THE SIX by K. B. Hoyle

Ebook, 264 pages

Published, April 5, 2012 by The Write's Coffee Shop

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

It might be my second magical novel I read after Harry Potter the series, if Percy Jackson the series don't belong in magical novel. I don't read Narnia the series, though. For the three novels mentioned, I didn't write the review since I didn't have or join Blogger Buku Indonesia yet. So now, allow me to try to write my first magical novel I read.

Darcy Pennington, 13 years, is a girl who never feels comfortable around many people, even her friends of her age. She prefers doing things by herself and often gets jealous of her brother who gets along easily with people. She often feels that she doesn't not possess her mother's beauty and blame herself for not being able to mingle with others.

One day, Darcy and her family had a trip to Cedar Cave to have a family gathering (?), a kind of event that many people gathered with their family and did many activities with the other families. One of the families, there's Samantha's family. Sam, in short, was a kind of friend who always stands behind you when you have problems. Darcy, on the other hand, didn't feel the same way as Sam. She still tried to find any ways to escape from Sam's attention. Until one day...

Darcy was walking with Sam together with other 4 friends who at first didn’t get along quite well with Darcy. Thanks to Sam who always stayed beside her (which is a bit suspicious, at least for me). Darcy came across with a gnome, a blinking gnome in Gnome Haven. It appeared that it was a gateway that took her to a magical place, called Alitheia. Darcy, who always believed that magic might be true felt that this was an alternative place which she might fit in rather that her real world. However, the leader of Alitheia asked her to return to the world where she’s from, bringing her 5 other friends, because they were THE SIX!

Alitheian prophecy stated that there would be six teens who would come, releasing them from The Shadow. The prophecy even said that those teens had their roles in fighting the Shadow. Lewis, the scribe, got a quill as a token; Amelia, the musician, got a harp-like music instrument;  Dean, the spy, got a bow and arrow;  Sam, the companion with a leather pouch. Darcy? She didn’t get anything from Rubidius, the local alchemist who created those gifts. However, the ten-year-old prince, Tellius handed her a heavy golden ring and ‘crowned’ her as the King Intended!!! What did that suppose to mean? According to the rhymes of prophecy she would marry the young prince later. Uh oh… She’s only thirteen!

Comments

I can say that I was a bit obsessed before reading this novel. I read the endorsement on the frst page, stated that the writer hasn’t read Harry Potter but read Narnia the series. And, this novel is nothing but anything of magical creatures and things. For me, on the other hand, I didn’t read Narnia, but read more than once for each Harry Potter serial. Did my obsession meet satisfaction after finishing the book? Not really. Here goes some flaws from my own opinion:

1.       Ii’s hard for me to recognize names of Alitheian people. Rubidius, Tellius, Yahto Veli, Voito Vesa, Tullin Ecclekstos, etc. Those names really gave me headache. I even often forgot which name is the prince name, which is the Shadow’s name, Tselloch. Tselloch is kind of creature which in my mind look like Dementor, the demons in Harry Potter.

2.       Too many characters that appeared here and there. That might be the one that caused me get headache for names. Even those teens that became the main characters, I couldn’t recognize their names, not to mention their roles and their gifts which might be useful for the next war between Alitheia and Tsellochim.

3.       Not only names of people, names of areas also gave a hard time. Paradeisos, Ormiskos, etc. Why not using English name, instead?

4.       At first, I thought that Rubidius was the one who ‘master mind’ of the Six coming. But then I found that there’s Pateros that would be ‘Dumbledore’ in this first logy out of trilogy. Pateros seems that he is the God of the Alitheians. He could open and close the gate as he wished. He could help Darcy when she was captured in Ormiskos. If so, why not he became the one who helped the Alitheians, instead of depending on those teens.  (there wouldn’t be any story of the Six, then. Lol)

However, I felt excited with the idea of transforming of Yahto Veli. The creature has two different side in the same body. Yahto is different from Veli, depending on the morning and the afternoon. So, Darcy could decide whether it’s already late or not by only looking at Yahto transformed into Veli. I don’t think that I found this kind of creature in Harry Potter. Cmiiw.

The novel stands a chance for a popularity I guess, just wait for more logy to come. Remember The Hunger Games? It took Suzanne Collins some years to make the series got their thrill from both the readers and movie goers. K. B. Hoyle just needs to put the romance touch between Darcy and Tellius, the prince. Or maybe, twist their romance among Darcy-Tellius-Perry? Oh no, it might end up as Twilight love triangle that bores me, and others. 

Lila Podungge

Membaca, Menonton, Mereview

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