps. After that, I finished the first three books over the course of two days. The first was good, the second better and the third fantastic. Strong yet subtle character development. Enjoyable world and setting that fleshes itself out nicely over the series so far. The relationship between the guilds and the world is reminiscent of modern games like WoW and guild wars 2 with the farming aspect. In short, by the end of the first book, I was no longer reading these books but watching them unfold in my mind. Very few authors can manage that consistently. I'll be buying the rest of this series and hoping for more from the author.

How the author gets away with not being sued by SOE for misuse of copyrighted material is beyond me. It's "my first adventures in Everquest" ca 2000, with new names, nothing else. Dark elfs in blue with white hair, teleporting druids, a dragon expedition in a bunch of lava-filled caves with spiders and giants, adventurer guilds - just your classic Nagafen raid with a bunch of Newbs.
If it used the true names it would at least gotten credit for waking fond memories of wasted time, but trying to pawn it off as an original makes it poor writing indeed. And I usually like Crane's stuff.

I received a free copy of this book for my review. Mercenary Guilds full of elves, trolls, goblins and every other fantasy figure you can imagine. There was a lot of conflict and fighting, but the story is also about trust, friendship and leading others. My favourite character was Vara, her tough gal attitude made me chuckle quite a few times. It was a story I think the lovers of scifi and fantasy will delight in. I think the writer could spend a little more time developing the relationships between the characters outside of the fightling element. It was an interesting read.
Defender (The Sanctuary Series)

I read "The girl in the box" series all 8 or 9 Loved them. Got this book months later, and loved it too, already bought 2 and 3 to read. Did not even realize it was the same author! He grabbed me from the begging, and I would be thinking on the story as I was going through life, anxious to get back to my Kindle! The epilogue made me go, "Oh no!!" So I have to read on to see what all lead to this ending!!

This book was a little difficult to get into in the begining due to there being constant action with one battle scene after another. It could have used an easier transistion between the early battles in the beginning of the book. But, as I continued to read the story I did find the characters interesting and they do draw you into the story, wanting more. Cyrus is leading his own guild, a group of adventures in Reikonos but he is forced to reexamine things when another guild helps him in a battle in which they all would have died. He ends up joining the new guild, Sanctuary in which they face more battle and adventures together and even a mystery unfolds before Cyrus.

So, despite my early reservations, I found myself wanting the next book in this series and I do recommend it to anyone looking for a fantasy with plenty of action and adventure!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I liked the book, it had a lot of action. The story had dragons, elves,dwarfs,and humans. Cyrus is the focus of the story and he is human with no magic. But he has trained as a fighter and likes adventure. He meets a group of adventures and goes with them to fight a dragon and steal his wealth. This is where he meets the group from Sanctuary. He and his friend join Sanctuary, there he meets and starts to fall for elve named Vara. I liked the book but felt that in could have gone a little more background on the main characters,and it kind of left you with some questions at the end of the book. I might buy the next book in the series. I was given a free copy of this book in order to review it. By Loves to read

All in all this wasn't a bad book, it is action packed and interesting. The friction/romance between two characters gets annoying at times and the general lack of description of the main character is a common gripe, but I would recommend it if you just want a fun read with some decent action scenes.

This is fantasy in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien. A band of adventurers must defeat the evil Dragonlord while exposing traitors in their midst. Plenty of action and intrigue for someone into gaming, but it's not just for gamers. Fantasy readers will love this story as well.

Cyrus Davidon, the point of view character, is a likable adventurer with little experience but a lot of heart when he joins the Sanctuary Guild. His leadership abilities quickly become apparent, but they are not enough to save Sanctuary from the loss of many key members. In the climax scene, he must lead a band of new recruits against the evil Dragonlord, intent on destroying their world. He must also face his own desires for the acerbic Vara, a beautiful elf who has nothing nice to say to him.

The book ends with the triumph of the Sanctuary Guild and its allies over the Dragonlord, and everything seems very positive. It then flashes forward 8 years to a time when Sanctuary has been destroyed and Cyrus is looking for answers in the rubble of the Guildhall. I got this book free in exchange for a review, but I bought the second book in the series, Avenger, based on how good the first book was.

I received a compimentary copy of this book in order to review it.

Let me just tell you I loved this book! I cannot wait till the next one! The hero, Cyrus, is someone you can't help falling in love with. I have always been a fan of fantasy novels and this book rates way up there with "Lord of the Rings" and others. Some books have been known to start out kinda slow with all the descriptions of setting up the world and whatnot, but this book just starts up with the action. There is also mystery in this book as well as some romance too.
This book has so many elements to it as well as comedy too. It combines all the essence of a good fantasy novel: elves, dragons, trolls, wizards, and even dark elves. It also teaches you to not judge someone just by what they are Dark elves can be honorable and humans can be treacherous. And everything isn't just black and white, there is a lot of grey areas too.

I really didn't find anything in this book that I didn't like. I am so excited for the next in the series I can barely contain myself and please give this book a chance because it is really going to be one of the best of our time. Great author and great novel!!!

This book was hard to continue reading in the beginning (but only the first couple pages) and I was not sure that I was going to like it but pretty soon I was very intrigued and interested. The storyline is packed with action, romance and excitement. I tried to buy the 2nd book as soon as I was finished and realized it is not out yet. I will definitely be buying it when it is available. The end of the book left me wanting more and I didn't want the story to be over. Cyrus is a great character but has a secret and parts of it were left unanswered. I received a complimentary copy of this book to review and now I can't wait for the sequel.

Didn't like it at first. Was kinda like those hack & slash dungeons that some dm's will run to bring a character(s) up to a certain level, which I hate. What got me were the characters though. They reminded me of characters I've run and characters friends have run. They gave me the warm fuzzies of days when homework was my only responsability. I'm curious about what happens next so I'll probably buy "avenger"

I'm not a gamer, and tend to gloss over battle sequences, so the beginning of Defender left me cold. I was interested in the guilds and the different kingdoms, enough to keep reading. I found Cyrus to have potential as a hero (and it's nice to have a main character with a "normal" name). I would like to read more background, of characters as well as cultures, as it would make the action seem much more plausible. All in all, though, Mr. Crane has provided us with the beginnings of what could be a good fantasy series. I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it.

As a Sci-Fi fan I have read Robert Cranes " Defender" having previously read his "Girl in The Box" series. I enjoyed the "Defender" main characters Cyrus and Vara's whit and look forward to continuing the story. Good and evil, friendship and betrayal are some the things you will encounter.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Let me start by saying that this is one author that I am SO glad I found through the review site! I can not wait for the second in the series! This book is full of action, adventure, emotion and anticipation, so much so that I didn't want it to end!

The author created believable characters and relationships that just felt real. The action was non-stop and it wasn't the type of gory action that I felt the need to skip through. On the whole the book is about friendships and finding facets of yourself that you didn't know existed. A very good read full of goblins, trolls, dragons and elves... oh my!

Highly recommend this book for anyone of any age who loves fantasy or RPGs. Happy Reading =}

Let me say, I was a little hesitant to read this book since I've never been into "gaming" and some of the reviews I read about it sounded like you might need that background to appreciate this. That is NOT the case! This is a great fantasy read. Very much in the order of the "high fantasy" I've been reading forever. Lots of action. Arkaria is a great imaginative fantasy world. Cyrus leads a cast of wonderful characters and the character development is topnotch. There's even a little mystery thrown in :) I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to get "lost" in a fantasy world when they read.
I received a free copy of this book in order to review it.

This book was the first in a bundle of "Myths and Majesty" books for kindle. I will definitely purchase at least the second boo, and most likely the whole series. Good old sword and sorcery story with many fun and interesting characters it's great to find a new author to follow, you can never have too many.

I gave the book a shot and read through the first several chapters. I kept getting hung up on minor things though, like awkward word choices and repetitive sentence structure. So the book needs an editor. I can sometimes look past that if the story is compelling.

This is a fantasy novel, which is right up my alley. However, the pieces of a great story aren't here. What we do have are stereotypical one-sentence introductions to the archetypes long since established by Tolkein and Dragonlance novels. The main characters introduced at the outset are humans, elves, and dwarves. Been there before but that's ok... They are going "adventuring" (that's what they call it) to slay a dragon. The raiding party is led by an elf (and all elves are pretentious, the book says that too) with no experience. The protagonists seem to know better than to ship with this elf, but are going anyway to "help out". Then 2/3 of this raiding party dies in a couple of pages. It's all so casual, with no build-up. Before you know it, a wondermage is teleporting everyone to safety and we learn that the heroes are newbies themselves, and their three person guild (may as well call it a club) are being recruited by a larger guild.

I was confused by the earliest pages which described how long these buddies have been together adventuring, but at the end of the first scene, it turns out they have just started out. What?

Each page reads like it's out of a D&D manual. I almost expected to read "Wosshisname gained +30 XP for killing the Large Spider!".

I'd skip this one.

Truly a good read. I have read some of the bad reviews and cant understand what they are talking about. I am just about done with the second book and cant wait to read the next. Pick this one up and give it a read and you wont be disappointed.

Couldnt get through the first page. It might appeal to a younger reader I suppose, but I'm used to well written fantasy that doesnt feel like a generic MMORPG game.

No thanks author. 1 star for the effort.

I'm not a big reader and I truly loved this book. Never thought I would've enjoyed a book like this but once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. If anyone is looking for a book that will keep your imagination running this is it. Loved reading about trolls, elves and other creatures killing each other and going on adventurous expositions. Cant wait to read all of the author's other books!!

Not sure why some people have given this book a bad review. This book does exactly what it sets out to do and i was NOT disappointed. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised at how well thought out and done it was. I have purchased the other 2 books in the series and am now waiting for the 4th book to come out!

I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it. I have read many fantasy novels before and I am a fan of the genre, but this book was just plain awful. It begins with a mysterious man who arrives at a site that has been destroyed and then takes you back in time to explain what happened. Since in the title of the book, it clearly states that this is Volume One, you expect that the adventure will continue, but what you don't expect is that the book doesn't have its own ending.

Chapter upon chapter is about the main character, Cyrus, who is an adventurer who has been trained to be a warrior. He belongs to a guild that whose supposed purpose to defend and help those less fortunate. The only thing is that he is not defending anything or anyone from foes, instead, he uses his skill to steal. Apparently, in this book, you are noble if you successfully steal riches from dragons, goblins and gods. Three quarters of the way through the book, it is explained that these expeditions are to keep the guild members on their toes should real danger appear.

Then suddenly, the leader of this guild begins with ominous predictions of some terrible fate to come. Dangerous weapons have possibly fallen into the wrong hands. The "hero" and I use that term loosely, since I don't find stealing as heroic, has to strengthen his guild's numbers in order to defeat this threat. We are then subjected to pages of this recruitment and his enlightenment that he is falling in love with another one of his guild members who has some type of secret that is never revealed.

Then suddenly after this threat is dealt with, we are brought back to the present day with no explanation of what happened in the intervening years, or what caused the destruction of the site. I assume that this will be explained in the next book, but this book had no ending and no plot. It was just a series of disjointed adventures.

I would not recommend this book, and I'm sorry that I wasted my time reading it until the end.

Enjoying reading the "Sanctuary Series". 1st 3 books were free and they got me hooked now want to read the full series. Great method on getting me back into reading fantasy books instead of Technical Manuals.

Oh my gosh! Y'all know I am a Kindle Unlimited reader. I had to spend real money for the whole ding dang series. This is solid character development. Cyrus and Eva do moan a bit and twist things out of whack, Terian is depressed, Alistair is secretive, Vaste and ..

I can hear the dice rolling very quietly in the background, almost see the character sheets, but not in a disctracting way. In fact, if you've never played D&D or any RPG, you'll still enjoy it. It's action fantasy with a healthy dose of coming of age and romance and group structure.

Take you time, Mr. Crane, on making Legend, Sanctuary 8, as tight as the previous 9 (do 5.5 and 6.5 = 1 book?).

Piers Anthony pulled it off inhis Incarnations of Immortality. Blew me away. J.R.R. Tolkien did it with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I have faith and I am looking forward to the finale!