[J1D]≡ Read Waycaller The Faeden Chronicles Book 1 eBook DJ McPhee

Waycaller The Faeden Chronicles Book 1 eBook DJ McPhee

Download As PDF : Waycaller The Faeden Chronicles Book 1 eBook DJ McPhee

Waycaller The Faeden Chronicles Book 1 eBook DJ McPhee

It doesn’t seem fair. A school ‘hottie’, Jack just wants to hang with his friends and think about girls but he’s cursed with some family baggage. His mother, a reputed madwoman, killed his father, then drowned herself in the local Loch. He’s hearing voices, and then there’s that strange birthmark on his chest. His little sister Harriet is his responsibility too. She’s an awkward twelve-year-old and seems intent on reopening old wounds.

While Jack worries that he is going mad, like his mother, and would prefer not to think about the past, Harriet has found an old book among her mother’s belongings. It foreshadows some of the weird things that have been happening to them, and speaks of a hidden world. Harriet is intrigued. Another world might be an improvement on the one she’s in right now. Or not…

In Waycaller, McPhee has created a vast and complex realm, the continent of Anwynn, where Faeden (dark re-imaginings of faeries), elves and other magical beings live. Separated from the human world by a magical Veil, after the Doom War, only the chosen Waycallers from each side can travel between the realms. Until now. The immortal and wicked Faeden, Morrigan, imprisoned and helpless since defeat in the War, now seeks her liberation. With her disciples, she has raised an army of dark forces – goblins, trolls and dark elves – and it is only the human Waycaller who stands in her path. Pursued by a hideous beast, a skinwearer, who has crossed the Veil into the human world, Jack and Harriet cross the Way and plunge into the middle of some hitherto unknown family history.

Waycaller is tightly written with a fast-moving plot and sustained tension. There is much to savour. It is escapist whilst also a commentary on the fear, spite and pettiness in our world, featuring assassination, betrayal, expedient politics and a fully-fledged battle scene at the book’s close. The struggle of good over evil can be a time-worn theme in lesser hands but done well, as here, it sucks the breath out of a reader. The forces are shifting, no outcome is certain and McPhee creates characters whom we cannot fail to care about.

Jack’s responsibility towards Harriet, his nascent sense of his own powers, both magical and as a sensual creature, are drawn persuasively. He doesn’t want to believe. He wants it all to disappear and for he and Harriet to go home, but that is not his destiny. As he gradually finds out, there is no safe place for them anymore.

There is also love and beauty, and some glorious moments of humour. The handsome woodland elf, Ellisenn, is disturbed while swimming:

“He jumped up to see Kashashem approaching, a warm smile playing on her lips. “My Lady,” he said with a bow. “What brings you all the way to Tessarelle?”
“You do, Ellisenn.”
She embraced him gingerly, partly because he was still wet but partly, he was sure, because of his nakedness. As one of the Sea Elves of Merielle her sense of modesty was much more acute than his.
“I’m sorry to follow you here, Ellisenn, but I need to speak to you.”
“My Lady?” He gestured for her to sit with him on the bench.
“Are you not going to dress?”
“I am still wet, my Lady.”

While Gen X readers may be reminded of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame, emerging from a lake, damp, white shirt clinging to his chest, touches like this make Waycaller eminently readable for all.

As in life, there are no one-dimensional characters. Hob, not the worst of the Faeden by any stretch, only ”naughty”, may be vain and self-serving but he is also somewhat endearing and with a killer wardrobe. Ting, the earwisp, is an unknown quantity right to the very end—trusting her would be so very easy. Even those whom we rely upon as simply and wholly good, providing respite from the darkness, reveal their complex sides. Miss Butters, the halfling, and her god, Eugene, are among these. Her solution to most problems is to eat: “Harriett, dear, and Jack…come for lunch. Eugene knows you need the nourishment.” But Miss Butters’ resourcefulness manifests in other ways too.

And who is Eloise? The book opens with her wrestling nightmares. The figures in her dreams calling to her. She is transported away with a mysterious woman and we find her again in Pix, practicing swordcraft. She is strong and clever but clearly an outsider. Her role becomes clearer but her true status, her importance to the story is cloaked until many chapters later. The complex narrative with its shifting time frames and devices of memory and prophecy, is often opaque but McPhee deftly weaves together its strands to gradually reveal the mysteries.

This is a coming of age book. Jack inherited a tough gig but he grows into the responsibilities of adulthood. For most of us, giving up our childish things does not involve magic and war and literally end-of-days but, as we all navigate the path to adulthood we learn, like Jack, that it comes with unsought, messy problems. Love is chief among these, the power to touch another. Anarra, a part elf, has something to teach Jack about love.
‘”For humans love at first sight is just a fantasy, it is not real, but for elves, it is very real. Elves can fall in love at first sight and once in love, that is it, for the duration of their long lives they will love no other.”
Jack felt his heart thumping like a bird desperate to escape a fleshy cage…
“I am not telling you this because I fell in love with you at first sight, Waycaller,” she hissed, “but because someone else—”’

And with that, Anarra leaves us with another tension. Waycaller speaks to those who see or feel things differently; or who come from a different place. You’re not mad, it says. And like Jack, most of us are still learning. Luckily, we have two more books in D.J. McPhee’s trilogy to light our way.


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Waycaller The Faeden Chronicles Book 1 eBook DJ McPhee Reviews

I bought this book for my teen son, who hates reading. I have to fight the pull of the computer games, and this book did it. I can't really say what he liked about it. I got the feeling that Jack appealed to him though. If I had to guess, I'd say the action plus the notion that Jack holds the key to their problems pricked at his curiosity. He was disappointed at the end of episode one. But luckily, episode two is waiting.
I'd love to give this story to a number of children I know who love this style of book. Superbly written and utterly engaging, the characters are well developed and easy to invest in.
I really liked the character development and the movement between scenes. It made me want to look around corners and wonder if the characters might be lurking there. Looking forward to the next instalment 👍🏻.
This is a book for experienced genre readers. It has what an advanced genre reader wants; high quality writing, familiarity but with surprises. The story is imaginative, plausible, and the editing is good so the story isn't interrupted by punctuation and grammar errors. Just fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride. I look forward to the next one. And the one after that as well.
It doesn’t seem fair. A school ‘hottie’, Jack just wants to hang with his friends and think about girls but he’s cursed with some family baggage. His mother, a reputed madwoman, killed his father, then drowned herself in the local Loch. He’s hearing voices, and then there’s that strange birthmark on his chest. His little sister Harriet is his responsibility too. She’s an awkward twelve-year-old and seems intent on reopening old wounds.

While Jack worries that he is going mad, like his mother, and would prefer not to think about the past, Harriet has found an old book among her mother’s belongings. It foreshadows some of the weird things that have been happening to them, and speaks of a hidden world. Harriet is intrigued. Another world might be an improvement on the one she’s in right now. Or not…

In Waycaller, McPhee has created a vast and complex realm, the continent of Anwynn, where Faeden (dark re-imaginings of faeries), elves and other magical beings live. Separated from the human world by a magical Veil, after the Doom War, only the chosen Waycallers from each side can travel between the realms. Until now. The immortal and wicked Faeden, Morrigan, imprisoned and helpless since defeat in the War, now seeks her liberation. With her disciples, she has raised an army of dark forces – goblins, trolls and dark elves – and it is only the human Waycaller who stands in her path. Pursued by a hideous beast, a skinwearer, who has crossed the Veil into the human world, Jack and Harriet cross the Way and plunge into the middle of some hitherto unknown family history.

Waycaller is tightly written with a fast-moving plot and sustained tension. There is much to savour. It is escapist whilst also a commentary on the fear, spite and pettiness in our world, featuring assassination, betrayal, expedient politics and a fully-fledged battle scene at the book’s close. The struggle of good over evil can be a time-worn theme in lesser hands but done well, as here, it sucks the breath out of a reader. The forces are shifting, no outcome is certain and McPhee creates characters whom we cannot fail to care about.

Jack’s responsibility towards Harriet, his nascent sense of his own powers, both magical and as a sensual creature, are drawn persuasively. He doesn’t want to believe. He wants it all to disappear and for he and Harriet to go home, but that is not his destiny. As he gradually finds out, there is no safe place for them anymore.

There is also love and beauty, and some glorious moments of humour. The handsome woodland elf, Ellisenn, is disturbed while swimming

“He jumped up to see Kashashem approaching, a warm smile playing on her lips. “My Lady,” he said with a bow. “What brings you all the way to Tessarelle?”
“You do, Ellisenn.”
She embraced him gingerly, partly because he was still wet but partly, he was sure, because of his nakedness. As one of the Sea Elves of Merielle her sense of modesty was much more acute than his.
“I’m sorry to follow you here, Ellisenn, but I need to speak to you.”
“My Lady?” He gestured for her to sit with him on the bench.
“Are you not going to dress?”
“I am still wet, my Lady.”

While Gen X readers may be reminded of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame, emerging from a lake, damp, white shirt clinging to his chest, touches like this make Waycaller eminently readable for all.

As in life, there are no one-dimensional characters. Hob, not the worst of the Faeden by any stretch, only ”naughty”, may be vain and self-serving but he is also somewhat endearing and with a killer wardrobe. Ting, the earwisp, is an unknown quantity right to the very end—trusting her would be so very easy. Even those whom we rely upon as simply and wholly good, providing respite from the darkness, reveal their complex sides. Miss Butters, the halfling, and her god, Eugene, are among these. Her solution to most problems is to eat “Harriett, dear, and Jack…come for lunch. Eugene knows you need the nourishment.” But Miss Butters’ resourcefulness manifests in other ways too.

And who is Eloise? The book opens with her wrestling nightmares. The figures in her dreams calling to her. She is transported away with a mysterious woman and we find her again in Pix, practicing swordcraft. She is strong and clever but clearly an outsider. Her role becomes clearer but her true status, her importance to the story is cloaked until many chapters later. The complex narrative with its shifting time frames and devices of memory and prophecy, is often opaque but McPhee deftly weaves together its strands to gradually reveal the mysteries.

This is a coming of age book. Jack inherited a tough gig but he grows into the responsibilities of adulthood. For most of us, giving up our childish things does not involve magic and war and literally end-of-days but, as we all navigate the path to adulthood we learn, like Jack, that it comes with unsought, messy problems. Love is chief among these, the power to touch another. Anarra, a part elf, has something to teach Jack about love.
‘”For humans love at first sight is just a fantasy, it is not real, but for elves, it is very real. Elves can fall in love at first sight and once in love, that is it, for the duration of their long lives they will love no other.”
Jack felt his heart thumping like a bird desperate to escape a fleshy cage…
“I am not telling you this because I fell in love with you at first sight, Waycaller,” she hissed, “but because someone else—”’

And with that, Anarra leaves us with another tension. Waycaller speaks to those who see or feel things differently; or who come from a different place. You’re not mad, it says. And like Jack, most of us are still learning. Luckily, we have two more books in D.J. McPhee’s trilogy to light our way.