The Water Travelers: Heir of the Unknown
AUTHOR: DANIEL WALTZ
PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 14TH 2014 BY CREATESPACE
GENRE: FANTASY, YOUNG ADULT, ROMANCE
SERIES: WATER TRAVELERS #1 [I BELIEVE SO]
FORMAT I OWN: KINDLE EDITION
PAGES: 540
MY RATING: 3/5 STARS
BUY IT: AMAZON, BOOK DEPOSITORY
Blurb:
The people of Upitar have the ability to go back forth between their world and Earth, through water. Aaron Archien is the heir to the throne of Upitar, and before his father feels he is ready to become king, he is given one last task: go to Earth, find the daughter of Michael Harper, bring her to Upitar, and kill her. The girl, Madalyne Harper, was prophesied about long ago to destroy the waterways, thus ending the world of Upitar. Although against the idea of taking an innocent life, Aaron agrees to do it for the sake of his people. But, upon going to Earth, he unknowingly meets Madalyne and they fall in love before their fates become known.
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My Review:
Hello bookworms and welcome back! I’m here today with another book chat, as you may have already guessed. Today I will be chatting with you about The Water Travelers by Daniel Waltz which I just finished about 2 hours ago. I thought this book was a wonderful, fun adventure and the world that was created was totally unique and intriguing to me. So without further delay, lets get into my thoughts!
I always talk about characters first and that probably comes at no surprise. I am a character driven book reader. I like it when characters are ones that I can relate to or ones that I can feel something for. I love characters that have multiple layers and good sides and dark sides and complicated sides. One dimensional characters are not very appealing.
Aaron is or main character, and is a water traveler. Being a water traveler basically means you can travel between different connected worlds through submerging yourself in a body of water and ‘traveling’. Aaron is the Prince of Upitar, as you already know from the blurb. He is one of those Princely characters you want to see become King. He doesn’t believe in killing innocent people, he is kind and considerate and quite wise and very skilled. I thought he was a lovely character, but, he fell slightly flat for me. Besides his little struggle with his problem with his brother, he seemed to always have that pureness about him. I would have liked to see him struggle a bit more but overall, I adored his character.
Madalyne is our second main character. A typical teenage girl, who is dying for adventure. I found her to be also one dimensional, a bit more than Aaron. She trusted in Aaron and followed him blindly, even into another universe despite the fact that she would be leaving her father and family behind. It slightly baffled me. I do understand they had a strong connection that pulled them together, but surely, there could have been some sort of inner conflict, even just a little?
The book tends to focus on these two main characters and their love and journey. However, the side characters such as the Keeper was absolutely hilarious, his personality was very quirky. The King of Upitar was also fairly dark and mysterious and the end of the book had me wondering what was going on with him.
Let’s get onto a good part of the book. The world that Daniel Waltz created, in my opinion is very unique. The idea that there are multiple worlds connected together through magic orbs that allow these worlds to be accessed through waterways is so damn cool. At first I thought it was a paranormal type book but these people are pretty much just from different ‘dimensions’ I guess you could say. I LOVED the idea of water traveling and it really kept me intrigued to see where this book went. I love me some outdated worlds with Kings and legends and bows and arrows and swords. I love it.
The plot was not mind-blowing, but easy and fun to follow. It was honestly a wonderful adventure, it wasn’t predictable and it kept me on my toes, like I was travelling along with Aaron and Madi. I had an issue with the romance though. It was so very insta-lovey that it almost put me off the book. I know they had a connection but it was so sudden that I had to pause and ask myself ‘did I miss something or did they just suddenly fall in love?’. Yes, they were probably meant to be together and it’s a soul thing, but I would have loved to see a little bit of a slower burn romance occur that would have left me rooting for their relationship. But they were totally cute. I’m so excited to see where they go next though, the more I think about it, the more excited I get about seeing where the second book takes me and the couple! I think that the best part of this book for me, was the parts near the end of the book where the action and mystery and discovery really took place and the end left on a cliffhanger that I’m pretty intrigued to read into when the next book comes out.
Overall, this book fully deserves 3 out of 5 stars. 3 is not a bad rating at all, so don’t be put off by it, seriously! I loved this book for it’s adventure and the unique world. However, if more depth and layer was added to the characters and the romance progressed at a slower pace, I would have really enjoyed this book. One tiny touch such as that could move it up to 4 stars! for me! But this book was awesome and I would definitely recommend to you all if you are looking for a light, fun, fantasy adventure.
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