Odriel's Heirs

Odriel's Heirs is a 2020 young adult high fantasy novel by Hayley Reese Chow. It is being self-published by the author and is scheduled for release on March 1, 2020. The e-book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and you can purchase it here.  The author provided me with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel's blurb reads as follows:  As the Dragon Heir, seventeen-year-old Kaia inherited the power of flame to protect her homeland from a godlike necromancer’s undead army. But after centuries of peace, the necromancer has faded to myth, and the Dragon Heir is feared by the people. Persecuted and cast out, Kaia struggles to embrace and control her seemingly useless gift while confined to her family’s farm. But when the necromancer’s undead terrorize the land once again, Kaia runs away to join the battle. With the help of her childhood rival, the handsome Shadow Heir, and a snarky, cursed cat, Kaia must figure out how to control both her fire and her confidence in time to save Okarria. If she fails, she will sacrifice her family, her new friends, and the enchanting world she has only just begun to see. And time is running out.

Before I discuss what I think of the story overall, I'd like to talk about the characters within the story. Kaia is the main character, and our point-of-view character, for the novel. I liked her character, I enjoyed her growth as a character from a girl who's unsure of herself and her powers to a confident and powerful fighter. She had fears and doubts and agency which made her story compelling. Even when she did things that frustrated me, it didn't make me stop liking the character, I just didn't like the choice she made. Best of all, she's a seventeen-year-old character that reads as being a seventeen-year-old. Along her journey, Kaia encounters, and the reader is introduced to, an array of colorful and interesting characters. There is Klaus, the Shadow Heir, and Kaia's childhood rival. At the beginning, he mostly serves as a foil to Kaia as she struggles to gain control. She's unsure of her abilities, while he's confident in his. She's optimistic while he's most pessimistic. Their relationship at the beginning can best be described as "playfully antagonistic"; they aren't friends but for the most part, their fighting isn't serious. Klaus is a well-rounded character in his own right, having needed to come to terms with his own abilities long before the current crisis arose. I liked Kaia and Klaus, but my favorite character by far is Gus, Kaia's ragehound, who serves as a quasi-therapy dog making sure that Kaia keeps her emotions in check. Because as the Dragon Heir, Kaia sometimes experiences something called Dragon Rage, which is pretty self-explanatory. Gus is a good boy and deserves nice things. There are a number of side characters that I could discuss, but it would take me a long time to say what I need to say about all of them. Overall, I liked the diversity with these characters. I liked the fact that characters didn't drop out of the story entirely after they served the initial purpose they seemed to have. I enjoyed the simplicity of the main villain, the necromancer Nifras, as well. He didn't have some complicated motivation where he thought he was doing the right thing. He wanted to use his Lost, the term for the undead in this world, to overrun the world and cover the planet in darkness. Villains that are evil, simply to be evil, are great when utilized properly and Chow did that here. This novel had excellent characters.

Now that I've finished gushing about the characters, let's talk about the story itself. Reading Odriel's Heirs, it's easy to see what works inspired this world and this story, and there's a great deal of variety within that pool. At the same time, while the author took inspiration from Tolkien and others, the story is its own and not an attempt to retread old grounds. I liked the world-building overall, in that there was some information given about specific groups and races, but not everything was spelled out. The reader was able to fill in the blanks and create their own vision of parts of this world. I enjoyed the plot of this novel because things escalated in a way that makes sense. Kaia leaves home to save a handful of people, which turns into needing to save a village and that snowballs into needing to save the world from the undead. The stakes keep getting raised, but they aren't going from very low stakes to extremely high stakes right away. I appreciated that all fight and battle scenes were giving an appropriate number of pages to take place. Short fight scenes didn't run as long as the battle that's going to have more lasting and widespread consequences which is exactly how it should be. Most stories have several plot twists, with some being smaller than others, and this story is no different. I don't spoil books as a rule, and I'm definitely not going to ruin the plot twists of a book that, at the time that I'm writing this, hasn't been released yet. What I will say is that the twist that happens towards the end of the book surprised me in the best way. I didn't see it coming, but on reflection, I could see the hints and pieces of foreshadowing that preceded it. Overall, the novel has a good, solid plot with some fun surprises thrown in.

One of my favorite parts of this book relates to Kaia's character arc, but I wanted to discuss it on its own. That is the focus on problems Kaia faces due to her being the Dragon Heir. Inwardly, there's a great deal of self-doubt and struggle she faces with her role as the Dragon Heir. In-universe it's explained that only the first-born child of the Dragon Heir will inherit his or her parent's gift. Kaia's father is the Dragon Heir and she is also the Dragon Heir because she was born six minutes before her twin brother. One of her biggest struggles is dealing with the fact that, maybe, her brother should be the one with this gift. She wonders if she's going to be enough to stop Nifras. Is she able to live up to the destiny she's supposed to fulfill? At the beginning of the story, she's not sure that she can. She messes up, she fails and she has to learn not only how to use her gifts, but why she's meant to be the Dragon Heir. Aside from Kaia's inner struggle, there's also a degree of outer conflict around her gifts. Normal people are scared of Kaia, scared of what she can do. Even as a child, people were wary and cruel to her. Through a few short interactions, the reader gets to see what the downside to being a Chosen One is. Or what it's like when the people you're meant to defend and protect don't actually want you around to do that. I found the focus on Kaia needing to accept, but internally and externally, that she is the Dragon Heir and that she isn't meant to be normal, to be interesting.

While I enjoyed the book overall, there are a few pieces of criticism I need to share.While the novel has a good, solid plot, the pacing needs a little bit of work. It's a bit too fast-paced in certain parts, making it easy for a reader to get lost or need to go back and reread to figure out what's going on. I liked Chow's writing style overall, but there were some aspects that are indicative of this being a debut novel. Mostly, this was when she told the reader things rather than showing it. This is her first novel, and as a debut, it's excellent, but occasionally, I came across things that reminded me of it being her first novel. The third, and final, criticism I have is about the romance in the story. I didn't think that the romance was bad, but it was a bit predictable. It was predictable, which isn't necessarily bad, and it somewhat relied on a trope that I don't enjoy reading. However, the romance didn't overshadow the rest of the story, so while I'm so-so about that, it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment. 


I loved this book more than I expected to. It told an amazing story and it doesn't read like an author's first novel. While not perfect, it's a solid, enjoyable story. I recommend it to any fantasy reader that finds the premise intriguing. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel's release, which doesn't have a release date, but the author has announced that there will be one. I'd like to thank Hayley Reese Chow again for providing me with an advance copy of novel so that I could write this review.

Rating: 4.7 stars

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Top 5 High Fantasy Series

Despite the fact that, at time of writing, most of my reviews are for some form of thriller, thriller actually is not my favorite literary genre. Fantasy, more specifically high-fantasy, is my favorite genre to read. Given that I needed a bit of a break from reviews for a little bit, I’ve decided to write about my five favorite high fantasy series.

By definition, high fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set primarily in an alternative, entirely fictional world, rather than the real world. The fictional world is usually internally consistent but its rules differ in some way from those of the real world. Low fantasy, by contrast, takes place in the real world but has the inclusion of magical elements. The Mortal Instruments series is low fantasy; The Hobbit is high fantasy.

5) Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The novels, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea, take place in a world that is mostly ocean with humanity living on small islands. The world is inhabited by humans and dragons, with some humans being wizards or sorcerers. Unlike the other series on this list, humans and dragons are the only notable species that live in this world.

The first novel begins with a young boy, known as Duny but later named Ged, learning he has innate magical power. His aunt teaches him the little magic she knows, and one exhibition of his power gains the attention of a powerful mage. Unfortunately, Ged inadvertently releases a shadow creature. The rest of the novel follows Ged as he attempts to get ride of the creature plaguing him.

Earthsea is unique from two standpoints. One is the shifting of perspectives. There isn’t one protagonist across the series, unlike most book series. Characters from later books interact and meet characters from earlier novels, but the story isn’t focused on Ged and Ged alone. The second aspect that I feel makes Earthsea unique is its central theme about balance. Wizards in this world are meant to keep balance between the magical forces. Bad things don’t necessarily happen because someone evil causes it, they happen because they go against the balance that needs to be maintained. When I read this series, I found the concept of good and evil being more about choice than innate nature intriguing.

4) The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

I wasn’t aware of this series existence until the first two books, Eragon and Eldest had already been released. I read those two very quickly and eagerly awaiting the third novel Brisingr and later the fourth and final book Inheritance.

Taking place in the fictional world of Alagaesia, it chronicles the tale of a farmboy Eragon, who finds a dragon egg while hunting and becomes the first Dragon Rider since the evil king Galbatorix killed all the others one hundred years earlier. Eragon is then swept up a journey to end the evil king’s reign and restore the order of Dragon Riders.

The Inheritance Cycle has a lot of similarities with, and clearly the author was inspired by, older works, most notably J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Alagaesia and many of its inhabitants are similar to Middle Earth and the different races of beings that live there. While the worlds may be the same, the plots differ quite bit. Eragon’s journey isn’t about defeating an ultimate evil, its about overthrowing a corrupt leader. The conflicts between the protagonists and antagonists in Eragon and the other novels in the series, begin on a more personal level than most fantasy novels.

3) The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Some of you may believe this entry is cheating, since each book in the series starts with the main characters in the real world. However, given that the entirety of each book’s action and plot take place in the fictional land of Narnia, I’ve decided to include it.

The Chronicles of Narnia was actually the first high-fantasy series I read. A great deal of my love for it is no doubt a result of nostalgia from my childhood. These books will always hold a special place in my heart for being my introduction to fantasy as a genre. The allegories between events in Narnia and Christian theology are a lot more obvious as an adult, and Lewis has been criticized for some harmful stereotypes others have noticed in the novels, but this piece is neither the time nor the place to discuss that.

The world is expansive. There are different creatures throughout the world. There are humans, talking animals, minotaurs, sprites, and dozens of others. Magic exists in Narnia and the rules within the world are easy to understand and they stay consistent throughout There is the essential battle between Good and Evil, in various forms, throughout the series.

2) A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I think we all knew this one was going to be on here. No discussion about fantasy is complete anymore without mentioning A Song of Ice and Fire due to the popularity of Game of Thrones. (Just as an aside, I will only be discussing Martin’s novels here, and not any events from the television series). I’m not sure what I can say about Westeros that hasn’t already been said, but here we go.

Martin gives the reader a rich, expansive world with hundreds of unique characters. Of all of the fantasy worlds mentioned in this piece, Martin’s uses magic the least often. Magic does exist, but it only seems to come up in certain situations and can only be performed by certain characters. A Song of Ice and Fire first gained popularity due to how shockingly events played out. No characters are safe, anyone can be killed, which went against the common trope in fantasy that the protagonist wouldn’t and couldn’t get killed, regardless of how dangerous of a situation they found themselves in. The series popularity stems from the world, but mostly in Martin’s ability to shock readers and avoid tropes of the fantasy genre.

Another thing worth noting is that, outside of the threat of the Others/White Walkers, there isn’t a main villain or some greater evil that needs to be defeated. There are plenty of “bad guys” but outside of the Others, they’re all ordinary people. While a lot of the world is clearly inspired by Tolkien’s work, including some character archetypes, the themes of the novels center around human conflict as opposed to the battle between good and evil.

1)The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I really don’t think there was ever another option for my favorite fantasy series. While I have read all of these series more than once, The Lord of the Rings is the one I read the most often. Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy. Many of the tropes, themes and aspects of other fantasy worlds are based on, or at least inspired by, Tolkien’s works. Any discussion about lore and world-building would be incomplete without mentioning how much time, effort and thought went into creating the world of The Lord of the Rings. He created multiple constructed languages, and created multiple dialects each language. Middle Earth doesn’t just have a very long history going back thousands of years, it has its own creation myth.

But enough about how in-depth the lore goes, or how much effort and detail Tolkien put into his works. Let’s talk about the works themselves. The Lord of the Rings isn’t just my favorite fantasy story, its my favorite story period. The central conflict is a battle between good and evil, the quintessential need to defeat evil. Sauron is a pure evil force that can’t be reasoned with, can’t be talked down and the Fellowship needs to succeed because if they fail, the world falls into darkness. There isn’t a Chosen One, just a group of people banding together because they must and because defeating Sauron is what’s right. Even as the world gets darker, and evil gains a little more of a foothold, there’s never a point where there’s no hope. Even after members of the Fellowship get separated, they remain part of the same story, and impact the journey the others are having. They are one part of an ongoing story.

Tolkien changed the way fantasy was written, and unfortunately, that meant a number of the themes in his writing were ignored or swept under the rug in other works. When a work is compared to Tolkien, it usually refers to the worldbuilding, but not the core themes. The Lord of the Rings is about more than just elves, dwarves, talking trees and defeating evil. It’s about having hope, despite seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s about power, and how absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a little power corrupts a little. Mostly, its about how the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Those are my favorite high fantasy series. What are yours?