Looking For a Good Book

I am (slowly) working my way through a very long backlog of old (decades, in some cases) ARCs. I want these books off my Kindle and off my dashboards on the different book sites I log into. Every book was something I wanted to read, but for one reason or another (and in some cases, for many reasons) the book(s) fell off my reading radar. Followers of my reviews may note a number of older books appearing this year.

Credara: Rise of the Kraylen by J E Henderson is one of these above noted books.

The Kraylen are fallen angels. They were cast out of heaven and now act as part of Lucifer’s army. The Kraylen, led by Licronus – evil incarnate that rivals Lucifer himself – are angry about how they’ve been treated and seek revenge on God and all His chosen creatures. They are prepared for a battle to end all battles and take back heaven

One man – a MAN, not the Archangels Michael or Gabriel – is God’s chosen leader. Agean is a simple monk and hardly prepared for such a holy war, but he’s devoted to God and will do what he can to learn and wield the power of the Credara and lead God’s army and save mankind.

I like a book where the stakes are high and you really can’t get much better than the fate of mankind at the hands of the devil’s army. And the good versus evil concept is clear. We know who’s who and what’s a stake. All that’s left then, is an identifiable hero (a reluctant human? Check.) and a thrill-a-minute storytelling.

Ooops.  Missed on that one.

There’s a great concept here, even if it’s not particularly new, and a valiant effort to tell the story, but it really falls short of living up to the setting.

Mostly I was bored and I just never connected well with Agean. It was almost as though we spent more time trying to understand Licronus and the Kraylen than we did the man we’re supposed to cheer on. The writing itself is fair but not outstanding.  A great deal of work went into planning this and world-building, but it doesn’t come across well-enough to stand out in the general fiction/fantasy market. It would probably do well in the Christian fantasy market.

This is billed as the first book in a trilogy (it’s great for me to actually stumble on a first book instead of middle or last as so often happens). However, as I visited the Goodreads page to grab the book cover image for my blog, I see that despite being released 12 years ago, there has been no other book in the series by this author. To me, that speaks volumes and it should be noted that the book ‘ends’ with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Looking for a good book? Credara: Rise of the Kraylen by J E Henderson is Christian fantasy that builds on a strong premise but doesn’t deliver the exciting clash between good and evil that we hope for.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Credara: Rise of the Kraylen

author: J E Henderson 

series: Credara #1

publisher: Arc-Pen Publishing

ISBN:  9780988249448

paperback, 400 pages