Monday, October 23, 2023

Epic Fantasy from David Scidmore continues

 
Aylun, book 2, Ever-Branching Tree series
$6.99 ebook, $30.99 paper, $39 hardcover
Epic, high fantasy romance
David Scidmore
Meerdon Publishing, Oct, 2023, 1,034 pp
 
buy on Amazon

About the book:
Megan was always good at solving puzzles. For years, she used that aptitude in the physics lab, where she worked as an assistant to her best friend, Jon, until an accident thrust them into a terrifying alternate world. Almost at once, she is abducted by the heartless tyrant Aylun, an ex-agent of the enigmatic home of all oracles, the Augury. Forced to confront an impossible prophecy that threatens her and her oldest friend, she undertakes a harrowing journey to a city lost centuries ago.

While she struggles to find answers, Jon and new friends Dellia, Garris, and Kayleen are drawn into a conflict with a dark and ancient menace that could obliterate everything and everyone they care about. As the puzzle deepens, the threats multiply, and their situation grows more desperate, Megan’s best hope to save them all and return her and Jon to their home world lies with the very tyrant who abducted her.

My review:
I have to admit, I was fascinated with the story line when I was approached for a review, and agreed, but became daunted by the hefty story. I got into the book and kept thinking my ebook version was wonky when it kept telling me how far along I wasn’t getting. Anyway, there’s definitely a mystery afoot at Delas Labs. Unfortunately, we don’t get to know more because our heroes, physicists Jon and Megan, who are experimenting with some kind of negative energy which works? or doesn’t work? by sucking them into an alternative world in which they’re either heroes or villains, depending on who finds them first. There’s a dragon, too: I love a good dragon! But it seems we get more dragon story in the first episode of the Ever-Branching Tree series called Dellia.

The adventure was definitely more intriguing from the time Jon and Megan find themselves on top of a pile of shiny treasure dragon hoard. This book, Aylun, tells Megan’s side after running from the cave and being kidnapped by a former Shou, Aylun, a protector of prophecy, who’s bent on sacrificing himself to the dragon after he’s failed a couple of missions. The story is also as much his as Megan’s.
These two young people eventually come to an understanding…and more, as they try to figure out the truth of the prophecy and what it means for their worlds.

Aylun is not as much sequel as it is companion piece, as this story unfolds during the course of Dellia, the first book, which is told from Jon’s and Dellia’s perspectives. It’s a daunting task to twine parallel stories like this, but Scidmore has created an engaging, entertaining, and lengthy romantic fantasy. Readers of stories that draw from other cultures like that of Bradley Beaulieu, would enjoy The Ever-Branching Tree series.

About the author:
Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, David Scidmore has held many jobs over the years, from fast-food worker to musician to electrical engineer. He now lives in Verona, Wisconsin, with his wife, Brenda. In recent times, his lifelong passion for playing keyboards and composing music has turned into a fascination with crafting literary works. His enthusiasm for weaving complex stories that stir the emotions led to his first book, Dellia. With an obsession for expanding his ability as a storyteller, he continues that tale in Aylun, the second book in the Ever-Branching Tree series. Find out more at his website.

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