As this is just the first of a series, that turn coupled with just how much fun this novel is, has me excited for me. Brassey peels back the layers and reveals a story and characters with more depth than the surface would lead one to believe. Where the novel takes a nice thoughtful turn is a little over 2/3 through the novel. As Brassey unfolds Azrael’s story, a great deal of complexity is revealed about this young, powerful knight. Azrael is more than just a stand in for those familiar villains. If a certain dark clad warrior mage with initials KR or whose name rhymes with Varth Dader, then I suspect Brassey’s point was missed because the allusion certainly isn’t subtle and most likely intentional. Lord Azrael, her immediate foil, clad in black armor, looks to subjugate his enemies in his search for the Axiom Diamond. Brassey adds enough balance to her character that her faults make her that much more endearing. Aimee is the likeable protagonist young, headstrong, looking to impress her mentor and do good by her new crew. The race is on between Aimee’s people and the Eternal Order to find the powerful talisman.īrassey packs a lot into this novel, at under 300 pages in mass market he wastes no space, but nothing feels rushed despite the brisk pace of the plot and multiple character revelations. The Elysium harbors the survivors of that conflict and find themselves hunting for the Axiom Diamond. Aimee bungles a portal spell, putting the Elysium square in Azrael, and the Eternal Order’s cross-hairs as they are pillaging and destroying a nation. At the other end is the aforementioned black knight, who goes by the name of Lord Azrael. He centers the story on two primary characters: Aimee, a portalmage who is part the crew of the airship the Elysium along with the renowned mage Harkon Bright (what a name!). Opposing them are the infamous magic-wielding knights of the Eternal Order and their ruthless commander, Lord Azrael, who will destroy everything in their path…įile Under: Fantasy īrassey introduces his characters in the middle of chaos, allowing readers to view these characters fluctuating between their best and worst, with some of them acting their best in a worst-case situation. When trainee sorceress Aimee de Laurent’s first ever portal-casting goes awry, she and her mentor are thrown into the race to find the gem, on the skyship Elysium. Men have sought for it across many continents for centuries, but in vain. The Axiom Diamond is a mythical relic, with the power to show its bearer any truth they desire. Brassey has written extensively in Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear’s Mongoliad, but here he forges his own world and it is a delightful, fun, and smart novel with Skyfarer, the first novel in The Drifting Lands series. Seems quite standard fare for a Fantasy adventure, but Joseph Brassey’s Skyfarer is that and so much more.
#Drifting lands full
All in all, however, this is an excellent take on a classic genre.A young mage on the cusp of realizing her full powers, a wizened mentor trying to train her, and an empire led by a black-clad powerful knight all vying for an elusive magical item. Backgrounds can be confusing and enemy scaling can feel a bit brutal at times. Overall, I think Drifting Lands is a tremendous title that’s well worth the price point.ĭrifting Lands is an entertaining take on the “shmup” genre that adds roguelike elements to spice up the old formula. Other than that issue, the game is great and really amazing to behold. As a result, I never really felt like I was getting more powerful. Personally, one issue I ran into, which could easily have been user error, is that the enemies scale really high. It’s something other people have mentioned, though, and it might just be something that affects a small number of people. One potential problem is that the backgrounds can get disorienting at times but it was something I was never really affected by. It’s almost hard to believe that this game only had a five-man team working on it as they did a fantastic job. Do you want to just tank a bunch of damaging moves? Maybe you want the ability to dash and teleport around to dodge stuff? Such are options are available for your perusal, including a very helpful ship repair that’s quite useful if you like to tank bullets to the face.ĭrifting Lands’ art style, meanwhile, is absolutely gorgeous. This is arguably the most exciting part of customization as you get to pick how you want to fight. In addition to a selection of ships and weapons, you also get access to some skills that you can customize.
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