| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low Violence level: Medium Back Cover: “Collun lives a quiet, peaceful life until his sister, Nessa, disappears. Reluctantly, he leaves behind the only things he knows—his mother and father, their humble home, and his beloved garden—and sets off to look for Nessa in Temair, the largest city in the kingdom of Eirren. But his sister's disappearance is only one of many sinsister happenings—Collun encounters several malevolent character who are trying to bring his journey to an end. Against his gentle nature, he finds himself battling an evil greater than he'd ever imagined, an evil that threatens all of Eirren. All hope rests on Collun and his companions: an enigmatic wizard, an aspiring bard, a magical prince, and a feisty archer with a mission of her own. Their quest leads them from one insurmountable danger to another, and finally to the lair of a giant white Wurme—a creature that Collun must somehow kill if he is to rescue his sister and save his world.” |
Collun is your typical reluctant hero. Now, most reluctant heroes end up not only being good at it, but discovering that they kind of enjoy the adventure, so by the end they've changed and grown and become mighty warriors and saviors of the world (or the country or whatever). And they get rewards equal to that. Oddly enough, then, Collun sort of stays the same as he ever was (with the exception of knowing who he is and that he can actually go out and get things done when he needs to), and his reward at the end is to be allowed to go plant himself a garden. Bit of a spoiler there. Sorry. I have to say that it's lucky he didn't procrastinate any longer than he did before beginning his adventures, though, or things might have ended very messily. Come to think of it, Collun is just remarkably lucky throughout, and seems to work better as part of a group, although he does manage to resolve the final problem pretty much on his own. Still, it seems kind of unfair that he's the hero of the song in the end, since he wouldn't have even gotten halfway without his backup.
You know, now I think about it, it might be the lack of urgency that turned me off. I mean, first Collun waited for a week or so before he finally decided that he would have to go find his sister. And then, although he always keeps that goal in mind, he doesn't seem to really worry too much about Nessa. He tries to find out where she is, but he's not afraid of anything that might be happening to her. I would have expected a bit more of an emotional reaction from an older brother.