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Book Review - Requiem, Changing Times (by R.J. Parker)

Title: Requiem, Changing Times
Series: -
Author: R.J. Parker
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
Release Date: September 26th, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition
Pages: 450
 



"Clint and Corbin are having a weird day. Best friends for life, things are getting a little strange around their town, and at school. When they're followed by a strange man looking for Clint and later attacked by an imp, it makes sense to retreat to the safety of home. But when strangers from another world, Banks and O'Neil, arrive with their medley of allies, things get even weirder. Why are they here? What do they want? And what is The Requiem that everyone keeps talking about? As Clint and his friends and family are drawn deeper into a thrilling adventure, only one thing is for sure. They may not be getting out alive. And class with Mrs Christenson will seem like a walk in the park after this."



Requiem, Changing Times
(click to read an excerpt on amazon.com)


- Review -
What Made Me Read It
I was sent a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The synopsis sent by the author sounded interesting: a normal 7th grader just starting junior high who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a conflict between magical beings, while trying to keep the appearance that things are normal to everyone around him.
 

The Plot
Clint Holden is just a normal 7th grader at Holbrook school, getting in trouble with his best friend Corbin and with an uncanny inability to speak in front of his crush Melanie. Until the day he gets chased down by a scary size-shifting red creature determined to kill him. Clint thought the worst of his problems was dealing with a math teacher with an ax to grind and inviting Melanie to the Halloween dance... now Clint has a group of strange people from another world camping at his house, including a dwarf with a Scottish accent who loves Disney movies and gets high on Pepsi and an elf druid who insists on growing trees inside the toilet, while terrifying creatures commanded by a creepy stranger in a dark hood chase him around town.
 

Banks is a Knight of the Salvations Alliance, in a world where humans coexist peacefully with mythical beings, elves and dwarfs, pixies and fairies; a world threatened by the Fury, a coalition of dark creatures who wish to take away freedom of choice and impose their will on everyone. Together with his trusted second in command O'Neil and a small group of skilled warriors, Banks is sent through a magical portal on a secret mission to retrieve the Requiem, a sacred object that could save their world, bringing all who live together, or destroy it. His only lead is an old parchment with a list of names: Clint Holden and his family, whom they must protect from the imps, orcs and trolls sent by the Spell Binder to kill them.
 

The Good
"Requiem, Changing Times" is the first book of a young adult fantasy series set in near future San Francisco. The world is in economic and political turmoil with brewing wars worldwide, forcing starving refugees to migrate. Clint Holden is a young boy just starting junior high, still reeling from his father's death and having trouble relating with his stepfather, a wealthy Nobel Prize scientist researching temporal anomalies and DNA mapping. The story takes place during the course of a single week at Halloween, as Clint's normal life is turned upside down when two different groups of strange beings appear in search of the Requiem, a mysterious object
that could save or destroy a world thought to be in the possession of his stepfather; while one group is set on protecting Clint and his family, the other is just as determined to kill them all.
 

The plot is fast-paced and action-packed with thrilling chase sequences and skirmishes as the Fury army of dark creatures and the Salvations Alliance task force clash with one another, an ongoing mystery surrounding the search for the mysterious Requiem and plenty of quirky humor and brilliant one-liners that had me laughing all the way through. The worldbuilding is imaginative and complex: the Reclamation, a process through which a person who does bad deeds physically transforms into an evil creature, making it all but impossible for anyone to even lie in order to avoid such a terrible fate; bows that shoot arrows made of light; the size-shifting imps who look human but speak in animal sounds; the magical abilities of the Spell Binder capable of freezing a person from the inside out; the druids powers to control nature and heal...
 

The characters are for the most part 3-dimentional, with realistic behaviors and motivations, with the main character Clint being the most developed: a young boy with the normal mischievous nature of a junior high student but also dealing with feelings of anger and resentment towards his stepfather, who must grow beyond his years and learn to value his family when the world around him suddenly proves to be much bigger and dangerous than he thought possible.
 

The Not So Good
There are way too many characters to keep track of. Even though each of Clint's 5 siblings is a unique character, with specific and distinguishable personalities, it took me several chapters before I could remember and differentiate them. Banks' special ops team on the other hand remained a mere list of 7 confusing names for the entire novel, with the exception of his second in command O'Neil.
 

One of the very early chapters feels completely irrelevant, introducing characters and events that have no part or meaning in the main story. There are also a few lose ends and events left unexplained, but since this is the 1st volume in the series it's possible the answers will be provided in future installments.
 

Final Rating
"Requiem, Changing Times" is the first book of a young adult fantasy series set in near future San Francisco, with a fast-paced plot action-packed with thrilling chase sequences, an ongoing mystery and plenty of quirky humor and brilliant one-liners. Recommended for those who enjoy fantasy stories in school settings, with mythical beings (elves, dwarfs, orcs, ogres...) and magical powers.


• • • •


- About the Author -
Website: rjparkerwrights.wixsite.com/mysite
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Thriller
 

Russell Parker was born in Bountiful, Utah. As his father was safety manager he had to move around until his senior year of high school, when he came to Cache Valley, Utah to stay. He married the most wonderful woman in the world and they are the parents of four fantastic kids, with one crazy dog.
 

Russell played all kinds of sports and was an outdoorsman until an accident brought him to writing. A writer since high school, encouragement brought his stories to life.

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