The Trials of Oland Born

 

by Alex Barclay

Oland Born is a humble servant who has found a letter from a long dead king and sets off to do the letter’s bidding. On the way he meets a lonely girl called Delphi who helps him in his journey. They try to find an archivist who they think wrote the letter, just as they are in place to find him a pair of murderous monster making scientists come to get them.  Why do the scientists want Oland and Delphi? In the mad men’s lair, Oland and Delphi escape their grasp, and find a mysterious hut. When the hut gets destroyed by one of the men’s horrible monsters they finally get out of the lair. Where do they go? Into more danger!

This book is set in a medieval world where there are competing kingdoms, monsters, humans with special abilities and normal humans. The reasons I like this book are that I seem to be liking books with monsters and are based in medieval times also I like the characters.

My favourite character in the book was a monster called Malben. I liked him because his shape was a monkey and he literally uses his last breath for Oland. 

This book also has a comment from Derek Landy, my favorite author, who wrote Skulduggery Pleasant. He says it  is "fiercely imaginative with razor sharp twists and a plot that moves so fast it ignites".

This is a good book, I give it 3 stars, because it could have been longer and it definitely could have included a lot more characters of importance. I will probably read the next book in the series.

Good bye!