Shannon Briwen's A Long Forgotten World was published in December 2018.
Information about Shannon Briwen:
Shannon J. Briwen was born in Austria, Bregenz and visited a university in Vienna, where he got a degree in Business Administration. He went to an acting school in L.A., lived in San Francisco and Texas. Right now he lives in Bregenz again.
Click here to visit his official website.
Information A Long Forgotten World:
Shaila, a young girl, discovers a new, magical world. This world is full of brixta. There are goblins, trolls and dragons. She experiences several adventures with her companion there. This world seems sweet and beautiful at first. However, there are dangers! In this world, she also meets a new friend. In her quest of helping him she even enters the realm of death, the Aneru. Can she leave this world alive?
Discover a dreamlike world. The first book of the Rebirth of Magic leads you to the Antumnos, a world full of unbelievable worlds. This is the beginning of an unimaginable story of young people who discover their dreams, brixta and the true face of the multiverse. Do you like magic, Gods and Goddesses, dragons, fairies and other magical beings? Then come along with Shaila into a new age of magic!
REVEW: A LONG FORGOTTEN WORLD BY SHANNON BRIWEN
Shannon Briwen's A Long Forgotten World is the first part of The Rebirth of Magic series. It's a magical and dreamlike fantasy book for children and middle-grade readers. It's a bit different from other middle-grade fantasy books, because its roots lie in pagan and celtic mythology.
A Long Forgotten World was an interesting reading experience for me. It's a fairy tale kind of a story that whisks readers off into another world where adventure, magic and creatures abound. Because the author introduces many new words and places to his readers during the story, this book feels a bit like an introduction to the series, but is entertaining and easily likeable.
This book tells of Shaila who discovers a new and magical world. One night when Shaila is about to go to sleep, she hears a creak and thinks that there's a monster under her bed. When she begins to investigate the source of the sound, she meets a creature called Fiach who shows her a new world filled with magic, wonder and various creatures ranging from trolls to dragons. With Fiach's help, she begins to the explore the new world...
Here are a few words about some of the characters:
- Shaila is a young girl who has a lot to learn. When she enters the magical world, she finds out that she doesn't know much about certain things and is a bit too trustful towards strangers. She learns many things and gets to know words that she hasn't heard before. She also begins to realise that despite having great beauty and wonder there are grave dangers in the world and not everybody is nice to her.
- Fiach is a shentich, a sentinel, who protects Shaila from many things. He is an ancient creature of the night and has four claws, a white coat, deep red eyes and big teeth.
- While exploring the world, Shaila meets Cian, a troll, and befriends him. Cian is not an ordinary troll, because there's much more to him than meets the eye.
I think that the worldbuilding will please younger readers, because the author has created a vast and intriguing world, Antumnos, that is filled with many kinds of wonders. There's a dreamlike feel to the world that makes it intriguing. I won't reveal much about the various places and their wonders, but I'll mention that readers have - among other things - an opportunity to read about such places as the Flying Isles, the Troll Village and Aneru, the realm of death.
The visit to the Troll Village is one of the highlights of this book, because the author writes about how the trolls behave and how one can outsmart them. The trolls behave in a very troll-like way and their behaviour is fascinatingly odd and unpleasant.
This book is a tale about friendship, power, freedom, infinity and love and about being human. Although the story seems simple and straightforward at first, surprisingly many elements can be found beneath its surface. These elements are infused into the story and are revealed to readers during Shaila's adventures.
I enjoyed reading about what happened to Shaila when she began to help Cian, because she found out that fixing things wasn't as easy as she had thought, because she had to visit the realm of death in order to help Cian.
I think that younger readers will be eager to read this book, because it has plenty of magic and something is always happening. The story moves swiftly forward and is filled with adventure, making the book an ideal read to readers who enjoy fast-paced fantasy stories.
I found the writing is easy and fast to read. There's a lightness to the writing that makes the story flow surprisingly well.
The glossary at the end of the book is useful to readers, because it contains explanations for the Brixta words. It's possible that many of the words may at first seem strange to readers, but after a while their meanings are easy to remember.
I give this book 3.5 stars on the scale from 1 to 5 stars, because I enjoyed the story and thought that it has lots of potential, but was left hoping for more depth. I look forward to reading the next instalment, because I think that the author will continue to reveal more things about the magical world and the story will have more depth.
If you're looking for a middle-grade fantasy book with plenty of adventure and a hint of something deeper to come in the next instalments, Shannon Briwen's A Long Forgotten World will be of interest to you. It's an intriguing combination of imagination and traditional fantasy elements.