Welcome back, Readers! This month we’re tackling the third installment of the Frith Chronicles series. I’ve already Spotlighted Knightmare Arcanist Here and book 2 Here and both are books I enjoyed wholeheartedly. Can book 3 keep it up?
Oh, and for those who are familiar with or interested in her work, Shami Stovall’s newest book just dropped! It’s a different series and one I haven’t looked at yet but I thought it was worth mentioning. You can check it out Here!
Anyway! Frith Chronicles! As we’re looking at the third book in the series, spoilers for the prior two are inevitable beyond this point.
The basic hook is this: what if magical creatures bonded to teenagers who are learning to become wold defending heroes in a wold of swashbuckling pirates and powerful wizards? It’s like Digimon meets My Hero Academia by way of Black Sails and Game of Thrones.
A slight refresher for those unfamiliar with the story so far; Volke Savan is the adopted son of a Gravedigger and has always wanted to bond with a mystical creature, gaining powerful magic of his own in the process. Doing so would allow him to become a member of the Frith Guild and work towards living the life of a mighty hero like his idol, Gregory Ruma. The catch? Those involved with waste, filth and the dead are prevented from joining the phoenix bonding ceremony on his home island. Through some hard-headedness and an act of valor on his part, Volke bonds with a mystical creature… but not a phoenix. He’s instead bonded to a Knightmare; a sentient suit of shadow armor by the name of Luthair. This opens up a massive world of adventure for Volke, as well as quite a few dangers…
So! Let’s grab our arcane compass and find our way toward adventure in this entry of the Frith Chronicles!
Book Stats
- Author: Shami Stovall.
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, and Audible.
Price: $30.35 for Hardcover, $16.99 for Paperback, $5.99 for Kindle, and $21.83 for Audible, or one Credit on Audible.
Length: 682 pages or 18 hours 50 minutes in audio format.
Narrator: Brian Wiggins
Number of books in the series: 8 – it’s a completed series, but the author is very prolific and has many other books available and set in this world.
Basic Premise
Fresh off dealing with the Dread Pirate Callisto in book 2, Volke and the rest of the Frith Guild apprentices are headed to Thronehold. There are a couple of reasons for this that are revealed early on; for one, they need to gain a rune stone for a particularly powerful mystical creature. The world serpent has been born and only someone in possession of this stone may bond with it. Because there are so many interested parties, most of whom would devastate the world if they were to have access to that type of power, the guild must ensure that they get hold of this rune stone first.
They are also transporting a prison cart filled with infected mystical creatures – the arcane plague is a very real danger to such creatures and their arcanists. Study must be done to try and figure out a cure.
While on the way to the city, two things of note happen; Volke saves a Princess from drowning in a river and they discover that there’s a massive arcanist tournament being held in the city.
Volke and his rival Zaxis are intent on entering and winning. That is, if Volke can survive the Queen’s punishment for man-handling the youngest Princess of the Kingdom, of course! (Volke did no such thing but takes the fall for it to save the dignity of the somewhat bratty Princess Evianna. And the whole thing allows him to meet and befriend the Princess’s older sister Livia, which is nice!)
Of course, as is the way with these stories, enemies lie in wait around every corner. The plot to capture the rune stone goes deeper than anyone expected and the one enacting their plan is right there within reach… and yet, all the more untouchable for it.
So! Will the Frith Guild claim the rune stone? Will Volke win the tournament and claim his prize? Will everyone survive? (It’s not a sure thing, I promise you.) Will everyone, at the very least, avoid being infected by the maddening arcane plague?
You really need to read it to find out.
My Take
So, if it’s not obvious thus far, I really enjoyed the third entry into this series. It’s just as good, if not a little better even, than the second one. And I mean… who doesn’t love a tournament arc!? This book reminded me of the Budokai Tenkaichi in Dragonball or Ash vs the various Pokemon Leagues; watching your faves muscle their way up the ranks in a festival atmosphere is always an enthralling time as far as these kinds of stories go. And the ending of it was a pretty good twist!
We get to meet and reintroduce ourselves to some great characters as well. Karna is a new member of the cast and quickly became one of my favorite characters in the series. I can’t wait to find out what her real deal is. Nicholin is still there, still my favorite character and still adorable as well. (He’s a teleporting ferret-like monster called a rizzel. As someone who has owned several mundane ferrets, the idea of them being able to go literally anywhere they want is at once hilarious and terrifying.)
Over all, there’s a lot going on. So many different plots take place at once, but they’re all managed well and I can’t wait to see them bear fruit in later books. The pay-offs we get in this story are stepping stones to grander things down the line, unless I miss my guess entirely. The pace is fast, but it never gets confusing or disorienting.
Brian Wiggins is our narrator for book 3 as he was for the prior entries and he does a great job. His voices are all distinct and easy to place and when it comes to speaking for corrupted or evil characters, he becomes something of nightmare. (Not Knightmare. Though, he always does a great of voicing those, too.)
All in all, a great continuation of a series that I’ve been enjoying thoroughly to begin with.
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