Synopsis
Book 1 of the award winning, international best-selling series: The Elements of Time
Destiny, personal responsibility, what the future holds – common concerns for anyone graduating high school. But usually not because of a cosmic war between timeless beings where you’re the central player.
As the end of school quickly approaches, and Cooper Bailey watches his perfect world slip away, his only concern is savouring every last minute of his high school career. For his best friend, Reid Patterson, graduation is a doorway to the future, where his discipline and focus will finally allow him to meet his true potential.
When a mysterious mirror-masked man begs for their help to stop a dangerous heretic, Cooper and Reid find themselves thrust into unknown worlds, wrestling with a destiny as old as time itself. As the truths about their roles in the universe unfold, and enemies disguise themselves as allies, their only hope is to trust each other – and learn fast!
Far from home and in mortal peril, Cooper and Reid attempt to hone their newfound abilities and come to grips with their purpose for being.
Inspired by classic and modern science fiction and fantasy, and drawing upon timeless themes of destiny and personal responsibility, The Elements of Time is a series written for anyone who loves an escape into a rich and deep world. With references to Star Wars (the Original Trilogy), Avatar: The Last Bender, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, and much more, The Elements of Time: The Winds of Change is fun action-adventure, with it’s own unique magic system, and themes that touch what it means to grow up and take on the challenges of life
The Elements of Time – Book 1: The Winds of Change
For more story information, behind the scenes details, and additional content visit www.elementsoftime.ca
If you liked book 1, make sure to check out the prequel story Paschia’s Hidden Journals: Volume I – Awakenings & Aeveaternity. Available in every format on amazon.
Review
This one appeared in my An Intro to Indie Sci-fi For Those Wondering Where to Start post as someone else’s submission, but I’m so glad to be getting to it myself now!
The author very kindly offered me a physical copy for review, and I’m very sorry I’m late. With my last year being what it turned out to be (a dumpster fire) I have been racing to catch up and realized I have no idea where the book was in my storage unit. So I decided to buy the audio to ensure I got to it. Scott Fleming was a great choice for narration, but did an almost Massachusetts/Boston accent (wah-rrior, dah-ughter, Coop-uh). Not at all an issue for me, I just noticed! Or imagined it…?
This one is really unique. It’s an urban/portal fantasy that at times feels wholly scifi, then it turns and feels wholly fantasy, with zero urban. The kind of story that makes you forget all about earth and high school. It blends entire galaxies away from earth, with some advanced technology that surpasses human knowledge. It features gods that make it feel ancient, but somehow it still feels rooted in the now. Through Cooper and Reed, it’s a coming of age story, an underdog story, and certainly a reluctant hero story. It blends so many things in its own original way that I feel like I can’t even summarize it.
The best friends of Cooper and Reed were spectacular. One is book smart, less confident, but certainly not without strength. The other is an athlete, confident and although bright, less focused on the future. While in some schools or circled this would be an unlikely match, their friendship formed at a young age and they didn’t let it stop them. They are opposites, like two sides of the same coin. They need each other, balance each other, and propel each other. I loved the healthy male friendship on display, and getting both of them focused on as POVs showed the reader how little jealously was there between them. Then they both succeed in unlocking/befriending the elements of air and fire called Spreeta. Little white and red creatures that I thought of as almost angry bird style little things. I imagined them as cute, but they controlled immense power. And they unlocked that power in both of the boys, as well as functionally offering a new responsibility for them, forcing maturing.
The magic system feels old and full and yet it left some things up for interpretation. Empathic objects can be bestowed to those with certain specifically strong traits. These can be any object, including weapons. But these empathic objects are just a scrape off the surface. There’s ways to learn a multitude of powers and strengths, as well as utilizing unimaginable tech. The strength unlocked by the Spreeta help the boys to find their inner power and unleash it. Their displays of strength kind of felt almost superhero to me, kind of a la Wistful Ascending by J.C.M. Berne, but with a completely different foundation. Then you throw in a twist almost a la Terminator…this one truly has it all.
I loved the mentor figures so much. One, a misunderstood, centuries-old protector, a man that fits the trope perfectly. The other, another old character, but this one stuck inside the body of a child. The two played off each other even when they weren’t together, one the wise and understanding, the other quicker to action. It was great to see the senior-year teen Cooper go toe to toe with a kid and be forced to back down over and over. The author does a great job of twisting tropes in ways that feel fresh and familiar at the same time.
For the first time in a long time honestly, I had zero idea where a book was going to go. It was an awfully nice change.
Leave a Reply