Dawn of Wonder: The Wakening, Book 1

This might actually be one of my favorite books. To put that in perspective I started on the genre with blue moon rising by Simon R Green and moved on to Robert Jordan which of course led me to Brandon Sanderson then Terry Goodkind. I’ve since read many other books in the fantasy and sci fi genres but this one is one of the best. It has the feeling of being very well researched, I’ve never tried to make a Bow or a sword but I imagine the method described is exactly hows it’s done. The characters age may lead one to think it’s a young adult novel but that does not seem to be the case at all. The book is an outstanding fantasy that is refreshing in its originality. No elves or dwarfs or other standard genre races but it is heavily seated in the medieval time period. No blatant magic but lots of hinting and building up for it. The character development is consistent and in depth with realistic gains in skill level and knowledge. The plot is easy to follow on the surface but layered enough that it’s not boring and leaves huge potential for a far reaching series of books. I can’t consider someone my favorite author without at least 3 books but when this guy gets there he probably will be my favorite.

Careful: this book is chock full of blatantly obvious christian imagery, symbolism, and metaphors. Unless you are an evangelical or fundamentalist christian, I would pass on this one.

Don't disregard giving this book a chance based on the (few) negative reviews. I admit that there are a few places where the pacing could be picked up, and one deus ex machina like scene--but for some reason I get the vibe that the haters are simply anti-religion in general, and having religious overtones in the book didn't vibe well with them. *shrug*To each their own, but it didn't ruin the book; it just may not be what everyone likes. The overwhelming good reviews, in this case, are well-warranted. I'm a Sanderson, Rothfuss, Tolkien kind of guy, and while this book was as different from those authors as they are from each other, I think it approaches their realm. It's a first book, and not perfect, but overall very well done. It's a different kind of good fantasy, and you just have to give it a shot to get a feel for it.A few people on here are complaining about all sorts of stuff like the main antagonists disappearing, etc--but that's because this author started with a much larger scope in mind, which is to be continued in further books. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of planning that seems to be going on, and how little of the book was predictable. There are some of those moments--but overall they are balanced nicely by some pretty good twists that leave you cringing when bad stuff happens and you didn't want it to.Give it a chance, unless you are pretty hard-core against religious overtones in books. Also, if you really want this to be completely wrapped up at the end of the first book, it's gonna feel like you just read 'The Fellowship of the Ring' and have to wait until the next book comes out...

I don't write reviews generally, but this one deserves at least a small modicum of effort on my part. It deserves more, truth be told.I read a fair amount of fantasy, and like many readers I'm a fan of Martin, Rothfuss, Sanderson, Gaiman, Jordan, and the like. With Dawn of Wonder, Renshaw has perhaps leapfrogged to the front of that list for me. I'm not sure what to say about it that won't spoil it, but I'll try. It blends some of the best "young hero in training" aspects of the genre within an intriguing and believable world. Like game of thrones, there are glimpses of magical pasts and futures, but for the most part the world is mundane (in a good way) and familiar. Characters are lovable and despicable. Story pacing is patient without dragging. Writing style is accessible yet at times almost poetic. Bottom line: I can't wait for the next installment!

This will drown in the thousands of other reviews but I truly enjoyed this fantasy novel. After reading the whole thing it had the feel of a prequel book that went back and told every detail I wanted to know about the main character and supporting characters and what happened before they became heroes. Not to say that the next book could be read without this one but just pointing out that the dawn of wonder doesnt really happen until the end. The protagonist is still a boy, learning, failing, succeding and becoming the legend we are excited to read about.

For better or worse, once I start a book, I feel obligated to finish it. This one took me ages because kept falling asleep after a few pages (I do generally read at bedtime). The main characters are teenagers and I assume the author had a young adult audience in mind when writing it. Sadly, young adult is not me, and I wouldn't have picked it up had I realised beforehand.The book failed to generate any level of excitement in me, and I never managed to paint the scenes in which the action took place inside my head. One annoyance to me was that the author was prone to occasional silliness. An example being an extract from a diary written by one of the characters with less than excellent spelling who spells *exquisite" as "ekswisit" in one sentence but goes on to spell "mysterious" perfectly correctly in the next. Really?There are elements within the story that make me think the author has spent a lot of time in an educational environment. I could be wrong, but I get that feeling.It's not a bad book, but it's not great either, and I certainly don't understand all the rave reviews, and I won't be reading any more of the series. Then again, I gave up on reading Harry Potter to my son when he was small, just a couple of chapters into the second book because I hated it so much, so what do I know.

I do not read a lot. I do enjoy fantasy but have found over recent years that new ideas are in short supply. There have also been an explosion in hastily written, ill conceived cheap books, freely, or with little cost , available on the internet. Dawn of Wonder is not one of these. It is well written with fresh ideas, excellent characters and an engaging story line.I am no literature genius but I would whole heartedly recommend this book to anybody with a love of fantasy novels. Young or old this is an engaging and entertaining novel. If you are new to this genre then this may be your starting place to enter exciting and enthralling new worlds.

Ok, after giving it 150 pages I've had to give up, I really don't understand all the rave reviews.Plus points first:The pacing is handled well, and the concept for the story is fairly original.Now the bad points:The support characters are very vague emotionally as not well described, and the world they inhabit fits into the realm of almost every other fantasy world, leading to another lack of description.The main character was irritating after the first few pages, I get that he's special, but knowing what to do in every situation and pulling off amazing stunts every time gets old very quickly.My other problem is the author's writing style, it came across to me like he was describing a film rather than a series of events in the book. I don't know if this was due to the characters having been not written too well, or just his personal style, but I just really struggled with it.There's been some amazing fantasy writers out there recently with Rothfuss (which another reviewer compared this to), Abercrombie, and Lynch being amongst my favourites. But, this seems almost childish in comparison.

What I liked.The book is well written, with a good storyline. The world has been built well and the main storyline offers quite a lot of intrigue. This kept me me at it after I almost have up after an hour of reading.What I didn't likeI didn't dislike the book but it feels like it would younger audience. Some of the outcomes are a bit predictable and the main character seems just a bit too good. Some of the themes are dark, but a lot of the actual writing around them seems to avoid becoming too dark, when it probably should. Finally, I think there was some missed opportunities for humour.I found this to be an ok book, with a good storyline, which could do with some dark humour and realism. I'll probably buy the next one.

Had me hooked from the word go, likeable characters, tragedy, heroes built from the ashes, can't wait for book 2