The Lightrider Journals is the tale of Joe Hashimoto, a man brought back from the dead to be the Lightrider, the leader of the Elementals Knights. Created by the Architects, the creators of the universe, the Knights are half-animal beings gifted with the power of the elements and charged with keeping balance between good and evil.
Joe's struggle is not only with these new responsibilites and powers, but also his difficulty with the killing invovled in his duties, as well as his longing for home. But Joe must over come these to face his greatest threat- the Chaos Demons, the ancient enimies of all life.
The Lightrider Journals is a tale of magic and action, mixed with the struggles of finding a place in a new world. It's the perfect read for anyone looking for reaffiramtion in what they can do, or someone who just wants an adult newbie magic user that doesn't go to magic school.
Source: Received the book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Did not receive any payment for review.
My Review
I have a weird relationship with Fantasy novels. I either love them or hate them. I really enjoyed this story. You have the Architects of Creation who are the creators of our world. They put together a team of Elemental Knights to fight for the balance between good and evil. Sounds cool right? At first, the Knights have a hard time grasping their new existence and they don't all agree with the task that they are given. They take an oath to become immortal and fulfill their duties and begin training to use their special powers.
There are a lot of characters in this novel and it was hard for me to keep up, at first. That's mainly the reason I steer clear of fantasy novels...too much going on lol. Moving on... I grew to love some of the characters. My favorites were Sandshifter and Groundquake. They were the most defiant of the group(go figure, that's probably why I liked them lol.) They both made such huge transformations by the end of the book. Of course, the biggest transformation was the main character, Joe. But I don't like Joe. I can't explain why I don't like him, but I spent most of the book just groaning at his indecision and whining.
The action scenes in this book were SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!! Each character learned more of their abilities with each fight. It was so cool to hear about their powers and how they started working as a team to defeat the demons. The imagery for the demons was fantastic. Not just the demons, but everything. I really felt like I was on the sidelines watching it all unfold. I really enjoyed it and I hope you will all check it out.
I thought I'd share some of these character drawings with you because they are AWESOME!
Artwork by Derrick Fish. You can see all of the character illustrations on The Lighrider Journals webpage.
Joseph Hashimoto/Lightrider Nightstalker
Knight of Light and Leader of the Elementals Knight of Shadow and second in command
Forger Wavercrasher
Knight of Metal Knight of Water
