The Rogue King (The Rogue King Saga, #1)

SCI-FI:  Twelve-year-old Koral doesn’t know how the humans came to be on Thardrandria or why they created him, a genetically altered hybrid, but he does know that one of the humans is advocating his death and he can stay with them no longer. Leaving the only home he’s ever known is difficult but necessary, starting him on a journey through the sands into a frightening and unknown destiny. The Gods of this planet have decreed he will play a role that connects the past with the future. Given as sacrifice and possessed by Lorric, the Serpent God of Lust, his innocence is savagely torn away as he’s manipulated and driven through hostile territory to Rogue Rise where he claims the title of Rogue King. Taking the name Vengeance he rules Rogue Rise for years, but is that all the Gods want of him?

Thardrandria is a curious combination of an enthralling and forbidding alien planet. Inhabited by several different sentient beings their way of life is often unfulfilling and brutal. While several aspects of the story are fascinating, some appear irrelevant and others are left lamentably underdeveloped. The aimless meandering of the less than cohesive plot has negligible forward momentum, characters are two-dimensional with insufficient personality and large leaps in the timeline prove problematic, leaving the reader disconnected from the story and its denizens. Filling out the characters, filling in the timeline and building up the world would make this an adventure worth pursuing across time and space.

Carol Conley