Title: The Maven Knight
Author: Matthew Romeo
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Self-pubbed
Format: Paperback
ISBN: B07HSXD3JM

Summary: Tálir, a scavenger with a mystical heritage. Sarina, a brewer with a hidden past.

Two individuals with a shared bond: they must save the world. A thousand years ago, the Old World was destroyed by the Ending. The legendary Maven Knights of order were turned into legends. Now, an ancient malevolence seeks to bring chaos and violence to the New World. Drawn into the conflict, the pair must unite with a band of misfits in an effort to stop the growing threats. Marauding Outlanders, Nanite storms, and countless other dangers await on this quest. But most of all, the mythic powers of the Maven Knights must be rediscovered.

Two heroes. One journey.

“The Maven Knight” is the dual story of Tálir and Sarina, both of whom are thrust into an adventure by differing yet similar reasons. On this heroic journey, both must attempt to solve secrets from their pasts as well as uncover who they will become. “The Maven Knight” opens the doors to an extensive world where all secrets come at a cost.

I have never done one of these before, but here it goes, I DNF’d this one.

I worked through to halfway and had to stop. I wanted so so badly to love this story! It’s everything I normally like, high and epic fantasy, a brand new world, wars, impending doom, a brave and valiant hero, but in all of those, it fell flat.

BUT let’s start first with what I did like because there was still some of that.

I love the premise of this story, like LOVE it. It very much reminded me of a mash-up of Star Wars and D&D. The world has a very deep history, lots of lore and some very interesting present day turmoil. It seemed like a world that I would want to jump right into and explore, which is why I jumped at the chance to read it.

Right away though, it was info dump after info dump. I wanted that backstory, that history, but I wanted it in a way that felt natural and actually added to the scene. This was exposition from characters or the narrator when it didn’t make sense coming from them. It would jolt me from a scene because it was far too much at one time.

I was halfway through when I realized that I did not like any of the characters (and there were SO many) one bit. Neither of the main characters, whose POV we switched between, had grown on me at all. It’s safe to say the male MC, Talir, was actually who I dislike the most. He was not likable, he was arrogant, acted like he was better than others and just all around not someone I enjoyed based on his actions and dialogue. The female MC, Sarina, wasn’t much better. She was extremely inconsistent and somehow knew things that made no sense for her character.

The halfway point is also where I just stopped. I couldn’t continue. While the premise and world are good, the execution on this one just wasn’t what it needed to be. The characters weren’t likable, their dialogue was bland and filled with tags and a lot of their actions didn’t line up. The backstory was lumped into giant chunks that drew you out of a scene, and the writing itself could use a solid copy edit because there were so many glaring grammatical errors.

At the end of the day this is what it boils down to: I really wanted to love this, I was so excited that someone had thrown me an epic fantasy, but the execution and the writing just wasn’t there. I can definitely see the potential, but I think a lot work needs to be done to get it to that point.