The blurb for The War Of Words sounded so intriguing I had to try it despite it being YA fantasy. An evil sorcerer has enveloped the land in a spell of confusion and unreality, sending mysterious shadows to battle the king’s army. I love words, how could I not want to read a book about a war on language?
Main character Kelsey, whom the king assigned to the army, discovers a man burning reams of paper, each covered with a single word, during a battle. She knows this is somehow related to the unreality but not how or how to stop it.
Kelsey works with her friends to find out the sorcerer’s plans and weaknesses, all while battling the never-ending shadows and trying to stay out of trouble with the army general. Her friends are students at a school behind the castle wall, protected from the confusion spells, and an apprentice wizard Nicholas, his teacher Moss and gargoyle Newton.
Good Points
The scenes with Kelsey and the sorcerer, and the general with the sorcerer and finally the king with the sorcerer were well done. Amy Neftzger imagined how words would look if we could see them colored as to intent and meaning, a very good way to show the tension among the enemies.
Neftzger did a nice job coming up with a plot that is a true problem: How do you fight against a creeping sense of unreality, when no one can trust what they see or hear, when one’s words and speech are misheard and lost? I would like to see her use this same plot idea in an adult book with better characters and interesting back story.
YA Fantasy Problems
The War Of Words jumped around, things seemed to just happen, it felt out of tune. Characters came and went without introduction nor did we find any time to learn about them as people. Kids took the lead to find the problem, devise the solution, then lead the fight, just as a kid would imagine things to work.
The book felt like a sequel, although the NetGalley blurb did not say it was. Author Amy Neftzger’s wrote two prior books, The Orphanage of Miracles and The Orchard of Hope, in The Kingdom Wars series that used the same characters and back story. Perhaps if I’d read those the characters would have felt real.
On the good side The War of Words did not have the romantic tripe that keeps slithering out of YA fantasy, no 16 year old girls who capture the hearts of immortal demigods, no love triangles, no gonadal driven decision making, no histrionics. The kids were good kids who want to do what’s right. That was a huge plus.
Summary
Reading The War of Words as an adult and rating it for adults I’d give it 2 stars. I would not have finished it had I not gotten it from NetGalley, but it wasn’t a bad book, just not a book for adults.
Trying to put myself in the reading chair of a teen longing for challenges and the chance to be heroic, I’d say 4 stars. I don’t think kids would mind the way it jumps from character to character nor the sense that scenes were unfinished, discarded too quickly. Kids would enjoy it more if they were familiar with the characters already from the other two books.
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