Review Detail

IMPYRIUM by Henry H. Neff is the first book in a brand new fantasy series sure to knock your socks off! This YA novel boasts a hefty 585 pages of pure excitement and adventure. Neff creates a very complex world, and as a result, the story starts out slow. At first, all the characters, the land’s history, and the new vocabulary can be confusing. However, eventually it starts to click and as a result, pacing begins to pick up. It is then that the book starts to become a lot of fun.

I genuinely love Hob, one of the lead characters. I deeply care for him and really hope that he will somehow end up in a good situation. He is crafty, intelligent, loving, and not to mention has great self-preservation skills. His relationship with Hazel is really special and genuinely believable as it unfolds in an innocent and natural way. In fact, the last few lines of the novel, shared between these characters, is perhaps the best way to button up the first book in the series. I honestly cannot wait for the second installment to see how this partnership develops and where their stories go next.

In fact, all the characters in this novel have distinctive traits and virtues. The three Faeregine triplets themselves could not be more different from one another. Consequently, this creates conflict as each have their own opinions and views about the world, which makes the story that much more similar to competing personalities in real life situations. The author’s effort to ground these characters helps readers share an emotional understanding with them, despite the fantastical elements of the book.

However, the Faeregine sisters, Violet, Isabel, and Hazel, as well as Hob, do feel much older than their ages of twelve and thirteen. Of course these characters have had more experience in their short lives than many have had in longer ones, but they still read as more mature teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. This problem could have been solved by making them seventeen. With this, the novel still would be appropriate for young audiences and still would convey the same ideas and themes.

Despite the age issue, IMPYRIUM on a whole, is a wonderful book. It is the first high fantasy series I have begun that has not been so clinical in the descriptions that it lost the thrill and adventure. It is a story that creates a roller coaster of a ride with unexpected twists and turns that will leave the audience wanting more.