I received an Advanced Reader Copy of Brendan Quayle’s the Shining Stone through a Net Galley giveaway with the understanding that I would read and review the book .
A young man named Osain starts off on a quest to find and restore his family in a land riven by a cataclysmic war. He must go to Erainn, which lies far across areas inhabited by dangerous men and even more dangerous beasts. The author , to his credit, has conceived and delivered a fantastic world, but I found that it was a struggle to get and keep names and places straight in this complicated storyline.
While read heroic fantasy, “ The Shining Stone” was not the kind of story I enjoy reading. It was, honestly, a bit too strange in conception and difficult in writing style for me.
Thanks for the opportunity to read it though.

Thank you Netgalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the ARC.

I gave this book a 2.7/5.

This is very high fantasy, to the point of needing a dictionary to understand have of what they're saying. You can feel the inspiration from Lord of the Rings and The Witcher throughout almost every chapter. The book should have been at least twice longer, I don't think a story like this sits properly on 200 pages with all the world building and explanation of races and tribes.

I do feel the book works on repeat mode: meets nice people (even though the world is at war) they drop a lot of information, they become friends, they split. This process happens a lot for such a short book. Also the fact that he's constantly getting knocked out and waking up completely safe. The accent thing is something annoying to be fair, he comes from the most isolated area in the world, he doesn't have an accent but then he meets people from East and West and they all seem to be Scottish. Good thing I love Scottish accent, but a world so big and same accent everywhere? Yeah, not happening.

Something that really didn't sit with me and make the book feel longer than it was, the struggle, there isn't one, everything comes to him rather nicely. Even at the beginning, when his weapons are stolen he's not killed nor kidnapped and they left him a weapon, like that could actually happen.

I could be interested in reading the sequel, but some work needs to be done here.

This was a compelling read. I really enjoyed the storytelling and pace of this novel. The use of tribal factions was great, and in my view really enhanced the story.

I am looking forward to reading future novels in the series.