The Rise of the Raidin Book Review

4/5 stars - cool, action-packed urban fantasy book.

The Rise of the Raidin is an action-packed urban fantasy book. Rise features a large cast of characters which is a lot of fun (my personal favorite is Krelien). They're funny and have a good group dynamic.

Rise also includes a number of original creatures. It's really cool, but it did make the first chapter a little confusing. Since the main character, Jen is already aware of her connection to this world; we don't get to learn about it with her. Instead, we have to catch up. Luckily, there is a glossary in the back of the book. A quick look over that made things much clearer.

As I mentioned before, Jen already knows about the fantasy world she's involved in, the World of Tilion. On the one hand, I wish we were learning about the World of Tilion with Jen, but at the same time, I like that she had been training for over a year. Her abilities/training was well handled. It felt realistic, which is good considering so much of Rise was action.

Rise was different from most books I read. I usually stick with the classic fantasy quest books, but Rise isn't a quest book (although there is travel teased for the sequel, so that should be fun). It centers around one major event/day and the action/fighting involved. It may not be my usual style, but I really enjoyed Rise.