book review; Permata Aurorius by Ahmad Patria Abdullah

3/5 stars

This is the first book out of 9 books in ‘Saga Artakusiad’. This series is also the companion of ‘Kronika Nashan’ as both are under the same universe, world of Imagina. Fun fact: This book is written by the author when he was only 17 years old.

I listened to this playlist while reading https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FpItlVwVh286P9lyGzV5B

From Goodreads,

Rizal telah dibawa oleh suatu kuasa ghaib ke alam Aurora yang penuh misteri. Oleh kerana pada dirinya terdapat tanda-tanda kebesaran seperti tercatat dalam kitab-kitab kaum Aurora, dia telah diangkat sebagai pemimpin atau Artakus puak Armorikus. Sebagai Artakus, dia diharap dapat mengembalikan keagungan kaum Aurora dan membebaskan mereka daripada kezaliman Morrok – musuh Armorikus yang ganas. Dia juga telibat dalam pertentangan Arasis (siang) terhadap Osria (malam) yang cuba memusnahkan alam. Untuk menyekat rancangan jahat Osria, dia harus pula membantu Merkia (makhluk yang terhasil daripada cahaya) merampas Permata Aurorius yang berada di Kota Arialun dalam genggaman Herakos (makhluk yang terhasil daripada kegelapan). Dalam usaha untuk merampas permata itu, dia terpaksa menempuh berbagai-bagai peristiwa yang ngeri, mendebarkan, mencemaskan, menyedihkan dan kadangkala melucukan.

Strength

• The world building was well built. The author brought the reader into the scenes itself with each beautiful description and playing with all five senses.
• Plot twist at its best! I didn’t expect it would turn out that way.
• I love the foreshadow technique used here. Every little details from previous scene held significant meaning to progress further.

Weakness

• Lack of character development. There are certain platform introduced the supporting characters’ background but it didn’t have enough depth for readers to care. It’s enjoyable still to know each one of them.
• The plotline in a slow pace for the author to let the reader swept into the world. But it was loosely managed.

An appreciation post to the author, Ahmad Patria

I adored his works so much. Maybe it wasn’t right to start off ‘Kronika Nashan’ first before reading ‘Saga Artakusiad’ because I kept on comparing both. But I didn’t regret in picking up this series because I could see the improvement he had gone through and finally creating the masterpiece. I will definitely continuing this series just because I know that I’m reading something worthy.