#Review: Kidnap (Guy Erma and the Son of Empire) (Volume 1) by Sally Ann Melia #YABooks

Summary:
I don’t want to go… Do I have to go? 13-year-old Teodor knows his duty to the memory of his father and his kingdom, he must help those less fortunate than himself. He must also impress his uncle the Emperor if he is ever to become the Son of Empire. A frightening nightmare fills him with foreboding, but still he must go - into the Dome. 13-year-old Guy Erma lives in the shadow of the Dome, he has no father and no mother and his future is uncertain, he must start earning a living soon. He knows not where he will live or even how he will eat, and his only dream is to be accepted in the military academy - at the heart of the Dome. Two boys as different as any two boys might be. One act of cruelty will throw their lives together, but who dare they trust? Guy Erma and the Son of Empire is a new three-part young adult thriller series, set a long time ago on a planet far far away. The Empire of Freyne is a newcomer to the United Races. As a developing race, the Freyne and their thirteen planets empire is of interest to the many other galactic races and aliens, not all of this interest is friendly. So the Dome Elite is a force of space marines whose defensive actions and adventures defend Freyne and its neighbours from hostile alien pirates and allow the inhabitants to sleep soundly at night. To be a part of the Dome Elite, you need to master the maths and technology associated with space warfare and also to be fierce fighter who can fight in confined spaces with short sharp blades

My review:
It took me awhile to get into this book, truth is, I never really did. The beginning started out intriguing but then quickly turned to a confusing bit of menagerie. Again, it took a bit to understand what was going on.

I felt that the scenes jumped in so quickly that the reader could not understand or picture this new world. It is not that it was not imaginative, oh no, the author is brilliant in that regard. However, she begins to build this world and new words from the very beginning leaving the reader to scratch their head. I did eventually find a glossary at the end but by then, I was done and it felt useless at that point.

I will say on a more positive note that again, the author is imaginative. It is quite difficult to put a whole new world together and that did impress me. I also liked the few illustrations that were included in the book. They looked almost 3-D like.

This is the first of a trilogy but I suppose this book is just not for me. This book is targeted for the YA genre and I am sure they will like it. 
I give the book 3 stars.

Disclosure: I was given a Kindle copy of this book for my open and honest opinion. I was also compensated with an Amazon card for the post. The views expressed here are 100% my own and may differ with yours. ~Naila Moon

Where to find the author:

Biography

S A Melia is an English SF writer, SF author and SF storyteller based in Surrey, UK.

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