Words to the Wise: A Gothic Saga. Book One (The Awakening) [Kindle Edition]

Set in 18th century Europe, this is a wonderfully well told fantasy/horror story.

Mostly told as a monologue by a "Wanderer" who awakes one day drunk and with no recollection of who he is or even what he is, this story follows his journey of self discovery. Travelling through Europe he discovers not only his own deep secrets, but hidden secrets about humanity, heaven, hell and the nature of God.

Although dealing with subjects such as heaven, hell, God and what it means to be human, this is not a religious sermon - far from it in fact. What it is is a thoroughly entertaining and in places downright scary Gothic fantasy horror story.

What sets this story apart from many other self published novels is the quality of the writing. I don't think I have read such beautifully elegant prose in quite some time and I am in fact struggling to think of anything comparable. The vocabulary is extensive, the metaphors and similes are original and appropriate and the world the author weaves is rich, dark, foreboding and believable.

This is helped by the fact that the author has clearly researched the period in question and historical fact such as the 1740-1741 famine in Ireland is used to particularly graphic effect.

The presentation on the Kindle is also very good. I didn't notice any formatting or typographical errors at all.

Being the first in a series, there are of course many unanswered questions left at the end of the book. The ending tells you enough to close this part of the story, but also left me wanting more. I will be looking for the next in this series!

Overall - 5 stars! One of the most accomplished self published novels I have read to date and an extremely impressive début.

A genre I would not have necessarily explored prior to owning a Kindle. The book was recommended by many on the forum so I decided to give it a try.

The narrative is wonderfully descriptive though not overbearing. The characters and locations are immediately in your minds eye, a feat not all authors can successfully accomplish.

The story describes a bleak and horrifying world where little or no beauty seem to exist, a time of suffering and communities with secrets and sorrows.

Definitely worth the five stars and I have recently purchased the sequel to read shortly.

I will look forward to further books in this series and the further writings of Mr Harker.

I spotted this book being mentioned on the discussion boards and decided to have a read.

This book is very well written, really the elegance of the writing has to be applauded.

The story is intriguing and I really didn't know what was going to happen. The plot is massive, really big idea's.

The story is however very very dark, there is little humour and its not going to make you feel happy at any point really.

Parts of the book as discussed in one of the other review is very horrifying and not for the faint hearted.

Obviously a good book, but a bit dark for some people maybe? But for under a pound everyone should have a read. Its a bargain.