Book of Souls: Phobius. I have yet to find out more details of this book, that is in the process of it’s final revisions and awaiting eventual publication. My friend who is the author of this book, S. Justin Marley, began writing it during his 17th year. He has since in recent months completed the story itself for book 1 of this future series. A time consuming and tedious process it will be however to finish these final revisions. He does have a good amount of time though, as It’ll take a couple of years for it to get published as he’s planning on leaving in a few months to go on a 2 year LDS mission to support his faith. Upon returning, he is hoping to get Book of Souls published and onto the shelves for all to enjoy as soon as possible. Today, I had the privilege to read the prologue for his book and I got a taste of what’s to come! *spoilers present for this Prologue.

‘The Great War consumed the continent of Phobius. From the Dragon bluffs of the west to the Flat Mountain of the east, the war was everywhere.’ This is the beginning of the prologue and we are immediately informed of a massive continent wide war. Shortly, we are introduced to the very villainous and menacing Mordir, whom had led a war among his own kin, who are an ancient race of immortals. We find that Mordir has all but wiped out these immortals, except one whom is leading his own campaign against Mordir’s forces. We then get sucked right into the action as Mordir is attacking the village of the Akuma Clan. Havoc and toil run amok this town as he ruthlessly slaughters the majority of it’s inhabitants. We get introduced to a brave archer named Bartlebee who defiantly stands up to him. Soon after we meet Everett, a green dragon, and Matthias Akuma. He is essentially a powerful being, and the clan is adequately named after him.

They all begin battling Mordir. Mid-fight, Matthias sends Bartlebee to fetch his infant son, Simon. During this time we’re also introduced to Masomi, the father-in-law of Matthias. During the intense battle, Bartlebee has returned with the boy, and they set him a safe distance away from the ongoing action. Mordir certainly is taking a bit of beating at this point. With descriptions such as, ‘He grasped at his eyes, his screams and gurgles were incoherent, inhuman’, and ‘Mordir’s figure was faint beneath the incineration’, we get a great incite of how this battle is going. However, don’t let this fool you as Mordir is one tough cookie! He is self healing, and is a very powerful incarnation. The purpose of this battle is actually quite interesting. Our three heroes are in a desperate attempt to trap Mordir’s soul in Matthias so he can ultimately destroy him, save some of his power; and then they have a goal to use this remaining power for the benefit of good.

One thing that soon leads to an exciting climax for this prologue is the use of vortexes that Mordir has created. These open a hole in time and reveals a dark place known as ‘The Void’. These vortexes are mentioned early on in the initial attack on the Akuma village. In a way, in my opinion at least, they work in a similar manner to that of a black hole. They can suck objects, people, dragons,etc. into them, and this of course means… impending doom! So in this climatic battle, Mordir has been removed from his body and is in the form of his very soul. The body is destroyed by Everett’s fire, and Matthias remains by the current homeless soul. The soul soon in anger has a final burst of power where he creates a vortex near them. It starts sucking up things around it and throws Bartlebee off balance. He then begins to get sucked into this vortex.

Everett the dragon boldly attempts to come to him in his time of desperation, and sadly fails as they both end up being consumed by the vortex and tossed into The Void. Matthias in agony and anger goes after the dragon but is told to stop by Masomi. Too late. Matthias is cought in the gravity and is being assigned to his fate. Masomi try’s to save his son-in-law but he declines and tells him to watch after his son Simon. He tries to tell him one last thing, but is cut off as he loses his grip and gets thrown into the vortex and it closes with an unsettling description, ‘the vortex closed. The space rippled and became blurry where the hole had been’. Masomi ends up defeating Mordir and putting his soul inside of baby Simon. It then ends and the future of Masomi and his grandson are left uncertain to us. Well… at least until we get ahold of the rest of the book of course!

So there we have it thus far! I’ll be expecting a world full of many more mythical creatures; new, and exciting characters, and enticing landscapes as we’ll get to explore the vast lands of Phobius! I feel that this Prologue was quite imaginative and will lead to an engaging story as a whole. Some predictions of mine: Simon will end up being the main protagonist (Kind of a given!), we’ll get to meet another important dragon (One can have some wishful thinking), and that Mordir will make another appearance as his deviant self, sometime in the future. I would again like to give thanks for Justin giving me a chance to read, review, and give some insight into the beginning of this upcoming fantasy story!