THE BOWL OF SOULS books 2-5

Messenger Of The Dark Prophet by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 2 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Messenger Of The Dark Prophet:

Justan's dream of entering the Dremaldrian Battle Academy has been put on hold. His burgeoning magic powers have been deemed too dangerous to go untrained and he has been sentenced to two years at the Mage School. How is he supposed to fit in amongst the mages and wizards, a physically weak group of people he has never identified with? Can he learn how to control his new powers without losing his identity as a warrior? Can he stick to his plans while the mother of the moonrats tries to destroy the school from within?

Fist, the ogre who was estranged from his own people, has now found a home next to a friendly human settlement while Deathclaw, the raptoid who was changed into humanoid form, has left his homeland in search of his destiny. They escaped the wizard Ewzad Vriil's grasp before, but his secret army grows as does his influence in the kingdom. What will they do upon coming face-to-face with The Messenger of the Dark Prophet once again?

Source: Info in the About Messenger Of The Dark Prophet was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18919218-messenger-of-the-dark-prophet on 19/02/2017.

Hunt Of The Bandham by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 3 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Hunt Of The Bandham:

Ewzad Vriil’s keep has fallen and Justan has been reunited with his friends. But the kingdom remains in turmoil. The mother of the moonrats still builds the Dark Prophet’s army of monsters in the mountains and the Battle Academy’s forces are weakened.

Justan’s bonds with Fist and Gwyrtha have made him stronger and faster, but the more he learns about his powers, the more questions he has. He seeks out the bonding wizard Master Coal, hoping that the man can teach him what he needs to know about his magic before he hurts his bonded and himself.

Deathclaw has freed Talon from Ewzad Vriil’s power only to find that she is no longer the sister he used to know. Meanwhile, a new creature is born; a beast designed to hunt dragons. Will they survive the Hunt of the Bandham?

Source: Info in the About Hunt Of The Bandham was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15997724-hunt-of-the-bandham on 04/03/2017.

The War Of Stardeon by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 4 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The War Of Stardeon:

The Battle Academy has been besieged by an army of goblinoids under the control of the mother of the moonrats. They bide their time, keeping the academy out of the fight while Ewzad Vriil prepares to unleash a force of mutated monsters.

Jhonate and Faldon the Fierce have begun to unravel the mystery of the mother of the moonrat's identity, while Justan and Master Coal have learned the secret of Ewzad Vriil’s powers. Both groups scramble to find a way to help the academy, but neither of them knows the full extent of the forces they are up against.

Will they be able to gather the strength they need to win The War of Stardeon?

Source: Info in the About The War Of Stardeon was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17750367-the-war-of-stardeon on 04/03/2017.

Mother Of The Moonrat by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 5 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Mother Of The Moonrat:

The end is near.

The Battle Academy and Mage School forces have joined, but they are outnumbered by Ewzad Vriil’s army of mutated men and Mellinda’s forest of monsters.

There are spies on both sides, assassins on the hunt, secrets to be revealed, and Justan’s magic will be unleashed. But there is one thing they haven’t considered. Even if they can somehow overcome Ewzad Vriil, will they be able to destroy The Mother of the Moonrats?

Source: Info in the About Mother Of The Moonrat was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18584576-mother-of-the-moonrat on 04/03/2017.

My Thoughts:

And of course, I have my favourite character, the ogre. No, his name is not Shrek, it's Fist.

At this point this series is beginning to look like Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time series, as in, there is no end in sight. Having said that, the Messenger Of The Dark Prophet seems to have the best ending in all of the books in this series thus far. At least it ended on a positive note, well, until Book 5, that is. Mother Of The Moonrats ended the first 5 books' story arc. My advise would be not to start reading this series until you have all 5 books because you would want to dive into the next book as soon as you hit the cliffhanger ending.

I was looking for an epic fantasy read, I was glad that I stumbled onto this one.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 4
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Bowl Of Souls Series:

The Author
	Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats. He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee. His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer. The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years. Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
trevorhcooley.com | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+ | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
jamesnarrates.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | goodreads | linkedin | audible

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

EYE OF THE MOONRAT (The Bowl Of Souls book 1)

Eye Of The Moonrat by Trevor H. Cooley
Book 1 of The Bowl Of Souls series
Read by James Foster
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Eye Of The Moonrat:

Justan was raised on the outskirts of the Dremaldrian Battle Academy. He watched his father ascend the ranks within the academy to become one of the most respected warriors in the kingdom. The only thing he has ever wanted is to become an academy student and follow the path of his father. Unfortunately, only the best can enter the academy and Justan is a horrible fighter. Everyone tells him that he is more suited to scholarly work than swordplay. In desperation he hurls himself into training, eager to overcome the doubters and walk into the academy triumphant, unaware that secretive powers plot to disrupt his plans.

Meanwhile, an evil wizard of immense power is using magic to twist the bodies of the creatures of the land and transform them into monsters. With these creatures and the peoples of the wilds, he is building an army . . .

Ogres and dragons, warriors and wizards are destined to clash, their fates guided by The Bowl of Souls.

Eye of the Moonrat is book one of The Bowl of Souls series.

Source: Info in the About Eye Of The Moonrat was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15752127-eye-of-the-moonrat on 19/02/2017.

My Thoughts:

I like the way James Foster reads. The words are clear and distinct which brought the rating of this audiobook a couple of notches up!

When I first started reading/listening to this book, it seemed like this author is one of those who makes the characters act or be stupid to create a situation where they could save the world... a version of "too stupid to live" (TSTL) kind of writing style... Justan, our main protagonist, sounded like a know-it-all, obstinate learner. That didn't endear him to me at all... I wasn't enthralled, to say the least. However there was nothing better to read and the book was in my phone already so I continued listening to it. I was glad I did because as it turns out, Justan wasn't TSTL but just make mistakes like any of us does. It was annoying at first but it also made the character more real and enabled the reader to connect with story more firmly. However, the super-villain on the other hand is all evil which bears no semblance to reality and is so much like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers instead. The character is painted more of a parody of evil than a real evil. This has the effect of the story having a clear cut delineating line between good and evil. It follows that the plot is quite straight forward as well. A formulaic bad guys attack, good guys defend, and there ensues a fight between good and evil. Then the book ends in a cliffhanger. The end. However, the world building is good enough that I wanted to keep on reading. Kudos to the author for achieving that much! The only thing marring that world building is it's slight middle grade tone. In its portrayal of the evil villain, it gave this book a middle grade slant. I'm not a fan of this particular quirk. I was looking for a proper epic fantasy. In that score, I was a bit disappointed.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 3.5
Ending = 2
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 3
Plot = 3
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Bowl Of Souls Series:

The Author
	Since putting out his first book: Eye of the Moonrat in May of 2012, Trevor H. Cooley has sold over 200,000 copies of his books in ebook and audio formats. He was born in South Carolina and has lived all around the United states, including Utah, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee. His love of reading started in the second grade with Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series. He couldn’t get enough and continued with David Eddings, Tolkein, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, and many others. Since then, all he wanted was to become a published writer. The characters and concepts that eventually became the Bowl of Souls series started in his teens. He wrote short stories, kept notebooks full of ideas, and generally dreamed about the world constantly. There were several attempts at starting a novel over the years. Not long after he was married, his wife told him to stop talking about the story and write it down. Many years and rewrites and submissions and rejection letters later, he finally put the books on Amazon. In August of 2013 he quit his day job and started writing full time.
trevorhcooley.com | facebook | twitter | pinterest | google+ | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	James Foster was born in Björk’s house in Iceland and grew up on Easter Island, where his parents were giant stone heads. He has the ability to fire beams of tacos out of his hands and he can turn his legs into tigers. On Sundays, James enjoys reading Family Circus and traveling through time. His favorite color is greenish-transparent and his favorite movie is the one you just watched. James is in charge of uploading the staff bios to the website, and no one has checked over his work.
jamesnarrates.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | goodreads | linkedin | audible

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.